10.19.12

The Anchor Diocese of Fall River

F riday , October 19, 2012

World Mission Sunday: A Eucharistic celebration for all the world

NEW YORK — World Mission Sunday, organized by the Propagation of the Faith, is a day set aside for Catholics worldwide to recommit themselves to the Church’s missionary activity through prayer and sacrifice. In 2012, World Mission Sunday is celebrated on October 21.

Annually, World Mission Sunday is celebrated on the next-to-last Sunday in October. As described by Pope John Paul II, World Mission Sunday is “an important day in the life of the Church because it teaches how to give: as an offering made to God, in the Eucharistic celebration and for all the missions of the world” (Redemptoris Missio 81).

Pope John Paul II has also spoken of the Propagation of the Faith’s General Fund of support, call-

ing this a “central fund of solidarity.” In a message delivered on a recent World Mission Sunday, the pope said: “The offerings that will be collected on World Mission Sunday are destined for a common fund of solidarity distributed, in the pope’s name, by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith among the missions and missionaries of the entire world.”

Every year the needs of the Catholic Church in the missions grow — as new dioceses are formed, as new seminaries are opened because of the growing number of young men hearing Christ’s call to follow Him as priests, as areas devastated by war or natural disaster are rebuilt, and as other areas, long suppressed, are opening Turn to page 19

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

the Roman Catholic Church. Born in San Gervasio d’Adda, Italy, she entered the Congregation of Our Lady of the Apostles at the age of 20. Eight years later she was elected Mother General of the congregation. In 12 years of missionary work she opened more than 70 missionary centers — each with an infirmary, school and church — in the remotest spots of Africa, Asia and Europe. She also did a tremendous amount of work administering to those afflicted with leprosy.

During that time, Mother Ravasio reported a series of messages from God the Father that were published as “The Father speaks to His children.” In her book, Mother Ravasio wrote that she personally saw God the Father, Who sat next to her.

During the apparitions, God spoke as a loving Father to all His children: “God the Father wants to be loved by all as their Father, Creator and Savior.

Parishioner’s devotion keeps God the Father Mass going strong

stretching into the blue — The magnificent St. Anthony of Padua Church steeple reaches high into the New Bedford skyline.

St. Anthony of Padua Parish to commemorate centennial

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

NEW BEDFORD — Parishioners of St. Anthony of Padua Parish in New Bedford are preparing to celebrate the 100th anniversary of their historic church’s dedication with a special Mass celebrated by Bishop George W. Coleman on October 28 at 10:30 a.m.

Although the parish actually predates the Fall River Diocese

and was founded in 1895 for the French-Canadian population in the north end of the city, the current church — which dominates the New Bedford skyline — was ultimately completed and dedicated on Nov. 28, 1912.

“Bishop Coleman wasn’t available on that date, so we’re holding the Mass on October 28, which is close enough to Turn to page 18

FALL RIVER — Last month at Sacred Heart Parish in Fall River, a special Mass honoring God the Father was held. Celebrated by the parish’s pastor Father Raymond Cambra, the Mass was well attended by many devotional groups, including prayer groups from Boston and New York. The devotion to God the Father stretches throughout New England, said Linda Ravenscroft, who started the God the Father prayer group at Sacred Heart Parish eight years ago.

“God the Father is a spirit, and you cannot see a spirit,” said Ravenscroft. “In John 14:7, there is a passage in there [that says], ‘If you’ve seen Me, you have seen the Father.’”

The devotion to God the Father stems from Mother Eugenia Elisabetta Ravasio, an Italian nun from

Turn to page 18

group effort — Among those attending the recent Mass celebrating the 100th anniversary of St. Anthony of the Desert Parish in Fall River and the pastor Chorbishop Joseph F. Kaddo’s 40th anniversary of his priesthood were, from left: Deacon Andre Nasser, Sub-deacon Brian Dunn, Father Thomas Lopes, Chorbishop Joseph Lahoud, Bishop Gregory J. Mansour, Chorbishop Kaddo, Bishop Nicholas Samra, Msgr. Peter Azar, Msgr. Michael O’Gorman, and Deacon Donald Massoud. (Photo by Dave Jolivet)

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News From the Vatican

October 19, 2012

Pope presents Vatican II messages for lay people to help change world

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In a gesture recalling how the Second Vatican Council sought to enhance the connection between the Church and the world, Pope Benedict XVI handed out copies of the council’s messages for lay people in various walks of life.

At the end of the Mass in St. Peter’s Square marking the 50th anniversary of the opening of Vatican II and the start of the Year of Faith, the pope gave out texts of the special messages that Pope Paul VI had composed for seven categories of the faithful; Pope Benedict chose contemporary representatives of those groups to receive the messages October 11.

The symbolic gesture was meant not just to recall and commemorate an event from the past, but to “enter more deeply into the spiritual movement, which characterized Vatican II, to make it ours and to develop it according to its true meaning,” the pope said in his homily.

The seven messages, initially presented by Pope Paul on Dec. 8, 1965, address the concerns and responsibilities of political leaders; scientists and cultural figures; artists; women; workers; the poor, sick and suffering; and young people.

Pope Benedict gave the “Message to Politicians” to some members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, including ambassadors to the Vatican from each continent.

The message said that the only thing the Church asks of politicians is freedom — “the liberty to believe and to preach her faith, the freedom to love her God and serve Him, the freedom to live and to bring to men her message of life. Do not fear her.”

It added: “Allow Christ to exercise His purifying action on society. Do not crucify Him anew.”

Pope Benedict, who was standing and shook each person’s hand, gave an Italian physicist, a German philosopher and a German Biblicist copies of the “Message to the World of Culture and Science.”

The message speaks of the clear possibility for “a deep understanding between real science and real faith, mutual servants of one another in the one truth.

Do not stand in the way of this important meeting. Have confidence in faith, this great friend of intelligence.”

James MacMillan, a Scottish composer; Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro; and two members of Italy’s film industry accepted the “Message to Artists.”

The message said the world “needs beauty in order not to sink into despair.” Artists are “the guardians of beauty” and should

be free from fads and “strange or unbecoming expressions.”

Kathryn Lopez, a U.S. journalist and editor-at-large of the National Review Online; Annalisa Minetti, an Italian 2012 Paralympic medalist in track; a Chinese nun who teaches theology; and others received the “Message to Women.”

It said the current age is when “the vocation of woman is being achieved in its fullness, the hour in which woman acquires in the world an influence, an effect and a power never hitherto achieved.”

“Our technology runs the risk of becoming inhuman. Reconcile men with life and above all, we beseech you, watch carefully over the future of our race. Hold back the hand of man who, in a moment of folly, might attempt to destroy human civilization,” it says.

Those receiving the “Message to Workers” included Luis Urzua Iribarren, one of the 33 Chilean miners trapped underground for two months in 2010. The Church appreciates workers’ service and virtues such as “courage, dedication, professional conscience, love of justice,” the message says.

A doctor, nurse, and woman who lost her daughter to a car accident received the “Message to all the Poor, Sick and Suffering.” The pope descended the stairs to greet and deliver the message to a woman seated in a wheelchair.

The message says Christ “took suffering upon Himself and this is enough to make you understand all its value.”

“Know that you are not alone, separated, abandoned or useless.

You have been called by Christ and are His living and transparent image,” the message says.

Pope Paul’s “Message to Young People” was received by young Catholics from Brazil, Congo, the Philippines, France and by Anna Fsadni from Sydney and Robert Prybyla from Round Rock, Texas.

The message called on young people to dedicate their energy to those in need. “Fight against all egoism. Refuse to give free course to the instincts of violence and hatred which beget wars and all their train of miseries. Be generous, pure, respectful and sincere, and build in enthusiasm a better world than your elders had.”

Caroline Farey of the Maryvale Institute in Birmingham, England, who was attending the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization, was one of two catechists who received from Pope Benedict a special Year of Faith edition of the “Catechism of the Catholic Church.”

in celebration — Women pray before the start of a Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican to mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. The Mass also opened the Year of Faith. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

At anniversary Mass, pope recalls ‘authentic spirit’ of Vatican II

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Marking the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council and the start of a special Year of Faith, Pope Benedict XVI called on Catholics to revive the “authentic spirit” of Vatican II by re-proposing the Church’s ancient teachings to an increasingly Godless modern world.

The pope recently spoke at a special Mass in St. Peter’s Square, half a century to the day after the opening ceremonies of Vatican II. About 400 bishops from around the world, including 15 of the 70 surviving members of the 1962-65 council, attended.

Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury attended as special guests.

The observances featured ceremonies recalling milestones of Vatican II, including the enthronement of a book of the Gospels used at the original gathering and a re-presentation of the council’s final “messages” to various categories of lay Catholics, such as artists, workers and women.

Vatican II, Pope Benedict said, had been “animated by a desire to immerse itself anew in the Christian mystery so as to re-propose it fruitfully to contemporary man.”

He noted that Blessed John XIII, in his speech at the opening of the council, called for the safeguarding and the effective teaching of the “sacred deposit of Christian doctrine ... this certain and immutable doctrine, which is to be faithfully respected, (and) needs to be explored and presented in a way which responds to the needs our time.”

“The council fathers wished to present the faith in a meaningful way,” the pope said, “and if they

opened themselves trustingly to dialogue with the modern world it is because they were certain of their faith, of the solid rock on which they stood.”

One of the council fathers, retired Bishop William J. McNaughton of Inchon, Korea, traveled to the anniversary Mass from his home in Methuen, Mass.

Speaking recently to Catholic News Service, he recalled the procession of more than 2,200 bishops into St. Peter’s Basilica on the council’s first day.

“Because television cameras from all over the world were taking pictures, all the lights were on in the basilica,” said Bishop McNaughton, 85. “I thought I was at the gate of Heaven.”

The commemoration was less spectacular and less well-attended than the 1962 event.

“The many empty seats here, five minutes before the beginning of the Mass, show that we have many challenges, like decreasing interest in the Church,” Capuchin Father William Henn, an American who teaches at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University, told CNS. Pope Benedict’s homily celebrated Vatican II but deplored much of what followed in its wake.

Many Catholics misunderstood or ignored the council’s teachings under the influence of secular culture and “embraced uncritically the dominant mentality, placing in doubt the very foundations of the deposit of faith, which they sadly no longer felt able to accept as truths,” he said. “Recent decades have seen the advance of a spiritual ‘desertification.’”

Fifty years ago, history offered glimpses of a “life or a world without God,” he said. “Now we

see it every day around us. This void has spread.”

Yet, the pope said, a “thirst for God, for the ultimate meaning of life” is still evident in “innumerable signs,” including the growing popularity of religious pilgrimages.

“How come so many people today feel the need to make these journeys?” he said. “Is it not because they find there, or at least intuit, the meaning of our existence in the world?”

Calling for a revival in the Church of the “yearning to announce Christ again to contemporary man,” the pope stressed that any New Evangelization “needs to be built on a concrete and precise basis, and this basis is the documents of the Second Vatican Council.”

He reaffirmed past statements rejecting any expansive notions of a “spirit of Vatican II” that might be used to justify innovations diverging from traditional doctrine.

“I have often insisted on the need to return, as it were, to the ‘letter’ of the council — that is to its texts — also to draw from them its authentic spirit,” the pope said.

“The true legacy of the council is to be found in them.”

The pope also reiterated one of his most prominent teachings about Vatican II, that it must be understood in continuity with the Church’s millennial traditions, not as a radical break with the past.

“The council did not formulate anything new in matters of faith, nor did it wish to replace what was ancient,” he said. “Rather, it concerned itself with seeing that the same faith might continue to be lived in the present day, that it might remain a living faith in a world of change.”

The International Church

October 19, 2012

Catholic bishop supports girl shot by Taliban

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNA) — A Catholic bishop in Pakistan has voiced “sympathy and solidarity” towards Malala Yousafzai, a 14-year-old Muslim activist critically injured by Taliban gunmen who said they shot her for her advocacy of girls’ education and Western culture.

“Every person has a sacred right to life and education,” Bishop Rufin Anthony of IslamabadRawalpindi told Fides news agency. “God created man in His own image; every life is precious and belongs to Him alone.”

On October 9 masked gunmen singled out and shot Yousafzai on a bus of schoolchildren in Pakistan’s northwestern Swat Valley near the Afghanistan border.

She was in stable condition at a hospital in Peshawar, where doctors removed a bullet that passed through her head and stopped in her shoulder.

Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani visited the unconscious girl in the hospital and denounced the attack.

“The cowards who attacked Malala and her fellow students

have shown time and again how little regard they have for human life and how low they can fall in their cruel ambition to impose their twisted ideology,” he said, according to the BBC. Two other girls were injured, one of whom was still in critical condition as of Wednesday evening.

Pakistan officials have offered a 10 million rupee award, about $105,000, for information leading to the arrest of Yousafzai’s attackers.

The group Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan said through spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan that its members committed the attack and “successfully targeted” her “although she was young and a girl and the TTP does not believe in attacking women.”

Its October 10 letter accused the girl of being “pro-West,” opposing Taliban militants, and being part of a campaign against Islam and Shariah law.

The group said it is “deadly against co-education and a secular education system, and Shariah orders us to be against it,”

Pope prays for Middle East Christians in Arabic

Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — After his recent visit to the Church in Lebanon, Pope Benedict added Arabic to the list of official languages used at his weekly general audiences, launching the effort by offering the promise of his prayers in Arabic.

“The pope prays for all the people who speak Arabic. God bless you all,” he said in Arabic at a recent general audience, which was held in St. Peter’s Square.

For the first time, a priest also read an Arabic summary of the pope’s remarks on how the Second Vatican Council was a “moment of grace” in the Church’s history. Going forward, Arabic will join the 10 other official languages in which a brief explanation is delivered.

“In the wake of his recent

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trip to Lebanon the Holy Father intends to express his perpetual concern and support for Christians in the Middle East, and to remind everyone of their duty to pray and work for peace in the region,” said a recent statement from the Vatican Press Office.

The news was welcomed by the Lebanese journalist and translator Tony Assaf. “We are really happy that finally the words of the pope are to be issued directly from the Holy See in Arabic. The Arab world needs to have access to the wealth of wisdom that Pope Benedict offers,” he told CNA. Assaf praised the decision for giving Arabs, both Christian and Muslim, the ability to “connect directly with what the pope is saying” and giving them “direct contact with the pope in their own language.”

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The shooting sparked antiTaliban protests in several Pakistan cities.

Yousafzai began writing a diary for BBC Urdu in 2009 about life under the Taliban, which had captured the Swat Valley in 2007, imposed a strict version of Islamic law, and closed girls’ schools. The Taliban were driven out by Pakistan’s military in 2009.

