Diocese of Fall River
The Anchor
F riday , August 28, 2009
Taunton’s Hispanic community looks back on a 50-year legacy
By Deacon James N. Dunbar
TAUNTON — In September, when members of the Hispanic community in Taunton dedicate the Hispanic Apostolate Office at the Dolan Center in memory of Apolinario Aponte and Luz Maria Burgos, it will mark another milestone in the 50th an-
niversary celebrations of the rapidly growing community. Aponte, known as Don Polo, and Burgos, known as Dona Lin, “were most instrumental in forwarding the Hispanic Apostolate in our community of faith, and they are very much remembered,” said Jose Torres,
who, for 15 years, has directed communications for the Apostolate. “Don Polo and Dona Lin were active servants in our community by helping the needy, the homeless, praying the rosary at home and welcoming new Turn to page 18
FAR AWAY FRIENDS — Sacred Hearts Fathers Martinus Pariyanto, left and John Yamada, provincial of the newly-formed Japan-Philippine Province, will be in Wareham and Fairhaven to help the Congregation celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the mission in Japan.
Sacred Hearts Fathers 1949 mission to Japan recalled By Deacon James N. Dunbar
FAIRHAVEN — When Japanese priests of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary celebrate Masses locally this weekend marking the 60th anniversary of the congregation’s province in Japan, they will be recalling the American missionaries that founded it. The missionary congregation in Fairhaven had its start in 1905 when three priests and a Brother arrived from Belgium in answer to Bishop William Stang’s invitation. The bishop had met Sacred Hearts’ priests when he studied at the seminary in Louvain, and knew they spoke several languages. They were just what were needed in the newly-founded Fall River Diocese, where Bishop Stang had personally encountered linguistic problems earlier when he was a priest from the territorial Providence Diocese ministering to German immigrants at St. Boniface’s Parish in New Bedford. The missionaries were given a house in Fairhaven. They were
placed in care of St. Boniface’s; St. Joseph’s in Fairhaven, whose parishioners included French and Portuguese Catholics; and Our Lady of the Assumption in New Bedford, which had a dominant Cape Verdean congregation. The Fathers also began to celebrate Mass in Mattapoisett, where a former chapel became the first St. Anthony’s Church in 1908. It wasn’t until February 1947 that the region of the Congregation in the United States was raised to the level of a province, and became independent of its mother province in Belgium. Following installation in Rome of Father Columban Moran as the first U.S. provincial, the new province was assigned to work as missionaries to Japan. “Father Moran was a native of Ireland, but like the other Sacred Hearts Fathers who left for the Japan mission, had been ministering in parishes in the Fall River Diocese and was well known to the people,” reported Father William Petrie, the current local provinTurn to page 17
GRATEFUL RECOGNITION — Receiving awards for outstanding service to the Taunton Hispanic Community are, from left, Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Torres, Maria Torres, Carmen Morales, Juanita Correa, and Ramon Cotto. Not in the picture is Jose Torres, communications director for the Hispanic Apostolate. (Photo courtesy of Jose Torres)
Finance committees helping pastors respond to tough economy By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff
FALL RIVER — As the challenges presented by tougher economic times have increased, pastors throughout the diocese are depending more on the counsel of their parish finance committees. According to the Code of Canon Law No. 537: “Each parish is to have a finance council which is regulated by universal law as well as by norms issued by the diocesan bishop; in this council the Christian faithful, selected according to the same norms, aid the
pastor in the administration of parish goods with due regard for the prescription of Canon No. 532.” James Brady, chairman of the finance committee at Corpus Christi Parish in East Sandwich, said he thinks the role of the finance committee is crucial to a parish. “I think it’s good for the pastor to have a sounding board to bounce his thoughts and ideas off of as a group that hopefully has some background in financial matters,” Brady said. “It also helps the parish to Turn to page 13
‘Hate crime’ legislation could allow government to judge other’s motives By Gail Besse Anchor Correspondent
BOSTON — The chilling effect that federal and state hate crimes legislation will have on American freedoms was ignored by mainstream television news this July as commentators served up froth about what brand of beer the parties
drank at a much-publicized White House “reconciliation” meeting. That meeting was meant to put to rest the awkward saga that evolved when President Barack Obama judged the motives behind the arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, whom CamTurn to page 18
News From the Vatican
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August 28, 2009
Pope’s former students meeting for ecumenical discussion on mission By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI’s former doctoral students are meeting to discuss Christian mission from an ecumenical perspective, the Vatican press office said. The meeting, which begins today and continues until August 31, is at the Focolare Movement’s conference center in Castel Gandolfo, the town where the papal summer villa is located. Pope Benedict will celebrate Mass and have breakfast with the group the final day. Each year the scholars choose a topic to discuss in depth and they invite theologians to make presentations at the closed-door meetings. One of this year’s speakers will be the Rev. Peter Beyerhaus, formerly a Lutheran minister and now retired professor of missiology and ecumenical theology at the University of Tubingen, Germany. The program calls for him to speak about missionary work, “its justification and its form today.” The other speaker will be Heinz Burkle, a Lutheran theologian who became Roman Catholic in the late 1980s
and is a retired professor from Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. He will present a paper on “The Church and its mission in dialogue with men and with different religions and cultures.” The three-dozen students who did their doctoral dissertations in Germany under the direction of then-Father Joseph Ratzinger have met regularly since the late 1970s. In 2008 they launched the Joseph Ratzinger-Pope Benedict XVI Foundation to promote studies of his theology. The 2008 meeting, known as the “Ratzinger Schulerkreis” (Ratzinger student circle), also had an ecumenical focus. Two Protestant professors from Germany were asked to offer their reflections on the historicity of the New Testament and on Christ’s own understanding of his passion and death. The topics last year coincided with the work Pope Benedict continues to do on the second volume of his book about Jesus. The first volume, “Jesus of Nazareth,” was published in 2007, and covered Jesus’ life from his baptism to his transfiguration; the second volume is to cover his passion, death and resurrection.
Good Shepherd Church 1598 S. Main St., Fall River, MA Saturday, 5 September 2009 7:50 am
Church Hall: Fatima Video Presentation.
9:00 am
Church: Procession of Our Lady. Angelus. Crowning Cere- mony. Sung Litany of Loreto. The Five Joyous Mysteries.
10:00 am
Mass of Our Lady: Celebrant and Preacher, Fr. Dominic, FI
11:10 am
Lunch break (please bring a bag lunch)
12:15 pm
Exposition and Procession of the Blessed Sacrament.
12:40 pm
Sermon by Fr. Raphael, FI. Silent Adoration.
1:10 pm
Meditations on the Passion of Our Lord.
1:45 pm
Coffee break.
2:05 pm
Five Glorious Mysteries. Act of Consecration. Benediction.
2:50 pm
Enrollment in the Brown Scapular and Conferment of Miraculous Medal. Procession of Our Lady. - Confessions available throughout the day - Finish approx 3:15 pm SELECTION OF VENUES FOR 2009: Saturday, 3 Oct St. Bernard’s Church, Assonet, MA Saturday, 7 Nov Holy Name Church, Fall River, MA Saturday, 5 Dec Holy Rosary Church, Fall River, MA Saturday, 2 Jan 2010 Open
BENEFICIARY OF KINDNESS — Pope Benedict XVI greets Sri Lankan amputee Rajiv Janine, 18, before a papal general audience at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, recently. Janine lost his arms and legs in a rail accident and was fitted with prosthetics by an Italian charity. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano via Reuters)
Well-prepared priests essential for new evangelization, pope says
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) — Without well-prepared priests, “the new evangelization” of society will be just a slogan, Pope Benedict XVI said. “Today we see a need for each priest to be a witness of the infinite mercy of God with a life completely conquered by Christ and for them to learn this from the very first years of their preparation in the seminary,” the pope said. During his weekly general audience August 19, the pope spoke about St. John Eudes, the 17thcentury founder of the Eudists, a religious congregation dedicated to training diocesan priests. The French saint’s feast day was August 19. An estimated 3,000 people gathered in the courtyard of the papal villa at Castel Gandolfo for the audience. Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien of Baltimore was seated in the front row. Pope Benedict said the training of seminarians and priests is crucial for ensuring that “the new evangelization is not just an attractive slogan, but that it becomes a reality.” A priesthood candidate’s time in the seminary, he said, must be like the time the disciples spent alone with Jesus after being called to follow him and before being sent out to preach the Gospel. The pope said that, like today, the 17th-century in France, where
St. John Eudes lived and ministered, was a time of great social, political and religious upheaval. “It was the time of the Thirty Years’ War, which devastated not only a large part of Central Europe, but it also devastated many souls,” he said. Yet even as “contempt for the Christian faith was spreading,” he said, the Holy Spirit gave rise to a spiritual renewal with holy men and women, including St. John Eudes. In the 16th century, the Council of Trent issued norms for the erection of diocesan seminaries and for priestly formation because the council members “were well-aware that an insufficient preparation of priests had an impact on the whole crisis of the Reformation; priests were not correctly prepared for the priest-
The Anchor
hood intellectually and spiritually,” he said. St. John Eudes saw that the reform had not been instituted in France and he noted “the serious need for spiritual assistance people were experiencing precisely because of the inadequacy of a large portion of the clergy,” the pope said. “The journey of holiness he followed and proposed to his followers had its foundation in placing trust only in the love God revealed to humanity in the priestly heart of Jesus and in the maternal heart of Mary,” he said. Pope Benedict asked people to pray for priests and for seminarians, “that they may spiritually enter into the heart of Jesus, becoming men of true love, humility and patience, renewed in holiness and pastoral zeal.” OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 53, No. 32
Member: Catholic Press Association, Catholic News Service
Published weekly except for two weeks in the summer and the week after Christmas by the Catholic Press of the Diocese of Fall River, 887 Highland Avenue, Fall River, MA 02720, Telephone 508-675-7151 — FAX 508-675-7048, email: theanchor@anchornews.org. Subscription price by mail, postpaid $14.00 per year. Send address changes to P.O. Box 7, Fall River, MA, call or use email address
PUBLISHER - Most Reverend George W. Coleman EXECUTIVE EDITOR Father Roger J. Landry fatherrogerlandry@anchornews.org EDITOR David B. Jolivet davejolivet@anchornews.org NEWS EDITOR Deacon James N. Dunbar jimdunbar@anchornews.org OFFICE MANAGER Mary Chase m arychase@anchornews.org ADVERTISING Wayne R. Powers waynepowers@anchornews.org REPORTER Kenneth J. Souza kensouza@anchornews.org Send Letters to the Editor to: fatherrogerlandry@anchornews.org
POSTMASTERS send address changes to The Anchor, P.O. Box 7, Fall River, MA 02722. THE ANCHOR (USPS-545-020) Periodical Postage Paid at Fall River, Mass.
The International Church
August 28, 2009
Diocese of Fall River
OFFICIAL
His Excellency, the Most Reverend George W. Coleman, Bishop of Fall River, has accepted the request to retire of: Rev. Leonard M. Mullaney, Pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Mattapoisett. Effective, September 9, 2009 His Excellency, the Most Reverend George W. Coleman, Bishop of Fall River, has announced the following appointments: Rev. Michel G. Corriveau, CPM, Chaplain, Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro. Effective, July 8, 2009 Rev. David M. Andrade, Chaplain, Bishop Connolly High School in Fall River, while remaining Pastor of Holy Trinity Parish in Fall River. Effective, September 2, 2009 Rev. Paul A. Caron, Pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Mattapoisett, while remaining Pastor of St. Rita Parish in Marion. Effective, September 9, 2009
U.S. bishops press for further easing of restrictions on Cuba
HAVANA (CNS) — A delegation of U.S. Catholic bishops visiting Cuba urged U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban leaders to take advantage of the change in the U.S. administration to end the trade embargo Washington has imposed on the island nation since 1962. “I believe that the Church (in Cuba and the U.S.) wants to be the protagonist of a better approach,” Bishop Thomas G. Wenski of Orlando, Fla., a member of the U.S. bishops’ international policy committee, told reporters at a press conference in Havana August 18. After a meeting earlier in the day with the staff at the U.S. Interests Section, which represents the government in the absence of formal diplomatic ties between the two countries, Bishop Wenski said he believes the Obama administration’s revision of policies toward Cuba is serious and proceeding step by step. The U.S. Church supports easing travel to Cuba and eliminating the embargo that prohibits most trade between the two countries. Obama has already announced the easing of restrictions on CubanAmericans’ travel to Cuba to visit relatives, loosened restrictions on how much money people can send to their relatives, and created some openings in trade barriers to facilitate telecommunications improvements. Efforts are pending in Congress to end all travel restrictions and to end the trade embargo. “The Church of Cuba wants these changes as much as the Church in the United States,” said Bishop Wenski. He also said such gestures raise the confidence of both parties that further change is possible. He insisted that after opportunities for
change were lost in the past “it’s important we not lose the opportunity this time.” Bishop Wenski, Boston Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley and San Antonio Auxiliary Bishop Oscar Cantu were visiting Cuba the week of August 17, in part to see the island’s progress in recovering from three hurricanes and two tropical storms that hit late last summer and fall. The U.S. bishops provided $250,000 in hurricane relief aid as part of $860,000 in support given last year to the Church in Cuba. The U.S. prelates, accompanied by Oblate Father Andrew Small, head of the Church in Latin America office of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Cardinal O’Malley’s secretary, Father Jonathan Gaspar, also met with Havana Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino and were scheduled to meet with Ricardo Alarcon, the head of Cuba’s parliament. At the press conference, Cardinal O’Malley said the U.S. Church “has a very close historical relationship with this country.” Since the visit to Cuba by Pope John Paul II in 1998, Cardinal O’Malley said, conditions for the Church and its relations with the government have clearly improved. “We see that the Church now has more space, and we want to see that grow,” he added. Bishop Wenski said he was astonished at the progress at a seminary built recently near Havana. He said it is appropriate that during this Year for Priests the seminary is the place where the seeds of vocations are nurtured. He said the presence of a seminary in Cuba is testimony to the hope for the pastoral mission of the Church.
