09.26.08

Diocese of Fall River

The Anchor

F riday , September 26, 2008

Local group readies for Life Walk

Area priest addresses Budapest conference

By Deacon James N. Dunbar

By Michael Pare Anchor Staff

FALL RIVER — For Father Thomas M. Kocik of Santo Christo Parish on Canal Street, the lazy days of summer were anything but lazy. Instead, he spent much of his summer fine tuning a paper entitled, “The ‘Reform of the Reform’ in Broad Context: Reengaging the Living Tradition.”

He had the honor of presenting his paper at the international conference, “Pope Benedict XVI and the Sacred Liturgy,” which took place in late August in Budapest, Hungary.

Father Kocik was invited to present his paper by one of the conference organizers, Professor Laszlo Dobszay, a friend he met at a conference on liturgy at Oxford University in 2006. Dobszay is a composer of liturgical music and a specialist in Gregorian chant.

The conference was held at the Liszt Ferenc Music Academy in Budapest, where the famous composer Franz Liszt lived and worked. It was co-sponsored by the St. Augustine Liturgical Atelier and the Church Music Association of Hungary.

Father Kocik said the conference was an opportunity to discuss the state of the liturgy, now 40 years after Vatican II. He found it to be a constructive opportunity.

He offered the following in an exchange with The Anchor last week: Anchor: Tell us a bit about the conference itself.

Father Kocik: The purpose of the conference was to assess the current state of affairs in light of the teaching, pastoral activity, and directives of the Holy Father.

Pope Benedict XVI, while he was prefect of the Congregation for Turn to page 12

BEGINNINGS — Bishop George W. Coleman, right, celebrated Mass last Sunday at the new St. Nicholas of Myra Parish in North Dighton. Father Timothy Goldrick, center was installed as the new pastor.

Altar server Joshua Tibbels holds a sign with the parish’s new insignia. (Photo by Steve Platt)

The Pauline Year: Paul brings unity and cohesion to Christian faiths

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

FALL RIVER — As a pioneering figure in the early formation of the Church, St. Paul would often by virtue of his role be called upon to foster a sense of community among different groups with varying beliefs. The essence of his theological teachings — a series of letters sent to remote areas in an effort to propagate a coherent Christian doctrine — were borne out of the need to provide some guidance and direction to those early sects who came to Christ after having been converted from other creeds.

Indeed, Paul can be viewed as a central unifying force in the formation of the Church. His ecumenical mission was rooted in spreading the Gospel to all faiths and to gather people under the umbrella of Christ’s teachings.

“In some ways, that’s what made Paul a controversial figure,” said the Reverend David Lima, executive minister of the InterChurch Council of New Bedford.

“I think the thing that happens in society is we tend to follow a mission, a person, or a cause. Sometimes we follow without a solid foundation.”

“There were, particularly in the Church of Corinth, a number of factions that Paul had to address,” agreed Father Marc H. Bergeron, pastor of St. Anne’s Parish in Fall River. “There were more people involved with Peter at the time than Jesus. That was all part of some rather profound changes that took place early on. As the Church grew, they had to deal with all these early problems.”

“The last thing Peter wanted was to have followers of Peter,” Rev. Lima said. “He wanted people to follow Christ. It’s the same thing today with the various religious figures that become so prominent and people become followers of the figure rather than the faith. When it fails, it’s because we are putting our faith in a person and not in Christ himself.

People tend to get more excited over the messenger than the message.”

In his time, Paul also had to deal with a variety of rituals and traditions that were already deeply-ingrained in certain cultures.

“At the time of St. Paul, there was a Eucharist in the Church, but they didn’t do it right because the rich would have their juicy food and the poor wouldn’t share in it,” Father Bergeron said. “That was really the beginning of a change from the potluck-type meal to the Mass as we know it. You’ll find that in Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. They would meet in people’s homes and then, as the Church grew, they began to gather in public buildings.”

With certain traditions from other faiths gradually becoming part of the fledgling rituals of the Catholic Church, this familiarity Turn to page 18

FALL RIVER — When dozens of Pro-Lifers that include adults, students and representatives from many Fall River Diocese parishes and groups arrive in Boston October 5 for the 22nd annual Respect Life Walk to benefit mothers and children in crisis, they will truly exemplify the theme “Helping Hands and Hearts.”

That’s the slogan for this year adopted by Massachusetts Citizens for Life, which for two decades has hosted the annual walk-a-thon fund-raiser.

The locals will be joining several hundred, who through their $5 registration fee for those aged 18 and older, and by sponsor monies raised by the walkers themselves, offer needed support to 47 Massachusetts Pro-Life organizations that include crisis pregnancy centers, counseling services, women’s shelters and educational programs.

In an effort to facilitate those who want to join in the 3.1-mile walk at 2:30 p.m., a bus has been chartered.

“The Fall River MCFL Chapter is sponsoring a bus to bring local walkers to the Boston Commons, so there is no need to worry about parking or the Boston traffic,” reported Dorothy Nicolau, local chairman for the walk.

“The central pickup location is at Immaculate Conception Church on County Street in Fall River,” Nicolau reported.

“Departure time will be at 11:15 a.m. The bus will proceed to the Taunton Galleria Park and Ride in Taunton arriving at approximately noon, and then head to Boston Commons.”

Those wishing to travel on the bus can reserve a seat by calling Nicolau at 508-674-8695; or by calling Fall River diocesan MCFL chairman, Bea Martins at 508-678-3351.

This year, the Archdiocese of Boston has added some interesting, first-time events in hopes of attracting more young people, including high school students, to take part.

Turn to page 18

News From the Vatican

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September 26, 2008

Pontiff says history proving great worth of Pope Paul VI

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, ( Zenit.org) Pope Paul VI’s pontificate for the Church and the world is ever more apparent as the years go by, says his current successor, Benedict XVI. The Pope affirmed this in a letter, made public by the Holy See on Monday, addressed to Bishop Luciano Monari of Brescia, Italy, the diocese where Giovanni Battista Montini, the future Paul VI, was born. The letter marked the 30th anniversary of Paul VI’s death. “With the passage of time, the importance of Paul VI’s pontificate for the Church and the world is becoming increasingly evident,” Benedict XVI affirmed.

He called “invaluable” the legacy of the “magisterium and virtues he left to believers and to the whole of humanity.

The Holy Father noted that Paul VI faced a difficult historical period, which he said was “marked by not a few challenges and problems,” especially during the Second Vatican Council and following years. Benedict XVI also mentioned his predecessor’s “missionary ardor,” which “led him to undertake apostolic jour-

neys even to far away nations, and to carry out gestures of high ecclesial, missionary and ecumenical value.”

The German Pontiff recalled personal experiences of his predecessor, noting that it was Paul VI who named him archbishop of Munich in 1977 and elevated him to the status of cardinal.

“Thirty years have passed since that Aug. 6 of 1978, when Pope Paul VI’s life was extinguished in the summer residence of Castel Gandolfo,” noted the Holy Father.

“It was the night of the day in which the Church celebrates the luminous mystery of the transfiguration of Christ.

In remembering his predecessor’s death, Benedict XVI thanked God for “having given the Church a pastor and faithful witness of Christ the Lord, so sincerely and profoundly in love with the Church and so close to the hopes and expectations of the people of his time.”

“I hope,” he added, “that every member of the People of God will be able to honor his memory with a commitment to a sincere and constant search for truth.”

This Message Sponsored by the Following Business Concern in the Diocese of Fall River Gilbert C. Oliveira Insurance Agency

PRAYING FOR THE SICK — Pope Benedict XVI prepares to anoint a pilgrim with holy oil during a Mass for the sick at the Marian sanctuaries of Lourdes, France, Sept. 15. The pope was in Lourdes primarily to mark the 150th anniversary of Mary’s appearances to St. Bernadette Soubirous. (CNS photo/Alberto Pizzoli, pool via Reuters)

Cross shows true love does not exist without suffering, pope says

matured the need for a healthy distinction between the political sphere and that of religion acVATICAN CITY — God’s cording to the famous saying of love poured out on humanity Jesus, ‘Render unto Caesar that through the cross of Jesus offers which is Caesar’s and unto God healing and salvation to all peothat which is God’s,’” he said. ple, Pope Benedict XVI said.

While Roman coins were At a recent general auwith the face dience, the pope reflectwanted to meditate on the tears of stamped of the Emperor Caesar, ed on his mid-September Mary at the foot of the cross and requiring a monetary trip to France, which he said had brought him on her smile, which illuminates Easter tribute to him, the pope said, “in the heart of morning. many blessings. man there is the imprint “By a happy coinciof the creator, the one dence,” he said, SeptemLord of our life. Authentic secuto move forward with great trust ber 14 when he visited the Marlarism is not doing without the because God is good, God is ian sanctuaries at Lourdes was spiritual dimension, but knowing love.” the feast of the Exaltation of the that it is the radical guarantee of Pope Benedict said that by Holy Cross, “the sign of hope par our freedom.” starting his trip in Paris, meeting excellence because it is the testiThe estimated 10,000 people government officials, cultural mony of maximum love.” who had free tickets to the pope’s leaders, young people and reli“In Lourdes, at the school of audience could not all fit into gious, he had an opportunity to Mary, the first and perfect discithe audience hall. Several hunpay homage to the contributions ple of the crucified one, pilgrims dred stood in the audience hall’s of French Catholicism to Eurolearn to consider the crosses of parking lot and were treated to a pean culture. their lives in the light of the glosnail’s pace papal drive-by be“It is interesting that it was rious cross of Christ,” he said. fore the audience began. precisely in that context that there Pope Benedict told a packed

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

I

Vatican audience hall: “The cross reminds us that true love does not exist without suffering; there is no gift of life without pain. Many learn that truth in Lourdes, which is a school of faith and hope because it also is a school of charity and of service to one’s brothers and sisters.”

He said that at his Mass with the anointing of the sick at Lourdes, “I wanted to meditate on the tears of Mary at the foot of the cross and on her smile, which illuminates Easter morning.”

By appearing to St. Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, he

said, Mary “opened in the world a privileged place for encountering divine love, which heals and saves.”

“In reality, we are all pilgrims” on earth, he said. “We need a mother to guide us. And at Lourdes, her smile invites us

The Anchor

OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 52, No. 36

Member: Catholic Press Association, Catholic News Service

Published weekly except for two weeks in the summer and the week after Christmas by the Catholic Press of the Diocese of Fall River, 887 Highland Avenue, Fall River, MA 02720, Telephone 508-675-7151 — FAX 508-675-7048, email: theanchor@anchornews.org.

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Send address changes to P.O. Box 7, Fall River, MA, call or use email address

PUBLISHER - Most Reverend George W. Coleman EXECUTIVE EDITOR Father Roger J. Landry fatherrogerlandry@anchornews.org EDITOR David B. Jolivet davejolivet@anchornews.org NEWS EDITOR Deacon James N. Dunbar jimdunbar@anchornews.org OFFICE MANAGER Mary Chase m arychase@anchornews.org ADVERTISING Wayne Powers waynepowers@anchornews.org REPORTER Michael Pare michaelpare@anchornews.org REPORTER Kenneth J. Souza kensouza@anchornews.org Send Letters to the Editor to: fatherrogerlandry@anchornews.org POSTMASTERS send address changes to The Anchor, P.O. Box 7, Fall River, MA 02722.

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September 26, 2008

The International Church

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Cardinal Turcotte returns Order of Canada medal to protest Morgentaler

GIVE PEACE A CHANCE — Schoolchildren hold signs promoting peace and the end of terrorism during a ceremony at a school in Ahmedabad, India, recently. The ceremony was held to pay tribute to those who died in the September 13 bomb blasts in New Delhi. (CNS photo/Amit Dave, Reuters)

In France, Pope Benedict shows the many dimensions of his ministry

LOURDES, France (CNS) — Being pope is not a one-dimensional job, a fact that was clearly evident during Pope Benedict XVI’s recent four-day visit to France.

Arriving in Paris September 12, the pope first engaged in an important political encounter that attempted to build on the new openness shown the Church by President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Next, in a brief meeting with Jews, he managed to capsulize in 20 graceful lines the Church’s respect for Judaism and its firm rejection of anti-Semitism.

That evening, the pope slipped into his academic role and delivered a lecture on monasticism’s influence on Western civilization to 700 scholars and intellectuals.

He then switched gears and led vespers in Notre Dame Cathedral with priests and religious, emphasizing that while their ranks may be thinning their role in the Church has lost none of its value and, indeed, is irreplaceable.

Finally, he stepped outside and energized a waiting crowd of 40,000 young people, drawing roars of approval when he said the Church needs them and has confidence in them.

It was a whirlwind beginning and demonstrated a remarkable pastoral versatility on the part of the 81-year-old pontiff.

The next day, after celebrating Mass for a larger-than-expected crowd in Paris, he went to Lourdes and showed another side of his role as universal pastor -- a Marian side.

It’s no secret that, as a theologian and bishop, Pope Benedict was not always comfortable with certain aspects of popular Marian

devotion and claims of apparitions.

But over the years he has widened his views, saying in 2002 that, “the older I am, the more important the mother of God is to me.”

So at Lourdes pilgrims heard the scholarly pope preach the value of “humble and intense prayer” like the rosary. He told his listeners that devotion to Mary was not a form of “pious infantilism” but an expression of spiritual maturity.

When he took a drink from the Lourdes spring that many pilgrims believe to be the font of miraculous cures, he was demonstrating that the Christian lives by simple signs and symbols as well as by theological ideas.

The pope’s trip to Lourdes was bound to be compared to Pope John Paul II’s moving visit to the shrine in 2004. Ailing and unsteady, the late pope had to ask for help on the altar; it was his last foreign trip.

At his Mass with thousands of sick people on September 15, the final day of his visit, he thanked Catholics at Lourdes and all over the world who volunteer their time and effort to help the infirm.

That highlighted a key theme of Pope Benedict’s pontificate, one he has underlined in encyclicals but which is sometimes overlooked: that personal charity — love in action — is the ultimate expression of faith in Jesus Christ.

Another difference between Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul surfaced during the visit. The late pope, on his first trip to France in 1980, sternly critiqued the French drift from the faith, asking Catholics, “France, the eldest daughter of the Church, are you faithful to the promise of your baptism?”

Pope Benedict took a softer approach, alluding to pastoral prob-

lems but keeping the focus on the positive — for example, the enthusiastic crowd of 260,000 people at his Paris liturgy, and said he had been likewise encouraged by the strong turnout of youths at a Paris vigil.

In his talk to French bishops, he touched on a sore point when he urged the bishops to show flexibility toward traditionalists who want to take advantage of his 2007 rule change on the use of the Tridentine rite, the Mass rite used before the Second Vatican Council.

As a whole, though, the pope framed his message in optimistic terms. Whether talking to politicians, pastoral workers, scholars, the sick or the young, he emphasized that the Church is at home in France, and its voice — including the voice of prayer — must continue to be heard.

STE.-ANNE-DE-BEAUPRE, Quebec (CNS) — Flanked by the bishops of Quebec, Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte of Montreal announced he was handing back his 1996 Order of Canada medal to protest that the same award was given to an abortion physician this summer.

“I renounce the honor of the Order of Canada awarded to me,” Cardinal Turcotte told a press conference at the Assembly of Quebec Catholic Bishops in Ste.-Anne-deBeaupre, near Quebec City. “I am thus returning the medal that was given to me.”

The cardinal said he decided to return the medal because of the late summer announcement that the same honor was being awarded to Dr. Henry Morgentaler, whose 19-year legal battle led to the lifting of the country’s restrictions on abortion.

