Diocese of Fall River
The Anchor
F riday , October 3, 2008
October: A time to venerate Mary as Queen of the Rosary
By Deacon James N. Dunbar
NORTH EASTON — The rosary is making a comeback says one family ministry official, who reports various indications of a revival of this traditional Catholic devotion. “I think the ideas in the 2002 Apostolic Letter “Rosarium Virginis Mariae” (Rosary of the Virgin Mary) by our late Pope John Paul II as well as the fact that the rosary can be recited by those with limited reading skills and even young children, are playing significant parts in what we are now witnessing,”
FROM REQUIEM TO JOY — Dr. David MacKenzie conducts the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra during last October’s performance of Mozart’s Requiem at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in New Bedford. The NBSO will return to St. Anthony’s on October 26 to perform Franck’s Psalm 150 and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with its famous “Ode to Joy.” (Photo: Mare Studios)
NBSO to bring Beethoven’s Ninth up to speed at St. Anthony’s By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff
NEW BEDFORD — The secret to Ludwig van Beethoven’s enduring Ninth Symphony, according to Dr. David MacKenzie, conductor of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, is tempo. While countless performers and arrangers have agonized over whether to use period or contemporary instruments, or trying to find just the right balance between the brass and string sections, MacKenzie said Beethoven was a stickler when it came to the tempo of his work. “Beethoven was very specific about his tempos,” MacKenzie said. “It was so important that literally when he would hear of a performance of his work, the first thing he would ask was not
if the audience liked it or if it was well-played, but how were the tempos?” MacKenzie hopes to return to the composer’s original intention when he conducts the NBSO along with members of the Rhode Island College Chorus in a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony within the confines of St. Anthony’s Church on October 26 at 3 p.m. The concert is being performed in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Quebec, with proceeds also going to help restore St. Anthony’s 1912 Casavant Frères Organ in anticipation of the centennial of its dedication in 2012. Noting that the longest recorded version of the Ninth Symphony runs about 75 minutes, MacKenTurn to page 18
reported Congregation of Holy Cross Father John P. Phalen. Father Phalen is president of Holy Cross Family Ministries in North Easton, “which is a continuation of the ministry of our famous Holy Cross Father Patrick Peyton, popularly known internationally as the “rosary priest.” The cause for the canonization of Father Peyton is in process and at the current stage he is called “Servant of God.” “What John Paul II made clear was that the rosary ‘is not a pious practice banished to the
past, like prayers of other times thought of with nostalgia.’ Instead, the Holy Father said, ‘this prayer helps to put Christ at the center, as the Virgin did.’ It is not just a prayer to Mary, as we often thought as young people, to the mother of God, but rather a Christocentric prayer and meditation on the life of Christ himself,” he added. “When we pray and meditate on all the 20 decades of the full rosary, we realize that what we’re finding is Mary gazing on her Son, and conforming to Turn to page 14
Worcester bishop recognizes group seeking canonization of Audrey Santo By Gail Besse Anchor Correspondent
taged, she still managed to help so many people,” said Robert Keane, a Worcester attorney and WORCESTER — A severely disabled young clerk of the Foundation of the Promotion of the woman who drew thousands to pray at her bed- Cause of Beatification and Canonization of Little side after paranormal events occurred nearby Audrey Santo. could become a saint for the culture of life. Audrey’s story was featured on ABC-TV’s Worcester Bishop Robert J. McManus re- “20/20” and in The New York Times. Two bishops cently gave official recognition to a group seek- and a dozen priests were in the sanctuary at Worcesing canonization for “Little Audrey,” who died ter’s St. Paul’s Cathedral for her funeral Mass. in 2007. After nearly drowning “She’s had global impact, this at age three, Audrey Marie Santo child who didn’t say a word,” said lived her next 20 years unable to her mother, Linda Santo. “She speak or move, being cared for by would be a Pro-Life saint, as she her family. was a statement for life in culture Unusual happenings that ocof death.” She predicted that Aucurred around the child brought the drey’s canonization would draw devout and the curious to the famiyoung people especially back to ly’s modest home for years. Statues the Church. and religious pictures inexplicaTwo authenticated posthumous bly dripped oil and blood. During miracles are needed for canonizaMasses celebrated at the home, tion, according to Church law. Mrs. blood, which was tested and found Santo said she believes one miracle Audrey Santo to be human, appeared on five conhas already occurred and it will be secrated Communion hosts. submitted for authentication. Although the Catholic Church does not use The impetus to get the canonization process such occurrences as verifications of miraculous going actually “came from Rome, not from us,” claims, many people saw these events as a sign she said. that Audrey was especially close to God, and so After her daughter’s death from cardio-respiprayed for her intercession. ratory failure, Mrs. Santo was contacted by Dr. “Although Audrey was physically disadvanTurn to page 18
Father John C. Martins; former pastor at St. Anthony of Padua By Deacon James N. Dunbar
FALL RIVER — Father John C. Martins, 77, who retired in June 2007 after 13 years as pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Parish here, and who had served the Fall River Diocese as a priest for 52 years, died September 26 after a Father John long illness. C. Martins
“The parishioners here at St. Anthony’s are very saddened … and also shocked by Father Martin’s death, which came so suddenly,” said Father Brian Albino, who succeeded Father Martins as pastor. “He was very well liked by the parishTurn to page five
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News From the Vatican
October 3, 2008
The story of Padre Pio’s stigmata from report of Vatican investigator By Mirko Testa
GREAT MYSTERY — Padre Pio holds up his hand that appears to be bloodied in this undated file photo. During his lifetime, Padre Pio’s stigmata was questioned or contested by some Church authorities. (CNS file photo)
ROME, (Zenit.org). — A volume detailing the report of a Vatican investigator into Padre Pio gives new information on the wounds of the Passion that the friar suffered. Padre Pio da Pietrelcina received the stigmata from the crucified Christ, who in an apparition invited the Capuchin friar to unite himself to his passion so as to participate in the salvation of others, particularly consecrated persons. This is what we can know with certainty thanks to the recent opening — at the request of Benedict XVI — of the archives of the former Holy Office up to 1939, which contain information on revelations to Padre Pio that were not previously published. These revelations have been released in a book titled “Padre Pio Sotto Inchiesta: l’Autobiografia Segreta’” (“Padre Pio Under Investigation: The ‘Secret Autobiography’”). The volume is prefaced by Vittorio Messori and edited by Father Franceso Castelli, historian for the beatification cause of Pope John Paul II and professor of modern and contemporary history of the Church at the Romano Guardini Institute for Religious Sciences in Taranto, Italy. Until the publication of this book, many assumed that Padre Pio — whether for reasons of modesty or because he thought himself
unworthy of the charisms he had received — had never disclosed to anyone what happened on the day he received the stigmata. The only known reference to these events was in a letter Padre Pio sent to his spiritual director, Father Benedetto da San Marco in Lamis, in which he speaks of the appearance of a “mysterious person” but does not offer any details. The new book, which contains the first complete version of the report penned by Bishop Raffaele Rossi of Volterra, (later cardinal), apostolic visitor sent by the Holy See to secretly investigate Padre Pio, clarifies that on the occasion of the reception of the stigmata the saint had a conversation with the crucified Christ. The book also contains a number of statements that Padre Pio made under oath, which provide an interpretive key to Bishop Rossi’s report. Asked to swear on the Gospel, Padre Pio for the first time revealed the identity of the one from whom he received the wounds. It was June 15, 1921, and in answer to a question posed by Bishop Rossi, Padre Pio said: “On Sept. 20, 1918, I was in the choir of the church after celebrating Mass, making the thanksgiving when I was suddenly overtaken by powerful trembling and then there came calm and I saw Our Lord in
his crucified form. “He was lamenting the ingratitude of men, especially those consecrated to him and favored by him.” “Then,” Padre Pio continued, “his suffering was apparent as was his desire to join souls to his Passion. He invited me to let his pains enter into me and to meditate on them and at the same time concern myself with the salvation of others. Following this, I felt full of compassion for the Lord’s pains and I asked him what I could do. “I heard this voice: ‘I will unite you with my Passion.’ And after this the vision disappeared, I came back to myself, my reason returned and I saw these signs here from which blood flowed. Before this I did not have these.” Padre Pio then said that the stigmata were not the result of a personal request of his own but came from an invitation of the Lord, who, lamenting the ingratitude of men, and consecrated persons in particular, conferred on Padre Pio a mission as the culmination of an interior mystical journey of preparation. Father Castelli maintains that it is not possible to speculate beyond the information gathered in Bishop Rossi’s 1921 investigation and attribute to Padre Pio any other sign of the Passion. The 40th anniversary of Padre Pio’s death was September 23.
apostle calls bishops to grow each day in a holy life, so as to have the same sentiments as Christ,” Benedict XVI said. “The first apostolic and spiritual commitment of a bishop should be to progress in the life of evangelical perfection.” The pope exhorted the bishops “to trust each day in the word of God, so as to be teachers of the faith and authentic educators of your faithful.” Moreover, he entrusted the prelates to the world of God, “so that you will be
faithful to the promises you have pronounced before God and the Church on the day of your episcopal consecration.” “Progressing along the path of sanctity, you will manifest that indispensable moral authority and prudent wisdom that is demanded of one who is at the head of the family of God,” the Holy Father affirmed. “This authority is today more necessary than ever. Your ministry will be pastorally fruitful if it is supported on your sanctity of life.”
Pope: ministry for bishops depends on sanctity of life
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, (Zenit.org). — The Church needs holy bishops today more than ever, says Benedict XVI, since apostolic fruits depend on sanctity of life. The pope affirmed this when he addressed a group of bishops ordained over the past year. A dozen of the bishops come from Eastern Churches. A day later, the Holy Father addressed another group of recently ordained prelates — those who serve in missionary lands. Both groups — with a total of 111 participants — are involved in two parallel courses under way in Rome and organized by the Congregations for Bishops, Eastern Churches, and the Evangelization of Peoples. The new bishops are being hosted at the Regina Apostolorum university. The pontiff gave the new bishops a concrete recommendation: seek sanctity. In that regard, he offered the example of St. Paul, as the Church marks the Pauline Jubilee Year celebrating the 2,000th anniversary of the Apostle’s birth. “The example of the great
The Anchor
OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 52, No. 37
Member: Catholic Press Association, Catholic News Service
Published weekly except for two weeks in the summer and the week after Christmas by the Catholic Press of the Diocese of Fall River, 887 Highland Avenue, Fall River, MA 02720, Telephone 508-675-7151 — FAX 508-675-7048, email: theanchor@anchornews.org. Subscription price by mail, postpaid $14.00 per year. Send address changes to P.O. Box 7, Fall River, MA, call or use email address
PUBLISHER - Most Reverend George W. Coleman EXECUTIVE EDITOR Father Roger J. Landry fatherrogerlandry@anchornews.org EDITOR David B. Jolivet davejolivet@anchornews.org NEWS EDITOR Deacon James N. Dunbar jimdunbar@anchornews.org OFFICE MANAGER Mary Chase m arychase@anchornews.org ADVERTISING Wayne 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. THE ANCHOR (USPS-545-020) Periodical Postage Paid at Fall River, Mass.
October 3, 2008
The International Church
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Anglican archbishop under fire for homily at Lourdes
LONDON (CNS) — Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, England, has come under fire for his homily during a pilgrimage to the Marian sanctuaries in Lourdes, France. Archbishop Williams, leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, said in a homily during a September 24 international Mass at Lourdes that when Mary appeared to St. Bernadette Soubirous in 1858 “she came at first as an anonymous figure, a beautiful lady, a mysterious thing, not yet identified as the Lord’s spotless mother. “And Bernadette — unedu-
UTTER DESTRUCTION — A general view shows the destruction caused by a September 20 bomb blast outside the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan. The suicide truck bomb attack that killed at least 53 people bore the hallmarks of an al-Qaida operation, Pakistani intelligence officials said. (CNS photo/Faisal Mahmood, Reuters)
Pakistani bishop condemns bomb blast at Marriott hotel By Anto Akkara Catholic News Service
BANGALORE, India — A Pakistani Church official condemned the bomb blast that claimed at least 53 lives and left about 270 injured at one of the premier hotels in Islamabad. “We are stunned by this. We join the nation in deploring and mourning this despicable act,” said Bishop Anthony Lobo of Islamabad-Rawalpindi, secretarygeneral of the Pakistan Catholic Bishops’ Conference. In a telephone interview with Catholic News Service from his office in Rawalpindi, Bishop Lobo said that with the suicide attack “the terrorists have shown that they can do whatever they want ... whenever they want.” “All the churches in Pakistan held special prayers for the blasts victims,” added Bishop Lobo. A truck carrying explosives was detonated September 20 at a Marriott hotel in Islamabad after it was stopped by security guards at the gates. The hotel is situated less than a mile from Parliament and the president’s house. Dozens of international dignitaries were at the hotel at the time of the explosion. The Czech ambassador to Pakistan was killed, and several other diplomats were among the injured. The explosion came hours after President Asif Ali Zardari, in an address to Parliament, said, “We must root out terrorism and extremism, wherever and when-
ever they rear their ugly heads.” Bishop Lobo said people “are really scared of suicide bombers, but they have to live with it (the situation).” Terrorist attacks killed more than 2,000 people in Pakistan last year. Bishop Lobo noted that media reports said the hotel was targeted due to the presence of Americans as well as scores of international diplomats in the wake of the recent incursion of U.S. forces into Pakistan from Afghanistan in pursuit of Taliban targets. The Associated Press reported that top Pakistani leaders were to eat dinner at the hotel the evening of the blast, but plans were changed at the last minute. Asked whether the attack posed threats to the new democratic government, Bishop Lobo said, “The new government has to go through tough times after taking over from long years of military dictatorship.” However, he added that Pakistan has been “a victim of terrorism” for years now with the “Christian community also being affected severely.” In retaliation for Western nations’ assault on the Taliban regime in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Muslim fundamentalists targeted Christians in neighboring Pakistan. Islamic militants shot dead more than three dozen Christians in five deadly attacks on church congregations.
cated, uninstructed in doctrine — leaped with joy, recognizing that here was life, here was healing,” he said. “Only bit by bit does Bernadette find the words to let the world know; only bit by bit, we might say, does she discover how to listen to the Lady and echo what she has to tell us.” He also praised the lives of the saints, saying that their examples “matter so much.” The archbishop later was criticized by the England-based Protestant Truth Society, a group of Anglicans and nonconformists committed to upholding the ideals of the Protestant Reformation.