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Church leaders say placement on U.S. watch list a wake-up call for India
NEW DELHI (CNS) — An findings. state governments were directly Indian Catholic leader said the Secretary-General John Dayal or indirectly involved in antidecision by the U.S. Commis- of the All India Christian Coun- minority violence, he said, addsion on International Religious cil said the commission’s report ing that at times victims were Freedom to place India on a serves as a call to the nation’s blamed and prosecuted. watch list for its poor record of conscience to protect the weak In releasing the report, comprotecting religious minorities is and the injured. mission chairman Leonard Leo a wake-up call for the country. India, he explained, has a said it was “extremely disapFather Babu Joseph, spokes- shameful record of persecuting pointing that India ... has done so man for the Catholic Bishops’ minorities and violating religious little to protect and bring justice Conference of India, said the freedom. International agencies, to its religious minorities under commission’s report siege.” ndia would have been able to re- Leo also observed indicated the internabuff the U.S. scrutiny more ef- that the country’s police tional community’s growing concern over fectively if several thousand Christians and judiciary were seen India’s repeated failure were still not in (Orissa’s) refugee camps as unwilling or unable to to curb religious intolseek redress for the vicerance, reported UCA and if the killers were still not roaming tims of violence. “More News, an Asian church scot-free, and if witnesses ... were not be- must be done to ensure news agency. future violence does not ing coerced,” Dayal said. The commission, an occur and that perpetraindependent panel that tors are held accountconducts an annual religious including the U.N. Commission able,” he said. freedom survey, said August 12 for Human Rights, have issued The Indian government dethat India’s response to attacks similar reports, he said. scribed the commission’s decion religious minorities in recent “India would have been sion as “regrettable.” years has been inadequate. able to rebuff the U.S. scrutiny Shashi Tharoor, a minister in The commission’s findings more effectively if several thou- the government’s external affairs were released days before the sand Christians were still not in department, told reporters that first anniversary of violence (Orissa’s) refugee camps and if India does not need an outside against Christians in Orissa state the killers were still not roam- agency to tell it how to protect its in eastern India. ing scot-free, and if witnesses ... minorities. The international body also were not being coerced,” Dayal The U.S. government closefound fault with India for its fail- said. ly monitors countries on the ure to protect Muslims during Jesuit Father Cedric Prakash, watch list, which includes sectarian violence in the western who directs a center for human Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, state of Gujarat in 2002. rights in Gujarat, said some state Egypt, Indonesia, Laos, Russia, Other Christian leaders voiced governments have failed to pro- Somalia, Tajikistan, Turkey and concerns about the commission’s tect religious minorities. Some Venezuela.
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The Church in the U.S.
4
August 28, 2009
U.S. Islamic organizations decry anti-Christian violence in Pakistan
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Two U.S. Islamic organizations have condemned the recent violence against Christians in Pakistan and said the perpetrators must be brought to justice. In separate statements, the Washington-based Islamic Society of North America and the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago responded to the killing of eight Christians in the eastern Pakistani town of Gojra. The Christians, including four women and a child, were either shot or burned alive when a crowd attacked, setting fire to dozens of Christians’ homes. Authorities said tensions were running high in the area, fueled by a false rumor spread by Muslim militants that a Quran, the sacred book of Islam, had been desecrated. The violence in Gojra followed the July 30 destruction of the Christian village of Korian in the Punjab province of Pakistan in a violent raid by thousands of Muslims. “Not only do we express our outrage at this behavior (in Gojra), we deplore those interpreters of Islam and leaders who use rhetoric that promotes a false sense of insecurity and paranoia in Muslim mobs,” the Islamic society said in its statement. It said the region’s “law and order authorities” were responsible for “these tragic riots.” “The Pakistani government should take responsibility, apologize to the victims for its failure to provide protection, bring the perpetrators to justice and provide relief and support to the victims,” it added. The Islamic society called on Muslims in Pakistan to “collectively rise to the occasion” and “demonstrate their sympathy and solidarity with” the victims. The Chicago council echoed the call to bring to justice those responsible for the deaths. “We speak of justice as being the foundation of our faith and
Sept. 8 & 24, 2009 Sept. 11-13, 2009 Sept. 11-13, 2009 Oct. 2-4, 2009 Oct. 8 & 22, 2009 Oct. 8,15,22,29, 2009
rightly so, and we know that God commands mankind to speak out against injustice even when we or our family are to blame,” the council’s executive director, Junaid Afeef, said in the statement. “Personally, I believe this is precisely the type of situation God had in mind and that is why we say very clearly that the violence by Muslims against their Christian neighbors in Gojra, Pakistan, is evil,” Afeef said. Both organizations said they have strong ties with Christians and were reaching out to convey U.S. Muslims’ outrage over the violence. Pakistan has been beset by political and social tensions, including attempts by Muslim militants to impose an intolerant version of Islam. A number of attacks on Christians have occurred in recent years, prompting Catholic leaders to call for constitutional amendments to protect religious minorities. On August 11, hundreds of Christians staged a protest rally in front of the parliament building in Islamabad, Pakistan, to condemn the Gojra incidents and demand repeal of the nation’s blasphemy law, which Catholic leaders have said is a major factor in interreligious tension in the country. The blasphemy law in Pakistan, often used by Muslim extremists to foment violence, hangs like “the sword of Damocles” over Christians and members of other minority religions, said a Vatican official. Archbishop Adolfo Yllana, the Vatican’s apostolic nuncio in Pakistan, made the comments in a recent interview with the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano. He said he feared that worsening tensions between the Muslim majority and Christians could lead to additional violence. He planned to meet in mid-August with top Pakistani officials to discuss the tense interreligious situation.
~ Grief Education ~ Parables Retreat ~ Directed Retreat ~ John Polce Retreat ~ Grief Education ~ Journaling My Journey
WAR HERO — U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Jared Monti, pictured in a undated photo, was killed by enemy fire in 2006, while helping Pvt. Brian Bradbury to a waiting medevac helicopter in Afghanistan. Monti, a Catholic who was confirmed at St. Ann’s Parish in Raynham, will be honored posthumously with the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor, in September. (CNS photo/courtesy Sgt. Gary Hunsucker)
Medal of Honor for Raynham native killed in battle called bittersweet
By Jessica Weinstein Catholic News Service
MAYDEN-SHA, Afghanistan — Over his military career, Sgt. 1st Class Jared Monti, 30, won dozens of awards for valor, for achievement, and for sheer grit and ability — but this one will be his last. Monti, a Catholic who was confirmed at St. Ann Church in Raynham, Mass., will be honored posthumously with the Medal of Honor in September. It is the crowning measure of an American military hero. It is the United States’ highest military honor. Many of Monti’s fellow soldiers have been redeployed back to Afghanistan — where he died. In interviews gathered on the battlefield, they remembered a lighthearted, fun-loving man who could whip soldiers into a unified fighting force capable of handling any situation with confidence. For these men, the award is a bittersweet but well-deserved honor. “Those are the awards no one wants because it hurts,” said 1st Sgt. Gary Hunsucker, 44, in an interview in eastern Afghanistan. Hunsucker was Monti’s commanding officer in the Army’s 371st Cavalry, 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division. He is an imposing man, with a gruff manner and a quick wit, but his voice softened slightly when he recounted the evening of June 21, 2006. “We were planning to go into a hornet’s nest of insurgents,” he said. According to Hunsucker, Monti led a group of 15 scouts on a reconnaissance mission in Gowardesh. Hunsucker was in charge of planning the mission, watching back at the base. Monti
was in charge of the soldiers. Suddenly Hunsucker’s radio crackled loudly. It was Monti — call sign “Chaos 35.” “He says, ‘We’re being pinned down by RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades), and we’re getting our butt handed to us because of the amount of fire,’” recalled Hunsucker. Hunsucker radioed back, asking for a location to send help. “The last comment I got from him was, ‘I can’t raise my head or I’ll get it blown off,’” he remembered. It was the last time anyone heard from Monti. According to accounts gathered from other soldiers who were present that night, Hunsucker said Monti and another sergeant fought hard to keep the enemy from advancing. Monti then pulled Pvt. Brian Bradbury to a waiting medevac helicopter. But in the process, he was exposed to enemy fire. An RPG landed close to him, killing him. When he died, Monti held the rank of staff sergeant, and was promoted to sergeant first class posthumously. According to his father, Paul Monti, in his last moments, he said the Lord’s Prayer and told the men around him to “tell my family I love them.” “We lost a leader,” said Hunsucker. “Society lost a good human being.” Hunsucker described Monti as a man who didn’t talk much about his faith, but poured himself into his soldiers. “He was everything to his guys — to any soldier he came in contact with,” he said. “He treated every last one of them (soldiers) better than what
they were. Doing that, they got motivated to do bigger and better things,” said Master Sgt. Gary Young, 37. “All the soldiers that he touched — he changed their lives in so many ways.” “He was one of those leaders that soldiers didn’t want to disappoint,” added Staff Sgt. Christopher Grzecki who was with Monti when he died. “Monti’s priorities were on the men under him. This was evident on June 21 when he gave up his own life in order to save the life of one of his subordinates,” he added. It was the ultimate sacrifice from a man who was generous off the battlefield too. Monti’s father said that, while his son was stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C., he and his roommate bought a $500 kitchen set, but after seeing the children of one of his soldiers eating on the kitchen floor, Monti gave the table and chairs to them. “He felt that they needed the kitchen set more than he did, so he gave it to them,” recalled Paul Monti in an email. “His boys always came first,” wrote the soldier’s mother, Janet Monti, in an email. On September 17 President Barack Obama will present Monti’s family with his award. Monti’s fellow soldiers will be watching and participating in a parallel ceremony in Afghanistan at the site of his death. Hunsucker hopes it will provide closure for the men who knew Monti. But he believes that the best way to honor Monti’s sacrifice is to continue his care and commitment to American soldiers. “I’d take him before I’d take the award,” said Hunsucker.
August 28, 2009
The Church in the U.S.
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Pro-life leaders say health care reform must exclude abortion
By Jessie Abrams Catholic News Service
BISHOP OF THE BIG EASY — U.S. Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond of New Orleans is surrounded by journalists after his installation Mass at the St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans last week. (CNS photo/Frank J Methe, Clarion Herald)
Prayer, fasting campaign planned for upcoming economic summit By John Franko Catholic News Service
PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Bishop David A. Zubik has urged local Catholics to be welcoming and offer hospitality and prayer when the city hosts the September 24-25 Group of 20 summit focusing on the economic recession. The Catholic Men’s Fellowship of Pittsburgh and the National Fellowship of Catholic Men plan to do their part by conducting an international prayer and fasting campaign during the gathering. Leaders of the two organizations were asking Catholics from around the world to support and/or participate in the campaign, which is detailed on the fellowship’s website at www.cmfpitt.org. A 40-day fast began August 15 and was to run to September 23. Patrick Molyneaux, co-director of the Catholic Men’s Fellowship, pointed out that the developed world is rapidly moving away from JudeoChristian values in the name of “economics” and that people must allow the Holy Spirit to inspire Christians to unify in prayer for world economic decision-makers. “We can make a difference through prayer and sacrifice,” he told the Pittsburgh Catholic, newspaper of the diocese. “Pittsburgh is well-rooted in
Christian values. We have as good a chance as any other city to become a conduit of God’s grace to these leaders on September 24 and 25.” The G-20 is an informal forum that promotes discussion among industrial and emerging-market countries on key issues related to global economic stability. It includes representatives of 19 countries and the European Union; representatives of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund are ex-officio members. Four separate devotions will be held during the G-20 meetings. On September 24 and 25, 40 hours of eucharistic adoration will take place at St. Paul Seminary in Pittsburgh. Bishop Zubik will begin the adoration with a morning Mass September 24. Adoration will close with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament the evening of September 25. Organizers of the prayer and fasting campaign said those who cannot go to the seminary during the two days could participate in a Holy Hour at a church near them. The organizers hope to have adoration in at least those countries represented by the G-20. During the days of the international gathering, the Legion of Mary also will lead the rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy at the seminary.
WASHINGTON — Despite their support for health care reform in general, representatives of the National Black Pro-Life Union and the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists said August 18 they could not endorse any current health care reform proposal in its entirety. They said they object to the fact that no health reform measure specifically forbids funding for euthanasia and abortion. Joining their opposition was Alveda King, director of AfricanAmerican outreach for the Catholic organization Priests for Life, who said she cannot begin to think about backing a health care bill until those issues are explicitly disallowed in the legislation. King, the niece of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and the others were among Pro-Life leaders who spoke at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington. “Does America believe that life with dignity should last from the womb until the time of natural death?” King asked. “That’s the question we’re playing with.” U.S. Pro-Life advocates, including the Catholic bishops, have said any health care reform measure must include coverage for all people from conception until natural death, continue the federal ban on funding for abortions and preserve conscience protections for doctors, nurses and other health care workers. Another speaker at the press club, Dr. Donna Harrison, a physician who is president of the American Association of ProLife Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said without an abortion and euthanasia exclusion, health reform would directly conflict with the oath every doctor takes not to harm his or her patient in any way. She said she was confident many physicians across the country would step down from their position if such a measure be-
came law. Speaker Day Gardner, president of the National Black ProLife Union, said allowing funding of abortion in a health bill would adversely affect AfricanAmerican women. Reverend Harry Jackson, who is a nondenominational pastor, added that faith leaders will not accept “the plan as it has been presented” because it “is grossly immoral” and “absolutely ungodly.” Harrison cited a poll that surveyed multiple organizations, including the Catholic Health Association, which showed 89 percent of practicing physicians said they would quit their jobs before being forced to intentionally destroy human life. According to Harrison, Catholic doctors make up almost onesixth of the nation’s doctors, and if they, as well as many doctors in rural parts of the nation, left medicine over this issue, she wondered whom Americans would be left with for medical care. Harrison, Reverend Jackson and Gardner agreed that abortion disproportionately affects the African-American population. Reverend Jackson termed legislation that doesn’t exclude abortion coverage “racist.” In Washington alone, he said, 41 percent of all pregnancies are terminated by abortion and black women account for 75 percent of those abortions. Gardner attacked organizations such as Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, for placing their centers disproportionately in urban or minority neighborhoods, saying abortion had become a “big business.” “Abortion has become the number one killer of black Americans,” she said, predicting the number of African-American fatalities because of abortion would skyrocket if health care reform allows abortion coverage. Dean Nelson, executive director of the Network of Politically Active Christians, criticized the
rush to pass health reform legislation, calling it premature, and suggested many people right now can find health care coverage through existing faith-based organizations. Without specifying the organization, he said he has a faithbased health savings account which he found after losing employee health coverage. He said the new plan gives his family of five more coverage for less money — a bonus for any family living in the Washington area with a combined income of less than $60,000. On the issue of abortion and health reform, he said he was not alone in wondering whether President Barack Obama himself would have been born if his mother had had easier access to an abortion as a teen-age girl and had not birthed a child out of wedlock. “Raising children will always be more work than killing them,” Nelson said, “but it will also be more rewarding.” King said she knows many who agree morally with the views expressed at the press conference but who worry how mothers will cope with unplanned children and how the nation will handle an influx of youngsters. But she suggested that someone like Laurie Carter, director of Care Net’s Underserved Outreach program, can offer help to these mothers. Carter’s initiative strives to develop pregnancy centers for mostly ignored communities and to meet every woman at her “point of need.” Women’s reproductive rights should no longer be viewed as a woman’s right to have an abortion, but as something to validate every mother, said Carter, who was at the press conference. She criticized “old thinking” which suggests children will stop a woman from being successful. Carter said she thinks this is not the way America works today and women, even if they are mothers, can still pursue their dreams.