“Until now, I believed that the Order of Canada was awarded to people in the presence of a positive consensus about their achievements,” Cardinal Turcotte said.

Adding that he was absent from Canada when the award to Morgentaler was announced, Cardinal Turcotte said he had hoped that

in the face of widespread protest against the nominee, the board of the Order of Canada award would review its decision.

“But as up to now this has not been the case, and a silence on my part could be misinterpreted, my conscience obliges me to reaffirm my convictions regarding respect for life from conception until death,” he said.

“We are not masters of human life,” the cardinal added.

Cardinal Turcotte is the third person to have renounced their Order of Canada award because of its presentation to Morgentaler.

A British Columbia priest, Father Lucien Larre, and the former lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick, Gilbert Finn, returned their medals earlier.

Although the cardinal denied that the timing of his announcement — at the beginning of the Canadian federal election campaign — had any significance, he also told Canadians, “The issue is one that voters must take into consideration when they exercise their right to vote.”

“Candidates should ask themselves, ‘Do I follow the majority or do I follow my conscience?’” he said.

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The Church in the U.S.

September 26, 2008

USCCB strongly supports draft HHS regulations protecting conscience

WASHINGTON — Proposed regulations protecting the conscience rights of individuals and health care institutions are especially needed in light of the “growing hostility on the part of some professional organizations and advocacy groups” to those rights, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in public comments to the Department of Health and Human Services.

The comments came in a sixpage letter to Brenda Destro in the HHS Office of Public Health and Service from Anthony R. Picarello, USCCB general counsel, and Michael F. Moses, associate general counsel.

Expressing “strong support for the proposed rule,” the USCCB letter noted that an earlier leaked version of the HHS proposal had prompted “negative public reaction ... by pro-abortion groups and some editorial writers.”

“The adverse reaction demonstrates, at best, a deplorable lack of understanding about the federal legislative rights of conscience on which the proposed regulations are based, at worst outright hostility to those statutory rights,” it said.

As examples, Picarello and Moses cited a November 2007 opinion of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists calling it unethical for OB-GYNs to decline to provide or refer for abortions or sterilizations and an American Civil Liberties Union report and advocacy kit that aims to require all hospitals to provide abortions.

“Judging from much of the public commentary, one would think that rights of conscience in health care are a recent invention, and that the statutes implemented through this rule simply did not exist,” they said. “The regulations are therefore all the more critical to ensure that Congress’ intent will be carried out.”

The USCCB letter also urged that the regulations be strengthened by defining abortion as “any drug, procedure or other act that the objector reasonably believes may take the life of a human being in utero at

any time between conception (fertilization) and natural birth.”

“The regulations are intended to give broad protection to the conscience of institutional and individual health care providers,” it said. “The protections they provide therefore should not become ineffective when the abortifacient procedure at issue operates before implantation.”

Because there may be “conflicting and changing (scientific) evidence” about which drugs or devices interfere with implantation, the two lawyers said, Catholic teaching currently does not speak on that issue.

“But it is important to defend the principle that conscientious objection to abortion should be protected at every stage, especially as new drugs or devices may emerge in the future that clearly would act chiefly by disrupting implantation and therefore pose a very direct new challenge to consciences,” they added.

The regulations, as proposed, define abortion as “any of the various procedures — including the prescription and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action — that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation.”

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America and 56 other organizations said in a July 22 letter to HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said such a definition would rewrite conscience laws “to permit institutions as well as individuals to refuse to provide women access not only to abortion but to contraceptive services and information.”

In introducing the regulations in late August, Leavitt said “doctors and other health care providers should not be forced to choose between good professional standing and violating their conscience.”

“Freedom of expression and action should not be surrendered upon the issuance of a health care degree,” Leavitt added.

RECALLING A FRIEND — Maureen Orth, wife of the late Tim Russert, and Mercy Sister Lucille Socciarelli, Russert’s seventhgrade teacher and long-time friend, pose with a portrait of the newscaster before a Memorial Mass for Russert at Our Lady of Victory Basilica in Lackawanna, N.Y. Sister Socciarelli is a member of the chaplaincy staff at Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River. (CNS photo/Gary Loncki, Sisters of Mercy)

DISPLACED HOME — A resident walks next to a damaged house after Hurricane Ike struck Galveston, Texas. The hurricane hit the Texas and Louisiana coasts September 13, causing extensive damage and flooding. (CNS photo/Carlos Barria, Reuters)

Residents urged to be patient, kind as all cope with Ike’s wake

By Carol Zimmermann Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON — The retired archbishop of GalvestonHouston told a small congregation gathered for Mass last week at Sacred Heart Co-Cathedral in Houston to stay calm in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike and to be friendly to one another, especially as they coped with the challenge of living without electricity.

Archbishop Joseph A. Fiorenza also told them to be grateful the storm, which made landfall September 13, had not taken as many lives as was feared.

The Category 2 storm killed 30 people in its path across eight states.

“This calls us in times of great distress to have patience and kindness with one another, to realize we are going to have a long time of endurance and great inconvenience,” the archbishop said, according to a report in the Houston Chronicle daily newspaper.

“But with good humor and God’s grace and our public officials ... hopefully the time of great endurance won’t be too long,” he said.

When Hurricane Ike swept across the Texas coast with its 100 mph winds, battering waves and torrential rains, it damaged thousands of homes, submerged huge sections of Galveston and left at least two million people without power.

Prior to Ike’s actual landfall, much of the area around Galveston Island and the southern part of the Archdiocese of

Galveston-Houston fell victim to the 15-foot storm surge, water brought ashore by the storm’s strong winds.

Daylight brought a realization of the scope and magnitude of the storm’s damage; it left homes in splinters, downed trees and power lines, and flooded neighborhoods. But a proper assessment of damage to areas of the archdiocese was not immediately possible.

While the height of the surging water did not reach the expected 20 feet, it still caused extensive damage, washing away roads and flooding homes.

Houston, without power and with many of its streets covered with glass shards from broken skyscraper windows, was placed under a weeklong curfew.

Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of GalvestonHouston were closed as the storm approached and were to reopen “according to their readiness and safety,” said an announcement on the archdiocesan Website. Only essential departments at the chancery offices were reopened and school officials had to work out of a command center at the chancery as their own offices were without power.

Many local parishes canceled Sunday Masses for September 14, or consolidated them into one or two services.

Efforts to assist victims were being undertaken by the St. Vincent de Paul Society in the archdiocese, as well as the local office of Catholic Charities, which was itself without power.

Preliminary reports stated that at least 40 parishes in the archdiocese sustained damage from the storm. Still unknown was the situation of the parishes on Galveston Island, specifically St. Mary’s Cathedral Basilica, which is the mother church of the state of Texas.

Local officials were scheduled to tour church properties in Galveston sometime in the coming days.

Other parts of southeast Texas as well as areas of southern Louisiana fell victim to the wrath of Hurricane Ike. Catholic schools in the Diocese of Beaumont, Texas, were closed “until further notice” because of a lack of electricity.

The pastoral center was similarly closed, according to a message on a temporary Website set up for the diocese. Catholics in the Beaumont Diocese were not required to fulfill their Sunday Mass obligation during the September 13-14 weekend.

Catholic Charities agencies set up mobile food centers and community resource sites in southern Texas after the storm to provide food, water, ice, hygiene kits, tarps and cleanup supplies. They also provided gas cards and other aid to assist stranded evacuees in their return home as well as crisis counseling and case management.

Bishop Glen J. Provost of Lake Charles, La., said Catholics in his diocese “stand in solidarity with all who have suffered in this recent storm” and offered prayers for those who died.

The Church in the U.S.

September 26, 2008

5

Pro-Life office offers new ads on stem-cell research, abortion policy

VESTED INTEREST — Precious Blood Father Clarence Williams, senior director for racial equality and diversity initiatives at Catholic Charities USA, looks on during an interfaith prayer vigil in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington. The service concluded a week-long event titled “Fighting Poverty With Faith: A Week of Action.” (CNS photo/Bob Roller)

Prayers at Capitol urge candidates’ concern for the poor; seek justice

By Dennis Sadowski Catholic News Service

public square.”

Rabbi Gutow, who coordinated the service that closed the “Fighting Poverty With Faith: A Week of Action” effort with Father Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA, said that the growing poverty in America threatens to undermine the spirit of justice promised by God. “We pledge that this is just the beginning,” he said. “We will do all we can to hold America’s political leaders accountable to uphold their own values and their

many voices talking about the needs of the 38 million Americans living in poverty will lead WASHINGTON — The needs to national and local policies that of poor and marginalized people help people in need. deserve the same attention from Also joining the Capitol Hill government officials as the curevent were Sister Simone Camprent needs of Wall Street’s failing bell, a Sister of Social Service who financial firms, said a group of reis executive director of Network, ligious leaders. the Catholic social justice lobby; Praying outside the U.S. CapiAhmad El Bendary, president of tol last week, Catholic, ProtesIslamic Relief; Bishop James F. tant, Islamic and Jewish leaders Mauney of the Virginia Synod of invoked the words of the prophet the Evangelical Lutheran Church Micah in calling upon candidates in America; and the Rev. Jim for public office in the November Wallis, chief executive 4 election to join with e need to build an army of faithful officer of Sojourners, an Americans of faith concerned about the growwho wish to take our view of God’s evangelical-inspired juscommunity in Washing poverty in the U.S. to message into the vineyards of public life tice ington. work for justice for the and to the public square.

Two Democratic mempoor. bers of the U.S. House of During the service Representatives, Barbara Lee of speakers discussed how poverty own commitments.”

Father Snyder told Catholic California and John Sarbanes of has grown in recent years, but said little attention has been given News Service that the week was Maryland, also spoke, pledging to to the needs of the poor. The Rev. guided by a desire to unify pov- make the issue of poverty a priJames McDonald, vice president erty-fighting efforts among faith ority in the next session of Congress. for policy and programs at Bread communities.

“What we tried to do with The prayer service ended a for the World, an international Christian citizens’ movement that this week is to have an event that week-long effort by faith comfights hunger, contrasted the lack would galvanize our efforts to munities across the country to of response to the poor with the bring (poverty) to the forefront highlight the issue of poverty as a quick action by the federal gov- of people’s consciousness so they concern that deserves the utmost ernment to bail out failing finan- could see there’s a lot more to be attention from political leaders as cial firms as the mortgage crisis done,” Father Snyder said. “The well as people of faith. The effort real impact on poverty will be was sponsored by a coalition of envelops the national economy.

“We religious people need to made through local people com- more than 20 religious groups inbe as strong as we can be here ing together in an interfaith way cluding Catholic Charities USA. Nationwide, activities focused in America,” said Rabbi Steve to really raise the issue of people on ways to raise awareness of Gutow, executive director of the living in poverty.”

Catholic Charities has intro- poverty in communities across Jewish Council for Public Affairs, at the start of an hourlong pro- duced its own Campaign to Re- the country. Programs were ofgram. “We need to build an army duce Poverty in America with the fered in more than 100 communiof faithful who wish to take our goal of halving poverty by 2020. ties in 36 states under the banner view of God’s message into the As the campaign continues, Fa- “Fighting Poverty With Faith: A vineyards of public life and to the ther Snyder is hoping that having Week of Action.”

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Four new ads from the U.S. bishops’ Office of Pro-Life Activities are available to help dioceses and Pro-Life organizations spread the word about progress in research using adult stem cells, the true extent of current abortion policy under Roe v. Wade and the threats posed by the proposed Freedom of Choice Act. The ads first appeared in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, which was distributed at the Democratic National Convention in Denver and the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.

The first ad highlights scientific advances that are making the use of embryonic stem cells obsolete, including the development of induced pluripotent stem, or iPS, cells, derived from ordinary body cells, that can be coaxed into any type of cell in the body, as embryonic stem cells can be.

Picturing a commuter running for a train, the ad asks: “Science is moving on. Isn’t it time for public policy to get on board?”

Scientists at Harvard University also recently announced that they had transformed a fully developed adult cell into another inside a mouse. Their research, publicized in late August in the journal Nature, discovered three molecular switches that could be flipped to convert a common cell in the pan-

creas into the insulin-producing ones that diabetics need.

Richard P. Doerflinger, associate director of the bishops’ ProLife office, called the latest discovery “a ‘win-win’ situation for medicine and ethics.”

The second ad on stem-cell research highlights advances already being made to treat patients with adult stem cells, with the tagline “Adult Stem Cell Research: Let’s Find Cures We Can All Live With.” The ad directs readers to www.stemcellresearch.org for more information.

A third ad underscores the extreme nature of Roe v. Wade, by noting “The human heart begins to beat at 22 days. Roe v. Wade says a doctor can stop it for the next 244. ... Have we gone too far?”

The full-color ad directs viewers to www.secondlookproject.org for more information on abortion law.

The final ad calls on members of Congress to “pledge now to oppose” the Freedom of Choice Act, which would eliminate virtually all current laws regulating abortion and mandate taxpayer funding of abortion. The measure has been introduced in the House and Senate.

Featuring a graphic of a red octagonal sign with the word “GO” instead of “STOP,” the ad reads: “You can’t reduce abortions by promoting abortions. If you agree, oppose the ‘Freedom of Choice Act.’”

RetreatsatGlastonburyAbbey

W

FALL 2008

If today you hear His Voice harden not your hearts.

The monks and staff of Glastonbury Abbey invite you to nourish your soul and refresh your spirit by giving yourself time to be present to your God and to relax in an atmosphere of prayer and rest.

The Abbey, surrounded by lush woodlands and a short distance (two miles) from the ocean, affords the opportunity to walk, soak up the sun, reflect and rest.

Retreatants are welcome to share the prayer life of the monks at the communal celebrations of the Liturgy of the Hours and daily Eucharist.

Come and experience a Benedictine approach to life - sit quietly ... ponder ... pray and be renewed!

Call to reserve your place: Retreat Secretary

Glastonbury Abbey

16 Hull Street, Hingham, MA 02043 Tel (781) 749-2155 (8:30 A.M.-3:00 P.M.) Fax (781) 749-6236 Web site: http://www.glastonburyabbey.org e-mail: retreats@glastonburyabbey.org

Oct. 24-26, Women’s Retreat: “Sowing Seeds of Peace” with Sandra

DeRome, Obl. OSB Oct. 31-Nov.2, “Daily Life as Spiritual Practice” with Bro. Walters, OSB

and Martin Mullins, M.Sc. Nov. 7-9, “Monastic Spirituality” with Abbot Morcone, OSB Nov. 21-23, “Men’s Spirituality Retreat” with Fr. Joyce, OSB Dec. 5-7, “Advent Retreat” with the Abbey Staff Dec. 30-Jan.1, 2009, “New Year’s Retreat” with Fr. O’Connor, OSB

6

The Anchor Morally exhausted arguments

The bishops of the United States have been vigilant and busy this election cycle not only in responding to false statements about Church teaching on human life and abortion by Catholic politicians but also in correcting false ideas of morality that flow from erroneous understanding of the teaching.

Three weeks ago we discussed how the Bishops’ Conference and many individual bishops powerfully responded to Catholic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s false presentation both of the truths of human embryology as well as of Church doctrine of when human life begins. The bishops said that when life begins is not a question of faith but science, and science demonstrates indisputably that human life begins at the fertilization of a woman’s ovum by a man’s sperm, popularly referred to as conception. They also said that even though different theologians have speculated about the timing of human ensoulment, there has been unanimity from the beginning that abortion, the intentional killing of the growing child in the womb, is always gravely sinful.

