11 13 15

Diocese of Fall River, Mass.

F riday , November 13, 2015

Diocese to begin assessing parishes in January

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff kensouza@anchornews.org FALL RIVER — For the first time in its history, the Fall River Diocese will begin assessing each of its 82 parishes to help support the financial operations of the diocese. In the United States, parish assessments are already in place in more than 90 percent of dioceses.

Beginning in January 2016, each of the parishes will be assessed between eight and 14 percent of their regular income, including weekly and annual collections.

The assessment will vary from parish to parish, based upon its reported annual income.

Specially designated drives and charitable collections — including the diocese’s annual Catholic Charities Appeal — will not be subject to the assessment, however. The annual springtime campaign provides funding for the critical charitable services and programs sponsored by the diocese to help those in need throughout Southeastern Massachusetts, Cape Cod and the Islands.

The assessment, estimated at $3.8 million, will be used to cover part of the growing deficits in the diocese’s annual budget, according to director of communications John E. Kearns Jr. Collected revenue will help fund the operations of the central administration of the diocese, which, in turn, supports all diocesan parishes and institutions. Among these services are those handling matters of real estate, clergy personnel, employee benefits and insurance, canonical processes, archives, some facilities and construction consultation, and legal assistance.

Pastors and parochial administrators were notified of the assessments last month and formal

announcements were made to parishioners last weekend.

The financial challenges in the diocese have been steadily growing since the 1990s and upon consultation with other diocesan officials, the bishop determined the time had come to address it, Kearns said.

“After careful review of the situation and after prayer, reflection and consultation with the diocesan Finance Council and the Presbyteral Council, Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V., had concluded that the implementation of a parish assessment policy in the Fall River Diocese was necessary,” Kearns said in a prepared statement issued by the diocese last week.

The Church’s Code of Canon Law provides the diocesan bishop with the right to impose an assessment or tax on parishes for the support of the needs of the local Church. It’s a practice that dates back centuries and is in wide use in the Church around the world.

To date, the Fall River Diocese has been very fortunate — it has been among the very few dioceses to have not had to rely on such income.

Unfortunately, the situation today is far different.

Over the past 20 years, a number of financial challenges have emerged that have impacted the financial stability of the diocese. Since the 1990s, declining church attendance, rising costs and increased spending to support the diocese have all negatively impacted its financial resources.

In addition, over the years an increasing number of entities in the diocese have significantly fallen behind in paying for their property and health insurance, requiring the diocese to advance these costs on their behalf. Exacerbating this financial situation has been many years of low, and at times,

non-existent interest rates. What has remained in investments and savings has earned little in return.

Together, these challenges have created a “perfect financial storm of sorts,” according to Kearns, which have depleted reserves and eroded the diocesan financial foundation to the point where the need for change was imminent.

Dr. Charles Zech, faculty director of the Center for Church Management at Villanova University School of Business, said he was surprised to hear that the Fall River Diocese didn’t already have a parish assessment in place.

Turn to page 18

Supreme Tribunal affirms decree regarding St. John the Baptist Church

The Diocese of Fall River received notification that the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura has confirmed the decree of the Apostolic Signatura affirming the bishop’s decision to relegate Saint John the Baptist Church in New Bedford to profane but not sordid use. This decree rejects the appeal that a small number of former parishioners had made to the Supreme Tribunal, and the cover letter from the Most Rev. Frans Daneels, O. Praem, the Secretary of the Apostolic Signatura, states explicitly that this decision “is not subject to any further challenge.” The matter is finally closed.

Anchor works to say afloat amid stormy seas

By Dave Jolivet Editor davejolivet@anchornews.org FALL RIVER — On Apr. 11, 1957, Fall River Bishop James L. Connolly wrote a letter to the faithful of the Diocese of Fall River on page one of the very first edition of The Anchor.

In his welcoming statement he wrote, “Here’s a word of cordial welcome to our new diocesan paper. Coming to us each week with pictures, news and views it is bound to bring us closer together and improve our Spiritual and social customs. I am sure The Anchor will find an honored place, like the crucifix, in every home throughout the diocese.

“Permit me, here and now, to thank the staff, the supporters and all who subscribe to our new, important venture. May God bless my personal representative, this diocesan paper, as it comes to make a port of call each week in your home. May it help hearten us all in our journey through life. Up Anchor, and away!”

In its more than one-half century of service to the faithful of the Diocese of Fall River, The Anchor has graced mail receptacles of countless diocesan faithful each week, save one — the week of the Blizzard of ’78, the February 10 edition.

The story on this page about the implementation of a new diocesan assessment as of Jan. 1, 2016, explains that move is necessary to “fund the operations of the diocese’s

central administration which supports all diocesan parishes and institutions.” In order to help diocesan parishes to be able to pay the assessment, The Anchor will no longer be partially funded by parishes as of the first of the year.

This is a significant change for The Anchor since more than 60 percent of its revenue came from parish assistance. As a result, The Anchor is diligently working on developing means to sustain itself thus enabling it to continue bringing local and international Church news to the faithful of the Diocese of Fall River.

It is no secret that a draining economy is affecting many areas, secular and non-secular alike. The Anchor, like many diocesan parishes, schools, and ministries, is feeling the effects of this economy, and is appealing to those who find value in the publication’s fine columnists, reporters, photographers, and news sources, to help us keep the paper arriving in mailboxes from the Attleboros, Taunton, Fall River, New Bedford, to Cape Cod and the Islands, and locales in between. The Anchor staff, ranging in longevity from 20 to seven years, is also at risk of falling prey to the fragile economy.

In one cost-saving measure, as of the Jan. 8, 2016 edition, The Anchor will become a bi-weekly publication, arriving in subscribers’ homes every other week. In addition, the paper has had to release two of its fine correspondents.

Turn to page 18

2

News From the Vatican

November 13, 2015

Excluding people isn’t Christian — it leads to war, pope says

Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — Pope Francis recently said that those who form private, exclusive groups mimic the attitude of the Pharisees, leading to conflict and division, whereas true Christians open the doors — with prudence — to everyone.

“There are two paths in life: the path of exclusion of persons from our community and the path of inclusion,” the pope said at a recent daily Mass in the chapel of Vatican City’s St. Martha Guesthouse.

While the path of exclusion might be small, it is “the root of all wars: all calamities, all wars, begin with an exclusion. One is excluded from the international community, but also from families, from friends. How many fights there are!”

On the other hand, the path that brings us closer to Jesus “is quite another, it is contrary to the other: to include.”

Speaking before the congregation in the chapel, the pope’s homily condemned those who judge and despise others and exclude them from “our little group.”

To be selective like this “is not Christian,” he said. He cited the day’s first Scripture reading from Romans in which St. Paul chastises those who look down on others.

The attitude of the Scribes and the Pharisees in the day’s Gospel, taken from Luke, “is the same, they exclude,” believing themselves to be perfect for adhering to the law, while judging others they deem to be sinners.

With His sacrifice on the cross, Jesus includes everyone in Salvation, Pope Francis said. The pope admitted that at times it’s hard to include others, because “there is that selective attitude” of resistance.

Pope Francis then focused

on two parables Jesus tells in the Gospels: the parable of the lost sheep and that of the woman who lost her coin. Both the shepherd and the woman would do anything to regain what they lost, and are filled with joy when they find it.

Instead of keeping their happiness to themselves, the central figures in each parable “go to their neighbors, their friends, because they are so happy,” the pope said. He described this as “the ‘including’ of God.” God’s inclusion of others goes directly against “the exclusion of those who judge, who drive away people.”

When this happens “a little of circle of friends is created, which is their environment,” the pope observed. “It is a dialectic between exclusion and inclusion.”

Pope Francis also stressed the need to recognize that we ourselves are guilty of exclusion: “We with our weaknesses, with our sins, with our envy, jealousies, we all have this attitude of excluding which — as I said — can end in wars.”

Those who continue to live with a selective and judgmental attitude instead of imitating God’s attitude of welcome will one day have to answer for it, he continued.

“If I exclude, I will one day stand before the judgment seat of God, I will have to give an account of myself to God,” the pope said. He encouraged the congregation to make their best effort not to exclude anyone from their heart, prayer or greeting.

“Never excluding, we have no right!” he said, and concluded by praying for the grace to be men and women with open hearts, who always, “in the measure of healthy prudence,” seek to include and incorporate others.

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

Pope Francis greets the crowd during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican recently.

(CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Forgiveness in family has power to rebuild society, pope says

Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — Delivering his Wednesday general audience address a little more than a week after the close of the Synod on the Family, Pope Francis spoke on the role of forgiveness in helping families become a force for the betterment of society.

“The practice of forgiveness not only preserves families from division,” but allows them to aid society in becoming “less evil and cruel,” the pope said during a recent weekly audience address in St. Peter’s Square.

“Christian families can do a great deal for today’s society, as well as for the Church,” he said.

The pontiff also spoke on the role of the recent Synod on the Family in “reviving our hope” in the family’s vocation and mission in the context of forgiveness.

Pope Francis reflected on the recently concluded Synod on the Family, describing it as an “event of grace.”

This year’s Synod, which ran from October 4-25, was the second and larger of two such gatherings to take place in the course of a year. Like its 2014 precursor, the focus of the 2015 Synod of Bishops was the family, this time with the theme: “The vocation and mission of the family in the Church and the modern world.”

At the conclusion of the three-week Synod, the Vatican released a final document based on the gathering’s

theme compiled and voted upon by its participants. Pope Francis is expected to write an apostolic exhortation on the theme of the family based on this document.

While the pope is still reviewing the final document, he explained that he wanted it to be publicized so that the public could have a part in the fruit of the past two year’s work.

“I wanted the text to be published in order that everyone might participate in the work which he have seen undertaken together for two years,” he said.

Meanwhile, while he is reviewing the document, life continues to move forward, especially for families, he said.

“You are continuously writing of the beauty of the Gospel in the family in the pages of real life,” the pope remarked.

“In a world which at times is barren of life and love, you speak every day of the great gifts which are Marriage and the family.”

Pope Francis compared the family to a gym in which “reciprocal forgiveness” is exercised.

“No love can endure for long,” without self-gift and forgiveness, he said, reflecting on the “Our Father” prayer which calls us to forgive as we ourselves are forgiven.

“We cannot live without forgiveness — or, at least, we cannot live well, especially in the family.”

Forgiveness should be exercised every day, the pope continued, saying we must take into account our fragility and pride. He also warned against allowing too much time to pass before forgiving; otherwise, it becomes more difficult.

“Do not allow the day to end without saying I’m sorry, without making peace between husband and wife, between parents and children, between brother and sister, between daughter-in-law and mother-in-law!”

In learning to forgive and ask forgiveness, wounds are healed, Marriage is strengthened, and the family becomes fortified against our own acts of meanness, both small and great, the pope said.

“Don’t finish the day at war, understand?”

Pope Francis offered his assurance to families that, by walking in the path of the Beatitudes as recounted in Matthew’s Gospel, and by learning to forgive and be forgiven, “everyone in the great family of the Church will develop the ability to give witness to the renewing power of God’s forgiveness.”

For this reason, he expressed his desire for families to rediscover the “treasure” of reciprocal forgiveness during the Jubilee of Mercy.

“We pray that families may always be more able to live and build concrete paths of reconciliation, where no one feels abandoned to the weight of his debts.”

November 13, 2015

The International Church to Syria. My children and I would face great danger there.”

If you would like to help, you can send donations to: ICMC

Syrians refugees at the Zaatari refugee camp recently wait to register their names to return to their homeland in Syria. The U.N. refugee agency reports that currently about 100 Syrians return home nearly every day from Jordan. (CNS photo/Muhammad Hamed)

Stay or go? Syrian refugees in Jordan face winter with lack of hope

ZAATARI CAMP, Jordan (CNS) — As a number of Syrian refugees enter their fourth winter of displacement, without an end in sight to violent fighting in their nation, Mahmoud summed up how they feel.

“There seems to be nothing ahead of us or behind,” the father of four told Catholic News Service in early November. “Every day, week or month, people are being buried back home. But nothing changed for the positive in this situation.”

“Our life in Syria was different from our difficult existence in this camp living as Syrian refugees,” Mahmoud said, referring to Jordan’s largest camp, located in the desert, a mere dozen miles away from the border of his war-torn homeland.

Because of a lack of international funding to the United Nations and host countries, such as Jordan, financial aid for food and living expenses has been cut.

Refugees now get just 50 cents a day per person, forcing some Syrians to consider whether to remain in Jordan, travel back to Syria or beyond.

“At the moment, refugees are leaving because the overall assistance is not sufficient and they have had a lack of hope here,” said Andrew Harper, the U.N. refugee agency’s representative in Jordan.

He said that despite some success in providing badly needed aid, “it’s a very tough environment for refugees. We have to do much more than we are currently doing.”

The U.N. refugee agency reports that, currently, about 100 Syrians living in Jordan return home nearly every day.

One refugee, a 30-year old-divorcee with three young children, said she planned to return to Syria in early November with the intention of making the

increasingly dangerous sea voyage to Europe’s shores and beyond.

More than 400 refugees, including many children, mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, have drowned in the Aegean Sea since the start of the year in their attempt to cross from Turkey to Greece.

However, scores of Syrians still cross Jordan’s border in search of safety, particularly as Syria’s southern Daraa province has come under renewed bombing.

Activists there believe Russia is also now involved in carrying out airstrikes on behalf of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

With winter’s approach, Syrian refugees like Mahmoud said they prefer to stay put in Jordan. They have heard tales from relatives and friends saying the journey to Europe in search of a better life has turned sour for some who have risked the perilous trip.

“Some friends and my brother went to Germany. I speak with him on Skype,” Mahmoud said.

“He finds himself moving from one place to another there.”

Mahmoud said his brother told him “he is not happy as he thought he would be.”

“He now wishes that he didn’t make the journey to Germany.

He was dreaming of a normal life and to bring his family there, but it takes much longer than he expected, with a lot of paperwork involved,” said Mahmoud, who earns a bit of money by helping other refugees in the camp retrieve precious photos from their cellphones. “The situation isn’t as they saw it on the news.”

However, most of Jordan’s more than 680,000 registered Syrian refugees live outside camps and in communities.