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The Anchor Health care, fabrications and religious freedom
As we wrote about earlier this month, Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, on behalf of the U.S. bishops, has specified two main areas of concern with respect to the health care reforms being proposed by the legislative and executive branches in Washington. The first is unequivocal assurance that abortions will not be covered. The second is that explicit inclusion of conscience protections so that health care providers will not have to participate in practices that violate the well-informed conscience of any nurse, doctor or pharmacist. In the past few weeks, there have been confirmations of these concerns on both scores. On August 19, President Obama, speaking to the National Council of Churches, claimed that those who say that abortion will be covered in health care reforms are bearing false witness. He accused them of “fabrications” and “distractions” in order to “discourage people from meeting what I consider to be a core ethical and religious obligation.” If we look merely at the letter of the reform proposals, the president is correct: none of the proposals actually mention the word abortion. Abortion supporters, like the president, know that abortion is justly a dirty word, that most Americans would never accept having their tax dollars pay for others to end the lives of their innocent, unborn children. So much like abortion supporters at the United Nations, who speak euphemistically about abortion in terms of undefined “rights” to “reproductive health services” in order later to have a U.N. agency “interpret” that right to include abortion, so the president and various pro-abortion Congressional leaders have sought to pretend that abortion is not included, all the while introducing and maintaining vague language that the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services or abortion-supporting activist judges can use to mandate abortion coverage. When Pro-Life members of Congress have called the president’s and democratic leaders’ bluff by introducing amendments that would bar the coverage of abortions, the amendments have failed in both the House and the Senate. If there really were no intentions of using the health care reforms to introduce access and coverage for abortions, why would these amendments — which would have confirmed the president’s assertions — not have passed? It is the president and his abortion-supporting collaborators, not Cardinal Rigali and the Catholic bishops, who need to examine themselves on bearing false witness. With regard to protections for the religious freedom of individuals and institutions, there is a portentous situation that has just come to light in Belmont, N.C. In 2007, Belmont Abbey College, a small, faithful Catholic institution linked to the Benedictine Belmont Abbey, discovered that its private health care policy for employees included coverage for abortion, contraception and voluntary sterilization. The college immediately eliminated those unethical provisions. “As a Roman Catholic institution,” president William Thierfelder said, “Belmont Abbey College is not able to and will not offer nor subsidize medical services that contradict the clear teaching of the Catholic Church.” Eight employees complained to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), alleging that the decision to exclude prescription contraceptives discriminated against women. In March, the EEOC District Office in Charlotte sided with the college and closed the case without any finding of wrongdoing. Earlier this month, however, the college received a letter from Reuben Daniels Jr., director of the Charlotte EEOC District Office stating that the case has been reopened, that the college is in violation of federal law, and that if the college does not back down and achieve an acceptable compromise with the complainants, the EEOC will recommend court action. “By denying prescription contraception drugs,” Daniels wrote, the college “is discriminating based on gender since only females take oral prescription drugs. By denying coverage, men are not affected, only women.” It’s true that only women are presently affected, because there aren’t prescription male contraceptives on the market, although some are being tested; what is totally clear, however, is that there is no intention to discriminate against women; if there were male contraceptives available, those would not be covered either. The purported discrimination is just a convenient ploy to force the college to cover contraceptives against its Catholic principles and the consciences of the monks and college leaders. President Thierfelder says that he was told by local EEOC officials that the about face was dictated by Washington, which is something that makes the case both chilling and significant as we continue looking at the federal health care reforms and the absence of conscience protections. “From a religious freedom standpoint,” Thierfielder commented in an article on lifesitenews.com, you don’t have religious freedom. To try to make us change [our beliefs], there’s something very wrong with that. I think that’s why this has garnered so much attention, especially with the health care debates that are going on right now and with all the things that are going on with Catholic hospitals. What they are basically saying is, ‘If you’re Catholic, or if you are of any faith, it doesn’t mean anything. You’re going to do what the government tells you to do.’” As Patrick Reilly of the Cardinal Newman Society noted in an article about the situation in the Wall Street Journal, “That’s the rub: increasingly it is clear to Catholics and other religious groups that without very clear exemptions for religious employers — and conscience protections for individual doctors, nurses, pharmacists — federal health-care laws and guidelines could severely restrict religious freedom in the U.S.” Reilly added that the issue is more than about contraception and a small Catholic college. “Perhaps there are those who would say that this is an issue for only a minority of religious people. Catholics are nearly alone in their objection to contraceptives — and many Catholics regularly violate the Church’s teaching on the issue. But consider abortion. The EEOC says that pregnancy discrimination does not apply to an employer’s refusal to cover abortion expenses, ‘except where the life of the mother is endangered.’ When will a federal court argue that if insurance coverage to prevent pregnancy is, by inference, mandated by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, then why not abortion to end a pregnancy?” Thierfelder acknowledged that the fight may end up in court and said that under no circumstances will the college do what is immoral no matter how much pressure the government puts on it to support a culture of death. “All of us need to have moral courage in today’s world,” he said. “We are so resolute in our commitment to the teachings of the Catholic Church that there is no possible way we would ever deviate from it, and if it came down to it, we would close the school rather than give in. So it is absolute, unequivocal, impossible for us to go against the teachings of the Catholic Church in any way. There is no form of compromise that is possible.” Reilly says that the EEOC’s persecution of Belmont Abbey College is a “bad omen for people of faith: we can add the threat to religious liberty to the dangers already presented by government-run health care.” Without clearly-defined conscience protections for individuals and institutions, health care reform can turn out to be a vehicle by which some in government agencies can force their immorality on those of us who out of informed conscience disagree with them.
August 28, 2009
Ending the desecration of the Lord’s Day
The most important part of St. John Vian- never forget: first, there is a hell; second, there ney’s efforts to convert his parish in Ars was are mortal sins that, unabsolved, will lead us to help his people to recover a sense of the to hell; and third, voluntarily missing Mass sacred importance of the Lord’s Day. on a Sunday and unnecessarily profaning the The fathers of the Second Vatican Coun- Lord’s Day are mortal sins. cil, summarizing the constant teaching of the Many then and now prefer not to think of Church, taught that to be truly Christian, Jesus hell or the mortal sins that can lead us there. in the Eucharist must be the source and the They bristle when priests or concerned famsummit, the root and the center, of a person’s ily members bring these subjects up and often life. If someone chooses — other than because react with scandalized outrage that someone of a serious illness or physical impossibility would try to “scare” them into coming to — not to come to Mass on Sunday, opting to Mass. They pronounce with an absolute moral put some other person or some activity above authority — which they refuse to accord the God, then, they imply, the person is not really Church as a whole — “God would never send a Christian except in name. Sunday is a “little someone to hell for merely missing Mass.” Easter” and if people don’t recognize the sig- They do not want to face, however, the signifinificance of celebrating Easter then they re- cance of their betrayal. Judas accounted Jesus ally do not grasp the basics of the Christian less valuable than 30 pieces of silver. Many faith. Moreover, at a practical level, if some- work on Sunday for far less than that. one thinks that work, or games, or catching Vianney was not principally striving to up on sleep is a higher priority than coming scare his people into their religious duties as to to encounter God and worthily receiving his remind them that missing Sunday Mass is not very life inside, then God is not really God in a small matter without eternal consequences. that person’s life and the person has forsaken He principally wanted them to know that Sunthe worship of God for an idol. day is a day of and for the Lord. “Sunday is St. John Vianney knew this. He was con- the property of the good God,” he preached. vinced that he would never succeed in helping “It is his own day, the Lord’s day. He made all his people strive the days of the for and attain week; he might heaven unless have kept them he first got them all; he has given coming to Mass. you six and has The first reserved only Sunday after his the seventh for arrival in Ars himself. What By Father the Church of right have you Roger J. Landry St. Sixtus was to meddle with packed. The vilwhat does not lagers hadn’t belong to you?” heard the bells of the church ring since the It’s noteworthy that when God gave us the premature death of their former pastor and Commandment to keep holy his day, he also most of the 230 residents of the village as- told us the reason: “for you were once slaves sembled in church to learn the identity of in Egypt” (Deut 5:15). To work on Sunday, in their new pastor. Few presented themselves other words, is a form of slavery — slavery for holy Communion, which showed Vian- to work or to what work can accomplish — ney that there was not much fervor among his from which God wanted to set us free. God new flock. He nevertheless hoped that, if they gave us the gift of the Sabbath so we could would come each Sunday, he could start to in- be restored to our true identity by putting first crease their spiritual temperature. the God in whose image we are made. Jesus The next week, however, he saw a much himself came to give witness to the meaning smaller assembly. Many were absent on Eas- of the Sabbath as a day for the worship of God ter. As the warmer months came, the church and charity toward others. was almost empty, as the sound of the church For Vianney, Sunday was the time in which bells lost a competition with the clamor of the people recovered who they really are: “Man is anvils, carts, and workers in the fields. This not only a work horse, he is also a spirit creprofanation of the Lord’s Day wounded Vian- ated in the image of God! He has not only maney to the core. To him, it was first one of the terial needs and coarse appetites; he has needs most serious offenses against the love of God; of the soul and appetites of the heart. He lives second, he thought it was one of the worst not only by bread, but by prayer, faith, adorasins a person could commit against himself, tion and love.” intentionally serving mammon instead of the In addition to preaching, he would go out Lord. in search of his lost sheep. In his home visits, One Sunday he rose to the pulpit with tears he politely invited and encouraged everyone already in his eyes. He preached with a holy to return to the sacraments, but most ignored fire and clarity that people could still remem- him. So early on Sunday mornings, he would ber 50 years later. His whole body shook as go out to the fields to reiterate his appeal. he spoke. Even though he was addressing the One day he encountered a man taking in his “choir,” he spoke in a way so that these “choir crop. Ashamed at being caught, the man tried members” could sing the same melody at to hide behind his cart. “O my friend,” Vianhome and throughout the village to those who ney said with palpable grief in his voice, “you were not present. seem very much surprised to find me here … “You keep on working, but what you earn but the good God sees you at all times. He it is ruins your soul and your body,” he said. “If whom you must fear.” we ask those who work on Sunday, ‘What The cumulative result of all of these efforts have you been doing?,’ they might answer: ‘I was that, a few years after his arrival, almost have been selling my soul to the devil, cruci- everyone in the village was coming to Mass. fying our Lord, and renouncing my baptism. That allowed the real work of forming them I am doomed to hell. I shall have to weep for to be saints, which we’ll write about in future all eternity for nothing.’ columns, to begin. “When I behold people driving carts on We live in a time when, on any given SunSunday, I think they are carting their souls to day, only one out of four Catholics is coming hell. Oh! How mistaken in his calculations is to Mass. This Year for Priests is an opportuthe man who toils on Sunday to earn more nity for all practicing Catholics to imitate the money or accomplish more work! Can two or love of St. John Vianney in going out to call three francs compensate for the wrong he has the other three back, first by invitation and done himself by violating the law of God?” encouragement and next, if necessary, by not The Curé of Ars, out of love for God hesitating to remind them of the significance and for those entrusted to him, didn’t mince and the eternal stakes. words. His message may strike some today, The conversion of our culture, like the conas it did some in Ars in 1818, as too severe. version of Ars in the 1800s, cannot happen He was reminding his people, however, of without it. three essential truths that pastors in every age Father Landry is pastor of St. Anthony’s have the duty to make sure their parishioners Parish in New Bedford.
Putting Into the Deep
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f I were asked to define the call of the Christian, I would answer that the above title is the quintessential vocation of the Christian. As baptized members of the Mystical Body of Christ, each of us is called to fulfill this great Commandment in various ways. For me personally, I realized this responsibility of the Christian and responded by answering the call to follow as an ordained priest. I suppose, however, that it was the examples of parish priests who sought to bring their parishioners closer to Christ by their kind words, sage advice and holiness of life that ultimately led me to hear that tiny whisper to follow the Good Shepherd. In July of this year, I marked eight years of ordained ministry. That might not seem like a long time but for me it is and each moment has been all about loving and being loved in return. I am a firm believer
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The Anchor
August 28, 2009
To love and be loved
or experiences the ill effects of that when a bishop gives a some sort of trauma. The type priest an assignment it is with the understanding that he must of hurt that I personally experienced was like that of losing a fulfill these two primary tasks loved one to earthly death. and when done to one’s best It was at this moment and ability, leaving can hurt. in the months that passed that This past November, I was I would realize that parish informed that I was being ministry has strengthened transferred, effective almost immediately, from Corpus Christi Parish, East Sandwich to assume Year For Priests the position of direcVocational Reflection tor of Pastoral Care at St. Luke’s Hospital, New Bedford. I had By Father spent five-and-a-half Rodney E. Thibault years at Corpus Christi Parish, a place I called home and in one brief my prayer life, my love and moment it seemed as if I was devotion of our eucharistic being ripped from my famLord and most importantly ily: taken from those whom love for God’s chosen people, I love dearly and taken from his Church. It especially those whom I believed loved forced me to re-evaluate why I me in return. I felt as if I was answered the call to ordained being taken from my family. ministry. It was to love and to It hurt, but, then, doesn’t love sometimes hurt? It was not the be loved. I thoroughly enjoyed my time type of hurt that is experienced in the parish. Why? The unprewhen one gets stung by a bee
dictability. I could plan my day and schedule all sorts of things but sometimes none of that would matter. Each and every day as a parish priest, I never quite could predict what might be lurking around the corner: an unscheduled appointment that would require an immense amount of pastoral sensitivity; an untimely death that would rock the already fragile faith of one who had been estranged from the Church; or perhaps attempting to comfort one who feels totally isolated from the community. Of course, parish life does not always involve trauma and tragedy. Hearing the great news that someone who had been unemployed for such a long time finally was hired; sharing the joy of a couple who after many attempts at pregnancy get the news that they are going to be parents; even hearing that someone who was at the point of death
is stable and is expected to make a full recovery. The life of the parish priest is all about being part of a family. When I was first addressed as “Father” on July 14, 2001, I had no idea what that really meant. Eight years into my ministry, I’m beginning to understand what it is all about. The father leads; the father listens; the father protects; the father helps; but most importantly, the father loves. It is my fervent prayer that throughout the remainder of my ministry, no matter what that might be, whether it is in a parish or even in a hospital where I now serve, I may always remember that unique call “to love and to be loved.” The life of the priest is one of such immense joy and fulfillment when this is the guiding principle that leads and guides the life of the priest. Father Thibault was ordained in 2001 and is director of Pastoral Care at St. Luke Hospital in New Bedford.
forms of industrialization as the model for improvement. Staples asserts that the apostles of development, serving as beneficent technocrats, failed to account for “the human misery and social disruption caused by industrialization.” Staples argues that development understood this way had its roots in philosophical notions emerging between the 1870s and 1920s. During this period “a group of European and American philosophers discarded the platonic notion of pure forms and theorized that truth must be derived from experience, that politics should replace individual moral responsibility as the locus of reform, and that ethics could be derived only from a rational benevolence rather than an ideal form of justice.” These philosophical perspectives influenced and continue to
impact the training of “educators, social workers, agribusinessmen, journalists, doctors, lawyers, business managers and economists,” Staples explains. Members of these professions have been called and still are hearing the call to use their expertise to assist in human development around the world. Readers of this column may be trained in one or more of the professions cited by Staples, and all of us have learned to rely on the expertise of these professions to guide us in certain aspects of our daily affairs. As we move forward in future columns to see what significance Pope Benedict’s words in “Charity In Truth” might have in our individual lives, this reality of the professions and their training will play a prominent part in my reflections. Daniel Avila is the associate director for Policy & Research of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference.