Today we turn to what the bishops have recently said about the moral consequences that flow from these truths. The context for these remarks was Sen. Joseph Biden’s September 7 appearance on “Meet the Press” during which he said, “I’m prepared as a matter of faith to accept that life begins at the moment of conception. But that is my judgment. For me to impose that judgment on everyone else who is equally and maybe even more devout than I am seems to me is inappropriate in a pluralistic society.” This is a recycling of the oft-invoked “personally opposed, politically tolerant” position on abortion that pro-choice politicians have been using for the past four decades.

The bishops were swift to respond to Sen. Biden’s remarks. The U.S. Bishops’ Conference released a joint statement by Philadelphia Cardinal Justin Rigali and Bridgeport Bishop William Lori, who said, employing arguments accessible to all reasonable people, that once the humanity of the developing child in the womb is established, there is a duty in justice to protect that child.

They declared that Sen. Biden’s contention that “the beginning of human life is a ‘personal and private’ matter of religious faith, one which cannot be ‘imposed’ on others,” does not reflect the truth of the matter. The Church recognizes that the obligation to protect unborn human life rests on the answer to two questions, neither of which is private or specifically religious.

“The first is a biological question: When does a new human life begin? … While ancient thinkers had little verifiable knowledge to help them answer this question, today embryology textbooks confirm that a new human life begins at conception. The Catholic Church does not teach this as a matter of faith; it acknowledges it as a matter of objective fact.

“The second is a moral question, with legal and political consequences: Which living members of the human species should be seen as having fundamental human rights, such as a right not to be killed?

The Catholic Church’s answer is: Everybody. No human being should be treated as lacking human rights, and we have no business dividing humanity into those who are valuable enough to warrant protection and those who are not. Even this is not solely a Catholic teaching, but a principle of natural law accessible to all people of good will. The framers of the Declaration of Independence pointed to the same basic truth by speaking of inalienable rights, bestowed on all members of the human race not by any human power, but by their Creator. Those who hold a narrower and more exclusionary view have the burden of explaining why we should divide humanity into the moral ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots,’ and why their particular choice of where to draw that line can be sustained in a pluralistic society.

Such views pose a serious threat to the dignity and rights of other poor and vulnerable members of the human family who need and deserve our respect and protection. … Protection of innocent human life is not an imposition of personal religious conviction but a demand of justice.”

Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput and his Auxiliary Bishop James Conley took on, in an even more forceful way, Sen. Biden’s argument that one shouldn’t “impose” one’s morality on others. In a September 8 statement, they said, “In his ‘Meet the Press’ interview, Sen. Biden used a morally exhausted argument that American Catholics have been hearing for 40 years: i.e., that Catholics can’t ‘impose’ their religiously-based views on the rest of the country. But resistance to abortion is a matter of human rights, not religious opinion. And the senator knows very well as a lawmaker that all law involves the imposition of some people’s convictions on everyone else. That is the nature of the law.

American Catholics have allowed themselves to be bullied into accepting the destruction of more than a million developing unborn children a year. Other people have imposed their ‘pro-choice’ beliefs on American society without any remorse for decades. If we claim to be Catholic, then American Catholics, including public officials who describe themselves as Catholic, need to act accordingly. We need to put an end to Roe and the industry of permissive abortion it enables. Otherwise all of us — from senators and members of Congress, to Catholic laypeople in the pews — fail not only as believers and disciples, but also as citizens.”

Archbishop Chaput, in his recently-published book “Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs In Public Life,” turned to the example of the Catholic former Governor of New York, Mario Cuomo, to demonstrate that public officials who claim that they cannot impose their moral beliefs about abortion on others do not hesitate to impose their ethical understanding on others in other areas. In Cuomo’s case, he argued in a famous 1984 speech at Notre Dame that even though he and his wife accepted Catholic moral teaching on abortion, he did not feel it appropriate to translate that judgment of conscience into public policy. Archbishop Chaput notes, however, that Gov. Cuomo did not feel any of the same qualms about acting according to his conscience with regard to the death penalty. Twelve times in his dozen years as governor he vetoed capital punishment legislation, “imposing” his own view on the majority not merely of the legislators in Albany but of the populace in the state of New York, both of which supported the death penalty.

Governors, senators, congressmen, and activist judges seem to have no anxiety at all about imposing their view of the good on others when it concerns smoking legislation, taxes, the environment, marriage, the treatment of prisoners, economic bailouts, or war and peace. Why is it that the only time politicians ever invoke a false sense of pluralistic tolerance of evil is when they’re talking about abortion?

What does this mean for Catholic citizens who have the obligation to vote morally? It’s hard to believe that a Catholic citizen of sound judgment and conscience would ever support a politician who either supported — or lamely refused to act publicly according to his “personal opposition to” — cruelty to animals, or child abuse, or domestic violence. If a candidate’s character were such that either he or she did not acknowledge these evils or was too weak to act according to them when it came to their public duties, would we ever give such a vitiated character a pass because we think the candidate has a better economic plan? Yet, that is what many Catholic Americans have done with respect to abortion, which kills children in ways more sadistic that the worst of animal cruelty and constitutes the ultimate form of child abuse and domestic violence.

The bishops are addressing head-on the “morally exhausted arguments” of Catholic politicians with respect to abortion. This election cycle is a time for Catholic voters, especially those who have acted according to the same “personally opposed but publicly tolerant” position in the voting booth, to re-evaluate those choices. There will be more on this next week.

T

September 26, 2008

Monsieur Vincent

omorrow we celebrate the feast day of a with his family loved Vincent — prevailed upon saint whose name is known by almost all him to return. The latter time they enticed him by Catholics but whose remarkable life is known promising him that one of his tasks would be to only by a few. In terms of the sheer amount teach the Gospel to the peasants throughout their of good done on earth, he must be numbered expansive territory who were in ignorance and among the greatest saints — and human beings moral disarray. Count de Gondi, who was prefect of the French penal system, also arranged for — of all time.

This saint integrated Mother Teresa’s inde- Vincent to be named almoner and chaplain to the fatigable love for the poor, with Joseph Cafasso’s convicts in the galleys, which allowed Vincent solicitude for prisoners, Alphonsus Ligouri’s to bring not just spiritual but material comfort to passion to bring the Gospel to the uncatechized, these prisoners across France.

The more work he did among the poor and the Augustine’s drive to root out false teaching about God’s grace, Charles Borromeo’s zeal to reform outcasts, the more he became aware of how much priestly formation, Gregory VII’s eagerness work needed still to be done. He knew that orgato reform the episcopacy, Peter Claver’s com- nization was crucial. He began to recruit priests to mitment to freeing slaves, Dominic’s charism help him in the work of preaching the Gospel to for firmly establishing religious congregations, the poor; these clerics, drawn by Vincent’s examFrancis de Sales’ reputation for spiritual direc- ple, became the first members of the Congregation, and John Bosco’s almost effortless ability tion of the Mission. With the help of St. Louise de to raise enormous sums of money for charitable Marillac, he established the Daughters of Charity, to work in the many hospitals he was founding works — someone incredibly all in one.

Most Catholics know his name from the soci- to care for the sick, incurable, orphaned, aged ety founded a century-and-a-half after his death and abandoned. To help in the relief of the indiand placed under his powerful patronage, the gent, he instituted the Ladies of Charity, a group 175th anniversary of which we are marking this of wealthy women who would use their social year. This society happily has been established in connections to raise the funds needed not merely for the immedimost parishes in ate care of the our diocese and poor, but for their is one of the prinlong-term educacipal ways the tion and training.

Church carries In Paris these out her charitable Ladies helped to mission: the St. run a soup kitchVincent de Paul

By Father en that fed a stagSociety.

Roger J. Landry gering 16,000 Tomorrow is hungry people a a day on which day. all Catholics, and Vincent saw how much the Church’s urgent not just members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, can marvel at the wonder of grace that charitable mission in France had been frustrated by incompetent and often immoral priests and was his life.

Vincent de Paul was born on a tiny farm in bishops. At that time, it was still not required for southwestern France in 1580, the third of six candidates to the priesthood to go to seminary. So children. His parents struggled simply to make he began to work with the Archbishop of Paris, ends meet, but when Vincent’s father recognized Count de Gondi’s brother, to ensure that before a how precociously intelligent his son was, he and man was ordained, he would need to participate the family sacrificed to get him an education in spiritual exercises with Vincent and the priests through the Franciscan Recollects and later the of his Congregation. At first these retreat courses took two weeks; they eventually extended to two University of Toulouse.

Vincent’s ambition at the time was to become years. Through them Vincent began to form most a priest, not merely because he thought it was his of the young priests of France. Later, the Vincenvocation, but because he knew that if he played tians established full-scale seminaries all over his cards right, he might receive benefices for rich France to ensure that priests knew the Catholic Churches and abbeys that would provide him faith well enough to fight against Jansenism and enough income to permanently get his family out other heresies, but lived it enough to care for the of poverty. Because of his genius and motivation, poor and the needy.

His work with priests made him ever more he raced through university and was ordained a aware of the difference between holy, competent priest at the shockingly young age of 20.

He wasted no time in trying to climb the bishops and ecclesiastical disasters. In these years ecclesiastical ladder. He became a chaplain to after the Protestant Reformation, it was clear that Queen Margaret of Valois and moved to Paris. great bishops were needed and bad appointees As a brilliant “baby priest,” he quickly earned the with inadequate spiritual qualifications could not reputation as a talented preacher, which gained be tolerated. He therefore used his considerable influence with the king, who at the time wielded him further entrée into French high society.

In 1605, something happened that was the enormous power in the appointment of bishops, first stage of his priestly conversion. After having to set up a Council of Conscience to ensure that gone to Marseilles to acquire an inheritance, he those nominated for the episcopacy were worthy boarded a ship to Narbonne that was captured by of the office. The king made Vincent the head of African pirates who brought him to Tunis, where the Committee and so Vincent had as big an imhe was a slave for two years. God eventually ar- pact on the formation of the French episcopacy as ranged for his escape, but Vincent never forgot he did the French priesthood.

Despite his being involved in so many differthe misery these slaves were experiencing. He resolved to help them somehow, someway in the ent activities — and authoring more than 30,000 letters, many written to give spiritual direction — future.

The second stage of his conversion was a fur- Vincent never forgot the poor slaves on the Barther crucifixion of his ego. After he had returned bary Coast, whose chains he once shared. There to Paris, his roommate was robbed of 400 crowns. were about 25,000 of them, mostly Christian. He Convinced Vincent was the thief, he maliciously sent priests and brothers to attend to their spiritual accused him to the police and to everyone else. needs and never ceased to raise money to ransom Whereas earlier Vincent may have trusted in his them. By the time of his death in 1680, he had own abilities to defend his reputation, now he purchased the freedom of more than 1,200.

The fuel for all this activity was the same that trusted only in divine Providence, who had just freed him from slavery. “God knows the truth,” powered his prayer: deep love for the Lord and, he said calmly, as he bore the calumny for six with the Lord, for those for whom the Lord died.

It’s altogether fitting that he was named pamonths until the true thief confessed.

Soon thereafter Vincent was recruited by the tron saint of all the Church’s charitable societies powerful Count of Joigny, Philip de Gondi, to because he has always been an icon of the Lord’s become chaplain to his family and tutor to his burning self-sacrificial love.

St. Vincent de Paul also remains for us a witchildren. This was the assignment of the former Vincent’s dreams, but it was now an assignment ness of how much good one person, impelled by that he twice laid down in order to become a God’s love, can do.

Father Landry is pastor of St. Anthony’s pastor in rural areas in great need of conversion.

Both times, however, Count de Gondi — who Parish in New Bedford.

Putting Into the Deep

September 26, 2008

T

St. Paul and authentic apostleship

he Holy Father’s audithis as true, especially since he ence of 3 September had admitted he was one who had a dramatic topic: the conversion actually persecuted the Church of St. Paul. This past week’s before his conversion? Pope conference looked at the nature of his new status as Apostle of the Lord.

Living the Though Paul had not been one of the Twelve Pauline Year who accompanied Jesus in his earthly mission of

By Father Andrew teaching and miracles, Johnson, OCSO he most certainly saw himself as fully an Apostle and demanded to be Benedict points out the three accepted as such by others, essential criteria that validated including the original Twelve Paul’s apostleship. themselves. How did Paul see First, he has “seen Jesus our

H

Lord” (1 Cor 9: 1), that is, he has had a life-changing encounter with him. The Twelve had encountered Jesus in his time of earthly ministry.

Paul grants this readily, but insists that what is definitive here is one’s direct vocational encounter with the risen Jesus and in this, of course, he more than qualifies. The pope says, “Not without reason does Paul say that he is ‘called to be an apostle’ (Rom 1: 1), in other words, ‘an apostle — not from men nor through human means, but

Junior monotheisms

aving studied Judaism Pilgrimage, usually to Baha’i and Islam, let’s take a shrines in Israel, is also stressed. quick look at two other religions There’s an annual period of fastin the monotheistic tradition, ing. Other observances include both relatively small and young: naming ceremonies for babies, Baha’i and Sikhism. marriage, and funerals.

Baha’i grew out of the Shi’ite Baha’i has a worldwide membranch of Islam. In the 1840s, bership estimated at four million, a young Iranian scholar who but it’s making new converts in called himself The Bab (“Gate”) India, Africa, Latin America, preached that a messenger and among Pacific islanders. The would soon arrive from God, largest concentration of members who would be the latest in a line is still found in Iran, where the of prophets including Moses, faith is routinely persecuted beKrishna, Buddha, Jesus, and cause of its deviation from Islam Muhammad. Because this teachand its ties to Israel. ing contradicted Islam’s belief We turn now to Sikhism, that Muhammad was God’s final which takes its name from the prophet, the Bab and his disciples faced instant persecution and, in 1850, the Bab The Fullness was executed. After of the Truth a struggle for succession and years of exile,

By Father Mirza Husayn Ali Nuri, Thomas M. Kocik a leader in the Baghdad community of Babists, proclaimed himself, in 1863, to be the prophet foretold Punjabi word for “student” or by the Bab. He called himself “seeker of truth.” A hybrid of Baha’ullah, “the glory of God.” Hinduism and Islam, Sikhism Such was his influence that the originated in the Punjab region Ottoman authorities exiled him of northwest India at a time and many of his followers to when most of India was under Palestine (now the State of Israel) Muslim rule. Despite its Indian where he was imprisoned for origin, Sikhism wasn’t among nine years in the fortress of Acre. the Asian religions treated earlier Shortly after his release, the in this series, on account of its founder of Baha’i went to live strict monotheism (due largely to near Haifa, where he remained Muslim influence). While some until his death in 1892.

Sikh beliefs bear the marks of Within a year or two, Western- the shared Hindu and Muslim ers began to show an interest in past, Sikhism is unique. Since 80 the new religion, and during the percent of Sikhs live in Punjab, first years of the 20th century, Sikhism may not seem a world small groups of Baha’is could be religion; yet, North America and found in Europe and America.

Great Britain have growing Sikh Most Baha’is today are converts populations. Sikh men are recfrom non-Islamic backgrounds. ognized by their turbans, uncut Baha’is emphasize the unity of hair (contained in the turbans), humanity, equal rights for men beards, ceremonial daggers, and and women, monogamy, compul- steel wristbands. sory education, and a just social The founder of Sikhism, Guru order. Their worship is informal Nanak, was born into a Hindu and usually takes place in private family in 1469 at Talwandi in homes or rented spaces. Prayers present-day Pakistan. At age 30, and devotional texts are read, and Nanak went to the river as usual food and drink shared. Prayer is one day to make his morning done every day; but instead of prayers. After a disappearance facing the Muslim holy city of of three days, during which he Mecca, Baha’is face the direction was presumed drowned, Nanak of Baha’ullah’s tomb in Acre. returned home and, after a day of

7

The Anchor

silence, made his famous utterance: “God is neither Hindu nor Muslim, and the path I follow is God’s.”

