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Diocese of Fall River, Mass.

F riday , September 20, 2013

Priest’s book offers guidance to help people awaken faith

Father Denning becomes 10th president of Stonehill

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

By Dave Jolivet Anchor Editor

FALL RIVER — Even though he acknowledged that a person’s faith is a serious matter because “it’s about our relationship with God,” Father R. Scott Hurd said that doesn’t mean it has to be treated as a “heavy” or “somber” topic, either.

“If faith is about our relationship with God, Who is love and joy, then shouldn’t our living out our faith reflect that love and joy?” Father Hurd said.

“And humor can be very much

EASTON — A football game, barbecue, symposium, carnival, a fruit and yogurt bar social, and a Mass were events in a week-long celebration leading up to today’s inauguration of Stonehill College’s 10th president, Holy Cross Father John Denning, at a ceremony at the school’s Sally Blair Ames Sports Complex.

Father Denning took office on July 1, succeeding Holy Cross Father Mark T. Cregan,

On September 11 a group of 18 Bishop Connolly High School students attended the 12th anniversary ceremony in memoriam of Sept. 11, 2001. The event was held at Battleship Cove in Fall River. This solemn and moving event was held to remember all of the innocent people who lost their lives on that day.

Also remembered were the first responders and all those lost in military action over the last 12 years.

Pictured in the photo along with the Bishop Connolly students is Msgr. Thomas J. Harrington, chaplain of the Fall River Fire Department, who gave the invocation.

CSS program offers childless couples hope

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

Father R. Scott Hurd

a part of that.”

In his latest book, “When Faith Feels Fragile: Help for the Wary, Weak, and Wandering,” released this week, Father Hurd uses examples from his own life and ministry to bear this out — making the correlation between humor and humility as his stepping-off point.

“I make the connection in the book between humor and humility,” Father Hurd told The Anchor. “And that’s a good thing in the spiritual life. When we take ourselves less seriously, it opens the door to take God more seriously — which is the direction we want to go in.”

In the chapter entitled “Laugh Out Loud,” Father Hurd writes: “Humor and laughter can have a positive impact on our faith as well, because good huTurn to page 18

FALL RIVER — Of the roughly 30 people who attended the most recent Adoption by Choice informational meeting held at Catholic Social Services in Fall River, only one in 10 will follow through with the months-long process of being approved for adoption, including filling out the required documents and agreeing to home visits by a social worker — and that’s what Phyllis Habib is looking for, those adults willing to do whatever it takes to become parents.

“I respect their willingness to go through a fairly invasive process,” said Habib.

“Some are honest up front and say, ‘It’s really not fair that people can just have children and they don’t have to go through this. They don’t

have to be fingerprinted, write autobiographies and do all this stuff.’”

Originally from the area, Habib spent more than 20 years in Arizona as a social worker working with older child adoption and foster care before coming back to Massachusetts to continue her adoption work this past April at Catholic Social Services in Fall River. In the last fiscal year, said Habib, there have been 11 placements, two international and nine domestic. Currently Habib is working with five couples who are all aware of Habib’s philosophy when it comes to the adoption process.

“There’s a very important distinction that we impress upon our families right from the start,” said Habib, “that we’re not looking for children for families, we’re looking Turn to page 12

Four to receive St. Thomas More Award at Red Mass

By John E. Kearns Jr. Special to The Anchor

FALL RIVER — A United States District Judge who was also once the state’s U.S. Attorney; a Bristol County Assistant District Attorney with 17 years of service; a longtime assistant clerk in

Bristol Superior Court; and a veteran New Bedford area attorney will receive the St. Thomas More Award for dedicated service at the annual Fall River Diocesan Red Mass, set for 10 a.m. on October 6, in St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River.

To be recognized with the award are, as distinguished jurist, Judge Edward F. Harrington, U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Massachusetts; as distinguished attorney, Thomas M. Quinn, III, Esq., BrisTurn to page 15

Father John Denning, C.S.C.

who stepped down after 13 years of leading the Catholic institution of higher learning in Easton.

“Since Stonehill opened in 1948, we have succeeded in maintaining a sense of scale,” Father Denning told The Anchor. “As we have grown in size and in reputation, we have been able to remain very student-centered, a college where there is personal attention and students really know their professors. At the same time, while our professors challenge our students, they also mentor and encourage them. Seeing the students emerge more well-educated, mature and confident is something that encourages me every day. It reminds me why I became a member of the Congregation of Holy Cross, livTurn to page 14

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News From the Vatican

September 20, 2013

Archbishop Parolin: Pope’s reforms a return to Church basics

Rome, Italy (CNA/ EWTN News) — New Vatican Secretary of State Archbishop Pietro Parolin said Pope Francis’ reform efforts are not revolutionary, but stem from a fidelity to Christ and continuity with foundational Church teachings.

In an interview with the Venezuelan daily El Universal, he said that the pope’s vision does not include “returning to the past” in external ways, but “returning to the fundamental principles of the Church.”

Archbishop Parolin, who was until now the apostolic nuncio to Venezuela, will assume his new post as the Vatican’s secretary of state on October 15, succeeding Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

In his remarks to the paper, he said he wanted “to underscore the question of continuity because at times it seems (and I don’t know if I am exaggerating) that Pope Francis is going to revolutionize and change everything.”

However, changes in the Church “cannot endanger the Church’s essence, which has a continuity with the history that comes from its foundation by Jesus Christ.”

“The Church could never change to the point of completely adapting herself to the world. If she did and lost herself in it, she would no longer be fulfilling her mission to be salt and light for all,” he stated.

In response to suggestions during talks leading up to the papal conclave in March, Pope Francis has appointed eight cardinals to advise him on governing the Church and reforming the curia.

Eight cardinals, representing all the continents, will serve to advise the pope in “the government of the Universal Church” and will “study a plan for revising” the curia, the Vatican announced April 13.

The group will hold its first meeting October 1-3, though the pope is already in touch with all the appointed cardinals.

Archbishop Parolin also said that before entertaining any ideas of a “Vatican III,” the Church “ought to look to the Second Vatican Council, which established directives so the Church could fulfill her mission in today’s world.”

“It is important to apply them, as the previous popes have done, each according to his own focus,” he said, referring to the pontificates of Benedict XVI and Blessed John Paul II. The new Vatican secretary of state also said that “the Church is very special structure and the political categories used to analyze the realities of the state cannot be automatically applied.”

“This is not a monarchy or a democracy in the formal sense of the word,” he said, but rather “a communion in which there are different responsibilities, the ultimate of which falls upon the pope. He is in communion with everyone else and there is no pope without communion.”

Asked about the issue of celibacy, Archbishop Parolin said it is “not a dogma of the Church.”

However, he added that the “effort made by the Church to institute ecclesial celibacy should be taken into account. It cannot simply be said that it belongs to the past.”

Priestly celibacy, he said, “remains in the Church because throughout all these years events have occurred that have contributed to developing God’s revelation.”

Archbishop Parolin also referred to the question of homosexuality, saying that when Pope Francis said, “If a person is gay and is seeking the Lord and has goodwill, who am I to criticize him?” what he was saying is that “the doctrine of the Church is very clear about this moral point.”

Jesus, he explained, “asks us to grow and to adapt ourselves to the image He has of us. God alone judges the conduct of each one, and the pope has said this.”

A girl holds a letter as she greets Pope Francis as he arrives to lead his general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican recently. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Dialogue essential to Christianity, pope tells non-believing journalist

Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — In a letter to a prominent non-believing Italian journalist, Pope Francis called dialogue a “profound and indispensable expression” of the Christian life.

It “seems to me that it is nothing other than positive, not only for us individually but also for the society in which we live, to pause to dialogue on a reality as important as the faith is,” the pope said in a recent letter to Eugenio Scalfari, translated by the Catholic news agency Zenit.

Scalfari, the 89-year-old journalist and founder of the Italian newspaper “La Repubblica,” had posed several questions to the pope in response to his July encyclical “Lumen Fidei.”

The pope replied that his latest encyclical was intended not only to confirm the faithful but also to advance a “sincere and rigorous dialogue” between Catholics and non-believers.

Dialogue is not secondary to the Christian life, he said.

Citing “Lumen Fidei,” he reflected that faith “grows in coexistence that respects the other.” The certainty of faith “makes possible witness and dialogue with everyone.”

Pope Francis said his own faith is born from the “encounter with Jesus” that “has touched my heart and given direction and new meaning to my existence.” This was made possible by “the community of faith in which I have lived,” the Church.

“Believe me, without the Church I would not have been able to encounter Christ, also in the awareness that the immense gift that faith is kept in

the fragile earthen vessels of our humanity,” he said.

The pope examined the “paradox” of Christianity’s present reputation among many nonbelievers. The faith is expressed through the symbol of light, but has come to be referred to as “the darkness of superstition that is opposed to the light of reason.”

He lamented the “incommunicability” that has existed between the Church and the “modern culture of enlightenment stamp.”

He then took the opportunity of the letter to reflect on the life of Jesus.

Pope Francis spoke of the “scandal” that Jesus’ words and action caused, crediting this to His “extraordinary authority.”

This authority is “not about something exterior or forced” but is “something that emanates from within.”

Jesus’ authority is “not aimed at exercising power over others, but at serving them, at giving them liberty and the fullness of life. Jesus shows this to such an extent that He faces “incomprehension, betrayal, rejection” and ultimately condemnation to death.

“But Jesus remains faithful to God, to the end,” the pope said.

Jesus Christ is the “Son of a God Who is love and Who wishes with all His being that man, every man, discover himself and also live as His true Son,” Pope Francis explained.

He said that Jesus’ Resurrection is not done “to triumph over those who rejected Him” but instead “to attest that the love of God is stronger than death, the forgiveness of God is stronger than any sin, and that

it is worthwhile to spend one’s life, to the end, witnessing this immense gift.”

The originality of the Christian faith rests in its foundation on the Incarnation and its participation in Jesus’ relationship with God the Father, he said.

Jesus’ life means that “we are all called to be children of the one Father and brothers among ourselves.”

“The singularity of Jesus is for communication, not for exclusion,” the pope added. The Christian life means service to all men and to “the whole of man” to keep awake “the sense of hope that drives one to do good despite everything and always looking to the beyond.”

Pope Francis’ letter also considered the role of nonChristians. He praised the Jewish people’s persevering faith in God and his remarks about non-believers made headlines.

In answer to the question of whether God forgives “one who doesn’t believe and doesn’t seek the faith,” the pope responded that “the mercy of God has no limits if one turns to Him with a sincere and contrite heart.” He stressed the non-believer’s need for “obeying one’s conscience.”

“Sin, also for those who don’t have faith, exists when one goes against one’s conscience. To listen to and to obey it means, in fact, to decide in face of what is perceived as good or evil.

And on this decision pivots the goodness or malice of our action,” the pope said.

Pope Francis characterized his letter to Scalfari as “tentative and provisional” but also a “sincere and confident answer to the invitation to escort you in a segment of the road together.”

September 20, 2013

The International Church

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Bethlehem U. students, administrator describe struggle to learn, live WASHINGTON (CNS) — Two recent graduates of Bethlehem University, along with a school official, detailed the challenges involved in getting an education — and in daily life — in Israelioccupied West Bank.

Lubna Alzaroo, now a Fulbright scholar attending the University of Washington, said that while it is required that English be taught in Palestinian schools, there is a severe shortage of English-language books for students, including storybooks for children.

Christian Brother Peter Bray, the New Zealand-born vice chancellor of Bethlehem University, said he would love to have professors worldwide use sabbatical time to be guest faculty at the school, but that Israeli visa laws make it next to impossible.

“Bethlehem’s almost completely surrounded by the separation wall,” the Israeli-built series of cement slabs, barbed wire fences and security roads dividing Palestinians from the growing number of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory, said Nagib Kasbary, who graduated in June with a business degree. “Bethlehem is be-

coming like a prison,” he added.

The Bethlehem University contingent made their remarks during a recent conference, “Religious Freedom & Human Rights: Path to Peace in the Holy Land — That All May Be Free,” held at The Catholic University of America in Washington. It was co-sponsored by Catholic University, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Relief Services.

Brother Bray said he would like for some of the 3,000 students at Bethlehem University to take field trips to explore the Holy Land to augment their mandatory coursework in religious studies. However, the Israeli government can deny travel permits to anyone deemed a “security risk.”

Kasbary recalled how, on one Palm Sunday, he could not travel with his family because he was labeled a security risk. A week later, on Easter Sunday, Kasbary received a travel permit, but not his family, the rest of whom had been listed as a security risk.

“I find it embarrassing that I’m from New Zealand and I can go anywhere in the Holy Land, and we have students

born in Bethlehem ... and they can’t go to Galilee.”

Bethlehem University is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. It was founded in the wake of the Yom Kippur War, a three-week conflict in 1973 between Israel and several Arab states meant to take back territory claimed by Israel in 1967 during the Six-Day War. The university keeps its student population at 3,000 — split roughly 70-30 Muslim-Christian — on an entirely enclosed campus with no student housing.