Often, they are more vulnerable than those living in camps, be-

cause they find it difficult to pay rent and buy basic necessities.

Rajha was widowed after her husband was detained by Assad’s forces and tortured to death in a jail in the central city of Homs.

She fled with her three children for safety to Mafraq, a town that now has more Syrians than Jordanians.

The woman, clad in black from head to toe, including a face veil, said her two adolescent sons must work collecting plastic for recycling and loading boxes of vegetables in the market, rather than attend school in order to help the family pay bills. But the small amount they earn means that she owes her Jordanian neighbors $570 — a huge sum for her family to repay.

Although the U.N. food program has provided the family with aid, Rajha said she appreciates the one-time gift of $380 from the International Catholic Migration Commission (CMC), especially for winter.

“We need to buy a heater, heating fuel, food and some winter garments, maybe even change this simple two-room house, because it is so unhealthy,” she said.

“There no proper roof, so when it rains or snows, we have to move to other room,” Rajha said of the shelter that resembles a stable. Rats have infested the basic kitchen.

Emma Horton, an International Catholic Migration Commission program manager, said she hopes to refer Rajha to another aid group, the Norwegian Refugee Council, which help refugees locate safer, subsidized housing in the community.

“I don’t have any hope for the future. I can only live from day to day,” said the widow.

“For sure, we can never return

3 Development 14 Beacon Street, Suite 502, Boston, MA 02108. Toll Free: 1-888-2658747 or email Development@ icmc.net

The Church in the U.S.

4

November 13, 2015

Catholic-Lutheran document sums up agreements, maps steps to full unity

BALTIMORE (CNS) — A new 120-page document marks the progress in Catholic-Lutheran relations over the past 50 years and maps the remaining steps needed to achieve full unity.

The “Declaration on the Way” was prepared by a joint task force of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and the Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which has more than 3.7 million members in 9,300 congregations across the United States.

The document was inspired by a December 2011 speech by Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and draws on the work of national and international Catholic-Lutheran dialogues since 1965, particularly on the topics of Church, ministry and the Eucharist. It was intended to mark the 50th anniversary of Catholic-Lutheran dialogue in 2015 and the upcoming 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation in 2017.

“It’s amazing to think that 500 years ago we were killing each other over” issues on which there is now consensus between the two communions, said ELCA Presiding Bishop

Elizabeth A. Eaton in a recent telephone news conference about the declaration.

“We grew up in a time when our communities were absolutely divided; now instead we are rejoicing in the places we find agreement,” she added.

Auxiliary Bishop Denis J. Madden of Baltimore, the Catholic cochairman of the task force, said Pope Francis on his recent U.S. visit and throughout his papacy has emphasized “a culture of dialogue” that is reflected in concrete form in the new declaration.

The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, a former ELCA presiding bishop, served as Lutheran cochairman of the task force.

The document’s introduction says the two churches have come a long way since “the disunity, suspicions and even hostilities that characterized our relationships for generations,” but says the time has come “to claim the unity achieved through these agreements, to establish Church practices that reflect this growth into communion and to commit ourselves anew to taking the next steps forward.”

It concludes by asking the Lutheran World Federation, a global communion of 145 churches in 98 countries, and the Pontifical Council on Promoting Christian Unity to jointly “receive, affirm and

Lutheran Bishop Michael Rinehart and retired Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes of New Orleans talk during a gathering March 25 at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Kenner, La. Over the last 50 years, especially with the impetus provided by the Second Vatican Council, divisions between Catholics and Lutherans have begun to heal and the pace of concrete efforts toward restoring unity has quickened, Archbishop Hughes told the ecumenical gathering. (CNS photo/Peter Finney Jr., Catholic Herald)

create a process to implement” the 32 statements of agreement outlined in the declaration and to establish “a process and a timetable for addressing remaining issues on Church, Eucharist and ministry.”

“The expansion of opportunities for Catholics and Lutherans to receive Holy Communion together would be a significant sign of the path toward unity already traveled and a pledge to continue together on the journey toward full communion,” the task force added.

In addition, the task force urged action and study at the local level between Lutheran congregations and Catholic parishes, as well as formal and informal cooperation among bishops of both denominations at the regional level.

The declaration is not a statement of the full body of Catholic bishops, but was affirmed in October by the ELCA Conference of Bishops, an advisory body, which asked the ELCA Church Council to forward the document to the 2016 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, its highest legislative body.

Bishop Madden said the Catholic bishops are not scheduled to vote on the declaration during their November

16-19 annual fall assembly in Baltimore but that he hoped it would be the topic of much discussion among the bishops.

“We want all the bishops to know about this declaration and help promulgate it in their own dioceses,” he added.

Jesuit Father Jared Wicks, a Catholic member of the task force and scholar in residence at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, said in an ELCA news release that the document represented “a moment to move from study to declaration, to expand in Catholic and Lutheran believers a shared awareness of their real agreements on significant and well-defined essentials of our faith and life.”

Asked at the news conference what was the most difficult issue that continued to divide Lutherans and Catholics, Bishop Madden cited women’s ordination as “one of those issues that we are still discussing.”

The Lutherans have been ordaining women since 1970; the Catholic Church teaches it has no authority “to confer priestly ordination on women.”

Bishop Eaton said Lutherans still had difficulty with the Catholic understanding of “the role of the Bishop of Rome” and the issue of papal infal-

libility.

“We are really sorry for some of the things (Martin) Luther said about (the pope) back in the day,” she said, adding that there have been “terrible misunderstandings and, on our part, unfortunate caricatures” surrounding the issue.

“But we really like this one (Pope Francis) a lot,” Bishop Eaton said.

Kathryn Johnson, ELCA director for ecumenical and interreligious relations, said the declaration marked the beginning of “a totally different world of relationship and hopefulness” between Catholics and Lutherans.

Father John Crossin, executive director of the USCCB Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, said he had been approached by an Anglican colleague about doing a similar document that looks at remaining issues dividing the two communions.

The declaration “is already starting to have a little ripple effect,” he said.

An online version of “Declaration on the Way” and any recent developments can be found at this USCCB link: http://tinyurl.com/q8rptfn; and at this ECLA link: http:// tinyurl.com/qa6wkn4.

5

November 13, 2015

Cardinal hopes ‘Laudato Si’’ will have impact on U.N. climate conference

COLUMBUS, Ohio (CNS) — Cardinal Peter Turkson, the lead consultant on the papal encyclical on the environment, recently told a crowd of 1,200 in Columbus that he hoped the document would have a significant impact on the upcoming U.N. Climate Change Conference in Paris.

“The world is turning its gaze toward Paris” for the event, which begins November 30 and continues through December 11, said the Ghanaian cardinal, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. “It is the hope and desire of the Holy See that the guidance of (the encyclical) ‘Laudato Si’’ will provide the moral fiber” to enable leaders of the 196 nations taking part in the conference to come to the hard decisions they need to make.

The conference’s stated goal is to achieve a new international agreement on the climate, applicable to all nations, with the aim of limiting the rise of the earth’s average temperature to two degrees Celsius (35.6 degrees Fahrenheit), widely seen as the benchmark for avoiding catastrophic global warming.

“I am hoping the world’s leaders in Paris will come away with concrete gestures and actions” related to climate change, Cardinal Turkson said recently, the last day of his three-day visit to

initiatives.”

Mershon Auditorium. His Columbus.

While on campus, Cardiappearance was part of a After Columbus, he was nal Turkson saw Ohio State’s series of events the univerrecently at Santa Clara UniEcoCAR project, in which sity is conducting relating to versity to deliver an address students are re-engineering a at a climate conference there. sustainability of the planet’s 2016 Camaro into a perforThe upcoming Paris meet- resources.

Cardinal Turkson repeated mance hybrid, and he viewed ing is the 21st such gathering ice core samples from the of partners to a U.N. conven- several of the points he had world’s highest, most retion on climate change, which made at his other Columbus mote ice fields at the school’s stops about how the encycliwas adopted in 1992. The Byrd Polar Research cardinal noted that the first 20 meetings very small gesture that reduces Center.

“I saw students have resulted in little carbon in the atmosphere can displaying creativprogress, but said he felt people are slowly help,” he said. “They don’t have to be big ity, innovation, and skills in respondbeginning to realize initiatives.” ing to some of the the threat posed by difficult challenges global warming and facing society,” he said. “I the need to take better care of cal is at its heart a document don’t think there’s any reason on how we show our love for the environment. to doubt the competence and God by the way we treat the “Government leaders are people and the resources God willingness of young people preparing to take action, and to embrace those challenges. has made. now business leaders have The hourlong program also We can be very hopeful about accepted an invitation from their efforts.” included an informal “firePope Francis” to come to the At a news conference side chat” with Dr. Michael Vatican for a dialogue on before his talk, Cardinal Drake, Ohio State president, the environment in DecemTurkson said, “Age doesn’t and Bruce McPheron, dean ber, Cardinal Turkson said. matter. The pope’s appeal of the university’s College of In addition, he said several Food, Agricultural and Envi- should have particular international bishops’ conferences est for young people, but ronmental Sciences. have committed themselves In response to a student’s to encouraging their nations’ question on how individuleaders to take decisive steps als can help control climate on climate change at the change, Cardinal Turkson meeting and at home. referred to a papal suggestion: “Catholic social teaching “Turn off your air condidemands a sense of justice tioners.” He also mentioned in which we respect the turning off lights when not in demands of relationships in use and paying attention to which we exist, including a what’s in the food we buy. respect for the demands of “Every small gesture that our relationship with Mother reduces carbon in the atEarth,” he said during remosphere can help,” he said. marks to a capacity crowd “They don’t have to be big to Ohio State University’s

“E

Discalced Carmelite Sisters Mary Grace Melchior, Marianna So, Marie Cecile Franer, Susanna Choi and Christine Rosencrans kneel in prayer at the Carmelite Monastery of St. Joseph in Terre Haute, Ind., during a recent Mass to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the birth of St. Teresa of Avila, foundress of their order. (CNS photo/Sean Gallagher, The Criterion)

we all should be concerned about the kind of world we leave for those who come after us. Some students desire a new toy or a new product every day, and discipline in controlling their tastes and desires will be of great help.”

Responding to a question from the auditorium about how his own experience might have affected his environmental consciousness, Cardinal Turkson said he was raised in a manganese mining town in southern Ghana, with the town’s young people using the area around the mine as a playground.

“I grew up with environmental degradation,” he said. “I remember how the forest and the topsoil were taken away, and all that was left were gaping holes that we were told it wasn’t costeffective to fill. I can’t say this is what led me to my present position, but it’s what I grew up in.”

6

November 13, 2015

Anchor Editorial

The diocesan assessment

Below this editorial are the remarks which Pope Francis delivered last Sunday when he prayed the Angelus with the crowd assembled in St. Peter’s Square.

During that prayer they recall weekly how the Blessed Mother said to the Angel Gabriel her fiat (“Let it be done unto to me according to Your Word”), how she said yes to God’s plan for her and gave her entire life over to God. In his speech the Holy Father was praising the generosity of the famous (thanks to Jesus’ pointing her out) widow who gave her two mites to the temple treasury. At the end of his discussion of that Gospel passage, the pope pointed out Mary’s similarity to that widow (and that, actually, Mary was even more generous than that lady).

This past week we have become aware at Mass, parish meetings or via the news media of the assessment (or “tax”) which we will be paying to keep the diocese functioning. This assessment will be determined according to the income of each parish, which will then be charged a percentage of that income in a bill which will be sent monthly.

It is not “pay-to-pray” as the Attleboro Sun Chronicle entitled it in a headline last Saturday. In response, Lucille Stewart, a parishioner of St. Mary’s Parish in Mansfield wrote to the paper, saying, “I take issue with your front-page sensational headline. No one, absolutely no one, has ever had to pay to pray in the Diocese of Fall River or any other diocese in the United States. We as members of a parish have been asked to financially support our parish and now we are being asked to help support our diocese, which is done in most of the dioceses in the United States.”

Stewart summarizes well our responsibility to work together for the good of the Church, be it on the parish or diocesan level. Both are the Church. Both are composed of the people of God, made God’s children by Baptism and called upon to spread the Gospel. The parishes need the diocese so as to coordinate our joint efforts to carry out our baptismal call. As Father Jon-Paul Gallant, pastor of St. Theresa’s Parish in South Attleboro told the Sun Chronicle, “We’re all in this together.”

Parishioners will not be taxed directly, but they can help in this process

through their gifts of their time, talents, and treasure, as Pope Francis says below. If someone can help by donating more money to their parish, they will be helping the parish to meet this responsibility. If someone can volunteer more of their time and talents to the parish, they might be helping the parish to save some money, which will help in paying the assessment. We are not “paying to pray,” since prayer is free, as Stewart reminded us, but we are putting our prayer into action.

The “Catechism of the Catholic Church” tells us at No. 2043, “The fifth precept [of the Church] (‘You shall help to provide for the needs of the Church’) means that the faithful are obliged to assist with the material needs of the Church, each according to his own ability. ” Father Mark Hession, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Seekonk, explained in his bulletin last weekend the need for the assessment. “[Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V.] let all the priests know, last week, that he needs our help in maintaining — and growing our local Church.”

Father Hession told his parishioners, “I am asking for the ‘widow’s mite’: a prayerful increase in your weekly offertory gift — enough to share our support for the diocese, and what exceeds it to stay here for our own continued capital improvements.” He ended his remarks by quoting Elijah’s promise to the woman from whom he asked for bread and water, “The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry” (1 Kgs 17:14).

Father Hession made an allusion to a theme about which Bishop da Cunha has often spoken — our need to move from being a Church of maintenance to that of mission. Our mission, the one given to us by Christ, is to grow the Church. To do that, we do need a central coordination (the diocese) to help us in our individual neighborhoods or towns (the parishes). May we be generous in carrying out this mission with our time, talents and treasures.

In another editorial we will address here the financial needs of The Anchor itself. Without a diocese, there would be no newspaper. Without the generosity of the parishes, there would be no diocese. Without Christ’s infinite generosity to us, where would any of us be?

Pope Francis’ Angelus message of November 8 Dear brothers and sisters, good morning with this beautiful sun!