Guru Nanak died in 1539 and was succeeded by nine other gurus, of whom the last died in 1708. Whereas in Hinduism any spiritual guide may be called a guru, in Sikhism the word is used only of God himself, the ten gurus, and the Sikh holy scriptures, known as the Adi Granth (“original book”) or, more honorifically, the Guru Granth Sahib (“the honorable guru in book form”).

The Adi Granth consists of the writings of six gurus, expressed in metric verse, in addition to verses from the Hindu and Muslim traditions. God is the true Guru; Nanak and the nine others who also have the title, as well as the Adi Granth, are called guru because they express divine truth.

Initiates into Sikhism drink amrit, sugared water that’s been stirred with a double-edged sword. Sikh worship takes place in a gurdwara (“gateway to the guru”), the key area of which is a spacious room housing the Adi Granth; this building is also used as a center for social activity and has a community kitchen attached to it. Like Hindus, Sikhs believe in the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, from which the only way out is to achieve liberation from the binding effect of karma; but unlike Hinduism’s four possible paths to enlightenment, liberation in Sikhism is attained only through God’s grace.

The whole of Sikh theology is encapsulated in the Mulmantar (“root formula”), the opening section of the Adi Granth. Composed by Guru Nanak and recited

by Sikhs every morning, it professes: “There is one Supreme Being, the Eternal Reality, the Creator, without fear and devoid of enmity, immortal, beyond birth and death, self-existent, known by the Guru’s grace.”

Father Kocik is a parochial vicar at Santo Christo Parish in Fall River.

through Jesus Christ and God the Father’ (Gal 1: 1).” The point is that the true apostle never designates himself: he is rather chosen and called by the risen one.

The second characteristic is that the Apostle has been sent.

The same Greek word apostolos means, precisely, sent or dispatched, as ambassador and bearer of a message; he must therefore act as one who has been charged and as one who represents the Sender. It is for this reason that Paul describes himself as an “Apostle of Christ Jesus” (1 Cor 1: 1; 2 Cor 1: 1), as his delegate, placed totally at his service. Once again the idea of someone else’s initiative comes to the fore, the initiative of God in Jesus Christ, to whom Paul is fully indebted; but special emphasis is placed on the fact that Paul has received from him a mission to carry out in his name, making every personal interest absolutely secondary.

The third requirement is the task of proclaiming the Gospel and founding churches grounded in the Gospel message. Indeed, the title of “apostle” is not and cannot be honorary. It involves the entire life of the person concerned. In his First Letter to the Corinthians Paul writes: “Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my workmanship in the Lord?” (9: 1). Similarly in the Second Letter to the Corinthians he says: “You yourselves are our letters of recommendation ... a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God” (3: 2-3).

As a result of the interaction of these three elements, there comes about a remarkable alignment of the Gospel itself and the Apostle who proclaims it. Is the Gospel a folly and a

stumbling block that some will finally reject? So is the Apostle himself. In fact, seeing the positive and saving effect of this identification, Paul almost boasts in the sufferings that result. To the Corinthians he writes, not without irony: “For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death…. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute.

To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the scum of all” (1 Cor 4: 9-13).

Paul writes this not in anger at his trials, but with joy at the paradox of his pastoral suffering for the sake of the flock. He shows an almost grim constancy in all his trials, and yet this is no mere humanistic stoicism. He sees in them the reality of God’s and Christ’s redeeming love: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Rom 8: 35). Paul would tell us that no suffering on earth can diminish his joy in being an Apostle of Christ and, as Pope Benedict says, “This remains the mission of all Christ’s apostles in all times: to be his fellow workers in true joy.”

Father Johnson is the diocesan director of the Pauline Year and parochial vicar at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Hyannis.

8

F

The Anchor

September 26, 2008

Have the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus

or the last couple of weeks we have been reading passages from the book of the prophet Isaiah, who continually reminds us that God’s ways are not our ways, and that what we may think to be unfair or unjust, God has deemed fair and just.

The focus of Isaiah’s preaching is not to dishearten us by reminding us how impious we may sometimes be, but to challenge us to become more like our God and King.

God’s ways, which are not our ways, are made manifest and given concrete expression in the life of his Son, Jesus Christ. The only begotten Son of God, who was with the Father before the world was created, was sent into the world to be our Savior. God could have chosen a variety of different ways by which to save us from our sinfulness, but God chose to save us through one like us, a man.

And so, his Son took on human flesh and became one of us, like us in all things but sin,

to undo what was done by the addition to teaching us that first man, Adam. Humanity’s Christ has left us an example, communion with God, which he also reminds us “that there was destroyed by Adam’s is encouragement in Christ.” disobedience, was restored St. Paul’s letter not only

by Christ’s obedience, which expresses what he believed eventually led to his death on a cross. In doing so, Christ Jesus not Homily of the Week only destroyed sin and Twenty-sixth Sunday death, but also providin Ordinary Time ed us the example by which we are to be his

By Father faithful disciples.

Jay Mello St. Paul, in his powerful exhortation to the Philippians tells us to “have the same attitude that is about Christ’s identity as also in Christ Jesus.” St. Paul both God and man, but also makes clear that during his what that in turn means for earthly life, Christ has given each of us. For St. Paul, beus an example of how we are ing a Christian means radito conduct ourselves in our cal imitation of Jesus Christ. relationship with God, with When St. Paul speaks about one another and with ourChrist’s obedience to the selves. But St. Paul was also Father, about Christ’s humfully aware that being faithbling himself, about Christ’s ful to this call is not always self-sacrificing love, the love easy; the distractions and which brought him to the temptations of everyday life cross, St. Paul also provides set hurdles before our desire us with a structure by which to be faithful disciples. So, in we are to “have the same at-

titude as Christ.”

In the Gospel, Christ asks his followers which son was more faithful to their father, the one who was obedient, even though it was difficult, or the one who said he would do what the father requested but never did it. Christ taught his disciples that sometimes living a life of obedience to our Lord and his Church isn’t always easy. But Christ doesn’t just give us a task and then abandon us. He always provides us the grace that we need to accomplish what is being asked of us. Sometimes, we may choose not to accept that grace and do it on our own, which may or may not result in success, but we must always remember the words of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta: “We are called to be faithful, not successful.”

I think that the key to understanding this week’s

readings is found in St. Paul’s letter. All of our efforts to be faithful disciples of Christ, all of our efforts to follow the example of Christ, the obedience, the humility, the selfsacrificing love, is so that we can be glorified with Christ.

St. Paul ends his passage by saying that “because of all of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every other name, so that at Jesus’ name, every knee should bend and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” Christ’s loving obedience to the will of his heavenly Father is the reason that he was glorified and is also what makes the Kingdom of God a possibility for each of us. If we are faithfully and lovingly obedient to Father, we too, will be exalted with his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Father Mello is a parochial vicar at St. Julie Billiart Parish and chaplain at Bishop Stang High School, both in North Dartmouth.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Sept. 27, Eccl 11:9-12:8;Ps 90:3-6,12-14,17; Lk 9:43b-45; Sun. Sept. 28, Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Ez 18:25-28; Ps 125:4-9; Phil 2:1-11 or 2:1-5; Mt. 21:28-32; Mon. Sept. 29, Dn 7:9-10,13-14 or Rev 12:7-12a; Ps 138:1-5; Jn 1:47-51; Tues. Sept. 30, Jb 3:1-3,11-17,20-23; Ps 88:2-8; Lk 9:51-56; Wed. Oct. 1, Jb 9:1-12,14-16;Ps 88:10-15; Lk 9:57-62; Thu. Oct. 2, Jb 19:21-27; Ps 27:7-9c, 13-14; Mt 18:1-5,10; Fri. Oct. 3, Jb 38:1,12-21; 40:3-5; Ps 139:1-3,7-10,13-14b; Lk 10:13-16.

I

n Spain, today, Juan can walk into a civil registry office, present a letter from his physician stating that a change of gender is required for his mental health, and, without further surgical ado, be issued a new national identity card declaring that Juan is now Juanita.

In San Francisco, a European entrepot currently attached to the California coast, the city council and county board have officially deplored the Catholic Church’s teaching on the moral character of homosexual acts as “insulting to all San Franciscans,” “defamatory,” “hateful,” “ignorant,” and “insensitive.” Does anyone doubt that, if San Francisco had official identity cards, it would follow Spain’s example and establish transgendering-by-legal-fiat?

The “gay liberation” movement’s extraordinary success in getting many Americans to think

Marriage, civility, persecution

of homosexuality as akin to race a confused California Supreme for purposes of civil rights law Court, are now asked to declare is one of the most impressive, if themselves on the issue by referwrong-headed, political accomendum. No one need doubt that plishments of the past generation. Removing legal restrictions on homosexual conduct between consenting adults was never the movement’s ultimate goal, however. The movement

By George Weigel was, and is, determined to use coercive state power to enforce its expansive ideas of equality, indeed its convictions this question, and a host of related about the plasticity of human naquestions, will eventually involve ture and institutions, on the entire the entire country. society.

If it does, and if the moveIn the current election cycle, ment wins, its victory will pose this involves a full-court press to some very grave questions for the redefine marriage, and to compel Catholic Church. Will the Cathoothers to accept that redefinilic Church be at risk for teaching tion. The people of California, that human nature is not infinitely having had gay marriage forced malleable, and that the sacramental upon them by the split verdict of love of man and woman, expressed conjugally, is an icon of the interior life of God? Will Catholic priests

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who decline to perform “gay marriages” be subject to prosecution for “hate crimes”? (Canadian evangelicals who preach classic biblical morality are already subject to monetary fines levied by provincial kangaroo courts, more formally dubbed “human rights commissions.”) Will the Catholic Church have to get out of the civil marriage business (i.e., priests no longer serving as officers of the court for purposes of validating a marriage). Will Catholic marriages in the United States eventually resemble marriages in, say, communist-era Poland: a sad joke of a civil ceremony, followed by the liturgical ceremony?

Thus, some questions that Catholic voters might wish to pose to the two principal presidential candidates: QUESTIONS FOR BOTH CANDIDATES: 1) Is “marriage” the stable union of a man and a woman? If so, should that definition be recognized by law? At the state level?

At the federal level? By the U.S. Constitution?

2) Should Catholic social service agencies working with orphans be legally required to consider gay couples on an equal basis as foster care providers?

How about as potential adoptive parents?

3) Do you believe that homosexuality is the equivalent of race for purposes of U.S. civil rights law? Is any public statement in defense of classical biblical sexual morality a de facto act of intolerance and discrimination against gays? What are the requirements of civility vis-a-vis our gay fellowcitizens?

4) Should federal funds be used to support elementary and secondary schools programs and textbooks which teach that “marriage” can mean Heather’s two mommies (or daddies)?

QUESTION FOR SENATOR BARACK OBAMA You have said that you would press for “hate crime” laws and a “fully inclusive” Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Under such laws, would Catholic schools be prosecuted for not hiring openly gay teachers, and would orthodox Catholic teachers be prosecuted for teaching what the Catholic Church teaches about the moral character of homosexual acts? If not, why not?

QUESTION FOR SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: Given your experience in the military, would you favor a policy of neutrality towards sexual orientation, explicit or otherwise, in the armed forces of the United States?

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

How I found the perfect parish

Tuesday 23 September 2008 years ago and the tracks have — at home on Three Mile River been paved over. “South to the — on this date in 1848 chewing swamp,” but the swamp has been gum was first commercially probackfilled for a housing developduced in the USA by John Curtis ment. “West to the stone wall,” and called “State of Maine Pure but the wall has been carted off Spruce Gum” s we all know, dear readers, there was a time not so Reflections of a long ago when parish Parish Priest boundaries were cast in concrete. You either lived

By Father Tim in the parish territory or Goldrick you didn’t. Those early boundary definitions once made sense but now they can be confusing. “East to the and turned into somebody’s oak tree,” but the oak tree blew fireplace. In an attempt to correct down in a hurricane 50 years ago. the situation, one of our newer “North to the railroad tracks,” parish’s boundaries was defined but the trains stopped running

by Zip Code. That, too, can be

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September 26, 2008

The Ship’s Log

changed with the stroke of a pen.

Truth be told, there’s a certain segment of Catholics who couldn’t care less about parish boundaries. They’re ecclesiastical gypsies. They have no spiritual home. They wander from place to place.

They shop around until they find the perfect parish. Criteria usually includes one or more of the following: whether or not they “like” the priest; the style of liturgical music; the quality of the homilies; the level of social activity; the contemporary (or retro) nature of the Religious Education program; etc. Some eventually do come to the conclusion that they’ve at

How not to be too lame, too late

a big difference between pashad to laugh, and grimace, sively admonishing our children when I heard the mom to make good choices, and (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) in outlining, clearly and repeata recent remake of the movie edly, what constitutes a good “Freaky Friday” advise her choice. For example, telling teen-age daughter to “Make a two-year-old child not to be good choices!” as she dropped mean is to set her up for failure. her off at high school. Of What, exactly, is “mean” to a course the daughter just rolled two-year-old? There are too her eyes and walked away. The many possibilities. Which one scene was priceless because the applies, right now? A concrete mom and the daughter knew outline for a preschooler would that the mom’s attempt at parbe, “Do not hit your brother enting was totally lame, and too with that spoon.” late to be of any help anyway.

Teens are no less concrete.

As a mom with high schoolers, I could totally relate. To give concrete guidelines, and then to stick with them (the guidelines and the teens) is hard work. The temptation is great to avoid

By Heidi Bratton conflict with a vague, “Make good choices” when we are up against Telling them to be safe will typical teen behavior like poor never do. They need to hear, communication, an ungrateful “Go directly to jail,” I mean, attitude, being inconsiderate, or “Go directly home after school. being just plain ornery. Add in Do not pass through the grocery a few negative influences like store, and do not collect 200 a sketchy boyfriend (like the friends along the way.” Okay, daughter in the movie had), a discouraging teacher, or a tough I’m just being silly, but you get the picture; children need sports season, and throwing specifics. in the parenting towel begins Children also need specifics to look even more attractive. in the area of spiritual growth Most of this is just the stuff and development. If for some of ordinary life, however, not reason we took the easy way only with teen-agers, but with out and stopped attending younger children, and with church when the children were ourselves, too, if we are going to be completely honest! Avoid- young and possibly disruptive in the pew, we’re going to have ance of life’s stuff isn’t ever a a really hard time getting them good choice, but especially not and ourselves back into church, for us parents. ever. An innocent baby being So what constructive action disruptive is one thing, but who can we take instead of throwing wants to bring an energetic todin the towel? To begin with, we dler, a mouthy elementary-aged can give our children clear and child, or a sullen teen-ager? concise behavioral boundaries, And what child wants to be beginning when they are very with a parent who is tired and young. Think about it. There is

Home Grown Faith

cranky? Each age will have its reasons for not getting up and out on Sunday morning for that hour of spiritual renewal. As the parents of the family, however, it is our responsibility not to dodge the bullet by waiting until early Sunday morning to see if everyone is capable of making a good choice about church attendance. Trust me, it’ll never happen.

