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Diocese of Fall River, Mass.

F riday , November 15, 2013

Priests and deacons offer reflections on Year of Faith

over the past year with The Anchor.

“I always have loved and appreciated FALL RIVER — With the release of ecclesiastical holy years — the Jubilee his apostolic letter “Porta Fidei” (Door of Year, the Year of the Eucharist, the Year Faith) on Oct. 11, 2011, Pope Benedict of the Rosary, the Year For Priests — and XVI declared that a Year of Faith would so I was very excited when Pope Benebegin exactly a year later, on Oct. 11, dict announced back in October 2011 2012; beginning its first day on the 50th that there would be a Year of Faith,” said anniversary of the opening of the Second Father Roger J. Landry, pastor of St. BerVatican Council and the 20th anniversary nadette’s Parish in Fall River. “Such years of “Catechism of the Catholic Church.” allow us to look at everything through a During the Year of Faith, Catholics were new prism and with God’s help become asked to study and reflect on the docu- stronger in faith. I had noticed that there ments of Vatican II and the “Catechism” was a need to strengthen both aspects of so that they might deepen their knowl- faith: our trust in God and our confidence in what He teaches. I hoped that it would edge of the Catholic faith.

Diocesan priests and deacons used the be an opportunity for me and my parishYear of Faith as an opportunity to be a ioners to receive the grace to increase in “summons to an authentic and renewed faith so that the Lord would be able to conversion to the Lord, the One Savior say about us what He said about the Caof the world,” (Porta Fidei 6) in the Fall naanite woman in the Gospel: ‘Great is Turn to page 15 River Diocese, and shared their thoughts

By Becky Aubut Anchor Staff

Noted Biblical scholar and author Dr. Scott Hahn spent a day last week at St. Mary’s Parish in Mansfield speaking first to a group of diocesan priests and deacons, above, then presenting two more sessions entitled “Lord, Have Mercy: The Healing Power of Confession” and “Consuming the Word: The New Testament, the Eucharist and the New Evangelization” later that evening. Hahn’s talks were events of the Fall River Diocese’s Year of Faith observance. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

Parish maintains Miraculous Medal devotion for 70 years

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

TAUNTON — When she was just six years old, Mary Rose remembers first coming to the Monday night novenas with her mom at what was then St. Joseph’s Church in Taunton.

“Many mothers took their children to the novena and it’s been a big part of my life ever since,” Rose told The Anchor. “I’ve tried to make it every Monday night, whenever possible.”

Now, 70 years later, Rose — a lifelong parishioner who asked that her

real name not be used because “it’s not about me” — and a devoted group of fellow attendees at the since-merged St. Andrew the Apostle Parish have continued to keep those weekly Monday night Miraculous Medal novenas alive.

As Catholics worldwide prepare to celebrate the feast of the Miraculous Medal on November 27, which commemorates the Blessed Mother’s appearance to St. Catherine Labouré in France in 1830, this small and dedicated group of parishioners has Turn to page 18

A Pro-Life sign with the image of a fetus in the womb is displayed near an image on a tree that bears a resemblance. A group of faithful people who hold vigil outside Four Women Health Services in Attleboro, the only operating abortion clinic in the Diocese of Fall River, recently noticed the image, and saw it as a gentle whisper of affirmation of the good works they are doing to help save innocent lives.

God’s ‘law of nature’ provides a ‘whisper’ of affirmation for standing up for life

By Dave Jolivet Anchor Editor

Mother Dolores Hart, OSB, a former actress who appeared in two films alongside Elvis Presley, spoke to a standing-room-only crowd inside St. Joseph’s Chapel on the campus of Stonehill College in Easton last weekend. The Benedictine nun who released her memoir earlier this year entitled “The Ear of the Heart: An Actress’ Journey From Hollywood to Holy Vows,” decided to answer a calling to religious life after starring in several successful Hollywood films. Mother Dolores’ appearance included a booksigning after the talk and was sponsored by Holy Cross Family Ministries. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

ATTLEBORO — Those who saw the image that day weren’t like the folks who found what appears to be the Blessed Mother on a potato chip or Jesus in a potato, and then go sell the “apparition” on eBay. The image was subtle, and some may call it a coincidence, and others will say “You can see whatever

you want in whatever you want.” That wasn’t the point for the faithful souls who routinely hold prayerful vigil outside the Four Women Health Services in Attleboro, the only operating abortion clinic in the Diocese of Fall River.

The image is very near the clinic in the stub of a large limb cut from a tree. It doesn’t take much imagination to see it has a resemblance to a baby Turn to page 14

News From the Vatican

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November 15, 2013

God is One Who searches for the lost, Pope Francis says

Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — In a recent daily homily Pope Francis reflected on the parables of the lost sheep and coin from the day’s readings, stressing that God has a special love for sinners who are lost.

“God is not a good loser, and this is why, in order not to lose, He goes out on His own, and He goes, He searches, He searches for all those who are far away from Him, like the shepherd who goes to search for the lost sheep,” the pope said.

The pontiff directed his words to those present inside the chapel of the Vatican’s Santa Marta guesthouse, where he has chosen to reside.

In his opening comments, Pope Francis remarked on the attitude of the scribes and the Pharisees from the daily readings, describing how they were scandalized by the things that Jesus did, and murmured against Him because He ate “with the publicans and the sinners.”

Jesus responds to this “music of hypocrisy,” noted the pope, by answering “this murmuring with a joyful parable.”

“The words ‘joy’ and ‘happiness,’” he explained, appear in the short reading “four times: three times joy, and once happiness.

That is the most profound message of this story: the joy of God, a God Who doesn’t like to lose.”

“He can’t stand losing one of His own,” the pope emphasized, recalling that on the night He was arrested, Jesus prays, asking His Father “may none get lost, of those You have given to Me.” “He is a God Who walks around searching for us, and has a certain loving weakness for

those who are furthest away, who are lost. He goes and searches for them.”

“And how does He search?” asked the pope, “He searches until the end, like the shepherd who goes out into the darkness, searching, until He finds the sheep. Or like the woman, when she loses a coin, who lights a lamp and sweeps the house, and searches carefully. That’s how God searches.”

Pope Francis went on to describe how once the shepherd finds his lost sheep and brings it back to the flock, no one should say that “you are lost,” but that “you are one of us,” because this returns dignity to the lost sheep.

“There is no difference,” he noted, because God “returns to A caregiver accompanying a sick person greets Pope Francis during a recent general audience in St. the fold everyone He finds. And Peter’s Square at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) when He does this, He is a God Who rejoices.”

“The joy of God is not the death of the sinner, but the life of the sinner.”

Concluding his reflections, VATICAN CITY (CNS) her father, Andrea Sciarretta, Who will forgive you. Jesus is the pontiff highlighted how far — Saying, “don’t worry, we who said his daughter has spi- waiting for you there.” from Jesus were those who “mur- aren’t taking up a collection,” nal muscular atrophy. The famAs for charisms, Pope Franmured against” Him, adding that Pope Francis asked people at ily, he said, was invited by the cis described them as “atti“They didn’t know Him.” a recent weekly general audi- pope to visit the Vatican, pray tudes, inspirations and interior “They thought that being re- ence to perform an act of char- with him, spend the night and promptings” that are given to ligious, being good people meant ity by praying for a seriously share their meals with him. an individual for the good of always being well-mannered and ill 18-month-old girl named Sciarretta and his wife have the whole Church and increase polite, and often pretending to be Noemi. been in the news in Italy be- the unity of the Church. polite, right? This is the hypocrisy “If a charism is used for Being part of the Church cause of their efforts to perof the murmuring.” means sharing “spiritual goods suade doctors to allow Noemi self-affirmation,” he said, “it’s “But,” stressed the pope, “the — the Sacraments, charisms to be treated with a new, largely doubtful that it’s an authentic joy of God the Father, in fact, is and charity” — including by untested and unapproved non- charism or that it’s being lived love. He loves us.” helping someone or praying embryonic stem-cell treatment. faithfully.”

Pope Francis stated that al- for those in need, he said.