Charity in truth: An encyclical on development
n June 29 of this year, Pope Benedict issued an encyclical on social justice entitled “Charity In Truth,” or in Latin, “Caritas In Veritate.” What should the Catholic in the pew know about this new papal document? The first sentence in the encyclical reads: “Charity in truth, to which Jesus Christ bore witness by his earthly life and especially by his death and resurrection, is the principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity.” The term “authentic development” pinpoints the encyclical’s focus. In 1967 Pope Paul VI issued the Catholic Church’s first sustained reflection on human development in his encyclical “The Progress of Peoples,” or in Latin, “Populorum Progressio.” Pope John Paul II devoted two encyclicals to the same issue. In commemorating his predecessor’s seminal work in “The Progress of Peoples,” Pope Benedict adds his thoughts in “Charity In Truth.” Since 1961, when President John F. Kennedy urged the United Nations to designate the sixties as the “Decade of Development,” the idea of promoting human development has grown, achieving cult status within international circles as the buzzword for social justice. Some historical context is in order. When President Kennedy walked to the podium to address the U.N.’s General Assembly on Sept. 25, 1961, the world
was just 15 years beyond the mutually beneficial increase in horrors of World War II. Coun- world prosperity.” The resolution tries were still trying to rebuild called for “measures to accelerfrom the devastation of armed ate the elimination of illiteracy, conflict. Old political structures hunger and disease, which seriwere breaking up as newly inde- ously affect the productivity of pendent countries were shedding the people of the less developed their former status as colonies. countries.” The titanic chess match between the free Massachusetts world in the west and the communist world in the Catholic east was influencing the direction of foreign aid. Conference Superpower promises By Daniel Avila of social advancement served as a core ideological weapon in the push for new, strategic alliances Nations were not the only acbetween rich and poor nations. tors to undertake the task of inIn his U.N. speech President ternational development. Kennedy called for all countries, Amy L.S. Staples, in the first working through U.N. channels, chapter of her 2006 book “The to coordinate efforts to combat Birth of Development: How poverty, illiteracy and disease the World Bank, Food and Agthrough largely economic mea- riculture Organizations, and sures. He expressed the hope the World Health Organization that “development can become Changed the World, 1945-1965,” a cooperative and not a competi- described the post-war era as a tive enterprise — to enable all “key moment in history.” This nations, however diverse in their was when private individuals, systems and beliefs, to become “discrete groups of people with in fact as well as in law free and international stature, expertise, equal nations.” money, power, influence, and the Just three months later on best of intentions began working Dec. 19, 1961, the U.N. Gen- to better the lives of other human eral Assembly adopted a reso- beings whom they had never met lution to implement President or known, for no other reason Kennedy’s idea of a “Decade of than the desire to improve the Development.” The resolution fate of the human race.” recognized that improving the Though well-intended, Stasocial and economic welfare of ples observes, the private sector poor countries was “basic to the drive for development was conattainment of international peace ceived in “scientific” and strictly and security and to a faster and political terms, using western
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ne of the greatest challenges when studying Scripture is trying to find how things connect. For example: how is Jesus related to the Old Testament? How does tradition approach theology and spirituality? Recently, I read St. Augustine’s answer to a difficult question: What was God doing before he created the heavens and earth? The saint has a simple answer: “Nothing, He didn’t have the time.” St. Augustine meant that time and space exist for creatures but not for the Creator. He fills all time and space. Trying to find out how things connect, fit together and relate is a drive for unity grounded in a basic Catholic insight: “Grace is everywhere because God’s loving, forgiving presence can be experienced in all things.” There is nothing that does not have the potential to reveal God at work, if only we have the wisdom to hear and listen, to love and act. Scripture and tradition hold to a spirituality
The Anchor
Listen and act
that is corporate and personal, military might that did not procorporal and spiritual. tect us on 9/11. We are now exBiblical and Catholic spiriperiencing an economic disaster tuality is at once corporate and despite a great gross national personal in our first reading product not so long ago. The from Deuteronomy. Israel is a greatest strength is found in a great and wise nation because nation’s pursuit of justice, care of her covenant relationship for the unborn, the poor and with the Lord. The essence of the marginalized and the extent this covenant is justice and fidelity. God is just and holy. All that he Homily of the Week does and wills is for the Twenty-Second Sunday sake of his people and in Ordinary Time his good creations. Israel is called to be By Deacon faithful and respond to Leo Racine the passionate love of this God who makes himself known. The Lord has to which the homeless and given Israel the Law, not as a stranger are made welcome in burden or a means of control, a health care program that does but as a testament of love. The not harm through abortion and true measure of Israel is the euthanasia. measure of her faithful obserThis corporate dimension vance of the Lord’s statues and of spirituality and morality decrees. extend from the White House This passage from Deuteronto the State House, to the city omy reminds us today that our council chamber, to the parish nation’s greatness is to be unand into the intimate relationderstood in terms of its “moral” ship of the home. The Catholic strength and not in terms of the tradition has always placed
August 28, 2009
great emphasis on the local and intimate communities (parish, neighborhood, school, etc.) for effectively caring for those in need. We are a wise and great nation to the extent that we are just an imitation of the one who is justice and holiness itself. St. James reminds us today: “Act on this Word. If all you do is listen to it, you are deceiving yourselves.” With serene and docile spirits, with the humble desire for constant purification. John Paul II once wrote, “Let us commit ourselves to put the Word into practice, asking God insistently not to be like those who fool themselves.” Personal Christian witness has the power to inspire others and to lead them to Jesus Christ. Catholic tradition is one which says that the community is the “individual enlarged.” Conversion, redemption and newness of life are both corporate and personal. Finally, biblical and Catho-
lic spirituality seek the union of heaven and earth and the concerns of the body with those of the soul. The needs of the body and soul must be cared for. The Pharisees, according to St. Mark’s Gospel, are merely interested in lip service and following the externals of religion. Jesus indicates that one must set one’s heart on the will of God. It does no good to clean one’s cup while one’s heart is filled with wicked designs. Our acts of love must be motivated by a genuine love for Jesus. When Jesus is not the center of our social concerns and health care, we are merely humanist or social workers but not Christians. Whereas, joining or connecting the needs of body and soul into one unified act of worship to our living God connects theology with spirituality. Deacon Racine is a retired deacon of the diocese who celebrates 50 years of marriage to Marguerite this year and is a father and grandfather.
Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Aug. 29, 1Thes 4:9-11; Ps 98:1,7-9; Mk 6:17-29. Sun. Aug. 30, Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Dt 4:1-2,6-8; Ps 15:2-5; Jas 1:17-18,21b22,27; Mk 7:1-8,14-15,21,23. Mon. Aug. 31, 1Thes 4:13-18; Ps 96:1,3-5,11-13; Lk 4:16-30. Tues. Sept. 1, 1Thes 5:1-6,9-11; Ps 27:1,4,13-14; Lk 4:31-37. Wed. Sept. 2, Col 1:1-8; Ps 52:10-11; Lk 4:38-44. Thur. Sept. 3, Col 1:9-14; Ps 98:2-6; Lk 5:1-11. Fri. Sept. 4, Col 1:15-20; Ps 100:1-5; Lk 5:33-39.
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year or so ago I got a letter from a man with whom I’d first begun corresponding shortly after his tour as an infantry lieutenant in Iraq. If memory serves, we began by discussing various questions of just war theory, but then our letters touched more and more on my young friend’s vocational discernment, for he had left the service on completing his deployment in sunny Mesopotamia. In his August 2008 letter, he sent an account of his
Homecoming
homecoming and asked whether in a dark parking lot. The usual I thought it could be published chit-chat and murmur of sidesomewhere, because he wanted bar conversations was conto “thank the American public.” I couldn’t find an outlet for him, but on re-reading his letter, it occurred to me that I could help him say “thanks” by reprinting By George Weigel parts of it here. So... “We were slowly coming together in a spicuously absent. We had just mass formation, rather numbly, spent the last couple of days in a series of hangars and airfields and airplanes traveling back from the Middle East and it was now almost 2 a.m.; that was certainly one of the reasons for our numbness. “All several hundred of us seemed to know where to go and what to do without being told. Nobody was saying anything. It was silent, except for the dull roar coming from the large building in front of us. We had rejoiced when we heard them say that our date of departure from the theater of operations was finally known, and now our feet were standing once again on beloved American soil. “The first row of soldiers started moving once the buses were empty and the bags were all put in a certain place. I was further to the back. Someone
The Catholic Difference
had apparently told the first row to face to the left and start walking. The rows behind them were following suit as the walking turned into a jog. It appeared that all of us were going to run single-file into the gym. “As we ran through the main doors, through the smoke from the smoke machine and out onto the gym floor, we were plunged into sensory overload. Bright lights, booming music, mobs of people cheering and shouting and waving at somebody. Homemade signs, welcome home banners, and red, white and blue bunting were everywhere. Someone was on the microphone stirring up our families and loved ones even more. And we just stood there in the middle of it — not knowing quite what to do or where to look or what to think. And it went on and on and on. Then I saw the American flag. “I remember everything about the Welcome Home ceremony very clearly until the national anthem began, at which point the details of the festivities and sequence of events turned into a watery blur. For a thousand reasons I could no longer look at that flag while hearing that song unemotionally,
partially because I was raised an American patriot who loves his country dearly, but mainly because of what our band of brothers had experienced over the past year. I didn’t know why I was tearing up. Was I happy or sad? It was all jumbled up together: the good, the bad and the ugly. “So thank you for supporting us, praying for us, and welcoming us home. It makes a difference.” In the cover letter accompanying his thank you note to America, my correspondent wrote that he had recently “gotten an education in how to put down tile and will soon be learning how to refinish wood floors. I love the fact that we do all our own maintenance, cooking and cleaning. We get to know each other in a different light.” So what’s my pen pal, the Iraq veteran, doing now, down on those floors? He found something even tougher than the training he received in the armed forces and he’s in love with what he found, even though it took him to the hard streets of Newark. He’s a novice in the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement. George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.
A band of brothers
Thursday 27 August 2009 — at founded in 1904. A vocation to the religious life home on Three Mile River — St. is a gift to any family, but some Monica Day families are blessed many times ere’s a riddle. John and Walter Sullivan, priests of the Diocese of Fall River, are identical twins. But there are no Reflections of a sets of twins who are or Parish Priest ever have been priests of By Father Tim the Fall River Diocese. Goldrick How is this possible? (Answer below.) I’m making a list over. Several Fall River diocesan of priests who not only spent a lifetime as priests of the Fall River priests had brothers and sisters Diocese, but were also brothers to who were members of religious orders. Monsignor Armando each other. I figure 32 men were Annunziato’s (d.1993) brother brothers since the diocese was
H
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August 28, 2009
The Ship’s Log
Michael, a Sacred Hearts priest, for example, is chaplain at Sacred Heart Home, New Bedford. Other diocesan priests had brothers who were priests in another diocese. Father Luis Cardozo is a priest of the Diocese of Fall River. His brother was a priest of the Diocese of Angra, Azores. When it comes to diocesan priests who are cousins, the list is long. Priest-brothers Gerry and Bill Shovelton are alive and well and living in Florida. Edmond “Pete” Levesque is in residence at St. George Church, Westport. His brother, Arthur
The big choice
children already born or yet to hat’s the right size for come, an ability to read the signs today’s family? Comof the times and of their own situmunist China heavily enforces ation on the material and spiritual a one-child only policy. The level, and, finally, an estimation average American would up the of the good of the family, of ante by one: optimally a boy and society, and of the Church.” In a girl. No doubt many of us think other words, parents need to look the best size is the same as the beyond just themselves in makone we grew up in. ing their decision with “docile The Catholic Church has respect for God.” something to say about the matGiven the multiplicity of ter, but wisely avoids dictating circumstances in society, couples a set number of children. In could legitimately come to very Vatican II’s Pastoral Constitution, different conclusions about how Gaudium et Spes, n.50, she offers many children to have. Nevertheparticular guidelines for applyless, the Church makes a “special ing God’s blessing of Adam and Eve with the words: “Be fruitful and multiply” (Gen 1:28). Lavishly For one, children are Generous valued as the “supreme gift of marriage,” who Love “greatly contribute to the good of the parents By Joan Kingsland themselves.” Parents truly are enriched by their children. mention” of those who opt for a They discover many things about large family. It’s praiseworthy. themselves as persons, both In our secularized, materialistalents and weaknesses. They’re tic world the idea of having many pushed to grow in virtue and kids can be easily dismissed as work to overcome their faults for impractical and even foolhardy. the sake of those who need their Looking after just one or two love and care. children is demanding, even exGaudium et Spes also teaches hausting. The thought of having that opening to new life is a way more seems to many impossible to participate in God’s creative financially, organizationally and work. That’s the basis for the even psychologically. word “pro-creation.” Parents Yet there are some brave should therefore “cooperate valiantly with the love of the Creator people out there who open themselves generously to the gift and Savior.” Note the inclusion of life. I’m lucky to be personally of the word ‘valiant.’ Raising a acquainted with a bunch of them. family these days takes courage Common denominators in and generosity. all of my friends are a firm faith But the question remains: in Christ and in God’s loving how big? The Church says the Providence; the desire to raise married couple needs to discern up children of God; and a lovthis before God; however, it’s a ing commitment to each other matter of conscience, not “a matthrough their sacramental marter of fancy.” riage. In judging what’s best a Not everyone gets the opporcouple has a number of elements tunity like me to witness firsthand to take into consideration: “their the challenges, joys and blessown good and the good of their
ings of large families. (Family meals and bedtime are especially delightful when there’s eight or nine or even more kids running about.) That’s why I wish to offer this series of seven articles on couples who have chosen to be generous in embracing the gift of life. Each of them will show us a different angle of family life. For instance, we’ll get the inside perspective of home-schooling: Germaine, a mother of 12, says no parent feels adequate and neither does she. Her two oldest children, however, earned merit scholarships last year, so she’s got something to say. Another couple, with eight children, will offer their view on the gift of their fertility within the realm of marriage. Another of my friends will tell us about the successful techniques her parents employed to bring out the individuality of each of their 10 children. We’ll also tackle the worrisome question of how these families make it financially. Cyberspace estimates judge the cost of raising a child at $200,000-plus. So how do big families manage to get by, oftentimes on a single income? None of my friends would say their family is ideal nor that the way is easy or clearly marked out — quite the opposite. Nevertheless, through the day-to-day struggles, it’s evident that they’re growing in personal holiness and raising up a bunch of happy, well-adjusted kids. They’re doing something right. God unsurprisingly is bountifully blessing them as well. Joan Kingsland, a consecrated woman of Regnum Christi, teaches theology at Mater Ecclesiae College in Greenville, R.I.