In order to get everyone off to church in reasonable moods on a weekly basis we can’t be vague or lame or last minute, as was the mom in “Freaky Friday.” The more concrete directions we can give, the better. Things like establishing attendance at a certain Mass, and sitting in the same general area of church is really helpful for children, as they will begin to develop a sense of belonging and friendship by shaking hands with many of the same people each Sunday. Plus, if the people sitting around us are our friends, we are more likely to get sympathy on the bad behavior mornings, and smiles and praise on the good ones.

The same principle of outlining expectations clearly and in advance goes along with praying, reading the Bible, helping those in need, and all other good choices we make on our journey to become more faithfilled families. With the Holy Spirit as our guide, it is never too lame or too late to take charge of our family’s spiritual wellbeing.

Heidi is an author, photographer, and full-time mother. She and her husband raise their six children in Falmouth. homegrownfaith@gmail.com.

long last found the perfect parish.

Some forever trek the face of the earth on a quest for the Holy Grail of parishes. Vagi the Code of Canon Law calls them — Latin for rootless wanderers.

What about me? What would the perfect parish look like for me as a priest? People in the perfect parish would routinely tithe 20 percent of their income to the church. The perfect parish would as a result have more financial assets than it needed to operate.

The surplus would be given to the poor. All the children would always be well-behaved and always eager to learn about faith, tradition, and Scripture. This would be a result of the fine example and instruction given by their parents.

Every parish meeting would have a realizable agenda (distributed one week in advance), a trained facilitator, and a time-limit of 30 minutes. Every meeting would achieve consensus. The preachers would have the time to spend 40 hours a week preparing each homily, but no homily would ever last longer than four minutes.

Liturgical music would rival that of the heavenly choirs of angels.

Everyone would sing and sing on pitch.

In the perfect parish, there would be more than enough off-street parking. The church facilities would be stunning and always spotless. There would never be wads of slightly-used chewing gum stuck under seats.

Nobody would ever leave behind in the pews paper airplanes fashioned from the Sunday bulletin, smashed Cheerios, or crumbled Kleenex. Nobody would fold collection dollar bills into origami birds.

In the perfect parish, the room temperature would always be set exactly to everybody’s liking, winter and summer. The Parish Pastoral Council and the Parish Finance Council would always be on the same page as the pastor.

Nobody would ever arrive or leave halfway through Mass. Lectors and extraordinary ministers of holy Communion would all show up when assigned. There would be legions of altar servers available. Couples contemplating marriage would first meet with the priest before reserving the hall for the reception. Telephone calls would only be made during office hours, except in a real emergency. Running out of coffee creamer in the parish hall at 11 p.m. would not merit a call on the pastor’s emergency cell phone.

No cell phones would ever ring during Mass.

I’ve been in 12 parish assignments as an ordained minister in the Diocese of Fall River. I loved each and every community as I found it. It’s amazing how parish communities, although sharing the very same Catholic faith, nevertheless have such a wide variety of gifts. Each parish is unique; each has its strengths and charisms.

St. Nicholas of Myra Church in the Town of Dighton is my pastoral assignment number 13. Will this be the perfect parish? The answer is “yes” and the answer is “no.” It will be the perfect parish for me if I freely and faithfully give to the parish community whatever gifts I have received from God and, in turn, accept all the gifts that God has bestowed on the individual parishioners for the purpose of building up of the Body of Christ. It will be a perfect parish if we all do the best we can with what we have been given, and always for the greater glory and honor of God. Will St. Nicholas Parish be perfect in every way? Get real!

The answer is no. There is no perfect parish. But, then again, neither am I the perfect pastor.

That makes us a perfect fit.

Father Goldrick is pastor of St. Nicholas of Myra Parish in North Dighton.

Corpus Christi Choir presents a

13-Day Autumn Vacation in ITALY!!

November 2-14, 2008 led by George Campeau Jr., Director of Music Ministries, Corpus Christi Parish, Sandwich, MA $3500 Ravenna, Bologna, Florence, Orvieto, Rome SCAVI TOUR INCLUDED! (take the tour beneath St. Peter’s Crypt)

Witness the choir perform at several churches in the various cities!

For an itinerary and more information, please contact George Campeau Jr. at (508) 888-0209 ext. 108 or by email at: gcampeau@corpuschristiparish.org

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Spoiled, us?

ew England Patriots’ cornerback Ellis Hobbs had some unkind things to say about the crowd at Gillette Stadium last Sunday afternoon.

The seemingly lowly Miami Dolphins whooped the Pats upside the head with its collective tail fin, dorsal fin, and any other kind of fin found on the sleek, muscular frame of a dolphin.

As the fish were filleting the

My View From the Stands

By Dave Jolivet Pats, a maelstrom of boos rained on the home team from the paying audience. It’s been quite a while since that scene has been seen on Route One in Foxboro.

Hobbs, a bit perturbed to say the least, lamented that Patriots fans are spoiled and found their reaction a bit disheartening. He was dumbfounded how fans of a team that has been the cream of the crop for years and has one bad game revolve like the turnstiles at the stadium exits.

He’s right on two counts. One, it was one bad game in a string of great ones, and two; Patriots’ fans are spoiled.

In fact most of Boston sportsdom is spoiled with the successes of the Pats, Red Sox and now the Celtics. Only the Bruins have kept us slightly humbled.

Last Sunday’s fish-kill at Gillette was like the bad old days of Patriots football — and truthfully, it didn’t feel that bad. It reminded me of the days when I used to look forward to watching the Pats on black and white TV for their road games. Home games rarely sold out, so TV coverage

was blacked out. When a large percentage of pigskin fans in New England were on the N.Y. Giants’ bandwagon, I enjoyed watching my Pats win or lose, or lose, or lose, or lose.

The same with the Red Sox. When I was a pup, except for the 1967 team, the Bosox were awful, but I couldn’t wait for March each year to watch Red Sox baseball.

I last saw a Bruins championship in 1970 and 1972, but I couldn’t wait for Bruins season to start. The same with the Celtics, post-Larry Bird days.

I watched the four teams because they were my teams and because I loved the sports. Never did I see a team that didn’t give 100 percent, no matter how far down in the standings they were.

I loved watching a well-oiled double play; a finger-tip TD catch; a tipped-in slapshot from the point; and a perfectly executed pump fake jump-shot.

Back in the old days, winning wasn’t the thing. I didn’t expect big things from most of those teams, and a win was a bonus. I loved the players on the teams, I loved the effort they exerted, and I loved watching it as often as possible.

Now, when it comes to watching the home teams, it’s all about winning. I’m realizing with all the success with which we’ve been blessed, some of the fun of the sport has been taking away.

Success seems to come in cycles in sports, and there’ll be a day when Boston won’t be relishing championship after championship. But I do know I’ll still be watching. The bad old days did have its benefits.

I enjoyed the games more.

September 26, 2008

Cape woman’s devotion to youth keeps her young

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

on course.

“I’d say it’s been 39 years in the diocese on Cape BUZZARDS BAY — Everyday could be con- Cod,” Fuller said. “My own daughter went to ECHO sidered Christmas at Mary Fuller’s house. Count- at Cathedral Camp — that used to be the center for less book shelves and tabletops are adorned with it. Then Father Francis Connors, who was the pascrèches of all shapes and sizes — from a tiny depic- tor at Our Lady of Victory in Centerville, brought tion of Mary, Joseph and the Baby Jesus inside a it down to the Cape. That was in 1970 when I got shellacked bread boule to a beautifully hand-crafted involved. I’ve been on the Board of Directors ever complete nativity scene fashioned from brown clay since.” by an African pottery maker. As a longtime and stillFuller noted the format of the ECHO retreat has active member of Crèches by the Sea, a Cape Cod- pretty much remained intact since its inception with based crèche collecting society, Fuller continues to only minor modifications over the years. Speakers accrue these marvelous depictions of Our Savior’s generally cover topics such as marriage and vocabirth. tions, all within the context of developing a personal “Collecting crèches is a disease,” Fuller, a parish- relationship with Christ. ioner of St. Margaret’s “The whole message Parish in Buzzards Bay, of ECHO is that Christ is said. “I have about 250 of counting on you,” Fuller them.” explained.

She first became inFuller said the key to terested in them after atkeeping the ECHO protending the national congram fresh is to make sure vention of the Friends of the message is balanced the Crèche Society held with some lighter moin 2001. Also present on ments that are both fun that pilgrimage was her and memorable. To that then-pastor Father Timoend, the highlight of these thy Goldrick, another weekends for many is reavid crèche collector, ceiving what is known who suggested the next as palanca, a Spanish convention be held on term literally translated Cape Cod. as “lever.” While it began “We held it at the Cape as simply handwritten Codder Hotel and had personal notes and cards over 200 registrants that of encouragement from were there for the whole loved ones, palanca has three days,” Fuller said. expanded to include gifts “We had several thousuch as balloons and flowsand people who came by ANCHOR PERSON OF THE WEEK — Mary ers meant to “lift your buses. It was glorious. We Fuller. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza) spirit,” Fuller said. had some marvelous col“We have to rent a truck lections … and speakers from all over the world.” for every weekend,” she said. “So you can imagine Fuller also credits another local woman and what comes in.” crèche collector, Anne Austill, with inspiring her to For Fuller, the most satisfying and fulfilling part begin gathering the precious works of art herself. of ECHO is seeing those from former weekend reFuller said Austill had an uncanny knack for seeing treats return to serve on the team and help keep the beauty in even the most mundane things. message alive.

“She was just a fabulous lady,” Fuller said. “She “It’s great to see the kids who have grown up and used to give tours of her house … and she had crèch- come through the program return,” she said. “You es from all over the world. She had these beautifully keep the spirit growing and that’s how the program intricate crèches and would point out all the detail flourishes.” that went into them. Then you came to one simple The ECHO retreat weekends are held at the crèche made out of olive wood. And she’d say: ‘It’s Craigville Conference Center in Barnstable. Inforreally not very magnificent, but it is the best the art- mation on upcoming weekends can be obtained by ist could do with the gift God gave him. That’s why visiting www.echoofcapecod.org or by calling 508it’s special to me.’ She was just a unique lady.”

759-4265.

Noting that the word Bethlehem is comprised of “The ECHO Program has touched so many the Hebrew words Bet and Lechem, which literally lives,” Fuller said. “We’ve had almost 10,000 youngtranslated means “house of bread,” Fuller revealed sters who have been involved in the program. For her own creative handmade crèche creation housed many of them, this was how they met Jesus for the within a hollowed-out bread boule that has been first time and they’ve developed a whole new appresealed and shellacked. It’s an interesting take on the ciation for what Church is, and we encourage the birth of our Savior who referred to himself as the kids to go back and get involved in their parishes.

Bread of Life.

We want the youngsters to be involved as people of “They’re wonderful because they tell us a lot faith and to spread their love for Jesus.” about other cultures and how they see God and how Indeed, it is Mary Fuller’s strong connection to they interpret their faith,” Fuller said. “I love the youth — her love of the Baby Jesus coming to recrèches.” deem us and her ongoing work to, in turn, redeem If collecting crèches is Fuller’s part-time hobby, adolescents and introduce them to Christ through then the ECHO Program of Cape Cod must be her ECHO — that keeps her growing in her own faith. full-time passion. ECHO, or “Encountering Christ “I’ve been involved with young people my whole in Others,” is a weekend retreat based on the Cur- life,” Fuller said. “I enjoy being with them and I see sillo model that is open to high school sophomores, great hope in them. It’s fun being with them … they juniors and seniors. The program, now in its 39th keep me young.” year, is conducted by a team of clergy, adults and To nominate a Person of the Week, send an email young people, with Fuller at the helm keeping it all message to FatherRogerLandry@AnchorNews.org.

September 26, 2008

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Join Cardinal Sean O’Malley & Bishop George W. Coleman

------------------- Or complete & mail the form below -----------------I cannot attend, but wish to support life in my Diocese.

Please direct my donation of $ _______ to: (Circle one) 18. Birthright of Attleboro 19. Birthright of Falmouth 23. Birthright of New Bedford 24. Birthright of Taunton 31. Compassion Ministries 35. Project Rachel, Fall River 44. Pro-Life Apostolate, Diocese of Fall River Name:__________________ Address _______________________ City: ___________________ State: _________ Zip: _______ Thank you. Please return to: MCFL, 529 Main Street, Boston, MA 02129

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Why Roe v. Wade must be upended

n September 17, we once again commemorated Constitution Day, the annual observance of the day in 1787 when the framers at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia signed the U.S. Constitution for ratification by the people in the individual states. The Constitution is a reminder that we the people subscribe to the rule of law and to a binding statement of the structure of our government and our rights, in order to, among other things, “establish justice.”

Professor Cass Sunstein, professor of law at Harvard Law School and an informal adviser to the Obama campaign, argues in a recent op-ed for the Boston Globe that “the fate of Roe v. Wade … is now hanging in the balance” (September 14, “The fate of Roe v. Wade and choice”). He insists that it is “crucial” that this case not be overruled, because overruling it

Judge For Yourself

By Dwight Duncan would “throw an established domain of human liberty into turmoil,” “disrupt and polarize the nation,” and “threaten countless doctors, and pregnant women and girls, with jail sentences and criminal fines.”

He frankly acknowledges that the 1973 decision, which effectively proclaimed a right to abortion-on-demand, “failed to root the abortion right in either the text of the Constitution or its own precedents.” That being the case, of course, there was no justification for the decision, since the only justification for judicial review and the Supreme Court’s invalidating laws is that the laws violate a principled reading of the Constitution’s text. Judges should not be able to void laws with which they happen to disagree, absent constitutional warrant.

Nor does the fact that the Court reaffirmed what it called the “essential holding of Roe” in 1992, and thus treated Roe as precedent change the matter.

Building on a bogus foundation is a bad idea: “nonsense on stilts,” one might say.

Sunstein, along with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, now suggests that “Roe v. Wade is best seen, not only as a case about privacy, but also as involving sex equality.” Why a mother’s right to kill her unborn child should be considered a requirement of equality between the sexes escapes me. After all, fathers have absolutely no say in the matter.

The Court has said that spousal notification laws are unconstitutional, too.

Sunstein says, correctly, that “It is no wonder that millions of Americans felt, and continue to feel, that the court refused to treat their moral convictions with respect…. No one should disparage the convictions of those who believe that abortion is an immoral act.” The reason abortion is considered immoral, though, is significant: Abortion is the direct taking of innocent human life.

That is not a matter of religious belief, any more than opposition to human slavery is simply a matter of belief.

Abortion is gravely wrong, just as slavery is. These are objective moral truths, as in “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women: all human beings are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

The Supreme Court once ruled, contrary to those self-evident moral truths, that slaves, being property, had no rights. The only ones who had rights were the slaveholders.

It took a bloody Civil War and several constitutional amendments to reverse that decision. In Roe it ruled that unborn children had no rights: the only ones with rights were the mothers. Until that fundamental moral wrong is righted, the Supreme Court has made a mockery of the Constitution and of justice.

Justice is a two-sided scale or balance. Defining one side out of the balance is hardly calculated to “establish justice” or “insure domestic tranquility.”

Overturning Roe would simply return the subject of abortion regulation to the states and to the democratic process.

In a place like Massachusetts, unfortunately, probably nothing would change in our abortion laws.

It is Roe that continues to “disrupt and polarize the nation,” by politicizing and corrupting the judiciary and poisoning the judicial nomination process — all because judges have not only usurped the people’s role in a democracy but have even assumed a god-like authority to decide all questions, even those outside their mandate, without God’s wisdom or the semblance of infallibility.

God help us if justice continues to be denied the unborn.