Muslim activist Tahira Abdul-

lah told Fides that the Taliban is a threat to its opponents.

“Whoever speaks against religious extremism and Talibanization of the country is not safe in Pakistan,” she said. “Talibans are not only in the tribal areas but they are everywhere, and human rights activists are in danger.”

“We ask the government to punish the perpetrators of the attack, to ensure the protection of women and minorities, to protect the life and dignity of all

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citizens, as required by the Constitution.”

Anglican pastor Rev. Samuel Gill, who cares for 50 Christian families in the Swat Valley and another 50 families in Malakand, told Fides he has not noticed any dangers for Christians but they “live in uncertainty.”

“Malala was the victim of a targeted killing that may affect anyone, Christian or Muslim, who does not share the ideology of the Taliban,” he said.

October 19, 2012 The Church in the U.S. With more than 100 plaintiffs, lawyers for mandate objectors are hopeful

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Washington D.C. (CNA/ EWTN News) — As the number of plaintiffs suing over the controversial HHS mandate reaches 100, a leading religious freedom legal group is hopeful about the outcome of the cases.

Kyle Duncan, general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, explained that “nothing the government has done in the past months changes the fact that the mandate still violates federal law and the Constitution by forcing religious organizations to pay fines for the privilege of practicing their faith.”

Duncan told CNA on October 9 that the Becket Fund is still confident as it moves forward with lawsuits against the controversial federal mandate that requires employers to offer health insurance coverage of contraception, sterilization and early abortion drugs, regardless of their religious beliefs.

In issuing the mandate, the Obama Administration failed to offer a religious exemption to any group that serves or employs members of other faiths, as well as for-profit companies.

The administration did create a one-year “safe harbor” delaying the mandate from being implemented against objecting religious groups and has prom-

ised a future “accommodation” for religious freedom but has not yet given formal details about it.

The mandate has attracted legal action by more than 100 individuals and organizations, ranging from the first suit filed

by Belmont Abbey College in November 2011 — before many Americans were even aware of the mandate — to the most recent lawsuit filed by two Baptist universities on October 9.

The plaintiffs include Catholics, Protestants, private individuals, religious organizations and for-profit businesses.

Among the diverse groups bringing lawsuits against the mandate are Eternal World Television Network, Hobby Lobby, the University of Notre Dame and several manufacturing companies.

Seven states have also sued over the mandate, along with numerous dioceses and Catholic Charities affiliates throughout the U.S. Most of these cases are still waiting to receive a ruling. Bible publisher Tyndale House Publishers will appear at a hearing on October 16, and Hobby Lobby has a hearing scheduled for the end of October.

One Colorado-based company, Hercules Industries, was successful in securing a temporary

injunction against the mandate, while Missouri-based O’Brien Industrial Holdings lost its case in a federal district court but is appealing the decision.

In addition, a few cases have been dismissed as being premature, including those filed

by Belmont Abbey College and Wheaton College. Courts determined that these plaintiffs were not facing imminent harm because the promised accommodation has not yet been finalized.

The colleges are appealing this decision, arguing that they are indeed suffering immediate injury under the mandate. They explained that their ability to hire new employees is significantly hindered if they cannot guarantee that they will be able to provide health insurance. In addition, they observed that the “safe harbor” does not protect them from private lawsuits by employees for failing to comply with the mandate.

A D.C. circuit court will hear an appeal that combines the cases of both colleges sometime after mid-November.

Emily Hardman, communications director for the Becket Fund, explained October 9 that predicting a timeline for the rulings in the remaining cases is difficult because “each court can

set their own times.”

Even tougher would be guessing a timeline for a potential Supreme Court ruling, because that would require the cases to work themselves through the judicial system and be accepted for review by the nation’s highest court.

However, Hardman observed that many insurance plans renew on Jan. 1, 2013, so the plaintiffs that are not protected by the “safe harbor” are likely to at least receive a ruling on whether they will be granted a temporary injunction by the end of the year.

She also pointed out that the results of the presidential election could offer a wave of relief to all of the plaintiffs at once. Republican candidate Mitt Romney has pledged to repeal the mandate, and his election in November would translate into a victory for everyone who is suing over the mandate.

But even if this happens, there is still need to be cautious, Hardman acknowledged. Some states have similar mandates that threaten religious freedom, although they are generally not as severe.

“The Becket Fund will continue fighting,” she stressed.

Hardman said there is a need to engage the “public discussion” about the importance of

religious freedom.

She noted that rhetoric about women’s health and a “war on women” has become prominent in recent months, and this language could be leading people to believe that women have an inviolable right to free contraception at the expense of their employers.

It is important to counter these claims with facts, Hardman said. She explained that contraception is already widely available at low cost, so there is no crisis in access.

When people “look at what the mandate is actually doing,” she said, they realize that returning to the system that was in place before the mandate took effect on August 1 would not mean oppressing women, but leaving them free to purchase contraception as they see fit.

Educating the public about the nature of religious freedom is critical, agreed Duncan.

“Even if this mandate is scrapped, the bad principle behind the mandate must not be forgotten,” he said, warning that it could “justify forcing religious people, organizations, and businesses to provide not only drugs their faith forbids, but also services such as abortion and assisted-suicide.”

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (CNS) — The Year of Faith officially kicked off October 11, and now there’s an app for that!

The Diocese of Fort WayneSouth Bend is answering Pope Benedict XVI’s call to use new media and technology, providing a blog and mobile app (available for iPhone and Android mobile device users) as part of an exciting faithbuilding initiative.

This app, which went live October 11, is titled “My Year of Faith” and can be a daily, customizable resource for users. It includes many features that lead to a deeper

understanding of their faith, an increased prayer life, and reflections and thoughts from nationally known bloggers and writers — all with daily content updates.

The list of contributors is a “who’s who in Catholic social media” including blogger Lisa Hendey of CatholicMom.com, popular Catholic authors and speakers, and local voices, too, like Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort WayneSouth Bend. Those who do not have smartphones can follow the blog at www.myyearoffaith.com.

The “My Year of Faith” app costs 99 cents and is available for

iOS and Android. That includes tablets such as iPad and the Kindle Fire.

According to Megan Oberhausen of the diocesan Secretariat for Evangelization and Special Ministries, the new media outreach serves two purposes.

“The first is catechesis,” said Oberhausen, “by offering a short reading every day to help people know and love their faith more deeply.”

“The second is evangelization, by helping Catholics share their faith with joy and enthusiasm and providing a place where others can encounter the love of Jesus Christ and the light and hope of the Gospel,” she added in an interview with Today’s Catholic, the diocesan newspaper. “It’s all about leading people to Jesus!”

Oberhausen is the point person for the project, which is a secretariat-wide endeavor. She approached Patrick Leinen and Little i Apps (the group that created the confession app) about creating an app for the Year of Faith. Within a few months, they developed technology to provide reflections from people in the Catholic community and allow users to interact socially while providing suggestions to

foster spiritual growth.

“We loved the idea of reaching out to the larger Catholic community from our local diocese,” said Leinen. “We feel it is an incredible new approach that embraces the Church’s call for improved social media. What the bishop is doing is really cutting edge and incredible.”

Others are excited about contributing to the new app.

“As we anticipate the potential for personal renewal of faith and the impact this year will have upon our Church, I believe that a tool like this app will be the perfect spiritual companion for families like mine,” said Hendey.

“The content will be instructive for Catholics, but will also provide us with the tools and motivation to share our faith with our loved ones and friends,” she added. “In short, the Year of Faith will help us better know and more effectively share the riches of the Catholic Church.”

Oberhausen said she is most excited about the monthly interactive Web challenges.

“For example, in December, we have a post on the history of the creche or Nativity scene,” Oberhausen explained. “At the end of the post, we’ll ask our readers and

followers to take a photo of their family’s Nativity scene and post to Facebook or Twitter with a link to the post.

“If you’re using the mobile app, you can do this right from your phone. It’s a fun little challenge, but it also is a way to practice the New Evangelization,” she added.

While the app is geared toward evangelization for all ages, Cindy Black, diocesan director of youth, young adult and campus ministry, said the project is especially important for reaching youths and young adults and the ripple effect could be far-reaching.

“Young people have access to people that we do not, and thus are key in evangelizing their friends,” said Black. “When teens and college students witness to the joy of living their Catholic faith, it naturally attracts others who long for joy and peace.

“That is the most exciting thing — to think about the potential when putting out into the digital deep. It’s possible that a college student could post something on Facebook with a link and his or her friends across the country would read it and share and, it could spider around the world,” she said.

Putting out into the ‘digital’ deep, ‘My Year of Faith’ app goes live

October 19, 2012

The Church in the World

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U.S. bishop thanks pope for approving unborn blessing

prayerful remembrance — Worshippers pause as they walk during a candlelit procession on the grounds outside the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion, Wis., recently. People gather at the shrine every year to celebrate the anniversary of a Marian apparition seen by Adele Brise, a young Belgian immigrant woman, three times in October 1859. (CNS photo/Darren Hauck, Reuters)

Boston cardinal urges ‘no’ vote on assisted suicide

Boston (CNA) — Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley of Boston called on local voters to oppose a ballot measure legalizing physician-assisted suicide, warning against claims that there is no danger of a “slippery slope.”

“Please join me to stop assisted suicide by voting ‘No on Question 2’ on Election Day,” he said, asking voters to “stop this bad idea and bad law from going into effect.”

The cardinal’s October 12 column in The Boston Pilot said that small decisions can lead to “undesirable outcomes that never would have been supported at the outset.”

He criticized Massachusetts’ Question 2, which would allow physicians to prescribe lethal doses of drugs to allow their terminallyill patients to commit suicide. It requires a 15-day waiting period before the suicide drug can be dispensed. Death certificates would not present assisted suicide as a patient’s cause of death, but rather list their terminal illness.

The cardinal said opponents of the proposal fear that it is “harmful in itself” and could lead to “unintended tragic outcomes.”

Ethicists, he noted, are concerned that assisted suicide devalues human life and those who work to prevent suicide fear that legally allowing suicide for one group could increase suicide rates among the rest of the population.

“How can a state effectively try to minimize suicide in some situations and promote it as a legal alternative in other situations?” he asked.

Doctors and nurses are concerned assisted suicide could lead to poorer care for those near the end of life, while doctors also say it could harm the doctor patient relationship, the cardinal said.

The American Medical Association opposes physician-assisted suicide as “fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as a healer.” It would be “impossible to control” and would pose “serious societal risks.”

The Massachusetts Medical Society also opposes physicianassisted suicide.

Cardinal O’Malley warned that assisted suicide could become a new form of elder abuse and could mean fewer benefits or protections for the disabled.

The legislation does not protect the terminally ill from pressure to commit suicide from indifferent family members or those who stand to inherit property.

The example of the Netherlands suggests that assisted suicide would lead to direct voluntary euthanasia and then involuntary euthanasia. Dutch advocates against the practice say it is being applied to patients with dementia and others who cannot be competent to request aid in dying, including children. Some assisted suicide advocates in the country are already advocating its expansion beyond the terminally ill to allow anyone over age 70 to seek assistance in killing themselves.

Cardinal O’Malley noted the U.S. bishops’ words on the Netherlands situation in their 2011 document “To Live Each Day With Dignity.”

“Once they convinced themselves that ending a short life can be an act of compassion, it was morbidly logical to conclude that ending a longer life may show even more compassion,” the statement said.

“Psychologically, as well, the physician who has begun to offer death as a solution for some illnesses is tempted to view it as the answer for an ever-broader range of problems.”

Cardinal O’Malley said that the U.S. is not in the same situation as the Netherlands not because the laws that allow assisted suicide are “well written” or have “careful oversight.”

“What has put the brakes on the growth of physician-assisted suicide in the U.S. is that more than 20 states have rejected proposed legislation and ballot initiatives,” he said.

Cardinal O’Malley referred voters to the website of the coalition against Question 2, www.

StopAssistedSuicide.org. He also noted the Archdiocese of Boston’s website on end of life issues, www.SuicideIsAlwaysATragedy. org.

Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville has personally thanked Pope Benedict XVI for the Vatican’s recent approval of a new blessing for the child in the womb.

“Warmly extending the love of Christ to families as they prepare for the birth of their child, this sacred gesture is both a positive and hope-filled way to announce to society the great gift of human life as well as a gracious invitation for the parents to begin steps for the Baptism of their child, once born,” said Archbishop Kurtz to the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican.

“The Blessing of the Child in the Womb” was approved on Dec. 8, 2011 by the Congregation for Divine Worship for use by the Church in the United States.

Archbishop Kurtz told the gathering of bishops from across the globe that the new blessing was “a pastoral moment of first evangelization of the child and New Evangelization of the family.”

The Kentucky prelate is one of seven American bishops participating in the Vatican summit that runs from October 7-28.

Together with 255 other “Synod Fathers” they hope to chart the Church’s “New Evangelization” of the contemporary world.

With the pope still present, Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-

Siller of San Antonio used his address to suggest that the synod “humbly ask the Holy Father to consecrate the world to the Holy Spirit.”

“In order that Jesus Christ’s salvation may reach the whole world and transform it, that the Church may be renewed and holiness may flourish in it, that we Christians go forward with the New Evangelization, we need a new Pentecost,” he said.

Meanwhile Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson called upon the synod to “strongly and unequivocally affirm that justice and charity are at the heart of the work of evangelization.”

“Inextricably linked to our preaching of the saving message of the Gospel, our acts of love and justice are a prophetic evangelical call,” he said Tuesday.

He proposed that Catholics “will move hearts to the vision of Christ” when they “demonstrate our faith as Catholics with renewed energy for charity and justice at home and all through the world.”

6

The Anchor Our Christian concern

This past weekend Dennis Miller on his nationally-syndicated radio program expressed his disgust because Pope Benedict prayed in Arabic at his weekly audience a week ago Wednesday.

Miller interpreted this as the pope trying to be “politically correct” so as to appease Moslems. As we can read on page three of this edition of The Anchor, the intent of the Holy Father was not just to address Moslems, but “all the people who speak Arabic.” The Church is always looking to promote her message to all people of good will, and since these texts are disseminated via the Vatican website and Vatican Radio, Arabic-speaking Moslems will be able to hear and read what the Holy Father is teaching. The pope, however, stressed his desire to have the weekly catechesis presented in Arabic so as to speak to our fellow Catholics and other Christians who reside in the Holy Land, so that they are aware of our solidarity with them.