Students often travel from their homes in East Jerusalem, Hebron and Bethlehem to attend classes, but must endure fickle Israeli soldiers staffing security checkpoints between home and school.

Alzaroo said during her four years at Bethlehem University, Israeli soldiers’ security response to Palestinians at checkpoints ranged from wave-throughs to strip searches. She added she nearly missed taking the university’s entrance exam because of a checkpoint. Against the advice of her traveling companions, she walked through the checkpoint, flagged down a taxi and made it to the exam in time.

She recalled her five years of schooling in England while her parents were furthering their own education. The schedule was consistent, field trips were common, and supplies and resources

were never an issue. Class sizes ranged from 15 to 20 students; in Palestine, her classrooms held 48-58 students.

“Public schools in Palestine don’t have a budget for extracurricular activities,” Alzaroo said. “It also doesn’t help that teachers go on strike every year because they aren’t paid enough — or, in some cases, they aren’t paid at all.”

Brother Bray also must stitch together the funds to keep the school running each year, and the faculty to teach the students. The Palestinian Authority had promised $1.25 million to Bethlehem University this year, but as it starts its own university system “virtually from scratch,” Brother Bray said, it has given Bethlehem University only $76,000.

Faculty members, tired of putting up with checkpoints, often leave to find better opportunities, he added. He’s even had trouble convincing Bethlehem University alumni to return to teach.

“The Palestinian people don’t want to put up with this anymore,” Kasbary said of the indignities that accompany the occupation. “So that means those who can leave do leave.”

“I was born under occupation,” Alzaroo said, and with the exception of her schooling abroad, “I’ve lived my entire life under occupation.”

“Sixty-five years of occupation,” said Kasbary, “and it’s still going on.”

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September 20, 2013 The Church in the U.S. Cardinal Wuerl: Renewal is at heart of New Evangelization

Washington D.C. (CNA/EWTN News) — Catholics today are being called to renew their own faith in order to share the Gospel with the modern world, said Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, D.C. “The role of the Church is primarily to be a witness to the great human values, to be a witness to Christ’s message in the midst of everything else that is going on,” the cardinal said.

“We have to be, in a way, a conscience for a nation that is caught up in so many directions.”

Cardinal Wuerl recently spoke at the Newseum in downtown Washington, D.C. He was interviewed by Fox News anchor Bret Baier for an annual lecture hosted by the John Carroll Society, an organization of professionals dedicating to strengthening the faith and serving the archdiocese.

The cardinal said that during his time leading the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., he has found hope “in watching the New Evangelization unfold, watching the New Pentecost unfold.”

He explained that the New Evangelization is not presenting a new message. Rather, it is a call to “renew our commitment to the faith,” while seeking new ways to introduce people to the unchanging Gospel message.

“The New Evangelization is renewing your own faith personally, being confident

of it, just like the pope is, and then sharing it,” Cardinal Wuerl explained.

He said that the fruits of such a renewal of faith can be seen throughout the archdiocese in the enthusiastic youth, the full seminaries and activities such as Theology on Tap. Still, there are challenges, the cardinal said. He noted that modern society brings “voices speaking to us from sources other than the Gospel,” and there is a tendency “to bleach out the place of God, the place of faith publicly.”

“We need to listen,” he commented, “but we need to be critical. Not everything that we hear today should be taken without at least weighing it against ‘what does Jesus say?’”

“The task of the Church is to keep lifting up the values of the Gospel in a situation, a climate, a culture that is very preoccupied with something else,” he continued.

One of the areas in which the values of the Gospel differ significantly from those of the culture is in the realm of sexual morality, Cardinal Wuerl said.

“The Church has a very clear message that sexual activity is supposed to occur in Marriage,” he explained.

There are people who do not always follow these teachings, he acknowledged, and for those people, the Church is “not here to criticize and critique, but we are here to say ‘this is the way’” and help them to follow the Commandments.

The cardinal also emphasized the duty of Catholics to continue aiding those who are neglected by the rest of society.

“We cannot succeed without bringing forward our brothers and sisters, especially

those that have no other way forward.”

He lauded Pope Francis for setting an example in this regard with his “quiet, persistent, consistent presentation of faith.”

There has been “no change in the teaching” or doctrine of the Church between Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, the cardinal clarified. However, the current pope’s style

of simplicity and listening are an example for the faithful to follow.

Cardinal Wuerl also encouraged those at the lecture to pray, saying that prayer is “our conversation with God” and an important foundation for building a relationship with the Lord.

“Prayer changes hearts, and if enough hearts are changed, the whole world can

be changed,” he explained, suggesting that people pray numerous short prayers throughout the day.

“People who believe have a horizon so much larger,” the cardinal remarked, because faith allows us to “simply to know there’s a purpose to life, there is someone Who will explain in my heart what it is all about and Who will be with me on the journey.”

‘It’s a girl!’ Joyful words in U.S., dangerous words in India, China

WASHINGTON (CNS) — In the United States, hearing the words “it’s a girl,” is a cause for enormous joy and celebration for most, said Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J. “Today, the three most dangerous words in China and India are: It’s a girl,” Smith recently told a congressional hearing.

Smith, the father of two boys and two girls, addressed the issues of sex-selective abortion, lopsided gender ratios, and malnutrition among young females in India during a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Heath, Global Human Rights and International Organizations.

Smith, subcommittee chairman, said tens of millions of women are missing in India as a result of sex-selective abortion and female infanticide.

Smith said in parts of India, 126 boys are born for every 100 girls.

“Women have been systematically exterminated through sex-selection abortion,” Smith said. “It’s a deliberate and premeditated assault on women.”

Smith said India also has 37 million more men than women, according to the 2011 census. He said malnutrition of young girls is also common.

Smith said girls below the age of five have a mortality rate that is 75 percent higher than boys of the same age.

“This in turn leads to a shortage of marriageable women, which then leads to trafficking in persons, brideselling and prostitution,” he said.

Smith said more than 160 million females, a figure higher than the current population of U.S. females, are missing from Asia’s population because of sex-selective abortions, but the problem is not

limited to the Asian continent.

“In Azerbaijan and Armenia, in Eastern Europe, and even among some groups in the United States, couples are making sure at least one of their children is a son,” he said.

Rep. Ami Bera, D-Calif., who is of Indian heritage, said it is important to change the attitudes of males in India toward women. During a recent visit to India, he said he learned of women doctors who worked with female victims of domestic violence and with men to help change their perspectives toward women.

“The most important title I have today is being the father of a daughter,” Bera said. “It is imperative that every girl and every woman is empowered.”

Matthew J. Connelly, professor of international and global history at Columbia University, said by the 1960s, India had long been a testing ground for population control. Connelly told the hearing that General Electric promoted the use of ultrasound machines in India and China.

But Sabu George, an independent researcher from the Indian state of Kerala, said sex selection has become genocide in the Indian context. He said the act of determining sex through an ultrasound is illegal in India.

George said the misuse of technology and lack of respect for Indian law led to high rates of abortion of female fetuses. He said that rate has increased in the past 30 years, and that doctors often are not prosecuted for administering illegal ultrasounds.

“What is tragic is that people accept it,” he said.

George said the rate of females being aborted before birth as well as life expectan-

cy differs from state to state within India.

“In Kerala, women live five years longer than men,” he noted.

Jill McElya, vice president of the Indianapolis-based Invisible Girl Project, said she and her husband were first exposed to infanticide in 2009 when they lived in a rural village in South India. She said in one village her husband visited, boys outnumbered girls eight to one.

McElya said the gender imbalance between men and women in India has resulted in problems such as trafficking, child marriage and violence toward women and girls.

She told the hearing that sex trafficking is a large consequence of India’s gender imbalance.

“When millions of men go unmarried because millions of potential brides have been killed, these single men are more inclined to purchase sex,” McElya said. “Because of the demand for sex workers and because large amounts of money can be made by brothel owners, girls and women are trafficked into the sex industry.”

Mallika Dutt, president and CEO of the global human rights organization Breakthrough, said she was born a feminist in India. During the hearing, she advocated for access to legal abortions for Indian women.

Dutt said access to medical care for safe childbirth and voluntary family planning are necessities for Indian women.

“I believe that, in order to empower women, the right to abortion has to be part of it,” she said. “We should not take away the rights of women and girls to protect their rights.”

5 The Church in the U.S. USCCB president: CHA support of health care rules ‘less than helpful’

September 20, 2013

WASHINGTON (CNS) — The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said the Catholic Health Association’s acceptance of rules governing women’s access to contraceptive coverage under the Affordable Care Act was “less than helpful” to the bishops’ effort to seek changes in the mandate.

“We have not, ourselves as bishops, been able to arrive at the same conclusion, that accommodation with HHS is that easy. There’s no way that we’re ready to say that yet,” said Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York at a news conference after a recent two-day meeting of the USCCB’s Administrative Committee.

While acknowledging CHA’s expertise in health care concerns, the cardinal told reporters that he appreciated the fact that the organization acknowledged that the bishops remain the authentic teachers of faith and morals within the Church.

“We really listen to them in a lot of the input they give us.

But when it comes to faith and morals that, of course is what this ultimately is all about, they do defer to us,” he said.

The contraceptive mandate remains a “high, high concern among the bishops,” he said.

The Department of Health and Human Services June 28 issued final rules for implementing the mandate, which is part of the Affordable Care Act.

The USCCB maintains that the news conference welcomed (Assad is) one of the remaining rules still conflict with Church President Barack Obama’s an- few who still has these (weapteaching. Cardinal Dolan said nouncement that he asked ons) in possession. So just takthe conference continues to Congress to delay a vote on ing away, it’s that the world evaluate what next steps it will a resolution authorizing U.S. does this. It’s not just President take in response. military strikes on Syria in re- Obama’s problem, not just an In the final HHS rules, con- sponse to the reported use of American problem, a Russian traceptive coverage for accom- chemical weapons against ci- problem, a Chinese problem, modated religious organizations vilians by forces loyal to Syrian a French problem, an English problem. All of us actwith health insurance hile acknowledging CHA’s ing together sends a plans will be provided separately through expertise in health care con- much clearer message health insurance com- cerns, the cardinal told reporters that he to the world than just acting alone.” panies or third-party adappreciated the fact that the organization ourBishop John C. ministrators who must ensure that payments for acknowledged that the bishops remain Wester of Salt Lake contraceptive services the authentic teachers of faith and morals City, chairman of the Committee on Comcome from outside the within the Church. munications and former objecting organization’s chairman of the Compremiums. For self-inmittee on Migration, urged the suring institutions, a third-party President Bashar Assad. administrator would provide or Bishop Richard E. Pates of U.S. and the rest of the world to arrange the services, paid for Des Moines, Iowa, chairman begin to plan to accept Syrian through reductions in federally of the bishops’ Committee on refugees who may not be able to facilitated-exchange user fees International Justice and Peace return home once the war ends.

He said some two million peoassociated with their health in- expressed hope that a proposal surance provider.

by Russian leaders to place Syr- ple have fled Syria to neighboring The mandate does not in- ia’s chemical weapons stock- countries and the four million clude a conscience clause for piles under international con- people displaced within the counemployers who object to such trol would lead to negotiations try and that many of them will coverage on moral grounds. to end the country’s 30-month- need homes in the future.

Cardinal Dolan pledged to old civil war. continue to educate and “rally “It is critical the recent inour people,” challenge the rules ternational proposals to secure in court, and seek changes in and destroy Syria’s chemical the law. weapons get serious attention, “We’re going to continue to evaluation and encouragement. keep giving this careful study, As Pope Francis has said rebut I tell you we still worry peatedly, dialogue and negoabout how, if where we can tiation are paths to peace, not comply because the problems, military attacks and arms shipthe questions we have remain ments,” Bishop Pates said. grave,” he said.

“Overwhelmingly the naThe three bishops at the tions support this (proposal).

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A man walks through the 9/11 Empty Sky memorial at sunrise September 11 across from Lower Manhattan in new York and the One World Trade Center in Liberty State Park in Jersey City, N.J. Americans commemorated the 12th anniversary of the September 11 attacks with solemn ceremonies and pledges to not forget the nearly 3,000 killed when hijacked jetliners crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Shanksville, Pa. (CNS photo/Gary Hershorn, Reuters)

Prior to the news conference, the Administrative Committee issued a statement in support of the humanitarian work of Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. Church’s overseas relief and development agency. The statement follows the release of a report by the Population Research Institute that accused CRS employees in Madagascar of distributing contraceptives in opposition to Church teaching.

Cardinal Dolan said that Carolyn Woo, CRS president, told the bishops that the agency’s principles are clear and that employees are held accountable for their actions. When a problem arises, he said, CRS leaders address the concern as quickly as possible so that all services align with Church teaching.

“We don’t have perfection here on earth of any organization, but they adhere very strongly in terms of their values and principles ... and they will not deviate from that,” Bishop Pates added.