The Gospel passage of this Sunday is composed of two parts: one that describes how not to be followers of Christ; the other in which it is proposed the ideal example of a Christian.

Let’s start with the first: what not to do. In the first part Jesus criticizes the scribes, teachers of the law, three defects that occur in their lifestyle: pride, greed and hypocrisy. They — says Jesus — like “to be greeted in the marketplaces, seats of honor in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets” (Mk 12:38-39).

But under such solemn appearances they are hiding falsehood and in-

justice. While they strut in public, they use their authority to “devour widows’ houses” (cf. v. 40), who were considered, along with orphans and foreigners, to be the people most vulnerable and least protected [in that society]. Finally, the scribes pray a lot so as to be seen (v. 40). Even today there is a risk of taking these attitudes. For example, when we separate prayer from justice, because you cannot worship God and cause harm to the poor. Or when one says that he loves God, but then lets vainglory, his own advantage come before God. And along this line one finds the second part of today’s Gospel. The scene is set in the temple of JeruOFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER

www.anchornews.org

Vol. 59, No. 43

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

Subscription price by mail, postpaid $20.00 per year, for U.S. addresses.

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

PUBLISHER - Most Reverend Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V. EXECUTIVE EDITOR Father Richard D. Wilson fatherwilson@anchornews.org EDITOR David B. Jolivet davejolivet@anchornews.org OFFICE MANAGER Mary Chase marychase@anchornews.org ADVERTISING Wayne R. Powers waynepowers@anchornews.org REPORTER Kenneth J. Souza k ensouza@anchornews.org REPORTER Rebecca Aubut beckyaubut@anchornews.org Send Letters to the Editor to: fatherwilson@anchornews.org

PoStmaSters send address changes to The Anchor, P.O. Box 7, Fall River, MA 02722.

THE ANCHOR (USPS-545-020) Periodical Postage Paid at Fall River, Mass.

salem, precisely in the place where people threw coins as offerings.

There are many rich people who pay a lot of money, and there is a poor woman, a widow, just putting in two mites, two small coins. Jesus observes the woman carefully and draw the attention of the disciples on the sharp contrast of the scene. The rich have given, with great ostentation, what for them was unnecessary, while the widow, with discretion and humility, gave “all she had to live” (v.

44); thus — says Jesus — she gave most of all. Because of her extreme poverty, she could have offered a single coin for the temple and keep the other for herself. But she does not want to go halfway with God; she deprives herself of everything.

In her poverty she understood that by having God, she had everything; She feels totally loved by Him and in turn loves Him totally. What a fine example that old lady!

Jesus, now, also tells us that the yardstick is not quantity but fullness.

There is a difference between quantity and fullness. You can have a lot of money, but be empty: there is no fullness in your heart. Just think, this week, about the difference that exists between quantity and fullness. It is not a question of the wallet, but of the heart. There is a difference between the wallet and the heart. There are heart diseases, which reduce the heart to just the wallet. And that’s not good! Love God “with all your

heart” means to trust Him, in His providence, and serve Him in our poorest brothers and sisters without expecting anything in return.

Allow me to tell a story that happened in my previous diocese. There sat at the table a mother with three children; dad was at work; they were eating Wiener schnitzel. Just then there was a knock on the door and one of the children — they were small, five, six years, seven years old the biggest — comes and says, “Mom, there’s a beggar who asks for food.” And the mother, a good Christian, asks them: “What do we do?” — “Let’s give him something, mom.” — “OK.” She takes the fork and knife and takes away half of each of the cutlets. “Oh no, mom, no! No! Take from the refrigerator”— “No! let us make three sandwiches!” And the children have learned that with true love you give, you do not give from what is extra, but from what we need. I’m sure that afternoon they had a bit of hunger. But that is how you do it!

Faced with the needs of others, we are called to deprive ourselves — like those kids, who have half the cutlets — of something essential, not only of the superfluous; we are called to give the necessary time, not only our extra time; we are called to give immediately and unconditionally some of our talents, not after using it for our own purposes or our own group. We ask the

Lord to admit us to the school of this poor widow that Jesus, with the bewilderment of the disciples, has presented in a “chair” [a university professorial position] and has presented her as a teacher of the living Gospel. Through the intercession of Mary, a poor woman who has given her life to God for us, may we ask for the gift of a heart poor, but rich in generosity, happy and free.

I know that many of you have been troubled by the news circulated in recent days about confidential documents of the Holy See which were stolen and published. So let me tell you first that stealing those documents is a crime. It’s a deplorable act that does not help. I myself had asked that that study [of the economy of the Holy See] be done, and those documents my colleagues and I already knew them very well, and we were taking measures that have begun to bear fruit, even some visible things.

Therefore I want assure you that this sad event certainly distracts from the work of reform we are carrying out with my staff and with the support of all of you. Yes, with the support of the whole Church, because the Church is renewed through the prayer and holiness of every baptized person daily. So thank you and I ask you to continue praying for the pope and for the Church, not to be troubled but going forward with confidence and hope.

November 13, 2015

T

he Jesus we encounter in the Gospel speaks continuously of mercy and demonstrates it. He gives us the parables of the Lost Sheep, Lost Coin and Lost Son and tells us to forgive 70 times seven times. He shows forgiveness to the paralyzed man, to the woman caught in adultery, to the woman at the well, and to the woman who bathes His feet in tears of sorrow. He called a tax collector — a notorious public sinner — to be one of the 12 and promised the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven to a fisherman whose initial words were, “Depart from me for I am a sinful man!”

Throughout the Gospel, He shows Himself to be meek and humble of heart, Someone so gentle that He wouldn’t break even a bruised reed.

Yet at the same time, without Spiritual schizophrenia or contradiction, He spoke in categorical, almost merciless terms about scandalizers — and when He found moneychangers scandalously turning the temple precincts into a den of thieves, He violently overturned their tables and formed a whip to drive out their animals.

“Scandals will inevita-

Anchor Columnist Scandals bly occur,” He emphatically of an inexcusably inadequate declared, “but woe to the response on the part of some person through whom they Church leaders — that no occur. It would be better for matter how much progress him if a millstone were put the Church has made in subaround his neck and he be sequent years in caring for thrown into the sea than for victims, screening seminarhim to cause one of these ians and becoming a model little ones to sin” (Lk 17:1-2). for safe environments, cannot Execution by millstone was a particularly terrifying way to die. It was practiced, Putting Into scholars tell us, by the Deep Syrians, Romans, and Greeks during

By Father Biblical times. A Roger J. Landry millstone is a huge, flat circular stone, weighing roughly 1,700 pounds, with a hole in erase the horror or mitigate the center through which a the shame. It’s a scandal that rope can be placed. Once afkeeps on scandalizing. fixed to someone’s neck, the Theologically, scandals are condemned would be thrown actions or omissions, comfrom a boat into a body of portment or attitudes, that water, descend precipitously can lead others to sin, either to the bottom and drown. by tempting others to imitate Jesus was saying that that their sinful behavior — like form of death was preferable celebrities using drugs or to what would happen to us authority figures cohabitatif we gave scandal! ing — or through the offense Scandals are in the news. scandals give, drawing othThe movie “Spotlight” ers away from good actions is occasioning us to revisit (“Catechism of the Catholic the sickening details of the Church” 2284-7). And the clergy sexual abuse crisis — a clergy sex abuse scandals double scandal not only of have led many Catholics to abominations on the part of stop practicing their faith certain priest abusers but also and gravely damaged the

Pope: Dignity of workers must never be compromised

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The dignity and rights of workers must never be compromised, not only with regard to fair wages and pension, but also in “their right to rest,” Pope Francis said.

The pope recently met in St. Peter’s Square with an estimated 23,000 members of the Italian National Social Security Institute, which oversees the government’s disability and pension structure.

Work and rest are connected, Pope Francis said, and true rest comes when one has “a secure job that gives dignity to you and your family.” He praised the institute’s work in defending worker’s rights based on the natural and “transcendental dignity” of the human person while acknowledging that their work is both an honor and a responsibility.

“You are in fact called to deal with increasingly complex challenges,” he said. “They come both from today’s society with the

critical nature of its balances and the frailty of its relationships, and from the working world, plagued by insufficient employment and the precariousness of guarantees that it can offer.”

The pope stressed that unemployment, social injustice and the lack of new job opportunities place a strain on men and women, thus forcing them to work under unfair working conditions that deny them the right to rest.

Reminding the institute’s members of their duty in protecting the rights and dignity of workers, the pope said that they also are charged with ensuring that unemployed workers can support their families.

He called on them to “protect women” and their rights in the workplace, especially their right to maternity leave when choosing to raise a family.

The pope also urged them to protect the rights of those who are entering into retirement, emphasizing that receiving a

“pension is a right.”

“Be aware of the supreme dignity of each worker to whose service your work is offered,” he told them. “Supporting their income during and after their period of employment, you contribute to the quality” of their work and of their retirement.

Work, he continued, guarantees a “dignified existence” for employees and cannot be reduced to “a mere cog in a perverse mechanism which grinds resources in order to make a profit” nor as a means of profit that sacrifices “values, relationships and principles.”

“Do not forget mankind: this is the imperative; to love and serve humanity with conscience, responsibility and willingness. Work for those who work and no less for who would like to but cannot,” he said. “Support the weakest ones so that no one lacks the dignity and freedom to live a truly human life.”

reputation of the Church, of priests and bishops — with many who used to presume clerics holy now prejudging them to be corrupt.

Other scandals, too, are in the news.

On October 14, Pope Francis began his Wednesday general audience by stating, “I would like, before beginning the catechesis, on behalf of the Church, to ask for your forgiveness for the scandals that have happened in recent times both in Rome and in the Vatican.”

The Holy Father didn’t define the scandals to which he was referring, but journalists proffered various educated guesses: a Polish monsignor working in the Vatican who held a press conference with his gay lover proclaiming that it’s the Church that has a doctrinal problem, not he who has a moral problem; a leaked letter to Pope Francis signed by 13 cardinals pointing to serious concerns whether the October Synod of Bishops on the Family process would be hijacked by the organizers toward a predetermined agenda; or corruption in the Rome mayor’s office that involved, among other things, going all out for the funeral of a notorious mafia don.

Since that time we’ve had the arrest of two people who worked on a Vatican financial commission, including a priest, and the publication of various Vatican documents to which the authors of two books are trying to give the most defamatory interpretation.

To these we might add a scandal to which the synod was responding — that the “Church” judges as scarletletter wearing sinners rather than seems to love those who are divorced-and-civillyremarried — and another it was creating, namely that in order to make those in such circumstances feel welcome, the “Church” can change or functionally ignore for “pastoral” reasons Jesus’ teaching on adultery, St. Paul’s teaching on worthiness for receiving Holy Communion, and the Church’s teaching about

7

the need for conversion and a firm purpose of amendment with regard to the Christian life and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The appearance of scandal is likewise a scandal and there is at least the appearance that various Churchmen think such a decision is consistent with Catholic faith.

I sometimes think it might be wise to have some millstones lying around to focus our attention with regard to the consequences of decisions and behavior that could lead others — especially the young, the simple and the more vulnerable — to Spiritual confusion, dejection or sin.

How should we respond to scandals? I’ve always found St. Francis de Sales’ advice helpful. He called giving scandal the equivalent of Spiritual murder but said that there was something even worse: committing Spiritual suicide through focusing on scandals so much that we cut themselves off from Christ in the Sacraments and in the Church He founded.

He wrote in a pamphlet to the people of Thonon after the scandals that had led many of them to embrace Calvinism, that “those who forge scandals for themselves,” who “persuade themselves that they will die if they do not alienate the part that they have in the Church,” are “much crueler than the man who gives scandal, because to commit suicide is a more unnatural crime than to kill another.”

When we allow scandals to destroy our faith, he implied, we essentially tie a millstone around our own neck and toss ourselves out of the barque of Peter, where Christ is at the helm, into the depth of a sea toward Spiritual death.

Scandals, unfortunately, “will inevitably occur,” as Jesus tells us. And therefore we need to be on high alert not only not to cause them and tempt others toward sin, but also not to take them and allow them to lead us to sin and Spiritual suicide.

Anchor columnist Father Landry can be contacted at fatherlandry@ catholicpreaching.com.

8

T

oday is the second to last Sunday of the Liturgical year. Next Sunday we will celebrate the feast of Christ the King. So, as we come to the end of the Liturgical year, the Church focuses its attention on the last things. This weekend the Scripture readings traditionally speak about “the end of the world,” “the end of time,” “the final coming of Jesus” and our ultimate future. The readings are more ominous with more apocalyptic language. They give us a warning of events that are yet to come.

In the first reading, we hear from a very special and different book of the Old Testament. The book of Daniel is filled with special images of what the “future” will be like. This passage gives the first hint in the Bible of the Resurrection from the dead. It is not a description of what will happen; it is only a “vision,” like a work of poetry. Daniel in a visionary experience says: never give up your faith; good ultimately will triumph over evil. He challenges us to continue to trust in God, despite the everyday

November 13, 2015

May the Lord find us ready

coming of Jesus. How do we doubts we experience. He look at it? And what does then speaks about Michael, the Gospel say about it? the Archangel of God, who Jesus speaks about an will lead the just and those apocalypse, a cosmic upheavwho work for justice into the al (darkened sun, unlit moon, everlasting life of Heaven. falling stars) that will usher Heaven is our future, where we will be with God forever. There every tear will be gone; we Homily of the Week will have fullness of life forever with God Thirty-third Sunday in and all those whom Ordinary Time we love.

By Deacon In the second Gary John reading, from the Letter to the Hebrews, we reflect on in the glorious Kingdom of the meaning of our future God in all its fullness. We with God. The author recalls need to emphasize that the the saving work of Jesus description of events is not Christ. Jesus, the High Priest to be understood literally as has offered Himself in sacria prophecy of what is actufice for sin, once and for all, ally going to happen. Rather and has given us eternal Salwe are to look at the inner vation. Now he sits forever meaning of these happenat God’s right hand. Through ings. The cosmic disturbancthe death and Resurrection es about the sun, moon and of Jesus Christ, God gifts us stars are traditional ways of with His grace or Divine life describing manifestations of and we can grow in that life God’s judgment of Israel. with God by living out a life In ancient Israelite times, of discipleship. people believed that the sun, And in the Gospel readmoon and stars represented ing according to Mark, we deities who controlled world hear about the end time, the affairs. Israel believed that day of gloom and doom and when God acted, these about the second and final

celestial bodies would be disturbed. So, what is being said here is that these celestial bodies which other nations believed controlled history would be shown to be helpless under the power of God. While all these things are being forecast, there is no time frame given. There is no immediate link being given between the destruction of Jerusalem and the final coming of Jesus as King and Lord of all.