The Rev. Jeremy Brooks, the group’s director of ministry, said: “All true Protestants will be appalled that the archbishop of Canterbury has visited Lourdes and preached there. “Lourdes represents everything about Roman Catholicism that the Protestant Reformation rejected, including apparitions, Mariolatry and the veneration of saints,” he said in a statement. “The archbishop’s simple presence there is a wholesale compromise, and his sermon — which included a reference to Mary as ‘the mother of God’ — is a complete denial of Protestant orthodoxy.”
The Church in the U.S.
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October 3, 2008
Diocese asks Church court to rule on dispute with Dominican order
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CNS) — Officials of the Diocese of Sacramento report that the diocese has asked a Church tribunal to settle an ongoing dispute with the leaders of the Dominican order’s western province, based in Oakland. The ruling concerns responsibility for the actions of Dominican Father Jerome Henson, who was accused of sexual abuse while serving at St. Dominic Church in Benicia during the early 1980s. Henson is accused of molesting a 13-year-old former altar boy in a Benicia cemetery in 1981 and also accused of molesting another boy. Father Henson was serving in the Diocese of Orange when the Sacramento-area allegations surfaced in 2002 and was removed from ministry. Sacramento diocesan officials said they made their announcement in response to recent remarks from the pulpit at St. Dominic Church by Dominican Father Emmerich Vogt, prior provincial of the Dominicans’ western province. In a settlement with sex abuse victims and their attorneys reached in June 2005, the Diocese of Sacramento agreed to pay $35 million to 33 victims of sexual abuse in resolving all outstanding legal claims against the diocese and all religious orders operating within the diocese. Two of those claims involved Father Henson. More than two years later, the dio-
cese was partially reimbursed by the Dominican’s insurance carrier for the claims against the priest, but so far the province itself has declined to accept any responsibility for the substantial remaining damages, which total $1.5 million, according to Kevin Eckery, spokesman for the diocese. “The financial resources of the diocese ultimately come from the generosity and sacrifice of the Catholic people,” Sacramento Bishop William K. Weigand said in a statement released to the media. “As bishop, I have to be a faithful steward of those financial resources. I am just not free to absolve the Dominicans of their full responsibility for the actions of their members. In addition, it’s a matter of fairness,” the bishop stated. Discussions between the Dominicans and the Diocese of Sacramento have been taking place for more than three years in an attempt to reach an agreement, Eckery said. Repeated efforts by the diocese to resolve the dispute have been unsuccessful, he said, leading diocesan officials to recourse under canon law. Eckery said the case, called a “libellus” under canon law, has been filed with the metropolitan tribunal of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. A metropolitan tribunal is the first appellate court for the diocesan courts in the province. The case is set to be heard this month.
LACKING THE ESSENTIALS — A young girl stands outside a shack built on stilts in Buenaventura, Colombia, in this file photo. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Relief Services are urging the presidential nominees to ponder issues affecting world’s poor people. (CNS photo/Mike Ceaser)
USCCB, CRS urge presidential nominees to mull world poverty
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Representatives from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Relief Services in a telephone press conference called on the major parties’ presidential candidates to lay out their foreign policy strategies in relation to the world’s poor and overseas assistance. The campaigns of Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain have failed to adequately address the global food crisis, the increasing role of the U.S. Defense Department in humanitarian work, the refocusing of U.S. foreign assistance, and how the government should help the poor adapt to climate change, said Bill O’Keefe, senior director for the advocacy department of the Baltimore-based CRS. The Obama and McCain campaigns also have failed to sufficiently articulate if their foreign policy programs would promote religious equality, strengthen international law, support a safe haven for foreign refugees, or actively pursue a comprehensive resolution between the Israelis and Palestinians, said Stephen Colecchi, director of the Office of International Justice and Peace for the USCCB. “This topic is timely considering that the candidates will be debating foreign policy,” O’Keefe said. “These are critical issues that are crying out for attention.” Both campaigns are currently focused on the domestic economic crisis and the Bush administration’s proposed bailout of U.S. financial institutions, which could cost taxpayers $700 billion or more if it’s approved by Congress. With approximately $38 billion currently being spent on foreign aid — which includes costs for foreign embassies and diplomatic missions — both men argued that money spent to address global pov-
erty is a minimal expense in the federal budget compared to the proposed bailout of U.S. financial institutions. “There is no doubt the next administration and Congress has tough financial problems they will have to deal with,” O’Keefe said. “But there is a missed opportunity by the candidates to demonstrate their own leadership (on these matters) and to prove to the voters they can think comprehensively and broadly about comprehensive issues. The person who can demonstrate they can do that is more likely to win the election.” If the U.S. government would invest in a solution to poverty in foreign countries, those nations would become better trade partners, Colecchi said. Nations with fewer poverty issues also tend to be more peaceful countries and more peace in the world would reduce “the amount that we have to spend on defense,” he said. The USCCB also has submitted its November 2007 “Faithful Citizenship” statement — which address these and other moral issues — to both campaigns and has sought a meeting with each candidate to discuss the topics face to face, Colecchi said. O’Keefe also urged Catholics to bring up these issues with the candidates at campaign events and write letters to the editors at a variety of publications as a way of gaining support for moral concerns. Ultimately, Catholics have the power to vote for the candidate they believe has best addressed these moral issues of conscience, he said. Colecchi said the U.S. Catholic bishops are calling for a new style of politics that focuses “more on the pursuit of the common good than on the demands of narrow special interests.”
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The Anchor
October 3, 2008
Beloved Father Martins dies continued from page one
ioners, who he served so faithfully during his pastorate here. He was a great priest and I have tried to continue what Father Martins had done here because they are appreciated so much,” Father Albino added. Born in Sao Sebastiao, Terceira, Azores, he was the son of the late Joao M. and Rita Candida (Ferreira) Martins. After studying at Angra Seminary in Terceira, he was ordained on April 10, 1955 by the late Bishop Manuel A. Carvalho in the Cathedral of Jesus the Savior in Angra. Later that year his first assignment after arriving in this country was as an assistant at St. Anthony of Padua, where he remained until 1965. “He was the youngest priest in the Fall River Diocese at that time,” recalls Father Jose A. dos Santos, one of Father Martins’ colleagues at the Cardinal Medeiros Residence in Fall River. Father dos Santos, 80, former pastor of the former Our Lady of Health Parish in Fall River, and a native of Portugal, said that he and Father Martins shared similar priestly experiences “because Portuguese immigrants would seek us out to administer sacraments to them.” He remembered Father Martins as “always ready to minister to all who came to him, and
they included the young and the old, and Father Martins was a very good priest, always just, wanting to do everything right,” he added. “In his later years and into retirement he suffered many illnesses. But he continued to minister despite them and you would always see him with a happy face,” said Father dos Santos. One of Father Martin’s longtime friends was Father Marc H. Bergeron, pastor of St. Anne’s Parish in Fall River. “Our friendship began some 10 years ago when I would help him out by celebrating weekend Masses every other week at St. Anthony’s, his last parish. He was a very dedicated pastor and well beloved. Yes, he always had a smile on his face … even though he wasn’t all that well much of the time. He was definitely one of the best … and I will miss him,” Father Bergeron stated. In May 1965, Father Martins went on to serve as an assistant at St. Anthony Parish in East. Falmouth. Three years later he was assigned as parochial vicar at St. Elizabeth’s in Fall River. He later was parochial vicar at St. Anthony’s in Taunton; administrator at St. Peter’s in Provincetown; administrator for 12 years at Our Lady of Health in Fall River; and was
named pastor of Santo Christo Parish in Fall River in 1991. He returned to St. Anthony of Padua as pastor in 1995, and marked the golden jubilee of his priesthood in 2005. Other diocesan appointments include director of communications for the Portuguese ministry, and as chaplain to the Knights of Columbus. When he retired in June 2007, he told The Anchor, “I’ve happily served in this diocese for 52 years, and being a diabetic for than 20 years and after recent open heart surgery, I’m looking forward to taking it easy and recuperating for a while, and getting my strength back. After that, I can set my future plans … but retirement is looking good.” He leaves two sisters, Miquelina Fagundes and Rita Coelho. He was the uncle of Lucia Drumonde, Maria Coelho, Jose M. Paiva, Teresina Dinis, John C. Paiva, Marilou Gouveia and Anne Gendreau. He was also the brother of the late Maria Jose Paiva. His concelebrated funeral Mass was celebrated October 2, in St. Anthony of Padua Church, followed by a committal service at Notre Dame Cemetery Mausoleum. The Silva-Faria Funeral Home in Fall River was in charge of arrangements.
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October 19 A Day of Centering Prayer - Presenter: Fr. Bob Masciocchi, CSS October 24-26 Women’s Retreat - Presenters: Sr. Mariam Patrice McKeon, SCH & Jerri Lou Buffo October 25
Finding Freedom in our Addictions - Presenter: Jacqueline M. Sitte, RN, CARN, LADC I
October 26
A Day for Married Couples - Presenters: Fr. Bob Masciocchi, CSS & Team
November 2
Healing Anxiety and Depression - Presenter: Dr. Joseph Coyle, Christian Psychologist
November 9
Dealing with our Hurts and Anger Presenter: Fr. Bob Masciocchi, CSS, D. Min.