(d.1988), was also a priest of the Diocese of Fall River. At Arthur’s funeral, one state representative served as lector and another as soloist. Bishop James Connolly (d.1986), a native of the Diocese of Fall River, served for 19 years as our Ordinary. Bishop Connolly had a brother Bernard (d.1932) who was also a Fall River diocesan priest. Bernie belonged to a society of diocesan priests called the Sulpicians, dedicated to the education of future priests. Bill Galvin (d.1977) had a brother John (d.1962) who was also a Fall River diocesan priest and a Sulpician. Add Gerry (d.1983) and Bert (d.2002) Chabot. Bert is the only one of us to spend his entire priesthood in one parish. Gerry was a spiritual director of the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women. I remember the brothers Pat (d.1995) and Connie O’Neil (d.1999). Connie built St. Augustine Church, Vineyard Haven. Pat served as the diocesan superintendant of schools. Then there’s Ray (d.1996) and Arthur Considine (d.1991). Ray not only headed the Office for the Propagation of the Faith, but also spearheaded the creation of the diocesan nursing home system. Arthur built St. Mary’s Church, South Dartmouth. Another pair of priest-brothers was John (d.1940) and Chris Broderick (d.1984). John died early in his ministry. Chris built St. Pius X Church, South Yarmouth. The legendary priest-brothers of Taunton were the Dolans, Bill (d.1977) and Jim (d.1980). Now we move into priestbrothers who lived and died before I was ordained. There’s Jim (d.1965) and Ray Lynch (d.1955). Jim founded St. Joan of Arc Church, Orleans. Ray suffered life-long poor health. Adrian (d.1959) and Alphonse Gauthier (d.1962): Adrian was the first priest ordained by Bishop Feehan. Alphonse was dedicated to preserving French Canadian culture and language. Al (d.1950) and Roland
Masse (d.1952) came from a large family. Al died as the pastor of St. Joseph Church, Attleboro. Roland died in a tragic accidental fall. Yet another pair was Tom (d.1912) and Pat McGee (d.1948). Tom served on Nantucket at the same time his brother Pat served on Martha’s Vineyard. Tom died as a young priest, the result of a stroke suffered while traveling. Pat was a generous benefactor of the North American College in Rome. A sad story is the case of Bill and John Donahue. They both died in 1944. Bill died 14 years after ordination and John, only nine years. I was born two years thereafter. Jim (d.1952) and John Downey (d.1914): Jim was the pastor of Holy Ghost, Attleboro. John was the first priest alum of St. Joseph High School (later Holy Family) New Bedford. The only other set of priestbrothers I find is Ed (d.1937) and Jim Carr (d.1923). Both held advanced academic degrees. Ed served as chancellor to Bishop Feehan; Jim as a chaplain in World War I. Vocations come from faithful families — and sometimes in multiples. Since parents are the primary teachers in the ways of faith, this makes sense. Somebody should do a scientific study of this. My friend Father Joe McGrady was a Jesuit priest who had a priest-brother ordained for a diocese. Joe told me a story, no doubt apocryphal. When the two priest-brothers were together, their mother would introduce them by saying, “This is my son the priest. That other one is a Jesuit.” It reminded me of the old Smothers Brothers line, “Mother always liked me best.” Answer: Father John Sullivan and Father Walter Sullivan were not brothers. John’s twin is Charlie and Walter’s twin was Dennis. Neither Charlie nor Dennis was ordained a priest. Father Goldrick is pastor of St. Nicholas of Myra Parish in North Dighton.
10 PLEASE KEEP OUR STUDENTS IN YOUR PRAYERS FOR A SUCCESSFUL, HAPPY, HEALTHFUL NEW YEAR AS SCHOOLS OPEN WITHIN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS.
The Anchor
August 28, 2009
Deacon always ‘leaves them with a prayer’ By Michael Pare Anchor Correspondent
FALL RIVER — The room Deacon Frank Mis occupies on the first floor of Southpointe Rehabilitation & Skilled Care Center on Amity Street is simply adorned. But what is there has been carefully chosen. Atop a bureau in one corner of the room is a picture book on Pope John Paul II. The photographs are stunning. Mis encourages a visitor to take a look. “It’s beautiful,” he said. And on a night stand next to his bed is another book, this one a collection of daily prayers entitled, “Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI.” Mis turns to it often, as he begins and concludes each day in direct contact with God. He prays for his family, friends, and all of neighbors at Southpointe. And as he has been instructed, he dutifully makes it a priority to pray for others. “Jesus said that we should pray for our enemies,” said Mis. “This way, there will be no hate in this world.” Mis makes a point of delivering this message. It is one of Jesus’ teachings and so Mis feels a ANCHOR PERSON OF responsibility to pass it Frank Mis. on. It is his small way of bringing people closer to God. There is something else in the room that means a lot to Mis. Attached to a bulletin board in the center of the room is a poster sent to him by preschoolers from his beloved St. Stanislaus Parish. The school children visit Southpointe regularly and they always make sure to stop and see Deacon Mis. They are drawn to him — and he to them. Pointing out the poster brings a smile to his face. Mis is tired on this Thursday afternoon in August. But that’s to be expected for someone whose next birthday will be his 90th. Mis maintains a busy schedule in this his 30th year as a Catholic deacon. On Sunday afternoons he leads his Southpointe neighbors in a community prayer service and rosary. Attendance tends to fluctuate between 50 and 60 faithful. Mis began visiting Southpointe years ago when his wife, Mary, was a resident. He would come every day and before long, he was serving as a sort of personal deacon to the Southpointe Catholics. After Mary died, he continued his mission. And when he became a resident of Southpointe about a year ago, his commitment to the residents there only deepened. There is in fact a strong Roman Catholic population at the 152-bed Southpointe and in the dedicated Deacon Mis, they find great comfort. And he, in turn, is always there for them. Always. Karen Santerre, the center’s activity director, is struck by his kindness. “He is just a lovely man,” said Santerre. “If I ask him to say a prayer with a resident, he does. He always says yes.” That his father has touched the lives of others at Southpointe comes as no surprise to his son, Vincent, of Somerset.
“He has always been a good man and a hard working man,” said Vincent Mis. “He was a head shipper at Arkwright Finishing. And every Sunday afternoon I remember he would go to church for devotions. We’re very proud of him.” Vincent loves to see the poster from the St. Stanislaus children on his father’s wall, as well as an accompanying photograph of the kids surrounding Deacon Mis. “The school kids always stop to see my father,” he said. Father Bruce Neylon, pastor at St. Stanislaus Parish, has known Deacon Mis and his family for years. He sees a beauty in the mission he carries out at Southpointe. “It has been a great gift that he has been able to minister to the people there,” said Father Neylon. “Not every center like that has that opportunity.” While the bulk of his time is now spent at Southpointe, Deacon Mis has left a lasting impression at St. Stanislaus. Thomas Wrobel, a parishioner and an extraordinary minister of holy Communion there, has come to admire him. “There is just no retiring on his part,” said Wrobel. “He’s still performing his ministry for people. He was always THE WEEK — Deacon very sensitive to the residents at Southpointe, even before he became a resident. There is a special connection he has with all of the people there. And they have a tremendous sense of thanksgiving for his efforts.” Wrobel is thankful for the lessons he has learned from Deacon Mis. He and fellow parishioner, Lou Torres, have worked closely with Deacon Mis over the years, often bringing holy Communion to Southpointe residents. “I know I have a deeper faith by watching the residents there pray and receive holy Communion,” he said. Wrobel said that Deacon Mis has taught them the importance of bringing Jesus into the lives of the residents there — and to not be shy about doing it. “We’re not afraid to go into someone’s room, because that is what Deacon Mis asks us to do,” said Wrobel. “He has taught us that if we see a person, we ask them if they would like to receive holy Communion. We have done so much more than we ever thought we would.” That’s Deacon Mis. He brings people closer to one another — and closer to God. These days, Southpointe provides the perfect forum for his ministry. The Sunday services are the high point of his week and he prepares for them with fervor. There are messages to deliver and Deacon Mis intends to deliver them. “I have enough homilies written up for three years,” he said. And there remain people to meet, lives to touch. Deacon Mis has a simple, yet profound goal. Whenever he meets someone these days, he leaves them with some kind of prayer. It’s his way of “bringing them closer to God.” To nominate a Person of the Week, send an email message to FatherRogerLandry@AnchorNews.org.
Bishops’ new website offers background on health reform views WASHINGTON (CNS) — The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has launched a website that seeks to clarify its position on the health care reform debate and to help Catholics add their voices to the discussions. The website at www.usccb. org/healthcare features videos
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August 28, 2009
addressing various aspects of the health reform debate, answers to several frequently asked questions, copies of bishops’ documents and letters to Congress, facts and statistics about Catholic health care in the United States, and links to send messages to members of Congress. The bish-
ops also plan to offer specific “action alerts” on the site when Congress returns to work on health reform legislation in September. The site urges Catholics to tell
Congress that “health care reform should: include health care coverage for all people from conception until natural death, and continue the federal ban on funding for abortions; include access
for all with a special concern for the poor; pursue the common good and preserve pluralism, including freedom of conscience; and restrain costs and apply costs equitably among payers.”
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The Anchor
August 28, 2009
Media watchdog: Pope takes wary approach to communications explosion
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Toward the end of his encyclical “Charity in Truth,” Pope Benedict XVI included a brief but strongly worded analysis about the “increasingly pervasive presence” of modern media and their power to serve good or immoral interests. The two pages on communications were barely noticed in an encyclical that focused on economic issues, but they underscored the pope’s cautionary and critical approach to today’s media revolution. In particular, the pope zeroed in on the popular assumption in the West that the penetration of contemporary media in the developing world will inevitably bring enlightenment and progress. “Just because social communications increase the possibilities of interconnection and the dissemination of ideas, it does not follow that they promote freedom or internationalize development and democracy for all,” the pope wrote. The pope’s critique made several important points: — The mass media are in practice not morally “neutral.” They are often subordinated to “economic interests intent on dominating the market” and to attempts to “impose cultural models that serve ideological and political agendas,” he said; — the media have a huge role in shaping attitudes, a role that has been amplified by globalization. That requires careful reflection on their influence, especially when it comes to questions of ethics and the “solidarity” dimension of development, he said; — media have a civilizing effect when they are “geared toward a vision of the person and the common good that reflects truly universal values.” That means they need to focus on promoting human dignity, be “inspired by charity and placed at the service of truth,” he said. Inspired by charity? That may sound overly idealistic to those familiar with some of the more popular talk-radio shows or blogs these days. Archbishop Claudio Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, said recently that the pope is not naive about what’s out there. “He knows perfectly well what’s circulating on the great networks of information. That’s why he says we need to reflect on the distribution of words and images that are degrading to the human person, and put a halt to whatever fuels hatred and intolerance, or whatever wounds the beauty and intimacy of human sexuality,” the archbishop said.
Archbishop Celli, who has pioneered some of the Vatican’s new media initiatives, said that while the pope wants to affirm the opportunities of the media explosion he will voice concern when needed. One example is the concept of friendship: The pope believes it’s an important element of the digital age, but risks being trivialized. “It would be sad if our desire to sustain and develop online friendships were to be at the cost of our availability to engage with our families, our neighbors and those we meet in the daily reality of our places of work, education and recreation,” the pope wrote in his annual message to communicators earlier this year. Pope Benedict faces a challenging task when it comes to communications. The 82-year-old pontiff is definitely old school, preferring books to videos and expressing his most important ideas in documents that he writes out longhand. At the same time, his aides have gone to great lengths to portray the pope as a friend of new media, featuring him in text messages, YouTube videos and podcasts. Yet Pope Benedict’s teaching style is not easily reduced to sound bites or video clips. Even his off-thecuff remarks come across as carefully reasoned. Moreover, the pope has found that his core message — the importance of faith in God and the power of the Gospel to change lives — often fails to make the news ticker. Media interest perks up when there’s a Vatican controversy, but not when the pope talks about the need for saints in modern society. Even the pope’s long-awaited encyclical on economic justice, timed for release as the world’s leaders were meeting to tackle the global financial crisis, was bumped off network newscasts and relegated to the inside pages of newspapers by an event too big to ignore: the massive memorial service the same day for Michael Jackson. It’s doubtful any of this surprises Pope Benedict. Several years ago, he commented on the Church’s relationship with the media in his book “Salt of the Earth.” “The convictions and modes of behavior that hold the Church together are located at a deeper level than the forms of expression and behavioral patterns that are imposed on us by the mass media,” he said. That’s no sound bite, either, but it reflects the pope’s caution against presuming that today’s media culture is on the Church’s wavelength. It also implies that the media themselves should be a major target of modern evangelization.
MAKING A WISH — Rebel Rodriguez, Trevor Gagnon and Leo Howard star in a scene from the movie “Shorts.” For a brief review of this film, see CNS Movie Capsules below. (CNS photo/Warner Bros.)