Even so, the early Christians did expect that Jesus would come in their lifetime.

Are we ready to meet Jesus today should He suddenly come to us in the mystery of death? The true fools will be those who are caught unaware of the Lord’s return when He does indeed come, for they will not have been watchful, nor will they have been ready to receive Him as He comes in all His glory. The Lord cautions us in our text, “Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come.”

The second coming is

never to be seen as a “threat” to our well-being, but as the “fulfillment” of our hopes and dreams for a world of peace and harmony, a world in which we are no longer at war or at odds with each other. So, when Christ will come again in glory to judge us, we’re to look forward to that with joyful anticipation. To those who believe in Christ, such an event is seen not with fear but with joyful anticipation. It is not that He will come to us but that we will enter into a deeper relationship with Him when we pass through death to a different kind of life.

Let us pray in this week’s Liturgy then for ourselves and for the whole Church, that the Lord may find us ready when He returns. May we not be doing foolish things or be living in fear, but be awaiting the Kingdom with hope as we strive to do God’s Will.

Deacon John was ordained with the most recent class of 2013 and is currently assigned to Espirito Santo Parish in Fall River. He is married with two children and is employed as a sales engineer with Panasonic.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Nov. 14, Wis 18:14-16,19:6-9; Ps 105:2-3,36-37,42-43; Lk 18:1-8. Sun. Nov. 15, Thirty-Third Sunday In Ordinary Time, Dn 12:1-3; Ps 16:5,8-11; Heb 10:11-14,18; Mk 13:24-32. Mon. Nov. 16, 1 Mc 1:10-15,41-43,54-57,62-63; Ps 119:53,61,134,150,155,158; Lk 18:35-43.

Tues. Nov. 17, 2 Mc 6:18-31; Ps 3:2-7; Lk 19:1-10. Wed. Nov. 18, 2 Mc 7:1,20-31; Ps 17:1bcd,5-6,8b,15; Lk 19:11-28. Thurs. Nov. 19, 1 Mc 2:15-29; Ps 50:1b-2,5-6,14-15; Lk 19:41-44. Fri. Nov. 20, 1 Mc 4:36-37,52-59; (Ps) 1 Chr 29:10bcd,11-12; Lk 19:45-48.

I

have an app on my phone that can notify me with a simple, “beep, beep, beep,” that somewhere in the world an earthquake has occurred.

I have the ability to set the notification specs; after a certain magnitude (mine is set at 5.5 or greater), location in the world (I have the entire planet), and the type of notification (as I previously mentioned — beep, beep beep).

The one drawback with the app is that the darn thing will beep incessantly until I open it and see what’s shakin’ and where. There are times when I can’t get to my phone and it sounds like my kitchen when I’m cooking and the smoke alarm serenades me until I yank the thing off the ceiling.

Also, there are times when I forget to mute notifications on my phone when I go to bed, and I’m alerted to an earthquake in Pago Pago at 2:30 in the morn-

There’s always a quake somewhere ing. I’m startled awake, confused marble we call home, our lives as to whether it’s an earthquake, set the seismograph needles in motion more often than we or I’m cooking dinner and would like. The readings can be slipped into another world. almost non-detectable, like a 2.2 The app sends earthquake notifications quite often.

In fact, if I lowered the magnitude setting, the thing would be beeping day and night. That means that the orb on which we spin and orbit

By Dave Jolivet through space is almost constantly rockin’ and rollin’. rumble, or a catastrophic 7.0 or The app allows the user to more. view every tremor that registers It’s the larger tremors in on the Richter Scale anywhere in the world, and the daily list is life that bring out the best and worst in people who make up almost always quite lengthy. the fabric of our lives.

As usual, it generally takes Too often, too many people, me a few paragraphs to get to at least in my experience, are too the crux of my column.

The point I’m trying to make quick to point out what they feel are my faults and weaknessis that our lives tend to imitate es. They smugly point out what good old Mother Earth in that I should do to ease the tremors rarely are things calm, quiet in my life. How someone can and steady. Like the big blue

My View From the Stands

think that this is somehow helpful is beyond me.

I’ve often taught my children that anyone who cuts someone down does so to build themselves up.

But just like every day has its dusk, every night has its dawn.

Often during the major tremors in one’s life, there are those who are there to stabilize our surroundings, not add to the commotion.

Often these guardian angeltype people do it without even knowing it — but that doesn’t mean it’s done by accident or coincidence. People who say and do the right thing for those in quake mode, do so because it’s in their heart and soul and nature to do it.

And as most of us know, it doesn’t take much to quell the quaking, if even for a little while. It can be an email out of

the blue; a text message of support; a phone call of encouragement and appreciation; a simple “thumbs-up” like on Facebook.

I’ve been blessed to have all of those come my way in recent weeks and days. I’ve also had the fault-finders, but those individuals have quickly fallen into the quake’s abyss with a simple nudge from a well-timed call or message.

I’d like to thank all the folks who have helped quiet the quakes in my life. Be assured of my prayers.

And my prayers also go to the critics and fault-finders, that you may realize just how hurtful and deflating your comments can be — earthquakes in and of themselves.

Got to go now, my phone is telling me there is an earthquake somewhere — maybe calling for an email, or a text, or a simple thumbs-up. davejolivet@anchornews.org.

November 13, 2015

Friday 13 November 2015 — Port-O- Call: Tahiti (in my mind) — Friday the 13th! he Thermostat Wars have heated up. Skirmishes have been going on throughout the diocese for several weeks now. The point of contention is this: “The church is too cold/too hot.” A wise pastor will schedule a vacation in Tahiti at this time of year.

Just as the weather begins to go south, so should he. Then he won’t have to engage in highlevel (or low-level) thermostat diplomacy. Any way you look at it, you’ll lose.

I remember being assigned to a big old inner-city church.

Every year, the fiscally-responsible pastor would strive to save a bit on heating costs by delaying turning on the furnace as long as possible. Most parishioners were very understanding, but the priest would be assailed annually by one or two complaining parishioners.

One passive-aggressive parishioner would deposit in the collection basket a burned-out wooden match as his weekly offering. This was not helpful.

The match always clogged the coin-counting machine.

Comments on the temperature in the church usually begin in early September. “Every-

T

T

he student was running a bit late. I picked up her binder. As my eyes caught the sheet, I smiled. I remembered back to when I first started writing down quotes that interested me. At first glance, my student had an interesting blend of doodles and phrases. I started to apologize for accidently invading her personal space. She waved that off and pointed to one quote to share. It said, “Let the haters hate.” I looked into the bright, bubbly eyes of this teen-age girl.

She giggled. I thought, “Good, I am pretty sure you have never really experienced hate first-hand.

I hope it stays that way.”

As I walked away I thought about the meaning of those words. On one level the phrase is a recasting of Eleanor Roosevelt’s words: “Do what you feel in your heart to be right — for you’ll be criticized anyway.” Eleanor’s words encourage each of us to find then be the special person God created us to be. That is an important message for a teenager.

Even so, I could not shake the negativity of the rephrasing.

Anchor Columnists Herding cats

9

Who attends church most body’s saying it’s too cold in often? It’s baby-boomers like here. Somebody should shut me and the elderly. Who has off the air-conditioning.” The the most hearing problems? word “everybody,” in this case, The answer is the same. If you means only the complainer. can’t hear in the back of the The word “somebody” means church, sit in the front. I always you. Modern heating/cooling do. systems utilize complicated Another solution is to check technologies. You have to call the public address system or a technician to shut down the air-conditioning. So you do.

Then comes a period The Ship’s Log when half of the conReflections of a gregation at Mass will Parish Priest be fanning themselves with the Sunday bulBy Father Tim letin but the other half Goldrick will be wrapping themselves in sweaters. You maybe get some of those in-ear need to call another technician radio transmitters. It’s probably to start the furnace. not the PA system at all. People The fan-people will then today tend to speak too quickly, proceed to open all the winslur their words, and mumble. dows and doors. The sweaterpeople will glare at them coldly. Sanctuary ministers (lay and ordained) who use the microBy Thanksgiving Day the issue phone in church should know solves itself. how to use it properly and to Here are some other comspeak clearly. plaints often heard by priests “The music is too loud/too everywhere. soft or too fast/too slow.” The “I can’t hear a thing from solution is music rehearsal. the back of the church.” I can “The homilies are too long.” address this one from personal See Acts 20:7-12. St. Paul experience. I noticed I didn’t hear as well as I did when I was was so long-winded that a man dozed-off and fell out the younger. I went to an audiolowindow to the pavement below. gist. He said, “You have good hearing for a man of your age.” Long sermons may be hazard-

ous to your health, but I’ve never heard a single complaint about a sermon being too short. ‘’There are fussy babies and crying children in church.”

Children sometimes act up.

Such is life. Praise God young families are at Mass. The solution is to leave seats available in the back so that, if necessary, a parent can temporarily take the child someplace else to calm down. By the way, does your church have a place to change a diaper?

“The priest is always asking for money.”

This is the most common complaint. True, some pastors may seem obsessed with collecting money but Christian stewardship is, after all, a responsibility of all the baptized. Pastors, on the other hand, should forego launching a capital fund-raising campaign on Christmas Eve or Easter Sunday.

Complaints are always part of public service of any sort. I would imagine the worse job in the world is staffing the complaint desk at a shopping mall. Church leaders are not immune. I’ve heard one of the former bishops of Fall River remark that, every Monday,

the chancery office transforms into a complaint department.

I wonder how many incoming calls over the years concerned the thermostat setting in some parish church or other. Murmuring comes with ministry and has since the days of Moses. Jesus Himself experienced it. So did St. Paul. A pastor cannot take it personally. That would drive him to distraction.

On the other hand, there are always parishioners who are willing and able to offer helpful observations with charity and understanding. These are a great gift to any pastor. We priests need to listen attentively to what people of goodwill are saying.

The problem is, it seems to me, that what most complainers call “constructive criticism” is, in fact, the opposite. Ours is a hypercritical society. This is not the Age of Enlightenment but the Age of Entitlement.

Many have come to the conclusion that the world (and the Church) revolves around them and them alone.

One young priest observed, “Pastoring can sometimes seem like herding cats.” Yes. Yes it can.

Anchor columnist Father Goldrick is pastor of St. Patrick’s Parish in Falmouth.

words — children of God brings When did we as a society lower to mind the necessary characour expectations so much that teristics: patience, love, and the we are willing to turn away from ability to follow one’s heart. seeking change? Are we really so Have you ever looked deeply foolish as to assume that respect into the face of a peacemaker? for the distinctive viewpoint of each and every speaker can happen in an environment where hatred is Wrestling with God tolerated? St. Teresa said, Holding on for “If we have no peace it is because we have forgotHis blessing ten we belong to each other.”

By Dr. Helen J. Flavin Any parent or teacher knows the importance Have you seen the radiant glow of expectations. Jesus challenged from a smiling Blessed Mother each of us to love our neighbor Teresa? That glow is the Holy as our self. Jesus also entrusted Spirit always preparing one to us to bring that message to our be ready to face the upcoming world. In essence, we must seek challenge. From the Old Testato share God’s love even with ment, “But the wise shall shine those who think their only way brightly like the splendor of the to live is via hate. This isn’t a job firmament, and those who lead for the faint of heart. It also isn’t the many to justice shall be like a job for those who require an the stars forever” (Dan 12:3). immediate change. It is a job An important secret is that for those courageous enough to being a peacemaker isn’t a job for awake each morning ready to someone else. The words of the begin again. Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will prayer of St. Francis of Assisi remind us we each are called to be be called children of God” (Mt peacemakers. “Lord, make me an 5:9). The very imagery in Jesus’

instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.”

Another important secret about being a peacemaker is that one does not have to look for any particularly large conflict or problem to resolve. All one needs is the desire to wish to heal the small difficulties that one can see. In her book, “The Places That Scare You,” Pema Chodron describes something she calls practice in compassion.

Pema says, “Compassion practice is daring. It involves learning to relax and allow ourselves to move gently toward what scares us.” We do this knowing God will guide our words and actions.

I remember at the nursing home was a brain tumor patient.

Part of the skull had been cut away to allow the tumor to grow.

The first time I brought her the Eucharist, I couldn’t take my eyes off the massive deformity. The

next week, I asked God to help me just look into her eyes and see the person He knew (and loved). As she took the Eucharist, I again caught myself glancing at the tumor. The next week I went back again. As I brought the Eucharist to her, her eyes held mine. She had a beautiful smile. I paused in the hall outside to thank God for answering my prayer. The following week, as I smiled and looked into her room, she was gone. I stood in the doorway and thanked God for not letting me fail that previous week. I don’t think she ever said a word to me. Yet, she guided me to finding a peacemaker within myself.

My student asked me what I thought of her quote. I responded that walking away from haters was just the start. We spoke about peacemakers and how much our world desperately needs them. I hope I planted a seed.

Anchor columnist Helen Flavin is a Catholic scientist, educator and writer and member of St. Bernadette’s Parish in Fall River. biochemwz@hotmail. com.

Peacemakers

10

November 13, 2015

After nearly 500 years, Our Lady of Guadalupe still has something to tell us Los Angeles, Calif.

(CNA) — The miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is centuries old and her message to St. Juan Diego has been translated into numerous languages over the years.

Countless books have been written about the apparition, and the tilma itself has been intensely scrutinized by scientists.

So what more can we learn about Our Lady of Guadalupe and her message?

Plenty, says Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, who along with postulator for St. Juan Diego’s cause for canonization, Msgr. Eduardo Chávez Sánchez, has pro-

duced the new documentary, “Guadalupe: The Miracle and the Message.”