Dwight Duncan is a professor at Southern New England School of Law in North Dartmouth. He holds degrees in civil and canon law.

September 26, 2008

Area priest addresses Budapest conference Continued from page one

the Doctrine of the Faith (19812005) and even before that, did not hesitate to point out that many things were done after the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) in the name of liturgical renewal that far exceeded, and, in some cases, even contradicted what the Council ordered with regard to the Roman Rite of the Church. Eliminating Latin from the Mass was one of them. The “turning around” of altars to allow Mass “facing the people” was another. Experimentation and novelty were in, tradition and discipline were out, and the Catholic faithful were subjected to a long period of liturgical instability. Many of the conference speakers were experts who maintained a personal or working relationship with the Holy Father over the past few decades.

Anchor: The attendance at the conference suggests a real energy to discuss the liturgy. Is that what you found there?

Father Kocik: The Budapest conference represents one instance of the “new liturgical movement” called for by Cardinal Ratzinger and Pope Benedict XVI. Conferences such as this, combining lectures, roundtable sessions, and model liturgical celebrations bring together traditionally minded Catholics from a variety of fields to promote a deeper understanding of the sacred Liturgy. Sacred music seminars that once drew fewer than 50 people now lure hundreds of Catholic music directors, organists and singers. According to the Church Music Association of America, nearly 200 Gregorian chant scholas have popped up in the United States alone, many in the last five years, and religious publishers are selling large collections of Gregorian chant books and music.

Anchor: This particular conference seemed to carry significant weight in terms of the hierarchy of the Church. Did you find that to be the case?

Father Kocik: The Holy Father’s welcoming remarks (read by the Apostolic Nuncio to Hungary, Archbishop Juliusz Janusz) plus the presence of other highranking prelates — including the Archbishop emeritus of Esztergom-Budapest, Cardinal Lazslo Paskai — shows that the new liturgical movement is not simply the agenda of nostalgics bent on “turning the clock back,” but is actively fostered by the Church at the highest levels.

Anchor: In terms of the liturgy itself, what issues were discussed during the conference?

Father Kocik: The conference included both the “extraordinary” and “ordinary” forms of the Roman liturgy as part of its program.

The “extraordinary” form is the liturgy as it was celebrated before and during Vatican II; the “ordinary” form is the revised liturgy

promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1969. There are many differences between the two forms, but the most obvious difference is that the “extraordinary” form is celebrated in Latin, with the priest and people facing the same direction, toward the altar, whereas the “ordinary” form is usually celebrated in the vernacular, with the priest facing the people.

Anchor: Were there many Americans taking part in Budapest?

Father Kocik: Most conference participants were Europeans.

I was one of only three Americans to read a paper; the others being Father Robert Skeris (Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.), who spoke on the theology of worship and of its music, and Dr. Lauren Pristas (Caldwell College, New Jersey), who spoke on the liturgical season of Septuagesima and its unfortunate elimination in the post-Vatican II reform.

Anchor: Tell us about your paper. What opinions does it put forth?

Father Kocik: I propose, first, that the liturgical changes following the Second Vatican Council were more in the nature of revolution than reform, and, second, that the liturgical revolution of the late 1960s and 1970s was symptomatic of a much larger crisis in the Church, namely, the sundering of the two great themes of Vatican II: ressourcement (a return to the sources) and aggiornamento (updating). Originally, those two themes were seen as mutually supportive. The Council aimed at aggiornamento through ressourcement, that is, renewal through a deeper engagement with all the sources of Catholic theology in Scripture, the Church Fathers, and the sacred Liturgy.

Unfortunately, when Vatican II opened in 1962, the spirit of secularism was already so pervasive in the Church that many Catholics saw the Council solely in terms of aggiornamento, of “modernizing” the Church by bringing her into sync with the cultural revolutions of the 1960s.

Anchor: You suggest through your paper there is common ground for the liturgy for those who support changes brought by Vatican II and those who would like to see some issues revisited.

Father Kocik: Since the liturgy is the “source and summit” of the Church’s life, the separation of those two themes was bound to wreak havoc on the original liturgical movement which began decades before Vatican II and was well underway at the time of the Council. Pope Benedict XVI, like his predecessor John Paul II, has been trying to reconcile ressourcement and aggiornamento.

That is why he refuses to inter-

pret Vatican II as a break from the past. As he said, what was true and sacred to previous generations remains true and sacred today. We must retrieve the baby that was thrown out with the bathwater. My paper does not address what a “reform of a reform” liturgy would look like in terms of ceremonial details. I simply lay down the parameters: genuine reform has never meant the destruction of the old and creation of the new, but rather the creative use of the old in view of present circumstances.

Anchor: So what might be on the horizon in terms of reform for the liturgy?

Father Kocik: To be clear, a new reform would not mean a complete return to the liturgy as it was celebrated before and during Vatican II. Even if that were possible, it would mean a return to the liturgical state of affairs which Vatican II deemed in need of change. The ever-increasing majority of Catholics know only the “Paul VI” (post Vatican II) Mass in the vernacular, and there is no evidence of a widespread desire to return to the older, allLatin form. Pope Benedict believes that the ultimate aim of a new liturgical reform should be a “reconciliation” of the two forms.

As I envision it, this would involve the prudent restoration of certain prayers and ceremonial actions of the older form, greater use of Latin and Gregorian chant, and a turning of the priest once again toward the Lord rather than toward the people during the Liturgy of the Eucharist. With the pre-Vatican II liturgy now demarginalized, more Catholics have the opportunity to see for themselves what was lost and what was gained since the Council. Increased familiarity with the “extraordinary” form can encourage better, more dignified celebrations of the “ordinary form” and foster a responsible way of thinking about the liturgy. The older rite enshrines certain Catholic perspectives and values that are often ignored or downplayed in contemporary worship, most especially the understanding of the Mass as, first and foremost, the Sacrifice of Christ made present on the altar. Pope Benedict hopes that both forms of the liturgy will enrich each other. He suggests, for example, that some of the prayers of the current Mass be used in the older form. Likewise, in this age of liturgical casualness and even improvisation, expanded access to the older form can, over time, bring back the sense of the sacred that attracts many people, including young people, to the ancient form of Mass.

To learn more about what’s happening in the new liturgical movement, visit www.newliturgicalmovement.org.

Challenging one view on ordination With respect to the ordination of women let me respond to Father Paul Lamb’s letter (September 12). He correctly points out that the Church has unwaveringly reserved the sacrament of Holy Orders to the male gender. If a long held tradition is an absolute barrier to change then our question is solved. On the other hand, if the Holy Spirit guides the Church to invest new or change wrong views, then it is worthwhile to discuss this further. We all recognize such changes have occurred.

Father Lamb correctly states that men are integrally and essentially different from women.” He points to Christ’s example and to “ontological reasoning.” I seriously doubt he is making the fact of anatomical differences key; for indeed, a man could lose a leg or other part of his body and still continue to be a priest. As to ontology and Scripture, we recall, from Genesis, Adam, speaking of Eve, cries, “This indeed is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone.” The first woman is from the rib of Adam; the second Adam is from the womb of Mary.

Man and woman are ontologically the children of God and inseparable helpmates in the mission of salvation. Mary, with God’s intentionality, offered the sacrifice of the cross in concert with Jesus.

The Church might very well be on earth many millions of years; if so, we can be sure that, except for her essential truths, such as the Apostle’s Creed, over time, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, a great many important changes will occur.

Herbert Donlon, Chatham Church’s teaching is archaic In your editorial on valid ordination on August 8, you cite canon law as prescribing the proper matter for holy orders is … a Catholic male. That raises the peculiar question of what distinguishes male matter from female matter. Your analogy of a priest preferring to celebrate Mass with filet mignon and liquor, is, in this context, a singularly unhappy one. The answer, equally peculiar, may be found in St. Thomas Aquinas’ “Summa Theologica” Q32. There he identifies three characteristics of women: defective and misbegotten (regarding reproduction) and that woman is naturally subject to man because in man the discernment of reason predominates. Canon law’s formulation is certainly as archaic as that of St. Thomas. Moreover it is, to say the least, an untimely anomaly in the light of Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium’s declaration of the equality of man and woman.

Joseph J. Tunney, Orleans Father Landry responds: The same Vatican II document also details that Catholics owe the “loyal

13

The Anchor

September 26, 2008

Our readers respond

submission of the will and intellect to the authentic teaching authority of the Roman Pontiff.” That obviously includes what Pope John Paul II taught, according to Lumen Gentium’s criteria for infallible teaching of the ordinary magisterium, in his 1994 apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis.

Imagine if Senator McCain responded to the question, “Is global warming caused by human activity?” with the response, “That’s above my pay grade” The media would tear McCain and his candidacy to shreds.

Walter J. Eno, Buzzards Bay

An argument to vote Pro-Life Politicians talk a lot, but they seldom say anything. Of the millions of words spoken at the recent Democratic Convention, what I remember most was a throw-away line (like throw-away babies) uttered by Mr. Obama, “Babies have learned to walk and talk since I announced my candidacy.”

Tragically, there are millions of babies who will never learn to walk or talk, if the pro-abortion Democratic candidate in the presidential race is given a chance to implement his pro-abortion agenda. For their life will be stopped before they have a chance to take the smallest steps.

Sadly, how many Americans, especially Catholics, who profess to subscribe to the most fundamental principle upon which our nation was founded, “the inalienable right to life,” will vote for a man who denies this right to the most helpless members of the human family simply because he has a (D) after his name. If you are Pro-Life, you will vote Pro-Life.

Richard A. Carey, Needham

Ecstatic about choice of Sarah Palin Just like Genevieve Kineke wrote in your September 12 edition, I too am ecstatic about Senator McCain’s vice-presidential pick. Here is a woman who is intelligent, successful, committed to her country, and, courageous. She is the epitome of true feminism — showing all of us that a woman can, indeed, “have it all” — a close family, outstanding career, loving husband, and imperfect, but well-adjusted children.

More importantly, however, Palin is more than just a politician seeking political gain. She is a living testimony to the values of hard work, family, and service to country.

In the weeks ahead, I anticipate that the media will continue to portray Sarah Palin as a far right religious fanatic, primarily because of her Pro-Life convictions.

I know. As a Roman Catholic, I have confronted many who are eager to attack my Pro-Life convictions as the product of some sort of mindless Church-directed brainwashing. Nothing could be further from the truth. I, like Palin, was brought up in a pro-choice culture.

I have seen the damage done to so many women, including friends and work colleagues, who have experienced abortions. What was sold to them as “the answer to their problems” has brought nothing but pain and deep regret.

I am proud to support a candidate for the vice presidency who not only stands up for — but also lives — her convictions. I only hope that over the next seven weeks, our nation’s citizens will not be fooled by the media’s attempt to marginalize Sarah Palin, but will recognize her as the intelligent, committed, and courageous woman that she is.

Joanne DellaMorte Bangs, Barnstable

Troubled by candidate’s response As your September 5 editorial stated, when pastor Rick Warren asked Senator Obama, “When does life begin”? Obama answered, “That’s above my pay grade.” That an Ivy League educated constitutional lawyer and presidential candidate could not — or would not — answer that primordial question is both stunning and troubling item.

As an Illinois legislator Obama opposed the “Born Alive and Infant Protection Act” in 2001, 2002 and 2003. It passed after he went to Congress. The scientific community is nearly unanimous that life begins at conception. Jerome Lejeune, the “Father of Modern Genetics,” has testified before Congress that, “Each of us has a very precise starting moment which is the time at which the whole necessary and sufficient genetic information is gathered inside the fertilized egg, and this is the moment of fertilization. There is not the slightest doubt about that.”

The media’s reaction to Obama’s non-answer was deafening silence.

The scientific community is sharply divided, on the other hand, as to whether global warming is a natural phenomenon or is caused by human activity. Absolutists vehemently insist it is man made.

A good question On August 29, The Anchor ran an article entitled “Biden on Obama ticket; A Catholic with mixed record on Church issues.”

While the Legislature in Chicago was attempting to pass a bill that would protect babies that survived late term abortions, Senator Obama voted against the bill.

I ask you, how could any Catholic choose to run on this ticket?

Ruth Hanlon, Seekonk Keep government out of abortion Abortion should not be a po-

litical football lest our country becomes as the Islamic, Communist and other countries, who put to death the citizens who don’t follow their rules which are based on their religious beliefs. Abortion is a moral issue and should be guided by the churches who oppose it; and not depend on the government to do the work.

If you truly believe in promoting all other basic human rights, you might work toward ending capital punishment. Also preemptive war is inherently evil killing thousands of innocent humans. Does that “assert the inherent dignity and sanctity of human life?”

I support the views of Joseph Wright and Michael Bailey. The incidence of abortion can best be reduced by improving the economic situations of people by giving prenatal services and general health care to those without it and through education. People will not get that from the Republican Party, Sarah Palin, or the Religious Right.

Joan S. Mullen, West Barnstable Father Landry responds: Abortion is not merely a “moral issue” but a procedure that leaves innocent human beings dead.

Churches have a role in fostering a culture of life, but governments have the duty to protect the innocent from those who seek to harm them unjustly.

Unhappy with Obama book advertisement I am writing to express my complete disgust with the September 12 issue. I am a graduate of Catholic elementary and high school in the diocese as well as a 2008 graduate of Salve Regina University, so I fully understand, though disagree with, the Church’s stance on abortion. However, I was shocked by the large advertisement for a book slamming the Democratic Presidential nominee, Senator Barack Obama. I do not understand the need for a Catholic newspaper to accept a paid advertisement in which a person is being berated for disagreeing with a religious notion.

Does the Catholic Church and this newspaper need money so badly that they would publish an advertisement for a book in which a person is being degraded for a differing opinion? What would Jesus have done in this situation, accepted the money or thought of the individual? In addition, I do not believe that this Catholic newspaper, and the Church in general, should disregard the candidacy of Senator Obama purely based on the abortion issue.

An unborn child has the right to life, but what about the thousands of soldiers that will die if the War in Iraq continues, as the Republican Presidential Nominee Senator John McCain plans. Are their lives any less important? Maybe the Church

and this paper should stay out of political issues because this country was founded on the separation of Church and state.

Jennifer Iacovelli, Fall River Father Landry responds: Jesus most certainly would think of the individual, and out of love for him and others, call him to profound conversion by reminding him that abortion is far more than a religious notion or an opinion but an act that kills innocent human beings made in his image and likeness that no one can ever morally support. That is, in fact, what the Catholic Church Jesus founded does to all candidates who support the destruction of the unborn.

Time for enforcing Church law As mentioned in your September 5 editorial, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi crossed the apparent fault line when parsing Sen. Barak Obama’s perplexing statement about legal protections for life as being “beyond his pay grade.” One wonders: What do taxpayers pay lawmakers for except to make judgments on laws for the benefit of the common good?

Pelosi waxed ineloquent as she advanced her personal Halakah concerning the question of life.

Pelosi was rightly disturbed by Obama’s awkward and rambling response to Pastor Warren’s inquiry at Saddlebrook concerning when life should be legally protected.

Provoked to an apparent attempt to shore up Obama’s weak foundational presentation, the Speaker misrepresented authentic Church teaching.

It is clear that, in answer to the question posed at Saddlebrook, any other answer than “at the moment of conception” requires a respondent to make a judgment way beyond the pay grade of all except those succumbing to the fault line articulated in Genesis which outlines the demonic proposal and the fall of man.