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September 20, 2013

Anchor Editorial

Bringing light and hope to humanity

Monday afternoon the Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D., Archbishop for the Military Services, issued the following statement in reaction to the shootings at the Washington Navy Yard: “With all people of good will, I am shocked and deeply saddened by the terrible loss of life this morning at the Navy Yard. I have often visited and celebrated the Eucharist there. It is a familiar place. I also prayed for the victims, the wounded, and their families at the noon Mass at the Archdiocesan pastoral center.

Somehow we must restore the notion of respect for life into the fabric of the nation.

When the uniqueness of the human person created in the image and likeness of God is universally recognized, the possibility of a mass shooting is more remote.”

What Archbishop Broglio said is certainly true. If our human dignity were “universally recognized,” no one would be murdered anywhere. We would not be hearing horror stories of war from Syria and many other lands (many of which we give no attention right now) nor ghastly accounts about gruesome abuses in this country. If that God-given dignity was respected, we would not have the plague of pornography of which Father Tad writes on the page facing this one.

The more respect given to humanity, the less we would have to run stories like the one on page four about how girls are aborted in a disproportionate number in certain countries, resulting in even further abuse of females who make it alive to birth through the sex trade, human trafficking and domestic violence.

If we honored the image of God that exists in each human being, the Catholic social teachings mentioned on page three would not seem like some ignored buried treasure, but would actually be something employers and consumers would be mindful of when running their businesses or making their shopping decisions.

On page two we refer to a letter which Pope Francis wrote to an atheist Italian journalist. He said, “In the centuries of modern life, we have seen a paradox: Christian faith, whose novelty and importance in the life of mankind since the beginning has been expressed through the symbol of light, has often been branded as the darkness of superstition which is opposed to the light of reason.” Father John Denning, CSC, the new president of Stonehill College, also speaks to us in this edition about how we are called to be “light and hope” for our world.

There is great sadness in reading these stories, from our country and from abroad.

The day after the Navy Yard massacre the Gospel at Mass (Lk 7:11-17) was the one in which Jesus brings back to life the son of the widow in the town of Nain. That young man did eventually die again, but Jesus brought him back to life in response to

his mother’s pain and as a symbol for all to see of His power over the forces of sin and death. This Good News from 2,000 years ago gives us the hope that we need to go on — hope as we entrust in prayer the souls of those who have died to God’s mercy and the hope that we have of creating a better world, if we collaborate with God’s plans for it.

Tuesday morning Pope Francis in his homily drew a parallel between the widow of Nain and the Church. “This dimension of widowhood of the Church, who is journeying through history, hoping to meet, to find her Husband … our mother the Church is thus! She is a Church that, when she is faithful, knows how to cry. When the Church does not cry, something is not right. She weeps for her children, and prays! A Church that goes forward and does rear her children, gives them strength and accompanies them until the final farewell in order to leave them in the hands of her Spouse, Who at the end will come to encounter her. This is our Mother Church! I see her in this weeping widow. And what does the Lord say to the Church? ‘Do not cry. I am with you, I’ll take you, I’ll wait for you there, in the wedding, the last nuptials, those of the Lamb.

Stop [your tears]: this son of yours was dead, now he lives.’”

That message is what “gets us through” the terribly sad times of tragedy, be they personal or communal, knowing that the Church cries with us, walks with us, accompanies us into the arms of Him Who is our only true consolation. This message also is a challenge for us all, since we are the Church, so we must be those people who cry with, walk with and pray with people who are suffering.

Just as He ordered the young man at Nain to get up from his coffin, the pope added, many times Jesus also tells us to rise, “when we are dead because of sin and we are going to ask for forgiveness.” After we have gotten up and been forgiven by Him, Jesus hands us back to our mother. “Our Reconciliation with the Lord ends in the dialogue ‘You, me and the priest who gives me pardon’ it ends when He restores us to our mother. There ends Reconciliation, because there is no path of life, there is no forgiveness, there is no Reconciliation outside of Mother Church. So, seeing this poor widow, all these things come to me somewhat randomly — but I see in this widow the icon of the widowhood of the Church who is on a journey to find her Bridegroom. I get the urge to ask the Lord for the grace to be always confident of this ‘mommy’ who defends us, teaches us, helps us grow and [teaches] us to speak the dialect [of God].”

Ultimately, that mother teaches us about our own infinite worth and of our need to respect that beautiful dignity in each other.

Pope Francis’ weekly Angelus address and prayer the joy of a father who welcomes back into his house the son who In today’s Liturgy we read was lost — it was as if he were chapter 15 of the Gospel of Luke, dead and had come back to life, which contains three parables of had come back home. Here is mercy: that of the lost sheep, that the whole Gospel! Here! Here of the lost coin, and then the lon- is the whole Gospel, the whole gest of all the parables, unique to of Christianity! But understand St. Luke, that of the of the father that it is not sentiment, it is not and the two sons, the “prodigal” “do-goodism.” On the contrary, son and the son who thinks he is mercy is the true power that can “just,” who thinks he is holy. All save man and the world from the three of these parables speak of “cancer” of sin, moral evil, spiritual God’s joy. God is joyful. This is evil. Love alone fills the voids, the interesting: God is joyful! And negative abysses that evil opens in what is God’s joy? It is God’s joy the heart of history. Only love can to pardon. God’s joy is to pardon! do this, and this is God’s joy!

Jesus is all mercy, all love: He It is the joy of a shepherd who finds his little sheep; the joy of a is God made Man. Each of us, woman who finds her coin; it is each of us, is that lost sheep, that lo!

Dear brothers and sisters, hel-

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lost coin; each of us is that son who has squandered his freedom following idols, mirages of happiness, and has lost everything.

But God does not forget us, the Father never abandons us. He is a patient Father, He is always waiting for us! He respects our freedom, but He always remains faithful. And when we return to Him, He welcomes us as His children into His house because He never ceases, not even for a moment, to wait for us, with love. And His heart celebrates for every child that returns. It celebrates because it is joy. God has this joy when one of us sinners goes to Him and asks forgiveness.

What is the danger? It is that we presume to be just, and judge others. We judge God too, because we think that He ought to castigate sinners, condemn them to death, instead of forgiving them. This is how we court the danger of remaining outside the Father’s house! Like that older brother of the parable, who, instead of being happy because his brother had returned, gets angry with the father who welcomed him and celebrates. If there is no mercy in our heart, the joy of forgiveness, we are not in communion with God, even if we observe every precept, because it

is love that saves, not merely following precepts. It is the love of God and neighbor that fulfills all the Commandments. And this is God’s love, His joy: forgiveness.

He always waits for us! Maybe someone has something heavy in his heart: “But I did this, I did that.” He is waiting for you! He is a Father: He is always waiting for us!

If we live by the law “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth for a tooth,” we will never get out of the spiral of evil. The devil is clever, and he dupes us into thinking that with our human justice we can save ourselves and the world.

In reality, only God’s justice can save us! And God’s justice is revealed in the cross: the cross is God’s judgment on all of us and this world. But how does God judge us? By giving His life for us!

This is the supreme act of justice that defeated the prince of this world once and for all; and this supreme act of justice is also the supreme act of mercy. Jesus calls all of us to follow this road: “Be merciful, as your Father is merciful” (Lk 6:36). I will ask you to do something now. In silence, everyone, let us all think … everyone think of a person with whom we are not in good stead, with whom we are angry, whom we dislike.

Let us think of this person and in silence, at this moment, let us pray for this person and become merciful with this person. [There is a moment of silence for the prayer proposed by the Holy Father.] Let us now call upon the intercession of Mary, Mother of Mercy.

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

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

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

Hail Mary...

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

Hail Mary...

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

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

Anchor Columnists The astonishment of an encounter, 60 years later

September 20, 2013

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n the Christian faith, we give great prominence to vocational events, when God suddenly comes on the scene and summons someone to His service.

Some of the greatest masterpieces in the history of art depict the moments when the Archangel Gabriel appeared to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Jesus met Matthew at his customs’ post or Peter, Andrew, James and John on the shore, Yahweh met Moses in a burning bush, and Christ in a burst of light startled Saul on the road to Damascus.

Most priests and religious are able to pinpoint the moment when they knew the Lord was calling them, and happily answer questions about it hundreds of times in their lives.

Tomorrow, we mark the 60th anniversary of such a vocational moment. It was a secret encounter that in God’s plans not only altered the life trajectory of a bright 16-year-old chemist but, as we all discovered six months ago, also ecclesiastical and world history.

It was Sept. 21, 1953 and a teen-age Jorgé Bergoglio was planning to spend the day with friends. Before meeting with them at the train station, he stopped by to pray at his parish

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he world was shocked when the tragic and twisted case of Ariel Castro burst recently into the limelight.

Before he took his own life in prison earlier this month, he had kidnapped and repeatedly raped, humiliated, and beaten three young women held captive inside his Cleveland house for more than 10 years. At his sentencing in August, he blamed his longstanding habit of watching two to three hours a day of pornography for his crimes: “I believe I am addicted to pornography to a point that it really makes me impulsive and I don’t realize what I’m doing is wrong.”

To what extent pornography is directly related to violence remains up for debate (explaining any complex human behavior in simple cause and effect terms can be exceedingly difficult). What is beyond dispute is that pornography sets the stage for viewing women in an exploitative way, as sexual fodder for the gratification of men. In fact, the widespread availability and consumption of pornography has arguably become the most pervasive objectifying force in society today.

In a recent newspaper discussion about pornography, one male participant remarked that

7

church dedicated to St. Joseph. was waiting for me. He had been A priest he had never seen waiting for me for some time. before was in the church. He After making my Confession I decided to approach him and felt something had changed. I asked him to hear his Confession. was not the same. I had heard We don’t know what Jorgé said something like a voice, or a call. to the priest or how the priest I was convinced that I should replied. But we do know that that become a priest.”

Confession totally changed not only the teen-ager’s plans for the day but for the whole course of his life.

Putting Into On May 18, the the Deep Vigil of Pentecost, Pope Francis shared some of

By Father his memories of this pivRoger J. Landry otal event in his vocation story.

“One day in particular was very important to me: Sept.

He gave some extra details in 21, 1953. I was almost 17. It was 2010, in a book length interview ‘Students’ Day,’ for us the first with Sergio Rubin. day of spring — for you the first “In that Confession, someday of autumn. Before going to thing very rare happened to the celebration I passed through me. I don’t know what it was, the parish I normally attended. but it changed my life. I would I found a priest whom I did not say that I was caught with my know and I felt the need to go to guard down. It was a surprise, the Confession. For me this was an astonishment of an encounter. experience of encounter: I found I realized that God was waiting that Someone was waiting for for me. From that moment for me. Yet I do not know what hap- me, God has been the One Who pened. I can’t remember. I do not precedes you. We are searching know why that particular priest for Him but He is looking for was there whom I did not know, you first. We want to meet Him, or why I felt this desire to confess, but He meets us first.” but the truth is that Someone Six decades later, Pope Francis

is still astonished at the significance of this encounter, of a God Who awaits us, Who comes to meet us. Before God had said “Let there be light,” He had made an appointment to meet Jorgé Bergoglio in a Buenos Aires confessional and summon him to His service.

“We say we must seek God, go to Him and ask forgiveness,” Pope Francis said at the Pentecost Vigil, “but when we go, He is waiting for us, He is there first! In Spanish we have a word that explains this well: primerear — the Lord always gets there before us, He gets there first, He is waiting for us! To find someone waiting for you is truly a great grace. You go to Him as a sinner, but He is waiting to forgive you. When we seek Him, we discover that He is waiting to welcome us, to offer us His love. And this fills your heart with such wonder that you can hardly believe it, and this is how your faith grows — through an encounter with a Person.”

During that Sacramental conversation with the priest, he realized that that the merciful God Who had been waiting for him

and Who had come to meet him through the priest’s ministrations was calling him to be a priest.

His papal motto, taken from the Office of Readings every priest reads on September 21 for the feast of St. Matthew, relives the encounter that took place in the Buenos Aires confessional.

“Miserando atque Eligendo,” St. Bede’s words about the former tax collector that can also fittingly be said about the one-time Argentine chemist: “He saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him.”

He told Sergio Rubin that he still carries in his breviary a lengthy personal testimony of faith he wrote before his priestly ordination, in which he affirmed, “I believe in my history, which was pierced by God’s look of love and, on the first day of spring, September 21, He came to meet me and invited me to follow Him.” Jorgé Bergoglio has been following in those footsteps now for 60 years.

And now we’re on pilgrimage with him.

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

human sexuality, so it no lonmost men do not end up marryger serves as an interpersonal ing supermodels, so he thought force for bonding and building pornography wasn’t a bad thing, families, but instead devolves into since it enabled “the goods” that an exploitative and isolating force a few women possessed to be in the lives of those who fall prey spread around and shared. He to it, changing its clients, in the seemed to have no compunction words of one commentator, into about using women as pawns in “basement dwellers” and “bottom the endgame of satisfying male lust.