CNS Movie Capsules NEW YORK (CNS) — The following are capsule reviews of movies recently reviewed by the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard” (Paramount Vantage) Shoddy, vulgar comedy about a failing used-car dealer (James Brolin) who summons a team of crack freelance sales types (led by Jeremy Piven) in a last-gasp bid to save his business. Despite a plotline about freewheeling Piven’s desire to settle down as a family man, director Neal Brennan’s gear-grinding lemon mostly runs on humor and language as sordid as the strip clubs its characters frequent. Strong sexual content, including adultery and brief graphic nonmarital sexual activity, full nudity, drug use, about a dozen uses of profanity, and pervasive rough and much crude language. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is O — morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. “Ponyo” (Disney) Enchanting English-language version of a Japanese animated fable about a determined goldfish (voice of Noah Cyrus) who escapes from the underwater realm of her domineering wizard father (voice of Liam Neeson) to explore the world beyond, and comes under the protection of a plucky, affectionate five-yearold boy (voice of Frankie Jonas), whose love for her is tested both
before and after her mysterious transformation into a little girl. Originally written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, the mythic tale, inspired by Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Little Mermaid,” uses masterful artistry to recapture the innocence and wonder of childhood, while deftly delivering a warning against environmental carelessness. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-I — general patronage. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is G — general audiences. All ages admitted. “Shorts” (Warner Bros.) Clever children’s fantasy about a rainbow-colored rock that grants the wishes of anyone holding it, and the chaos its misuse wreaks on the lives of a bullied schoolboy (Jimmy Bennett), his parents (Jon Cryer and Leslie Mann), his chief
persecutor (terrific newcomer Jolie Vanier), her tycoon father (James Spader) and their suburban community in general. Told in a series of nonsequential episodes, writerdirector Robert Rodriguez’s lively yarn, which carries messages about the dangers of power and the isolating effects of contemporary technology, generally makes for appealing family entertainment, though perilous special effects may overwhelm the most sensitive viewers, while some parents may find a story line about a mucus monster unpleasant. Occasional menace and mildly gross humor. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG — parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.
Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, August 30 at 11:00 a.m.
Celebrant is Father Gregory A. Mathias, pastor of St. Julie Billiart Parish in North Dartmouth
The Anchor
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The Anchor
August 28, 2009
news brief
St. Louis archbishop urges Catholics to support Catholic schools ST. LOUIS (CNS) — Archbishop Robert J. Carlson, newly installed as the head of the St. Louis Archdiocese, gave high marks to Catholic education and also called on local Catholics to help make Catholic schools more affordable. The archbishop described Catholic schools in the St. Louis Archdiocese as “a tremendous gift” with “a great history” and a special emphasis on evangelizing. “It is one of the reasons why the St. Louis Archdiocese and the people here are known for their great faith,” he said. He also acknowledged that a significant problem many parents face when considering Catholic education is the high cost of tuition. Archbishop Carlson pointed out that Catholic education is much more expensive than when he and his sisters attended Catholic schools. For one thing, “we had religious Sisters and now we have lay teachers. We must pay them a just wage,” he said in a recent interview with the St. Louis Review, the archdiocesan newspaper. He noted that even though parents are the primary educators of their children Catholic schools “do an excellent job” of providing training in faith.
THE GOOD BOOK ON DISPLAY — People visiting the Library of Congress walk near the Gutenberg Bible on display in the library’s Great Hall. The institution’s massive collection of Bibles has been augmented with high-tech interactive displays that bring the pages of Scripture alive for visitors. (CNS photo/Nancy Wiechec)
Finance committees helping pastors respond to tough economy continued from page one
review income and expenses to make sure they’re on track.” “In my experiences in all the parishes where I’ve been a pastor, I’ve worked with a parish finance council and I’ve found it extremely helpful to me and it’s always been something I’ve used as a source of guidance as to the financial direction of the parish,” agreed Father George C. Bellenoit, pastor of St. Pius X Parish in South Yarmouth. “I know it’s been a Godsend to me.” A typical parish finance committee is comprised of seven parishioners who, in collaboration with the pastor, review a parish’s income and expenses to ensure that a balanced budget is maintained. They also can advise the pastor on making any needed capital purchases or improvements and whether to approve salary increases for staff employees. Most meet either twice a year or on a quarterly basis. “I’ve been here 12 years and there’s always been a finance committee,” said Father Bernard Baris, M.S., pastor of Our Lady of the Cape Parish in Brewster. “Its purpose is to basically approve any major parish expenses. It also presents to the pastoral council the financial report for the parish. It approves salary increases and any type of new purchases or new projects.” But parish finance committees can also be instrumental in identifying any potential budget shortfalls or accrued debts that can become a problem if not paid off in a timely manner. “A major issue for our parish is the very heavy debt that’s been left to us,” said Dick Roberts, member of the finance committee at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Hyannis. “We really can’t afford to carry the debt we have, so we’re struggling to balance the budget. The committee is addressing the debt by launching a capital campaign and we’ve hired a public relations firm to help raise an estimated $1
million through fund-raising. I’m not sure we’re going to get anywhere near that, but we’ll see how it works out.” Roberts said the finance committee also conducts surveys as to future building needs for the parish as a means of ensuring the church’s infrastructure remains intact. “I’m chairman of the building and grounds subcommittee of the finance committee,” he said. “We did a survey on all the buildings in our main church complex and also our chapel complex up in Yarmouth. Based on that survey, we put together a need analysis and our pastor, Father Daniel W. Lacroix, is working on adding that into what we have to spend.” While Canon Law dictates that every parish should have a finance committee separate and independent from its overall parish or pastoral council, some parishes have opted to allow the parish council to take on both roles. “There’s a problem with the pastoral council handling the parish’s finances because they always get hung up with financial matters,” Father Baris said. “In doing that, they forget important pastoral aspects like Religious Education, ministries to the elderly, the sick, and the homebound — all those things that affect parish life.” “It’s two distinct operations and two distinct parts of parish life,” Father Bellenoit agreed. “I think having a separate parish council and finance committee is the way to go; there certainly needs to be an opportunity for the parish council and finance committee to work together, but they’re both doing two distinct things.” But Dick Roberts doesn’t necessarily see a conflict in having a parish council also oversee financial matters in the absence of a formed finance committee. “Father Lacroix came from Acushnet where he had a pastoral council set up along with a finance committee and it worked well for him,” Roberts said. “I’ve come
from a parish in upstate New York and we had a parish council which did everything and that worked for them.” Like so many parishes across the diocese, St. Francis Xavier and Corpus Christi are grappling with the adverse effects of the recent sluggish economy that are taking a toll on parish income and financial projections. “The problem is in 10 years we went from 3,000 families in the parish to about 1,200,” Roberts said. “The current economic situation isn’t helping, but the compounding interest on our previous debt keeps adding up over the years, too.” “Our offertory has been down — anywhere from three to six percent — and we’re facing a constant battle to keep our expenses under control, especially utilities and maintenance,” Brady agreed. “We closed St. Theresa’s Chapel in Sagamore at the end of November, so we’ve also seen a reduction in Mass attendance with just the one church now.”
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The Anchor
USCCB launches website to educate Catholics about missal translation
WASHINGTON (CNS) — A new website launched by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was produced to educate Catholics about the forthcoming English translation of the new Roman Missal, the book of prayers used for Mass. The site, www.usccb.org/romanmissal, has background material on the process of development of liturgical texts, sample texts from the missal, a glossary of terms and answers to frequently asked questions. Content will be added regularly over the next several months, according to an August 21 news release from the USCCB. The bishops’ Committee on Divine Worship hopes the site will be a central resource for those preparing to implement the new text, the release said. In the years since the Second Vatican Council, “we have learned a lot about the use of the vernacular in the liturgy and the new texts reflect this new understanding,” said the committee’s chairman, Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli of Paterson, N.J., in a video that welcomes visitors to the site. “The new texts are understandable, dignified and accurate,” he said. “They not only strive to make the meaning of the text accessible for the listener, but they also strive to unearth the
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biblical and theological richness of the Latin text.” After more than five years of consultation, study and reflection, the U.S. bishops are expected to conclude their review and approval of the final portion of the translated texts at the end of this year. Final approval, or “recognitio,” of the text from the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments will be the last step before the publication of the texts for use in the liturgy. Bishop Serratelli called the period between now and the final approval “a great opportunity” not only to learn about the changes and the revised texts, “but also to deepen our own understanding of the liturgy itself.” He said, “We encourage priests, deacons, religious, liturgical ministers (and) all the faithful to avail themselves of the information that we are making available.” The new Latin edition of the Roman Missal was released at the Vatican in March 2002. Since 2003 the bishops of the Englishspeaking world have been preparing an English translation of the missal. Translations prepared by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy are submitted to each participating bishops’ conference, which must adopt
them for use in its own country. Once a bishops’ conference adopts the text, it is submitted to the Vatican for approval. In June 2006, the U.S. bishops meeting in Los Angeles approved the first section of the missal translation that involves the penitential rite, Gloria, creed, eucharistic prayers, eucharistic acclamations, Our Father and other prayers and responses used daily. In 2008, the Vatican gave final approval of those texts. In July of this year the USCCB announced that the bishops had approved four more liturgical texts — prefaces for the Mass for various occasions; votive Masses and Masses for the dead; solemn blessings for the end of Mass; and prayers over the people and eucharistic prayers for particular occasions, such as for evangelization or ordinations. The next step is Vatican approval. The bishops’ vote on the texts was completed in mail-in ballots nearly a month after their spring meeting in San Antonio. In the fall the bishops will consider the “Proper of the Saints Gray Book,” the commons “Gray Book,” U.S. propers for the Roman Missal, U.S. adaptations for the Roman Missal and the Roman Missal supplement “Gray Book.” Gray Books are revised translations proposed to the International Commission on English in the Liturgy. Last November during the bishops’ fall general meeting, Bishop Serratelli said that, with the time needed for publishers to produce the new edition of the missal and for Catholics to receive proper catechesis about the changes in the Mass, the use of the new missal is not expected before Advent of 2012.
August 28, 2009
Oklahoma bishop decides to ‘face east’ at Mass
TULSA, Okla. (Zenit.org) — The bishop of Tulsa explains his decision to celebrate Mass at the diocesan cathedral “ad orientem” — facing east — as an effort to recapture a “more authentic” Catholic worship. Bishop Edward Slattery affirmed this in an article featured in the September edition of the Eastern Oklahoma Catholic, titled “Ad Orientem: Revival of Ancient Rite Brings Multiple Advantages, Some Misperceptions.” In a discussion about liturgy, the prelate said, it is necessary to grasp this “essential” truth: “At Mass, Christ joins us to himself as he offers himself in sacrifice to the Father for the world’s redemption.” He reminded his readers that “all of the faithful offer the Eucharistic Sacrifice as members of Christ’s body” through baptism. The priest has a unique role in this offering, the bishop affirmed, to stand “in the person of Christ, the historic Head of the Mystical Body, so that, at Mass, it is the whole body of Christ — Head and members together that make the offering.” Bishop Slattery explained that “from ancient times, the position of the priest and the people reflected this understanding of the Mass.” As well, he added, “everyone — celebrant and congregation — faced the same direction, since they were united with Christ in offering to the Father Christ’s unique, unrepeatable and acceptable sacrifice.” The prelate continued: “When we study the most ancient liturgical practices of the Church, we find that the priest and the people faced in the same direction, usually toward the east, in the expec-
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A DAY AT THE BEACH — Men carry a statue of Mary on a boardwalk in Ocean Beach on Fire Island, N.Y., during a morning pilgrimage that began at St. Patrick Parish in Bay Shore, N.Y., and included a chartered ferry ride to Ocean Beach, where Mass was celebrated at Our Lady of the Magnificat Mission. The event concluded with a “blessing of the waters” service on shores of the Atlantic Ocean. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz, Long Island Catholic)
tation that when Christ returns, he will return ‘from the east.’ “At Mass, the Church keeps vigil, waiting for that return. This single position is called ‘ad orientem,’ which simply means ‘toward the east.’” This traditional posture lasted for nearly 18 centuries in the Church, he noted, as something that was handed on from the time of the Apostles. The bishop observed that this single eastward position “reveals the nature of the Mass” as an act of worship shared by the priest and the congregation. However, he said, this “shared orientation was lost” as the priest and people became accustomed to facing opposite directions. Bishop Slattery explained, “This innovation was introduced after the Vatican Council, partly to help the people understand the liturgical action of the Mass by allowing them to see what was going on, and partly as an accommodation to contemporary culture where people who exercise authority are expected to face directly the people they serve, like a teacher sitting behind her desk.” Unfortunately, he added, this change had some “unforeseen and largely negative effects.” Not only was it a “serious rupture with the Church’s ancient tradition,” the prelate asserted, but it also “can give the appearance that the priest and the people were engaged in a conversation about God, rather than the worship of God.” He stated that it also “places an inordinate importance on the personality of the celebrant by placing him on a kind of liturgical stage.” The bishop noted Benedict XVI’s appeal to “draw upon the ancient liturgical practice of the Church to recover a more authentic Catholic worship.” He continued, “For that reason, I have restored the venerable ‘ad orientem’ position when I celebrate Mass at the cathedral.” This gesture, he stated, is not one of rudeness or hostility toward the faithful, nor an attempt to “turn back the clock.” Rather, Bishop Slattery affirmed, it represents the fact that “we journey together to God.” As well, he continued, it is an attempt to respond to the pope’s invitation to “discover what underlies this ancient tradition and made it viable for so many centuries, namely, the Church’s understanding that the worship of the Mass is primarily and essentially the worship which Christ offers to his Father.”
August 28, 2009
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The Anchor
Iraqi bishops express concern after deadly Baghdad blasts
BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNS) — Two Catholic bishops in Baghdad, Iraq, expressed shock and concern for their people following a series of targeted blasts that killed 95 people and wounded more than 500. “With these acts of violence, we are losing everything,” Chaldean Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni told Catholic News Service by phone August 20, the day after the attacks. “When there’s no peace, we can’t study, we can’t pray, we can’t work; we can’t even walk,” he said. The Christians of Baghdad, he said, are “very upset and very sad” and condemn the violence. “We are in a terrible situation, so we pray to almighty God to open the minds of everyone, to give them wisdom to do what is best for the rebuilding of Iraq, for its peace and security, for its progress and for the good of everyone living in Iraq,” Bishop Warduni said. He appealed to “everyone, all over the world — big nations, small nations, big organizations, small organizations and the Iraqi people as well — to do what is best for Iraq, for the good of Iraq and its people, not their own interests.” He also called for reconciliation among all the people of Iraq and for nations to look out for the welfare of all the people and “not the interest of (political) parties.” “The peace depends on love; to love one another and to do the best for each other, not out of selfishness,” Bishop Warduni said. “Please, we ask the world to pray for Iraq.” Latin-rite Archbishop Jean Sleiman of Baghdad told CNS: “We are shocked by this violence. The fear of violence is everywhere.” Archbishop Sleiman said that Our Lady of Fatima Church in Baghdad was badly damaged in the 19 blasts. While he said he did not believe the church was specifically targeted, its roof was destroyed as a result of the nearby explosions. There were no casualties, he added. “Violence is hitting everyone,” the archbishop said. One of the most important challenges, he added, is to encourage the Christians of Iraq. “We have to begin again,” he said. The violence August 19, the bloodiest day so far in 2009, consisted of more than six blasts near government ministries and other targets at the heart of Iraq’s Shiiteled administration. In June, U.S. combat troops withdrew from urban centers, placing Iraq’s security forces in the lead role. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said in a statement that the attacks were aimed at “raising doubts about our armed forces, which have proven themselves very capable of confronting terrorists.”