The following Sunday, during his weekly address in St. Peter’s Square when praying the Angelus, the pope spoke in English, “I greet all the English-speaking visitors present. During this Year of Faith may we, like the man in today’s Gospel, have the courage to ask the Lord what more can we do, especially for the poor, the lonely, the sick and the suffering, so as to be witnesses and heirs to the eternal life God promises. Upon all of you, I invoke God’s abundant blessings of peace.”

We don’t know if Dennis Miller would think that the Holy Father should have been reticent to speak to English-speakers, due to the godlessness which is seen in many an English-speaking country. Here again, the pope was not being “politically correct,” but was challenging us to be attentive to people whom we often ignore — the poor, sick, and lonely.

It is interesting to note how the pope mentioned how we should have the “courage” that the rich young man had in putting this tough question to Jesus. In Italian the pope pointed out that the young man, although he had riches and had been a faithful follower of the Commandments all his life, “had not found true happiness.” This is why the youth questioned Jesus.

As we know, the young man did not like Jesus’ answer and went away sad, instead of giving up his belongings and following the Lord.

What belongings or possessions do we need to give up as Americans so as to better follow the Lord? This is a challenging question, which risks our turning away from Him, too. It is very tempting to just follow Christ according to our own criteria, keeping the Commandments after a fashion, but not looking to see what we really need to “leave behind” so as to authentically follow Jesus.

On page 13 of this edition we have a reference to Vatican II’s Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (normally referred to by its Latin name, Gaudium et Spes). The bishops at #27 of that document told us, “This council lays stress on reverence for man; everyone must consider his every neighbor without exception as another self, taking into account first of all His life and the means necessary to living it with dignity, so as not to imitate the rich man who had no concern for the poor man Lazarus. In our times a special obligation binds us to make ourselves the neighbor of every person without exception and of actively helping him when he comes across our path, whether he be an old person abandoned by all, a foreign laborer unjustly looked down upon, a refugee, a child born of an unlawful union and wrongly suffering for a sin he did not commit, or a hungry person who disturbs our conscience by recalling the voice of the Lord, ‘As long as you did it for one of these the least of My brethren, you did it for Me’ (Mt 25:40).”

We see what the council taught us lived out in what we can read today in Claire McManus’ and George Weigel’s columns on poverty, looking at various ways in which we can respond to it, so as to alleviate it. The council’s teaching is also echoed in the article on page 10, which describes the U.S. Postal Services’ religious Christmas stamp, which this year depicts Jesus, Mary and Joseph on the flight into Egypt, a reminder of our obligation to view immigrants as our neighbor and love them, as Jesus loved us.

The council fathers continued, “Furthermore, whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia or willful self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where men are treated as mere tools for profit, rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things and others of their like are infamies indeed. They poison human society, but they do more harm to those who practice them than those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are supreme dishonor to the Creator.”

We Americans need to remember these words as we go to vote soon. Although the council fathers gave us a long list of ills, all of which we should work to eradicate, given that in each race on which we must choose a candidate (as opposed to the referendum on physician-assisted suicide, where we don’t have to do any balancing of goods — on that ballot line, the demands of the Gospel are clear that we should vote “no”), Catholics need to see which issues are the “nonnegotiables,” as the U.S. bishops conference termed them, and then vote accordingly.

Bishop R. Walker Nickless of Sioux City, Iowa explained which issues these are: “The issues which have been labeled as ‘non-negotiable Catholic issues’ are the most grave, because they are at the foundation of all our rights and responsibilities. These are, namely, the ‘life issues’ of abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem-cell research, and human cloning; and the fundamental social issue of the family, which in this country today mostly means the definition of Marriage.

These issues are ‘non-negotiable’ because, if the fundamental right to life is not secure, no rights are ultimately secure. If existence is contingent upon the will of others, so too is every other human right contingent.”

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia wrote in a column in September, “And who are the poor? They’re the people we so often try to look away from — people who are homeless or dying or unemployed or mentally disabled. They’re also the unborn child who has a right to God’s gift of life, and the single mother who looks to us for compassion and material support. Above all, they’re the persons in need that God presents to each of us not as a ‘policy issue,’ but right here, right now, in our daily lives.” Here, the archbishop brings together our Christian concern for the poor and unites it to the dignity of all the living, at whatever stage of life they happen to be.

Looking to preserve these values might not be the “politically correct” thing to do, but it is the Christian thing to do. Just as Christians in the Western world are called upon to live in solidarity with our fellow Christians in the Middle East, just as we are called upon to show the loving face of Christ to Arabic-speaking Moslems, just as we are called upon to not ignore the poverty which surrounds us, so we are also called upon to defend the right to life, without which no one can enjoy any other rights.

October 19, 2012

The Parables of the Good and Bad Samaritan

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nce a lawyer, to test Jesus, asked man’s pleas for help, but he was on the way Him what he had to do to inherit to make a house call to someone else and eternal life. Jesus responded by asking refused to be delayed. Finally, a Samaritan the man first to give his own opinion of approached. He heard the naked victim what was written in God’s law. The lawyer groaning that he was in so much pain and replied that we needed to love God with filled with so much shame after the abuse all we are and to love our neighbor as he had suffered that he was begging God ourselves. Jesus told him he had the right to end his life. The Samaritan didn’t ignore answer and promised him that if he loved in the man’s pain and drew near. ‘I’m here to this two-fold way, he would live forever. help you,’ he said comfortingly. He took But the lawyer was a smart aleck and out a flask of wine and poured it into the asked Jesus who his neighbor was. The man’s mouth as an anesthetic. He opened question betrayed a common belief among up a container of olive oil and bathed the many of Jesus’ contemporaries that certain man’s wounds, to palliate a little of the people, like fellow Jews, were neighbors pain. As the suffering man began to thank you needed to love and others — like pahim, the Samaritan reached once more into gans or Samaritans, even if they happened his sack and pulled out a knife. He placed it to live right next door — were not neighin the victim’s hand and said, ‘I’ll hold your bors and therefore you were justified in not other hand as you do it.’ He promised not to loving them. abandon the man, and that after it was over, In order to stress the point that we’re he would take the man’s cadaver to the supposed to be neighbor to everyone, that graveyard and arrange for a proper burial.”

God wants us to treat everyone who comes This new version of the parable, which into our ambit with compassion, Jesus prewould have shocked Jesus’ original listensented the Parable of the Good Samaritan. ers and should shock us, is actually what’s We know the details of this famous ilbeing proposed by those pushing to give lustration very doctors in the well. A man Commonjourneying wealth the legal from Jerusapermission lem to Jericho to prescribe was ambushed poison to help by robbers, their patients who stripped commit suicide.

By Father him naked, Proponents beat him and Roger J. Landry believe that a left him near compassiondeath. Two ate response people followed who would have been to those who, because of their suffering expected to help the dying man — a priest and pain, are thinking that life is no longer and a member of the priestly tribe of Levi worth living is to give them the means to — but they crossed the road and just kept end their lives. walking. Then a Samaritan — whom most But this is not a response of true comJews hated for religious reasons, and vice passion. It’s not an attempt to share the versa — approached. To get a sense of person’s sufferings. It’s not even an attempt what Jesus’ Jewish listeners would have to help treat the person’s sufferings. It’s been expected from a Samaritan, we could the decision to end the person’s sufferings substitute someone today like a serial killer, by helping the person end his life. For that or armed robber, or Al Qaeda member. reason, Blessed John Paul II called the They would have expected no good, and practice of assisted suicide and euthanasia a perhaps even some evil. And yet this man, “false mercy” and a “perversion of mercy.” seeing the Jewish man lying at the point of Real love of neighbor doesn’t lead us to death, had compassion, drew close, totally try to help others kill themselves because inconvenienced himself, poured precious they or we cannot bear their pain. Real love wine and oil in the man’s wounds, brought of neighbor leads us to inconvenience and him to an inn, gave an enormous sum to the sacrifice ourselves to accompany them and inn-keeper to care for him and, as a further try to lift them from the depression leading act of compassion, indicated he would be them to think it’s pointless to go on. back to check on the man’s recovery and The true Good Samaritans always try to promised that he would pay the inn-keeper persuade others not to take their lives. They for any other expenses incurred. don’t facilitate their suicide.

When Jesus asked the lawyer who had We all admire those volunteers who staff proven neighbor to the victim, the lawyer the Samaritans’ anti-suicide hotlines in orcorrectly answered, “The one who showed der to help people at their most vulnerable mercy on him.” And Jesus told him — and moments not to make the most tragic decius — to go and do the same. sion of all. On the Samaritans USA website, The Good Samaritan “showed” mercy. the Samaritans say they are “caring, responThere’s a difference between “feeling sive and motivated individuals who not compassion” and “showing compassion.” only talk about helping others but actually Compassion literally means “suffering do something about it.” They recognize that with” another, sharing in that person’s life suicide is always a tragedy and they want to so that he doesn’t suffer alone and sacrificgo beyond talk, beyond “feeling” compasing oneself in love to help him bear his sion for others, to dedicating their time and sufferings and if possible recover. That’s efforts to try “showing compassion” by tryprecisely what the Good Samaritan did and ing to save rather than end the lives of those why he’s one of the most famous illustracontemplating suicide. tions of true love of neighbor in the history As we approach the November 6 elecof the world. tion, the question is what type of Samaritan In the context of the Doctor-Prescribed we’re going to be and what type of SamariSuicide ballot item on which Massachusetts tans we’re going to enable in our culture. citizens will be voting in two-and-a-half A “yes” vote on ballot item #2 is to vote to weeks, we could ponder a twist on Jesus’ give “Bad Samaritans” a steady supply of parable to highlight what is being proposed: knives to place into the hands of the most “A man was heading from Jerusalem to vulnerable and to pass by on the other side Jericho and he was brutally attacked by a of the road as they seek to take their lives. team of bandits, who beat and abused him, A “no” vote — while not as significant as stole his clothes and left him in a ditch to volunteering at Samaritan hotlines — is to die. Soon after, a relative of the victim was bring the values of the Good Samaritan into passing on the way, but when he heard the the voting both and try to carry out electorman’s cries for help, he just kept on going, ally what true Samaritans seek to do on the too busy with the various tasks he had to phone. accomplish that day to stop. A little later, Father Landry is pastor of St. Bernaa doctor passed by and likewise heard the dette Parish in Fall River.

Putting Into the Deep

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7

The Anchor

October 19, 2012

etween the years 18531854, William Holman Hunt painted a portrait of Jesus entitled “The Light of the World.” I suggest, if you are able, to Google this image. This painting depicts Jesus, wearing a white garment and a beautiful cape with a clasp containing many jewels. On His head, Jesus wears a golden crown intertwined with thorns. The nail mark can be seen on the hand that knocks on the door, as well as a sad but longing look on His face. He is carrying a lantern to

Year of Faith: Through the door

guide Him by night, knocking on Door of Faith. We are called to a door. The door is very peculiar reflect upon the documents of in the fact that it is covered by ivy and has no handle. The only way to get inside the house is by the owner letting Jesus into it. Hunt later described the painting

By Father as an image of Revelation 3:20.

William Sylvia As we begin the Year of Faith called for by Pope Benedict XVI, the Second Vatican Council, now we turn to the image that he 50 years old, the “Catechism of employs: the Porta Fide, the the Catholic Church,” now 20

Living Our Year of Faith

Reviving the rhythm of the Beatitudes

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riving through one of believe that unfettered wealth will our more upscale comfloat the economic boat, or the munities I spotted a lone protester Keynesian who seek a balance holding a sign that read, “I am a between the private sector and member of the 99 percent.” She government regulation to control may have been a leftover from the of the economy. One’s ideology “Occupy Wall Street” campaign about how to fix the economy is that swept through our country morally neutral. God does care several months ago. These are the very much about the people who people who felt left out in the cold are affected by the economy. when the economy collapsed.

Kingdom ideology has been at A subset of this group would be odds with worldly ideologies the 47 percent referred to in the since the day Jesus delivered presidential campaign as governHis Sermon on the Mount. St. ment dependent laggards. EcoJames pulled no punches with his nomic ups and downs have been a part of our history for millennia, but this one seems to have brought out the worst in our human nature. Rather than pull together we have split

By Claire McManus apart and allowed class warfare to rear its ugly head.

If class warfare entered our Church we would fledgling Christian community in never stand for it. Scripture and the first century when he warned tradition have taught us well that them about showing partiality to rich, poor or somewhere in the the wealthy. He admonished those middle, we are all members of the who called themselves religious Body of Christ. Unfortunately, and did nothing for those who we shirk off the Beatitudes and were struggling to get by in this clothe ourselves in the mantel of world. Nor can we get away with our various political ideologies demonizing those people whom when we step outside the doors of we have cast as the villains of church. We have just launched the our economic crisis. St. James Year of Faith, celebrating the 50th also admonished us for using anniversary of Vatican II, and it our words to destroy. “With our could not have come a better time. tongues we bless the Lord, and We have allowed the beautiful with it we curse those made in the sentiment expressed in its Pastoral likeness of God.” Constitution on the Church in If we find ourselves resonating the Modern World to fade from with the nameless and faceless memory. We were once guided by statistical categories then we risk the words of Gaudium et Spes, re- being deaf to their stories. The 99 minding us that the joy and hope, and 47 percent are people with grief and anguish of the world real lives and real stories. They belongs to all of us collectively. have lost their homes through Today we look with disdain and foreclosure, or are forced to derision on those who have fallen choose between groceries and on hard times, and place them into rent. They are denied quality comfortable categories. medical care and live with the God doesn’t care about our fear that a catastrophic emergency political or economic ideology. will bankrupt them. They work It doesn’t matter whether we long hours for little pay and no land with the supply-siders who rights, if they’re working at all.

The Great Commission

They are young college graduates that have excellent degrees but no work. They wait on tables at some restaurant and go home to their childhood residence, waiting for their chance to make a place in the world. Nor can we continue to vilify the one percent and ignore their stories. Many are not multimillionaires but real people who have climbed out of middle class, paid exorbitant tuitions for their children, only to find them back at home without jobs or medical benefits. Many of these people were near retirement and lost their 401ks to the excesses of Wall Street.

Nobody deserves to be a nameless and faceless percentage used as fodder for political pundits and vacuous talk show hosts.

The salvation of our national economy depends on decisions made for the collective good of the people, but our salvation depends on our ability to respond to our neighbors with compassion. Our divisive political environment is rooted in arrogance devoid of charity. A Native American spiritual writer once observed, “Those who suffer from the smallness of arrogance think that ill fortune is the fault of those who suffer it; that good fortune is a privilege that belongs to them.” We, as Christians, must not allow ourselves to be taken up into the arrogance that has infused our society.

The noise of the political bantering can easily drown out the rhythm of the Beatitudes.