November 14-16 Life in the Spirit - Presenters: Fr. Bob Masciocchi, CSS and Team November 23
A Day for Caretakers - Presenter: Dr. Joseph Coyle, Christian Psychologist
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The Anchor Freedom and authority
Two months ago, we marked the 40th anniversary of “Humanae Vitae,” Paul VI’s encyclical that reiterated that every act of love making by spouses needs to be open to the transmission of life, and therefore that the practice of contraception is immoral. This crisis that followed the publication of the encyclical soon mushroomed far beyond whether couples would permit God in their bedrooms. The question quickly became whether God would be allowed to have a role in morality at all. That is the way that the cancer of dissent metastasizes. Once a Catholic begins to believe that the Church founded by the Lord Jesus and guided by the Holy Spirit is wrong on any one issue concerning faith or morals that she teaches to be definitively held by all the faithful, that Catholic often quickly begins to question the very authority the Church has to teach on anything. Once that occurs, the person starts to substitute an erroneous view of conscience, rather than the truth of God as articulated by the Church, as the supreme arbiter of moral action. Conscience has moral authority only because it is the means by which a human being is able to listen to God’s voice giving us moral principles to apply in a given situation so that we might make a judgment about what we are called to do or avoid. When a Catholic begins to reject the echo of God’s voice in the Church informing consciences with those moral principles, what normally results is that the person begins to listen to his or her voice thinking that it is God’s. Moral sovereignty starts to be given to one’s own opinions about the way he or she thinks things ought to be, rather than to the way God wants them to be. This seems to be one of the issues at play in the negative reaction some Catholics have been giving to the recent doctrinal recapitulations of the pope, the U.S. bishops, and this newspaper about the moral responsibilities of Catholics with respect to voting. Some have expressed outrage that the Church would dare to comment on issues of political importance at all, as if this were a de facto mortal sin against a pseudo-biblical moral code published by the I.R.S. Others have embraced the Church’s living out of its commission to be salt, light and leaven when pastors speak out against certain issues with which they agree, but have become apoplectic when the Church speaks about issues with which they either dissent or simply do not take as seriously as the Church does. The most notable example of this has happened when the Church teaches about abortion. When the Church teaches that a Catholic morally cannot support abortion and cannot without sin vote for a candidate who supports abortion except when one has a “proportionately grave reason” for doing so — one that is so important that would outweigh the deaths of 4,000 innocent fellow human beings a day in the U.S. alone — many consider it an indefensible intrusion in both the political and personal spheres. While many will say that Church leaders have the right to teach on these issues, they become incensed when those same leaders do not give them in return the “right” to ignore those teachings or merely give them lip service. They believe that authoritarian Church leaders are trampling their conscience by “forcing” them to follow Church teaching, rather than respecting them as moral agents capable of making their own choices. The conflict between this erroneous view of conscience and the truth proclaimed by the Church is an example of the common tension between freedom and authority that affects every family, city, nation and the international community. Some view freedom as the license to do whatever one wants, without obedience to any outside authority. Jesus taught, however, that there is an intrinsic relationship between freedom and the truth and that it is the truth that sets us free (Jn 8:32); for that reason authentic freedom is the ability to live according to that liberating truth. For a person to become free, in other words, he must freely conform himself to the authority of the truth with assent of the mind and of the heart. This theme of freedom and authority was taken up repeatedly by the master catechist, Pope John Paul I, the 30th anniversary of whose death the Church prayerfully marked on Sunday. This humble, smiling pontiff was as far from being authoritarian as any pope has ever been. During his 33-day pontificate, however, he took up this theme time and again because he knew, a decade after “Humanae Vitae,” that it was one of the greatest struggles among believers. His thoughts have not lost their vitality or vigor. In a Sept. 23, 1978 homily, commenting on the second reading from the 13th chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews, he said, “I confess that when [the passage] speaks of obedience it places me in a slight embarrassment. Today, when personal human rights are confronted with the rights of authority and of the law, it is so difficult to convince!” So he turned to an Old Testament image to try to overcome that hardship. “In the Book of Job there is a description of a war-horse … (cf. Job 39:10-25). This is a symbol of freedom. Authority, on the contrary, is like the prudent rider: he mounts the horse and, with gentle voice, by making judicious use of the spurs, of the bridle and of the whip, he urges it on or controls its impetuous course, curbs it and restrains it. To reconcile the horse and the rider, freedom and authority, has become a social problem. It is also a problem within the Church.” He says that the Second Vatican Council, at which he was a participant, explicitly confronted this problem. “At the Council there was an attempt to resolve it in the fourth chapter of Lumen Gentium [the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church]. Here are the Conciliar indications for the ‘rider’: ‘The sacred pastors know very well how much the laity contribute to the welfare of the whole Church. They know that they themselves were not established by Christ to undertake alone the whole salvific mission of the Church to the world, but that it is their exalted office to be shepherds of the faithful and to recognize the latter’s contribution and charisms in such a way that all, in their measure, will with one mind cooperate in the common task.’” In other words, bishops and priests must respect that lay people are commissioned to cooperate with them in the salvation of the world and to be what John Paul I described as the “front lines” of that battle. “On the other hand,” Papa Luciani continued, “here is the conciliar indication for the ‘highspirited war-horse,’ that is, for the laity: ‘the faithful should acquiesce to the bishop as the Church to Jesus Christ and as Jesus Christ to the Father’” (LG 27). The obedience of the believer is modeled on Jesus’ obedience to the Father, which culminates in his saying, “thy will, not mine, be done!” (Mt 26:39). In a catechesis four days later, the day before he died, he took up the theme of obedience to God through the Church. He recalled that St. Paul discovered in Jesus’ question on the road to Damascus that Christ and his Church were one and that in persecuting the Church he was persecuting Christ (Acts 9:4). Thereafter St. Paul taught that the Church was Christ’s body (1 Cor 12). That led Pope John Paul to conclude: “Christ and the Church are only one thing. Christ is the Head, we, the Church, are his limbs. It is not possible to have faith and to say, ‘I believe in Jesus, I accept Jesus but I do not accept the Church.’ We must accept the Church, as she is. And what is this Church like? Pope John called her ‘Mater et Magistra’ [Mother and Teacher].” With maternal love the Church teaches. Catholics are called to embrace her and her teaching, as spiritually mature adults, with the trusting simplicity of the childlike to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs.
October 3, 2008
The spiritual legacy of the smiling pope
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n September 28, the Church marked distinguished himself for a series of “letters” the 30th anniversary of the death of he wrote in the Italian St. Anthony’s MessenPope John Paul I, bishop of Rome for a stun- ger to some of the most famous personages of ningly brief 33 days. In a Church that thinks all time. The series was eventually published in centuries, his tenure was too short to have as a collection in English with the title “Illushad a major practical impact on ecclesiastical trissimi,” which is one of the most enjoyable structures. It was enough time, however, for books of spiritual reading I’ve ever gotten my him thoroughly to change the Church’s mood hands on. Among the 40 addressees of the letters were great saints like Bernard, Therese and image. It all began right after he was elected. Car- Lisieux, Bonaventure and Francis de Sales; dinal Albino Luciani, the Patriarch of Venice, literary giants like Mark Twain, Charles Dickwent to the conclave never expecting to be ens, G.K. Chesterton, and Goethe; fictional figelected. Most journalists were speculating that ures like Pinocchio and Figaro; there was even the next pope would be Cardinal Siri of Genoa one to Jesus. In these letters, the future pope or Cardinal Benelli of Florence, both of whose took up something that each recipient said or candidacies seemed very strong. Most were did and entered into a dialogue with them, to expecting either that one of them would mus- praise a truth they gave us or to question them ter the necessary votes early or that the con- about what he sees was in error. This was the clave would be deadlocked for days. When the way he would dialogue with the world, praiswhite smoke arose from the Sistine Chapel on ing whatever was good, and correcting what the evening of the second day, after only four could be better. In his four Wednesday catechetical addressballots, everybody anticipated seeing either Benelli or Siri walk out in white to St. Peter’s es 30 years ago — which this master catechist Loggia della Benedizione. But God’s ways are did without notes — he continued to pass on not our ways. Papa Luciani came out instead the truths of the faith through the use of sto— and debuted for the world the warm smile ries taken from the Bible, from literature, from magazines and that would soon from self-help indelibly endear literature. He him to everyone. even used the The day after unscripted inhis election, he sights of a boy told the crowd from a Maltese of 200,000 aschoir school sembled for the By Father who happened Angelus, that he to be present. He was more surRoger J. Landry employed whatprised than they ever he could to were. In the colloquial style that always characterized him, he make the truths of faith relevant, so that people said, “Yesterday morning I went to the Sis- would see the wisdom of the faith, and grow tine Chapel to vote tranquilly. Never could I to know, love and live it. He said he wanted to have imagined what was about to happen. As engage in a catechesis “adapted to the modern soon as the danger for me had begun, the two world … in the hope that I will be able, somecolleagues who were beside me whispered how, to help people to become better.” But his greatest catechetical lesson, accordwords of encouragement. One said: ‘Courage! If the Lord gives a burden, he also gives the ing to the opinion of his successor Pope Benestrength to carry it.’ The other colleague said: dict, was his humility. Benedict reminded us ‘Don’t be afraid; there are so many people in during his Sunday Angelus address that John the whole world who are praying for the new Paul I’s papal motto was “Humilitas.” This pope.’ When the moment of decision came, I single word, he emphasized, “synthesizes what is essential in Christian life and indicates the accepted.” Cardinal Villot’s next interrogative con- indispensable virtue of those who are called to cerned what he would be called. That too the service of authority in the Church.” He said caught him off guard. “Then there was the that, above all, “humility can be considered his question of the name, for they also ask what spiritual legacy.” Thirty years ago, during one of his four name you wish to take, and I had thought little about it,” he told the crowds with a smile. “My catecheses, John Paul asked the whole Christhoughts ran along these lines: Pope John had tian people to be humble. “I will just recomdecided to consecrate me himself [as a bishop mend one virtue, so dear to the Lord. He said, in 1958] in St. Peter’s Basilica; then, however ‘Learn from me who am meek and humble of unworthy, I succeeded him in Venice on the heart.’ … The Lord recommended it so much: Chair of St. Mark, in that Venice which is still be humble. Even if you have done great things, full of Pope John. Then Pope Paul not only say: ‘We are useless servants.’ On the contrary made me a cardinal, but some months earlier, the tendency in all of us, is rather the contrary: on the wide footbridge in St. Mark’s Square, to show off. Humility, humility: this is the he made me blush to the roots of my hair in Christian virtue that concerns us.” In a pre-papal “letter” to St. Thérèse of Lithe presence of 20,000 people, because he removed his stole and placed it on my shoulders. sieux, praising her for her little way of spiritual Never have I blushed so much! Furthermore, childhood, he gave us a window into his humble during his 15 years of pontificate this pope has soul. “Love in little things,” he wrote, “often this shown, not only to me but to the whole world, is the only kind possible. I never had the chance how to love, how to serve, how to labor and to to jump into a river to save a drowning man, but I suffer for the Church of Christ. For that reason have been very often asked to lend something, to write letters, to give simple and easy instructions. I said: ‘I shall be called John Paul.’” It was the first time there was ever a com- I have never met a mad dog; instead I have met pound name in the history of the papacy. The some irritating flies and mosquitoes. I have never new pope felt himself totally unworthy of it. “I had persecutors beat me but many people disturb have neither the wisdom of the heart of Pope me with noises in the street, with the volume of John, nor the preparation and culture of Pope the television turned up too high or unfortunately Paul, but I am in their place. I must seek to with making noise in drinking soup. … To reserve the Church. I hope that you will help me main calm and smiling as much as possible in such occasions is to love one’s neighbor without with your prayers.” In only seven minutes, he had demonstrat- rhetoric in a practical way.” He who was faithful in these “little things” ed a new style of the papacy with his joy, his smile, his simplicity and even his language. was, as the Lord once promised, “set over Whereas popes had been accustomed to use much” (Mt 25:21) — but the “much” didn’t althe royal and papal “we” in their discourses, ter his humility. Though his tenure was one of John Paul used the “I” throughout, a change the “least” in his history, we pray that the Lord that thankfully has stuck. He spoke to the peo- will soon exalt this humble servant to the altars, ple as a beloved parish priest would, not as a where his “spiritual legacy” can be enhanced distant theology professor. He would keep that and this great fruit of his pontificate perdure. Father Landry is pastor of St. Anthony’s tone throughout his pontificate. A few years prior to his papacy, he had Parish in New Bedford.
Putting Into the Deep
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St. Paul on the Church
of divine origin and secondly that ery soon after Christ’s it was meeting in the name of Ascension into heaven, the number of his disciples grew. Jesus Christ. For example, Paul addresses St. Paul began establishing communities from Antioch to Athens the First Letter to the Thessalonians: “Paul, Silvanus, and and beyond. As the Apostle began to write letters to them, he Timothy to the church of the began using the Greek word ekklesia, which the English language renders Living the “church,” to refer to these Pauline Year local assemblies. Originally, ekklesia described a temporary, By Father often political, sometimes Karl C. Bissinger spontaneous, assembly or gathering of people. In Thessalonians in God the Father the Greek translation of the Old and the Lord Jesus Christ” (1Th Testament, known as the Septua1:1, emphasis added). gint, the same word for church Later on, “church” came to rehad already begun to consistently fer to all those people who form stand for the Hebrew words used for the congregation of the people part of that assembly, whether they were present or not, whether of Israel when it assembled to at the time of the gathering on hear the Word of God. Sunday or at another point during When St. Paul started usthe week when they were not ing ekklesia or “church” for actually meeting (cf. Phil 3:6). the Christian congregation, he Finally, “church” began to always specified first that it was
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October 3, 2008
take on a supernatural, heavenly, or even a mystical meaning in the Apostle’s writings. It began to name the assembly of the saints in heaven, of which the members on earth, by virtue of dying and rising with Christ in baptism, also formed a part (cf. Eph 1:22, 3:10, 5:32). “Church” also started to replace the words “kingdom” or “realm” that had been used by Jesus in the Gospels and by others elsewhere to describe the new relationship our Lord came to establish with humanity. In this way, “church,” became the preeminent word for the entire Christian society in heaven and on earth! St. Paul uses three important images when describing the Church. The first is that of the Temple of the Spirit (cf. 1Cor 3:16-17, Eph 2:19-22). The Church is pictured as the sacred place or building where the Holy Spirit
Alive and kicking
t’s a sport that the harder with my dad, picking out a plot one hits another, the more to bury my three-day-old son accolades he receives. It’s a Davey, who put up a good fight sport that trash talk is the lanfor life, but lost. guage of the day. It’s a sport that Regardless of the age, it’s on any given weekend, countless gut-wrenching to bury your bones are broken, muscles are own child. In the 12 years since, torn, ligaments are damaged, I’ve blown a kiss Davey’s way and concussions make heads at every Mass during the sign spin. of peace — and I always will. Professional football. I have his picture on my desk It’s also a sport that last at work and on our living room weekend provided one of the wall at home. Not a day goes most poignant moments seen on by that we don’t think of him. I a gridiron. Tampa Bay Buccaneer field goal kicker Matt Bryant booted a 24-yard three-pointer with less than three minutes left in the game By Dave Jolivet to give his team a twopoint victory against the Green Bay Packers. Things like this happen all guarantee it will be that way for the time in football ... with one the Bryant Family. huge exception. Bryant had Why? Because through God’s buried his three-month-old son great graces, the Bryants and Tryson less than 24 hours earthe Jolivets value life. And until lier. As the ball floated through more people hold that value, the the uprights, Bryant blew a kiss senseless slaughter of innocent skyward to his little pal. unborn and partially born chilAs painful as it was for the dren will continue. Bryant Family, little Tryson This Sunday, others who had the best seat in the house to value life will be walking and watch his dad’s heroics. raising funds for mothers and Tryson was the youngest of their unborn children in Boston. the Bryants five children. He Scores from this diocese will be was found dead in his crib earthere. I’m convinced that they lier this week. The family was will make a difference — even devastated. if it’s just one heart they change, My family can relate to the that’s one life spared. what the Bryants are going So much is written about the through right now. A dozen evils of abortion, and much of years ago next month, I stood on the finger-pointing is directed at hillside in the wind-driven rain the women who make that hor-
My View From the Stands
ribly wrong choice. Yet, those accusations are horribly wrong as well. There’s no way we can know what goes through a woman’s mind, be her young or old, when she opts to kill her child. Often she is afraid, bewildered, and misinformed. Abortion is evil, and there are some select “human beings” in this country who perpetuate that evil, and they’re not afraid, bewildered or misinformed. They are, purely and simply, evil. These folks are politicians, judges, advocates and “experts.” These are the cancer cells that must be removed before the abortion disease can begin the healing process. Too many innocent children are killed in this country each day, and too many naive moms are coached to make that decision. Through our prayers, we must be the chemotherapy and radiation treatment to rid this country of the deadly cancer cells. People, drop to your knees once a day and ask the great Healer to rid this great nation of child-killers. It doesn’t take much on our part. St. Paul, the great persecutor of Christians was converted — so can our politicians, judges, advocates and experts. Then maybe one day they can respect life like the Bryant Family. Then maybe one day the converted can blow a kiss to the millions who perished at their once-evil hands.