But, the pope said, love is Solidarity in action and in though we are often hesitant to Returning to the theme of prayer is an “integral part of the key to discerning authenreceive the love of God due to “the communion of saints,” communion among Chris- tic charisms and to increasing our sins, Jesus tells us “I love you which he spoke about at his tians,” the pope said in his au- Christian unity. anyway, and I go out searching audience October 30, Pope dience talk. “If we live this, we “Without love, no gift is for you, and I bring you home.”

Francis said it not only refers are Sacraments of God’s love useful,” he said. “Where there “This is our Father,” he fin- to the bond existing between in the world.” is no love, there is a void filled ished, “Let’s reflect on this.” by egoism.”

The Sacraments, he said, Church members living and At the same time, he said, dead, but also refers to the are not simply rituals. Jesus is bond of unity and sharing that present in them and the Holy “even the smallest act, when should mark the life of Chris- Spirit pours out grace through done with love, benefits all.”

The charity that should them, “increasing in us a strong tians on earth.

The pope told the estimated and joyful faith, a faith able to reign among Christians isn’t 50,000 people in St. Peter’s marvel at the wonders of God “that nickel and dime charity Square that before the audi- and to resist the idols of this that we offer occasionally, but something deeper: a commuence, he had met Noemi and world.”

“This is why it is impor- nion that makes us able to enher parents. Despite her illtant to receive Communion, ter into the joy and the sorrow ness, “she smiled,” he said.

“Let’s perform an act of to Baptize babies early, to get of others and sincerely make love. We don’t know her, but Confirmed,” he said. The Sac- them our own,” he said.

“Too often we are arid, inshe’s been Baptized — she’s raments increase “the presence one of us, a Christian,” he said, of Christ in us, which helps different and detached, and rather than transmitting leading the crowd in a mo- us.” brotherhood, we transmit dis“It is important, when we ment of silence and then the contentment, coldness, selfishknow we’ve sinned, to go to recitation of the Hail Mary.

Passionist Father Ciro the Sacrament of Reconcilia- ness,” he said.

“Can you help the Church Benedettini, assistant director tion,” he said, adding that he of the Vatican press office, told knows some people are afraid grow that way?” the pope reporters the pope had met of the priest’s reaction. “He asked the crowd. The people the baby and her parents at his won’t wallop you,” the pope shouted, “No,” and he told said. “In the Sacrament, you them, “the Church grows only residence.

Vatican Radio interviewed will encounter Jesus, Jesus with love.”

Share each other’s burdens in prayer, acts of love, pope says

3 The International Church Argentine lay people help young mothers, women considering abortion November 15, 2013

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNS) — Three years ago, Aida Miranda found herself alone and pregnant in the Argentine capital. The young Paraguayan Catholic woman was so desperate that she began to consider abortion, which is illegal in Argentina.

“I felt a heavy moral burden, how could this have happened to me, I had a religious formation,” recalled Miranda, now 29, who once considered being a nun. “I was terrified. Raising a child alone in Argentina is not easy.”

A friend told her about Gravida, the voluntary Argentine organization that accompanies young pregnant mothers until well after the birth of the child. Miranda said it took all of her courage to go to her first meeting, and she was trembling so much that the volunteers had to physically help her inside.

She told Catholic News Service that she is thankful she took those first steps, though she is well aware that the road ahead of her as single mother is a long and difficult one. She

Diocese of Fall River

OFFICIAL

His Excellency, the Most Reverend George W. Coleman, Bishop of Fall River, has announced the following appointments: Deacon Bruce Baxter, Deacon at Saint Francis Xavier Parish, Hyannis Deacon Eduardo Borges, Deacon at Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Parish, New Bedford, and Saint Anthony of Padua Parish, New Bedford Deacon Brendan Brides, Deacon at Christ the King Parish, Mashpee Deacon Robert Craig, Deacon at Holy Family Parish, East Taunton Deacon Timothy Flaherty, Deacon at Saint Stanislaus Parish, Fall River, and Good Shepherd Parish, Fall River Deacon Ralph Guerra, Deacon at Saint Margaret’s Parish, Buzzards Bay Deacon Paul Harney, Deacon at Christ the King Parish, Mashpee Deacon Gary John, Deacon at Holy Trinity Parish, Fall River Deacon Paul Levesque, Deacon at Saint Bernard Parish, Assonet Deacon Frank Lucca, Deacon at Saint Dominic’s Parish, Swansea Deacon Thomas McMahon, Deacon at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Parish, Seekonk Deacon David Murphy, Deacon at Saint Patrick’s Parish, Wareham Deacon Gary Porter, Deacon at Saint Mary’s Parish, Mansfield Deacon Lawrence St. Pierre, Deacon at Saint Vincent de Paul Parish, Attleboro Deacon Rick Varicur, Deacon at Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus Parish, South Attleboro Effective: October 30, 2013

was taken under the wing of Gravida psychologist Florencia Smurra, and today she supports herself and her son by cleaning houses.

On a recent Saturday, Miranda sat in a Gravida meeting in the community room of Buenos Aires’ Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish. Her two-year-old son, Gonzalo, trotted around the room, clutching a toy car in his hand and playing with another little boy as volunteers kept an eye on them.

The five young mothers in attendance spoke on topics ranging from diaper changes to pacifiers and going out to dance for the first time since the birth of the baby.

Miranda said the volunteers and other young mothers at Gravida have become her strongest support system and replacement family.

“They have helped me see that my son is a blessing, though it is very difficult to raise a child alone,” she said.

Going back to Paraguay with its weak economy is not an option, and her family is not in a position to provide her with financial or emotional support. She said she wants to raise her son in an emotionally healthier environment than she had as a child, and Gravida has helped her learn to appreciate her own self-worth and abilities.

Founded in 1989 by layman Juan Martin Reddel in the province of Buenos Aires, Gravida has since grown to include 27 dioceses and 45 locations in which it reaches out to young pregnant women at risk of abortion or without an adequate support network. Its headquarters is in the city of San Pedro.

Through meetings and workshops, the Gravida volunteers work to bolster the women’s feeling of self-worth, self-esteem and self-appreciation, said Diana Castillo, national director. In addition to professional neonatal and postnatal counseling, they provide hands-on workshops in handicrafts and cooking so the young women, many whom have not finished high school, can gain skills to help support themselves. The volunteers also encourage the women to continue their studies, when possible, and help them find child-care alternatives.

Though the number of women who seek help from

Gravida fluctuates, the foundation’s officials estimate that they have been helping an average of 1,000 nationally over the past decade. Gravida is funded mostly from international donations from bishops’ conferences in Europe and the United States, as well as some private donations.

“We help accompany the young mothers, we don’t impose or try to convince them to do what we want,” said the national spiritual adviser, Father Bernardo Ruiz Moreno.

“We try to enrich their life so that they can go on to reconstruct their life in dignity and respect. In this way they can contemplate (other options), thanks to this experience of God and this faith.”

Gravida helps the women realize the opportunities to widen their support network in other places, while also allowing others to become a part of that network. But Father Ruiz said it is also important that the women realize that Gravida is not there to solve, nor can it solve, all of their

problems.

He noted that as the economic situation in Argentina has worsened and the gap between rich and poor has grown, the social fabric of the traditional family unit has begun to unravel, and there are more incidents of teen pregnancies.

“It is not only a question of more young mothers, but this process (of deterioration of the cultural norms) of the society has made the young mothers less prepared in general to move forward with their maternity, making the adolescent mothers more vulnerable,” he said. Many of these issues, he added, are cross-cultural and not unique to Argentina.

Because these young women have been abandoned culturally and emotionally and excluded from educational possibilities, Gravida seeks to strengthen them as mothers, said Castillo.

“We are interpreting their needs, including them in programs to give them what they need to be better mothers and women,” she said.

GOMA, Congo (CNS) — The Catholic Church rejoiced at the end of a yearlong military campaign in North Kivu by the defeated rebels of the M23 movement, but made it clear that much remains to be done to consolidate that peace.

In a recent 9 tour around areas held only days before by the rebels, Bishop Theophile Kaboyi Ruboneka of Goma called on citizens to work hard to consolidate a peace that was “acquired at the price of blood,” referring especially to the last offensive, which ended November 5. “We are thankful to God that this

nightmare has ended,” Bishop Kaboyi told the U.N.-run Radio Okapi. “Now, as we are condemned to live together, we must be reconciled.”