At the end of the day, when the noise of the world settles down, we are all alone with God Whose voice echoes in our depth. This is when we remember who we are, and Whose we are. Stripped of our ideology and social status we hope to see others more clearly, and remember Whose they are.

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

years old, and the Nicene Creed, now 1,687 years old. We are also called to use the Scriptures, the Sacramental rites, and the writings of the fathers and doctors of the Church as inspiration for prayer. We have been called to renew first our own personal faith, and then to spread the New Evangilization in Christian cultures that have lost sight of their Christian roots.

One of the aims of the Year of Faith is help each Christian come to the realization that he or she is a missionary. Strengthened by the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, each person is meant to bring his or her faith into public. Faith is not meant to be contained in the home or the church building — faith is meant to be lived and experienced at every moment and every place. This challenge actually comes from the Old Testament, from the Jewish profession of faith: “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength. Take to heart these words which I command you today. Keep repeating them to your children. Recite them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them on your arm as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead. Write them on the door posts of your houses and on your gates” (Dt 6:4-9).

In light of the Holy Father’s call to the New Evangelization, Hunt’s painting of Christ not only represents a passage from Scripture, but envisions what Pope Benedict is working towards in this Year of Faith.

During this Year of Faith, we can reflect on the documents of the Second Vatican Council and on the “Catechism” to delve deeper into our faith. First, we reflect

on Who it is who knocks on our door (Creed). Secondly, we can meditate on the door itself (Sacraments), the means through which God and man are joined.

Thirdly, we prepare ourselves, with the help of grace, to prepare to open the door (morals). Lastly, we learn the vocabulary needed in order to have a conversation with the Lord Who awaits us to open the door (prayer).

If anyone is to study and appreciate these several documents listed above, they must first place themselves in the proper context. The Sunday celebration of the Eucharist is necessary; along with the praying of Scripture and quiet time in Eucharistic adoration. The Creed, fundamentally a prayer, should be recited with devotion, meaning that it should be prayed with the heart, not just the head.

Reviewing the “Catechism” or “Compendium” as an individual or as a family or community would be beneficial, especially before special moments in the life of faith: Christmas or Easter, the reception of Confession or the other Sacraments, when it is tough to pray, or when a decision needs to be made.

Lastly, during this Year of Faith, let us not forget that this moment in the history of the Church is not meant as just an intellectual exercise. The memorization of new prayers or a few definitions of the “Catechism” is nothing compared to what we are actually being called to do — develop our personal and communal relationship with the Lord.

If this happens within your family, community, or parish, this year has been a success. Therefore, let us pray to the Lord and to Mary, the Star of Evangelization, for a successful Year of Faith in the Diocese of Fall River.

This is a first in a series of columns on the Year of Faith

by Father Sylvia. He is a technical assistant at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Hyannis, and chaplain at Cape Cod Hospital.

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

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nce again we join the universal Church this weekend as we celebrate World Mission Sunday. It is a weekend that reminds us that we, as Church, are bigger than our parish, our diocese, or our country. It is an occasion which reminds us of our baptismal vocation to make Christ known.

Each year the Holy Father writes a message for Mission Sunday. This year he notes that the celebration will be celebrated in the context of the Year of Faith celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and the 20th anniversary of the “Catechism of the Catholic Church.”

He recalls that the Year of Faith reaffirms the Church’s desire to engage with greater courage and zeal its mission to the people so that the Gospel may reach the ends of the earth. He notes that there is a greater urgency to proclaim Christ since the numbers of those who do not know Christ has grown.

We see this in our own diocese where churches become

October 19, 2012

The Anchor

Doing our part as a faith community

emptier and cannot support faith calls for a new way of themselves and eventually are effectively communicating closed. the Word of God — a reIn his apostolic letter newed adherence of personal Porta Fidei, Pope Benedict and community faith in the reminds us that Christ sends Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is us through the highways of the encounter with Christ as the world to proclaim His Gospel to all the Homily of the Week peoples of the earth and the pope encourages Twenty-ninth Sunday us to recover the same in Ordinary Time apostolic zeal as that of

By Msgr. the early Christians.

Vatican II insisted John J. Oliveira that the missionary mandate which was entrusted to the disciples must a living person that leads us be a commitment of all the to share with others the joy of people of God: priest, deaHis presence and make Him cons, religious, and laity. Pope known. It renews the enthuBenedict reminds us that all siasm of communicating the the Church — all of us must faith. be concerned with the needs In a beautiful line the pope of the Church. In our diocese, states, “Faith is a gift that is the Mission Office concretely given to us to be shared; it is a expressed its concern for talent received so that it may the needs of the Church as bear fruit; a light that must we supported a mission in never be hidden.” What a great Guaimaca for more than 10 summary of what we are about years. and what Mission Sunday The pope is not unaware reminds us of. of the current situation in Pope Benedict reaffirms the the world and its complexwork of the Pontifical Misity. He notes that the crisis of sion Societies. He relates that

through its action the proclamation of the Gospel also becomes an intervention on behalf of one’s neighbor, justice for the poorest, the possibility of education in the most remote village, medical aid in isolated places, emancipation from poverty, the rehabilitation of the marginalized, support for the development of peoples, overcoming ethnic divisions, and respect for life in all its stages.

A challenge from this week’s celebration is to remember that we are called to live out our baptismal vocation to make Christ known and loved. As St. Francis said so wisely, “Preach all the time and if necessary use words.”

Following our baptismal vocation, we could do more in conjunction with Mission Sunday. We can all pray for the missions. We pray for those working in foreign lands for their safety, for their courage, for their health, for their good example. St. Theresa of Avila is a patroness of the missions. Yet she never left her convent. She prayed and

sacrificed for the growth of the Church. Love was her vocation and as much as she ardently desired to visit a foreign country, her vocation was to pray and eventually become a patroness of the missions.

Prayer is our first calling and gift for the missions.

On Mission Sunday each parishioner throughout the world is also asked to make a financial sacrifice for the work of the missions. A donation is asked to carry on the work so eloquently written by the pope in his message this Mission Sunday. A gift of $15 is a week’s support for a young man in a mission seminary; $25 is a month’s help for the formation of a Sister in the Pacific; $50 helps provide care for 50 children in a home.

This Mission Sunday weekend, let us commit to doing our part using our gift of faith, our knowledge and love of Jesus, and our sacrifice, to make Him known and loved.

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

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Oct. 20, Eph 1:15-23; Ps 8:2-7; Lk 12:8-12. Sun. Oct. 21, Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Is 53:10-11; Ps 33:45,18-20,22; Heb 4:14-16; Mk 10:35-45 or 10:42-45. Mon. Oct. 22, Eph2:1-10; Ps 100:2-5; Lk 12:13-21. Tues. Oct. 23, Eph 2:12-22; Ps 85:9-14; Lk 12:35-38.

Wed. Oct. 24, Eph 3:2-12; (Ps) Is 12:2-6; Lk 12:39-48. Thurs. Oct. 25, Eph 3:14-21; Ps 33:1-2,4-5,11-12,18-19; Lk 12:49-53. Fri. Oct. 26, Eph 4:1-6; Ps 24:1-6; Lk 12:54-59.

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n his 1958 book, “Reflections on America,” the great French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain (who took refuge in the United States during World War II) claimed that Americans, for all their commercial endeavors, “are the least materialist among the modern peoples which have attained the industrial stage.”

Well, that was then, this is now, and it isn’t Jacques Maritain’s America anymore. Still, there remains a link between moneymaking and idealism in these United States that is distinctive, and perhaps even unique.

About which, 21st-century Americans can learn a useful lesson from President Calvin Coolidge, famously known (and pilloried) for the phrase “The business of America is business.”

Except that’s not what Coolidge said, according to historian Geoffrey Norman.

What he said, which was much more interesting, was that “The chief business of the American people is business”: which is to say, most Americans are engaged in earning a living — a

Economy and empowerment

noble activity that confers real dignity on whoever undertakes it, no matter what their income.

As for wealth, consider Silent Cal’s remarks at the end of the same speech: “We make no concealment of the fact that we want wealth, but there are many other things that we want very much more. We want peace and honor, and that charity which is so strong an element in all of civilization. The chief ideal of the American people is idealism. I cannot repeat too often that America is a nation of idealists.”

And that, I suggest, is why Americans respond positively to presidential aspirants who lift up a vision of American possibility — prosperity linked to creativity, responsibility and generosity — rather than candidates who play class-warfare politics, in whatever partisan form.

A robust economy is not only an economic imperative; it is a moral and cultural imperative.

A robust economy makes honorable work possible for all who wish to be responsible for their own lives and the lives of their loved ones. And work, according to Blessed John Paul II in the 1983 encycli-

The Catholic Difference cal “Laborem Exercens,” is an expression of our participation in God’s sustaining “creation” of the world.

A robust economy makes possible the empowerment of the underprivileged — the true “preferential option for the poor” in Catholic social doctrine, according to John Paul’s 1991 encyclical “Centesimus Annus” — even as it helps conserve public resources by making the resort to welfare less necessary.

A robust economy is essential in supporting one telling

sign of America’s enduring generosity and idealism: the remarkable philanthropy of the American people. Americans, these days, give some $300 billion a year to charitable organizations, including religious institutions that fund vast networks of education, health care, and social service serving people in real need. There is simply nothing like this anywhere else in the western world; if you doubt that, go to Europe or Canada, where the tradition of the benign, caretaker state (the contemporary version of the benign, caretaker monarch) has severely eroded charitable instincts — meaning giving.

And if it be responded that Americans give money to charities because it’s advantageous to do so for income tax purposes, well, let’s be grateful that, in affording full deductibility to charitable giving, the tax code got something right.

The United States faces grave problems because of prof-

ligate public spending, however well-intended, by both parties.

Those problems — which include the morally reprehensible habit of loading mountains of unpayable debt onto the backs of future generations — cannot be addressed without sustained economic growth that dramatically lowers the unemployment rate. And that reduction is itself a moral imperative, given the toxic effects of unemployment on the self-respect, dignity, and family life of the unemployed.

John Paul II took Catholic social doctrine in a new direction by teaching that, in the post-industrial world of the 21st century, Adam Smith’s “wealth of nations” resides, not so much in stuff (as in natural resources or land) as in human creativity: in ideas, skills, work-habits and entrepreneurial instincts. That insight seems worth remembering as Americans consider the policies, and politicians, most likely to lead the country back to prosperity and full employment.

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

October 19, 2012

Pastoral Care Week

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he Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches” (Mt 13:31).

In reflecting upon this Scripture passage, one may speak about the growth of God’s Kingdom, when those who are inspired by the Holy Spirit begin good works with good intentions, allowing this work to inspire others and bringing God’s will to fruition.

In many ways this Scripture provides an appropriate reflection upon the origins and growth of Pastoral Care Week.

Pastoral Care Week was established by the National

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The Anchor Association of Catholic first National Pastoral Care Chaplains in 1983. In 1985 the Week celebrated in October NACC held its first Pastoral of 1987. Chaplains, pastoral Care Week to celebrate the care providers and educators profession and ministry of have had the opportunity each pastoral care. By 1986, the year to celebrate their various Congress on Ministries in ministries since then. In 1995, Specialized Settings began the process of establishing a committee to put in place a National Pastoral Care Week. Representatives from COMISS, By the NACC and the Greta MacKoul college of chaplains (now the Association of Professional Chaplains) National Pastoral Care Week made up this committee. became known as Pastoral Out of a small “mustard Care Week as it has become seed” the National Association international, including many of Catholic Chaplains had igcountries. nited a national and ecumeniThe theme of Pastoral Care cal interest in a pastoral care Week 2012 is “Giving Voice,” week. “Excellence in Pastoral and will be celebrated OctoCare” was the theme of the ber 21-27 across the nation,

Guest Columnist

I measure life in love

ow do you measure your life? According to the late composer and playwright Jonathan Larson, life, as he so beautifully depicts in the masterpiece “Rent,” is measured “in daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee. In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.”All good things to measure life by, if I do say so myself. But perhaps the most beautiful way we measure our life is when Jonathan says we measure it in love.

And where do we see this love? Personally, over the last few years in particular, I’ve come to the realization that my life has consisted of a series of older women, each coming in and out as time passes, at different phases of my own life.

When I was younger my family had a close neighbor, an elderly woman named Harriet. To my brother and me she was always “Nana Ferguson.” Afternoons were spent playing checkers and turning down the volume on the perpetually too-loud “Rosie O’Donnell Show.” As I grew older and this great woman figure continued her own life with Christ, I was always surrounded by an aunt who showed me through her relationship with my mother what being a true friend meant and looked like, and through her relationship

with her mother what selfsacrificial love was.

High school neared and a new cast of women entered stage right with the introduction of Catholic high school, campus ministry, and living a life of unrelenting faith even when it’s challenged.

During my junior year in

Radiate Your Faith

By Renee Bernier high school Agnes entered my life. A beautiful woman inside and out, she was a friend of my father and someone I was glad to meet. I would see her on a monthly basis until around the time I graduated.

Sitting and listening to stories of her family, her past, and her love of the Mass and of Christ are memories that I treasure today … as were the hugs that were shared before I would leave.

Finally, for the past few years I’ve had the honor of befriending Bobbi. Interested in becoming more involved with Confirmation retreats, I was approached by Bobbi to lead a table at one of the retreats she runs for local parishes. I agreed, and have continued to enjoy her company on and off retreats to this day. Bobbi has been a friend and mentor, but more

importantly she has been family and a brave example of a deep and true love.

While these are not the only women who have played a significant role in my life, for there are many more that I could write more than a single column about, they have been great teachers.

Having never had the privilege to meet and grow up with my mémère and experiencing the passing of my nana during my childhood, I’ve come to recognize that each of these women has been a special gift from God. It’s almost as if He knew I needed them, and so along my way He placed these women to help guide me along. My mother perhaps is the greatest blessing of all.

We don’t choose our families; they are chosen for us by our Creator. Yet I can think of no greater choice.

As I’ve met all of these women and been touched by their examples of kindness, their faith and passions, my life has been infinitely shaped by this grace of God. After all, we are called to be Christ to one another, and God is love, so that, that is how I measure my life; I measure it in love.

Renee lives in Swansea and is a senior at Stonehill College in Easton. She is involved with youth ministry at St. Patrick’s Parish in Wareham.

in many pastoral care settings including hospitals, pastoral counseling centers, nursing homes, schools and universities.

I first had the opportunity to be part of the celebration of Pastoral Care Week at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston when I was enrolled in Clinical Pastoral Education and served as a chaplain intern. Now, as a chaplain in pastoral care ministry at Cape Cod Hospital, I will join hands with Father Bill Sylvia, Deacon Greg Beckel, and chaplains of other faith traditions serving at Cape Cod Hospital, implementing recognition and celebration for this special week.