The gaze we direct towards each other can Making Sense easily go astray, demeanOut of ing not only ourselves, but others around us as Bioethics well. When one’s gaze

By Father Tad is directed askance, as Pacholczyk Bishop Paul Loverde of Arlington, Va., noted in a 2006 letter on pornogfeeders.” raphy, “one becomes the kind of On the other hand, the glance person who is willing to use othof authentic sexual love, flowing ers as mere objects of pleasure.” from a pure gaze, avoids deniThe impure gaze of pornogragrating others as a means for self phy, focused on “body parts,” or gratification, and draws man and “performances,” takes on its own woman into an abiding, lifemomentum and quickly draws us giving union. away from the relational comThe need for that pure inner mitments and responsibilities gaze has never been more sucimplied in our human sexual cinctly expressed than in that nature. timeless pronouncement uttered One of the key objections two millennia ago: “Your eye is to pornography is that it sets the lamp of your body; when up a fantasy world without the your eye is sound, your whole risks and challenges that exist body is full of light; but when it in real relationships. It warps is not sound, your body is full of and distorts the beautiful gift of

darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness” (Lk 11:34).

We see just how dark the darkness was in the life of Ariel Castro. Through pornography addiction, a skyrocketing phenomenon today, our eye easily becomes darkened and shuttered.

This darkness affects not just the men who view it, but also women who may not themselves be regular consumers of pornography. Women may be drawn into the subtle and demeaning trap of objectification when they are pressured to serve as compliant proxies for the acting out of their spouse’s hard-core pornographic fantasies. Instead of relating to the actual person they are with, they may instead feel obligated to play a role in satisfying various desires and fetishes. In this way, pornography may impact the way consensual relationships develop between men and women, weaving a warped and exploitative element into the early stages of the relationship.

The average woman may also struggle with a sense of inadequacy when it comes to competing with or measuring

up to the naked women of the Internet, particularly in the face of pervasive airbrushing, silicone implants and Photoshopping of porn models. These concerns about undue pressure on women apply not just to the pornography industry but even to the modern fashion industry with its frequently provocative designs, and to the numerous soft porn initiatives such as the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. It should come as no surprise when ordinary women and girls manifest loathing and abusive tendencies towards their own bodies, when they feel threatened by impossible comparisons and expectations.

The enduring glance, sparked by the sexual attractiveness of the other, is never meant to be directed askance by the vicious snare of pornography, but instead to point towards a personal and committed marital love, purified of exploitative and objectifying tendencies.

Anchor columnist Father Pacholczyk earned his doctorate in neuroscience from Yale and did post-doctoral work at Harvard.

He is a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, and serves as the director of Education at The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia. See www.ncbcenter.org.

The darkened eye of pornography

8

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tealing and cheating have almost become an art form in our culture today.

Shoppers cheat by “sampling foods” without paying for them in supermarkets. Shoplifting is such a problem in most stores that items need to be tagged with anti-theft devices. Employees steal supplies from work, or use the telephone for personal calls. Homeowners meddle with cable lines and electric, gas or water meters to receive these commodities without cost. Some taxpayers underreport their earnings, while others exaggerate or pad their expense accounts.

In recent years we’ve seen that stealing and cheating occurs on a huge scale in some large corporations, and even in some parishes, where money has been stolen, either by pastors or by parishioners who were helping to count weekend collections.

And who can forget Bernie Madoff and the art of the Ponzi scheme?

In this week’s first reading, the prophet Amos clearly regards cheating as a breach

September 20, 2013

Love people, use things of Israel’s covenant relationhe created for himself by ship with God. He spoke out cheating. He concludes with strongly against dishonest the familiar saying that we merchants and their deceitcannot serve both God and ful, ruthless practices, espemoney. We must choose one cially toward their poorer or the other as our master. customers. He chastises these Amos and Jesus remerchants for their despimind us that some people cable behavior, which includes resenting the Homily of the Week Sabbath because it reduced their profits, Twenty-fifth Sunday rigging their scales in in Ordinary Time their own favor, pricegouging, selling as

By Father slaves those who fell John P. Kelleher into debt with them, and selling as food the chaff which they are extremely enthusiastic, swept up from the threshing creative and clever when it floor. comes to feathering their Amos makes it clear that own nests, no matter what dishonesty, oppression and the cost to others. Jesus is indifference, especially toward asking His followers to be the poor, is not fitting behavjust as enthusiastic, creative ior for those who claim to be and clever about developing God’s holy people. ways of assisting others who In this week’s Gospel, Jesus are in need. Imagine if the tells the parable of the manenthusiasm, the creativity and ager who was caught cheatthe ingenuity of some very ing by his employer. In this clever scam artists was used unusual story, Jesus praises to devise solutions to comthe dishonest man for being mon human problems and clever enough to find a solustruggles? What a difference tion to the problems which that could make!

In the ancient world, Christians were known for the strange behavior they exhibited toward the poor, the sick and the destitute. Instead of believing that the gods had, for some reason, punished those in need, ancient Christians believed that they deserved to be cared for. Twothousand years later this legacy should still be very much alive among us if we really are the Body of Christ.

In 1980 the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops expressed this compassionate mindset toward the poor and the afflicted in a document entitled, “Economic Justice For All.” This document states, “As Christians, we are called to respond to the needs of all our brothers and sisters, but those with the greatest need require the greatest response.

We are challenged to make a fundamental option for the poor; to speak for the voiceless, to defend the defenseless, to assess lifestyles, policies

and social institutions in terms of their impact on the poor.”

In his insightful book, “The Rhythm of Life,” Catholic author Matthew Kelly articulated well the underlying problem we face in our self-absorbed, greedinfested culture. Kelly said, “People were made to be loved, and things were made to be used. Your problems, my problems, and indeed all the world’s problems stem from our misunderstanding of these two simple principles. We love things and use people.”

In the midst of a culture where money is often the master, and stealing, cheating and greed abound, we, as followers of Jesus, must swim against this tide. Today, we ask the Lord to help us renew and strengthen our resolve to always love people and use things.

Father Kelleher is a former monk of Glastonbury Abbey in Hingham, and currently the pastoral administrator at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Seekonk.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Sept. 21, Eph 4:1-7,11-13; Ps 19:2-5; Mt 9:9-13. Sun. Sept. 22, Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Am 8:4-7; Ps 113:12,4-8; 1 Tm 2:1-8; Lk 16:1-13 or 16:10-13. Mon. Sept. 23, Ezr 1:1-6; Ps 126:1-6; Lk 8:16-18. Tues. Sept. 24, Ezr 6:7-8,12b,14-20; Ps 122:1-5; Lk 8:19-21. Wed. Sept. 25, Ezr 9:5-9; (Ps) Tb 13:2-4,7-8; Lk 9:1-6. Thurs. Sept. 26, Hg 1:1-8; Ps 149:1-6a,9b; Lk 9:7-9. Fri. Sept. 27, Hg 2:1-9; Ps 43:1-4; Lk 9:18-22.

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his past August, while contemplating the beauties of the Ottawa River from the deck of my family’s cottage on Allumette Island, Father Raymond de Souza, the Canadian commentator and a former-studentbecome-friend-and-colleague, offered an interesting take on World Youth Day 2016, which will be held in Krakow.

When you think about it, he said, “the 20th century happened in Krakow.”

I think I know what Father de Souza meant. Krakow and its people suffered terribly under Nazi and communist occupation; the murders at Auschwitz took place a few dozen kilometers away; the city-without-God, Nowa Huta, was built outside Krakow, as payback for the city’s failure to vote correctly in a bogus communist election. Yet the bad news was not all the news there was in Krakow. For in this same city, the Divine answer to the unprecedented human wickedness of the 20th century was given, in the

Where the 20th century happened in Krakow. And the answer visions of the Divine Mercy that seized the religious imag- to the 20th century was given there, too. ination of an obscure Polish Prior to St. Faustina’s cannun, Sister Faustina Kowalonization, some grumbled that ska. And it was from Krakow John Paul II was privileging a that there came a man who brought Sister Faustina’s mes- unique, Polish experience of sage of Divine Mercy to the world.

When he was a young adult, that man often walked past Sister Faustina’s convent in freezing winter

By George Weigel weather, clad only in clogs and denims, to his work as a manual Catholic piety by putting the laborer. When he became a Divine Mercy at the center bishop two decades later, he took up Sister Faustina’s cause of the Great Jubilee of 2000.

That didn’t strike me as very and helped clarify misunpersuasive then. And in light derstandings in Rome about of Father de Souza’s insightful the nun’s spiritual diary that observation about the singular were impeding the spread of way that Krakow embodies the Divine Mercy devotion the 20th century, it doesn’t throughout the world. And strike me as very persuasive finally, that man, now the now.

Bishop of Rome, celebrated John Paul II had a keen the canonization Mass at insight into the way in which which Sister Faustina Kowthe two totalitarianisms of alska was proclaimed the first saint of the third millennium. the 20th century had shredThe 20th century happened ded the moral and spiritual

The Catholic Difference

fabric of humanity. The Gulag and the Nazi death camps; the Ukrainian terror famine, the genocide of the Chinese “cultural revolution,” the Cambodian genocide — all of this, and more, had left 21st-century humanity with a terrible burden of guilt. And to whom could those terrible crimes be confessed: those sins that had made an abattoir out of a century imagined, at its outset, to be one of unlimited human progress? How could the guilt piled up by of so many crimes be expiated?

According to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, another man who read history through Slavic cultural lenses, the unique horrors of the 20th century had taken place because (as the Russian novelist and chronicler put it in his 1983 Templeton Prize lecture) men and women had forgotten God: “The failings of human consciousness, deprived of its Divine dimension, have been a determining

factor in all the major crimes of this century.” French theologian Henri de Lubac made a similar point in “The Drama of Atheist Humanism”: the 20th century proved that men and women could indeed organize the world without God; but without God, they could only organize it against each other.

John Paul II knew all of this. That is why he wanted to “universalize” the message of the Divine Mercy that had been given in Krakow as the answer to the anguish and despair caused by the horrors of the 20th century. The God of the Bible, a God of infinite mercy, was the One to Whom the burden of the 20th century could be brought for expiation.

Keeping all this in mind would help the planners of World Youth Day 2016 give that gathering a particular focus and resonance.

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

September 20, 2013

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uring these sultry days of early fall parishes will be kicking off another catechetical year in dioceses across the country. Behind the scenes of this yearly ritual are catechetical leaders working hard to create a welcoming learning environment and preparing the catechists to hand on the faith to another generation of young people.

Many of the catechists come from the ranks of responsible parents who meet the needs of the many programs in which their children are involved.

Some have embraced the role of catechist as their vocation, knowing that to transmit the faith takes much more than transferring the lessons from book to child. Whether motivated by faith or by responsibility, volunteer catechists are the “human instruments whom God has chosen to ensure the growth of faith received in Baptism” (National Directory of Catechesis).

Throughout our diocese there are many people willing to give their precious gift of time to serve as catechists, and they do so in spite of juggling family and work responsibilities. Parish catechetical

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ast Sunday at Mass I listened to the parable of the lost son, more commonly referred to and known as the story of the prodigal son.

Luke, chapter 15, verses 11-32 depicts a story of a father who has two sons. The younger son collects his inheritance from his father and leaves home while the eldest son remains with his father and works in the fields.

The youngest son falls victim to the temptations of the world and squanders his inheritance, eventually facing no choice but to return home and work under his father’s watch to regain his good graces.

The surprising result of the story is the father’s reaction to his son’s return. Upon seeing him on the horizon, he calls to his servants to bring his son clothing of the finest material, to adorn him with a ring and sandals, and then slaughter the fattened calf so that they all can feast in honor of his return.

Meanwhile, the eldest son is having none of this. Heck no, will he welcome back his brother, who clearly had no respect for or understanding of

Anchor Columnists Open the doors of faith be accomplished if all of those leaders, considerate of the people responsible for the forstress that these parents feel, mation of the child, including try not to put too much presparents and catechists, are ausure on them to go through formal training. Catechists are thentically engaged with Jesus adults and must take responsibility for their own Spiritual journey.

Sending catechists into the classroom without training is like going on a jourBy Claire McManus ney with empty water bottles. Catechists deserve to be formed Spiritually, given the necessary Christ and firmly grounded on the path toward discipleship. knowledge required to teach, Formation for the role of and shown the best methods the catechist is an exercise in for age-appropriate instrucintentional awareness. One tion. cannot grasp at truth and Catechetics is multifaccram it into the brain. The eted, with many dimensions truth about Jesus Christ is not necessary to transmit the attained so much as it is retotal understanding of our vealed; not transmitted withfaith. While knowledge of out being incarnated in our doctrine is important, it is lives. Parker Palmer, writing only one piece of the puzzle. about education as a spiritual The purpose of catechesis is journey in “To Know as We not to create a generation are Known,” offers an imporof little theologians, but to tant insight about the need to invite people into an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. embody truth. “Words began to fail me because I was not Since catechetics must center following them with my life. I on Jesus Christ, all those who was failing to incarnate what teach the faith must have a truth I had been given, and my personal, intimate relationwords, lacking flesh, were skelship with Him. This can only

The Great Commission

etons with no animation or powers of regeneration.” This resonates with the dilemma faced by catechists when doctrine is not incarnated by their lives, rattling around the class like a bunch of dry bones.