dwells. While the individual, baptized Christian becomes a Temple of the Spirit through the sacraments, the faithful assemble to meet with others who share this indwelling. Here we see an application of the words of Jesus, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18:20). The Church gathers to be in the presence of Christ among them and to worship God around the table of the Lord. This richness wasn’t always obvious, so Paul had to remind them! The second and more important image is that of the Body of Christ (cf. 1Cor 6:15ff, 12:1227). This hints at the understanding of the Church as a continuation in history of the Incarnation and humanity of the Son of God. The Church as the Body of Christ does not illustrate a vague, spiritual link that we Christians have to one another, but it makes abundantly clear a concrete, organic, and physical communion we have with each other in Christ. “In one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” (1 Cor 12:13). We are members of the Body, and Christ is the Head (cf. Col 1:18). In a very real way, then, we have died on the cross with Christ and we have already risen with him (cf. Rom 6:5ff.). This image (which the Apostle develops especially in his later writing) points to the eucharistic
origins of the Church. It further emphasizes the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ as the Church’s sustenance. The third image of the Church that we find in St. Paul is that of the Bride of Christ. The Apostle alludes to this when he writes, “I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God, since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2Cor 11:2). He also calls husbands to “love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy” (Eph 5:25-26). Both show most beautifully the intimate relationship between our Lord and his Spouse, the Church. This image becomes especially important in the development of the theology of holy matrimony. St. Paul is the only inspired author who investigated the mystery of the Church so deeply. Maybe this is because his conversion experience gave him a unique foundation. In it he intuited the identity of Christ and the Church. When he was persecuting the first Christians, he heard the risen Jesus ask him not, “Why are you persecuting my followers,” but “Why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4, emphasis added). Father Bissinger is vocation director of the Diocese of Fall River and secretary to Bishop George W. Coleman.
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od created this world to be a beautiful place, a place of harmony, order, beauty. He created his creature, man, to live in bliss, in familiarity with him. The first reading, the Psalm, and Jesus in the Gospel each evoke this divine design with the powerful image of a vineyard, planted and cultivated with loving care so that it might produce the finest fruit. In Jeremiah and in the Gospel, when God comes to look for his fruit he does not get what he is looking for. In Jeremiah he finds wild, bitter, useless grapes; in the Gospel he finds murderous tenants. Both of these images dramatically depict the world under the burden of original sin. Yes, God made this world to be a beautiful place, but instead it is what the realism of the Catholic tra-
The Anchor
October 3, 2008
Keeping our gaze fixed on Christ
dition calls a “valley of tears.” It Paul to invite us to participate is a world in which the human in a life of positive certainty, as heart can not be content. We he does in the second reading. were made for something betSt. Paul invites us to live the ter, and even though, through life which he came to discover our sin we continue to disfigure years before on the road to it, we yearn for that beauty for Damascus. “Have no anxiety which we were made. The Responsorial Psalm gives expression Homily of the Week to this yearning. It is a Twenty-seventh Sunday deep prayer that rings in Ordinary Time out in the heart of each and every one of us: By Father “Once again, O Lord Michael Carvill, FSCB of hosts, look down from heaven, and see; take care of this vine, and proat all” he tells us. This world is tect what your right hand has no longer simply the valley of planted.” tears. St. Paul is not inviting us St. Paul testifies that this to “the power of positive thinkdeep prayer of the people of ing,” but rather he is witnessing Israel has been heard. The Lord to us, as he did with his whole has looked down upon this life from that moment on the vine. This is what allows St. road: Jesus is alive! “The stone
which the builders had rejected has become the corner stone.” The stone which he had rejected had now become the corner stone of St. Paul’s life. He had tried, through his own mistaken zeal for the law, to reject the corner stone once again, but Christ had come out to meet him, and now he knew that he was no longer condemned to live without hope in a valley of tears. This is what he announces to the Philippians and the Church announces to us through his words. Your sin is not the last word. Even while we seek to corrupt the world through our weakness and sins our “friend” the “landowner” has returned to his vineyard to protect what his right hand has planted. God made the world to be a
beautiful place and now he has sent his only Son so that all who believe in him “might have life and have it to the full.” As we continue to live in this valley of tears let us look to him. Let us fix our gaze upon him. In him is our life and our hope. He told us that we who belong to him are in the world but not of the world. By our clinging to him, we can live here in the world and truly “have no anxiety at all,” not through a psychological trick, but as a real experience of new life, of “life to the full.” He will free us from our sins and overcome our resistance as he draws us to himself and grants us that experience of beauty for which we were made and which God intended when he made the world. Father Carvill is pastor of St. Joseph’s Parish in Attleboro.
Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Oct. 4, Jb 42:1-3,5-6,12-17; Ps 119:66,71,75,91,125, 130; Lk 10:17-24; Sun. Oct. 5, Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Is 5:1-7; Ps 80:9,12-16,19-20; Phil 4:6-9; Mt 21:33-43; Mon. Oct. 6, Gal 1:6-12; Ps 111:1b-2,7-9,10c; Lk 10:25-37; Tues. Oct. 7, Gal 1:13-24; Ps 139:1b-3,13-15; Lk 10:38-42; Wed. Oct. 8, Gal 2:1-2,7-14; Ps 117:1bc,2; Lk 11:1-4; Thu. Oct. 9, Gal 3:1-5; (Ps) Lk 1:69-75; Lk 11:5-13; Fri. Oct. 10, Gal 3:7-14; Ps 111:1b-6; Lk 11:25-26.
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o matter who is elected president, American forces will remain in Iraq for a considerable period of time. The serious points at issue have to do with troop numbers, deployments, missions, and the question of a permanent American base in Iraq; “End It Now” and similar bumper-sticker admonitions ill fit the real world of moral and political responsibility. America’s Mesopotamian expedition has been very costly in lives, treasure, and political good will. Domestically, however, the adult questions have to do with what we’ve learned about the exercise of American power in a world in which the art of statecraft remains a subtle and complex one. So whether it’s President McCain or President Obama, the next commander-in-chief will have to see the war in Iraq through to a successful conclusion. The possibility of just that — a stable Iraq, safe for pluralism, governed responsively
Iraq and the war against jihadism
and responsibly — has been of which armed force is only one. enhanced by the counterinsurThat struggle is, among many gency strategy implemented by other things, a struggle in defense General David Petraeus over of religious freedom – a core the past 18 months. Unlike Catholic concern in this or any other major American instituother election year. tions — the Congress, for example — the U.S. military has an impressive capacity to learn from its mistakes, and from the mistakes of the nation’s political leaderBy George Weigel ship. That, in itself, is a positive lesson to be drawn from the past five difficult years. So here are some questions But it’s not enough. The that Catholic voters might pose country remains divided on the to the two principal presidential nature of the threat that could no candidates: longer be ignored after 9/11. A 1) How do you define the common understanding of what enemy in this new kind of war? we are fighting, and why, is esWhat role does distorted relisential in building and sustaining gious conviction play in creating a bipartisan consensus that will the dangers we face from terrorallow presidents of both parties ists? to conduct the war against global 2) Whatever you may have jihadism over the next several thought in 2003, how do you decades — and to do so through think Iraq “fits” within the all the instruments of statecraft, global struggle against jihadism today? Do you think it possible that Iraq might become a kind of Middle Eastern Poland — the
The Catholic Difference
domino that sets in motion a long-term regional trend toward responsible and responsive government? 3) What can the United States do to ensure that those Christian Iraqis who have fled Iraq in recent years have the opportunity to return to a home that is safe for them? What should the U.S. be doing now to protect the remnants of Iraq’s once-vibrant Christian communities? 4) What specific steps will you take to enhance American intelligence capabilities, which have consistently failed us over the past decade? What training programs in the languages and cultures of the Islamic world will you implement in order to upgrade the capacities of both the CIA and the Department of State? 5) If the war against jihadism is, at bottom, a contest between two very different ideas of the just society, what will you do to enhance our national capacity to make the case for civility, tolerance, and religious freedom
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through our public diplomacy? Is broadcasting American pop culture into the Middle East the most effective way to illustrate our convictions about the good society? What should we be telling an Arab Islamic world, caught in a narrative of failure of its own making, about the goods that freedom brings? Or should we just drop the subject? 6) How will you guide the evolution of an American military that has become confident in its counter-insurgency capabilities and that now has a cadre of brilliant younger officers formed in the hard school of learning-from-our-mistakes in Iraq? 7) In the cases of Iran and North Korea, and indeed as a general principle, do you favor coupling U.S. anti-nuclear proliferation diplomacy to an American pledge to work for the abolition of nuclear weapons? 8) What did you get wrong about Iraq? George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.
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Hunker’n down
Monday 29 September 2008 — ideas. I’ve not always been this Three Mile River — Feast of the way. I suspect it has something to Archangels do with age. I notice the kids on e can no longer pretend the passing yellow school buses. it’s summer. The days The buses on their way to the have been growing shorter and elementary school are filled with the nights longer since the end of June, but we refused to notice. We always refuse to notice. It Reflections of a can no longer be denied: Parish Priest the dark half of the year is upon us. By Father Tim There are few mornGoldrick ings now in which I can sit on the piazza sipping my coffee. The weather is too cool. I head instead for the youngsters who are bright-eyed comfort of the rectory library, and ready for a new day of learncoffee cup in hand. Of course, ing and adventure. The students it’s a little cool in the rectory as on the high school bound buses, well. I refused to turn on the heat however, resemble zombies. this early in the season, especially They may be up and about but now that heating oil costs are their brains are still asleep. I’m astronomical. convinced we all have biological I’m a morning person. It’s clocks and they are set accordearly in the day that I get my best ing to our age. I don’t remember
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The Ship’s Log
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when my biological clock got set back to being a morning person. I hear the ducks and geese honking day and night as they fly south over the rectory. The crows, too, are flocking. Country people generally dislike crows — crows eat their crops, but I admire the crow’s beauty and intelligence. I’m unable to appreciate the sound of their call, however. The caws sound sinister. When there’s a flock of crows in the church parking lot, the ruckus is overwhelming. Maybe that’s why a gathering of crows is called a “coven.” Driving past the country fields, I see the acres of squash have all been harvested. The rows of prizewinning corn grown every year at the Bristol County Agricultural School have been gathered in. Now the Canada geese are glean-
When anger is justified
new and obviously a possession bout nine years ago, beof extreme importance to her. fore we moved to Cape As we looked at her truck to Cod, our family was living in a survey the damage, we noticed small town in California. Our that there was a small dent. I children were ages two and tried to apologize, telling her four at the time, and I would that it had happened accidenoften take them with me to run tally, etc., but basic civility or errands. As was true of many forgiveness were not on her ratowns in the area, the parking dar. It seems that all she wanted places ran diagonally in front to do was punish me with her of the stores. When a car was anger, and of course, get my parked, the front of the car at insurance information, which I the curb was slightly lower than gave her. the back of the car due to the The entire transaction slope of the street. lasted only a few minutes, and On one particular day I was fortunately my car door was in a bit of a rush, such that closed so that my children were when I opened my car door it slipped out of my hand too quickly and with the help of the incline of the parking place, swung open wide and hit the side of the vehicle next to me. By Greta MacKoul I was stunned by my own actions and my initial thoughts were not subjected to this woman’s that I wished I had been more wrath. When I got back into my careful, as I usually am. Before I could think of what to do next, car my son asked, “What happened mommy?” I assured him I realized that the owner was that everything was okay. I then in her vehicle as suddenly the telephoned my husband who ofdoor opened and she came over fered consolation, “Don’t worry to my car to “speak” to me. honey, that’s what insurance is She started yelling that she for.” Well I knew he was right, was so tired of people getting and fortunately it did turn out out of their cars and just swingto be an inexpensive repair, but ing their doors open, causing still it took a few days for me damage to other people’s cars, and that this same thing had just to get over the fact that I had inconvenienced such an angry, happened to her two weeks beunmerciful person. fore. Lucky me. Why couldn’t “A fool gives full vent to she have been a nice pious his anger,” we read in Provparishioner from “Our Lady of erbs 29, “but a wise man the Foothills?” keeps himself under control,” She was not. She informed St. Paul tells us, “In your me that the truck was brand
Our Journey of Faith
anger do not sin,” (Eph 4). Yet sometimes we may hear someone say “Well, you know Jesus got angry. Remember when he came into the temple and turned over the tables?” We may have said these words ourselves or thought this way to justify our own actions. Questions we can ask ourselves that may offer clarification are, “Is my anger serving myself or others? Is the recipient of my anger truly deserving of what I am going to say or do and will it be most helpful to the situation?” When Jesus said “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!” the anger expressed was not self-serving, but for a greater good. He was not using his words or actions to shame them, manipulate them or harm them. In the truest sense he was teaching them to modify their behavior. It was not that he did not love them, but that he could not tolerate their behavior. The proper expression of anger is something that we all must discern, for when anger is selfish in its orientation it can be unnecessary, harmful and destructive, yet when anger is justified and expressed in a proper manner, it can offer a valuable teaching, and often is necessary in bringing justice to others. Greta and her husband George, with their children are members of Christ the King Parish in Mashpee.