As Father Rodney Thibault (director of pastoral care of the sick for the diocese) said and the August 24 article in The Anchor on hospital ministry clarified, there are many “faith-filled” volunteers who serve as extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, who make a significant and most valuable contribution to pastoral care ministry in the hospital setting.

Pastoral Care Week can be a time to especially remember in prayer the dedicated volunteers who serve in this capacity, as well as those who

through their vocations and professions provide pastoral care, in hospitals and pastoral care settings throughout the diocese.

Pastoral care ministry is “giving voice” to pastoral care providers as well as to those served by the ministry, and they, in turn, “give voice” to pastoral care ministry, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Sacraments, compassion and prayer.

Maybe you are someone who does not work at a hospital, a nursing home, or a pastoral counseling center, but you provide prayer and pastoral care often. Perhaps you bring Holy Communion to a neighbor, a friend, or a family member who is sick; an elderly parent, your husband or your wife, or perhaps even a child. This week is also about you. For you are doing what is most important when no one else is watching. But God knows, and this week you are to be celebrated, too: your ministry, the love you share, the difference you make, and yes, that you “give voice” by what you say and how you listen, by your presence, your prayer and the Holy Spirit within you.

Greta MacKoul is a parishioner of Christ the King Parish in Mashpee.

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October 19, 2012

Pushing the envelope? Religious image stamps part of holiday tradition

WASHINGTON (CNS) — When the U.S. Postal Service unveiled its new Christmas stamp October 10 featuring an image of the Holy Family fleeing to Egypt, there was no uproar about religion in the public square, or in this case, rectangle.

“We didn’t get a single phone call or email from anyone who took exemption to the stamp,” Roy Betts, a spokesman for the Postal Service, said.

“And with the speed with which people can respond today, they would have if they wanted to,” he added. He said he thought people were more concerned with other things such as the presidential election.

He also said the post office doesn’t “really get comments” about the holiday stamps in general, most likely because of the diversity of stamps — besides stamps with Christian imagery, there are those that commemorate Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and Muslim festivals.

As an aside, he said one year the Postal Service inadvertently left out the image of its Eid stamp — commemorating the Muslim festivals of Eid alFitr and Eid al-Adha — from a poster about its holiday stamps.

The Postal Service heard about it, and then some, and within 24 hours, he said, new posters were displayed that included all the holiday stamps.

As he put it: “People are passionate about this (issue).” But right now, he added, “they’re not complaining.”

The diversity in stamps,

which may have quelled the naysayers, is fairly new. The first U.S. Christmas stamp debuted in 1962 with a wreath, two candles and the words “Christmas 1962.”

Four years later the postal service issued what became more of the traditional Christmas stamp featuring a Renaissance painting of the Madonna and Child.

By contrast, the other holiday stamps took longer to get their corner of the market. The Hanukkah stamp marking the eightday Jewish festival of lights debuted in 1996. The Kwanzaa stamp for the African-American holiday first appeared in 1997 and the Eid stamp was not issued until 2001.

Charles Haynes, a senior scholar at the Freedom Forum’s First Amendment Center, told Catholic News Service in a recent email that stamps with religious images aren’t a problem “as long as the government is acknowledging a variety of religious and nonreligious communities at various times of the year.”

“The fact that religious — including explicitly Christian — symbols are in the mix raises no First Amendment issue — but simply reflects our diversity,” he said.

Haynes noted that Christian symbols on stamps should only be allowed if a variety of other faiths are represented. “Government may not privilege one faith over others,” he added.

When the traditional Christmas stamp stood alone, it faced at least one sticky situation. In

1995, a Postal Service advisory committee voted to replace the traditional Madonna and Child stamp with a Victorian-era angel.

This vote stirred such negative reaction that even then-President Bill Clinton got into the fray, prompting an immediate reversal.

Marvin Runyon, postmaster general at the time, said the Madonna and Child stamp would stay, at least while he was in office, because it “occupied an important place” for so many years and was “meaningful to so many Americans.”

This year’s Christmas stamp does not feature the traditional Madonna and Child image but instead a silhouette of the Holy Family on their flight into Egypt.

At the stamp’s unveiling at Washington National Cathedral, the Rev. Gary Hall, the Episcopal cathedral’s dean, said the stamp’s image has its own universal message.

He said the “story of this new family forced to leave their home” can remind people to care for those who are marginalized: “the poor, the elderly, the immigrant, and the refugee.”

He also said the image of the Holy Family “embarking for an unknown land” is a reminder that “we are in God’s hands and we trust in God to guide our journey.”

If that isn’t to one’s liking, the Postal Service has plenty of other options, from its popular angel stamps to those without any religious undertones: the forever evergreens and pine cones.

christmas stamp — One of the official holiday stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service features a silhouette of the Holy Family fleeing to Egypt. The recently-released image is a change from the portrayal of Madonna and Child featured on the Christmas stamp for close to 50 years. (CNS photo/U.S. Postal Service)

October 19, 2012

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October 19, 2012

The Anchor

Comic actor Kevin James wants to ‘glorify God in every way’ WASHINGTON (CNS) — He doesn’t exactly advertise it, but the “king of Queens” is a Catholic family man.

Kevin James, who played Doug Heffernan for nine seasons on the CBS sitcom and has since branched out into movies, has no problem talking about his values and how it affects his career.

“I am involved in my faith, it becomes more and more — you know, it becomes a difficult, difficult position. You have a platform and you don’t want to do anything that doesn’t glorify God in every way,” James told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview from Philadelphia.

“I can’t play a priest in every film, either. You definitely want to have a positive message. I want to be able to sit and watch my movies with my children,” added James, who is married with two daughters and one son.

Having control over and writing the material, according to him, is a key to “be inspiring and (to) move people in a positive way.”

James, 47, is promoting his upcoming film comedy, “Here Comes the Boom.” In it, he plays a high school science teacher who once loved his work but has “lost his mojo,” as he put it, but gets it back when budget cuts threaten the job of the music teacher (Henry Winkler), who never lost his love for teaching.

James’ character even goes so far as to train to be a mixed martial arts fighter — which James did in real life to prepare for the movie — in the belief that even a loser’s payday in such a bout will reap the bucks necessary to save the music program.

It’s not that James admits to some road-to-Damascus moment that made his faith all the more relevant to him. “I was born and raised Catholic and absolutely love my faith and learn more and

more about it all the time,” he said. “It’s nice to have that going into whatever you do, whatever part of life you take upon yourself.”

It might have been, though, that James had his own lost-hismojo moment. “I’ve been very guilty, a lot, of not knowing my faith too much and just praying when I needed it when something bad happened in my life and not being thankful when things turned good,” he told CNS. “The more I realized how important it is, the more I want to learn about it and do the right thing. All good is from Him (God), and so I want to honor Him. It’s honestly about learning more and instilling that in my kids and my friends, and those around me.”

Even before he hit it big on the small screen with “The King of Queens,” James was known as a standup comic who worked clean — but not necessarily as a by product of his faith. “It was easier to get on television and it was more universal” than using coarse language, he said. “I saw people who were kind of filthy in the clubs and they were very, very funny (in) what they were doing. But you weren’t going to be able to get on ‘The Tonight Show.’ I was selfish — I didn’t want to have to change my material.”

James has been in the public eye for 14 years, first with “The King of Queens” and a series of mostly hit film comedies including “Hitch,” “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” “Zookeeper” and “GrownUps” and its sequel. What if it all comes to an end?

“There’s always that possibility,” James replied, “It’s His will, not mine. If it doesn’t happen, I’ve definitely had a great run.

I’ll continue to do it, or find my path to something else. He’s given me the platform to do it. It’s great, yeah, I love it.”

lowering the boom — Kevin James is pictured in a scene from the movie “Here Comes the Boom.” The Catholic actor, who played Doug Heffernan for nine seasons on the CBS sitcom “King of Queens” and has since branched out into movies, says he has no hesitation about discussing his faith and values and how that affects his career. (CNS photo/Sony)

ghoulish grin — Animated character Edgar is seen in the movie “Frankenweenie.” For a brief review of this film, see CNS Movie Capsule below. (CNS photo/Disney)

CNS Movie Capsule NEW YORK (CNS) — The following is a capsule review of a movie recently reviewed by Catholic News Service.

“Argo” (Warner Bros.)

Engrossing thriller, based on real events, and set against the backdrop of the Iran hostage crisis of 1979-81. Tasked by his boss (Bryan Cranston) with rescuing the handful of U.S. embassy employees who managed to escape capture when that facility was overrun by armed militants, a CIA agent (Ben Affleck) hatches a seemingly far-fetched scheme: He’ll smuggle them out of Tehran — where they’ve been hiding in the Canadian embassy — disguised as a Canadian film crew scouting locations. To do so convincingly, he enlists the aid of a Hollywood producer (Alan Arkin) and makeup artist (John Goodman), and together they drum up publicity for the imaginary film project of the title. Affleck, who also directed, masterfully alternates between life-or-death drama and highstakes humor. Though both aspects of the story too frequently give rise to coarse dialogue, the canny patriotism and emotional impact of the picture — as scripted by Chris Terrio — make for a rousing experience. Potentially disturbing scenes and images, an abortion reference, a half-dozen uses of profanity, many rough and crude terms. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

“Frankenweenie” (Disney) After his beloved pet dog is killed in an accident, a socially isolated but scientifically-gifted boy (voice of Charlie Tahan) uses stock monster-movie methods to bring the pooch back to life. His subsequent efforts to conceal his breakthrough from his parents (voices of Catherine O’Hara and Martin Short) and from his peers (voiced, among others, by Atticus Shaffer and James Hiroyuki Liao) go awry, however. And when his schoolmates try to emulate his feat, the results are temporarily disastrous. Director Tim Burton’s skillful 3-D animated spoof of horror conventions might scare small fry, but will delight their older siblings and amuse parents as well. Mild scatological humor and some science-fiction hokum.

The Catholic News Service classification is A-I — general patronage. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG — parental guidance suggested.

Some material may not be suitable for children.

“Sinister” (Summit) Ethan Hawke plays a famed true-crime writer who moves his wife (Juliet Rylance) and two kids (Michael Hall D’Addario and Clare Foley) from their Connecticut mansion to a rambling Pennsylvania ranch house thinking he can solve an old murder that took place on the property.

Instead he finds himself trapped in the vortex of an ancient killing ritual. Director Scott Derrickson blends the hoary haunted house motif with the found footage formula of more recent years to mostly tepid results. But at least he goes relatively light on the gore. Brief but explicit scenes of violence, some of it directed against children, grisly images, fleeting profanity, occasional rough language. The Catholic News Service classification is L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted.

Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, October 21, 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Msgr. John J. Oliveira, Pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in New Bedford, and diocesan Director of the Propagation of the Faith Office.

October 19, 2012

13

The Anchor

Priest recalls ‘insider’ role to bring Church closer to other religions

council conversation — A bishop speaks with two lay women during a meeting of the Second Vatican Council in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican in 1962. (Catholic Press Photo)

Fifty years later, a bishop remembers Vatican II

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — It was Oct. 11, 1962, and the bishop of Inchon, Korea, was walking in a procession of more than 2,200 other bishops into St. Peter’s Basilica on the opening day of the Second Vatican Council.

“Every light was on in the basilica because of television,” he said. “Literally, my mouth dropped as I walked in and looked up. Because I was used to little tiny chapels, small churches in Korea. This was unbelievable.”

“I thought I was at the gate of Heaven,” said Bishop William J. McNaughton, speaking about his first visit to Rome.

Fifty years later to the day, the U.S.-born bishop was back, one of 15 council fathers — out of the 70 still alive — who made it to an outdoor Mass in St. Peter’s Square marking the golden anniversary of that momentous event.

Bishop McNaughton, 85, attended all four sessions of Vatican II from 1962 to 1965, missing only two days because of illness.

He said the council’s “greatest highlight” was the approval of “Lumen Gentium,” the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, “a magnificent document” that dedicates an entire chapter to the subject of the “people of God.” That term has sometimes been interpreted as a reference to the laity, the bishop said, but a reading of the constitution should make it clear that it refers to everyone in the Church, including the pope and the bishops.

Bishop McNaughton speaks with regret of other instances of

ignorance or misunderstanding of the documents of Vatican II. The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, “Sacrosanctum Concilium,” authorized moving the tabernacle that houses the Eucharist to a separate devotional chapel, he said, but many pastors simply shunted it off to the side of the main sanctuary.

“I thought that was a big mistake,” the bishop said. “People today do not have a full understanding of what the tabernacle means, and it’s that Christ is present in the Eucharist in the tabernacle.”

The same document called for fewer statues in churches, but some authorities “just removed all statues and put our Blessed Mother’s statue out in a corridor, or out in the lobby,” he said. “It was obvious they were not reading this document.”

“Perfectae Caritatis,” the Decree on the Appropriate Renewal of the Religious Life, directed religious women to modify their habits according to the “circumstances of time and place and to the needs of the ministry involved.”

“It didn’t say that the habits would be removed, and I think that was a big mistake,” the bishop said, because the habit is a “sign of consecration.”

To correct and prevent such misunderstandings, the bishop enthusiastically endorses Pope Benedict’s call for Catholics to reread the council documents as part of their observance of the Year of Faith, which opened with the October 11 anniversary Mass.

The bishop also agrees with Pope Benedict’s teaching, reiterated by the pope at an audience

with the council fathers, that Vatican II must be understood in continuity with the Church’s millennial traditions, not as a radical break with the past.

“There’s no rupture in the documents of the Second Vatican Council with previous councils, the previous teaching of the Church,” Bishop McNaughton said.

“Look at the footnotes,” he said. “There’s constant reference to the various ecumenical councils of the Church and also there’s a lot of reference to the fathers of the Church. So it is a continuity.”

The bishop accordingly rejects arguments that the council was somehow to blame for the decline in Catholic observance and the rise of secularism over the subsequent half century, especially in Europe and elsewhere in the West.

“The council didn’t cause this,” he said, noting for example that “Gaudium et Spes,” the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern Word, is explicit in its condemnation of abortion, which the bishop points to repeatedly as a characteristic evil of today’s “pagan world.”

Winning back that world for the Church is the aim of the New Evangelization, the subject of a three-week world Synod of Bishops that opened at the Vatican. However unpromising the political landscape may appear for that project, Bishop McNaughton is ultimately hopeful.

“It’s the grace of God that’s going to do it, we’re just instruments,” he said. “It’s through prayer and sacrifices, hidden penances, that we will help to bring many back to the faith.”