Catechists are called upon to animate the dry bones of doctrine by re-invigorating their faith.

Formation does not require an intimidating crash course in theological principles designed to arm the catechist to engage in vigorous apologetics. Doctrine is simply the encapsulation of many years of our Church’s search for the truth about Jesus Christ and the ineffable Triune God. Learning doctrine within the context of a Spiritual journey should evoke a spirit of epiphany; an “ah-ha” moment when what we have experienced through faith is given language that articulates the mystery.

The best formation a catechist can be given is to learn how to reflect theologically on the everyday moments when Christ is revealed. The catechist who seeks to know

The wasteful father

the inheritance he’d received.

Heck no, would he feast with his family when no such feast had ever been celebrated in his name, he the dutiful son who remained faithful to his father while his brother was off gallivanting. His father concludes the parable with the message, “‘My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found’” (Lk 15:31-32).

While I have heard many a homily delve into the meaning of this Gospel, this priest shared a message that I had not heard before, a previously unconsidered meaning. He said that instead of being referred to as the prodigal son, for it was clear the son was wasteful, he said the passage should be called the prodigal father.

Eyebrows raised as he continued. If prodigal means to be wasteful or reckless, especially with money or resources, why

on earth would we refer to the father as such? Sure, we can deduce from Scripture that the father has everything he could ever want. He has plenty of food and servants, land that is tended by a second son who

Radiate Your Faith

By Renee Bernier loves him and works for him diligently. In fact, he seems to be living a pretty lavish life, but not necessarily one of waste.

Why then would we consider him to be the wasteful one?

Because, my friends, he was wasteful not in his material goods, but his love. Funny, we have trained ourselves to view being wasteful as a negative thing, something negative or detrimental that we do or allow to be done around us. We are wasteful with our money, we waste our opportunities, and

we allow relationships to waste away. Often times it is a materialized concept, other times it is relational, but almost all of the time to be wasteful is a bad thing. Here, with the image of the father welcoming his son back we see a father being wasteful with his love. He spends it on his son without keeping track of it; he just lets it pour out.

The priest then related that to God’s love for us. Imagine, if this father loved his son so much that he couldn’t wait to show him with his embrace and unfailing adoration, what God’s love is like for us. It is vast. He showers it down on us, wastes it if you will, because He is so concerned for our well-being, our personhood.

This leads me to the challenge that I so often leave you with at the conclusion of my columns. I encourage you to think on this concept of wasted love. How often are we wasteful in the right ways? How often do we spend our time for the betterment of others?

9 Christ must also be willing to allow Christ to know him or her. Catechists will be amazed at their ability to break open the capsule of Church teaching when they open themselves first to an encounter with Christ. Palmer explains, “As we allow ourselves to be known by that which we know, our capacity for knowledge grows broader and deeper.” We are fortunate that God has the wisdom to give us the capacity to know God just enough so that the deposit of faith will be transmitted to yet another generation.

This year the theme that launches the catechetical year on Catechetical Sunday encourages us to “Open the Doors of Faith.” This theme is aimed at catechists who will be commissioned as the doorkeepers of faith, bringing Christ alive for the people placed in their care. It is also aimed at all of us who transmit the faith by our lives. May we welcome people through those doors and not scare them away with the rattling of dry bones.

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

How often do we put money towards a worthy cause, if we cannot seem to find the time to be wasteful of ? Perhaps one of the most pressing questions, and the hardest to face, is, are we showing that same reckless abandon with our time and love for Christ? Do we spend time telling Him we love Him? Do we show it in our words and live it by our example?

It is my mission to try to be more conscious of these questions in my daily life, and to be wasteful in my love for others, and for Christ, and to constantly remember that in the moments of doubt, in the moments of quiet, that as I am trying to waste my own love, God is wasting His love on me.

The best kind of waste there is, is happening right here in our faith. Friends, I hope you will join me as we strive to love recklessly and without abandon those around us and our Creator Who instilled this love within us.

Anchor columnist Renee Bernier is a Stonehill College graduate with a bachelor’s degree in sociology.

10

September 20, 2013

Forty-five-year-old wooden crucifix finds a permanent home at Connolly

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

FALL RIVER — Although at first glance it appears to be a longtime fixture, the detailed wooden crucifix that now hangs along the wall behind the altar inside the chapel at Bishop Connolly High School is a relatively new addition to the diocesan facility.

“The first time we saw it installed here when we came for the (blessing and dedication), we thought it was so

powerful,” said Wayne Farley, the father of the school’s vice principal of student life, Shannon McGuire. “Everyone says it looks like it was made to be here.”

But the large crucifix — which was hand-carved by Farley’s father-in-law and McGuire’s grandfather, William Vigneault — had actually been sitting in Vigneault’s basement studio until a bit of Divine inspiration led to it finding a permanent home at Connolly.

“I don’t think he really had an intention with any of his carvings,” Farley told The Anchor. “He’s a very humble man, so if he did he kept it to himself. We’ve had conversations with him about this and he was all for donating it to the right place.”

When McGuire and Farley first visited the campus years ago, they were soon convinced the right place was the Connolly chapel.

“When I first came to work here, my dad and I came into the chapel,” said McGuire, a former English teacher who became vice principal two years ago. “We saw the (smaller) crucifix that was here before and we felt like it needed something more. It took us a little while to get it here, but I think the end result was worth it.”

Towering above the tabernacle and tucked beneath an oval skylight that illuminates its intricate detail, the wooden crucifix was actually carved back in 1968 — just two years after Connolly opened — and was created using a combination of pine and basswood.

“The cross itself is made of pine wood and the (corpus) Turn to page 14

Vice principal of student life Shannon McGuire, left, poses with her father, Wayne Farley, in front of the crucifix that was recently installed and blessed inside the chapel at Bishop Connolly High School in Fall River. The hand-carved wooden cross was crafted by McGuire’s grandfather, William Vigneault, and the family donated it to the school. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

September 20, 2013

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11

12

September 20, 2013

CSS program provides hope for childless couples continued from page one

for families for children. Our job is to do what is in the best interest for that child and find the best family that fits their needs.”

Habib said Adoption by Choice offers birth counseling to expectant parents, but once the choice of adoption is made, she then presents the prospective parents to the birth mother the only way she can — through handmade profile books from each couple that showcase the personalities, beliefs and outgoing nature of each couple; pictures, descriptive paragraphs and heartfelt letters help introduce expectant parents to prospective parents without having to meet each couple face-to-face.

“How do I introduce prospective couples to a birth mother?” said Habib. “I show them these books, and I know these people really well because I’ve done their home studies and been in touch with them, and I can answer any questions. You never know what will appeal to an expectant parent about a prospective couple.”

Having spent more than 20 years of working as a social worker, Habib is filled with stories of expectant parents

making the choice of adoption, but one story of a recent adoption story had Habib smiling from ear-to-ear.

Shortly after starting at CSS in Fall River, Habib set up meetings with the theneight couples who were already on file at the office. One of those couples was the Robinsons (not their real name), who had been waiting for more than two years. Incidentally Habib met them as the couple was coming up on their 10th wedding anniversary, and they shared with Habib that they were losing hope of ever being able to adopt a baby.

The Robinsons were a “lovely, lovely couple,” recalled Habib, who left their home on a Thursday afternoon. Monday morning Habib received a phone call from a hospital about a mother who had given birth and wanted to place her son up for adoption. Looking at the eight prospective parents’ profiles, only three matched the birth mother’s requests: that the family be Catholic; that education was very important; and the family must have a mother who, if not home full-time, could be home most of the time to care for a child. Grabbing

those three matching profiles, which included the Robinsons, Habib went to the hospital and handed the profiles to the mother.

“She looked at one, she closed it; opened the other one and immediately looked at me and said, ‘This is them.

This is the one,’” said Habib, of the mother picking the Robinsons.

The mother had one final request — that the couple keep the birth name of her son, Timothy (not his real name). When Habib reached out to the Robinsons and told them about the birth mother’s request, the couple revealed that Timothy was one of the names they had picked out if they were to receive a boy.

It was a match before anyone had even met, said Habib, adding the baby is about three months old now and thriving under the Robinsons’ care.

Habib has also overseen reunions of adopted children with his or her biological family. Years ago, a married mother of six children found herself pregnant at age 46. With a husband who was 64 years old, the woman decided she and her husband were too old to raise another child, and placed her baby up for adoption. Now in her mid-80s — the woman’s husband was dead and she was living in another state — she reached out to Habib to help find her daughter. Habib found the daughter, sending a

letter to the daughter and receiving a phone call in return.

When the two women finally connected with each other through a conference call at Habib’s office, Habib said the birth mother opened up her greeting in a most welcoming way.

“What she said to her, and this was so beautiful; when they first said hello, she said, ‘Hello from your long ago family,’” recalled Habib.

And while Habib said she feels privileged to be part of these stories, she doesn’t want anyone thinking she has the perfect job and that “everything here is roses,” she said.

“One of the foundations of adoption is loss, for everyone,” Habib said. “For adoptive couples who have not been able to get pregnant, that loss of fertility; birth parents who are carrying a child for nine months and placing their child, with many never expecting to see the child again; and we have a child, who has lost part of their identity unless they learn what really happened.”

Decades of shame over giving up your child have given way to more open adoptions; a benefit for all those involved.

“One of the pros about open adoption is it doesn’t eliminate loss, but mitigates it,” said Habib. “We know from searches that birth mothers don’t just have those children taken away from their arms and not thought of again — they think about that child every day. They wonder, is he in a good family? Is she OK? The

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, September 22, 11:00 a.m.

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

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

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

child wonders, who do I look like? Why was I placed for adoption? With open adoption there’s no secrecy.”

Something Habib doesn’t keep secret is she is also a parent to an adopted 21-year-old daughter, who is attending college in Arizona. Born to an 18-year-old mother who felt she was “too young to parent,” Habib kept the communication open with the birth mom through the years.

Now that mother is a successful college graduate who later gave birth to another daughter, and Habib gave her blessing to the biological mother to keep watch over her adopted daughter when Habib moved to Massachusetts.

Adoption is sometimes a waiting game, and a common question Habib is asked is how long does a couple have to wait until they get a baby?

There is no solid answer, said Habib and right now infant adoption is down across the country.

“It’s down for a number of reasons,” said Habib. “For one thing, there’s no shame anymore for a single parent. Fifty years ago, when you read in the files, they’re full of shame; it was an illegitimate child, and you really don’t hear those words anymore. Many women who get pregnant either keep their child or place their child with a family member. That’s wonderful for the child but it means there are far less available.”

And there’s another, more insidious reason, that less infants are available for adoption — “abortion,” said Habib.

The situation for the five couples currently waiting to hear her voice on the other end of the telephone telling them they have a baby could change tomorrow, said Habib.

“I could get a call from a hospital or birth mom tomorrow,” she said. “Both domestic and international adoptions are way down across the country, but again, there were 11 placements last fiscal year, so at some point there will be some birth mothers. It takes courage to say this is what I want for my child, and for whatever the reason is, they still have the strength [to say] I want a better life for my child.”

Next week The Anchor will bring readers the story of a local family’s reunion with a sibling they never knew existed, after the mother gave her up for adoption decades ago.

13

September 20, 2013

Casino opponents seek legal action in signature campaign

By Christine Willams Anchor Correspondent

BOSTON — Casino opponents in the Commonwealth said they were “stunned” and “very disappointed” when Attorney General Martha Coakley rejected their bid to start a signature campaign that would allow voters to overturn the 2011 casino law. On September 13, Repeal the Casino Deal, the group in charge of the campaign, won an injunction in court and will begin the signature drive on schedule.

Organizers need to collect at least 68,911 certified voter signatures between September 18 and November 20. If those signatures are collected, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court will issue a ruling on the constitutionality of the initiative.

If successful, the drive would add a question to 2014 state ballots.

John F. Ribeiro of Winthrop, chairman of Repeal the Casino Deal, told The Anchor, “The attorney general has attempted to deny the people the opportunity to vote on this critical issue.”

Coakley has argued that overturning the casino law would

take away the applications for casino licenses, which, in her estimation, are property. The state constitution does not allow a citizens petition to “take away property without compensation.”

Casino opponents say that although sometimes licenses are considered property under the law, applications for licenses are certainly not. What is more, the state’s highest court has previously ruled that dog track licenses were not property, and the casino law itself says that the applications and licenses for casinos are revocable and, therefore, not guaranteed contracts.

Ribeiro said the law is on his side. He called overturning the casino law of “critical importance” for the character of Massachusetts and said its residents need to have their say.

“Once casinos are here, there’s no way to take that back,” he said. “They only grow in number, in size and in influence. They start to make up a significant portion of the lobbying dollars and also the tax revenues that are coming directly to the state.”