ing whatever is left on the ground. People used to glean, too. It was part of the social system. Those who were too poor to own farms were allowed to search the fields after the harvest; gathering up for their own use whatever was usable. I suspect many a generous land owner purposely left behind in the fields more produce than he needed to. It was a kind of second harvest for the hungry. The poor have a right to the food we cannot use. When our larders are sufficiently full, the excess belongs to the hungry, not to us. With the cooler weather come remote thoughts of Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’ll keep Advent carefully and not rush into Christmas before Halloween. Nevertheless, I am Father Christmas, and the celebration of the Solemnity of the Incarnation does require advanced planning. I found the perfect Advent wreath the other day. It’s an ancient wagon wheel. This is the origin of the custom — a wheel removed from the farmer’s cart, festooned with candles, circled with fresh greens and hung from the ceiling. Once it’s hung in place in the church, even the most unobservant parishioner will notice that Advent has come to St. Nicholas Church. I’m even beginning to unpack my Christmas crèches. Larry Sowinski was here this week. He is the director of the Knights of Columbus Museum in New Haven, Conn. The Advent/Christmas season at the museum this year will feature fine art and folk art crèches of Europe. I’ve sent down
about 30 sets for the Knight’s display. On November 1 and 2, there will be an exhibit held at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church on the Falmouth Green, sponsored by the Cape Cod Crèche Society. I must prepare some of my sets also for that display. On November 6, it’s off I go to Ann Arbor, Mich., for the annual meeting of the Friends of the Crèche, a national society of crèche collectors. Featured this year will be Szopka, Polish Nativities. For the first Christmas of St. Nicholas Parish, I’m planning something special. I found in the attic a large white porcelain Nativity scene lovingly made for the sanctuary by a parishioner. It has many pieces. Over the years, several of the delicate pieces have been damaged. I’ll have them repaired and the set will be displayed in its entirety for the first time. Some will say I’m rushing the season, but for me, not so. The Lord comes to us every day, not just on December 25. As Bishop George W. Coleman wrote to our new community at the Inaugural Mass of the parish, “St. Nicholas of Myra is to be a community of charity, a concrete place where one may find the Incarnation; that is, the enduring presence of Jesus Christ.” Amen to that. Father Goldrick is pastor of St. Nicholas of Myra Parish in North Dighton.
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The Anchor Emmaus Weekend Retreat November 14, 15 & 16
Approved by the Diocese of Fall River, an Emmaus retreat weekend at Cathedral Camp in East Freetown, is for people who are seeking to grow in their relationship with Christ, regardless of their present faith level. Come experience what more than 3,000 others in the diocese have for more than 30 years. For an application/information, contact Frank Medeiros at 401-624-3070 or visit: www.emmausretreat.com
Please visit us at: www.CarmelTerrace.org or 508 788 8000 933 Central St. Framingham, MA 01701 On the campus of St. Patrick's Manor
October 3, 2008
School’s ‘archangel’ teaches service through music By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff
school for a free spaghetti dinner and movie.” Though many kids will be preparing to go out NEW BEDFORD — Thomas Carlyle once trick-or-treating for Halloween, students at Holy wrote: “Music is well said to be the speech of an- Family-Holy Name will be involved in a Halloween prayer service to be held in the parish center of Holy gels.” If this is true, then Teresa Ouellette must be the Name of the Sacred Heart of Jesus — the other pararchangel of Holy Family-Holy Name School. For ish that supports the school. “They’re taught here not to do anything that’s the past 20 years, Ouellette has been the director and guiding light behind the school’s renowned choir, non-Christian, so a lot of time the kids dress up as comprised of students from second- through eighth- saints,” Ouellette said. “After we invite everyone to grade. The “junior choir,” as she refers to it to dif- ‘Trunk a Treat,’ where everyone parks behind the ferentiate from the adult or “senior choir” that she’s parish center and kids go from car to car getting also involved with in her home parish of St. Law- treats.” An element of community service also comes rence Martyr, maintains a busy schedule throughout the academic year and even performed for Blessed into play as the choir participates in the annual Mother Teresa when she visited the diocese in June Thanksgiving Mass at St. Lawrence Church, generally held on the Monday 1995. before Thanksgiving. “When Mother Teresa “The school collects came to visit, the music food for between 70 and was provided by a com80 families for the holibination of choirs from day,” she said. “Some of area churches,” Ouellette it will go to our own St. said. “At the time Bishop Lawrence food pantry and Sean O’Malley was there we’re happy to share that. and he liked Portuguese There’s always a need. songs. We performed For those in the confirma‘Lord When You Came tion program who actually to the Seashore’ in Porhelp deliver the food bastuguese. My daughter at kets, it’s an eye-opener. the time — she’s now a Many of them don’t resenior at Bishop Stang alize there’s that kind of —was two or three years poverty in the city.” old and she was blessed A high point of the by Mother Teresa. The year for Ouellette and the kids were very honored students involved is the to be there and it was exschool’s annual Christmas citing.” Pageant held in December. Ouellette explained The event has only grown how Blessed Mother in popularity since first Teresa’s legacy of combeing broadcast on New munity service remains Bedford’s local cable acstrong today in her parANCHOR PERSON OF THE WEEK — Teresa cess channel. ish and at the school. EvOuellette. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza) “After the first year ery year school principal when they broadcast it, Cecilia Felix presents the Mother Teresa Award to an eighth-grader for exem- people were calling saying they want to see it again,” plary community service. During the school’s open- Ouellette said. “It started out right here in our auditoing Mass this year, pastor Father John Sullivan was rium, but we felt this belongs in church. It’s a combialso given a relic of Blessed Mother Teresa and he nation of pageant and lessons … including a living Nativity scene with a good 85 percent of the students explained to students about her and her work. “I think we need to provide opportunities where from the school involved. The choir is about 50 stukids can serve and meet people in a safe environ- dents, then you have angels, shepherds, the three ment,” she said. “That’s part of the task of a Cath- kings, the children of the world, and of course Mary, olic school and parish — to foster those kinds of Joseph and Baby Jesus.” With a short stretch of much-needed downtime activities.” Having worked as a string teacher with the New after the holidays, Ouellette said she then begins Bedford public school system, Ouellette decided to preparations for Catholic Schools Week and also branch out and volunteer her talents for the newly- the school’s Education Fair in May, which is the stuformed student choir at Holy Family-Holy Name. dents’ “last big hurrah,” she said. “It’s basically an open house for the school and She’s also active in her parish and works with school principal Cecilia Felix to coordinate the Religious parents come in and the choir will perform,” she said. “In the last few years we’ve been breaking Education program at St. Lawrence Martyr. “We began with just grades four through eight,” them into two groups, because we’ve had more than Ouellette said. “I now have grades two through eight 60 kids involved. The younger kids aren’t ready to in the choir. It’s really grown over the years. It’s been do some of the things the older kids are doing, so a great collaboration between the school and the par- we split them up.” Ouellette said she’s also recently become involved ish. Our year is very busy — especially in the fall. We have a monthly Mass for which we do the mu- with a new two-week summer music camp program at Bishop Stang High School for area students from sic.” Ouellette said the choir consists of students who Catholic and public schools. “In the past we’ve had voluntarily participate and they meet after school about 20 or so students involved,” she said. “Our on Tuesdays from 3 to 4 p.m. “There’s no audi- teachers here have been involved with that from the tion involved, but these kids do a lot of singing in beginning. It’s a great outlet for these kids who have class preparing for Mass, so most of them sing quite the talent and want to sing and dance … and it helps build the arts across the board.” well,” she said. For Ouellette, music and the arts remain an inSome of the highlights of the academic year include a special service with a life-sized “living ro- tegral part of the educational experience, and she’s sary” on October 4 to commemorate the month of proud to keep such activities alive through her efforts. the Holy Rosary. “Service has become such an important thing “We have a huge rosary that goes around the mid-section of St. Lawrence Church and we’ll have here,” she said. “It’s good to see children and parsomeone on every bead — adults and children — ents involved, because they have to go out and representing a cross-section of the population,” represent themselves as good Christians and good Ouellette said. “After the rosary, we’ll go over to the Catholics.”
October 3, 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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The Anchor
October 3, 2008
Bishops’ document on election goes high tech
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Ask Catholic teen-agers if they’ve read a recent document by the U.S. bishops and you might get a blank look. But ask if they’ve heard of the bishops’ statement “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility,” either through a podcast, a video quiz on YouTube or its page on the social networking site Facebook, and you might get a nod of recognition. That’s what the U.S. bishops are hoping anyway. “Faithful Citizenship,” the document that urges Catholic voters to form their consciences around a variety of social concerns based on Catholic social teaching, is not something new. The bishops initially published the document in 1975 and produce a new version of it about every four years to coincide with the national elections. But this time the document looks a lot younger. For starters, its Website, www.faithfulcitizenship. org, has resources for youths and those who work with them. The site is “tech savvy,” accord-
ing to Jill Rauh, youth and young adult coordinator for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development. “I think if the Church is going to be effective at communicating the message of ‘Faithful Citizenship,’ and all its messages, it needs to do so in ways that are appealing to young people,” Rauh said. She said getting youths to go beyond just reading the text or hearing about it is key to the new push behind the “Faithful Citizenship” quizzes, an iPod contest on the site and video clips. The hope is that young people will not only get the document’s message but talk about it, reflect on it and apply it to their lives. The Website suggests some formats for talking about “Faithful Citizenship,” such as one called “Coffee Discussion,” which includes a series of questions about social issues and Catholic teaching that friends could informally talk about over coffee. And youth ministers and religious educators are not limited to
Our Lady’s Monthly Message From Medjugorje September 25, 2008
Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina “Dear children! May your life, anew, be a decision for peace. Be joyful carriers of peace and do not forget that you live in a time of grace, in which God gives you great graces through my presence. Do not close yourselves, little children, but make good use of this time and seek the gift of peace and love for your life so that you may become witnesses to others. I bless you with my motherly blessing. “Thank you for having responded to my call.” Spiritual Life Center of Marian Community 154 Summer Street Medway, MA 02053 • Tel. 508-533-5377
just making handouts of the document. Instead they are given ideas for skits, murals, open-microphone nights and prayer services based on “Faithful Citizenship.” Rauh told Catholic News Service the outreach to younger people is a recognition that they have “an important role to play in living out faith as leaders in the Catholic community. They are both the future and the present in our Church.” And even if these Catholic youths are not old enough to vote, she said, they “still have a responsibility to be faithful citizens” — to be active in their communities and to challenge their leaders. Across the country, youth and diocesan leaders have taken a variety of approaches in getting out the word on “Faithful Citizenship.” Students at Melbourne Central Catholic High School in Melbourne, Fla., have been taking a close look at where the Church stands on a variety of political issues in preparation for a congressional candidate forum they hosted last week. Deborah Stafford Shearer, director of the Office of Advocacy and Justice for the Diocese of Orlando, Fla., who helped organize the forum, said this was the first time an event like this was being coordinated by students; usually it is done on the parish level. But she saw it as an important “educational moment” for the students who have been preparing for the forum in religion and civics classes. The students formulated questions on abortion, marriage, health care, the economy and the environment. To do so, Stafford Shearer said they had to learn “a lot about where the Church stands on issues and also the diversity of issues” it addresses, something that is often a surprise to adults, she said. That’s why she hoped the event would “get a big parent turnout,” so the lessons on active Catholic citizens would reach an even broader audience.