WASHINGTON (CNS) — As 2,540 bishops processed into St. Peter’s Basilica to begin the Second Vatican Council Oct. 11, 1962, Paulist Father Thomas F. Stransky remembers Pope John XXIII looking directly at him and his two colleagues from the Secretariat for the Promotion of Christian Unity, smiling at them and raising his hand in blessing.

Ascending to the basilica’s high altar, Blessed John XXIII began to pray an ancient prayer: “Come, Holy Spirit, Creator blessed!”

The council’s opening began “an unknown journey and unpredictable outcome,” Father Stransky told an audience at Georgetown University’s Gaston Hall during a recent symposium marking the 50th anniversary of the opening of Vatican II. “Unlike those who celebrated the opening, today we celebrate Vatican II because we do know its outcome,” Father Stransky continued. “But we still lack consensus about its meanings and intents and the ongoing enfleshments of perennial renewal and reform.”

Wisconsin-born Father Stransky spent 45 minutes in an occasionally humorous but sincere reflection of his work as a Vatican “insider” in preparing for the Vatican council as one of four staff members of the secretariat under the direction of Cardinal Augustin Bea. The cardinal, a German Jesuit, shepherded Blessed John’s vision of a unified Christian community and improved relations with other religions through the council’s four sessions.

He recalled how in 1960 thenMsgr. Johannes Willebrands, a pioneer in ecumenism, invited him to join the secretariat. The Dutch Churchman later would become cardinal and president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, the secretariat’s successor.

The work, explained Father Stransky, now 82, was driven by a simple desire: bring people of faith together with deeper understanding.

“Our little boat had no map, no compass, no clock. We had in hand only a vague papal mandate ‘to help those Christians separated from the apostolic see of Rome find more easily the path by which they may arrive at that unity for which Christ prayed,’ Father Stransky said. “In other words, the pope called the secretariat to begin a new tradition.”

It was several months between the time the secretariat was formed and Blessed John met with the secretariat staff. But one thing drove the young Paulist: the inspiration of Blessed John and Cardinal Bea to “incite the renewal and reform of the Church.”

The secretariat’s first audience

with Blessed John was set for Jan. 7, 1961. Father Stransky explained how he and his colleagues prepared a formal agenda and began to outline the many steps they would pursue and leading Church leaders they would consult in preparation for the upcoming council. Cardinal Bea sent the pope a report on their achievements and a formal agenda for the audience in advance.

The meeting unfolded unexpectedly, Father Stransky said.

“We expected the pope’s authoritative reactions. Pope John brushed aside the dossier for a very informal, at-ease conversation. He asked about our backgrounds and families,” he recalled.

“He concluded with his only instruction: ‘Bene, multo bene; conquestate il suo terreno; conquer your own turf.’ I read in that command: First do not bother him with detailed plans; second, take your own initiatives to find your firm place in the nest of the preparatory commissions; and third, trust his trust in Cardinal Bea’s wise and prudent judgments.”

The secretariat went to work on “bold prudent initiatives,” Father Stransky said, setting off on a path that resulted in three groundbreaking documents of Vatican II that have guided and defined the Church’s relations with other religions and Christian denominations for 50 years.

Those documents — the Decree on Ecumenism (“Unitatis Redintegratio”), the Declaration on Religious Freedom (“Dignitatis Humanae”)and the Declaration on the Relation of the Church to NonChristian Religions (“Nostra Aetate”) — were among the 16 decrees that emerged from Vatican II. The secretariat’s work was not easy, Father Stransky said, as staff members searched “for a new language” to describe the Church’s relations with “the others, co-partners in dialogue, exchanging and sharing God’s gifts. A language which is relational, not juridical; affirming, not accusatory. A sincere, new language which expresses the mind and the heart of the Church-forothers.”

The secretariat staff struggled with questions whether their conclusions — based on the discussions and findings that evolved in a series of preparatory meetings for each council session — would reflect a “developing continuity” with Church’s traditions or a “radical discontinuity,” he explained.

In the end, he said, it was not the speeches “at the microphone” that swayed council participants in their consideration of council documents, but the informal gatherings in corridors, evening open houses and over dinner that helped Church leaders reach consensus on what the council would share with the world.

Synod of Bishops on New Evangelization

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October 19, 2012

Church needs witness of women proud to be Catholic, archbishop says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — New Evangelization will never be possible without women who are proud and happy to belong to the Catholic Church, the president of the Belgian bishops’ conference told the Synod of Bishops.

“Two-thirds of active members of the Church are women,” and the primary evangelizers are usually women, “however many women feel discriminated against by the Church,” Archbishop AndreJoseph Leonard of MechelenBrussels told the synod.

“It’s high time” for the Church to better explain why only men may be ordained, he said.

It is not because women are looked upon as being less worthy or able to minister to others, “it’s absolutely the contrary,” the archbishop said.

The priesthood is open only to men “because the male figure of the priest is a representative of Christ, the groom, who came to wed humanity” through His spouse, the Church, he said.

A male priesthood “is only out of respect for this profound symbol of Marriage,” Archbishop Leonard said. “Let us remember and remind the Church of her profound feminine nature as the bride of Christ and our mother.”

The archbishop spoke forcefully and with emotion, said Basilian Father Thomas Rosica, who briefed reporters about what occurred in the synod hall. The speech was a bit of a “shocker,” said one synod participant, because the archbishop is considered to be very conservative.

Archbishop Leonard asked everyone to give thanks for “the quality and the specificity

of the massive contribution of women to evangelization.”

“Without joyous women who are recognized for all of their qualities” and who are proud of belonging to the Church, “there will be no New Evangelization,” he told synod participants.

He called on Church leaders to “never hesitate to entrust more important roles to women in the life of the Church. We must find new and strong ways to do this,” he said.

Synod participants spent a morning session in small groups divided by language.

In one of the four Englishlanguage groups, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York made great efforts to get the three women and four laymen in the group to speak and participate as much as the bishops, according to Father Rosica.

Together with Australian Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Cardinal Dolan “created a mood to speak because there was a little bit of timidity” within the group of 30 English-speakers, said Father Rosica, who is part of that working group.

Cardinal Dolan said it was his first experience at a world Synod of Bishops, and that he was not there just to sit and listen to bishops, but to also tap into the rich experience and expertise of the religious women and laypeople attending as experts or observers who normally do not get a chance to address the larger assembly.

Father Rosica said the initiative was “very well-received” and that one nun told him she was pleased they weren’t there “just to sit in the back and listen.”

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synod session — Pope Benedict XVI leads a meeting of the Synod of Bishops on the new evangelization at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Synod members look at challenge, potential of interreligious dialogue

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Catholics, especially those who live in multireligious societies, must have a clear understanding of their own religious identity, but they also must recognize the spirit of God at work in others, said the Vatican official in charge of interreligious dialogue.

French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, told the Synod of Bishops that New Evangelization is needed to equip Catholics not just to live their faith, but also to effectively engage in dialogue with others.

The need for interreligious dialogue, the challenges faced

by Christian minorities in predominantly Muslim countries, and lessons that could be learned from other religions were topics mentioned in several speeches to the synod October 10-12.

Cardinal Tauran told the synod that interreligious dialogue “always begins with the assertion of one’s own convictions,” so Christians who are ignorant of the content of their faith are not capable of real dialogue.

The Church must make it a priority “to form coherent Christians capable of demonstrating their faith with simple words and without fear,” he said.

The Church “must denounce with great vigor the violence” that sometimes is committed in the name of religion and it cannot stand idly by in the face of persecution, Cardinal Tauran said.

At the same time, he said, Catholics must learn to recognize that “those practicing a religion that is not mine are not necessarily enemies, but instead pilgrims of truth” and that “God is at work

in each person, through ways known only to Him.” Father Adolfo Nicolas, superior general of the Jesuits, told the synod that the Ignatian spirituality he was formed in encourages “finding God in all things.”

“I am afraid that we missionaries have not done it with sufficient depth,” and therefore have not enriched the universal Church with the signs and seeds of God’s presence in other cultures and religions, he said.

Father Nicolas, who spent most of his priesthood in Japan and in other parts of Asia, said too many Church members have “looked for Western signs of faith and sanctity, and have not discovered how God has been at work in other peoples. This impoverishes all. We miss important clues, insights and discoveries,” he said.

The keys to effective evangelization, the Jesuit superior said, are: “the simplicity of the message; generosity and joy in acknowledging goodness and holiness”; being aware of one’s own life as “a factor of credibility, forgiveness and reconciliation”; and embodying “the message of the cross in our own self-denial.”

Bishop Paul Desfarges of Constantine, Algeria, told the synod that while life can be difficult when Islamic fundamentalist groups grow in power, Christians are obliged to show their openness to dialogue because that is how they give witness to “God’s dialogue with humanity.”

The Holy Spirit has given the Church the ability “to be awed by the faith of the other and by the fruits it produces in his or her life,” the bishop said.

In North Africa, he said, the Church accomplishes a pre-

evangelization simply through its presence and respect for others, which proclaims the “Good News of universal brotherhood.”

“In some of our countries, we have been given the grace of welcoming faithful who come from Muslim families,” he said.

“These new disciples sometimes are shunned by their families or, at least, required to maintain great discretion. With time, they discover how their spiritual relationship with God began long before their conversion” with the Holy Spirit working in their lives through the example of good and wise Muslims, the bishop said.

Addressing the synod, Melkite Patriarch Gregoire III Laham of Damascus, Syria, suggested that Catholics should learn from Muslims and Jews one very practical thing: the need for a “concise, precise and clear” statement of Christian faith.

“Our faith is beautiful, however its content and its statements are very difficult,” he said.

The Muslims’ “shahada” summarizes their faith as: “There is no god but God, and Mohammed is His prophet,” the patriarch told the synod.

“For the Jews, the substance of the faith is expressed by the double commandment: ‘I am your God. You shall have no other but Me. You will love your God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself,” he said.

But, the patriarch said, Christians “are awash in a collection of dogmas and mysteries: the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation, Redemption, the Sacraments.”

The synod, and Catholic theologians working with it, need to formulate a brief, clear statement of Christian faith, he said.

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The Anchor

October 19, 2012

Evangelization must flow from experience, Anglican leader tells synod

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Evangelization is not a project, but the natural “overflow” of an experience of Christ and His Church that transforms lives, giving them meaning and joy, the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion told Pope Benedict XVI and the Synod of Bishops.

“Those who know little and care even less about the institutions and hierarchies of the Church these days” nevertheless are attracted and challenged

by Christians whose lives show they have been transformed by their encounter with Christ, said Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, head of the Church of England.

The leader of the Anglican Communion was invited by Pope Benedict to deliver a major address at the synod on the New Evangelization.

Archbishop Williams began his talk by remembering the Second Vatican Council, which, he said, was a sign that “the Church was strong enough to ask itself some demanding questions about whether its culture and structures were adequate to the task of sharing the Gospel with the complex, often rebellious, always restless mind of the modern world.”

In many ways, he said, the synod on New Evangelization is a continuation of the work of Vatican II. Presenting the Gospel means being confident that it has a distinctive, life-giving message, the archbishop said. Confidence in the message, and not in oneself, can be cultivated only through contemplation, he said.

“With our minds made still

and ready to receive, with our self-generated fantasies about God and ourselves reduced to silence, we are at last at the point where we may begin to grow,” he said.

“The face we need to show to our world is the face of a humanity in endless growth toward love, a humanity so delighted and engaged by the glory of what we look toward that we are prepared to embark on a journey without end to find our way more deeply into it,” Archbishop Williams told the synod.

During an interview earlier in the day with Catholic News Service and Vatican Radio, the archbishop said, “If evangelization is just rallying the troops or just trying to get people to sign up, something’s missing — what’s missing is the transformed humanity that the Gospel brings us.”

The archbishop urged the synod to support the Taize ecumenical community and similar ecumenical efforts that help people learn prayer and contemplation.

“The more we keep apart from each other as Christians of different confessions,” the less convincing we will be, he told synod members.

He also told the pope and synod participants that nurturing

a habit of contemplation “strips away an unthinking superiority toward other baptized believers and the assumption that I have nothing to learn from them.”

Archbishop Williams, who has announced he will retire at the end of December, also had a private meeting with Pope Benedict.

Earlier in the day, he told CNS and Vatican Radio that the Sec-

ond Vatican Council was “enormously important” for other Christians as well as for Catholics.

“I was a teen-ager as the council began, and a practicing Anglican, and what had been a very self-contained, rather remote, exotic, fascinating, but strange body, suddenly opened up,” he said. Seeing what the Catholic Church did with the council led other churches to re-think how they, too, were interacting with

the wider world and with one another.

Preparing to retire, he said he obviously is disappointed that efforts to promote full, visible Christian unity have not progressed further, but no one can deny that Christians pray and work together today in a way that would have been unimaginable in the 1950s.

“Praying together isn’t just a casual thing, a marginal activity,” he said. When divided Christians “share the prayer of the Church,” even if they cannot share the fullness of that prayer in the Eucharist, they are placing themselves before God together and showing the world what it means to be Christian.

At the same time, he said, the Catholic Church and Anglican Communion both have changed over the past 50 years and “we don’t, when we change, always wait for one other.” The archbishop did not identify specific changes, but Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict have said the move in many Anglican churches to ordain women priests and bishops has become a new obstacle to full unity.

The Anglican discussions and debates took place and continue to take place very publicly.

Asked if there was concern about

finding a balance between letting people see the process of discernment and not scandalizing people with the differences existing within a Christian community, he said, “the desire not to give scandal is doubtless very worthy in some ways, but it’s so often an excuse for denial (or) sweeping things under the carpet.”

At the same time, he said, “there is a real spiritual, and not just practical, question about a Church which gets so obsessed with its own internal Church politics and conflicts — the drama, the clashes and controversy, what I call the soap opera of Church life — there’s something spiritually very damaging if we just sort of wallow in that. And thus, from time to time, pastors and teachers of the Church have to say, ‘Whoa, step back, just remind yourselves of what we’re here for.’”

Without contemplation, the richness of spirituality and the experience of faith in Jesus, he said, “it’s just a matter of winning arguments or winning battles, God help us.”

In his 10 years as head of the Church of England, he said, one of the most enjoyable and faithconfirming things he did was to visit schools and parishes, being with “people who are doing what matters.”

One of the “great illusions” bishops can fall prey to, he said, is thinking that what they do in the office is what really matters.

Instead, he said, people who are questioning, people who are educating and offering guidance, people who are “developing in faithful discipleship” are doing the work of the Church.

Analysts say Biden’s abortion stance leaves reality behind

Washington D.C. (CNA/ EWTN News) — U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s profession that he is personally opposed to abortion while supporting its legalization fails to acknowledge the life-taking reality of abortion, said critics including a prominent Notre Dame law professor.