Kristian Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute and one of 10 original signers of the initiative petition, said that casino lobbyists have already influenced the state, investing nearly $1 million just to get to this point. He said casino opponents are up against “extremely powerful agencies” with billions of dollars of resources.

“They are going to use every venue they can to stop us,” he said and voiced concern that there may be “other things motivating the attorney general.”

In a statement, a Coakley spokesman denied outside influence, saying that the decision not to certify the ballot initiative was “based purely on the facts and the law and without regard to the attorney general’s policy views on the issue.”

Supporters of expanding gambling in the Bay State claim casinos will create thousands of jobs and bring in hundreds of millions of new tax dollars. The law appropriates 25 percent of casino revenue and 40 percent of slots revenue to go back to the state and local communities.

Each casino license bid starts at $85 million.

Mineau called casinos “fool’s gold” and said the stakes are too high.

“Every community that hosts a casino, across the nation, has been sucked dry,” he said, adding that casinos take money from the community, small business owners and families’ pocketbooks.

This petition is the last chance to stop casinos from setting up shop in Massachusetts. Local referendums are going well but have not been 100 percent successful, he said.

He encouraged ordinary citizens to get involved and make this signature drive successful.

He called on people of faith, in particular, noting that it was the involvement of many churches that made the 2005 signature drive to restore Marriage so successful.

“We are hoping that churches throughout the Commonwealth will get involved, just as they did in the record-breaking signature drive for the Marriage amendment,” he said.

Though the Massachusetts

bishops have not taken an official stance on the signature drive, they consistently opposed the casino law. In a 2011 joint statement, they urged legislators to vote against the measure.

“While the Catholic Church views gambling as a legitimate form of entertainment when done in moderation, the gaming legislation opens the door to a new form of predatory gaming which threatens the moral fabric of our society,” they said.

Les Bernal, executive director of the national group Stop Predatory Gambling and active parishioner at St. Patrick’s Church in Lawrence, said that predatory gambling exploits citizens to the benefit of casino tycoons and is not consistent with Jesus’ call to love others as ourselves.

“Government’s promotion of casino gambling and lotteries belongs in the same category of ‘life’ issues that the Catholic Church stands for because it renders the lives of millions of citizens as expendable, driving them into poverty, addiction and severe family problems,” he said.

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14

September 20, 2013

Forty-five-year-old crucifix finds new home

Father John Denning, CSC, becomes Stonehill’s 10th president

is made of basswood,” Farley explained, adding that his father-in-law is now retired but still living in the area.

“He’s going to be 92 years old this month,” Farley said.

“He’s a retired firefighter from Taunton. He doesn’t carve any more. He started doing it probably about 50 years ago as a hobby … and religious icons are just some of the things he would carve.”

“He carved so many different things,” added McGuire.

“He probably did thousands of pieces — he did owls and birds and Indians, you name it. I have a lot of his work at home.”

Among the fruits of Vigneault’s labor are six smaller versions of the larger Connolly crucifix that have been given to various family members, McGuire said. One of these is prominently displayed in her office just down the hall from the chapel.

“They’re all a little bit different, but we each have one,” she said proudly.

It’s probably no coincidence that Jesus Himself was a carpenter as well.

“To create something like this from a block of wood is just amazing,” McGuire said.

“It’s literally hand-carved — every inch, every detail, every crevice is just him chiseling away.”

McGuire said it was her mom, Jan — Vigneault’s daughter — who had the biggest influence on getting the family to donate her father’s artwork to the school.

“My mom was all for it and she talked to (my grandfather) and he agreed,” she said.

“In talking with Shannon, we felt (Bishop Connolly) would be the appropriate place for it,” Farley added. “Of all the members of the family, I think Ida would have been the proudest that the crucifix found a home here.”

It was Ida, Vigneault’s late wife and McGuire’s grandmother, who had always said that one day they would find a suitable place for the nearly six-foot-tall crucifix.

“I’m really touched by Ida’s story,” said E. Christopher Myron, president and principal at Bishop Connolly High School. “It was her faith and her understanding of how

ing out the charism of being educators in the faith.”

The 53-year-old Father Denning added, “I am honored and humbled at the opportunity to lead Stonehill. I believe in the wonderful story of this college. Its mission provides each student with a learning experience that transcends the classroom for the good of the broader community and fosters a hunger to build a more just and compassionate world.”

Father Denning is a Rhode Island native who attended LaSalle Academy in Providence, R.I. and received a bachelor of arts degree from Tulane University in New Orleans. He received a master’s of Divinity degree from the University of St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto, and is a doctoral candidate in higher education administration at UMass Boston.

He entered the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1983 and was ordained a priest in 1987. Father Denning has served as a campus minister at the Catholic Center at Bridgewater State University; was a teacher, coach and chaplain at Coyle and Cassidy High School in Taunton; and was vocations director for the congregation.

Father Denning attributes the building of his faith foundation to his environment growing up. “My parents were a great influence especially sending my brother and sisters and me to Catholic elementary and high schools and I lived in what could be described as a very Catholic environment, where parish, prayer, religious symbolism in the home, and Sacraments were part of daily life,” he told The Anchor. “My parish priests, and the religious Sisters of Mercy in my grammar school were very influential. In addition, I have to mention the Christian Brothers at LaSalle. I was greatly influenced by their commitment to their students. They seemed to dedicate themselves to the student body 24/7.”

Asked why he chose to enter the Congregation of Holy Cross, he said, “Education and service are at the heart of the Holy Cross mission and that appealed to me as well as the support one finds in living in community. Holy Cross truly embodies a religious family of Brothers, Sisters and

continued from page 10

God works that was most touching to me. To think she would tell people to wait to find the right place (for Christ), I think is inspiring and it really connects us all. I really feel a kinship with her now.”

McGuire said a special plaque is being made that will be installed in the chapel this week identifying the donation of her family and dedicating it in memory of her grandmother, Ida, who passed away more than 12 years ago.

The crucifix was formally unveiled and blessed during the first professional day for teachers at the school by Msgr. Thomas J. Harrington, a retired priest residing in the adjacent Cardinal Medeiros Residence.

“Msgr. Harrington always comes over and celebrates Mass for us and you’ll find a number of (retired) priests will come over from the Cardinal Medeiros Residence to do the Liturgy of the Hours or I’ll just find them in here praying during the week,” Myron said. “The connection that we have with them is also powerful.”

McGuire and Farley expressed great pride at being able to donate the crucifix to Connolly and felt honored that something which had long been a part of their family would now be the focus of devotion at the school for years to come.

“I think my grandfather would be pleased to know that people will come in here everyday to pray in front of it,” McGuire said. “It’s powerful for my family, as well, because now a piece of my nana and grandfather (will always) be here.”

“It’s a great piece of art, but it’s also so spiritual,” Myron agreed. “Its presence has really given the school a lift.”

Looking up at his fatherin-law’s handiwork, Farley began to smile.

“The director of maintenance here, Steve Nicolan, told me: ‘Your father-in-law doesn’t know it, but he carved this crucifix for this place in 1968,’” he said. “And that’s really how we all feel about it. We were quite pleased to be able to donate it.”

continued from page one

priests working together for the good of the Church and the world. I first met the Holy Cross community when I was a student at Tulane University. The Holy Cross Fathers had a house of formation near the campus. I met some of the priests and seminarians. They were incredibly hospitable.

They welcomed my family to stay with them for graduation and helped them to feel at home. I valued their commitment to education and how that is lived out in all their works, in schools and colleges, parishes and missions. But most especially in their sense of being down to earth and always rooted in prayer.”

Father Denning came to Stonehill College in 2000, at which time he became the school’s director of campus ministry. He was later named the college’s first vice president for Mission, designed to enhance and maintain a Catholic identity at the school.

From 2007 until his appointment as president this past July, Father Denning guided Stonehill’s Student Affairs Division. At that position, he worked with others at the college to “ensure that a culture of learning permeates all areas of college life,” according to a Stonehill press release.

“I believe that Catholic colleges are where the Church has an opportunity to think, explain its core beliefs and engage in dialogue on the big issues,” he said. “I believe that it is foundational for a Catholic college to embody the core value of integrity and to nurture and practice the virtues of faith, hope and love. Integrity should govern all we do, whether it is in the classroom, on the athletic fields, in the residence halls or the broader community. Integrity includes fidelity to who we are and what we are called to be as a Catholic college. It means to live authentically our Catholic identity. The motto of Stonehill is Lux et Spes or Light and Hope. If we do our job well as Catholic educators, then both our institutions, the college and the Church, will be light and hope for our world. By the lives they lead, our students and alumni have the power to bring hope for a new day.”

Father Denning joins an illustrious group of eight Holy Cross priests and one lay man as president of the college,

hoping to build on the successes the school has seen over the last 64 years.

He joins Holy Cross Fathers George P. Benaglia (1948-49), Francis J. Boland (’49-’55), James J. Sheehan (’55-’58), Richard H. Sullivan (’58-’64), John T. Corr (’64-’71), Ernest J. Bartell (’71-’77), Bartley MacPhaidin (’78-’00), and Mark T. Cregan (’00-’13). Mr. C. James Cleary was an interim president in 1977 as well.

“Now in our 65th year, we are still a relatively young institution and, while we have made major strides forward in that time, I believe that our best years are still ahead of us,” said Father Denning.

“I am proud of what our students and alumni are accomplishing in their personal and professional lives. A Stonehill education has the power to transform a student not just intellectually or academically, but also in terms of the heart, how they assume responsibility for being just and compassionate to others in society who are not as blessed as they may have been. As we grow and evolve as an institution, we must make sure that this balance between educating both the mind and the heart remains central to all that we do. ” Father Denning, while feeling the excitement of leading Stonehill into a bright future, also realizes what the school and the congregation was built on in the past. “Most everyday I pass by the cemetery of my brothers in Holy Cross,” he told The Anchor.

“I can’t help but to acknowledge the wonderful pastors, preachers, chaplains, teachers and friends who rest there.

Men like Servant of God, Patrick Peyton, whose life and ministry continues to call us as Holy Cross religious to deepen our relationship with our Blessed Mother. Others like Father Frank Grogan, and Father Bob McDonnell who call us to be pastoral and compassionate priests. Others like Brother Jim Madigan call us to a simplicity of life and a generosity of service. The Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross, speak of a great band of men who have gone before us, men who had hope to bring. To have these men rest on our campus truly helps to make Stonehill a Sacred place. ”

15

September 20, 2013

Four to receive St. Thomas More Award at diocesan Red Mass continued from page one

tol County First Assistant District Attorney; as distinguished court employee, Philip F. Leddy, Esq., First Assistant Clerk, Bristol County Superior Court; and as the distinguished ecumenical recipient, Betty I. Ussach, Esq., of Schwartz &

College of the Holy Cross in Worcester. After two years of service in the U.S. Navy, he earned a law degree in 1960 from Boston College Law School.

He served as a trial attorney with the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., from 1961 to 1965 and was among a team of attorneys sent to Mississippi in 1964 by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to protect civil rights workers involved in voter registration.

The next phase of his career took on a focus on organized crime, first in his work as an assistant U.S. Attorney,

len, are the parents of six and grandparents of 23.

Attorney Quinn became the First Assistant District Attorney in Bristol County in 2007. He had previously served as an assistant district attorney for the county from 1988 to 1997.

Born in New Bedford, he grew up in Dartmouth and is a 1978 Dartmouth High graduate. He went on to the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, and Suffolk University Law School, Boston.

After his first period of service in the Bristol County D.A.’s Office, he maintained a private law practice in Fall River for 10 years focusing on criminal defense.

Superior Court as an associate clerk for 32 years, handling administrative aspects including scheduling, proper documentation preparation and record-keeping with regard to the criminal and civil cases that come before that court in sessions in one of three locations.

A lifelong resident of Taunton, he attended Msgr.

Judge Edward F. Harrington

Thomas M. Quinn III, Esq.

Ussach, New Bedford.

Bishop George W. Coleman will present the awards at the conclusion of the Red Mass, of which he will be principal celebrant. Homilist will be Dominican Father Brian J. Shanley, who is president of Providence College.

The Red Mass is hosted each year by the diocese to invoke God’s blessings on those who work to provide justice in the legal system and to acknowledge the service of members of that community with the St. Thomas More Award.

Recipients were nominated for the honor by a committee of judges, attorneys, court personnel and priests from across the diocese, headed by New Bedford attorney Michael J. Harrington.

The award, designed especially for the diocese, is a three-inch circular bronze medallion bearing in enameled colors the image of St. Thomas More, the 16th-century lay attorney and martyr for whom it is named and the patron saint of lawyers.

Judge Harrington has served as U.S. District Judge for the District of Massachusetts for more than 25 years, assuming senior status in the position in 2001.

He was born and raised in Fall River, graduating from that city’s Sacred Heart School and B.M.C. Durfee High School and then the

James Coyle High School there and then the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester.

He earned his law degree in 1980 from the New England School of Law in Boston.