Santo Christo Choir in Fall River, MA
Youth Page
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August 28, 2009
The Anchor is always pleased to run news and photos about our diocesan youth. If schools or parish Religious Education programs have newsworthy stories and photos they would like to share with our readers, send them to: schools@anchornews.org
SCIENCE OUTING — St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro arranged field trips for the students throughout the year. The seventh-grade class visited Mystic Aquarium in Mystic Conn.; sixth-grade students took their annual tour of the Freedom Trail in Boston; and fifth-grade students enjoyed a trip to the Science Museum in Boston. Here fifth-graders take a lunch break outside the Science Museum.
READY TO ROX AND ROLL — A group of altar servers from the St. Andrew the Apostle Parish in Taunton, recently attended a Brockton Rox baseball game to celebrate their ministry to their parish community. The Rox evened their series with the Quebec Capitales with a 5-1 win.
W
hat to write? What to write? What to write? Over the last several weeks these words have swirled through my mind knowing that this article would soon be due. It’s been a busy several weeks. Time is tight. Many highs and some lows: Family reunion time in Newport and in Fall River. Visitors. Fun. Happy. Tired. A good friend suffering and in need of support. Praying. Visiting. Crying. Re-qualification for boat crew with the Coast Guard. Happy. Discerning a vocation and looking forward to a life-long commitment to service. Aspiring. Acceptance. Praying. Nervous. Meeting with an outstanding group of CLI grads planning the Diocesan Youth Convention. Proud. Joy. Amazement. Singing. Laughing. Praying. Sending off a youth council member to college. Sad. Happy. Praying. A major work project behind schedule. Oh-oh. Gotta get it done. Gotta get this
What to write?
done. Praying. Life happening. another part of your journey of Trying to see the road ahead. life. Some are heading to high Foggy. Curvy. Hilly. Where am I school, others off to college. going? Time to get out and clear Perhaps others are heading to a the mind. Take a drive. Swirling new city or starting a new job. thoughts. Open road. As you will soon learn or may God, please give me a sign. have already learned, the road of Swerve. A sign, literally, in the life is a sometimes flat, easy ride middle of the road — flat on the road. Blown off its stand. Caution its color. Bump in the Road its message. Not the sign I was expecting God, but a sign nonetheless. I didn’t hit it but it then it By Frank Lucca hit me. For some reason I started reading every sign I saw. Stop. Keep Out. Bump. Merge. One Way. and other times a twisting, turnThere was a message there. Like ing, pothole-filled path with hills a highway journey, so goes life. and valleys. In all cases, on the We’re on the road. We’re on the road there are road signs along way. Signs guide the way. One the way to guide us through. quote I recall seeing recently Bump ahead. Time to slow summarized it well. Life is a down and hold on. Construcjourney, not a destination. tion ahead, time to be cautious. For many of you reading Curve, slow down. Still on the this, you are embarking on journey. A way to go before our
Be Not Afraid
final destination. We’re all on this journey called life. We can read the signs or move blindly on hoping to somehow get to our destination. Sometimes we’ll make good time and other times we’ll get bogged down. Moving ahead too quickly, doing things we’re not supposed to — we’ll get stopped, hopefully, before we do something to hurt someone else or ourselves. And of course, sometimes getting to that dead-end and having to turn around and find our way back. As you move on to the next phase of your journey, I encourage you to heed the signs that are there to get you to your destination. In life we call those signs, parents, teachers, priests, and good friends. They’ll help you steer your way and to stay on the road to your final destination. Don’t be fooled by
some signs that may lure you to somewhere you don’t want to go especially those bright neon signs off the side of the road that try to make you take the exit. Those signs that try to make the evil and bad look good and attractive. Pay attention and you’ll know which signs to look for and to pay attention to. In all cases stay on the road. Article is finished. Thank you Lord for the road sign. Thank God for the signs in my life that have brought me to this time and place. Reading the next sign. Slow down — Rest Stop Ahead. Think I’ll take a short break before the next phase of the journey begins. Travel safely. See you along the way. Frank Lucca is a youth minister at St. Dominic Parish in Swansea. He is chairman and director of the YES! Retreat and director of the Christian Leadership Institute (CLI). He is a husband and a father of two daughters.
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The Anchor
August 28, 2009
Our readers respond
Mass attorney general was grandstanding Maria Parker’s letter to the editor on August 7 was right on the money relative to Atty. General Martha Coakley’s blatant grandstand play in filing suit against the U.S. Government for denying federal marriage benefits to same-sex couples. Note that no other attorney general has joined in this suit. Coakley’s motivation appears to be to promote her chances with liberals to be elected to a higher office. Parker is absolutely correct in pointing out that Coakley hid under her desk when failing to carry out her constitutional duty to support Massachusetts citizens in their constitutional desire to have an opportunity to vote on the definition of marriage which was necessitated because four judges (in a four-to-three decisions) decided to ignore 2,000 years of history and Judeo-Christian tradition and arrogantly redefine the definition of marriage. Such arrogance has once again frustrated many Massachusetts voters. The real question is what can we do about it in a constructive, meaningful way? I’d propose two things: 1. As a life-long Democrat and legislator for 16 years, I would strongly suggest that each one of us pledge ourselves to work to return to a viable two-party Legislature here in Massachusetts. 2. Send a strong, clear message to those Democrats who have totally ignored our position on core moral values for so many years that core moral values will trump party affiliation whenever we go to the polls; if our only choice on the ballot is a card-carrying liberal Democrat we will still vote but will vote blank. This may sound extreme but until will send Democrats a clear message that we are fed up with our core moral values being ignored and that when they are ignored then we will vote blank. Bill Flynn Sandwich Pro-Life tenets lacking in proposed health plan The righteous indignation about attempts to foist a massive health overhaul on the public is a clarion call for analysis of the various facets of the Obama wholesale approach to change. One such concern is the featuring of front groups, some even using “Catholic” in their name, as salespeople for this overhaul of the status quo. Their focus is broad, lacking any specifics — and that’s indicative of something. In the Obama administration’s health plan the discussion of assisted suicide and euthanasia in
mandated consultation sessions with the elderly, as well as tax funding of abortion and the return of the partial-birth infanticide procedure have been real concerns. We are told, however, these are not included, but neither are conscience clauses, waiting periods for abortion, parental consent overrides or other ways of protecting innocent human life from destruction. In other words, nothing seems to be addressed specifically. One can never forget that during his campaign Barack Obama used very clear language in his promises to the abortion industry, including the passage of the Freedom Of Choice Act as a centerpiece gift to them. With a great deal on his plate, as he has stated, obviously a head-on attempt at passage of FOCA has been side-tracked temporarily. Further examination, however, shows that all of this can be accomplished in the wording of an 1,100-plus page document supposedly about health with countless avenues for interpretation. What is implied in their wording becomes the real focus, and its meaning is interpreted by favorable regulators and their own appointed government bureaucrats — or by judge-shopping within the judicial system. The tack that all of these people will take has been pre-determined, and this is at the core of this modus operandi. Democrats in Congress, with the backing of President Obama, have steadfastly voted down efforts to amend the bill by adding specific prohibitions to protect innocent human life and prevent loose interpretations. The Obama administration’s signals could not be any more transparent than his statement at a Town Meeting that opponents of the bill were trying “to scare and mislead the public.” It is very
clear who is misleading whom. In fact, as a recipient of the administration’s Reality check emails, I requested that they include exclusionary language which would protect innocent life in-utero as well as those in their elder years. They have chosen not to respond to this, but only to continue a stream of meaningless verbiage, classifying their side as victims. Of course medical care can be improved, but only by first affirming the value of each human life and then addressing the different facets of responsible medical care individually. If we are to continue in our journey as disciples of the Lord, we cannot accept the deception they are serving up, and we have to continue unabated in our opposition to this deadly effort before us. R. T. Neary Medfield Letters are welcome but the editor reserves the right to condense or edit for clarity if deemed necessary. Letters should be typed, no longer than 100 words and should include name, address, and telephone number. Letters do not necessarily reflect the editorial views of The Anchor. Letters should be sent to: The Anchor, Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box 7, Fall River, MA 02722-0007, or emailed to fatherrogerlandry@anchornews. org. Correction In the story on page 14 of the August 14 Anchor edition it was erroneously reported that Tom Mason would own a Catholic radio station in Dartmouth. The license was granted to the Friars of the Immaculate in Bayview. Mason is volunteering, as a lawyer, to get the station on the air.
OFF AND RUNNING — The first Sacred Hearts Fathers missionaries in Japan receive their first assignment from provincial Father Columban Moran, second from right, in 1949. From left: Fathers Al Evans, Lawrence Craig, Moran, and Pat Heran.
Sacred Hearts Fathers recall 1949 mission continued from page one
cial. The first three American missionaries arrived in Japan on July 23, 1949. “Father Lawrence Craig, a native of Providence, R.I. was installed as pastor of St. Kazoku Kyokai (Holy Family Church) in Mito, the capital city of Ibareski, in the Diocese of Urawa,” said Father Petrie. The others who comprised the mission included Father Al Evans who hailed from Cleveland, Ohio, and Father Pat Heran, also a native if Ireland. When French missionaries in 1960 were unable to continue their work in the Diocese of Niigata near Tokyo, it too was taken over by the American Province of the Sacred Hearts Fathers. The seeds of faith planted by the missionaries from Fairhaven, aided by confreres from Ireland, France and Belgium — brought a rich harvest. Today, Japan, united with the Philippine Mission, has become the new Japan-Philippine Province.
In April 2009, Father John Yamada, the third Japanese priest to be ordained, was elected as the first provincial of that new province. Following the congregation’s annual retreat at the Sacred Hearts/Spirituality Center in Wareham currently underway, a special Mass will be offered followed by a dinner. Father Yamada and Father Martinus Pariyanto will be present from Japan for the occasion. “It will be an international gathering because many Sacred Hearts Fathers from across the globe will be taking part,” Father Petrie added. Father Yamada will also be the celebrant at the public Mass on Sunday in St. Joseph’s Church in Fairhaven at the corner of Spring and Adams streets, “to which the public is invited to attend,” said Father Petrie. The local celebrations will bring the ongoing missionary history of the Sacred Hearts Fathers in the Fall River Diocese to a full circle.
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The Anchor
August 28, 2009
Taunton Hispanic community turns 50
Government could start judging other’s motives
families to St. Mary Church,” reported Torres, who added, “they were also volunteers at St. Vincent de Paul for many years here.” The upcoming dedication follows the celebration of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, held June 28 in St. Mary’s. Holy Cross Father Marc Fallon, community advocate at the Catholic Social Services office in New Bedford and who works with various Hispanic ministries, was celebrant of the Mass. Father Richard D. Wilson, diocesan director of the Hispanic Apostolate and pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe at St. James Church in New Bedford, was a concelebrant. The events also included a field day, a band, a jungle gym for children, all preceded by a Bible Study of Mark’s Gospel. Holy Cross Father Daniel Kayajan, who was Father Fallon’s predecessor, made a surprise visit. “It was a wonderful celebration and as part of it, several members of our community at St. Mary’s were recognized and awarded certificates for their outstanding work on behalf of the Apostolate,” said Torres. They included Ramon Cotto, a parishioner at St. Mary’s since 1957; Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Torres, Maria Torres, Carmen Morales, and Juanita Correa. “My biggest surprise that I too was given a certificate … completely unexpected,” Jose Torres, who is also a member of the Parish Council at St. Mary’s, told The Anchor. “It made us recall the efforts made by so many a half-century ago,” he said. The first Mass in Spanish was celebrated in St. Mary’s in Taunton.
bridge police arrested as disorderly when they responded to reports of an attempted breakin. Although charges were dropped, Gates cried racism and Obama opined that police acted “stupidly,” a remark on which he soon backpedaled. But the connection between that incident and the federal Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act was not lost on the Family Research Council, a Washington-based advocacy group for the defense of marriage, family and human life. “Unfortunately, this is just a taste of what’s to come if the President signs the hate crimes bill, a massive federal power grab that will allow Washington to judge the thoughts and motives of people involved in matters best left to local law enforcement officials,” said FRC’s Tony Perkins in a July 30 release. The bill expands the 1969 federal Hate Crime Law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. On April 29, the House passed its version (H.R. 1913), co-sponsored by Massachusetts Democratic Congressmen William Delahunt and Barney Frank, among others. On July 16 the Senate attached its version (S. 909) as an amendment to the $680 billion defense authorization budget; now Congress must reconcile the versions. Critics say the legislation empowers the state to police “thought crimes” — that it’s unconstitutional, fosters double jeopardy and will muzzle freedom of religion and of speech. As an example, they point to Canada, where marriage has been legally redefined to include same-sex unions, and regional human rights tribunals have been used to persecute and prosecute those who support the Church’s teachings, especially on marriage. The Canadian boards started out as watchdog groups but became empowered by Parliament with police powers in 2004 when a law made criticism of homosexuality a hate crime. Now the tribunals investigate what they consider to be human rights violations, “educate” people with mandatory sensitivity training, then prosecute and judge on grounds of guilty until proven innocent, according the Rev. Tristan Emmanuel, a Canadian minister and author of “Christophobia — the Real Reason Behind Hate Crimes
continued from page one
“Father Gerald Shovelton, now retired, who initiated the Spanish services in Taunton, spoke very little Spanish at the time,” Torres noted. “At first there were only 30 or 40 Hispanics attending, mostly immigrants from Puerto Rico. Now with an estimated 7,000 in our community — and knowing that 80 percent of them are practicing Catholics and approximately 30 percent go to Mass — were still at thousands to reach out to,” said Torres. St. Mary’s pastor, Father William H. Kelley, CSC, is always most accommodating and responsive to our community, he reported. The noon Mass there on Sundays is in Spanish celebrated by Father Fallon. “There has been a tremendous growth in the Hispanic community across the diocese,” Torres noted. “Besides our St. Mary’s there are six parishes involved in that community including St. Joseph’s in Attleboro, St. Francis Xavier in Hyannis, Our Lady of Guadalupe at St. James and St. Kilian’s in New Bedford, Our Lady of the Isle in Nantucket, and St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River.” The makeup of the Hispanic Apostolate includes immigrants from Central and South America, such as Guatemala, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador, and also from Mexico. “So many did so much to forward our Apostolate over the years,” said Torres. The Sisters of the Guadalupan Missionaries of the Holy Spirit, from Mexico, were also instrumental in the initial formation of the Hispanic Apostolate during its first 30 years, as was Father Peter Graziano, Torres noted.