Congolese Catholic officials have made it clear that, despite an end to hostilities in North Kivu, their country has not seen the end of its trials. Bishop Fridolin Ambongo Besungu of the Bokungu-Ikela, president of the bishops’ justice and peace commission, announced that the Church would join an international ecumenical campaign for peace in the Great Lakes region. The campaign will be launched December 1.

After cease-fire, Congo’s bishops say much work remains before peace

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November 15, 2013 The Church in the U.S. Catholic scholars voice concern over Common Core curriculum

Washington D.C. (CNA/EWTN News) —More than 130 leading Catholic scholars have signed a letter to the U.S. bishops criticizing the Common Core State Standards for school curricula, warning that the core philosophy will “undermine Catholic education.”

“We believe that implementing Common Core would be a grave disservice to Catholic education in America,” said the recent letter, organized by Notre Dame Law School professor Gerard Bradley.

The scholars said they are convinced that the Common Core standards are “so deeply flawed” that they should not be adopted by Catholic schools and that those which have endorsed the standards should “seek an orderly withdrawal now.”

The Common Core State Standards were created with the intention of setting uniform educational standards across various U.S. states. The effort to create the standards originated with the National Governors’ Association and the school superintendent leadership organization, the Council of Chief State School Officers.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has become a major backer of the project, giving more than $160 million to develop and promote it, Politico reports. The Obama Administration has also created strong monetary incentives for states to adopt the curriculum.

Since 2010, more than 100 Catholic dioceses have decided to implement the Common Core curriculum, as have 45 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

In some cases, Catholic schools are following the lead of state law. In Indiana, Catholic schools had to adopt the Common Core because state vouchers are available to religious schools only if they adopt state standards, National Review Online reported in May. The Catholic scholars’ letter, sent to every bishop in the U.S., said the curriculum lacks “America’s Catholic schools’ rich tradition of helping to form children’s hearts and minds.”

“In that tradition,” they wrote, “education brings children to the Word of God. It provides students with a sound foundation of knowledge and sharpens their faculties of reason. It nurtures the child’s natural openness to truth and beauty, his moral goodness, and his longing for the infinite and happiness.”

“Education in this tradition forms men and women capable of discerning and pursuing their

path in life and who stand ready to defend truth, their Church, their families, and their country.”

By contrast, they said, Common Core is “a recipe for standardized workforce preparation” that “shortchanges” the goals of Catholic education.

The curriculum’s Catholic critics include Robert George of Princeton University, Anthony Esolen of Providence College, Scott Hahn of the University of Steubenville, Patrick Deneen of the University of Notre Dame, David Schindler of the Catholic University of America, and Janet Smith of Sacred Heart Major Seminary.

“W

e fear, too, that the history standards will promote the easy moral relativism, tinged with a pervasive anti-religious bias, that is commonplace in collegiate history departments today.”

They charged that curriculum standards reduce the study of “classic, narrative fiction” in favor of “informational texts.” This reduces reading to “a servile activity” that does not explore “the creativity of man, the great lessons of life, tragedy, love, good and evil, the rich textures of history that underlie great works of fiction, and the tales of selfsacrifice and mercy in the works of the great writers that have shaped our cultural literacy over the centuries.”

Sister John Mary Fleming, executive director for Catholic education at the U.S. bishops’ conference, told the New York Times that the criticism was misconceived — that the standards should be regarded not as a ceiling, but as a floor.

“We see the Common Core as a minimum, just as we’ve seen other state standards in the past as a minimum, and we intend to go way beyond that.”

Critics, however, have questioned whether shifts in focus and funding will pressure schools to emphasize standardized tests and a narrow set of skills aiming at college preparation rather than comprehensively educating the entire person.

They also question whether the curriculum standards for earlier grades are excessively complex and whether students and teachers have been prepared for the changes.

At present, only math and English Common Core standards have been released. However, the scholars’ letter warned that standards in other areas

will likely “promote the prevailing philosophical orthodoxies,” including a “materialist metaphysics” incompatible with the spiritual worldview that Catholicism presupposes.

“We fear, too, that the history standards will promote the easy moral relativism, tinged with a pervasive anti-religious bias, that is commonplace in collegiate history departments today.”

The letter said Catholic officials approved the curriculum with “good intentions” though “too hastily,” and with “inadequate consideration of how it would change the character and curriculum of our nation’s Catholic schools.”

Catholic skeptics of Common Core also include some high school principals. The Cardinal Newman Society, an organization dedicated to Catholic identity in education, surveyed 73 principals of schools that had made its Catholic High School Honor Roll or received honorable mention in 2012.

Of the 60 who responded, almost half thought the adoption of Common Core standards would hurt their school while 23 percent thought it would make no difference, and fewer than 14 percent thought they would improve their school.

Forty percent said their diocese and local Catholic schools should pause and study the standards; almost one-third said they should decline to participate.

Red Sox outfielder’s father praises son’s accomplishments Honolulu, Hawaii (CNA) — The father of Boston Red Sox outfielder Shane Victorino is “very proud” of his son’s accomplishments at the World Series and of his charitable work.

The Red Sox won the baseball championship on October 30, after playing six games with the St. Louis Cardinals.

“We are thankful to God for his baseball talent which has given him great opportunities in life,” Mike Victorino told the website Fathers for Good, of his son Shane.

Fathers for Good is a men’s initiative run by the Knights of Columbus which aims to inform men and inspire them to be better fathers and husbands.

“Thank God also that he is using that talent for good purposes off the field. That’s what it’s all about.”

Shane, nicknamed the “Flyin’ Hawaiian,” hit a bases-loaded double in the third inning of the World Series’ sixth game to help the Red Sox defeat the Cardinals. He had hit a grand slam home run in the American League championship series against the Detroit Tigers, but a tight back hindered his World Series play until the sixth and final game.

“He came through,” Mike said. “He was having a few challenges with his back, but he has always been one to fight back and never give up.

I think we all saw that in the sixth game.”

The proud father is Hawaii state deputy for the Knights of Columbus, and Shane has been a member of the Knights for eight years.

Mike said he tells his son that baseball is like life, in that “you have to answer the question: what have you done for me lately?”

He praised his son’s work with the Shane Victorino Foundation, which has dedicated $1 million to rebuild a historic Boys and Girls Club in Philadelphia. The foundation also runs sports clinics and outreach programs for youth in Hawaii and other states.

November 15, 2013

The Church in the U.S.

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CDF bars participation in events assuming truth of Medjugorje

People surround a makeshift altar during Mass inside a barn at Heberle Farms in Kendall, N.Y. The bilingual Mass, organized by the Diocese of Rochester’s migrant ministry, was celebrated for area farmworkers reaping the fall harvest. (CNS photo by Mike Crupi, Catholic Courier)

Catholics communicate with Jesus through the Eucharist, says bishop

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (CNS) — Most of the people who arrived at Sacred Heart Cathedral for a recent 12:10 p.m. Mass had no idea they were about to meet Bishop Salvatore R. Matano, former bishop of the Diocese of Burlington, Vt., the newly appointed ninth bishop of the Diocese of Rochester.

By the time they left the cathedral an hour later, however, many of them had met their new shepherd and been won over by his warmth, sincerity and reverence for the Eucharist.

Bishop Matano, for his part, had told them they were among the diocese’s richest treasures and asked them to pray for him.

Shortly before the Mass began, several people audibly gasped when the pastor of the cathedral community, Father Kevin McKenna, announced that Bishop Matano would be the main celebrant of the Mass that day and be joined by retired Rochester Bishop Matthew H. Clark and Bishop Robert J. Cunningham of Syracuse, who has been serving as the diocese’s apostolic administrator since September 2012.

“Our usual 12:10 Mass, as you can see, is going to be exciting,” Father McKenna said before the Mass began. Bishop Matano celebrated the Mass at Sacred Heart less than an hour after being introduced to the diocese during a news conference at the diocesan pastoral center.

He downplayed the media attention, however, and instead refocused the spotlight on the Eucharist, which he called “the very Body, Blood and Soul and Divinity of Jesus.”

“In the midst of all the activ-

ity today, this is really the most important,” Bishop Matano said.

“We come here to bring to the Lord all our needs and intentions. I ask for your prayers, but at the same time I pray for you.”

To deliver his homily, Bishop Matano walked around the altar and stood directly in front of those seated in the cathedral’s front row.