“I think most people have very little understanding of the codex within the image itself, and the documentary helps explain exactly why the symbols contained within the image are so important and had such resonance,” Anderson told CNA. What many people don’t realize, he said, is that the miraculous image on the tilma is actually a kind of map full of symbols that the Aztec people would have readily recognized.

The new film is based on Anderson and Msgr. Chavez’s New York Times bestseller,

“Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Civilization of Love.” Narrated by actor Jim Caviezel, the documentary brings the story behind one of the most easily recognized religious images to life with 3D animation, live action reenactments, and expert commentary.

“I think anyone who watches this film will learn things they didn’t know, and will come to a greater appreciation of Our Lady of Guadalupe,” Anderson said.

The documentary shows that while Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez had outlawed the practice of human sacrifice, the Aztecs were witnessing the collapse of their empire, the enslavement of their people by the Spaniards, and catastrophic loss of life due to virulent disease ripping through their population.

“At the time of her apparition, the indigenous people of Mexico were anticipating the end of the world,” Anderson said.

“To understand the impact that Our Lady of Guadalupe has on the native population, you really have to put yourself in the position of these people at the collapse of the Aztec Empire and what their understanding of religion really was,” he explained in the documentary. “We have to remember the horrific face of the Aztec deities who were there to receive the human sacrifices.”

Spanish missionaries also recognized the dire situation in Mexico City. Bishop Juan de Zumarraga was so disgusted with the abuses carried out on the native population by the new Spanish government, that he felt that unless a miracle occurred, Mexico City would be lost. He even went to so far as to order all the priests to abandon the city until the government changed its ways.

Thankfully, a miracle did come by the way of the Virgin Mary appearing to the humble peasant, Juan Diego, telling him to have Bishop Zumarraga build a shrine for her on the top of Tepeyac Hill.

In the years that followed, even in the midst of ongoing strife with the Spanish government, one of the largest conversions in the history of the Church took place with nine million natives being baptized.

“Her apparition, her message, and the codex on her tilma — the images within the image that would have been so clearly read by the indigenous people — introduced Christianity in a way that invited the people of Mexico to a new hope in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, presented by His mother,” Anderson said.

For example, the blue-green cape that Mary wears in the image would have immediately indicated to the native people that she was someone important, since that was a color only an emperor could wear. Having her hair down was a style that only virgins would wear, while the black ribbon around her waist indicated she was pregnant.

“I think her message of love, her apparition as a pregnant woman, and her model of a civilization of love are all things that have at their heart the call to build a culture of life,” Anderson said.

“Not only in her image, but in her choice of Juan Diego as her messenger, she showed a profound love for every person, even the smallest, the most humble, those some saw as inconvenient. Combined with her apparition as an expecting mother, with an unborn child, her message is unmistakable.”

Although she is often associated with Mexican culture, Anderson said that Our Lady of Guadalupe was and continues to be a model of evangelization for the world.

“She not only transformed America into the Christian hemisphere, but she remains a model of inculturation, of dialogue between cultures, of healing, and above all of love,” he said. “She lovingly calls us to the Gospel message of her Son. It is no accident that her image is the most recognizable religious icon in this hemisphere and that she is revered from Alaska to Argentina.”

As a part of ABC’s “Visions and Values Series,” the documentary will air on ABC affiliate stations nationwide until December 10, right around the respective feast days of St. Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe. “(This) means that millions of Americans will have the ability to see it on network television, and I think the fact that ABC is airing it speaks to the fundamental importance of Our Lady of Guadalupe in our country — an importance that is understood not only within the Catholic world, or the Hispanic world, but the media world as well,” Anderson said.

11

November 13, 2015

Record-breaking 40 Days for Life campaign sees monumental results

Dallas, Texas (CNA/EWTN News) — After its 2015 fall campaign of prayer and fasting outside hundreds of abortion clinics around the world, the Pro-Life advocacy group 40 Days for Life says its efforts have been met with record-breaking results.

“We had 307 cities participate in the 40 Days for Life campaign in the United States and around the world, and we have really seen 40 Days for Life go into any environment and get the same result: moms choosing life at the very last minute,” Shawn Carney, campaign director of 40 Days for Life, told CNA. “We have 573 babies that we know of that have been spared from abortion.

We saw during this campaign the announcement of four abortion facilities that are closing their doors where our campaigns have taken place, and we’ve seen hearts and minds change,” Carney continued.

The latest 40 Days for Life campaign was held from September 23-November 1. The initiative began in 2004 in Texas and has now taken off internationally with hundreds of participating cities.

The mission of 40 Days for Life is to peacefully end abortion through prayer and fasting by keeping a constant 40-day vigil at abortion clinics around the world. The group also focuses on community outreach to those considering abortion or to those who

Days for Life can thrive in communihave been involved with the abortion ties around the world. industry. “[The abortion industry] are very “Every campaign, we work with weak at the grassroots level and the some of the abortion facility workers grassroots level is where you are going who have a change of heart and leave to see the strongest victory,” he said. their jobs,” Carney said, highlighting Over the years, 40 Days for Life has the 118 ex-abortion industry workers continued to grow. A number of new who have joined the Pro-Life movecities joined the ment through 40 Days for Life e have 573 babies that 2015 campaign, since 2007. we know of that have and Carney exciteMany of the been spared from abortion. We expressed ment over new 40 Days for Life saw during this campaign the an- involvement campaign leaders nouncement of four abortion fa- with some interare women who have had aborcilities that are closing their doors national comtions, men who where our campaigns have taken munities.

“We have have paid for place, and we’ve seen hearts and seen rapid abortions, or even growth in the doctors who have minds change.” country of performed aborMexico, and we tions, Carney said, had our first-ever 40 Days for Life in adding that the organization is made Colombia. We are very excited about up of largely converts. the Latin American growth that we’ve “We are not a bunch of self-righseen, particularly this fall,” he said. teous Christians telling everyone how Although some in the Pro-Life to live. We are the opposite,” Carney movement have been discouraged by asserted. the recent release of undercover videos, Each community campaign is which appear to show Planned Parent“detrimental to the abortion industry,” hood engaging in the sale of baby body he said, in part because 40 Days for parts, Carney said that these videos Life simply has more local numbers gave this year’s campaign more mothan the abortion industry. He called mentum and a renewed energy. the abortion industry “top-heavy,” saying they are powerful in Washington, D.C., but have less influence in a community setting. Because of this, 40

“W

“We saw an enthusiasm, a turning to prayer, because the videos break our hearts, and they shouldn’t lead us to despair. They should call us to prayer and show us our dependency on God, and we certainly saw that in the participation at the 40 Days for Life this fall.”

Moving forward, Carney has high hopes for the next 40 Days for Life campaign in 2016 and the Pro-Life movement as a whole.

“I think we will have more momentum than we have ever had because the abortion industry’s brand is at an alltime low,” he stated, adding that more people are now identifying as Pro-Life.

“With the videos coming out, people are hesitant to trust the abortion industry. And they shouldn’t trust them,” he said.

Carney also underscored the importance of youth involvement in the Pro-Life movement, saying that young people and converts are the future of the campaign.

“We are very much a movement of converts and that has been the strength of the Pro-Life movement. We are a movement of sinners, and that means we are a movement of hope,” he said.

“To build a culture of life, we have to protect the family. And that is exactly what we are seeing in the ProLife movement today.”

12

November 13, 2015

Church leaders should serve, not amass money, prestige, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Christians are called to go out and serve others, not live a sheltered, comfortable life just serving themselves, Pope Francis said in a homily.

“When the Church is lukewarm, closed up inside itself, even many times a wheeler-dealer,” then that Church is no longer one that “ministers, that serves, but rather uses others,” he said at a recent Mass in the chapel of his residence.

The pope’s homily, which centered on the day’s Gospel reading of Jesus’ Parable of the Unjust Steward, came the day after the official release of two books by Italian journalists detailing financial mismanagement within the Vatican.

In the parable, the corrupt manager squandered his master’s goods and shrewdly finagled some sweetheart deals for himself with his master’s debtors before he was kicked out of his job, according to the Gospel of St. Luke. The master, who is likely corrupt as well, even praises the disgraced servant “for acting prudently” and being so clever.

“These types even exist in the Church, (people) who, instead of serving and looking out for others, of building foundations, they use the Church: the climbers, the ones attached to money. And how many priests, bishops we have seen like this. It’s sad to say it, isn’t it?” the pope said.

Instead, Jesus and the Gospels call on people “to serve, to be at the service of, not to come to a halt, always to go further, forgetting about themselves,” he said.

However, it’s so easy to be tempted to take advantage of the comforts that come with

status and to start living “comfortably without honesty, like those Pharisees Jesus talks about, who stroll in the squares, making sure they are seen,” the pope said.

On the other hand, he said, the day’s first reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans shows what a disciple of Jesus is meant to do: be a minister of Christ and perform the priestly service of the Gospel so that the people may be “acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”

St. Paul could boast of what Christ accomplished through him, of being called to serve and inspired by the Holy Spirit, the pope said.

“He never stopped in order to gain advantage of a position, an authority, to be served. He was a minister, a servant.”

Pope Francis said he is filled with so much joy when nuns and priests tell him about their decades of humble service, for example, as a missionary in the Amazon or as health care providers in Africa or for the disabled.

And they are “always smiling.”

“This is called serving. This is the joy of the Church: always to go further, to go further to give one’s life”; and this is the model religious men and women are called to live up to, he said.

He asked that people pray for the grace St. Paul received, to find honor in always journeying forth and rejecting many comforts.

He asked that God “save us from temptations,” which in the end is the temptation to live “a double life: I show myself off as a minister, one who serves, but deep down, I use others.”

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, November 15, 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Wilfred J. Raymond, C.S.C., president of Holy Cross Family Ministries in North Easton.

Animated characters Charlie Brown and his best pal, Snoopy, are pictured in a scene from the movie.

For a brief review of this film, see CNS Movie Capsules below. (CNS photo/Fox)

CNS Movie Capsules NEW YORK (CNS) — The following are capsule reviews of movies recently reviewed by Catholic News Service.

“Burnt” (Weinstein) Ego-driven culinary drama in which a Paris-trained chef (Bradley Cooper) whose alcohol and drug addictions caused his promising career to crash returns from professional exile, takes over the kitchen of a prestigious London restaurant (led by maitre d ’ Daniel Bruhl) and obsessively pursues a threestar rating from France’s Michelin Guides. Among the colleagues he berates with obscenity-laden lectures in his drive for perfection are an old friend (Omar Sy) whose enmity he earned on his way down, but with whom he has reconciled, and a fetching newcomer (Sienna Miller) who becomes his sous chef and his true love. There’s a pleasant enough dessert awaiting audiences toward the end of director John Wells’ predictable conversion story. But the bad-boy protagonist’s tantrums make for an entree that many will find over-spiced while the undisguised but unrequited love Bruhl’s character entertains for him, although discreetly dealt with, will certainly

not be to every taste. As for yet another instance of the big-screen maneuver whereby any group of people can form a “family” based on shared interests and mutual support, it’s long since lost whatever doubtful savor it may originally have possessed. Cohabitation, mature themes, including homosexuality, a same-sex kiss, about a halfdozen uses of profanity, constant rough and occasional crude language. 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.

“The Peanuts Movie” (Fox) Charming animated comedy, populated by cartoonist Charles M. Schulz’s familiar “Peanuts” gang, in which hapless Charlie Brown (voice of Noah Schnapp) pines for his classmate, the Little Red-Haired Girl (voice of Francesca Capaldi)

while his fantasy-prone beagle, Snoopy (voiced, via recordings, by the late Bill Melendez), pursues romance with the World War I-era aviatrix of his daydreams. In extending a big-screen legacy that dates back to 1971, director Steve Martino is scrupulously faithful to the understated tone and the tried-and-true chemistry of his source material. Though the needless incorporation of 3-D effects leads to an overemphasis on Snoopy’s airborne adventures, back on the ground top-notch values, including altruism, honesty and loyalty — as well as a touch of prayerful Spirituality — prevail in a story well calculated to win the hearts of old and young alike.

Imaginary combat, some minor peril. The Catholic News Service classification is A-I — general patronage.

The Motion Picture Association of America rating is G — general audiences. All ages admitted.

13

November 13, 2015

Our readers respond Much progress has been made Thank you for your commitment to the ministry of bringing the light of Christ through The Anchor. However the October 30 edition ran a good story of Erin McDonald and her discernment journey that left me a little confused about Rwanda. I thought the headline was particularly misleading because Rwanda is at the present moment not a “war-torn country.” What Rwanda had 20 years ago was a genocide that intended to exterminate the ethnic Tutsi.

A million of them were killed.

The country has gone through a lot of transformation and cannot currently be described as “war-torn.” The challenges still exist but a lot of progress has been made on different fronts: reconciliation, peace, security and economic progress. Actually Rwanda has been home to thousands of refugees who fled the fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi. Rwanda is today considered one of the most stable and fastest growing in Africa. Rwanda contributes to the U.N. peace keeping mission in Sudan and Haiti.

Also in the article the author didn’t make it clear on the relationship there is between Congo refugees and Rwanda. It may seem for a reader who has no background that Rwanda and Congo are the same country as I quote, “McDonald landed in Rwanda in war-torn central Africa amidst the Congolese who engaged in violent ethnic conflict.” I was hoping to give a good context of how the Congolese refugees ended up in Rwanda and how that relates to the general peace in Rwanda. I thought label-

To advertise in The Anchor, contact Wayne Powers at 508-675-7151 or Email waynepowers@ anchornews.org

ing Rwanda “war-torn” was exaggerated given the progress made in recent years.

Father Leonard Kayondo, Kabgayi Diocese, Rwanda, currently chaplain at Saint Anne’s Hospital Fall River EXECUTIVE EDITOR RESPONDS: Thank you for your clarification of the situation. The reporter was depending upon what Erin McDonald told her. Although Rwanda has made great progress, apparently McDonald still could see some traces of what had happened there more than 20 years ago (just as people who visit Europe still think about how the World Wars and the Holocaust occurred there).