“It is a matter of yes, or no, and there is no ‘personal’ as opposed to ‘public’ about it,” said Professor Gerard V. Bradley. “The question is intrinsically, and entirely, public.”

Bradley told CNA that an analysis of the positions expressed by Biden and other “pro-choice Catholics” suggests that they “simply do not believe what the Church believes, namely, that abortion is the unjustified killing of a human person.”

The connection between Catholicism and one’s stance on abortion was discussed at the October

11 vice presidential debate in Danville, Ky. The 2012 presidential campaign marks the first time that Catholic candidates have run for vice president in both major parties. Moderator Martha Raddatz asked the candidates about their Catholic faith and the role it has played in shaping their contrasting views on abortion.

Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan said that his Pro-Life stance is the result of faith, reason and science.

“I don’t see how a person can separate their public life from their private life or from their faith,” he said. “Our faith informs us in everything we do.”

In contrast, Biden argued that his support for legalized abortion is compatible with his lifelong Catholic faith, which he said “defines” his identity.

“Life begins at conception, that’s the Church’s judgment. I ac-

cept it in my personal life,” he said.

“But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews, and I just refuse to impose that on others,” Biden said.

Bradley said that this line of thought can be traced back to a small gathering of Catholic moral theologians in 1964 who met with the Kennedy family to discuss how one could “support liberalized abortion laws without overtly abandoning ‘Catholic teaching’ on the matter.”

The “personally opposed, but” view on abortion became wellknown largely through Catholic politician Mario Cuomo, the former New York governor and presidential candidate who laid out his beliefs in a 1984 speech at Notre Dame, he said.

But Bradley said that “efforts such as those of Cuomo and the Kennedys and of Joseph Biden utterly fail.”

Their “central flaw,” he explained, is a failure to acknowledge “what it is that one is actually opposing.”

He observed that “if one judges — as everyone should and as the Church does — that the reason to oppose abortion is the reason to oppose killing any other innocent human person, then the ‘personally opposed, but’ position sounds ridiculous.”

“The reason is that such killing is objectively, and gravely, wrong, a great injustice,” he said, noting that no one says they “personally oppose” killing those with Lou Gehrig’s disease but think the state should refrain from passing laws against such killing.

When the question is examined clearly, Bradley said, “the issue before public authority when it comes to abortion is the equal protection of the laws against killing.”

“The question is not one’s ‘per-

sonal opposition’ to anything,” he explained. “The question is about public justice.”

Maureen Ferguson, senior policy advisor for the Catholic Association, told CNA that the vice president’s comments show a “remarkable disconnect.”

“Vice President Biden said that he accepts that life begins at conception, but that he wouldn’t impose that belief on others,” she said. But the “very purpose of laws in a civil society are to impose limits and to protect the powerless.”

Ferguson compared the vice president’s position to saying that one is personally opposed to robbing someone at gunpoint but that “I won’t impose my belief on others by supporting laws that protect people against robbery.”

“His position is in direct conflict with the teaching of the Church on the foundational issue of respect for life,” she added.

16

Youth Pages

goal oriented — Students from St. Joseph School in Fairhaven recently participated in the nationwide “Dress 4 Pediatric Cancer Day.” Students donated $1 to “dress-down” and wear the color yellow to support the Go4theGoal Foundation — a charity dedicated to helping children and their families affected by cancer.

foot patrol — Faculty, staff and students of St. James-St. John School in New Bedford recently took to the streets on their 19th annual walk-a-thon.

heading down under — Matthew Jardin, a senior at Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth will be competing in the International Triathlon Union Sprint Final Championship in Auckland, New Zealand in mid-October. For the past three years he has trained year-round and competed on regional and national levels. This year he placed in the top five percent at the nationals in Burlington, Vt., and was named a Team USA member for Worlds Championship in London, September 2013. Jardin participates in cross country and winter and spring track at Bishop Stang.

October 19, 2012

art critic — Each year at St. Mary-Sacred Heart School in North Attleboro, students create a walk-a-thon theme with a drawing contest. The contest allows each student to draw a photo of what their school means to them. The winning photo is created into a pin for all the students, friends and family to wear as they walk in the walk-a-thon. Here, fourth-grader Mackenzie Fry casts her vote for the drawing she thinks should win and represent the 19th annual walk-a-thon. Adriana Almeida, Aya Poirier and Jackson Brewster, members of the school student council collect the votes.

helping the homeless — Members of the St. Theresa House at St. Pius X School in South Yarmouth worked together to raise money to purchase eight memberships to the Dennis-Yarmouth Ecumenical Council to prevent homelessness on Cape Cod.

camp amigos ­— This summer, nine members of the Spanish Honor Society at Bishop Feehan High School volunteered four days a week at the English Language Learners/Amigos summer camp in Attleboro. They worked as counselors and mentors to the more than 100 ELL children who attended the camp each Monday. In addition to reading children’s books, organizing crafts and songs, and leading the students through pronunciation exercises, the volunteers in the kindergarten classroom were teacher’s aides, helping to teach the students the alphabet and important classroom rules. From left Evan Grandfield, Tess Murphy, Caitlyn Vogt, Marion Burdick, Sonia Walmsley (ELL camp coordinator, Attleboro Public Schools), Marybeth Nametz, Nicole Steiner, Alexandra Battersby. Missing from picture are Nicole Lambi and Ramdal Mendez.

Youth Pages

October 19, 2012

T

he last time we met in this space, you may recall that I had been “inspired” by the lyrics of the song “Some Nights,” that caused me to pause and take a serious look at “what I stand for.”

It seems as though that particular song keeps popping up — like every time I turn on the radio.

In fact, I just heard it in a movie trailer for the new Disney movie “Wreck it Ralph,” and since Ralph is my middle name (let’s keep that between us), I wonder if God is poking me again to see if perhaps there is more there for me to think and learn about? As I’ve said before, God does get to me in very unusual ways sometimes!

I Googled the song title and found lots of links but one that caught my attention was the video for “Some Nights.” This particular video is set on a battlefield portraying a battle between Union and Confederate soldiers. Interesting, but what does that have to do with anything? And then it struck me that perhaps the war was a metaphor for something deeper.

What this song and this video seem to be saying is that in trying to determine what we stand for, there is an ongoing inner battle where we try to find a balance Washington D.C. (CNA/ EWTN News) — Legendary referee Kerry Fraser is known for his trademark hairstyle and holds the record for most National Hockey League games called. However, Fraser’s life was most deeply touched by a different kind of call — one that led to his conversion to the Catholic faith.

“It was overwhelming and powerful,” he said, explaining that God reached out to him through his wife and never stopped calling.

Fraser told the story of his conversion at the second annual Courage Awards Reception, hosted by Catholic Athletes for Christ recently.

The ceremony honored local athletes from Catholic high schools, and Fraser received the 2012 Courage Award for living and sharing his Catholic faith with others in an exemplary way.

The record-holding referee explained that he grew up in a household without a strong faith. Starting what would become a 30-year career in the NHL, he worked hard to be in control of his life.

“It was all about me,” he said, and that created problems. “It was me that needed to be fixed. I was broken.”

His wife, Kathy, was Catholic and prayed to the Blessed Mother for her husband.

“Through the Holy Spirit and the grace of God, I was led every step of the way,” he said, reflecting

17

The battle within

between good and evil. Don’t we as a result of “the fall,” we are all all go through this? We swing from born with original sin. In Catholitrying to do the right thing to givcism, we believe that even though ing into desires and temptations. this original sin is washed away Even though we know something at Baptism, a propensity to sin is wrong for us, we still do it. And (concupiscence) is left. Baptism then, of course, we feel guilt and brings many graces, but we can if we are wise, we turn to God still choose to sin. to confess it — so that we can be forgiven and strengthened to resist that particular sin again.

But before long, we do it again!

We believe in God.

By Frank Lucca We love God. We know that there are consequences to these sins and yet, we may very well continue For one of my classes this to sin over and over again! What semester, we are learning how to is wrong with us? What is wrong prepare homilies. I was assigned with me? There is this inner battle to write a homily for the Third that goes on, isn’t there? We think Sunday in Lent. In reading over about something. We weigh out the Scriptures for that particular the options. We choose. What I Sunday, I found the Gospel passtill don’t understand is why we sage to be the parable of the fig sometimes choose the wrong way tree. This parable really spoke to especially in light of our faith. me and may provide a lesson on Sometimes, I just can’t understand perhaps how we can stop sinning. why we act the way we do.

The answer? Frequent Confession.

It’s true we are human. We all Keep confessing that sin and that sin. In fact, we can sometimes be sin will fade away. pretty nasty to each other — just If you recall the fig tree, the read Facebook postings — espegardener cannot water the tree cially about politics. We know that once a year and expect it to grow.

Likewise, we cannot confess but once a year or less and expect our sins to disappear. The parable of the fig tree tells us to keep trying.

Keep praying. Keep confessing.

By frequent Confession we help cultivate the soil; we fertilize the plant; we cleanse our souls. Jesus tells us, however, that if the fig tree “does not bear fruit after one year, cut it down.”

God wants us to repent, to try hard not to sin, and He provides us all we need to accomplish this. But time can run out!

Jesus knows full well that we will sin, and that is why we are given the great Sacrament of Reconciliation as a way to help us stop sinning. Not sinning is achievable if we want it to be and if we truly believe what we believe.

As I took a break to check out Facebook for a few minutes (yes, sometimes you can find some really inspiring ideas there also), I came across another good example of how one can make the right choice. It is a Cherokee legend and it is about an old Cherokee who is teaching his grandson about life.

“A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible

fight and it is between two wolves.

One is evil — he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good — he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you — and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?” The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

Who would have known that a popular pop song could steer me in the right direction … twice! I’m turning the radio on now, just in case God is planning to “speak” to me again before the next article is due. I surely hope so!

Frank is a youth minister at St. Dominic’s Parish in Swansea.

He is chairman and a director of the YES! Retreat and director of the Christian Leadership Institute. He is a husband and a father of two daughters and a son-in-law. Email him at StDominicYouthMinistry@ comcast.net.

on the events that led to his conversion.

In addition to the powerful witness of his wife and other people that God placed in his life, Fraser said that he experienced several “mystical events” that he attributes to God’s love and mercy, including one instance while driving to Pittsburgh, in which he saw an image in the sun of a baby in its mother’s womb and two joined hearts.

He converted to Catholicism in 1995, developed a deep devotion to the Rosary and began attending daily Mass, despite being on the road frequently for work.

As he began living his new Catholic faith and allowing the Lord to take control of his life, Fraser started to experience a profound peace.

“My life changed,” he said. “My

disciplining the player according to the rules of the game.

A few years later, Fraser recalled, Fleury came to him during a break in a game with tears in his eyes. A player on the opposing team, Tyson Nash, had been mocking Fleury about his drug and alcohol addictions, which he had been desperately working to treat, and he was overwhelmed.

While Fraser could have brushed him off or even ridiculed him, given Fleury’s attack on him in 1996, he chose instead to look upon the hockey player with the eyes of Christ.

“I saw a wounded human being there,” he said, explaining that he convinced Nash to apologize for his remarks.

Years later Nash confessed that the encounter had been a “life-alter-

ing situation” that prompted him to re-evaluate who he was and how he was acting on the ice.

“We never know what kind of affect we might have on people; how we can make a difference,” Fraser observed.

He explained that truly living out the Catholic faith will make a difference in the lives of those around us, even if we don’t always see the result. This is why we need to proudly “carry our Catholic faith with us and live it” in our schools, businesses and families, not acting ashamed or hiding it, he said.

Fraser encouraged student athletes to use their sports to glorify God, whether it is noticed or not.

“Continue to stay in the light.

Lead by example,” he said. “Christ set the bar very high. But the reward is incredible.”

Be Not Afraid

Former NHL referee recalls how God changed his heart heart changed.”

Despite the new challenges and obstacles that arose, Fraser always found an abundance of grace. His conversion touched his family and his professional relationships.

“I was carrying the armor of Christ with me onto the ice,” he said.

Fraser told about how his faith influenced him in an encounter with player Theo Fleury, a talented but “troubled” star who was known for his physical style of play.

In one 1996 game, Fleury showered Fraser with foul language and threw his helmet at him, calling for a fight.

Fraser said that his human reaction would have been to kick the helmet back in Fleury’s face, but instead, he looked for “a better way,” maintaining his temper and

18

The Anchor

New Bedford parish celebrates 100 years

God the Father Mass going strong

continued from page one

the anniversary,” said Father Edward A. Murphy, current pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Parish. “We’ll have singing in French and Portuguese and the Mass will be followed with a reception downstairs in the church hall, which can hold a few hundred people.”

Since taking over as pastor in June from Father Roger J. Landry, Father Murphy has been busy planning for a series of centennial celebrations to commemorate the anniversary.

“I dedicated the month of August to Our Lady, then September was dedicated to the Healing of Mind, Body and Soul — when we held our first Healing Mass here at the church,” Father Murphy said.

“October has been dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and November will be dedicated to the Holy Spirit.”

Back in 1895, Catholics living in the north end of New Bedford found walking up the hill to the former Sacred Heart Church very difficult, so they met with Bishop Matthew Harkins of Providence, R.I., whose diocese encompassed all of southeastern Massachusetts at that time, to request a parish of their own.

In September 1895 the new parish was founded, comprising the area north of Cedar Grove Street and between the railroad tracks and the Acushnet River. Initially there were 300 parishioners and Father Hormidas Deslauriers, an energetic young priest from Woonsocket, R.I., was named its first pastor.

He rented the North Union Hall on Bullard Street and celebrated Mass there using a barrel filled with sand as his altar. Father Deslauriers named his new parish St. Anthony of Padua, and told the parishioners of his hopes and dreams for its future.

He later purchased the land bordering Nye Street, Bullard Street and Acushnet Avenue and built a two-story building.

Masses were celebrated on the first floor and the second floor was a school with six large classrooms where 300 students were taught by two nuns and three lay teachers.

By 1902 the parish had outgrown its church and by 1908 Mass was being celebrated in the newly-constructed basement. The Nye Street building became the school with 14 classrooms.

In November 1912, the new St. Anthony of Padua Church, costing $342,000, was completed. It is 241 feet in length with a nave of 80 feet and a transept of 135 feet with its main steeple towering 256 feet high and lower steeples at 130 feet.

The exterior is of red sandstone acquired from East Longmeadow and the building seats an estimated 2,000 worshipers, with several thousand more standing.

“It’s a beautiful church,” Father Murphy said. “People continuously come to the rectory to ask if they can go see the church inside.”