Many years ago, he said, the bishop of a well-to-do diocese was asked to name his diocese’s biggest treasures. He responded that those treasures were not buildings or items, but the people who faithfully attended Mass every day.

Looking directly at the congregation, Bishop Matano assured them that he valued them as much as the bishop in his story treasured his daily Massgoers.

“Day in, day out, you carve out a part of your day to come to Mass and be here with God,” Bishop Matano said.

In the day’s reading from chapter 14, verses 25-33, of St. Luke’s Gospel, Jesus told His disciples to take up their crosses and follow Him. One way to do this is by showing fidelity to Jesus by making time for Him day after day and year after year, Bishop Matano said.

“What is a saint but anyone who has kept in constant communication with Jesus? This is what we’re doing at Mass.

We’re communicating with Jesus through the Eucharist,” he said, noting that kind of communication is what gave St. John Fisher, patron of the Rochester Diocese, and other saints the strength to lay down their lives for their faith.

Bishop Matano called Sacred Heart Cathedral a “magnificent” mother church, praising

its stained-glass windows and architecture. Such beauty was made possible, he said, because many people made sacrifices so they could honor God with a beautiful church.

“And you in this mother church complete and fulfill its beauty. You represent for me today the countless numbers of people throughout the diocese who are so faithful,” Bishop Matano said. “May God bless you.

“Pray for me, and I will always pray for you, and I look forward to my next phase of life here among you,” he added.

After Mass, Bishop Matano spent several minutes with the relatives and friends of a man who had recently died in an accident and in whose memory the Mass had been said.

Sacred Heart parishioner Shirley Mauro, a friend of the man’s family, said she was impressed by Bishop Matano’s friendly and personable nature.

After spending some time with the family, Bishop Matano lingered in the cathedral to greet more members of the congregation.

Several parishioners gathered in groups after Mass to discuss their impressions of their new shepherd. “It is a blessed day! I wasn’t expecting this,” parishioner Faith Connor said excitedly.

Mary Ann Puglisi Martinez, a parishioner of Rochester’s Our Lady of Victory/St. Joseph, said she was thrilled to see the new bishop at Mass.

“I think he’s very serious and I also think he’s going to bring some fresh thoughts on Catholicism and where we’re going.

We need him, and we’ve been without a bishop too long. It’s great to have him here,” she said.

Washington D.C. (CNA/EWTN News) — At the direction of the Vatican’s head for doctrine, the apostolic nuncio to the U.S. has written a letter stating that Catholics “are not permitted” to participate in meetings which take for granted that the supposed Marian apparitions in Medjugorje are credible.

“The Congregation (for the Doctrine of the Faith) has affirmed that, with regard to the credibility of the ‘apparitions’ in question, all should accept the declaration which asserts: ‘On the basis of the research that has been done, it is not possible to state that there were apparitions or supernatural revelations,’” Archbishop Carlo Vigano wrote in a recent letter to the bishops of the U.S., sent to the general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“It follows, therefore, that clerics and the faithful are not permitted to participate in meetings, conferences or public celebrations during which the credibility of such ‘apparitions’ would be taken for granted.”

CNA confirmed that the letter was sent to every diocese in the U.S. Archbishop Vigano wrote the letter “at the request” of Archbishop Gerhard Muel-

ler, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The letter was evidently following up on one sent February 27.

The nuncio wrote that Archbishop Mueller “wishes to inform” the U.S. bishops that Ivan Dragicevic, one of the “so-called visionaries” of Medjugorje, is scheduled to give presentations at parishes across the country, and is anticipated to have more apparitions during these talks.

The visions of Medjugorje refer to a series of alleged Marian apparitions that begin in 1981 in what is now Bosnia.

In 1991, the bishops of the former Yugoslavia had determined that it is not possible to say there were Marian apparitions at the site. In 2010, the Vatican established a commission to further investigate “doctrinal and disciplinary aspects of the phenomenon of Medjugorje.”

Because that commission is still in the process of its investigation, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has established that the judgment of the Yugoslavian bishops be accepted.

“To avoid scandal and confusion,” wrote Archbishop Vigano, “Archbishop Mueller asks that the bishops be informed of this matter as soon as possible.”

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November 15, 2013

Anchor Editorial

Our loving union with saints and souls

As we continue through this month dedicated to the saints in Heaven and the souls in purgatory, these witnesses to the faith remind us of how to love God with all our being and how to love our neighbors as ourselves.

St. Albert the Great, whom we celebrate today (Friday), speaks to us about how the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist helps us live out that love. “The Sacrament produces love and union. It is characteristic of the greatest love to give itself as food.

Had not the men of my tent exclaimed: ‘Who will feed us with His Flesh to satisfy our hunger?’ (Wis 31:31), as if to say: ‘I have loved them and they have loved Me so much that I desire to be within them, and they wish to receive Me so that they may become My members. There is no more intimate or more natural means for them to be united to Me, and I to them.’” What a beautiful meditation on the loving union we can experience via Communion.

Tomorrow (Saturday) the Church remembers another saint, with a vocation different from that of St. Albert. While he was a religious order priest (Dominican) and later bishop, Saturday’s saint was a wife and mother. St. Margaret of Scotland was actually not Scottish by blood (she was an Englishwoman who was born in exile in Hungary), but rather by Marriage. Her family was attempting to escape England again when a storm forced their ship to Scotland (to a place now called “St. Margaret’s Hope”). The king of Scotland gave them refuge, fell in love with Margaret and married her. She helped smooth out his rough edges as she led him to an active love for the poor, serving them on their hands and knees.

Franciscans Leonard Foley and Pat McClosky, O.F.M., in their book, “Saint of the Day: Lives, Lessons and Feasts,” reflected about St. Margaret: “There are two ways to be charitable: the ‘clean way’ and the ‘messy way.’ The ‘clean way’ is to give money or clothing to organizations that serve the poor. The ‘messy way’ is dirtying your own hands in personal service to the poor. Margaret’s outstanding virtue was her love of the poor. Although very generous with material gifts, Margaret also visited the sick and nursed them with her own hands. She and her husband served orphans and the poor on their knees during Advent and Lent. Like Christ, she was charitable the ‘messy way.’”

An ancient history says of Margaret’s husband, King Malcolm, that he acquiesced to Margaret’s way of doing things because “there was in him a sort of dread of offending one whose life was so venerable; for he could not but perceive from

her conduct that Christ dwelt within her; nay more, he readily obeyed her wishes and prudent counsel in all things; whatever pleased her, he also loved for the love of her.” In other words, what St. Albert the Great said about the Eucharist making Christ become One with us was apparent to Malcolm looking upon his wife, and so he treated her as Christ and he followed her instructions to treat the poor the same way.

St. Margaret did not want her children to become spoiled brats, so she was not one to coddle them, but corrected them with love, so that they, too, would love Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and in their neighbors. In doing so, she imitated God’s own disciplining of us. Pope Francis on Tuesday of this week said, “Our God, like a Father with His child, teaches us to walk, teaches us to walk along the path of life and Salvation. It’s God’s hands Who caress us in our moments of pain and Who comforts us. [God’s hands] are hands that are wounded from love [and heal us]. I could never imagine those hands giving us a slap, Never. Never. Even when He scolds us, He does it with a caress.”

Natural disasters are not punishments sent by God. They are part of the mystery of suffering which exists in this world, a mystery which confounded Job in the Old Testament, a mystery which has been illuminated for us in these New Testament times by the light of Christ’s cross. He suffers with us, He helps us to know that we are not alone, since He is present directly in our prayer and through good people who help us.

Pope Francis tweeted this week, “We remember the Philippines, Vietnam and the entire region hit by Typhoon Haiyan. Please be generous with prayers and concrete help.” One way in which we can concretely help the victims of the typhoon is through donations to Catholic Relief Services (CRS). The United States Bishops’ website has a direct link to CRS’ webpage, where one can make a donation (https:// secure.crs.org/site/Donation2?df_id=6140&6140.donation=form1). If you are without a computer, you can mail your donations to Catholic Relief Services, 228 W. Lexington Street, Baltimore, Md., 21201-3443.