Through the years he has been very active in programs for youth in the Taunton area and was president of the Boys and Girls Club in that city and of its Babe Ruth Baseball program. He also coached youth soccer, baseball and basketball teams for more than 17 years.

Active also in his parish of St. Andrew the Apostle, Taunton, he has been a lector and special minister of Holy Communion for 20 years.

He has two sons. His wife

Philip F. Leddy, Esq.

Betty I. Ussach, Esq.

District of Massachusetts, and then as part of the U.S Justice Department’s newlycreated Organized Crime Strike Force of which he was the Attorney in Charge from 1970 to 1973.

President Jimmy Carter appointed him U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts in 1977, and his tenure there saw a marked concentration on public corruption.

He also coordinated the security arrangements for the visit of Pope John Paul II to Boston in 1979.

Leaving there, he was in private practice before being named to his current federal jurist post in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan. He is only one of seven persons to have served the District of Massachusetts as U.S. District Judge and U.S. Attorney since the district was established in 1789.

Throughout his career he has kept close ties to his native Fall River, maintaining part-time residency in the area. He and his wife, El-

He is married to Sharon (Bogan) Quinn. They have three children and reside in Fall River.

Along with raising a family and practicing law, he has been generous in giving time to serve his community and his church. He has been president of Fall River’s Milliken-Silva Basketball League as well as a coach in that league and in youth baseball. In New Bedford, he has been a mentor at the Nativity Preparatory School.

He is a parishioner at Holy Name Parish in Fall River, where he has been a special minister of Holy Communion, Religious Education teacher, member of the Holy Name School Parent Council and chairman of its Fall Festival Committee. He is a current member of the Holy Name Parish Finance Council and of the Bishop Connolly High School Board of Trustees.

Attorney Leddy has served the Bristol County

of 28 years, Susan (Donaldson), died in 2010.

Attorney Ussach began her legal career more than 30 years ago as an assistant district attorney in Bristol County. Three years later, she began private law practice in New Bedford with her husband, Attorney Steve Schwartz.

In her practice, she has focused on domestic relations matters and has frequently been a court-appointed guardian-ad-litem for children. In that role, she has served at the request of the court as an impartial investigator and reporter for matters pertaining to the care and custody of minor children.

She is a long-serving, 28year member of the Advisory Board of the Salvation Army.

In the legal community and beyond, she has participated in the Bristol County Bar Advocate Program, been chairman and board member of the Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect Committee, and a board member of S.E.R. Jobs for Progress.

She a graduate of New York University and Providence College with bachelor’s and master’s degrees, respectively, and holds a law degree from Western New England College School of Law. She and her husband are residents of Dartmouth.

They have four children and two grandchildren.

All are welcome at the Red Mass. A luncheon will follow for which a ticket is required.

For information, call Attorney Harrington at 508-9945900.

16

Youth Pages

St. Mary’s Catholic School, Mansfield, is in full swing as the school year begins. Above, students enjoy recess and the gorgeous weather New England offers in the fall.

September 20, 2013

Father David Costa, director of St. Mary-Sacred Heart School in North Attleboro led a prayer service outside in the school courtyard for the 12-year anniversary of 9/11. The entire student body, teachers, principal and staff members assembled in the courtyard to pray for all those lost their lives 12 years ago. Father Costa said a few words about the day, then said the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, and then everyone prayed the Our Father. Here, Cullen Lancaster is putting up the flag while Annie Mendillo and Riley Champagne assist.

Holy Family-Holy Name School in New Bedford celebrated the “New (School) Year” in style! Principal Cecilia M. Felix and new vice principal, Ralph Tripp showed their school spirit by donning festive hats on the first day of school.

Students in grades six through eight at St. James-St. John School in New Bedford reviewed for a vocabulary test by playing a game.

St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro sponsored a Welcome Back BBQ for the students and faculty. Under sunny skies, everyone enjoyed hot dogs, hamburgers, corn on the cob and watermelon. Enjoying his watermelon is sixth-grader Griffin Barros with his classmate Andrew Brown.

Principal Sister Marie Baldi, SUSC, gave students at St. Michael School in Fall River a drum solo demonstration to promote involvement in music lessons.

Youth Pages

September 20, 2013

E

ach year at Bishop Stang High School we adopt a theme for the year that we are challenged to live out.

The theme this year is: “Be Humble, Be Exalted.” In the Gospel of Luke, Christ tell us, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and everyone who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk 14:11).

I love this theme. It reminds me so much of my pope crush, Pope Francis. He is a living witness to what it means to be humble. In his homily on the feast of the Annunciation, Pope Francis told us, “If there is no humility, love remains blocked.” True humility derives from a place where we recognize that all that we are and everything that we have are gifts from God. Humility is not about self-degradation but rather it is a stepping stone to greatness. Humility helps us to rightly understand who we are and to Whom we belong.

The word humility comes from the Latin word “humilitas” meaning “grounded” or “from the earth.” When our

Be humble, be exalted

view of ourselves is grounded in the truth that we are created and loved by God, and that all goodness within comes from Him, then we come to appreciate that we can only be exalted because of Him. Practically speaking, when we set aside our pride, when we humbly put aside our needs and desires to seek the will of God, we are growing in holiness.

Our greatest example of humility is Christ. He put everything aside in order to perfectly submit the will of the Father. Beginning with the Incarnation, we see Christ’s humility. He could have come to earth in any form, yet He chose the most vulnerable of all human forms: infancy. He was completely dependent on Mary and Joseph; He was fully human. Scripture tells us He grew in wisdom and stature as all humans do (Lk 2:52).

The Christ Child, the Savior, needed someone to feed Him and clean Him, and teach Him

to walk, talk and read.

Throughout His life, Christ continues to teach us in His actions about the importance and beauty of humility. Every time we read the stories of Christ washing the feet of the

Be Not Afraid

By Amanda Tarantelli disciples, healing the lepers, speaking with the woman at the well, and eating dinner with tax collectors, we are invited to witness true humility. In Luke 13:16, Christ reminds us that no servant is greater than his Master yet He also reminds us that greatness includes servitude. In a tweet on June 1, Pope Francis said, “Christ leads us to go out from ourselves more and more, to give ourselves and to serve others.” Humility allows others to recognize the greatness that

Catholic college student says 9/11 attacks marked loss of innocence

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Alyssa Badolato, a senior at The Catholic University of America in Washington, described the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, as her loss of innocence.

Badolato said she was 10 when the attacks of 9/11 took place.

“You didn’t think these things could happen in our country,” she said. “Now there’s this fear. We’re still feeling those effects.”

Badolato, former chairman of the College Republicans at Catholic University, is from Cherry Hill, N.J. She and other members of the university’s chapter of College Republicans helped hand out flags to students on campus on the 12th anniversary of 9/11 in remembrance of the lives lost in the terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people in New York City, near Shanksville, Pa., and at the Pentagon.

Nicole Kolenberg, a sophomore from Stamford, Conn., said although she was in second grade in 2001, she remembers the news of the attacks vividly.

“It’s the first thing I remember so vividly,” Kolenberg said.

“My parents came to pick me up from school. We went out in

17

our boat and we could see the Long Island Sound in smoke. It was unreal.”

Kolenberg said flags were laid on the lawn of the Edward J. Pryzbyla University Center in loving memory of all the lives lost.

“We’re trying to fill the lawn up,” she said.

Kolenberg said the events of September 11 were especially difficult for those in her community. “It’s hard because we were so close to the city (New York City),” she said. “We lost a lot of people who were close to us.”

Tom Lahey, a sophomore from New Jersey, said he was also in second grade in 2001.

Lahey said his father was stuck in the subway under the North Tower when that tower of the World Trade Center fell.

“He didn’t get home until 8 p.m. that night,” Lahey said. “He was covered in soot. A couple of my friends’ parents died.”

Students wrote the names of loved ones and prayers on cards where they laid their flags. Jax Descloux, a sophomore from Westchester County in New York, said her father also experienced a close call during the attacks. Descloux said her fa-

ther used to work at the World Trade Center.

“He was supposed to go to the city (on September 11), but he overslept,” she said.

Freshman Dulan Jayawardane said his teachers tried to hide the details of the attacks from students at school.

“Our teachers tried to play it off as an early dismissal,” he said. “We overheard them talking.”

Jayawardane, who is from Bethesda, Md., was five in 2001.

He said he felt frightened after he was picked up from school.

“I heard a plane overhead and got scared on my way home,” Jayawardane said.

Freshman Courtney Wosepka said she lived in Michigan on Sept. 11, 2001. Wosepka said although she was too young to remember the day’s events, she remembers sitting down with her parents a few years later with a postcard of the World Trade Center.

Wosepka said both her parents had been to the World Trade Center before. She said although she was still young, they wanted to help her understand the significance of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

dwells within us, the light of Christ that shines from our hearts.

The greatest action of humility was Christ’s total gift of Self, His death on the cross.

Not only was He sentenced like a common criminal but He also sacrificed Himself for His servants. He humbly submitted Himself to the will of the Father, and through this submission was given the greatest exaltation.

St. Paul tell us in the Letter to the Philippians that because of this sacrifice, God exalted Him so that at even the mention of His name every knee in Heaven and on earth shall bend (Phil 2:10).

There are so many times in my life when I think to myself, “If they would just let me do it myself.” How much humility it takes to say, “help me.”

Another attribute of humility is recognizing when to step aside and let someone more qualified take the lead. I have volunteered for an organization for the last seven years and I truly loved my time there. I also know it has helped to shape me into the person I have become.

When I started volunteering there, my help was greatly needed because there were very few volunteers available. Over the years much prayer has led to an increase in helpers; it is a wonderful blessing. After some

reflection and prayer, I know God was calling me to take on a different (and decreased) role for the organization. There were others who could do my job with much more dedication and commitment. I like to believe that I am vitally important to everything that I am involved in and I think that when this happens, I stop letting God work through me and I become possessive of my undertaking.

I know this organization is going to flourish and I know that I will remain a part of it for a long time, but I also know that I needed to take the step back and let someone else receive the graces that my time there has provided to me. The Litany of Humility reminds us that we must ask for the grace to desire “that, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease.”

My prayer for all of us is that we continue to seek to empty ourselves of our own will and seek to do the will of God so that His love is seen through us.

We pray for the strength to embrace a life of humility so that we may be exalted and receive everlasting life.

Anchor columnist Amanda Tarantelli has been a campus minister at Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth since 2005. She is married, a die-hard sports fan, and resides in Cranston, R.I. She can be reached at atarantelli@ bishopstang.com.

18

September 20, 2013

Father Hurd’s new book offers guidance to help awaken faith continued from page one

mor, like good faith, requires a good dose of humility. Humor can lead us not to take ourselves too seriously, which in turn can make us more humble.

In fact, ‘humor’ and ‘humility’ share a common Latin root: humus, which means ‘soil’ or ‘earth.’ That’s only fitting because humble people, like truly humorous people, are ‘down to earth.’”

Published by Pauline Books, “When Faith Feels Fragile” is the third book penned by the best-selling and award-winning author, whose previous works include “Forgiveness: A Catholic Approach” (2011) and “Daily Devotions for Lent” (2012).

A priest of the archdiocese of Washington, D.C., Father Hurd will be coming to the Fall River Diocese on September 24 for a presentation at St. Bernadette’s Parish in Fall River beginning at 7 p.m.

The Vicar General of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, Father Hurd said the impetus for his latest book was simply to offer guidance and reassurance to people who find themselves struggling with their faith.

“We are all people of faith and as we live out our faith life, sometimes we find faith to be a struggle for any number of reasons,” he explained.

“I, myself, have had struggles; the folks I serve in my min-

istry have had struggles. I’ve found myself preaching about this topic over and over again and just over the course of time it seemed to coalesce into a book. (This book is) the fruit of personal experience, pastoral experience and 20 years of preaching.”

Written in an engaging, conversational style with a healthy dash of wit and humor peppered in, “When Faith Feels Fragile” is Father Hurd’s attempt to help people navigate beyond potential roadblocks or speed-bumps on their faith journey.

“There are times when our faith feels weak, but it’s not something we’re generally happy to admit, especially to others,” he said. “We tend to think it’s a deficiency or a character flaw when, in reality, it’s a normal experience within anyone’s faith journey.

I think it’s good to acknowledge that and to assure people that this isn’t necessarily a bad sign — on the contrary, it might be a good sign that we are growing in our faith.

That’s not something we hear very often and so I hope to reassure people.”

Father Hurd said it’s not uncommon for people to have doubts or questions about their faith and he hopes the book will alleviate their concerns over these all-too-human feelings.

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all the hymns we would sing would be by people who had been either Episcopalians or “People will tell me: ‘I don’t Anglicans and had become feel inspired’ or ‘I don’t feel Catholic,” he said. “And one of close to God’ or ‘My prayer those was ‘Faith of our Fathers’ life is listless, so what’s wrong?’ written by Frederick William Well, it might just be that Faber, an Anglican priest who nothing is wrong,” Father Hurd became Catholic. I gave the fisaid. “It can be a real eye-open- nal blessing and processed out er for people and a real encour- singing that hymn. agement for them to persevere.