When Father Deslauriers died in 1916, he was interred on the church grounds. Msgr.

Louis A. Marchand became the second pastor. In 1924, a new brick school with 29 classrooms serving 1,060 students was operating. In 1939 Father Victor Masse was pastor and under his pastorate a high school was built and opened with 64 freshmen. Interscholastic teams were winning games in 1945 and the following year the parish’s school system celebrated its 50th anniversary with national honors. More than 800 students and 125 Sisters of the Holy Cross attended the events.

Subsequent pastors who contributed to the success of the parish and its school included Msgr. Albert Berube and Father Bertrand R. Chabot.

In 1996, six years after taking over as pastor, Msgr. Edmond R. Levesque led celebrations of the parish school’s

October 19, 2012 continued from page one

centennial.

Msgr. Levesque was succeeded by Father Roger J. Landry, who shepherded the parish until Father Murphy was appointed pastor earlier this year.

“There’s a lot of enthusiasm in the parish and people have realized there are so many parishes and so few people going to church that we have to work more closely to bring people back to church,” Father Murphy said.

In addition to planning for the centennial, one of the things Father Murphy has been doing since taking over the parish has been a mission to evangelize the people who are fed through the weekly food pantry held in the church basement every Thursday.

“At the moment we have many people — more than 400 — who are fed through our food pantry, so I’ve been doing a little evangelizing,” Father Murphy said. “I just go through the line and invite them in for a class to talk about the Lord, and we’ve had a good response.

Many of these people have never been asked to participate and they are very willing to do that.

As Mother Teresa used to say: ‘Man is hungry today not for food, but for Jesus Christ.’”

While he feels blessed to have “a great, core group of parishioners,” Father Murphy hopes to welcome more people to the parish.

“Realistically we can hold 2,000 people inside the church, so we’re hoping that slowly we can evangelize the people,” he said.

And being able to celebrate this parish milestone during the Year of Faith is an added bonus for the first-time pastor.

“We’re looking forward to this great event celebrating our 100th anniversary and we’re thankful it falls during this Year of Faith,” Father Murphy said.

“Our slogan is: ‘It is faith that built it, and it is faith that rebuilds.’”

God the One, true Author, avowed Himself the Father of all, tender of all fathers. God instructed His plan, His desire to be known, loved and honored with a special devotion, feast day under the title Father of all Mankind.”

The Roman Catholic Church has not declared Mother Eugenia’s writings heresy, and the Vatican has neither approved nor disapproved of these messages. But for Ravenscroft, the messages found in Mother Eugenia’s writings are as relevant today as they were back when they were written in the mid1930s.

“All I have are my children, and by praying to God the Father; He holds me by the hand and walks me through the years. It helps in my work,” said Ravenscroft of her work in healthcare. She has set up a prayer area in her office and prays not only for her children, but also for His guidance on behalf of her coworkers as they take care of clients. “It has had a very good effect.”

When she was encouraged by a friend from New York to start a God the Father prayer group in Fall River, Ravenscroft didn’t hesitate. On the second Sunday of every month there is a God the Father devotion at Sacred Heart Parish, followed by a Holy Mass and recitation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet. We are all children of God, said Ravenscroft; we can be happy and embrace the love that God the Father has for His children.

“He loves His children,” she said. “We always pray for our mission, that if we can live in the Word of the Gospel, with love and humility, it would really help us to get the source, strength and blessing from God the Father. That’s what I believe.”

There is a strong connection with prayer within the devotion that allows participants to find peace within the words.

“The prayers are good. He just wants to be known, loved and honored by all mankind. There is one beautiful prayer that I really, really like, and it really helps me when in doubt and down. It’s a prayer of Mother Eugenia,” said Ravenscroft as she shared a quick version of her

favorite prayer. “‘My Father, wherever You go; I find You. Wherever I look, I see You. Wherever I search for You, You are there. Whenever I talk to You, You answer me. Whenever I pray to You, You listen to me. You are my One and All; I love You.’ “I always ask Him to bless us, affect us, enlighten us, guide us, strengthen us, sanctify us with Mary, the Mother of Jesus. That’s my prayer that I say; that prayer really strengthens me day by day.”

Along with the celebration on the second Sunday of every month, there are four annual larger celebrations that vary in activities but garner a larger crowd. When Ravenscroft started the God the Father prayer group, she received help from other chapters. She continues to work with a Sister of the Sisters in Anzio, Italy, of the Missionarie Unitas in Christo Ad Partrem; “She’s in charge of us and resides in New York.”

She also got tremendous support from the late Father George Almeida. When he passed away suddenly earlier this year, Ravenscroft found herself reaching out to various priests to step in.

“Father Almeida was very instrumental in helping us,” she said.

“Father Cambra and the Franciscan Friars [have been helping], but the Franciscan Friars have their own congregation so their priority is their congregation first, so I’m just kind of pulling priests from here and there.”

Father Cyriac Mattathilanickal, director of the La Salette Retreat Center in Attleboro, has expressed his interest in helping but it would require changing from the second Sunday of every month to the third Sunday; a decision that Ravenscroft cannot make on her own. Until then, she said that she would apply her background in business to keep things running as smoothly as she can every month until a permanent priest can be found.

“I’m happy when I do it,” said Ravenscroft. “There’s a lot of who’s going to do this, who’s going to do that? Can I pull this together?

But afterwards, the day itself flows perfectly.”

October 19, 2012

Eucharistic Adoration in the Diocese

Acushnet — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. Francis Xavier Parish on Monday and Tuesday from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Wednesday from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Thursday from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m.

Evening prayer and Benediction is held Monday through Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

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

ATTLEBORO — St. Joseph Church holds Eucharistic Adoration in the Adoration Chapel located at the (south) side entrance at 208 South Main Street, Sunday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

ATTLEBORO — St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Parish, 18 Baltic Street, has Eucharistic Adoration every Thursday following the 7 a.m. Mass until 4 p.m.

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

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

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

Use the Chapel entrance on the side of the church.

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

FAIRHAVEN — St. Mary’s Church, Main St., has Eucharistic Adoration every Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to noon in the Chapel of Reconciliation, with Benediction at noon.

Also, there is a First Friday Mass each month at 7 p.m., followed by a Holy Hour with Eucharistic Adoration. Refreshments follow.

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

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

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

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

FALL RIVER — Good Shepherd Parish has Eucharistic Adoration every Friday following the 8 a.m. Mass until 6 p.m. in the Daily Mass Chapel. There is a bilingual Holy Hour in English and Portuguese from 5-6 p.m. Park behind the church and enter the back door of the connector between the church and the rectory.

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

HYANNIS — A Holy Hour with Eucharistic Adoration will take place each First Friday at St. Francis Xavier Church, 347 South Street, beginning immediately after the 12:10 p.m. Mass and ending with adoration at 4 p.m.

MASHPEE — Christ the King Parish, Route 151 and Job’s Fishing Road has 8:30 a.m. Mass every First Friday with special intentions for Respect Life, followed by 24 hours of Eucharistic Adoration in the Chapel, concluding with Benediction Saturday morning followed immediately by an 8:30 Mass.

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

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

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

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

NORTH DIGHTON — Eucharistic Adoration takes place every First Friday at St. Nicholas of Myra Church, 499 Spring Street following the 8 a.m. Mass, ending with Benediction at 6 p.m.

The Rosary is recited Monday through Friday from 7:30 to 8 a.m.

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

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

Taunton — Eucharistic Adoration takes place Tuesdays at St. Anthony Church, 126 School Street, following the 8 a.m. Mass with prayers including the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for vocations, concluding at 6 p.m. with Chaplet of St. Anthony and Benediction. Recitation of the Rosary for peace is prayed Monday through Saturday at 7:30 a.m. prior to the 8 a.m. Mass. taunton — Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament takes place every First Friday at Annunciation of the Lord, 31 First Street. Expostition begins following the 8 a.m. Mass. The Blessed Sacrament will be exposed, and adoration will continue throughout the day. Confessions are heard from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m. Rosary and Benediction begin at 6:30 p.m.

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

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

WOODS HOLE — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. Joseph’s Church, 33 Millfield Street, year-round on weekdays 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. No adoration on Sundays, Wednesdays, and holidays. For information call 508-274-5435.

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The Anchor World Mission Sunday: A worldwide Eucharistic celebration continued from page one

up to hear the message of Christ and His Church. That is why the involvement and commitment of Catholics from around the world is so urgently needed. Offerings from Catholics in the United States, on World Mission Sunday and throughout the year, are combined with offerings to the Propagation of the Faith worldwide.

Mission dioceses — about 1,100 at this time — receive regular annual assistance from the funds collected. In addition, these mission dioceses submit requests to the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples for assistance, among other needs, for catechetical programs, seminaries, the work of religious communities, for communication and transportation needs, and for the building of chapels, churches, orphanages and schools.

These needs are matched with the funds gathered in each year.

The world’s national directors of the Propagation of the Faith vote on these requests, matching the funds available with the greatest needs. These funds are then distributed, in their entirety, to mission dioceses throughout the world.

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks Oct. 21 Rt. Rev. Msgr. Edward J. Carr, P.R., Pastor, Sacred Heart, Fall River; Chancellor 1907-21, 1937 Rev. Francis E. Gagne, Pastor, St. Stephen, Attleboro, 1942 Rev. Walter J. Buckley, Retired Pastor, St. Kilian, New Bedford, 1979 Oct. 22 Rev. John E. Connors, Pastor, St. Peter, Dighton, 1940 Rev. Jerome F. O’Donnell, OFM, Our Lady’s Chapel, New Bedford, 1983 Oct. 23 Chorbishop Joseph Eid, Pastor, St. Anthony of the Desert, Fall River, 1970 Oct. 24 Rev. Marc Maurice Dagenais, O.P., Retired Assistant, St. Anne, Fall River, 1982 Most Rev. Joseph W. Regan, M.M, Retired Prelate of Tagum, Phillipines, 1994 Oct. 25 Rev. Reginald Chene, O.P., Dominican Priory, Fall River, 1935 Rev. Raymond B. Bourgoin, Pastor, St. Paul, Taunton, 1950 Rev. James W. Connerton, CSC, Founder, Stonehill College, North Easton, 1988 Rev. Msgr. John J. Steakem, Pastor, St. Thomas More, Somerset, 1999

Around the Diocese 10/20

St. Mary’s Cathedral will host its annual Harvest Bazaar tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (rain or shine) in the parish hall on Second Street in Fall River. The kitchen will be open all day and the event will feature jewelry, white elephant table, sweet shop, Chinese auction, raffles and a kid’s corner.

10/20

Holy Name of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish, 121 Mount Pleasant Street, New Bedford, is hosting its annual Parish Bazaar in the parish center tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

There will be baked goods, jewelry, food to go, candy, white elephant table, books, Chinese auction, and a children’s table. For information call 508-992-3184.

10/21

Bishop Connolly High School, 373 Elsbree Street, Fall River, will have an Open House Sunday at 1 p.m. The placement exam is scheduled on December 1 at 8 a.m. For more information, call 508-676-1071, extension 333.

10/23

Our Lady of Victory Parish in Centerville is honoring men and women who have worn the uniform of our nation. They are hosting a meeting designed for veterans who would like to meet and support each other in a sharing atmosphere. It is called “Veterans Together” and the group meets at two different times on the fourth Tuesday of each month from 9:30 to 11 a.m. and again from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The next meeting will be on October 23 at the parish center.

10/27

All opponents of the November 6 ballot Question #2, “Physician-Assisted Suicide,” are invited to gather for a massive stand-out on October 27 from 1 to 3 p.m. on Route 132 in Hyannis at the front of K-Mart Shopping Plaza. Please join with your signs and banners to help defeat this proposition. The rally is sponsored by Cape Cod Family Life Alliance. For more information, call Barbara Bowers at 508-3857867 or email bgailbowers@comcast.net.

11/3

On November 3, at 10 a.m., Dr. Mary Pat Tranter, Ph.D., will offer a free presentation on “The Catholic Perspective on End-ofLife Issues” at Holy Cross Parish, 225 Purchase Street in South Easton. Dr. Tranter will discuss Catholic and non-Catholic views on physicianassisted suicide and the proposed “Death with Dignity” Act on the November ballot. The event will be followed by a Q&A session and a complimentary luncheon and will conclude around 1 p.m. For more information or to RSVP, call 508-238-2235 or email info@holycrosseaston.org.

11/3

St. Nicholas of Myra Parish, 499 Spring Street, North Dighton, will hold its annual Holiday Craft Fair November 3, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The fair will feature many talented crafters, as well as a bake table, food from the kitchen, and the parish’s famous roll-up table.

11/3

St. Anthony of Padua Parish will host its annual Holiday Bazaar November 3 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and November 4 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. inside the church hall, 1359 Acushnet Avenue in New Bedford. Use the Nye Street entrance. Admission is free and the event will feature full-course meals, baked goods, meat pies, raffles, crafts, penny sale, Chinese auction, jewelry and games. For information call 508-993-1691.

11/3

“Women’s Day Retreat: Seeking the Peace of Forgiveness,” a day of inspiring talks by Allison Gingras, local Catholic writer and speaker, will be held on November 3 at the Father Peyton Center, 518 Washington Street in North Easton. The retreat will provide information and strategies on how to bring peace and healing into your life. The day will include a Scriptural Rosary, Christian music, availability of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, lunch (included) and will end with Mass at 4 p.m. For information call Father Leo at Holy Cross Family Ministries at 508-238-4095, extension 2027 or register online at www.ReconciledToYou.com.

11/3

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, 235 North Front Street in New Bedford, will host its “Spirit of Christmas” holiday fair on November 3 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The event will feature a variety of booths, “grandma’s attic,” children’s corner, wine by chance, delicious baked goods, gifts and the parish’s famous Polish kitchen. Santa will also be on hand from noon to 2 p.m. For more details call the rectory at 508-992-9378 or visit www.olphchurchnb.org.

11/9

Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Parish is holding its annual Holiday Fair at the church hall, Coyle Drive off Route 152 in Seekonk, November 9 from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and November 10 from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Raffles will include chances to win an HDTV, Apple iPad, famous “Baskets Galore,” and more. There will be hand-knitted items, jewelry, Christmas items, almost-new items, toys, and more! Home-baked goods and fudge, candy, and meat pies will also be available and Louise’s Cafe both days.

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October 19, 2012

The Anchor

The Society for THE PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH ... a Pontifical Mission Society Complete the coupon and submit it with a donation in the basket this weekend at church, or send to: Rev. Msgr. John J. Oliveira, P.A., 106 Illinois Street, New Bedford, MA 02745 Enclosed is my World Mission Sunday gift for the Missions ...

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