As we pray for our fellow Catholics and many other people who died in Haiyan, our sacrifices to help the living can also be offered up for the repose of the souls of the dead. Thus, we will be both doing a corporal and a spiritual work of mercy at the same time, while we remain united with these people so far away via the Eucharist.

Pope Francis’ weekly Angelus address and prayer Dear brothers and sisters, hello!

This Sunday’s Gospel presents us Jesus contending with the Sadducees, who denied the Resurrection. And it is precisely on this topic that they pose a question to Jesus to give Him trouble and ridicule faith in the resurrection of the dead. They propose a hypothetical situation: “A woman had seven husbands, who died one after the other,” and they ask Jesus: “Whose wife will she be after her death?” Jesus, always meek and patient, first of all responds that life after death does not have the same parameters as life on earth.

Eternal life is another life, in another dimension, where, among other things, there will be no Marriage, which is linked to our existence in this world. The resurrected, Jesus says, will be like angels, and they will live in a different state that we cannot experience or imagine now. And

this is how Jesus explains things.

But then Jesus, so to speak, launches a counterattack. And He does this by citing Sacred Scripture with a simplicity and an originality that fills us with admiration for our Master, the only Master! Jesus finds the proof of the resurrection in the episode about Moses and the burning bush (Ex 3:1-6), where God reveals Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The name of God is connected to the men and women to which He binds Himself, and this link is stronger than death.

And we can also say of God’s relationship with us, with each one of us: He is our God! He is the God of each one of us! It is as if He bore our name. It pleases Him to say it, and this is the Covenant. This is why Jesus says: “God is not the God of the dead but of the living, because everyone lives for Him” (Lk 20:38). And OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER

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this is the decisive link, the fundamental covenant, the covenant with Jesus: He Himself is the Covenant, He Himself is the Life and the Resurrection because, with His crucified love, He overcame death. In Jesus, God gives us eternal life, He gives it to everyone, and thanks to Him everyone has the hope of a life still more true than this one. The life that God prepares for us is not merely an embellishment of this present life: it transcends our imagination, because God continually awakens wonder in us with His love and with His mercy.

So, what will happen is precisely the contrary of what the Sadducees expected. It is not this life that illuminates eternity, the other life, the one that awaits us, but eternity — that life — that illuminates and gives hope to the earthly life of each one of us! If we look at things only with human eyes, we are brought to say that man’s journey runs from life to death.

This is obvious! But this is only the case if we look at things with human eyes. Jesus stands this perspective on its head and says that our pilgrimage runs from death to life: to fullness of life! We are on a journey, on pilgrimage toward the fullness of life, and that life is what enlightens us on our journey! So, death is behind us, at our backs, not in front of us. Before us there is the God of the living, the God of the Covenant, the God Who bears my name, our name, as He said: “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” also the God with my name, with your name, with your name, with our name. God of the living! Before us is the final defeat of sin and death, the beginning

of a new time of joy and of light without end. But already on this earth, in prayer, in the Sacraments, in fraternity, we meet Jesus and His love, and in this way we can have a foretaste of the risen life. Our experience of His love and His fidelity lights a fire in our heart and increases our faith in the resurrection. In fact, if God is faithful and loves, it cannot be for a limited time: fidelity is eternal, it cannot change. God’s love is eternal, it cannot change! It is not for a limited time: it is forever! And to go forward! He is faithful forever and He awaits us, each of us, He accompanies each of us with this eternal fidelity. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

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

Hail Mary...

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

Hail Mary...

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

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

Following the recitation of the Angelus, the Holy Father greeted those present in St. Peter’s Square:

“Today in Paderborn, Germany, Blessed Maria Theresia Bonzel will be proclaimed blessed. Foundress of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, she lived in the 19th century. The Eucharist was the source from which she drew Spiritual energy to dedicate herself with untiring charity to the weakest. Let us praise the Lord for her witness!

I would like again to assure the people of the Philippines and that region, who have been struck by a massive typhoon, of my closeness to them.

Unfortunately, there are many victims and enormous damage. Let us pray for a moment in silence and then to Our Lady for these brothers and sisters of ours and let us try also to help them concretely. Let us pray in silence. [And then after a pause:] Hail Mary ....

Today is the 75th anniversary of the so-called Kristallnacht, the night of violence against Jews, their synagogues, homes and businesses [in Germany and Austria] Nov. 9-10, 1938. It marked a sad step toward the tragedy of the Shoah. Let us renew our nearness and solidarity with the Jewish people, our big brothers.

And we pray to God that the memory of the past, the memory of past sins help us to be ever more vigilant against every form of hatred and intolerance.

This Sunday in Italy the Day of Thanksgiving is celebrated. I join my voice to that of the bishops, expressing my nearness to the agricultural world, especially to young people who have chosen to work the land. I encourage those who work to ensure that no one goes without healthy and adequate food.

November 15, 2013

O

n October 19, I attended the international Catholic New Media Conference held this year at the Archdiocese of Boston’s Pastoral Center in Braintree.

There I heard the tremendous keynote address by Msgr. Paul Tighe, a priest of Dublin who serves in the Vatican as the Secretary for the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

Entitled “The Vatican and Digital Media,” Msgr. Tighe not only presented the recent history of what the Vatican has been doing, but described how the Church as a whole has to respond to cultural changes to propose the Gospel effectively today.

He began by describing the astounding success of the pope’s Twitter account (@Pontifex), which has almost 10 million followers in eight languages and the highest re-tweeting percentage of any Twitter account in the world. More important than what the pope might have said initially on Twitter, Msgr. Tighe said, was the fact that “he was there.” The pope was signaling to the Universal Church, “This is a global sphere that we must be present in.”

The pope was therefore giving recognition and saying “well done” to those who were already “bringing the Church into that arena” and giving encouragement and saying “this is worth doing” to those who have not yet entered the digital continent.

After the pope launched his Twitter feed, Msgr. Tighe related, diocesan communications officers from across the world told him, “‘Finally, I can tell my bishop this is for real. This is serious. It’s not a fad. It’s not going away. The pope is there, you better think about it.’” That’s a message that parishioners can share with their pastors who have not yet made social communications a personal and parochial priority.

Simply put, the savvy use of social media — Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, comboxes, smartphone and tablet applications so heavily used by the young and young at heart — is perhaps one of the clearest indicators as to whether a parish or a diocese is fundamentally about maintenance or mission.

“Increasing numbers of

Anchor Columnist The Church and the social media

people are spending sigwhich parishes, dioceses and nificant portions of their life faithful need to adapt if we’re engaged with social media. going to reach our contempoIt’s an existential dimension raries with the Gospel. of their lives,” Msgr. Tighe Much like traditional misdeclared. “If the Church isn’t sionaries sought to inculturpresent in the digital arena, ate the Gospel, expressing we’re going to be absent from it in language and concepts their lives.” that people could understand, The Vatican’s strategy, how- likewise the Church today is ever, goes far beyond symbolic recognition and encouragement.

Putting Into It’s also trying to help the Deep Catholics across the world use the social media to pass on the

By Father faith.

Roger J. Landry Msgr. Tighe described the development of news.va, which brings called to inculturate our mesinto one convenient website sage within the digital conthe information from all of tinent, giving the Word flesh the Vatican media outlets — and images as we bring it to Vatican television, radio and our fellow digital inhabitants. newspaper, texts from the “The biggest challenge pope, documents from various we face, particularly for my Vatican departments, press generation in the Church,” the releases, and more.

55-year-old priest declared, Prior to the development “is that we grew up with the of news.va, Msgr. Tighe joked, idea of the pulpit: I’m here, “You needed a [doctoral] I talk, you listen. The microdegree to navigate your way phone let us reach further. The around the information. Now radio took us even further. we bring it all to one page The TV let you see us as well in five languages.” This was as hear us. But we were at the done to allow people to find center and you were out there out what is happening in the consuming.

Vatican far more easily, as well “New media is different. as to enable Catholics to use I speak, I talk, I reflect, I say that information to spread something. If you like it, or and defend the faith. disagree enough with it to The most illuminating part comment on it, or you have of Msgr. Tighe’s address was something to add to it, you when he analyzed the cultural might share it and that’s how transformation that is occurit gets out there. For us, there’s ring through the social media. a whole learning about how This is something that all we communicate. It’s interacCatholics should grasp and to tive and it’s participative. If I

say something, I need to be ready to take something back.