NOT-SO-MAD SCIENTIST — Scene from the animated movie “Igor.” For a brief review of this film, see CNS Movie Capsules below. (CNS photo/MGM)
CNS Movie Capsules NEW YORK (CNS) — The following are capsule reviews of movies recently reviewed by the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “Igor” (MGM) Slight but entertaining animated horror spoof in which the titular character (voice of John Cusack), a hunchbacked assistant to an evil inventor (voice of John Cleese), aspires to become a mad scientist himself and, with the bungling help of two sidekicks, a brain in a jar (voice of Sean Hayes) and a rabbit (voice of Steve Buscemi), mistakenly creates a nice monster (voice of Molly Shannon) with theatrical ambitions. Director Tony Leondis’ family comedy, which also features voice work by Jennifer Coolidge, Jay Leno and Arsenio Hall, fails to capitalize fully on the wealth of talent on tap, occasionally ventures into needless potty humor, and contains some scenes of destruction that might frighten very young viewers. However, it does offer lessons about overcoming stereotypes, pursuing dreams and freely embracing goodness. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-I — general pa-
tronage. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG — parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children. “Miracle at St. Anna” (Touchstone) Powerful World War II drama about a kindhearted African-American soldier (Omar Benson Miller) who, together with three others from his segregated unit (Derek Luke, Michael Ealy and Laz Alonso), becomes trapped behind enemy lines in Italy where they must rely on a sympathetic villager (Valentina Cervi) and a partisan leader (Pierfrancesco Favino) for safety, while he protects a wounded local boy (Matteo Sciabordi). The script, adapted from his own novel by writer James McBride, contains much spiritual debate and reflection and pits Catholicism, as embodied by a heroic priest, against the brutality of the occupying Nazis. Director Spike Lee’s ambitious effort to blend action, mystery, pathos and social commentary — though it sometimes leads to jarring tone shifts — ultimately proves an ardent emotional journey. Intense combat violence with gore, nongraphic sexual activity, adultery, upper female nudity, much rough and crude language, several uses of profanity, racial slurs. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, October 5 at 11:00 a.m.
Scheduled celebrant is Father Jay Mello, parochial vicar at St. Julie Billiart Parish and chaplain at Bishop Stang High School, both in North Dartmouth
October 3, 2008
The Anchor
news briefs
Vatican official urges government to protect religious minorities GENEVA (CNS) — Governments must find ways to promote religious tolerance and avoid blasphemy laws that can backfire by targeting religious minorities, said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s representative to U.N. agencies in Geneva. In some countries, religious defamation laws “have been used as weapons against personal enemies or as an excuse to incite mob violence,” he said September 19 at a U.N. Human Rights Council session focusing on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance. “Such actions result in polarizing religious communities rather than in promoting intolerance He said governments should work to promote tolerance through concrete juridical norms, ending discrimination on the state and social level. He also said they should promote better protection of individuals from group violence and should adopt “the practice of reasonable accommodation of religious practice.” Schools, the media and faith communities also play a vital role in fostering mutual understanding and constructive coexistence, he said.
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Today The Anchor prints the last 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.
Catholics at New Mexico church have special devotion to Blessed Karl ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (CNS) — At a time of war, when the religious practices of politicians and their concern for their nation are the talk of the day, the faithful gather at an Albuquerque church to seek the intercession of a model soldier-statesman: Blessed Karl of Austria. Few would think a connection exists between people who live in the Southwest among windswept mesas and the last reigning emperor of the AustroHungarian empire, who died in 1922. Yet parishioners at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church are so devoted to Blessed Karl — whose name is often anglicized as Charles — that they often pray for his intercession before the church’s special shrine, one of 11 in the U.S. dedicated to him. Father Christopher Zugger, the recently retired pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, first became interested in Blessed Karl after reading an article crediting the emperor, described as well liked by his troops, with trying to end World War I during his reign in 1916-1918. Catholic education is the work of all, says Washington archbishop WASHINGTON (CNS) — Strengthening and supporting Catholic education at parishes and schools is the responsibility of all Catholics, said Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl. Catholics, as disciples of Jesus in today’s world, are called to pass on the faith to others, he said in a pastoral letter titled “Catholic Education: Looking to the Future With Confidence.” “It is by celebrating our strengths, identifying areas for improvement and working together that Catholic education will flourish for generations to come, bringing them Christ’s Gospel and helping them grow in their encounter with the living Lord,” the archbishop said in the introduction to the letter. The pastoral detailed how the archdiocese is undergoing a comprehensive assessment of its parish religious education programs, and task forces are looking at ways to strengthen the Catholic identity, academic excellence, accessibility and affordability of Catholic schools to sustain them for the future. The planning will “include consultation with a wide range of people,” it noted.
EWTN.com presents ‘A Guide to Catholic Teaching and Voting’
IRONDALE, Alabama, Christian Newswire — EWTN Global Catholic Network’s website — the most viewed Catholic website in the world next to the Holy See — today unveiled “A Guide to Catholic Teaching and Voting.” The guide, which will be updated daily, can be found at www.ewtn.com/vote. “EWTN’s mission is to advance truth and the teachings of the Catholic Church,” said EWTN President Michael P. Warsaw. “EWTN continues to promote and educate the public on all Church teachings, including those hot button issues of intense
public interest, such as abortion.” This site contains information about election-related issues and includes information about upcoming programs, video and audio clips from programs and homilies, topical books and catechetical resources, election-related prayers and novenas, audio promotions for “40 Days of Prayer and Fasting for Life,” statements by the Church hierarchy, and more. Catholic voters are encouraged to check it out, add it to their “favorites,” and pass it on to friends.
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October 3, 2008
Franciscan Sisters say Rosary is essential for Christian life
By Deacon James N. Dunbar
NEW BEDFORD — The secret of the rosary, says Sister Eucharistica of the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate, “is that it puts us in union with Mary and her Son Jesus, and makes us holy. So we should recite it every day.” That simple advice in a brief telephone chat last week came from one whose religious community lives in Marian contemplation and apostolate not only in convents, parishes and hermitages, but also in radio and TV studios, cities and missions around the world. Their purpose, set forth in the 1970 charter of their pontifical institute’s “unlimited consecration” is: “To radiate the holiness of Mary Immaculate, recalling to all on earth the divine reality of
the Kingdom of God.” “We must daily pray the rosary as an essential part of our lives — the prayer to Mary — for ourselves, others, peace … and to make Our Lady and her Son better known to the world,” added Sister Mary Francis Catherine, local superior of the group that has been ministering at St. Anthony’s Parish since March 31. The rosary is but one part of the life of silence and recollection that includes ardent prayer and penance the Franciscans’ Marian convents are founded on. The lives of the Franciscan Sisters includes daily Mass, eucharistic devotion, meditation, morning and evening prayers, and monthly and annual retreats. In talking about the importance of the rosary she turns to “The Secret of the Rosary,” the
title of the instruction by St. Louis-Marie Grignion De Montfort, which sets forth the surpassing merit of the rosary as seen in the prayers that compose it. St. Montfort, a French priest who lived from 1673 to 1716, is one of the early proponents of Mariology and dedicated himself to the Mother of God. He was canonized in 1947. “We pray the rosary publicly, and invite others to join us on Mondays through Thursdays at 5:15 p.m., in St. Anthony’s Church in New Bedford, where we also pray our vespers, part of the Liturgy of the Hours,” reported Sister Eucharistica. She pointed out the wisdom of St. Montfort’s instructions on why publicly praying the rosary is of the greatest benefit to us. “As he said, first, because our
minds are usually more alert during public prayer than when we pray alone,” Sister Eucharistica explained. “When we pray in common, the prayer of each one belongs to the whole group and make all together but one prayer. So that if one person is not praying well, someone else in the same gathering who is praying better makes up for his or her deficiency.” She added that one who says the rosary alone only gains the merit of one rosary. But if one says it with 30 other people, he or she gains the merit of 30 rosaries. “St. Montfort said, ‘This is the law of public prayer. How profitable, how advantageous this is.’” Finally, said Sister Eucharistica, “St. Montfort tells that when the rosary is said in common, ‘it is far more formidable to
the devil, because in this public prayer, it is an army that is attacking him. It gives him (the devil) more trouble … it is easy to break a single stick; but if you join it to others to make a bundle, it cannot be broken.’” She also called attention to apparitions of the Blessed Mother to the three shepherd children at Fatima, Portugal in May 1917, in which Mary made clear how powerful saying the rosary can be. “Remember how little Francisco was unable to see the Virgin, even as Lucy and Jacinta did, as they recited the rosary. Mary suggested he pray the rosary. When he did, then he was able to see her. What an important lesson for us that if we are going to find Mary, have her listen to our prayers and lead us to Jesus,” Sister Eucharistica said.
The pontiff said he was penning the letter not just to seek peace in the world, but “I am thinking of nations and also of families. How much peace would flow into family relationships if the family would begin again to pray the rosary.” It contains within itself, John Paul said, “the healing power of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, invoked with faith and love at the center of each ‘Hail Mary.’” Although the fashion of repeating a certain number of prayers was common even in the early Church, Father Phalen noted that the Roman Breviary,
the official daily prayer of the Universal Church more currently known as the Liturgy of the Hours, cites the history of how the rosary began: “The lesson (reading) for the feast of the Holy Rosary informs us that when the Albigensian heresy (13th century) was devastating the country of Toulouse, (Southern France) St. Dominic (1170-1221) earnestly besought the help of Our Lady and was instructed by her, so tradition asserts, to preach the rosary among the people as an antidote to heresy and sin.” It adds: “St. Dominic was declared by different pontiffs to be the institutor and author of the same (rosary) devotion.” Father Phalen said that the Divine Office was once the common prayer for not only clerics, but also lay people in the Church. “Because many people, including clergy, had become quite illiterate, they were unable to read the breviary and so
the Church for them imposed reciting the rosary instead. And it is so easy that even a threeyear-old can recite the learned prayers and look at pictures in books that easily explain what the mysteries of the rosary are all about.” In the 11th and 12 centuries, it was popular to use pebbles, berries or discs of stones threaded on a string to keep track of the prayers. “So the beads of the rosary themselves can be inspiring because they are public symbols of prayer,” said Father Phalen. He said several programs by Holy Cross Family Ministries that center on October as the month of Mary are planned internationally. At Holy Rosary Parish in Taunton, the only remaining parish community dedicated in name to the devotion to Mary, the rosary is said daily before Mass, reported Father David M. Stopyra, a conventual Franciscan.
“Once upon a time the months of October as well as May were dedicated to the Blessed Virgin with many attending special evening devotions that centered on the rosary. The fact of overall declining Church attendance as well as many of our faithful senior citizens not able to drive or get a ride after dark, proved a death knell to those services,” he said. “So now we daily pray the rosary together at 7:10 a.m., just before the 7:30 Mass, and I know this wonderful practice is happening in many parishes across our diocese.” He agreed, “Teaching everyone how to pray and meditate while saying the rosary is more important than ever. This important devotion to the Blessed Mother should never be lost.”
October is time to venerate Mary, Queen of the Rosary continued from page one
him. We find we are contemplating the face of Christ with Mary at our side and conforming our lives to his,” Father Phalen added. In his letter, Pope John Paul wrote: “The rosary is a way of contemplating the face of Christ, seeing him — we may say — with the eyes of Mary. For this reason, it is a prayer that drawing upon the core of the Gospel is in full accord with … the Apostolic Letter “Novo Millennio inuente”: the Church has to launch out “into the deep” in the new millennium beginning with the contemplation of the face of Christ.”
The Annual Respect Life Walk is Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Please keep the participants in your prayers as they walk for mothers and the helpless unborn.
October 3, 2008
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Praying the Rosary during the Pauline Year
October is traditionally the month of the Holy Rosary. This October, however, falls during the Year of St. Paul, which is meant to give everything the Church does a Pauline “flavor.” With that in mind we present the following short Pauline commentaries about the themes of each of the 20 mysteries of the rosary. They were prepared by the contemplative Dominican Nuns of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary in Summit, N.J. (nunsopsummit.org) and are reprinted for Anchor readers with the nuns’ permission and prayers. Joyful Mysteries THE ANNUNCIATION On the mystery: Behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible. And Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Lk. 1, 36-38). Pauline Pearl: No distrust made Abraham waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised (Rom. 4, 20-21). THE VISITATION On the mystery: When Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (Lk. 1, 41-42). Pauline Pearl: Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and shout, you who are not in travail; for the children of the desolate one are many more than the children of her who are married (Gal. 4, 27). THE BIRTH OF OUR LORD On the mystery: While they were there, the time came for her to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first-born Son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger (Lk. 2, 6-7). Pauline Pearl: When the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons (Gal. 4, 4-5). THE PRESENTATION OF THE CHILD JESUS IN THE TEMPLE On the mystery: Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ (Lk. 2, 25- 26). Pauline Pearl: To the Israelites belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, God who is over all be blessed forever. Amen (Rom. 9, 4-5). THE FINDING OF THE CHILD JESUS IN THE TEMPLE On the mystery: Jesus went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man (Lk. 2, 51-52). Pauline Pearl: Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth” (Eph. 6, 1-3).
Luminous Mysteries THE BAPTISM IN THE JORDAN On the mystery: In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased” (Mk. 1, 9-11). Pauline Pearl: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Rom. 6, 3-4). THE WEDDING FEAST AT CANA On the mystery: On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples (Jn. 2, 1-2).
Pauline Pearl: This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church; however, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband (Eph. 5, 32-33). THE PROCLAMATION OF THE KINGDOM On the mystery: Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the Gospel” (Mk. 1, 14-15). Pauline Pearl: I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching (II Tim. 4, 1-2). THE TRANSFIGURATION On the mystery: After six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain apart. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light (Mt. 17, 1- 2). Pauline Pearl: It is God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (II Cor. 4, 6).
DEVOTED TO OUR LADY — The late Pope John Paul II called the rosary, “His favorite prayer.” (CNS file photo)
THE INSTITUTION OF THE EUCHARIST On the mystery: Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them saying, “Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt. 26, 26-28). Pauline Pearl: As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the Body and Blood of the Lord (I Cor. 11, 26-27). Sorrowful Mysteries THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN On the mystery: Going a little farther, Jesus fell on his face and prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Mt. 26, 39). Pauline Pearl: If, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. … For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous (Rom. 5, 17.19). THE SCOURGING AT THE PILLAR On the mystery: Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas; and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified (Mk. 15, 15).