A spokesperson for Pelosi dismissed and minimized the seriousness of the problem with the casual aside: “This is never really enforced.” Perhaps the time has arrived to move beyond the inertia of scandal and embrace the new evangelization starting with episcopal support of applying canon-915, which presently requires ministers of the holy Eucharist to deny Communion to notorious, obstinate public sinners. By what logic can shepherds demand that Catholic politicians conform to moral law when they themselves treat canon law as an unenforceable exhortation?

Father Joseph Clark Arlington, Va.

14

The Anchor

DHF announces new positions at several locales

NEW BEDFORD — Sacred Heart Home in New Bedford recently announced that Mary Anna Arruda has been promoted to director of Human Resources at the skilled nursing and rehabilitative care facility.

Arruda has been employed in the Diocesan Health Facilities for 32 years, and has more than 26 years of experience as the Human Resources assistant at Catholic Memorial Home in Fall River.

She was actively involved in the development of the Employee Recognition Team at Catholic Memorial Mary Anna Arruda Home and received the Reflection of Mission Award for going above and beyond the call of duty with residents, family members and staff.

She is a resident of Fall River, and attended Bishop Gerrard High School and Southeastern Massachusetts University, and is a member of SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management.

Marian Manor in Taunton announced the hiring of Johanne C. Oliveira, RN, CCM, CPUR, as the director of Admissions and Case Management.

Oliveira has a broad range of nursing and health care experience that includes long-term care, sub-acute care, med-surgical experience, utilization review, case management, discharge planning and staff development and triage.

A resident of Seekonk, Oliveira graduated from Johanne C. Oliveira St. Joseph Hospital School of Nursing with her RN diploma. She is also certified in case management and professional utilization review. She is a member of the Ethics Committee at Marian Manor.

Catholic Memorial Home recently named Lisa Robinson Pircio, MBA, NHA, as assistant administrator of the skilled nursing and rehabili-

tative care facility.

Pircio graduated from Springfield College with a bachelor of science degree in business management and UMass-Dartmouth with a master of business administration.

She resides in North Easton with her two children.

With nearly 20 years experience in nursing home administration, she has served as the administrator of facilities ranging in size from 104188 beds. She has also worked as a management consultant to a variety of healthcare organizations Lisa R. Pircio including skilled nursing facilities, rest homes and physician practices, offering guidance in the areas of operations and finance.

Our Lady’s Haven Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitative Care in Fairhaven, recently introduced Kate Hancock, MBA, as Human Resources director.

Hancock received a bachelor of arts degree from Regis College, Weston, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude in mathematics and studio art, and a master’s in business administration from UMass-Dartmouth.

She was employed as Recruitment and Training manager at Slades Bank for the past five years, and is a member of the Regis College Alumnae Chorus and the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra Chorale.

Hancock was named 2007 Campaign Coordinator of the Year for the Kate Hancock United Way of Greater Fall River.

She serves on the safety, mission and fund-raising teams at Our Lady’s Haven.

Sacred Heart Home, Marion Manor, Catholic Memorial Home, and Our Lady’s Haven are four of the five skilled nursing and rehabilitative care facilities in the Diocesan Health Facilities system sponsored by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River.

September 26, 2008

Legion of Mary to host ‘Living Rosary’ October 5

NEW BEDFORD — The traditional Living Rosary held each year at St. Joseph-St. Therese Church on Acushnet Avenue will take place October 5 at 3 p.m.

This year the event will have a two-fold purpose of uniting in prayer with the Pro-Life march in Boston and also the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Legion of Mary in the parish.

Father Philip Hamel, pastor and spiritual director of the parish Legion, will lead the congregation in a special prayer for the unborn and unite in prayer with Bishop George W. Coleman who will be at the Boston Walk For Life.

Father Barry W. Wall, diocesan director of the Legion of Mary, will be the guest speaker. Father Wall is also the spiritual director of the New Bedford Legion, having under his guidance six active Praesidia, including a Portuguese group in New Bedford and a Spanish group in Attleboro.

The church service will include recitation of the rosary led by Donald St. Gelais of the Men of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. The Hail Mary prayers will be recited by persons in their native language.

There will also be a Scripture reading by Paul Carrier and the master of ceremonies will be Roger Boyer.

The soloist for the occasion will be Irene Belanger who will be accompanied by Jacqueline Maillet at the organ.

The Legion of Mary is one of the largest lay organizations in the world. It had its beginning in Ireland, founded by Frank Duff in 1912, and has spread world wide.

Active members give service to the Church on a voluntary basis, the object being the glory of God through the holiness of its members, who carry out a weekly apostolic work in the spirit of faith

and in union with Mary.

The auxiliary membership, on which the active members depend, consists of persons who associate themselves with the Legion by undertaking a service of prayer in its name.

The active member participates in the life of the parish through visitations of families, the sick in homes and hospitals, and any work assigned to them by their spiritual director. Such works may be teaching Religious Education, census taking, visits to newly baptized, and prison visits.

Another very important part of the Legion is the work undertaken by the Envoys. They work to spread the Legion of Mary to foreign countries. Such was Edel Quinn, an envoy to East Africa, and Alfie Lambe, envoy to South America.

At St. Joseph-St. Therese, the Legion of Mary began in 1958 with the permission of then pastor Msgr. Louis Prevost, with Father Louis Boivin as spiritual director.

It was then when the new pastor, Msgr. Henri Hamel, became the spiritual director.

During his years as guide to the active members, there was a Columban Drive to recruit active members, and membership rose to more than 10 active members. Also during his time with the Legion, Msgr. Hamel established a Junior Group. Many boys and girls, mostly from St. Joseph’s, were recruited.

Succeeding the late Msgr.

Hamel as spiritual director were Fathers Daniel Gamache; Father Boivin, who returned as pastor; and Fathers Marc Bergeron and Roger Levesque.

The church service will end with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. A buffet in the church hall will follow. All are invited.

For information call 508-9952354.

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

Scheduled celebrant is Father Christopher Santangelo, SS.CC., pastor of Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in New Bedford

15

The Anchor

September 26, 2008

Family Ministry Office seeking couples to represent parishes

By Michael Pare Anchor Staff

NORTH DARTMOUTH — The Fall River Diocese’s Family Ministry Office is reaching out to married couples interested in becoming a part of its Parish Family Ministry liaison couple program.

The Family Ministry Office has the support of Bishop George W. Coleman and is requesting that each parish in the diocese appoint a married couple to act as a link between the parish and the office.

So far, one-third of the parishes in the diocese have responded.

Scottie Foley, a program director at the Office of Family Ministry, is confident that more married couples will come forward, beginning with the program’s meeting October 5 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Family Life Center on Slocum Road.

“Any couple who would like to represent their parish is invited to attend,” said Foley. “If after the meeting they want to do it, we’ll contact their pastor.”

The commitment on the part of the couple, said Foley, amounts to attending three, two-hour meetings per year. The idea is for the couple to act as a liaison, a conduit for information.

“We give them resources and ideas to take back to their parish,” said Foley. “At the meetings they receive information on societal changes in marriage and family life, experience marriage enrichment themselves, and ideas on how to become a marriage building parish.”

The program, said Foley, places an emphasis on the Church calendar.

“We also provide materials for family Advent and Lenten activities and celebrations,” said Foley. “These can be disseminated through the Religious Education programs, the weekly bulletin, or at special parish events.”

Some couples may choose to become even more involved, said Foley. There is certainly much in it for the participating couples, she said. In addition to getting lots of information to enrich their own marriage, they’ll meet couples from other parishes that share their desire to promote Catholic marriage.

It is also a true opportunity to live out their faith.

“This is a real answer to our baptismal call,” said Foley.

In most cases, participating couples have been recommended by their pastor, but some had heard about the program through friends and approached their pastor on their own, asking to volunteer. The age of the couple is irrelevant.

“We have newlyweds to 45-year marriage veterans and each brings a different perspective on marriage and family that is so valuable to exchange,” said Foley.

Currently, the Family Ministry

Office is making a push to increase that one-third participation rate.

“We would love to have a much greater level of participation,” she said. “The commitment is not demanding, but it could be tremendously rewarding for both the representatives and their parish.”

The initiative in the Fall River Diocese coincides with an aggressive effort spearheaded by the Massachusetts Catholic Conference in Boston, the public policy arm of the Bay State’s

Catholic bishops. A precipitous decline in the number of Catholic marriages in Massachusetts has captured the attention of Church leaders.

The 18-month outreach effort, entitled “The Future Depends on Love” is about engaging local parishes. The idea is to reach out to young couples through their pastors and the parish leaders who know them best.

Most parishes throughout the state have received resource bind-

ers, filled with materials, including detailed plans on how to facilitate coffee hour discussions, links to numerous studies, DVDs, and discussion materials to go along with them, suggested topics for homilies, bulletin inserts, and lesson plans for the classroom. In the coming weeks, those parishes that have not secured their binders will hear from the Family Ministry Office regarding how to best obtain them.

The coordinators of the initiative

are David Franks, a professor at St. John’s Seminary in Brighton, and Angela Franks. The husband and wife team continue to barnstorm the state, spreading the news that the sacrament of marriage is good, healthy, and critically important for the future of the Church.

For information on Catholic marriage programs, visit foryourmarriage.org and familyfallriver. org. To learn more about “The Future Depends on Love” initiative visit MassCatholicMarriage.org.

Today The Anchor prints the seventh in an eight-part series on marriage published by the Massachusetts Catholic Conference. The series is entitled “The Future Depends on Love” and examines from a fresh and contemporary perspective topics such as human love in the divine plan, the intrinsic and public goods of marriage, the gift of fertility, the sacrament of matrimony and more. For more information about the series and added resources, visit www.MassCatholicMarriage.org.

Youth Pages

16

September 26, 2008

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A STUDENT — Bishop Feehan High School teacher Christine Miller explains a typical homeroom experience to parents.

Feehan ‘FLIPing’ over laptops

ATTLEBORO — Bishop Feehan High School recently held its second annual Back to School Night where parents ran through a mini-schedule of their children’s day and listened to Principal Bill Runey present Feehan’s new laptop program, Feehan Laptop Integration Program (FLIP).

Runey proudly announced that over the past summer the Feehan campus was installed with a WiFi system, making it the only school in the area, public or private, to offer wireless accessibility to students anywhere on

campus.

What’s more, Bishop Feehan, at the discretion of teachers, will allow students to use laptops in classrooms to take notes and to use WiFi as a study tool and for research.

“Students in study hall will no longer have to wait to use a PC in the classroom or trek over to the library to type a paper,” said Runey. He assured parents, “We realize that in today’s economy, a laptop is a big-ticket item. Rest assured your child’s education will not suffer in the slightest if he or she does not have a laptop,

but we felt that it was a step that we had to take to be proactive in making Feehan educationally advanced in an ever-growing technological world.”

The goal at Feehan is to fully harness the wireless technology to become a “laptop school” within three years; where Feehan classes will interact with classrooms around the world, assignments will be stored, submitted and graded electronically, and all students and faculty will have accessibility to, and be educated on, laptops — making PC’s a thing of the past.

THOUGHT FOR FOOD — Fourth-grade students at Holy Trinity School in West Harwich are learning how to order from a menu and how to pay for the items and make change in the customer/ wait staff roles. The students work on good manners while participating in the math assignment.

9/11 TRIBUTE — Father Jay Maddock celebrated Mass at Taunton Catholic Middle School on September 11. Students, staff and families joined with representatives from Taunton and Raynham, Fire and Police departments, in celebrating the opening of the school year and remembering the events of 9/11. In a special tribute to those fallen heroes and the wars that came after, Sarah Curley read and essay she wrote telling how it was for her, seven years ago. From left, Taunton Fire Chief Leman Padelford, Principal Margaret Menear and altar servers Shelby Ferry and Alec Turner following the presentation of Certificates of Honor.

MAKING COOKING A-PEELING — St. John the Evangelist kindergarten students learn not only their ABCs in class, they also make applesauce. The children were given turns peeling apples and cooking making the applesauce in the Attleboro school’s cafeteria. Kindergarten students, and new friends, Sofia DelVecchio, left, and Julie Liston help peel the apples.

FASHION BUGS — Jane Robin, back row, right, executive fund-raiser with Peggy Foley, back, left, event chair, and Father Philip Davignon, pastor of Our Lady of Assumption, along with students from St. Margaret’s School in Buzzards Bay and St. Pius X School in South Yarmouth hosted a fashion show with 190 guests attending, with proceeds benefiting the St. Mary’s Education Fund.

MOMMY I’VE ALREADY MADE A FRIEND — During the first week of school students in Espirito Santo Preschool in Fall River, Bella Simoes and James Hickey already made friends.

September 26, 2008

W

Youth Pages Who’s the fairest in the land?

guess my mom and all other like to think that everything parents were right all along in life can be and should be — but SHHHH, don’t let them “fair,” for we think things should be measured in black and white.

And if the teenagers are anything like me, then they will learn as they get older and reflect on personal, professionBy Crystal Medeiros al, social and global events that there are many of shades of know that. gray by which we live. So I We are not the only ones who question the overall fairness of life itself. This Sunday, we will hear God’s response to Ezekiel as the people proclaimed that “The Lord’s way is not fair!” There have been countless times when I have looked up to God, the way I did with mom as a teen-ager and claimed, “It’s not fair.” Too many of us are quick to look to God to fix what is unfair instead of looking within ourselves.

God explains to Ezekiel that it is not his ways that COOL FAMILY — SS. Peter and Paul School students Zachary, Alexandra, Austin and Samantha Souza share a smile and an ice are unfair, but the unfaircream treat with their grandmother, Pat Souza, during the Fall ness lies when people neglect to do what is right and just.

River school’s recent annual Grandparents Ice Cream Social. hen I was a teen-ager and would disagree with my mother on particular issues — which occurred on an almost daily basis — I would stomp my foot and bellow, “But it’s not fair!” I am sure that to this day countless teen-agers have proclaimed this mantra to their parents.

And if their parents are anything like my mother, they probably said their teens, “Well, life isn’t fair.”

As teen-agers, we would

17

Be Not Afraid

When something is unfair and unjust, too often I hear people say, “There’s nothing I can do about it,” or, “That’s someone else’s job.”

And in this election year, “Why should I vote? It’s not like it’s going to count anyway,” has been heard hundreds of times already.

But if we, as Catholics, see that something is unfair and unjust, then do we not have a responsibility to our brothers and sisters to take ownership of the issue and do what we can to change the situation? Have we become such a self-absorbed people that we cannot and will not see past our individual wants, needs and desires to accomplish the greater good.

Are we content with the complacency that seems to have crippled us?

“God calls us to take ownership of our actions and deeds; to hold ourselves accountable by the standards which he established for us.

If we decide that something is unfair, instead of complaining

about it or waiting for someone else to fix it (including God), then let us take it upon ourselves to search for the spirit and courage within ourselves to make things right.

Our young people are blessed with the gift of hope and a certain naiveté that adults, by nature of being adults, tend to lose with each passing year.

It is our young people who can make the unfairness fair and the unjust just. Believe in them, support them. Hold them to a higher standard that too many of us never reached.

They have it in them. We all do. Sometimes all it takes a gentle word or affirmation to bring about the change we all need.

For we cannot talk to a magic mirror on the wall and ask it to point us to the fairest person in the land; we have to be the fairest person in the land.

Crystal is assistant director for Youth & Young Adult Ministry for the diocese and youth ministry coordinator for St. Lawrence Martyr Parish in New Bedford. You can contact her at cmedeiros@dfrcec.com.