That’s how I might get interest. That’s how I might meet someone at his level.”

The social media is changing the way people interact with each other, how we form relationships, friendships and community. That’s forcing the Church to adapt how we seek to bring about how we bring about the communion with God and each other that is the Church.

Social media requires us to engage people’s questions, comments and feedback, knowing that a discussion in a public forum conducted with Christian coherence, respect, and civility may bring many third parties to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the Catholic faith — and sometimes to conversion and faith.

The basic orientations of the social media to form

7 relationships and friendships, to search for truth and information, to share one’s life and ideas and to follow, all have “theological resonances” in Christianity. “The Church is a network,” Msgr. Tighe said.

“We are a community of communities. We already have an easy fit to the digital arena.”

At the same time, he added, “We need to raise our game.”

We need to do more than be present, but with the grace that comes from God, set a standard for excellence in the social media, at the local and global level, that can lift others up.

The social media is not fundamentally about the “technologies,” Msgr. Tighe concluded, but about “heartto-heart communications,” and that’s something in which the Church should always excel.

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

8

I

magine, if you will, two brothers having two very different days. It is the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the plan is for them to travel with the rest of the family to an aunt and uncle’s house for a large, extended family get-together the next day. The ride is somewhat long and they will be leaving after dinner.

Everyone has arrived home from school for the Thanksgiving break and the house is electric with anticipation. As soon as dad gets home from work they will eat.

The older brother, an eighth-grader and a little bookish, just got a 100 percent on a test and is still basking in the afterglow of an exceptional quarterly report card and the subsequently increased video game privileges. Having completed all of his chores he is excitedly waiting by, not quite nagging, making sure his other siblings are ready to go as well, while

November 15, 2013

Running to meet Christ with joy visions of grandma’s apple pie to cheat off of someone else’s dance in his head, a shametest. The teacher gave him an less plug — since the author automatic “0.” is himself an older brother.

Suddenly, as a car turns The younger brother is a onto the street, ringing sixth-grader and already bethrough the house come coming a formidable athlete. the words that send the Although quite smart, his older brother to the door in attentions have been drawn in other directions. He just failed a Homily of the Week math test. You see, he Thirty-third Sunday never really was very in Ordinary Time interested in multiplication and division —

By Father he doesn’t see its useMichael Fitzpatrick fulness. He is pretty good at addition and subtraction because obviously you need to know a puppy-like excitement, and how long a play was and the younger brother hiding where to spot the ball on penin his closet in dread: “Dad’s alties, etc., but multiplication home!” Two very different — not so much. As a result he reactions coming from two never really studied his mulvery different days. This is tiplication tables. He got by precisely the picture that is because a friend of his on the painted by the prophet Malateam used to let him copy his chi in this week’s first reading tests. His friend, though, was (Mal 3:19-20a), the psalmist absent from school today, and in the responsorial psalm (Ps this brother got caught trying 98:5-6, 7-8, 9), and Our Lord

in the Gospel (Lk 21:5-19).

The Church year runs from the first Sunday in Advent to the last Sunday in Ordinary Time, “ordinary” as in numbered, not “we don’t know what else to call it.” This last Sunday in Ordinary Time is always celebrated as the feast of Christ the King, for King He is, and He is coming — we just don’t know exactly when. When He does come in glory, how we meet Him and anticipate His coming will have to do with how we are living now — just like the two brothers and their dad. Will we perceive His coming in joy and run to be with Him, or will we be filled with dread and fear? He is the same Lord, we are the ones who have the different reactions.

The Scriptures this week are meant to begin to pre-

pare us by bringing us to this focus. Next week is the feast of Christ the King, and the following week begins the new Church year and the season of Advent — which interestingly enough literally means “to come.” In Advent we look forward and backward: forward to His coming in glory as King at the end of time, and backward to His first coming in Bethlehem of Judea 2,000 years ago. We remember what He has already done, and the freedom and grace that we have received as a result. We know and trust that like St. Paul exhorts us in this week’s second reading (2 Thes 3:7-12) if we work and stay the course, although it may be difficult, we can indeed live the life to which we are called — to imitate St. Paul as he imitates Christ — and so, run to meet Him with joy.

Father Fitzpatrick is a parochial vicar at Corpus Christi Parish in East Sandwich.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Nov. 16, Wis 18:14-16; 19:6-9; Ps 105:2-3,36-37,42-43; Lk 18:1-8. Sun. Nov. 17, Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Mal 3:19-20a; Ps 98:5-9; 2 Thes 3:7-12; Lk 21:5-19. Mon. Nov. 18, 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. 19, 2 Mc 6:18-31; Ps 3:2-7; Lk 19:1-10. Wed. Nov. 20, 2 Mc 7:1,20-31; Ps 17:1,5-6,8b,15; Lk 19:11-28. Thurs. Nov. 21, 1 Mc 2:15-29; Ps 50:12,5-6,14-15; Lk 19:41-44. Fri. Nov. 15, 1 Mc 4:36-37,52-59; (Ps) 1 Chr 29:10-12; Lk 19:45-48.

T

he Rev. George William Rutler, S.T.D., a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, is a man of parts: graduate of Dartmouth, Oxford, and Rome’s Angelicum (“the Dominican faculty that flunked Galileo,” he informs me); linguist, painter, violinist, and boxer; preacher extraordinaire. One of Catholicism’s most successful pastors, he has been a magnet attracting converts and vocations for decades. Father Rutler is also that contemporary clerical rarity, an accomplished man of letters who writes as gracefully as he speaks (or throws a punch, or paints a watercolor, or pours you another glass of champagne).

In “Cloud of Witnesses: Dead People I Knew When They Were Alive” — why can’t I come up with subtitles like that? — Father Rutler told amusing, touching, and/or revealing anecdotes about a cast of characters ranging from the late Queen Mother Elizabeth to Mother Teresa: “Characters … who have impressed me because God in different ways impressed them … [and who]

Georgian delights

taught me something about the lived until 1949; Stroop was hanged after the war for his infinite variety of human grandeur.” Now, with “Principalities role in liquidating the Warsaw Ghetto. and Powers: Spiritual Combat Then there was Cardinal 1942-1943,” Father Rutler does the seemingly impossible — he Pierre-Marie Gerlier, archbishop of Lyons and Primate finds new tales of, and new meaning in, World War II, perhaps the most written-about event in human history.

Many of those stories involve the bravery

By George Weigel of Churchmen in the face of tyrants.

Thus when Greek Orthodox Archbishop Damaskinos of Athens ordered of the Gauls, who “threatened to excommunicate anyone his people to hide persecuted who bought property unjustly Jews, SS commander Jürgen Stroop threatened to shoot the seized from Jewish families and archbishop. Rutler finishes the instructed Catholics to hide the children of Jews who were tale by recounting a striking in French concentration camps example of episcopal sangor who had been deported to froid: “The archbishop replied Germany.” by recalling the lynching of Gerlier was not alone in Patriarch Gregory of Constanhis bold defiance of the nazis tinople by the Turks in 1821: and their French collaborators.

‘According to the tradition of When Bishop Felix Roeder of the Greek Orthodox Church, Beauvais failed to dissuade the our prelates are hanged, not local authorities from genocide shot. Please respect our tradition.’” The archbishop, happily, by argument, he took, as Father

The Catholic Difference

Rutler neatly puts it, “another course.” The Germans had ordered Beauvais’ Jews to register at town hall. “On the strength of his claim to have had a distant Jewish ancestor, the bishop formally processed through the streets to register his own name, wearing full pontifical vestments and preceded by an acolyte carrying the cross.”

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, even in the Church. Thus Rutler reminds us that, given the draconian conditions prevailing in a Poland then harboring a future pope, Pius XII granted “for the duration of the war a plenary indulgence for all living in Polish territories who, at the point of death and being unable to confess or communicate, invoke even mentally the Holy Name of Jesus with sorrow for their sins, and accept their death with resignation.”

Father Rutler’s critical sense is not without humorous edge: “Giovanni Bottai, the Italian

minister for education and editor of the review Critica Fascista, wrote in the opaque rotundity that has not ceased being dear to some Italian journalists.”