Pauline Pearl: For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. Peace and mercy be upon all who walk by this rule, upon the Israel of God. Henceforth let no man trouble me; for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus (Gal. 6, 15-17). THE CROWNING WITH THORNS On the mystery: And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe upon him, and plaiting a crown of thorns they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him they mocked him saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” (Mt. 27, 28-29). Pauline Pearl: Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church (Col. 1, 24). THE CARRYING OF THE CROSS On the mystery: They took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull. … There they crucified him (Jn. 19, 17-18). Pauline Pearl: Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal. 6, 14). THE CRUCIFIXION On the mystery: They crucified him, and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. And it was the third hour, when they crucified him (Mk. 15, 24- 25). Pauline Pearl: Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. … Being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross (Phil. 2, 5-8). Glorious Mysteries THE RESURRECTION On the mystery: They rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven gathered together and those who were with them, who said, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” (Lk. 24, 33-34). Pauline Pearl: I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve (I Cor. 15, 3-5). THE ASCENSION On the mystery: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight (Acts 1, 8-9). Pauline Pearl: He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ (Eph. 4, 10-12). THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT On the mystery: There appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2, 3-4). Pauline Pearl: If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you (Rom 8, 11). THE ASSUMPTION On the mystery: All glorious is the king’s daughter as she enters; her raiment is threaded with spun gold. In embroidered apparel she is borne in to the king; behind her the virgins of her train are brought to you (Ps. 45, 14-16). Pauline Pearl: For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father (I Cor. 15, 22-23). THE CORONATION On the mystery: From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad; daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor; at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir (Ps. 45, 8-9). Pauline Pearl: For Christ must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.… When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things under him, that God may be everything to every one (I Cor. 15, 26.29).
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Youth Pages
October 3, 2008
St. Mary’s School in Taunton celebrates its centennial
CARRYING ON THE TRADITION — St. Mary’s-Sacred Heart School in Attleboro recently celebrated its 85th anniversary with an opening Mass for the new school year. Here, kindergartners stand to receive a blessing from Fathers David A. Costa and Thomas A. Frechette.
BEARING GIFTS — St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro recently held its opening Mass for the school year. Father Richard Roy pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish, celebrated the Mass in the school’s gym. Shown is Father Roy assisting first-grade student, Zachary Castro, who participated in the Offertory of the Mass. Each grade was asked to choose something special in its classroom to be offered at the altar.
TAUNTON — On September 8 St. Mary’s Primary School celebrated its 100th birthday. After a year of planning, numerous festivities have taken place in celebration of this special milestone. On the actual birthday the school community attended Mass celebrated by Holy Cross Father William Kelley, pastor of St. Mary’s Parish; followed by a birthday party in the school’s auditorium. The room was filled with balloons and two large birthday cakes depicting pictures of the school from 1908, as well as currently. “In celebration of this special milestone of our school, there is such a rich history and legacy, filled with so many traditions” said Principal Brian Cote. St. Mary’s School was officially dedicated by Bishop Feehan on Aug. 23, 1908 and opened as a grammar school, staffed by Sisters of the Holy Union of the Sacred Heart on Sept. 8, 1908. At that time, the school consisted of 12 classrooms and an auditorium with a student enrollment of 578. Over the past 100 years, many changes have occurred. In 1911, a co-ed high school was added, which provided children a Catholic education from kindergarten through grade 12. In 1933, Monsignor Coyle opened Coyle High School, the boy’s high school, and the girls remained as part of St. Mary’s. Three decades later in 1963, the high school girls left St. Mary’s to attend Bishop Cassidy High School opened by Bishop Cassidy. Once again, St. Mary’s became a grammar school and in the 1970s, a major restructuring effort took place due to the closing of numerous Catholic schools in Taunton. The creation of our current Catholic school system was established, which consisted of two elementary schools, a middle school and a high school. Today, St. Mary’s serves students within Taunton and the surrounding communities in its pre-kindergarten, three-year-old
program to grade five. With a strong student enrollment of 341 students, it is currently the largest Catholic elementary school within the Diocese of Fall River. Sandra Parker, assistant principal at St. Mary’s School, has transformed the school’s lobby and hallway into a Hall of Fame, with memorabilia that commemorates 100 years in Catholic education. “By looking at the display they will be able to compare and contrast it to their lives in the present,” she said. For Parker the success and longevity of St. Mary’s School lies within the old photographs of the people, many who are only in our memories, which are displayed in the “Hall of Fame.” Deborah Smith, development director and coordinator for the birthday events said, “The 100th festivities were a perfect way for kids and their families to celebrate how far the school has come.” On September 15, Bishop George W. Coleman celebrated our centennial mass, as the Taunton Catholic school communities gathered at St. Mary’s Church, along with numerous pastors from the surrounding parishes, former pastors, administrators and faculty members, as well as invited guests. According to Smith, the festivities continued on September 21, as the grounds at St. Mary’s were transformed into a carnival atmosphere. St. Mary’s School’s final birthday event took place at the Columbia Cultural Center on September 27, where alumni, friends, faculty members, parents of both past and present had an opportunity to mingle and share memories, as well as enjoy a night of wine tasting and hors d’oeuvres. Parker said that St. Mary’s memorabilia collection, which she has spent the last couple of years assembling, would remain on display at the school until mid-October and all are cordially invited to visit the display.
PARTY TIME — Students from St. Mary’s School in Taunton enjoy a carnival on school grounds, part of its 100th birthday celebration.
October 3, 2008
W
hat are the chances that two people from two different worlds meet each other? Miles from where they began. From different states, different backgrounds, different religious upbringings, different life styles and different personalities. What forces were in play for this to occur? Looking back over these 30 years, there is only one force that was in play. God. My wife Kris and I have been married for 30 years. It is incredible to think that 30 years have passed since that rainy day in August, 1978. This journey of 30 years started with those few tentative steps up the aisle at the conclusion of the marriage ceremony. Who could know then what this journey would be like? Who could dream that 30 years later we’d be together when so many other marriages seem to end — sometimes in months or within a few years? How did we make it through 30 years? I’d like to share with you a few scenes from those 30 years — that have brought us to this point in our lives. Scene 1 — 1974: Kris and I both start teaching — in the same school in Attleboro. We date once. She dumps me. We don’t speak for two years. Scene 20 —1977: We’re engaged, but Kris returned the ring to me twice this month. She said I deserved better. She’s had a tough upbringing. Unconditional love is something she’s unfamiliar with. I gave her back the ring each time. Scene 72 — 1978: Wedding day. Kris is at the hospital. Her grandmother had a heart attack this morning. She’s walking home to get dressed. We’re off to the church. Pouring rain. We get married. Visit Babcia in the hospital. She’ll be OK. We head
Youth Pages
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Scenes from a marriage
from her Cursillo retreat. to the reception. Off to a good Together at home we examined start … not. our lives. We discern that God Scene 151: Constant stress wanted us to work as a team to over the first few years of marriage as a result of Kris’ mother. be part of his plan for the two of us; we felt he wanted us to Marriage was strained and fulfill the verse that appeared on stretched but didn’t break … our wedding invitation — And yet. Scene 280: I decided and Kris the two shall become as one .… supported my decision to leave a And so with little discussion we steady job and go out and start a redirected and changed our lives business. I wanted it all. Scene 340: Got what I wanted. Business success. Free time for each other and our families became non-existent. But I didn’t care … beBy Frank Lucca cause we were successful. We had it all. Scene 500: Graced and lifestyle. with first beautiful daughter. Scene 1,100: We devoted Was home only 20 days in the ourselves to the service of others first 90 days of her life. Made and raised our girls with these it home for her baptism. Whew. What is wrong with this picture? same values. No matter where we went in the service of the Scene 800: I’m happier. Kris is unhappier. I don’t notice. Sec- Lord, our girls went with us. It was then that Kris and I realized ond beautiful baby girl is born. that the empty feeling that had I’m home even less. so long occupied a place in both Scene 950: Kris asks me to souls was gone. I thanked God sell the business. We do. She for the many gifts that he had so returns to teaching. I work for graciously bestowed upon us. another company. Scene 1,340: We begin Youth Scene 1,000: Kris asks me to Ministry program in our parish. go on a Cursillo retreat. I balk. Scene 1,400: Business partFinally agree to go. ner nearly bankrupts us. We start Scene 1002: I went to the over .... For whatever happened Cursillo retreat. God used that to us, Christ was always at our time well. I was forced to look side — directing us, helping us at my life of success and came — all we had to do was ask and to realize that it was a life of ask we always did. failure. I was doing everything Scene 1,424: Kris is my for myself and nothing for othinspiration, my anchor and my ers. I hardly gave God much support. She has never denied thought. On that weekend God me anything, and has always sent me a message … that I had been supportive of my someto change my life more toward times lamebrain ideas. She is what he wanted from me. I can always there for me. And for honestly say that I came home me to get involved in all of the from that weekend a changed person. So much so that I scared areas of ministry that I have been involved in, she has taken the heck out of my own wife. a back seat to keep the house Scene 1,003: Kris returns
Be Not Afraid
going, the girls supported and all of the other hundreds of things that have to happen in a marriage. She more than carries her weight in our relationship. She serves in her way so that I can serve in mine. That’s the team effort that works for us. These are but a few of the thousands of scenes that we have lived. Just like you and your family. Some ups and a lot of downs. Even though we have been faithful servants of Christ during all these years since Cursillo do not think that we have not experienced our periods of desolation. Christ never promised us a rose garden. He only promised to be there to help us get through the perils that we may face. He helped us as we witnessed the death of our fathers, the sicknesses of our friends and their children and the breast cancer diagnosis that Kris faced eight years ago. It was especially during these periods that our marriage was strengthened. During this darkest period of our lives when Kris felt that she was being punished by God for not being good enough, we prayed to Christ, our best friend. We turned to him for consolation and he was there waiting for us. Many people have asked why we continue to have faith when so much has happened in our lives — especially Kris’ illness. I think they feel that God has abandoned us and therefore we should abandon him. While
we’ve both gotten angry at God over the years — we know he continues to be there for us. If we walk away, he stays — ready to rejoin us and returns to our sides whenever we need him. There is no greater feeling than to know that God is with us always and he will never let us down — even when we let him down. So how did we make it through 30 years? We continue to be best friends and hold Christ as the center of our lives. No decision in our life is ever made without first consulting him. Everything we do and everything that we are as individuals to each other and to those that we serve arises from the faith that we have in our Lord, Jesus Christ. Of course it is easier to look back at our age to see God’s plan for us. For you it may not be as clear yet. It will be some day. In the meantime, turn yourself over to God’s will. Talk to him before you do anything. Trust in him and know that whatever is happening to you at any moment is happening for a reason. Remember to let go and let God. Above all, he is the one who knows where you’ve been, where you are going and where you should be.” Frank Lucca is a youth minister at St. Dominic’s Parish in Swansea. He is chair and a director of the YES! Retreat and director of the Christian Leadership Institute (CLI). He is a husband and a father of two daughters. Kris, here’s to another 30!
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The Anchor
October 3, 2008
Group hoping for canonization of Audrey Santo NBSO brings Beethoven’s Ninth to New Bedford continued from page one
Andrea Ambrosi, Postulator to the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints. “He came on his own from Rome and spent four days speaking with us and the bishop. He was wonderful,” she said. A postulator is the official advocate for potential saints during the canonical investigation. Ambrosi is also postulator for the cause of the late New York City Archbishop Fulton Sheen. He directed supporters of Audrey’s cause to set up the foundation, which is a private association of the faithful and separate from the Worcester Diocese. Its president is Father John J. Foley, pastor of the family’s parish, Christ the King. Father Foley said in an interview that he’s known the Santo Family for years and has witnessed unusual happenings around Audrey. “When I said Mass one time, oil appeared in the paten with the unconsecrated hosts. I took them out, then washed and dried the paten,” he said. “There was oil on it again by the time of the Consecration. What this means, I don’t know. Someday we’ll know. This will be a learning process for me as well.” The bleeding Hosts are being kept by the bishop and none of the tests on the oil have been conclusive, Father Foley said. The Worcester Diocese did an initial investigation into Audrey’s case in 1998, and called these paranormal phenomena “deep mysteries.” Its “interim findings” in 1999 concluded that miraculous claims could neither be substantiated nor ruled out. Msgr. F. Stephen Pedone, diocesan judicial vicar and vicar
continued from page one
for canonical affairs, said further investigations were put on hold. He told the Worcester diocesan Catholic Free Press in September that the interruption stemmed from the cost involved, a decrease in interest in the case, and the fact that scientific testing would be invasive for Audrey. Worcester Bishop Daniel Reilly wrote in the 1999 report: “The most striking evidence of the presence of God in the Santo home is seen in the dedication of the family to Audrey. Their constant respect for her dignity as a child of God is a poignant reminder that God touches our lives through the love and devotion of others.” He noted that there was no evidence of chicanery to desire for financial gain, and called the family’s witness “a miracle in the broad sense of the word.” Keane, the foundation’s clerk, said Audrey’s sainthood “would show the value of human life in all its forms.” Now the foundation must raise money for travel expenses and other costs involved in documenting reported healings through Little Audrey’s intercession. Potential witnesses must testify under oath, and the foundation will petition Audrey’s cause to the Vatican Congregation with the postulator’s help. If Audrey’s cause is deemed worth pursuing, she would be called Servant of God, the first step in the canonization process. Subsequent steps are venerable, blessed, and saint. Anyone with favors to report should contact: The Little Audrey Santo Foundation, 68 South Flagg St., Worcester, MA 01602; (508) 755-8712, www.littleaudreysanto.org.