18

The Anchor

Semantics or seismic shift

M

any have asked whether Sarah Palin is a feminist. This highlights the lively debate among women of faith about whether the word “feminist” can still be a vehicle for the beautiful truths about authentic femininity. Before we decide, we must take note of the latest salvo launched in the battle to define feminism by its radical vanguard.

The National Organization for Women has revealed more of its true agenda since the success of Sarah Palin in the national arena. Their longstanding mission statement might have mistakenly been interpreted as supportive of her candidacy: “Our purpose is to take action to bring women into full participation in society—sharing equal rights,

The Feminine Genius

By Genevieve Kineke responsibilities and opportunities with men, while living free from discrimination.” Considering their vehement objection to this particular woman’s successful “participation in society,” a change was in order.

The result was a new mission statement, making their priorities clearer: “NOW works to end discrimination and harassment in the workplace, schools, the justice system, and all other sectors of society, secure abortion, birth control and reproductive rights for all women.” This new creation underscores the feminist view about reproductive “rights,” but more importantly, their view of men, whom they accuse of discriminating, impregnating and otherwise harassing women as a matter of course. Despite tremendous advances for women, they still see the whole world aligning itself against them.

Contrary to popular belief, feminists don’t hate motherhood — as long as it’s on their own terms. Sperm banks, invitro fertilization and lesbian adoptions are touted as hip and brave choices, and cloning is the Promised Land on the horizon. Radical feminists reserve their true hatred for fatherhood, despite the abundance of men who love and support the women in their lives and collaborate for the good of their shared offspring.

Sarah Palin has forced their hand for two reasons: she al-

lows her children to live and she collaborates with men.

While neither is conducive to the NOW worldview, the first is an irritant, the second is the real outrage. As many Americans struggle to understand how feminists could possibly not appreciate this example of hard work, courage, balance and brains, we are invited to look beyond the rhetoric to what really drives feminist rage.

Behind every raging feminist is a wounded heart that blames the patriarchy and holds all forms of male authority in contempt. The most important remaining goal of radical feminists is to destroy fatherhood by destroying the links inherent in traditional family life.

Interestingly, the greatest obstacle to their agenda are women of faith, who obstinately refuse to undermine authentic masculinity. These women create the essential bridge that grounds each generation in reality, by making fatherhood a positive dimension of their children’s lives and by submitting to legitimate male authority. Such strong, well-grounded women provide the essential bridge to fatherhood, which is of critical importance to children struggling to know reality.

Any environmentalist can explain the dynamic interactions among living creatures, and the family is the most important eco-system of all. Even the survivors of Lost know that we “live together or die alone.”

The problem with feminists is their zero-sum game, in which “grrl power” must be achieved at the expense of boys and men — and babies.

Authentic femininity is a pole star pointing to the One who makes all life possible, primarily by loving and supporting masculinity in all its richness. We must defend motherhood — for the sake of fatherhood, which is the primary target in these turbulent times; and yet, attempting to retrieve the label of “feminism” for this integrated worldview is proving more difficult than ever.

Mrs. Kineke is the author of “The Authentic Catholic Woman” (Servant Books). She can be found online at www. feminine-genius.com.

September 26, 2008

Paul brings unity to Christian faiths continued from page one

helped Christians identify with the religion and feel like they belonged. As Father Bergeron explained, those early Christians were essentially learning as they went along.

“Christians started meeting in the basilicas, which were the courts of law,” Father Bergeron said. “So if you look at the vestments and gestures we use in Mass today, they were borrowed from the court. When you walk into a courtroom, what happens?

Everyone stands up. The original vestment of a judge was a stole — that was also borrowed from the court.”

Much of Paul’s mission was concentrated on offering recommendations and suggestions to those early parishes, if you will,

through his pointed epistles. After personally establishing many of the outlying Church communities, Father Bergeron said Paul would routinely hear about issues and concerns that later arose in places like Corinth, Philippi and Galatia, to which he would send letters in his absence.

“The letters of Paul were addressed to particular churches about particular issues,” Father Bergeron said. “It was only later on that people realized there was a treasure trove of theology and teachings in them that needed to be shared. But initially they were written about things that were going on that Paul needed to comment about. Paul would go to these communities and start the Church, then he’d write

to them to congratulate them or sometimes to correct them.”

Like his pointed correspondence, Paul’s message of unity remains as germane today as it was during the formative years of our faith.

“Many of us in the Christian Church tend to polarize ourselves and Paul was always trying to bring people together and understand where our base is,” said Rev. Lima. “He was always trying to get people back to Christ.

Sometimes you have to wonder just how far we’ve come today.

We’ve probably separated ourselves even more. Our differences probably supercede the notion that we are all one in the Lord.

Paul had a strong message that we all need to be united in Christ.”

Local group prepares for Life March in Boston continued from page one

With its own slogan of “Walk as Children of Light,” the archdiocese has scheduled a youth rally with Father Stan Fortuna at 10 a.m., at Cathedral Grammar School.

The slogan is taken from Chapter 5, verse eight, of St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians: “For you were once darkness, but now you are the light in the Lord. Live as children of light.”

It will be followed by a Mass at 11:30 a.m., celebrated by Cardinal Sean O’Malley in Boston’s Cathedral of the Holy Cross at 1400 Washington Street.

A pizza party will follow the Mass in Cathedral Grammar School at 12:30 p.m.

“Youth groups from high schools and parishes are all invited to take part,” said Marian Desrosiers, director of the Fall River Diocese’s Pro-Life Apostolate.

“We customarily have stu-

dents representing our four Catholic high schools taking part in the march, and it is hoped that they will attend the rally events too,” she said last week.

“However, because the schools and students and parish groups arrange their own transportation to travel to Boston, how many will be going is uncertain,” she added.

Pre-walk celebrations will be held on Boston Commons at 1:30 a.m. The keynote speaker will be Boston Herald columnist and sportswriter Joseph Fitzgerald.

Following the approximately two-hour walk, dedicated to the memory of Pro-Life Benefactor Thomas J. Flatley, the participants will end their trek at the bandstand on Boston Commons for the bus ride home.

For more information on the youth events and to download a registration flyer, contact Kathy

Stebbins at the Office of the New Evangelization of Youth and Adults, kstebbins@rcab.org, or call 617-746-5811.

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September 26, 2008

19

The Anchor

UTAH BOUND — Preparing to attend the General Assembly of the National Council of Catholic Women in Salt Lake City September 24-28, are from left, Jeanne Alves, first vice president of the Cape and Islands region of the Fall River Diocesan Council of Catholic Women; and Lynette Ouellette, past DCCW president who is currently the NCCW Boston Province director representing the Fall River, Maine and New Hampshire dioceses. They will be among 700 women attending the assembly that meets every two years. They will be joined by former Fall Riverite and past DCCW President and Province Director Claire McMahon, who currently resides in California. (Photo courtesy of Maddie Lavoie)

Around the Diocese Eucharistic Adoration:

Eucharistic Adoration

ACUSHNET — Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament takes place at St. Joseph-St. Therese Church, 51 Duncan Street, Mondays following the 8:30 a.m., Mass until 1:30 p.m. For more information call 508-995-2354.

EAST TAUNTON — Eucharistic adoration takes place every First Friday at Holy Family Church, 370 Middleboro Avenue, following the 8:30 a.m. Mass until Benediction at 8 p.m.

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

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

TAUNTON — Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament takes place every First Friday at Annunciation of the Lord Church, 31 First Street, immediately following the 8 a.m., Mass and continues throughout the day. Confessions are heard from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m., concluding with recitation of the rosary and Benediction at 6:30 p.m.

TAUNTON — Eucharistic adoration takes place every Tuesday at St. Anthony Church, 126 School St., 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’s and Benediction. Recitation of the rosary for peace is prayed Monday through Saturday at 7:30 a.m. prior to the 8 a.m. Mass.

WEST HARWICH — Our Lady of Life Perpetual Adoration Chapel at Holy Trinity Parish, 246 Main Street, holds perpetual eucharistic adoration. For open hours or to sign up for an hour call 508-430-4716.

Miscellaneous Miscellaneous: BREWSTER — A Mass with healing service will take place on October 1 at 7 p.m. at Our Lady of the Cape Church, 468 Stony Brook Road. Come experience the healing power of Jesus with Father Richard Lavoie, M.S. CHATHAM — A Tridentine Mass is celebrated 11:30 a.m. every Sunday at Our Lady of Grace Chapel on Route 137.

EASTON — Stonehill College will host a lecture, “The 2008 Election in Historical Perspective,” September 29 at 4 p.m. at the Martin Institute. Sidney Milkis, a commentator, author and editor on American politics is the presenter. The lecture is free and open to the public. Handicapped accessible.

EAST SANDWICH — An annual Cursillista reunion and brunch Ultreya will take place at Corpus Christi Church October 4 beginning with 10 a.m. Mass, followed by a witness and brunch. For reservations call Marie Basile at 508-888-5719.

FAIRHAVEN — The Blessed Damien Pro-Life Group will sponsor a religious service of three hours of prayer and adoration in reparation for the sins against human life at the Damien Residence, 73 Adams St. October 7. It will begin at 12 noon with the celebration of the Holy Eucharist.

FALL RIVER — The Fall River Area Men’s First Friday Club will meet October 3 at the Parish of the Good Shepherd, 1598 South Main Street. Following the 6 p.m. Mass celebrated by the Msgr. John J. Harrington, a meal will be served in the church hall, with Msgr. Harrington as guest speaker. Guests are welcome and should call 508672-8174 to reserve a seat.

FREETOWN — The Fall River Diocesan Council on Catholic Women is sponsoring a Day of Recollection for all women October 4 from 8:15 a.m. to 3 p.m. at St. Bernard’s Parish Center, 30 South Main Street. Father John Gomes, pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in South Dartmouth, will discuss “He came to serve and not to be served.” The day will include celebration of the Eucharist, recitation of the rosary and more. Reservations required by tomorrow by calling 508-674-3361.

HYANNIS — St. Francis Xavier Church, 347 South Street, will host a Vespers service every Thursday evening at 6 p.m. (except Thanksgiving). Join them for an Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours.

LAKEVILLE — His Land Retreat House, 17 Loon Pond Road, is holding a healing service, “Say Yes or No — God Loves You,” directed by La Salette Father Richard Lavoie, Sunday at 2 p.m. Mass will be celebrated, and each person will receive healing prayer. All are invited. Refreshments will be served. For information or to make a reservation call 508-947-4704.

NEW BEDFORD — On October 4 at 8 am at St. Anthony of Padua Church there will be a traditional Latin Mass according to the 1962 Missal. All are invited.

NORTH DARTMOUTH — The Diocesan Divorced and Separated Group will meet October 8 at the Family Life Center, 500 Slocum Road from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The evening will begin a series on divorce care, with a screening of the video “What’s Happening to Me?” Discussion and refreshments will follow. The meeting is free and is open to all divorced and separated persons.

TAUNTON — St. Anthony’s Church on School Street is holding its second annual Harvest Craft Fair October 25 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be various crafts, a Chinese auction, roll-up bazaar, Portuguese food and more. For information or to reserve a space call Jill Pedro at 774-226-5537.

WAREHAM — Sister Sara Butler, MSBT, will give a presentation on Pope Benedict XVI’s writings and his devotion to the pierced heart of Christ, Sunday from 3-5 p.m. at St. Patrick’s church hall, 82 High Street. All are invited. Refreshments will be served.

WOBURN — The Massachusetts Family Institute welcomes Michael Novak as keynote speaker at the 18th annual Fund-raising Banquet October 3 at the Newton Marriott Hotel at 7 p.m. Novak is a theologian, author and former U.S. ambassador.

For tickets and more information, visit www.mafamily.org or call 781-569-0400.

Pro-Life

ATTLEBORO — Concerned faithful are needed to pray the rosary outside Four Women, Inc., an abortion clinic at 150 Emory Street, Thursdays from 3-4 p.m., or 4-5 p.m. and Saturdays from 7:30-8:30 a.m. For information call 508-238-5743. On October 2 from 3-5 p.m., various priests from the Diocese of Fall River will be praying outside the.

Faithful from the diocese are invited to join them. For more information, contact Father Landry at 508-993-1691.

REMEMBERING FALLEN COMRADES — Members representing police, fire and rescue departments, as well as the Knights of Columbus gathered for a 9/11 remembrance prayer service at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River on the seventh anniversary of the horrific events.

The touring image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was also present at the cathedral that evening.

(Photo by Eric Rodrigues)

Sister Beatrice Lapalme OP; taught in diocesan schools

FAIRHAVEN — Dominican Sister of Hope Beatrice Lapalme, 95, died September 10 at the Alden Court Rehabilitation Center here.

Born in Acushnet, the daughter of the late Elzear and the

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks

Sept. 29 Rev. J.A. Payan, Founder, St. Mathieu, Fall River, 1899

Sept. 30 Rev. John J. Griffin, Pastor, St. Paul, Taunton, 1963 Rev. George Taraska, OFM Conv., Parochial Vicar, Holy Rosary, Taunton, 1993

Oct. 1 Most. Rev. William O. Brady, S.T.D. Archbishop of St. Paul, 1961 Oct. 2 Rev. Joseph E. Sutula, Pastor, St. Casimir, New Bedford, 1961 Rev. Rene R. Levesque, Pastor, Blessed Sacrament, Fall River, 1999

Oct. 3 Rev. Msgr. Arthur G. Considine, Retired Pastor, St. Mary, South Dartmouth, 1991 Oct. 4 Rev. Alan P. Beauregard, M.S., Retired, Philip Huliter Hospice Care Center, Providence, R.I., 2007

Oct. 5 Rev. Jean D. Pare, O.P., Assistant Director, St. Anne Shrine, Fall River, 1999

late Anna (Lelievie) Lapalme, she entered the novitiate of the Dominican Sisters of Fall River in September 1936.

She made her first profession in March 1938 Sister Beatrice and her final Lapalme profession in March 1941.

Sister Beatrice taught at St.

Anne’s School in Fall River, and later at St. Francis Xavier School in Acushnet until 1993.

She leaves a sister-in-law Cecilia Lapalme of Acushnet; and nieces and nephews. She was the sister of the late Maurice, Raymond, Lionel, Elzear and Laurette Lapalme.

Her funeral Mass was celebrated September 13 in St. Francis Xavier Church in Acushnet.

Burial was in Notre Dame Cemetery, Fall River.

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The Anchor

September 26, 2008

FASHION FOR THE FUND — Friends of the St. Mary’s Education Fund, and students from St. Pius X School in South Yarmouth and St. Margaret’s School in Buzzards Bay recently held a benefit fashion show at the Wianno Club in Osterville.

READY FOR CLASS TO BEGIN — The Prevost Class of 1958 recently celebrated its 50th anniversary reunion at White’s of Westport. Of the 56 classmates; 25 attended from across the country.

Seated from left: Paul Valcourt; Victor Delisle; Richard Desrosiers; Father Raymond Robillard; Gerald Lavoie; and Richard Dumaine. Middle row: Ronald Vanasse; Robert Thiboutot; Richard Pouliot; Brother Marcel (Ignatius) Sylvestre, FCI, who staffed the school; Jules Goffinet; Robert Letendre; Richard Valcourt; Robert Vincelette; Peter Lussier; Roger Raymond; and Robert Nadeau. Back row: Richard Rousseau; Normand Phenix; Jean Boule; Gilbert Mathieu; Albert Lafleur; Paul Briere; Normand Lavigne; Joseph Mercier; and Reginald Cousineau. The school was located on Eastern Avenue in Fall River and graduated classes from 1938 through 1972. (Photo by Arthur Francoeur)