Yet even while having some fun with the gaucheries of the pompous, George Rutler has his eye firmly fixed on what was really at stake in the Second World War: “The fascists were greatly upset when, in the presence of the pope and 25,000 worshippers, Carlo Cardinal Salotti preached a sermon in which he attacked the logic of the war and desired ‘a kingdom of love that will be proof against the errors made in the name of race and nation, a kingdom of liberty which will make tyranny impossible, a kingdom of the spirit which will free men from materialism.’”

A splendid book from a marvelous man and a great priest: kudos to St. Augustine Press for capturing Father Rutler’s wit and wisdom between covers.

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

November 15, 2013

T

hanksgiving is just around the corner, which means our parishes are working hard to fill food pantries across the diocese so that the poor will have their feast. This time-honored tradition of feeding the hungry crosses generations and religious boundaries. In recent times, especially the past 50 years, the Catholic Church has recognized the importance of going beyond charity to enter into the mechanism of the systems that perpetuate poverty and keep our food pantries in business. Fifty years ago, when the Second Vatican Council exhorted the Church to read the sign of the times, the faithful were given the mission to re-order society to reflect God’s plan for humanity.

Reshaping society to reflect the Gospel imperative is no easy task. The Church must do more than weigh in on the world’s problems, congratulating itself on its superior insight into the human condition. The Church that was envisioned in the council document “Gaudium et Spes” is not an institution concerned only with intra-ecclesial affairs, but it is the people of God, able to enter into society

Anchor Columnist Time to re-dedicate ourselves

imperative. In our country, the and all aspects of its culture. promotion of the common Challenging injustice requires more than simply meeting the good gave rise to the Catholic Campaign for Human Develimmediate material needs of opment. We are all familiar our neighbors. with the second collection takSystemic change is best en up for the CCHD across achieved by those most imthe country every year during pacted by the injustice built the month of November. The within. It is a principal tenet of Catholic social teaching that all people have the right and duty to participate in society and its organization.

This teaching has been emphasized by every

By Claire McManus pope from Blessed John XXIII to Francis.

Blessed Pope John Paul II went as far as calling partici- funds collected are not used for charity, but for change. pation in political life essential to the dignity of the person, and Bishop Jaime Soto, bishop of Sacramento, Calif., chairman part of the vocation of the lay faithful. This is not a plea to get of the USCCB’s subcommittee on the Catholic Campaign more voters to the polls, but a mandate to empower individu- for Human Development, als to step up to the negotiating explains how these funds are used to bridge the gap betable and bring their concerns to the people best able to make tween charity and justice.

“CCHD brings the Gospel change happen. A participatory community makes the common message to issues of social justice. We cannot simply help good a concern for all. a struggling family today and The theological convictions expressed in “Gaudium et Spes,” leave them with no means of support tomorrow,” said Bishthe Church in the Modern op Soto.” Instead, the projects World, elevated the concept funded by CCHD focus on of the common good from a political philosophy to a moral long-term solutions to poverty.

This complements the work of direct-assistance programs like Catholic Charities and ProLife activities.”

The U.S. bishops established the Catholic Campaign for Human Development in 1970 and mandated that the funds go to “such projects as voter registration, community organizations, community-run schools, minorityowned cooperatives and credit unions, capital for industrial development and job training programs, and setting up of rural cooperatives.” Many recipients who benefit from the grants given by the CCHD are community organizers who work within our parishes and other faith-based organizations to develop leaders and empower them to effect change. Several of our inner-city parishes in New Bedford and Fall River are members of these organizations and have worked on issues that are by-products and causes of poverty.

There are many issues that we care about but feel powerless to address, or we are too caught up in the immediate

with religious affiliations to be forced to hire gay employees if such measures would violate the tenets of their faith. Still, with this amendment, Toomey thought that ENDA was good legislation.

Catholic blogger Joe Tremblay, a contributor to The Edmund Burke Institute and a frequent guest on Relevant Radio’s, “The Drew Mariani Show,” commented, “The question that immediately comes to mind is this: Why is it necessary? In fact, Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Laws are interpreted to mean that it is unlawful to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. This is plainly stated on the U.S. Equal Employment Commission website. And in more and more cases, this interpretation is being used to violate conscience rights. That is, it is compelling people to act or to provide a service that they deem contrary to their faith.”

Tremblay echoed Archbishop Cordileone’s concerns and cited a case from New Mexico.

“In August of 2013,” he wrote, “the New Mexico State Supreme Court ruled against

Elane Photography for their decision not to photograph a ceremony involving a same-sex couple. Elaine Hugenin, owner of the photography business, claimed that her refusal to carry out the services was due to her religious beliefs. However, the state Supreme Court justices were not persuaded by Elaine’s position. Neither was Louis Melling, the Deputy Legal Director for the American Civil Liberties Union. She praised the decision saying, ‘Today’s opinion recognizes the sincerity of those beliefs, but makes clear that no one’s religious beliefs make it OK to break the law by discriminating against others.’”

Jordan Lorence, one of the lawyers who represented Elaine Photography, countered, “Government-coerced expression is a feature of dictatorships that has no place in a free country.”

Cordileone explained his opposition to ENDA in a letter sent to senators before the vote, which he signed together with Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, California, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domes-

The Great Commission

9 needs of our people to look at the big picture. One pastor once lamented that he is too busy with the soup kitchen to get involved with the community organizers who want to help him to advocate for the very people he is feeding. The CCHD, through grants, have helped our local parishes to fight crime, make our parks and streets safe for youth and elderly, improve education in the public schools, and raise the minimum wage.

Our Church is as focused on the temporal needs of the people as it is on their spiritual needs, and so must we. The Catholic Church’s prophetic voice booms loudly in society when each of us works to bring about justice. The Year of Faith, with its celebration of the 50th anniversary of the opening Vatican II will draw to a close this month. Now that they have had the teachings refreshed for us, it is time to re-dedicate ourselves to the work of “fashioning the whole human family anew according to God’s design.”

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

Archbishop: DOMA ruling, ENDA passage put Marriage at ‘critical point’

BALTIMORE (CNS and CNA) — The Supreme Court’s ruling that rendered the federal Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, and the Senate’s passage November 7 of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act put the legal defense of Marriage “at a critical point in this country,” said the archbishop who heads the U.S. bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage.

The Supreme Court’s DOMA decision is now being used “to judicially challenge Marriage laws in more than a dozen states that still recognize Marriage as the union of one man and one woman,” said Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco. The effects of ENDA, Archbishop Cordileone said during a presentation at the U.S. bishops’ fall general assembly in Baltimore, “go much further” than preventing employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity to the point where “ENDA-like laws have contributed to the erosion and redefinition of Marriage at the state level.”

“Ten Republicans joined with all Democrats in a 64-32 vote to pass the proposed Employment Non-Discrimination Act, known as ENDA. Ten Republicans had voted to advance the measure in an earlier procedural vote,” said Michael A. Memoli.

The Senate gave it the thumbs up, now it goes to the House of Representatives. Reporting for the Los Angeles Times on November 7, Memoli went to say, “On Wednesday, senators approved an amendment offered

by Republicans to strengthen an exception provided in the bill for religious organizations, and to ensure that the government could not retaliate against such groups in awarding contracts and grants.”

It was partly due to this amendment that well-known conservative, Senator Pat Toomey (R-Penn.), lent his support of ENDA. “A person’s sexual orientation,” he said, “is irrelevant to their ability to be a good doctor or engineer or athlete or a federal judge.” But he was equally concerned what this might portend for religious freedom. He didn’t want businesses

tic Justice and Human Development, and Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the USCCB Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty. The U.S. bishops’ website summarized their arguments against ENDA. The bishops explained that the bill: (1) lacks an exception for a “bona fide occupational qualification,” which exists for every other category of discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, except for race; (2) lacks a distinction between homosexual inclination and conduct, thus affirming and protecting extramarital sexual conduct; (3) supports the redefinition of Marriage, as state-level laws like ENDA have been invoked in state court decisions finding Marriage discriminatory or irrational; (4) rejects the biological basis of gender by defining “gender identity” as something people may choose at variance with their biological sex; and (5) threatens religious liberty by punishing as discrimination the religious or moral disapproval of same-sex sexual conduct, while protecting only some religious employers.