A doer of saintly work The late Father Robert J. Araujo, S. J., a native of Dighton, grew up in a close-knit farm family with hard-working and pious parents who were communicants at St. Peter’s Catholic Church. Bob was a standout student who achieved highest honors at Dighton Rehoboth-Regional High School and was accepted by Georgetown University. After four years of rigorous studies in the classical Jesuit curriculum, he chose to attend Georgetown Law School.

I was introduced to Bob after his first year of legal studies by the late Attorney Richard Martin, a Georgetown alum. I was so impressed with his intelligence, commitment and sly sense of humor that I offered him a position in my office as a summer intern. While attending Georgetown Law, Bob came into possession of a huge judge’s chair and at the end of each school year he would lash it down on the top of his tiny Volkswagen like Mitt Romney’s dog. When he would

arrive at the office, we all wondered if the judge’s chair would act as a rudder in a strong wind which might land Bob and the Volkswagen somewhere west of Illinois. Two years later, upon his passing the Massachusetts bar examination, he began to practice with me for several years.

In the course of a Friday lunch at Tommy Tanes Gourmet Restaurant, Bob told me that he intended to make a career change. When I asked what he had in mind, he said he wanted to enter the Jesuit order. Bob was far too intelligent to be satisfied with my mundane practice representing murderers, thieves, and people who had sustained whiplash in a rear-end accident. He was destined to be called to greater things and to save the souls of others rather than their skins.

Bob had a great devotion to St. Thomas More, the 15thcentury distinguished lawyer, scholar, statesman, and martyr who refused to sanction King Henry VIII’s desire to divorce his wife in order to marry Anne Boleyn. On the scaffold, More supposedly said, “I am the king’s good servant, but God is first.”

A number of years later my wife and I were privileged to attend Father Bob’s ordination as a Jesuit priest in the chapel of the College of the Holy Cross. In the interim, his provincial allowed him to further advance his legal career at such renowned fonts of learning such as Loyola of Chicago, Columbia University School of Law, and Oxford (England) Law School. Father Bob was later named as a full law professor at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., where countless students, whom he had taught the finer points of the Constitution and the Fed-

eral Rules of Civil Procedure, asked Bob in his dual role as professor and Jesuit priest to preside over their Weddings and later Baptisms of their children. Over the years Father Bob was a visiting professor of law at St. Louis University, Fordham and Boston College Law Schools.

In 2003, Father Bob was asked by the provincial of his order to become legal counsel to the Vatican’s representative to the United Nations. This was followed by an invitation to be a professor of law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy. Father Bob’s forte was international law, and he authored a number of books in that field along with a treatise on the Holy See’s diplomatic history. In fact, Father Bob finished his last book several days before he died. In 2009, he returned from Rome and was conferred the honor of being named as the John Courtney Murray University Professor at Loyola of Chicago. Father Bob had also come back to his native diocese, at St. Mary’s Cathedral of Fall River, to be the homilist on the occasion of the diocese’s Red Mass for judges, lawyers and court personnel.

Behind these honors and accomplishments, Father Bob remained the same warm, humble, and caring person I had the pleasure of practicing law with in our second floor office over the old Taunton Cooperative Bank.

Like hundreds of others with whom Father Bob touched as a friend, a colleague, and a Jesuit priest, I am a better person to have known Father Robert J. Araujo, S. J. As he approached the end of his life, residing at the Jesuit Campion Health Center in Weston, his one earthly desire

was to meet Pope Francis, a fellow Jesuit, during the Holy Father’s visit to the United States. Despite the ravages of his affliction, and the undergoing of chemotherapy causing a loss of hair, he managed to travel to Washington where his friend, the Most Reverend Carlo Vigano, the papal nuncio to the United States, introduced Bob to the Holy Father who placed his hands on Father Bob’s head and prayed over him. When my wife and I attended his Funeral Mass in the magnificent chapel at the Campion Center, I was told, by one of Father’s Bob’s Jesuit Brothers, that after the pope laid his hands on Father Bob’s head, he smiled and said, “My hair is growing back.” On October 21 of this year, Father Bob was called home to meet God after a long and painful three-year battle with cancer.

In life I have met probably hundreds of sinners, myself as one of them; but rarely have I ever met a saint. The boy who grew up on a farm in Dighton might have been one whose life’s accomplishments pointed towards his saintly work on earth. May he rest in eternal peace.

Francis M. O’Boy Taunton At Jesuits.org, Father Araujo’s confreres wrote of him, “Bob’s reserved manner and austere facial features could suggest grimness, but as soon as he spoke his warmth, kindness, and understated wit became apparent. These, along with his rigorous intelligence and high principles, were the qualities appreciated and remembered by his students, the diplomats he worked with, and by fellow Jesuits who admired and loved him.”

14

November 13, 2015

Pope calls for end to economic exploitation, power-hungry Church

FLORENCE, Italy (CNS) — Meeting workers and addressing a major gathering of the Catholic Church in Italy, Pope Francis demanded an end to economic exploitation, to clerics “obsessed” with power, to apathy among youth and to a cold, fearful Church that forgets Christ is always by its side.

“These times of ours demand that we experience problems as challenges and not like obstacles: The Lord is active and at work in the world,” he said recently inside Florence’s Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore — the third-largest church in Europe.

In a trip that covered a normal 8 a.m.-to-5 p.m. workday, the pope rallied workers, young people and hundreds of Church leaders representing the entire Italian peninsula; he met with the sick, kissed babies, admired Renaissance artwork and venerated an ancient relic.

He ate lunch with the poor and homeless and celebrated Mass in a city soccer stadium.

Much of the city seemed empty of residents, yet filled with people who came to see the pope and tourists curious about the beefed-up security and roadblocks.

Speaking to hundreds of Italian cardinals, bishops and lay people attending a national congress held only every 10 years, the pope gave a lengthy, yet clear indication of where their discussions and pastoral mission should be heading.

“We must not tame the power of the face of Jesus,” Who takes on the face of the humiliated, the enslaved and “the emptied,” he said.

A Divine Christ reflects a very human gaze of humility and selflessness, and He insists His disciples follow the Beatitudes like He did, the pope said.

“We must not be obsessed with power,” the pope said, even if it is a useful or seemingly innocuous way of getting things done. Otherwise the Church “loses its way, loses its meaning.”

Standing at a lectern beneath a stunning painted dome ceiling representing the Last Judgment, the pope said the Beatitudes indicate whether the Church is following its mission or is only thinking of protecting its own interests. Measuring oneself against the Beatitudes “is a mirror that never lies,” he said.

Reading animatedly from his

written remarks, the pope also found moments to offer a bit of humor, like when warning Church leaders against various temptations.

“I’ll present at least two” temptations, but not a huge list of 15 like he spelled out in a memorable pre-Christmas address to the Roman Curia in 2014, he said to applause and laughter in the pews.

Do not feel superior and place complete trust in structures and perfect plans, he said. This focus on the abstract and on security “often leads us to take on a style of control, harshness, regulation.”

When “facing evils or problems in the Church,” he said, “it is useless to seek solutions in conservatism and fundamentalism, in the restoration of outdated conduct and forms” that are no longer culturally relevant or meaningful.

Christian doctrine, in fact, isn’t a closed system void of questions or doubts, but is alive, restless, animated. Its face “isn’t rigid, its body moves and develops, it has tender flesh. Its name is Jesus Christ.”

The same spirit that drove Italian explorers to seek new worlds, unafraid of storms and open seas, can drive the Church in Italy, Pope Francis said, if it lets itself be driven by the breath of the Holy Spirit, “free and open to challenges of the present, never in defense out of fear of losing something.”

He also told priests and bishops to be shepherds, “nothing more. Shepherds.” To illustrate what that looked like, the pope told a story of a bishop who was riding the subway during rush hour.

It was so packed, there was nothing to hold onto, and “pushed right and left” by the swaying car, the bishop leaned on the people around him so as not to fall. A bishop will find support, he said, by leaning on his people and through prayer, he said.

Underlining the importance of caring for the poor — who know well the suffering and face of Christ, the pope asked God to protect the Church in Italy from all forms of power, facades and money.

He recalled an old practice in Italy when mothers, who were unable to care for their newborns, left behind a small medallion, snapped in half, with the babies they gave up for

adoption at a Catholic hospital.

The birth mothers would keep the other half, he said, in the hopes that one day, when times had improved, they would be able to find their children.

“We have that other half.

The mother Church has the other half of everyone’s medallion and it recognizes all of its abandoned, oppressed and tired children,” he said. “The Lord shed His Blood for everyone, not a select few.”

“I like a restless Church in Italy, ever close to the abandoned, the forgotten, the imperfect,” the pope said.

“I want a happy Church with the face of a mother, who understands, accompanies, caresses. Dream for this Church, too, believe in this, innovate with freedom,” he told the bishops, pastors and lay leaders.

The pope flew by helicopter from Rome early in the morning to land first in the industrial town of Prato on the outskirts of Florence. He apologized for his brief 90-minute visit there, saying he had come as “a pilgrim, a pilgrim in passing.”

In the town’s cathedral, he venerated the Holy Belt of Our Lady — an ancient band of wool traditionally believed to have belonged to Mary and used to wrap her flowing robes around her waist.

From the cathedral balcony, he greeted thousands of people who had woken very early for the 8 a.m. encounter or slept there overnight in sleeping bags.

Addressing young people and workers, especially foreign workers, the pope criticized the “cancer” of corruption and exploitation, calling it the “venom” of a culture built on operating outside the law.

He recalled the seven Chinese textile workers who were killed two years ago when the pre-fab warehouse they worked and slept in caught fire and caused the roof to collapse.

The pope said the deaths of those men and women, who slept in a tiny alcove jerryrigged out of cardboard and drywall, “is a tragedy of exploitation and inhumane living conditions.”

To people’s cheers and applause, he urged young people and workers to fight to the very roots of the problem of “the cancer of corruption” and “the cancer of human and worker exploitation.”

Entries sought for Family Rosary’s 2016 ‘Try Prayer!

It Works!’ Contest National competition encourages children to express faith through art, poetry and prose

EASTON — The call for entries has been announced for the 2016 “Try Prayer! It Works!” Contest. In this national competition sponsored

by Family Rosary, children participate in an inspiring faith experience as they express their belief through art, poetry and prose.

The “Try Prayer! It Works!”

Contest is open to students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The national competition attracts more than 1,000 finalist entries from approximately 22,000 participants nationwide. Children and teens from Catholic schools, parishes, home schooling and other Catholic organizations use their talent to convey their beliefs.

This year’s theme — “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers and sisters?” — is about doing God’s Will. It is by listening to the Father and understanding His wishes for us that we join the family of Heaven.

In Matthew 12:46-50, Jesus is told that His mother and brothers are waiting to speak to Him. Jesus asks, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” He then holds out His hand toward His disciples and says, “Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the Will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

“By doing God’s Will, we are welcomed into the family of Jesus and His holy mother Mary,” said Father Willy Raymond, C.S.C., president of Holy Cross Family Ministries. “That’s why we must listen ever so closely. It is difficult to hear God speak when we are distracted by so many things: texting, email, commercials, friends, activities. It is important to set

aside quiet time for prayer and meditation so we can connect with God and learn of His desires for us.”

The “Try Prayer! It Works!”

Contest asks entrants to use creativity to depict their faith.

Children in grades K-12 enrolled in a Catholic school, Religious Education program, parish, home school or other organization are eligible to participate. For details or to download an application, go to www.FamilyRosary.org/ TryPrayer. All entries must be postmarked by Feb. 1, 2016.

For more information call Holy Cross Family Ministries at 800-299-PRAY (7729).

Family Rosary was founded in 1942 by Servant of God Patrick Peyton, also known as the “Rosary Priest,” to help families pray together. Father Peyton, and the ministry, are known by two powerful and memorable sayings: “The family that prays together stays together” and “A world at prayer is a world at peace.”

Father Peyton was one of the most influential American Catholic priests of the 20th century, using the entertainment industry to further his mission of family Rosary prayer in honor of Mary and her Son Jesus.

In the spirit of its founder, Servant of God Patrick Peyton, Holy Cross Family Ministries serves Jesus Christ and His Church by promoting and supporting the Spiritual well-being of the family. Faithful to Mary, the Mother of God, the Family Rosary, a member ministry, encourages family prayer, especially the Rosary.

For more information, call 800-299-PRAY (7729) or visit www.FamilyRosary.org.

Holy Cross Family Ministries is sponsored by the Congregation of Holy Cross www.HolyCrossUSA.org.

To subscribe to The Anchor, or give it as a gift, contact Mary Chase at 508-675-7151 or Email marychase@anchornews.org

15

November 13, 2015

Supreme Court to hear HHS mandate case for Little Sisters, other non-profits

Washington D.C. (CNA/ EWTN News) — The Supreme Court will hear legal challenges to the federal contraception mandate, brought by numerous non-profit groups, including the Little Sisters of the Poor.

The court made its announcement November 6. It will take up seven cases representing numerous schools, dioceses, and charitable organizations.

At the center of the controversy is a federal rule announced by the Obama Administration that requires most employers to provide employee health care plans that cover birth control, sterilizations, and drugs that can cause early abortions.

Employers who do not comply with the mandate may face crippling fines as a penalty. In the case of the Little Sisters — an order that cares for the elderly poor and dying — this could mean up to $2.5 million per year in fines, or 40 percent of the annual amount they beg for.

After the initial outcry that the rules violated the religious freedom of employers who conscientiously objected to providing such cover-

age, the administration announced revised guidelines in the form of a religious “accommodation.” Religious organizations and non-profits that opposed the mandate are instructed to sign a form directing the government to notify their insurer of their objection. The insurer will then have the burden of providing the coverage.

While the government has argued that this coverage will ultimately be free because contraception provides “tremendous” health benefits and lowers costs that would otherwise arise from bearing children, critics contend that the costs of the coverage will still eventually be passed on to the objecting employers themselves.

Many religiously-affiliated organizations — including employers, non-profits, hospitals, and universities — still objected to the revised guidelines. They said the rules still force them to cooperate in actions that they believe to be immoral. In total, more than 300 plaintiffs have filed lawsuits challenging the mandate.

Lawyers for the U.S. Bishops Conference have argued that the

revised guidelines still put a “substantial burden” on the beliefs of religious non-profits and closelyheld businesses because they are required to hand the government “all it needs” to provide the objectionable coverage.