zie explained how Beethoven was specific in saying no performance should last longer than 45 minutes. The lengthier running time of the symphony was also said to have influenced the maximum 80-minute length of the compact disc format — a long-held “urban myth” that MacKenzie said was later debunked. “The tempos were kind of consumed by the romantic generation because they wanted the work to have a deep and profound expressivity, which wasn’t necessarily what Beethoven was going for,” MacKenzie said. “We’re going to try to return the work much closer to the tempo markings that Beethoven intended.” The culmination of the composer’s lifework and considered by most to be his greatest masterpiece, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony was commissioned by the Philharmonic Society of London in 1817. Beethoven started working on it in 1818 and upon completion it was premiered in Vienna in 1824. But what has become the centerpiece of the symphony — the choral performance of Friedrich Schiller’s meditative and prayerful “Ode to Joy” in the final movement — was actually something Beethoven had been crafting for nearly 20 years. “He remained fascinated with the text and symbolism of what was then going on in Europe — and that was the impact of the American and French Revolutions within the context of liberty, fraternity and equality for all people,” MacKenzie said. “He thought that Schiller’s ‘Ode to Joy’ really brought that forward: that all people are indeed created equal in the sight of their creator. So the setting of that text really brings forth the mystery of creation itself.” Father Roger Landry, pas-
tor of St. Anthony of Padua Parish, agreed that Schiller’s unique prayer for peace contained within the Ninth Symphony is as relevant today as it was in Beethoven’s tumultuous time. “Beethoven wrote this great work to climax in his musical rendition of Schiller’s ‘Ode to Joy,’ which called all people, after decades of brutal wars in Europe, to the joy that flows from peace based on their common brotherhood,” Father Landry said. “Schiller sought to remind us all, ‘Brothers, above the starry canopy a loving Father must dwell. Can you sense the Creator, world? Seek him above the starry canopy.’” In the wake of last year’s memorable sold-out performance of Mozart’s Requiem, Father Landry said he was delighted to welcome the NBSO back for this special concert event and he hopes they will recreate what he dubbed last year as a “near occasion of prayer.” “Last year’s incredible performance of Mozart’s Requiem really moved people,” Father Landry said. “The combination of the beauty of the music and the beauty of the church could not help but draw us to the source of all beauty. It also inspired us to rejoice not only in the musical gifts he’s given to great composers and musicians, but also in the gift of faith he gave to the founding Catholics of St. Anthony’s, who built such a beautiful home for God.” “The real challenge for any orchestra is mounting the choral parts,” MacKenzie said of Beethoven’s Ninth. “Beethoven puts some rather dramatic challenges on them, so this is not a particularly easy piece to sing. It’s an unusual symphony in that it’s the first time in music history that solo and choral voices have been put on stage as equal partners with the orchestra. Certainly there were Masses and liturgical works in which a chorus accompanied an orchestra, but this was a symphony in which the chorus actually becomes another instrument. It was an incredibly revolutionary piece.” In fact, MacKenzie said what turned out to be Beethoven’s final symphony remains a watershed in music history and has gone on to influence virtually all composers that followed — from Hector Berlioz to Richard Wager, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms, and even Mahler and Strauss. “It really is the first orchestral work, in many ways, that had an agenda,” MacKenzie said. “It is a summation of a composer’s life and his beliefs and his prayer for the world. It was written dur-
ing a very revolutionary time and Beethoven had suffered many bitter defeats in his life.” Among Beethoven’s bitter disappointments was the outcome of the French Revolution and his growing disillusionment with Napoleon, to whom he had dedicated his Third Symphony, the “Eroica,” but was later forced to remove any reference to the selfdeclared emperor. He also had to deal with the heartbreaking realization that by the time he finished writing the Ninth Symphony, he was completely deaf. “He could not even hear it performed,” MacKenzie said. Another challenge in mounting such a well-known symphony, according to MacKenzie, is overcoming people’s expectations and their own assumptions about how it should be performed. “The problem is this is a work that has been subjected to much ‘interpretation,’” MacKenzie said. “Most of the performances we’ve heard, from the earliest vinyl recordings to current CDs, were all weighted heavily towards what I would call romantic conductors. People like Leonard Bernstein who had put their own stamp on the work that is tinted through a romantic view. What we may think is a new approach, others might say is terrible because it’s way too fast. Especially in an acoustic environment like St. Anthony’s, I think it’s important to move things along. We’re also going to be striving to return to a classical concept of articulation.” In addition to Beethoven’s Ninth, the NBSO will also be performing Cesar Franck’s Psalm 150, another fine example of a musical meditation that praises God. “It seemed just really an appropriate way to open a concert that celebrates the element of praise,” MacKenzie said. “Lifting the human voice in praise through music. It will really set the tone well and it’s a wonderful work that we really haven’t heard on a stage around here in a long time.” “I think it’s great that the NBSO is beginning the concert with Franck’s famous Psalm 150, in which we joyously praise God in his sanctuary with trumpets, strings, pipes and cymbals,” Father Landry added. “That’s what the orchestra will be doing with all their skill.” Tickets for the October 26 performance can be purchased in advance by calling the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center box office at 508-994-2900, online at www.zeiterion.org, or by calling St. Anthony’s Rectory at 508993-1691. Limited tickets will also be available at the door.
October 3, 2008
Around the Diocese
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The Anchor Sister Grace Martin SUSC; taught in secondary schools
SWANSEA — Holy Union Sister Grace Martin, formerly Sister Paul Dolores, 75, a retired teacher of junior and high school seniors in several dioceses for more than 30 years, died September 23 in the Country Gardens Skilled Nursing Rehabilitation Center here, after a long illness. Born in Taunton, the daughter of the late Thomas and Juliana (Nadeau) Martin, she graduated from schools there and entered the Holy Union Sisters in Fall River in 1953. She received a bachelor’s
degree from the former College of the Sacred Hearts in Fall River and taught in schools in Massachusetts, Maryland, New York and New Jersey. Following retirement in 1988, she was on the support staff to Sister Grace separated, diMartin, SUSC vorced, remarried and widows in the Diocese of Providence, R.I.
She also was a driver for the elderly Sisters in Fall River. She had previously resided at the Landmark in Fall River and a nursing home in Wareham prior to living at Country Gardens. Sister Martin is survived by brothers Thomas and William Martin, and her Holy Union Sisters. She was also the sister of the late Dorothy Martin Sherry. Her funeral Mass was celebrated September 25 in St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River. Burial was in Mayflower Cemetery in Taunton.
TAUNTON — Antonio I. Medeiros, 84, husband of Maria Isabel (Pereira) Medeiros, and father of Deacon Joseph P. Medeiros, who assists at St. Michael’s Parish in Fall River, died September 22 at Morton Hospital and Medical Center after a long illness. He resided at Golden Living Rehabilitation and Nursing Center and had been a former resident of School Street. Born in Faial da Terra, St. Michael, Azores, he was the son of the late Jose I. Medeiros and Maria
Conceicao (Maurico) Medeiros. Before retiring due to a workrelated injury, he was employed as a machine operator at Princess House in Dighton for 10 years. Previously he had been employed at Royce Aluminum Company in Taunton. He was a member of St. Anthony’s Parish in Taunton. He enjoyed gardening and raising birds. Besides his wife and deacon son, he leaves three others sons, Tony, Manuel and Francisco Medeiros, all of Taunton; two daugh-
ters, Gilda Mendes and Lucy Jorge, also of Taunton; three sisters, Evelina Pereira and Carmelita Leite of Taunton, and Albertina Resendes of Rhode Island; six grandchildren; and nieces and nephews. He was also the brother of the late Miguel, Leonildo, Maria C. Medeiros, and Angelina Leite; and grandfather of the late Paula Medeiros. His funeral Mass was celebrated September 26 in St. Anthony’s Church. Burial was in St. Joseph Cemetery, also in Taunton.
FALL RIVER — The Society of St. Vincent de Paul will hold its first annual nationwide Friends of the Poor Walk. The local walk we take place at Bristol Community College on Elsbree Street, tomorrow. Registration is at 8:30 a.m.; the walk is at 10-11:30 a.m. Pledges made on behalf of registered walkers in Fall River will benefit those most in need in Fall River. To register as a walker, to pledge for a walker, or for more information, go to www.svdpfriendsofthepoorwalk.org. To volunteer, use the local contact, 508-677-1989.
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Dean Hoge, who in the 34 years since he first joined the faculty of The Catholic University of America in Washington became one of the country’s experts in the sociology of religion, died September 13 at age 71 after a long struggle with cancer. A memorial service was scheduled for September 27 at the Takoma
FALL RIVER — Bishop George W. Coleman will celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving October 19 at 3 p.m. at St. Mary’s Cathedral for couples observing significant anniversaries, including first year, during 2008. If you would like an invitation to this event, contact your parish pastor.
Park Presbyterian Church in Takoma Park, Md., a Washington suburb. Hoge was an associate professor and professor in the Department of Sociology at Catholic University from 1974 until his recent retirement. From 1999 until 2004, he was director of the university’s Life Cycle Institute. “The Catholic University of America has lost a
scholar, a colleague and a friend in the death of Dean Hoge,” said Vincentian Father David M. O’Connell, president of Catholic University. “It is difficult to imagine The Catholic University of America without Dean Hoge. His presence and remarkable scholarly work have been a fixture here for over three decades,” the priest said in a September 15 statement.
Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks
Eucharistic Adoration:
Eucharistic Adoration
ACUSHNET — Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament takes place at St. JosephSt. 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: CHATHAM — A Tridentine Mass is celebrated 11:30 a.m. every Sunday at Our Lady of Grace Chapel on Route 137. EASTON — A free lecture by former international journalist, Woodrow Wilson Fellow, Harold Piper will take place October 7 at 4 p.m. at the Martin Institute at Stonehill College. For information call 508-565-1131. 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 Street, October 7. It will begin at 12 noon with the celebration of the holy Eucharist.
FALL RIVER — The diocesan Communications Office will present “Good News for Life, (“Boa Nova da Vida”) on the Portuguese Channel October 15 at 9:30 p.m. This month’s program is “The Word of God in the Ministry of the Church.” FALL RIVER — A pilgrimage with Bishop George W. Coleman to Washington, D.C., for the annual Pro-Life March is January 21-22, 2009. For more information contact the diocesan Pro-Life Apostolate at 508-997-2290. FALMOUTH — “Crèches by the Sea,” will take place November 1 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and November 2 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, 91 Main Street. Attendees will see crèches from all over the world; discover the cultural diversity of this ancient art; meet collectors and craftsmen; and shop for unique crèche sets. 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 Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours. NEW BEDFORD — There will be a traditional Latin Mass according to the 1962 Missal, tomorrow at 8 a.m. at St. Anthony of Padua Church. 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. PORTSMOUTH, R.I. — St. Philomena School, 324 Cory’s Lane, is holding an open house October 21 at 10:30 a.m. and another at 1:30 p.m. in the school’s Student Activity Center, for grades pre-K through eight. There are limited openings for September 2009. For more information call the Admissions/Development Office at 401-683-0268 or visit www.saintphilomena.org. 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.
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.
Antonio I. Medeiros; father of Deacon Joseph P. Medeiros
Dean Hoge, one of nation’s top experts in sociology of religion, dies
In Your Prayers
Oct. 6 Rev. Stephen B. Magill, Assistant, Immaculate Conception, North Easton, 1916 Rev. Roland Brodeur, Uniondale, N.Y., 1987 Oct. 7 Rev. Caesar Phares, Pastor, St. Anthony of the Desert, Fall River, 1951 Rev. Msgr. Arthur G. Dupuis, Retired Pastor, St. Louis de France, Swansea, 1975 Rev. Andrew Jahn, SS.CC., Sacred Hearts Seminary, Wareham, 1988 Rev. Msgr. Donald D. Velozo, Diocese of Camden, N.J., 2007 Oct. 8 Rev. Roger P. Nolettte, O.S.B., Our Lady of the Assumption Parish, Osterville, 2006 Oct. 9 Rev. Paul J. Dalbec, M.S., La Salette Shrine, Attleboro, 2000 Oct. 10 Rev. James C.J. Ryan, Assistant, Immaculate Conception, North Easton, 1918 Rev. Boniface Jones, SS.CC., Chaplain, Sacred Heart Home, New Bedford, 1987 Rev. Joseph A. Martineau, Retired Pastor, St. Theresa, New Bedford, 1990 Oct. 11 Rev. James A. Downey, Pastor, Holy Ghost, Attleboro, 1952 Oct. 12 Rev. Felician Plichta, OFM Conv., Parochial Vicar, Corpus Christi, East Sandwich, Former Pastor Holy Cross, Fall River, 1999 Rev. David I. Walsh. MM, Maryknoll Missioner, 1999
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The Anchor
October 3, 2008