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Legislation.” “We don’t have assurances that religious speech won’t be punished” in the federal bill, said William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. “While the Senate version has language protecting religious speech, the House version does not.” Warned Linda Harvey, president of Mission America, in an August 14 World Net Daily article, “The probable new hate crimes law may lead to prosecution of pastors, Christian leaders and even ‘Joe-Christian-onthe-street’ for having the wrong opinion about homosexuality or cross-dressing. “A lesser-discussed evil twin product of this legislation, however, is federally financed youth and police indoctrination programs,” she said. Both bills say federal grants may be awarded to “state, local or tribal programs designed to combat hate crimes ….” Nat Hentoff, a journalist and authority on the Bill of Rights, wrote in an August 5 Jamestown Sun that the law “violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection under the laws for individual Americans by setting up a special collective class of victims whose assailants, when convicted, will be given extra punishment for crimes perceived to be based on gender identity, sexual orientation or disability, among other biases” “Welcome to a new age of double jeopardy,” added David Rittgers, a legal analyst for the Cato Institute, a public policy research foundation. He said in an August 7 National Review Online article: “The hate-crime statute just passed by Congress expands the potential for federal prosecutions to chilling new levels, and even creates the possibility of retrials for crimes that have already been ruled on by state courts.” Two other bills compound the imminent threat to freedom of religion and speech posed by the federal Hate Crimes Act. One is ENDA — the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act, introduced August 5 with Massachusetts Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy as a lead sponsor. The other is a state bill — “An Act Relative to Genderbased Discrimination and Hate Crimes” (H. 1728 and S. 1687) — that was the subject of a July 14 State House hearing. The state legislation has been dubbed a “bathroom bill” because the law would allow anyone to use public restrooms,
changing rooms, and locker rooms according to their “gender identity or expression,” which it defines as “a genderrelated identity, appearance, expression, or behavior of an individual, regardless of the individual’s assigned sex at birth.” Thus, a new category of “gender identity or expression” would be added to the existing hate crime statute, as well as to non-discrimination laws on employment, housing, credit, labor union membership, public accommodations and public education. So people with a Gender Identity Disorder (GID) — heterosexual cross-dressers, homosexual transvestites and “transsexuals” — people undergoing so-called “sex change” operations — among others, would be given specially protected status. In addition, a fine of up to $2,500 and a year’s imprisonment or both would be imposed on not only anyone who is found to discriminate against this newly protected class, but also on anyone who “aids or incites” such action — a clear warning that religious expression, if it affirms that homosexual behavior is immoral, could be criminalized. On the national level, ENDA adds not only “sexual orientation” but also “gender identity” to federal workplace anti-discrimination law. In effect, S. 1584 gives federal civil rights protection to homosexual sexual activity, cross-dressing and related behaviors. “Thus, it takes an axe to the idea that sexual behavior has a natural normalcy or any relation to morality,” said Robert Knight of Coral Ridge Ministries in an August 11 World Net Daily column. “Worse, it turns traditional values into a form of bigotry punishable under the law.” The state bill could be reported out of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary anytime after the August legislative recess. For more information, see the websites MassResistance. org, which has an extensive report of the hearing and analysis of the bill, and NoBathroomBill.org, sponsored by the Massachusetts Family Institute and the Coalition for Marriage and Family. Congress is likely to move both ENDA and the Hate Crimes Act forward in September. Call the White House at 202-456-2461 or leave a message at the website whitehouse. gov/CONTACT/ to register opposition.
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The Anchor
August 28, 2009
Sister Lourdette Harrold retires from St. Vincent’s Home after 49 years
FALL RIVER — After 49 years of serving the children and families of St. Vincent’s Home, Sister of Mercy M. Lourdette Harrold has retired. During her tenure, Sister Lourdette had numerous roles and administrative positions which allowed her to see many changes as the organization evolved over time. Sister Lourdette contributed much to the ongoing development of St. Vincent’s as one of the scores of Sisters of Mercy who have ministered at St. Vincent’s. She holds one of the longest tenures of any of the Sisters of Mercy or any other staff member since the founding of St. Vincent’s nearly 125 years ago. During Sister Lourdette’s 49 years at St. Vincent’s, and her 60 years ministering in the Diocese of Fall River as a Sister of Mercy, she has impacted the lives of thousands of children and families. Her ministry has touched the lives of children as young as four, youth and young adults, grown adults who once lived at St. Vincent’s as chil-
dren, and many, many grandparents. In the early 1970s, she implemented the foster grandparent program at St. Vincent’s through the anti-poverty agency, Citizens for Citizens. Upon her retirement, Sister
Mercy Sister Lourdette Harrold
Lourdette commented on the fact that the “Sound of Music” is one of her favorite musicals and in that musical is her favorite song, “Climb Every Mountain.” She further noted, “After ministering at St. Vincent’s for 49 years, I have climbed every mountain, and now I know that
my work at St. Vincent’s is finished.” St. Vincent’s Executive Director Jack Weldon thanked her by saying, “Words cannot do justice to expressing our gratitude as a staff for all Sister Lourdette has contributed and all that she has meant as a presence within the organization. We are grateful to her and thank her for choosing to give of herself so freely and generously for so long.” Weldon presented an Irish pottery Belleek tea cup to Sister Lourdette as symbol of a perpetual, comfortable cup of tea just as the founder of the Sisters of Mercy, Catherine McAuley, would have wanted. In addition, Weldon gave Sister Lourdette a music box playing Nat King Cole’s signature tune, “Unforgettable” (1951). Sister Lourdette will be enjoying a little rest and relaxation during the rest of the summer months and is making plans for a mini-sabbatical in the fall.
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 following the 11 a.m. Mass until 7:45 a.m. on the First Saturday of the month, concluding with Benediction and Mass. 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 TAUNTON — Eucharistic adoration takes place First Fridays at Holy Family Church, 370 Middleboro Avenue, following the 8:30 a.m. Mass until Benediction at 8 p.m. FAIRHAVEN — St. Mary’s Church, Main St., has a First Friday Mass each month at 7 p.m., followed by a Holy Hour with eucharistic adoration. Refreshments follow. NEW BEDFORD — Eucharistic adoration takes place 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, 233 County Street, with night prayer and Benediction at 8:45 p.m., and confessions offered during the evening. NEW BEDFORD — There is a daily holy hour from 5:15-6:15 p.m. Monday through Thursday at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 1359 Acushnet Avenue. It includes adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Liturgy of the Hours, recitation of the rosary, and the opportunity for confession. OSTERVILLE — Eucharistic adoration takes place at Our Lady of the Assumption Church, 76 Wianno Avenue on First Fridays following the 8 a.m. Mass until Benediction at 5 p.m. The Divine Mercy Chaplet is prayed at 4:45 p.m.; on the third Friday of the month from 1 p.m. to Benediction at 5 p.m.; and for the Year For Priests, the second Thursday of the month from 1 p.m. to Benediction at 5 p.m. TAUNTON — Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament takes place every First Friday at Annunciation of the Lord Church, 31 First Street, immediately following the 8 a.m. Mass and continues throughout the day. Confessions are heard from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m., concluding with recitation of the rosary and Benediction at 6:30 p.m. 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. WEST HARWICH — Our Lady of Life Perpetual Adoration Chapel at Holy Trinity Parish, 246 Main Street, holds perpetual eucharistic adoration. For open hours, or to sign up call 508-430-4716. WOODS HOLE — Eucharistic adoration takes place at St. Joseph’s Church, 33 Millfield Street, year-round on weekdays 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. No adoration on Sundays, Wednesdays, and holidays. For information call 508-274-5435.
The Catholic Cancer Support Group at Our Lady of Victory Parish, 230 South Main Street, Centerville, will meet September 8 at 7 p.m in the parish center. All are welcome. The meeting will consist of Mass, anointing of the sick, a speaker and social hour. For more information call 508-771-1106.
9/12
A healing seminar, “I Am the Lord Thy Healer,” will be presented by Lucille L. Pimentel, September 12 from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Holy Name of the Sacred Heart Parish Center, 121 Mount Pleasant Street, New Bedford. To register, call 508-995-6711. No lunch will be provided. A freewill offering will be accepted.
9/12
Celebrate the parish of St. Mark’s annual fair on September 12 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the parish grounds on Stanley Street in Attleboro Falls. The day will include a wide variety of activities, music and food. St. Mark’s Fair is a traditional “end of summer” ritual, so come join in on the fun.
9/13
A new support group for separated and divorced Catholics will be held at Christ the King Parish Center, The Commons, Mashpee, on September 13 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. All are welcome and no registration is required. For more information, email ma_eaton_46@yahoo. com or call 508-999-6420.
9/19
Benedictine Sister Paula Hagen, founder of the MOMS Ministry, will lead a mini retreat September 19 beginning at 8 a.m. at St. Pius X Parish Life Center, 5 Barbara Street, South Yarmouth. All women, spiritual friends and companions are welcome to join Sister Hagen for a morning of prayer and reflection. For more information call Tricia Mullaney at 508-362-1583 or email Beth Davis at beth_gdb@comcast.net.
9/20
Our Lady of Purgatory Church, 11 Franklin Street, New Bedford, will host an annual Homecoming Maharajan and Heritage Festival September 20 beginning with a Maronite Catholic Mass at 11 a.m. at the Horseneck Holy Ghost Grounds, Dartmouth. For tickets or more information, email mahrajan2009olop@yahoo.com or call 617-803-4087.
9/24
The Diocesan Health Facilities will be hosting its Second Annual Golf Classic September 24 at LeBaron Hills Country Club, Lakeville. All proceeds from the event will benefit Diocesan Health Facilities, a non-profit skilled nursing and rehabilitative health care system sponsored by the Fall River Diocese. For information call 508-6798154.
9/26
The Fall River District Council of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul will host the second annual Friends of the Poor Walk September 26 at Bristol Community College, 777 Elsbree Street, Fall River. Registration for the walk begins at 8:30 a.m. with the walk starting at 10 a.m. Rain date will be the following Saturday, October 3, same time. To sign up as a walker, corporate sponsor, or volunteer, see one of your parish St. Vincent de Paul members or visit www.svdpfriendsofthepoorwalk.org.
Mrs. Ann Hoversen: sister of Father Edward J. Burns, dies
Eucharistic Adoration in the Diocese ACUSHNET — Eucharistic adoration takes place at St. Francis Xavier Parish on Mondays 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Fridays 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Saturdays 8 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Mondays end with Evening Prayer and Benediction at 6:30 p.m.; Saturdays end with Benediction at 2:45 p.m.
Around the Diocese 9/8
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — Mrs. Ann (Burns) Hoversen, 86,
In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks
Aug. 31 Msgr. Armando A. Annunziato, Pastor, St. Mary, Mansfield, 1993 Rev. Thomas M. Landry, O.P., Former Pastor, St. Anne, Fall River, 1996
Sept. 1 Rev. Jorge J. de Sousa, Pastor, St. Elizabeth, Fall River, 1985 Rev. James F. Lyons, Retired Pastor, St. Patrick, Wareham, 2008 Sept. 3 Rev. Thomas J. McGee, D.D., Pastor, Sacred Heart, Taunton, 1912 Sept. 4 Rev. Joseph P. Tallon, Pastor, St. Mary, New Bedford, 1864 Rev. John J. Maguire, Founder, St. Peter the Apostle, Provincetown, 1894 Sept. 5 Rev. Napoleon, A. Messier, Pastor, St. Mathieu, Fall River, 1948
wife of Gene Hoversen and sister of Father Edward J. Burns, a retired priest of the Fall River Diocese, died August 7. The daughter of the late Edward J. and Ann (Reilly) Burns, she was the first woman professor at St. Ann Hoversen Thomas
University in St. Paul, Minn. She was also trainer of canines and a judge in dog obedience competitions. Besides her husband and priest brother, she leaves a son, Ray; and nieces and nephews. She was the sister of the late M. Delores Burns and Nathan Burns. Her Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated August 11 in Bloomington.
20
The Anchor
August 28, 2009
If everyone jumped off a bridge ...
I
was a freshman in college and my Earth science class was taking an exam. The classroom was huge and resembled an auditorium, with the professor down below and the students in ascending rows. I completed my exam and was making the long trek down to front when a friend asked if I could bring his down, too, his having just finished as well. Naively, I took it. When I handed in two exams, the professor, who was a substitute that day, wouldn’t accept them, saying we cheated and that both exams would receive an F. I saw red ... in more ways than one. First of all, I had never failed a college test before, and secondly I had not cheated. I pleaded my case to no avail. I stormed out of the classroom muttering phrases more suited for a biology class than Earth science. Several minutes later, my comrade emerged with the good news that he somehow convinced our accuser we were innocent. No F for us. That episode has stayed with me forever. I don’t cheat. I feel everyone should honestly earn what they get, and I especially don’t like being accused of cheating. That’s why the Patriots’ “Spygate” episode hit me so hard a few years By Dave Jolivet back. All I could think of was the three Super Bowl titles I so enjoyed watching were tainted. In a heartbeat the trio of sparkling Lombardi Trophies were dull and faded. Add to that Rodney Harrison’s admitting his use of steroids, and I was devastated. With news of Messrs. Ramirez and Ortiz on “The List” of players who tested positive for illegal substances, the luster of our two elusive World Series titles became as tainted as Spygate. With regards to the Pats, I’ve eased a bit on the condemnation, justifying it with the speculation that every team has or still does similar things — they’re just not arrogant enough to get caught. The 2004 and 2007 Red Sox titles came in the steroid era, so I guess all things were equal there as well. If everyone jumped off a bridge .... But no matter what, all five trophies are not as clean and shiny as they were several years ago. I guess that will never change. I know folks are supposed to be considered innocent until proven guilty in this country, but I’m having a very difficult time watching Big Papi perform since the news broke. I don’t particularly care about Manny since he held his breath until he turned blue to get out of Boston, but Papi was the man. Until he’s proven innocent, I still hold Jimmy Foxx’s 50 home run season as the Sox’ best. I used to enjoy watching Ortiz come to the plate in pressure situations. Now I couldn’t care less. It’s not that I can’t forgive him if it is true. It’s just that I can’t respect his accomplishments if it is true. It’s not just Papi. Until others are proven innocent, Hank Aaron is still the all-time home run king; Roger Maris still holds the single-season home run record; and Roger Clemens’ four Cy Young Awards after he left the Red Sox will always be suspect. In fact, so will the three he won in Boston. It seems today, cheating is an accepted part of sports. I grew accustomed to the designated hitter in baseball, the three-point shot in basketball, instant replay in football, and the disappearance of a two-line offsides in hockey, but I will never accept anyone or any team gaining an unfair advantage over an opponent by cheating. In any form. I got an A on my Earth science exam — because I earned it. Here’s hoping today’s generation is taught the same value. I must update readers on a column I wrote last month. Some of you may recall I was caught in a thunderstorm while out for a walk, and I took refuge on the site of an abandoned gas station. Someone must have caught sight of this weird little man squatting under the overhang because within two weeks a demolition crew demolished my safety haven, dug out the pumps and turned the site into a vacant lot. Now with nowhere to hide, I must be more careful when I hit the pavement.
My View From the Stands