Last July, the Little Sisters of the Poor lost their case against the mandate at the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. The court ruled that the “accommodation” offered by the administration to religious groups like the Sisters did not put a “substantial burden” on their religious beliefs and relieves them “from complicity” in actions they find objectionable.

The Sisters applied for and received a temporary injunction from the mandate in August and appealed their case to the Supreme Court.

During his visit to the U.S., Pope Francis made an unscheduled stop at the Sisters’ Jeanne Jugen Residence in Washington, D.C. to show “support” for them in their case against the mandate, the director of the Holy See’s press office Father Federico Lombardi confirmed after the stop.

The Supreme Court has already ruled once on the HHS mandate. In

a case involving the family-owned craft chain Hobby Lobby, the court ruled in 2014 that they and similar “closely-held for-profit” businesses were exempt from the mandate.

For-profit companies that objected to the mandate had not been offered the “accommodation” given to religious non-profits.

The Green family, which owns the chain, had conscientiously objected to providing employees coverage for drugs they believed could cause abortions.

In that decision, Hobby Lobby v. Burwell, the court ruled that the mandate violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act when applied to a closely-held for-profit corporation like Hobby Lobby.

Now, the Supreme Court will consider the mandate as it applies to non-profit groups. While the case involves the plaintiffs who challenges to the mandate have already received a ruling at the federal appeals level, the decision could also apply to the plaintiffs who are still at a lower level of the court process.

A ruling is expected sometime next year.

EWTN case against mandate likely on hold until Supreme Court decision

Irondale, Ala. (CNA/ EWTN News) — With the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to hear all cases against the federal contraception mandate that have received an appellate ruling, EWTN’s case will likely be put on hold until a final decision is reached.

“Today’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the HHS contraceptive mandate cases, including the one filed by the Little Sisters of the Poor is wonderful news,” said Michael Warsaw, chairman and CEO of the EWTN Global Catholic Network.

“In our own challenge to the mandate, EWTN has been waiting for the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to issue a decision following oral arguments before that court in February 2015,” he explained. “Today’s action

by the Supreme Court may mean the EWTN case will be put on hold pending the outcome of the Supreme Court’s decision.”

Founded by Franciscan nun Mother Mary Angelica, EWTN is the largest religious media network in the world, reaching more than 230 million television households in more than 140 countries and territories.

The network includes television, radio and a publishing arm, along with a website and electronic and print news services, including Catholic News Agency.

EWTN initially filed a lawsuit against the regulation in 2012.

However, that suit was dismissed on technical grounds in March 2013.

The current lawsuit was filed in October 2013.

In June 2014, U.S. District Court Judge Callie V.S. Granade of Mo-

bile, Ala., ruled against EWTN, and the network filed an appeal. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals then issued a temporary injunction protecting EWTN from the mandate while the case continued in the court system, protecting the network from penalties of up to $35,000 per day during that time.

The February 4 oral arguments were heard by appellate court judges Jill A. Pryor, Gerald Bard Tjoflat, and R. Lanier Anderson.

EWTN made the argument that the government is being arbitrary in its granting of religious exemptions to the mandate.

“What the government is saying is that EWTN isn’t religious enough, it’s not entitled to the same religious freedom as the Catholic Church which it serves,” Lori Windham, the lead attorney for

EWTN in the case, argued before the court. Windham serves as senior counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

“Contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs are not healthcare and participating in providing them to our employees violates our Catholic beliefs,” Warsaw said. “When EWTN launched its first lawsuit against the mandate in 2012, we made it clear that we cannot and will not compromise our strongly held beliefs on these moral issues.”

“We are extremely encouraged by the fact that the Supreme Court has chosen to weigh in on this unprecedented government violation of religious liberty,” he continued. “We ask our EWTN Family to continue to keep this matter in their prayers.”

16

Youth Pages

First-grade students at St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro presented their annual All Saints Day Program to fellow students, family and friends. Each student chose a saint to represent, dressed like that saint and gave a one-minute explanation about the saint.

The students each wrote and memorized their lines. The class also sang, “As the Saints Go Marching In.”

Pre-kindergarten at Our Lady of Lourdes School in Taunton enjoyed apple pie that they made in class to celebrate Johnny Appleseed’s birthday.

Students and staff from St. James-St. John School in New Bedford enjoyed Halloween celebrations. Here some of the staff display their costumes.

November 13, 2015

Students at St. Mary’s in Mansfield celebrated All Saints Day with their annual “Holyween” Prayer service celebration.

Seventh-grade students at St. Michael School in Fall River recently studied Newton’s three laws of motion, then created a Newton Scooter based on the third law of physics. The scooter had to move without direct force from the student. Scooters had to move by an outside force. Some used water, wind and rubber bands. One scooter was created with a 3-D printer. Determination and persistence paid off; all scooters moved quite well.

The girls cross country team from St. Mary-Sacred Heart School in North Attleboro went undefeated this year, winning all of their meets. The girls received first place for their achievement.

From left: Kathleen Coen, Addie Brewster, Tessa Lancaster, Beth Parkinson, Amy Parkinson, Juliette Welter, Ari Schiffman, Grace O’Hanlon, and Italia Finucane (captain). Missing from the photo were: Julia Guthrie (captain), Silvia Toncelli, Sara Toncelli and Annette DeTrolio.

November 13, 2015

K

eeping with tradition, as we begin each November talking about All Saints and All Souls, I asked our youth group (mostly middle school students) the following questions: ‘“Who wants to become a saint?” Only four from the group raised their hands. Then I asked them, “Who wants to go to Heaven?” A unanimous response was what I received.

Interesting, isn’t it?

The wanting to go to Heaven is undeniable. However, the road to get there is a mystery to many. Or is it? Why are young people “embarrassed” to live a saintly life, or, at least claim to want to become a saint? Each year at this time I share a story with young people about how we can become a saint.

There was a professor of philosophy at USC who was a deeply committed atheist. His primary goal for one required class was to spend the entire semester attempting to prove that God couldn’t exist.

His students were always afraid to argue with him because of his impeccable logic.

For 20 years, he had taught this class and no one had ever had the courage to go against him. Sure, some had argued in class at times, but no one had ever really gone against him because of his reputation. At the end of every semester on the last day, he would say to his class of 300 students, “If there is anyone here who still believes in Jesus, stand up!” In 20 years, no one had ever stood up. They knew what he was going to do next. He would say, “Anyone who believes in God is a fool. If God existed, He could stop this piece of chalk from hitting the ground and breaking. Such a simple task to prove that He

Youth Pages Who wants to go to Heaven? is God, and yet He can’t do it.” And every unbroken. The professor’s jaw dropped as he stared at the chalk. He looked up at year, he would drop the chalk onto the the young man, and then ran out of the tile floor of the classroom and it would lecture hall. shatter into a hundred pieces. All of the The young man who had stood prostudents would do nothing but stop and ceeded to walk to the front of the room stare. Most of the students thought that God couldn’t exist. Certainly, a number of and shared his faith in Jesus for the next half hour. Three hundred students stayed Christians had slipped through, but for and listened 20 years, they as he told of had been too God’s love for afraid to stand them and of His up. power through Well, a few Jesus. years later there Could you was a freshman

By Ozzie Pacheco respond and who happened stand up with to enroll. He the courage was a Chrisof that young man and profess your tian, and had heard the stories about his faith in God? What he did was nothprofessor. He was required to take the class for his major, and he was afraid. But ing short of being wholly holy — a for three months that semester, he prayed Christian attitude of living a saintly life.

There are so many among us living with every morning that he would have the this attitude. courage to stand up no matter what the It’s this same courage that allows us professor said or what the class thought. the firmness of mind that is required in Nothing they said could ever shatter his doing well and fighting evil. This is the faith, he hoped.

Finally, the day came. The professor said, “ If there is anyone here who still believes in God, stand up!” The professor and the class of 300 people looked at him, shocked, as he stood up at the back of the classroom. The professor shouted, “You fool! If God existed, He would keep this piece of chalk from breaking when it hits the ground!” He proceeded to drop the chalk, but as he did, it slipped out of his fingers, off his shirt cuff, onto the pleat of his pants, down his leg, and off his shoe.

As it hit the ground it simply rolled away

Be Not Afraid

17 gift that helped the Apostles leave the upper room. You see, the Apostles were afraid that people would make fun of them and laugh at them because Jesus, the Person they were claiming to be their Messiah, had left them. Courage allowed them to overcome that fear just as you can when others are keeping silent about their faith or making fun of you for your beliefs. Courage will help you fight the good fight of faith.

Courage helps you to recognize and rejoice in God’s glory. In doing so you will be reminded that your goal is to live a good life, a saintly life, so you will spend eternity with God. How awful a thought to think that I would not see God forever.

“Give glory to God, praise His name and announce His Salvation day after day!”

(Ps 96).

Desire to become a saint. It’s the attitude that confirms our wanting to go to Heaven.

God bless!

Anchor columnist Ozzie Pacheco is Faith Formation director at Santo Christo Parish, Fall River.

Bishop Stang Student Ambassadors Caitlin McHenry, Kailee Peixoto, and Aparna Roy host the Campus Ministry Table with “Pope Francis,” at the North Dartmouth school’s recent open house.

The Coyle and Cassidy class of 2017 recently celebrated their Junior Ring Mass. With families and friends in attendance, the class solidified its place in Warrior history. A long-standing tradition at the school, this event symbolizes class unity and serves as a reminder that all students are Warriors for life. While many students chose to purchase new school rings to commemorate this event, Owen Haynes, a third generation Warrior, chose to have his grandfather’s ring blessed. His grandfather, Joseph Bettencourt, is a graduate of Msgr. Coyle class of 1954. When asked how he felt about his grandson wearing his ring, he stated, “It is my honor to share this ring with him.”

From left: Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association instructor Bill Pierce and cofounder Bob Schriever time Bishop Connolly freshmen as their skills are tested during a CPR and AED certification course recently offered at the Fall River school. BCHS has held similar trainings each fall since 2013 to ensure that all Connolly students have the knowledge and skills to deliver lifesaving emergency aid.

18

November 13, 2015

Diocese to begin assessing parishes in January continued from page one

“It’s very, very common and whether you like it or not, it’s got to be done,” Zech said.

Zech attributed the growing need for parish assessments to the sluggish economy and an increased reliance on many of the social services the Church provides.

“With the combination of providing more services and the shortfall in revenue, it’s difficult to keep up,” Zech said.

Zech said the shortage of priests and religious and the fact that dioceses are now relying more and more on lay people and “well-qualified professionals” has also contributed to overall expenses.

“The Church got by for a

long time with scandalously underpaid nuns and priests, so now we’re moving more to a lay workforce,” he said.

“And even the lay people are well underpaid, but they still cost more than a nun or a priest would have in the past.”

According to the statement released by the diocese, the assessment is a sign that all Catholics are part of a bigger community and must do their share to support it. Parishes are also part of the Fall River Diocese, and income offered through an equitable parish assessment policy is another way to share in its overall mission.

Noting that each parish is not an independent congregation but part of the

Visit us online at www.anchornews.org

Money is flying out the window The Anchor spends nearly $2,000 in postage change fees each year!

The Post Office charges The Anchor 70 cents for notification of a subscriber’s change of address. Please help us reduce these expenses by notifying us immediately when you plan to move.

Please Print Your New Address Below

NAME: STREET ADDRESS: CITY, STATE, ZIP: NEW PARISH: MOVING DATE: Please attach your Anchor address label so we can update your record immediately.

Clip and mail form to: The Anchor, P.O. Box 7, Fall River, MA 02722

Anchor works to keep publication in print worldwide Universal Church, Father Jon-Paul Gallant, pastor of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Parish in South Attleboro, informed his parishioners of the assessment last weekend.

“Our bishop has asked all the parishes in the diocese to contribute to the central administration that assists him in his role as the pastor of the diocese,” Father Gallant said.

“This includes parishes that are financially secure as well as those ‘on the periphery,’ as the Holy Father might say.

“Our parish is not wealthy, but we are able to pay our bills. We have been assessed at 11 percent of parish income beginning on Jan. 1, 2016. So, if you are able to add 11 cents to each dollar of your parish support, we will be able to assist our bishop and all our fellow parishioners in the Diocese of Fall River. Remember, we are all in this ‘One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church’ together, and although this assessment will be a financial challenge to the parish, I am sure it is one we can meet together.”

“We are all part of the diocese and it’s important for us to do our best to support one another,” said Father George C. Bellenoit, pastor of St. Pius X Parish in South Yarmouth. “I think we’ve been blessed by the fact that we haven’t been asked to do something like this before in our history, and we’re only now being asked to do something that most other dioceses have been doing for many years.”

continued from page one

While the format of the “new” paper is still being developed, The Anchor will continue to key on diocesan news, as well as retaining the services of its outstanding columnists.

In order to continue producing one of the most local Catholic newspapers in the country, The Anchor must rely on those whom it serves — the many faithful subscribers, who, year-after-year, have been a vital cog in keeping The Anchor machine running.

Included in next week’s Anchor (November 20), will be an envelope insert for readers to renew an active subscription, subscribe anew, or to make a tax-deductible contribution to help the paper meet its production costs. These renewals, new subscriptions and donations will come directly to The Anchor and not through the parishes.

With income only from subscribers and advertising, it’s a daunting task to meet production and overhead costs without an increased subscription base and assistance from other sources. Therefore, periodically the paper will run subscription/renewal/donation coupons and encourage readers to “tell a friend,” about the benefits of a diocesan newspaper. In fact, The Anchor has already received donations from a number of faithful in the diocese.

The Anchor has already spoken with a close friend, Holy Cross Family Ministries, headquartered in Easton. HCFM and The Anchor have had a strong relationship, with some Holy Cross Fathers periodically writing for the paper, and The Anchor’s extensive coverage of the sainthood process

for HCFM’s founder, Servant of God, Holy Cross Father Patrick Peyton, the “Rosary Priest,” who is buried in the diocese on the grounds of Stonehill College in Easton. The ministry is excited to support The Anchor in the change to a new format and a “call to action” to maintain a Catholic press presence in the diocese.