“On the following Sunday And then you have folks — and I was inside a Catholic church I include myself in this — who in Washington, D.C. about to encounter hardships and suf- be interviewed for a lay minisfering in life that can present a try position after Mass … when real challenge to our faith. To the opening hymn struck up — understand those challenges it was ‘Faith of our Fathers!’ To and hardships within the con- me, that was God’s way of reastext of the cross and how we suring me that I had taken the understand God and faith … right step and I was on the right can be important as well.” path. It was very consoling to Father Hurd’s own personal me, as you might imagine.” faith journey has given him a A husband and father now unique point-of-view on such ministering as an ordained matters.

Catholic priest, Father Hurd Born and Baptized an Epis- said he can offer unique incopalian, Father Hurd was pre- sights from the perspective of viously ordained in the Episco- both vocations. pal Church until he converted “I think being a parent gives to Catholicism in 1996 and was us a particular insight into God, later ordained a Catholic priest our Father, Who is also a parin 2000. His wife, Stephanie, ent,” Father Hurd said. “That is a lifelong Catholic and the has been a blessing to me not couple now looks forward to only as a Catholic Christian, raising their three children in but also as a priest as I preach the Catholic faith. and relate to others.”

“The Lord ultimately led me “When Faith Feels Fragile” to treasure what could be found is, in fact, dedicated to his three in Catholicism that I didn’t be- children — Charlie, Winnie lieve I could find in my previ- and Isabel. ous ecclesial home, so to speak,” “I’m hoping that my experiFather Hurd said of his conver- ence of being a parent is reflectsion. “When I became a Cath- ed in the book,” he said. “I do olic to me it was an embracing make reference to (them) and of the fullness of the faith and incidents that have happened I’ve never looked back.” to me at home.”

Father Hurd even rememNoting that there isn’t necesbers getting a bit of Divine sarily a thematic or serial conguidance of his own during nection among his three books his final week as an Episcopal “beyond the fact that I wrote priest in Texas in 1996. them,” Father Hurd said his “During my farewell ser- latest tome is much broader in vice … the choir and I decided context that his previous work.

“The first part talks about faith and the struggles we can have and its fragility; but a large part of the book examines how we can open ourselves up to the gift of faith by encountering God in the world in ways that we may not necessarily expect to encounter Him,” he said.

Father Hurd hopes the book will equally connect with those looking to embrace the faith for the first time as well as those seeking to reconsider the Catholic life after finding “they are spinning their wheels in the mud.”

“My editor gave me a wonderful piece of writing advice: she said you have to write with one specific person or group of persons in mind and then hope other people will want to listen in on the conversation,” he said.

“The audience I had in mind were really folks of my generation — we’re at the stage where we are looking to connect being Catholic with everything else in life.”

Although he’s reluctant to characterize his forthcoming talk at St. Bernadette’s Parish as his standard “stump speech,” Father Hurd hopes to offer a succinct, encapsulized overview of the new book that will “focus on faith’s fragility and how to acknowledge it and assure people it’s OK to … look at ways to grow in faith in our daily lives.”

Father Hurd will be discussing his new book at St. Bernadette’s Parish, 529 Eastern Avenue in Fall River, on September 24 beginning at 7 p.m. This presentation is free and open to the public and books will be available. For more information about “When Faith Feels Fragile,” visit www. pauline.org.

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September 20, 2013

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FALL RIVER — Good Shepherd Parish has Eucharistic Adoration every Friday following the 8 a.m. Mass and concluding with 3 p.m. Benediction in the Daily Mass Chapel.

A bilingual holy hour takes place from 2 to 3 p.m. Park behind the church and enter the back door of the connector between the church and the rectory.

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

MASHPEE — Christ the King Parish, Route 151 and Job’s Fishing Road has 8:30 a.m.

Mass every First Friday with special intentions for Respect Life, followed by 24 hours of Eucharistic Adoration in the Chapel, concluding with Benediction Saturday morning followed immediately by an 8:30 Mass.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Taunton — Eucharistic Adoration takes place every Tuesday at St. Anthony Church, 126 School Street, following the 8 a.m. Mass with prayers including the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for vocations, concluding at 6 p.m. with Chaplet of St. Anthony and Benediction. Recitation of the Rosary for peace is prayed Monday through Saturday at 7:30 a.m. prior to the 8 a.m. Mass.

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

Mass. The Blessed Sacrament will be exposed, and Adoration will continue throughout the day. Confessions are heard from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m. Rosary and Benediction begin at 6:30 p.m.

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

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

Catholic leaders urge prayers for victims of Colorado floods

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CNS) — As much of the rest of Colorado scrambled to stay out of the path of raging floodwaters, residents of beleaguered Manitou Springs and other small mountain towns along the Highway 24 corridor gave thanks that, for now anyway, they were out of harm’s way.

“We’re all good,” a woman at the parish office of Our Lady of the Woods in Woodland Park, said September 13 to The Colorado Catholic Herald, newspaper of the Colorado Springs Diocese. Heavy rains fell across much of Colorado’s Front Range for several days, and more rain fell through the September 14-15 weekend.

Areas scarred by forest fires — in the Colorado Springs

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks Sept. 21 Rev. George Pager, Founder, Sacred Heart, New Bedford, 1882 Rev. George Jowdy, Pastor, Our Lady of Purgatory, New Bedford, 1938 Rev. William H. Crane, SM, Superior at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Victories, Boston, 1988 Sept. 23 Rev. Antoine Charest, SM, Former Assistant, St. Jean Baptiste, Fall River, 2001 Sept. 24 Rev. Joseph E.C. Bourque, Pastor, Blessed Sacrament, Fall River, 1955 Sept. 25 Rev. Robert J. Woodley, S.J., Missionary, Taunton, New Bedford, Fall River, 1857 Deacon Robert B. Raymond, 2007 Sept. 26 Rev. John J. Donahue, Assistant, St. William, Fall River, 1944 Rev. Flavius Gamache, SMM, Former Pastor, St. Peter, Dighton, 1996 Rev. John C. Martins, Former Pastor, St. Anthony of Padua, Fall River, 2008 Rev. Clement E. Dufour, Retired, Former Pastor, Sacred Heart, New Bedford, 2009 Sept. 27 Rev. John W. Greene, S.J., Former Teacher at Bishop Connolly High School, Fall River, 1991

area and in northern Colorado — were particularly vulnerable to flooding. In Colorado’s northern counties, which make up the Denver Arch-

diocese, widespread flooding forced the evacuation of thousands of people, namely in the cities of Boulder, Lyons and Lafayette.

Around the Diocese From September 25 through November 3, you’re invited to join the 40 Days for Life campaign. Join the effort to stand and peacefully pray during a 40-day vigil in the public right-of-way outside of the only remaining abortion clinic located in the diocese: Four Women Clinic, 150 Emory Street in Attleboro, for one or more hours during the 40 days and spread the word to others about this important life-saving effort. To get more information or to volunteer, please contact Ron Larose at 508-736-9813, email 40DFLAttleboro@comcast.net, or visit www.40daysforlife.com/ attleboro to register.

The National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette, 947 Park Street in Attleboro, will host St. Padré Pio Pilgrimage Day with guest speaker Frank Kelly on September 28 beginning at 11 a.m. with Rosary in the shrine church, followed by Mass at 12:10 p.m. There will also be adoration, a healing service, and veneration of St. Padré Pio’s relics. For more information call 508-236-9068 or visit www.lasaletteservices.info.

Holy Family Church, 438 Middleboro Avenue in East Taunton is hosting its annual Penny Sale September 28 in the parish center. The doors open at 5 p.m. and the drawings will begin at 6 p.m. The kitchen will be open and offering food and drinks throughout the evening. All are welcome. There will be a penny sale, special raffles, a children’s table, baskets of cheer and a Chinese raffle. Prizes include convention ovens, vacuum cleaners, blenders, themed gift baskets, and a child’s bicycle.

The Brazilian Catholic Community of St. Francis Xavier Parish will be holding a Divine Mercy Retreat at St. Pius X Parish Life Center, 5 Barber Street in South Yarmouth. The two-day retreat will be held September 28 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and again on September 29 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Preachers will be Father Pedro Claudio and Sister Zelia and the theme of the retreat is “Mercy in the Family.” The program will be offered in Portuguese, Spanish and English.

Mass, the Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet and exposition of the Blessed Sacrament will be a part of the two-day program. All are welcome to attend.

For more information contact José at 774-368-0244, Fatima at 774-368-0243, Mari at 508-364-8437, Magda at 508-250-7115, or Bo at 774-212-2474.

The Fall River Area Men’s First Friday Club will meet on October 4 at the Chapel of St. Mary’s Cathedral, 327 Second Street in Fall River. Following the 6 p.m. Mass celebrated by Father Karl Bissinger, a hot meal catered by White’s of Westport will be served in the school hall across the street. The guest speaker is Deacon Peter Cote, whose primary duty is pastoral care at the Catholic Memorial Home. Members and guests are welcome. For more information contact Norman Valiquette at 508-672-8174.

A Day with Mary will be held October 5 at Our Lady of Grace Church, 569 Sanford Road in Westport, from 7:50 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. It will include a video presentation, procession and crowning of the Blessed Mother with Mass and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Please bring a bag lunch. There will be an opportunity for Reconciliation and a bookstore will be available. For more information call 508-996-8274.

The second annual Harvest Fair will be held October 5 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the grounds of St. Francis Xavier Church in Hyannis. There will be food booths, work from local crafters, a kids’ corner, a White Elephant area, a native pumpkin sale and a silent auction. There will be something for all ages to do and eat. Crafters who would like to participate should contact Germaine at 508-775-9017 for more information on reserving tables.

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September 20, 2013 Anchor Columnist That’s what friends are for

S

The Catholic Women’s Club recently held its annual Bishop’s Night at the Wamsutta Club in New Bedford. Bishop George W. Coleman, second from right, was the guest of honor at the event also attended by retired Msgr. Barry W. Wall, right. With them, are club officers, from right: Joyce Audette, Leonora Carreiro, Mary Mitchell, Delia Silva, Mary Griffin, and club president, Lynne Kuczewski.

To advertise in The Anchor, contact Wayne Powers at 508-675-7151 or Email

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ince getting word from computer, I could sense all of my neurosurgeon last this ... but I couldn’t do it! month not to swing a golf Sensing my ever-increasclub until next year, I’ve been ing frustration, one of my trying to feed my golf habit golf partners, Msgr. Tom with computer games and Harrington, devised a soluwatching others play it on tion to give me at least a television. small taste of the pleasure I Both attempts have only knew I was missing. made me more frustrated. In He called the club house both attempts I could smell of our usual course and the freshly cut grass; feel relayed my pathetic story to the cushy fairways beneath them. He asked if I could my feet, and sense the warm accompany him while he breeze that blew gently played a round, and also across the course. asked if I could chip and putt I could feel the rubber when we reached the greens. handle of my driver as I apThe manager said that proached the tee box; could would not be a problem. The feel the dimples on the ball good monsignor called me as I balanced it on the tee.

I calculated the distance based on the wind and the terrain (not

By Dave Jolivet that I could ever do much about that when I could play). with the surprise good news, I felt the impact of club and off we went last week. on ball, as I watched the orb To resist any stupid soar toward the short grass temptations I may have to on the fairway. (Hey, this swing a club, even just once, is a day dream isn’t it? Let I brought with me only my me fantasize I hit the ball putter and pitching wedge straight!)

— neither of which takes a I heard the clump of the swing to use. clubs as I searched my golf The day was unseasonably bag for a short iron to loft warm and I chauffeured Msgr. the ball on to the carpet-like H around the course soakgreen a mere 90 yards away. ing in the sights, sounds and Again, I felt the club-tosmells of a golf course that ball contact and watch as the wasn’t on a high-def screen. ball arced toward the flagsI pitched and putted when tick, landing but yards away we reached the greens, and it (still day dreaming here). was like eating breakfast the And finally, after surveyday after Ash Wednesday! ing the undulations on the We had, as we always do, a bouncy green carpet, I took wonderful afternoon tomy pendulum-like practice gether, chatting about anyputts before I approached the thing and everything. At one ball and sent it on a path that point, he hit a rather poor ended up in the bottom of shot, turned to me as I sat the cup, landing there with in the golf cart and blurted, that sweet ball-on-plastic “This is your fault.” Wideclopping sound. eyed, I responded, “What?”

Yep, while watching golf He said if I hadn’t been laid on TV and playing it on the up all summer, he would have gotten out more and would be better by this time of year.

My bad.

When people asked me how it felt to get out there, I told them it was like someone on a diet watching another eating chocolate. But at least it was a taste, and more importantly, it was a very nice gesture from a very nice man.

Anchor columnist Dave Jolivet can be reached at davejolivet@anchornews.org.

My View From the Stands