The Anchor is also seeking the support of other benefactors and Catholic institutions who may be willing to be a part of that call to action of bringing the Good News of Church teaching to the thousands who are now receiving The Anchor, many of whom are home- or nursing home-bound.

An online drive has also been set up at gofundme.com/anchor for those who would like to make a tax-deductible donation to help The Anchor. A link to the site will also be available at The Anchor website at anchornews.org.

In an almost prophetic manner, Bishop Connolly said in his statement in The Anchor’s maiden edition 58 years ago, “With all our easy entertainment on radio and TV, we still need the printed word. Books and newspapers have always been regarded as sources of reliable information. The Catholic pulpit needs the help of the Catholic press. Much of our conviction, and most of our learning depends on what we read, understand and believe.

“The Anchor will broaden the horizon of our interest and make us surer and stronger in our faith. I am confident it will make friends quickly and keep them through the years.”

Through prayers and the help of diocesan faithful, may The Anchor remain “up and away” for years to come.

Mideast Christian leaders urge all to preserve region’s coexistence

CAIRO (CNS) — Christian Church representatives meeting in Cairo called for peace in the region and for preserving coexistence.

The Executive Council of the Middle East Council of Churches urged “heads of state and religious and political decision-makers in the world, Arabs and Muslims” to work toward the preservation of religious pluralism, saying it is “the most precious treasure of the East.” In a recent statement, the Christian leaders invited them “to face the forces of darkness, destruction and extremism.”

The leaders stressed that in-

terfaith dialogue is “the essential pillar of relations with our partners and compatriots.”

In their statement, the leaders thanked Pope Francis for the attention he gives to Christians in the Middle East. They also noted that they prayed that the war stops in Syria and Iraq; for peace in the Holy Land, especially in Jerusalem; for a just settlement of the Palestinian cause; for the martyrs of the Armenian Genocide; and also for an end to the Turkish occupation of Cyprus.

The leaders also called for the election of a new president in Lebanon, which has been without a head of state since

May 2014 when the term of Michel Suleiman ended without the election of a successor.

They noted that it is the only post held by a Christian in the region.

Those attending the meeting, hosted by the Coptic Orthodox Church, headed by Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria, included Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan; Catholicos Aram of Cilicia, patriarch of the Armenian Apostolic Church; Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem; and Bishop Munib Younan, president of the Lutheran Church in the Holy Land.

19

November 13, 2015

Eucharistic Adoration in the Diocese Acushnet — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. Francis Xavier Parish on Monday from 9:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Tuesday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Evening prayer and Benediction is held Monday through Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

ASSONET — Beginning September 14, St. Bernard’s Parish will have Eucharistic Adoration every Monday from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. The Blessed Sacrament will be exposed on the altar at the conclusion of 9 a.m. Mass and the church will be open all day, concluding with evening prayer and Benediction at 6:30 p.m.

ATTLEBORO — Eucharistic Adoration takes place in the Adoration Chapel at St. Vincent de Paul Parish, 71 Linden Street, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.

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

ATTLEBORO — There is a weekly time of Eucharistic Adoration Wednesdays from 7-9 p.m. at St. John the Evangelist Church on North Main Street.

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, Monday through Saturday, from 6:30 to 8 a.m.; and every first Friday from noon to 8 a.m. on Saturday.

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 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 11:30 a.m. in the Chapel of Reconciliation, with Benediction at 11:30 a.m. 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 continuous Eucharistic Adoration from 8 a.m. on Thursday until 8 a.m. on Saturday.

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

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

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

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

Falmouth — St. Patrick’s Church has Eucharistic Adoration each First Friday following the 7 a.m. Mass, with Benediction at 4:30 p.m.

MANSFIELD — St. Mary’s Parish, 330 Pratt Street, has Eucharistic Adoration every First Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., with Benediction at 5:45 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 Fridays from 7:30-11:45 a.m. ending with a simple Benediction NORTH DARTMOUTH — Eucharistic Adoration takes place at St. Julie Billiart Church, 494 Slocum Road, every Tuesday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., ending with Benediction. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is available at this time.

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

NORTH EASTON — A Holy Hour for Families including Eucharistic Adoration is held every Friday from 3-4 p.m. at The Father Peyton Center, 518 Washington Street.

ORLEANS — St. Joan of Arc Parish, 61 Canal Road, has Eucharistic Adoration every First Friday starting after the 8 a.m. Mass and ending with Benediction at 11:45 a.m.

The Sacrament of the Sick is also available immediately after the 8 a.m. Mass.

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

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

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

Taunton — Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament takes place every First Friday at Annunciation of the Lord, 31 First Street. Exposition 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 — Eucharistic Adoration at St. Patrick’s Church begins each Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. and ends on Friday night at midnight. Adoration is held in our Adoration Chapel in the lower Parish Hall. ~ PERPETUAL EUCHARISTIC ADORATION ~ 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.

NEW BEDFORD — Our Lady’s Chapel, 600 Pleasant Street, offers Eucharistic Adoration seven days a week, 24 hours a day. For information call 508-996-8274.

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

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 are invited to sign up to cover open hours. For open hours, or to sign up call 508-430-4716.

Church of martyrs, polarization in U.S. Church seen as ‘mega trends’

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (CNS) — Catholic journalist John L. Allen Jr., a CNN analyst and an associate editor of the Boston Globe, discussed the future of the Catholic Church — describing what he called three “mega trends” in the Church today — during a recent gathering in Louisville.

As the keynote speaker for the Archdiocese of Louisville’s Archdiocesan Leadership Institute, Allen shared his analysis of the Church with archdiocesan agency staff, clergy, religious and parish staff and volunteers. Allen, who also is an associate editor of the Globe’s Catholic news website, Crux, began by cautioning his listeners: Trying to predict the future of the Church with Pope Francis at the helm is a “fool’s errand.”

He suggested, instead, that Catholics “step back” and examine “the big picture.”

In thinking about Catholic life, Allen said he sees three “mega trends” that may shape the Church’s future: the rise of a world Church; the rise of a Church of martyrs; and “tribalism,” a sort of multifaceted polarization, in the U.S. Church.

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks Nov. 14 Rev. Francis J. Duffy, Founder, St. Mary, South Dartmouth, 1940 Rev. William A. Galvin, JCD, Retired Pastor, Sacred Heart, Taunton, 1977 Deacon John H. Schondek, 2001 Nov. 15 Rev. Thomas F. LaRoche, Assistant, Sacred Heart, Taunton, 1939 Rev. Daniel E. Doran, Pastor, Immaculate Conception, North Easton, 1943 Nov. 16 Rev. John Brady, Former Pastor, Sandwich, New Bedford, Wareham, 1856 Nov. 17 Rev. Henry R. Canuel, Former Pastor, Sacred Heart, New Bedford, 1980 Nov. 18 Rev. William Beston, C.S.C., Chaplain, Paul Dever School, 2004 Nov. 19 Rev. Msgr. Lester L. Hull, Retired Pastor, St. Mary, Our Lady of the Isle, Nantucket, 1982 Rev. Philodore H. Lemay, M.S., La Salette Provincial House, Attleboro, 1990

Around the Diocese Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish, 984 Taunton Avenue in Seekonk, will host a Healing Mass on November 18 beginning at 7 p.m. It will conclude with healing prayers and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

Attention parents and grandparents: Come hear ways you can draw your family closer to God and to teach your children to live what you believe. On November 19 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Holy Name Parish in Fall River, guest speakers John and Paula Wilk will share the importance of faith and family especially in our culture today. All are welcome to join them for an informative evening that will bless you.

A Healing Mass will be celebrated on November 19 at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 1359 Acushnet Avenue in New Bedford. The Mass will begin at 6:30 p.m. and will include Benediction and healing prayers. At 5:15 there will be a holy hour including the Rosary.

For directions or more information visit www.saintanthonynewbedford.com or call 508-993-1691.

All are invited to pray the new Culture of Life Chaplet on November 19 at 1 p.m. in St. Jude’s Chapel of Christ the King Parish in Mashpee. Recitation is on ordinary Rosary beads and will include a brief meditation preceding each of the five decades.

St. Elizabeth Seton Parish, Quaker Road in North Falmouth, will host its Christmas Fair on November 21 from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. featuring coffee and donuts, a luncheon at 11:30 a.m. serving lobster rolls, clam chowder and more, a country store featuring Christmas decorations including dried flower arrangements and wreaths, antiques and collectibles, jewelry, handmade items including beautiful knitwear, baked goods, books and raffles with many prizes including a trip to Bermuda leaving from Boston.

St. Jude the Apostle Parish will be having its annual Penny Sale at the church hall, 249 Whittenton Street in Taunton, on November 21 at 6 p.m. Doors open at 5 p.m. In addition to three regular series, there will be specials, roll-ups, refreshments, a raffle on 15 turkey dinner baskets, and a money raffle with $1,000 as the first prize.

A Country Christmas Bazaar, presented by Corpus Christi Parish, 324 Quaker Meetinghouse Road in Sandwich, will take place November 21 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Come and see the many wonderful handmade creations by our crafters, the aroma of our homemade baked treats, and enjoy a delicious lunch at our café, take a chance at our Noella raffle and our handmade quilt raffle, and stop by to see many of your favorite vendors.

This spectacular event will be taking place at the parish center including classrooms.

St. John Neumann Parish, 157 Middleboro Road in East Freetown, will be hosting a Thanksgiving Christ the King Taizé service on November 22 at 7 p.m. This is an ecumenical candlelight service of Scripture, music and chant, colors and meditative silence for folks to come together in faith to offer thanks and praise to Christ the King.

Holy Trinity Parish, 951 Stafford Road in Fall River, will hold its Harvest Penny Sale on November 22 at 1 p.m. in the parish hall. Sponsored by the Holy Trinity Women’s Guild, the event will include door prizes and food. Admission is just $1.

The Catholic Women’s Club of Christ the King Parish, Jobs Fishing Road in Mashpee, will sponsor its Annual Christmas Fair on December 5 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the parish center. Featured will be a variety of crafters selling handmade items to include old world Santa’s, nautical ornaments, jewelry, knitted hats and scarves, gel candles, glass cheese boards, porcelain tiles and much more. Additionally, there will be handcrafted live Christmas wreaths and seasonal arrangements, gift and cash raffles, lovely boutique items, unique gift baskets, baked goods and a shopping room for children with face painting and games. Hungry shoppers can also relax over lunch at the popular Holly Café.

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

20

November 13, 2015

Wichita bishop brings formal report on war-hero priest to Vatican

Several of the travelers from St. Nicholas of Myra in North Dighton are also missionaries to Guaimaca, Honduras with K of C Council No. 14947. While in Philadelphia they were hoping to give Pope Francis one of their “Mission Possible” T-shirts with a message of love to him, along with each of the signed names of those visiting Philadelphia. On Sunday, the day of the World Meeting of Families Papal Mass, the group met several priests heading to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. They greeted them and asked if they were going to be with Pope Francis, and one replied yes. He was asked if he would be able to give the Holy Father the shirt to which he agreed. He was Father Omar Mateo from Ecuador. The group could only hope it was on its way to the pope. Those who went were: Brian Brown, Manuel Avilla, Lloyd Simpson, Richard Raiche, Ed Kremzier, Mike LaPlante, and Paul Spearin, along with Lucas Fagundes, Nancy Brown, Karen Paradis, Colleen Simpson, Ruth Andrade, Lauren Caswell, Violet Caswell, and Teri Carpenter. Here Nancy Brown gives the T-shirt to Father Mateo.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A week after the 65th anniversary of Father Emil J. Kapaun’s capture in North Korea, the bishop of Wichita, Kan., formally presented a report on the Army chaplain’s life, virtues and fame of holiness to the Congregation for Saints’ Causes.

Bishop Carl A. Kemme of Wichita and a small delegation from the diocese met November 9 with Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the congregation, and other officials to hand over the 1,066 report known as a “positio.”

During the Korean War, Father Kapaun, a priest of the Wichita diocese, and other members of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, were captured by Chinese troops in North Korea Nov. 2, 1950. The priest died in a North Korean prison camp May 23, 1951.

President Barack Obama presented the Medal of Honor posthumously to the war-hero priest in a White House ceremony in 2013, but the men who were imprisoned with Father Kapaun and the faithful of the Diocese of Wichita had been honoring him long before that.

“Since the day his fellow prisoners of war in the Korean Conflict (1950-1953) were liberated after their

Supply is nearly sold out!

long and cruel incarceration, during which Father Kapaun was instrumental in providing to his fellow soldiers unparalleled pastoral care, word of his saintly virtue has been spreading and continues to our day,” said a letter Bishop Kemme wrote and delivered to Cardinal Amato.

“I’m very honored and humbled to be part of this moment,” Bishop Kemme said after handing over the “positio,” which is based on a long diocesan investigation of Father Kapaun’s life, writings and eyewitness testimony, including with prisoners who survived the camp.

Andrea Ambrosi, the postulator or promoter of the cause, said it took 12-13 months to write the volume, which should go to a team of Vatican historians for review in April.

Archbishop Marcello Bartolucci, secretary of the congregation, told Bishop Kemme and his delegation that if the historians have no questions and believe the biography and the information about the circumstances of Father Kapaun’s death are complete, the report would

go to a commission of theologians.

Under normal circumstances, Archbishop Bartolucci said, the theologians would not get to the report for at least 10 years, but since Father Kapaun is the first sainthood candidate from the Wichita diocese, it gets precedence. He is hoping to get the report on the commission’s calendar for late 2017.

“While you are waiting — a year or two — you can work on the miracle,” the archbishop told the bishop.

In fact, Bishop Kemme told him, the diocese already has identified and is working on the documentation for two healings. One of them could be the miracle needed for Father Kapaun’s beatification.

While Bishop Kemme was at the Vatican, supporters of Father Kapaun’s cause were praying. A special Novena for the beatification of Father Kapaun began November 2, the 65th anniversary of his capture at the Battle of Unsan, and ended on Veterans Day, November 11.

Bishop Carl A. Kemme of Wichita, Kan., presents Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, a report at the Vatican recently detailing the life and heroic Christian virtues of Father Emil J. Kapaun, a Wichita priest and Army chaplain who died in a North Korean prison camp in 1951. (CNS photo/Cindy Wooden)