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November 15, 2013

Archbishop Kurtz, Cardinal DiNardo elected to top USCCB posts

BALTIMORE (CNS) — Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Ky., was elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops by a wide margin November 12.

The archbishop, the current USCCB vice president, received 125 votes during the first round of balloting during the fall general assembly of the U.S. bishops in Baltimore.

In the voting for vice president, Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of GalvestonHouston was elected to the post during

the third round of voting.

He defeated Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia, 147 to 87.

Archbishop Kurtz easily outdistanced the nine other candidates for president, who received a total of 111 votes. Cardinal DiNardo tallied the second highest vote total with 25.

With the election of Archbishop Kurtz to head the USCCB for the next three years, the bishops returned to the practice of electing a sitting vice president to the conference presidency.

The archbishop, who has headed the Louisville Archdiocese since 2007, had no immediate comment after his election and acknowledged the vote with a simple wave to his fellow bishops on the floor of the assembly.

In 2010, the bishops elected thenArchbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York as president. His term was to end November 14 as the fall general assembly concluded.

The election of the New York prelate, named a cardinal in February 2012, marked the first time since the bishops’ conference was reorganized in 1966 following the Second Vatican Council that a sitting vice president who sought the presidency did not win the election.

He defeated then-vice president Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., on the third ballot.

In two previous elections, circumstances dictated that the vice president did not rise to lead the conference.

In 1974, Coadjutor Archbishop Leo C. Byrne of St. Paul and Minneapolis, vice president since 1971, died less than a month before his term ended. Three years later, Cardinal John J. Carberry of St. Louis as vice president declined to run for the top spot because he was 73 and due to retire before he could complete a three-year term as president.

The president and vice president are elected by a simple majority from a slate of 10 nominees. If no president or vice president is chosen after the second round of voting, a third ballot is taken between only the top two vote-getters on the second ballot.

In this year’s USCCB election, the vote for vice president took three ballots to conclude. In each round, Cardinal DiNardo was the leading vote-getter. He received 51 votes during the first round and 78 votes during the second round.

After the second ballot, the top two votegetters moved to a third round of voting. With 40 votes, Archbishop Chaput narrowly defeated Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles and Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond of New Orleans, both of whom received 39 votes.

Cardinal DiNardo has headed the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston since 2006, when as coadjutor archbishop, he immediately succeeded Archbishop Joseph A. Fiorenza when he retired. Then-Archbishop DiNardo was named a cardinal in 2007, making him the first cardinal from Texas.

In other elections on the second day of their Baltimore assembly, the bishops chose Archbishop George J. Lucas of Omaha, Neb., as chairman of the Committee on Education in a 141 to 93 vote over Bishop George V. Murry of Youngstown, Ohio. Archbishop Lucas has served as interim chairman of the committee since the May 2013 death of Bishop Joseph P. McFadden of Harrisburg, Pa., and was to begin his term at the conclusion of the bishops’ meeting.

The bishops also voted for chairmenelect for five committees. They will take over their chairmanships at the conclusion of the bishops’ November 2014 general assembly.

Those elected were: — Coadjutor Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of Newark, N.J., as chairmanelect of the Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance by a 167 to 70 vote over Auxiliary Bishop Joseph N. Perry of Chicago.

— Auxiliary Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski of Baltimore, as chairman-elect of the Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs by a 130 to 105 vote over Auxiliary Bishop Arthur L. Kennedy of Boston.

— Archbishop Leonard P. Blair, the head of the Diocese of Toledo, Ohio, who was recently appointed archbishop of Hartford, Conn., as chairman-elect of the Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis by a 135 to 98 vote over Bishop John O. Barres of Allentown, Pa. — Bishop Oscar Cantu of Las Cruces, N.M., as chairman-elect of the Committee on International Justice and Peace by a 126 to 110 vote over Bishop David J. Malloy of Rockford, Ill. — Bishop Edward J. Burns of Juneau, Alaska, as chairman-elect of the Committee on Child and Youth Protection by a 118 to 114 vote over Bishop Robert J. Cunningham of Syracuse, N.Y.

Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Ky., talks with Catholic News Service after he was elected the new president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops November 12 in Baltimore. (CNS photo/ Nancy Phelan Wiechec)

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November 15, 2013

Sainthood candidate an intercessor ‘for all of God’s people,’ says nun OMAHA, Neb. (CNS) — The prayers of two religious Sisters born in the Archdiocese of Omaha were key elements of the Vaticanapproved miracle that led the way to the upcoming beatification of their order’s foundress, Mother Maria Theresia Bonzel of the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration.

In April, the order announced she would be beatified November 10 in Paderborn, Germany.

The announcement followed the Vatican’s recognition of a miracle attributed to her intercession that occurred in Colorado Springs, Colo., nearly 15 years ago.

That was when Jan Burgie asked the late Sister Evangeline Spenner and Sister Margaret Mary Preister to pray for her four-year-old son, Luke, who was suffering from severe gastrointestinal symptoms including pain and diarrhea.

The two nuns prayed a novena to Mother Bonzel seeking her intercession in Luke’s healing. Luke’s symptoms stopped suddenly and without medical explanation Feb. 22, 1999. He has remained healthy since.

The healing was reported to the Vatican in 2001, prompting an investigation that included interviewing Luke’s doctors.

“One day he just got up and said, ‘I’m fine,’” Burgie told the Catholic Voice, Omaha’s archdiocesan newspaper, in a telephone interview from Colorado Springs. “He’s never had any residual pain or difficulties — no Crohn’s disease, food allergies, nothing.”

Sister Spenner died in 2005. Sister Preister left November 4 to attend the beatification Mass in Paderborn with Sister Spenner’s sister, Sister Marietta Spenner. They were traveling with three other members of the order who also were born in the Omaha Archdiocese.

From the late 1800s into the 1990s, the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration order was a strong presence in schools and hospitals in Nebraska, and many children who studied under the nuns or were impacted by their ministry were inspired to join the order, several of the Sisters said.

Now, three nuns with the

order serve in Nebraska — Sister Marietta Spenner in pastoral ministry and Faith Formation in Sidney, Neb., in the Grand Island Diocese —

Mother Theresia Bonzel, foundress of the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration, was beatified in November in Paderborn, Germany. (CNA)

and two nuns born in Omaha, Sister Rose Ann Stillmock, now serving in homebound ministry in Omaha, and Sister Rose Marie Imig, serving as a hospital chaplain in Lincoln.

Sister Preister is retired.

In an interview before she left for Germany, Sister Spenner said she was looking forward to the beatification.

“I’m anxious for it,” she said. “Mother Bonzel is an intercessor in a bigger, broader

way for all of God’s people.”

Sister Spenner said she also is representing her late sister and other members of order unable to attend the beatification.

“I will do everything I can to stand with her,” Sister Spenner said.

Burgie said having her son, now 19, the object of a miracle has been a blessing, although the attention can be a burden and Luke shies away from the publicity, she added.

Sister Preister said the miracle was God’s work.

“It was all up to God,” she said. “I can do nothing by myself, only God can do the work.”

Sister Preister, who worked for years in pastoral ministry, as a hospital chaplain and novice mistress, is currently living in Colorado Springs where the order’s western province has its headquarters.

She was excited about the trip and the beatification.

“I’m going to Germany for the first time at age 85!” she said.

The beatification Mass was celebrated at the Paderborn cathedral, with Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Saints’ Causes, as the principal celebrant.

Archbishop Hans-Josef Becker of Paderborn concelebrated and give the homily.

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November 15, 2013

Centuries later, Bernini’s angels captivate amid restoration Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — Artists restoring key sculptures in the Vatican Museums, including some by famed Italian Gian Lorenzo Bernini, stress that the figures are rich in history and treasures in a “throw-away” culture.

“Obviously whenever you are dealing with a treasure, with something that’s been passed down to us from century to century, you want to take care of it and you want to get it right,” Father Mark Haydu told CNA in a recent interview.

“If you make a mistake, it could be gone and if it’s gone, it’s gone forever. We live in a throw-away society, it’s hard to imagine that we can’t really get it back.”

Father Haydu is the international director of the Patrons of the Arts of the Vatican Museums — a worldwide community dedicated to the restoration and conservation of artwork within the museums through the financial adoption of various projects.

The Vatican Museums, founded by Pope Julius II, are an immense collection of different pieces of art located within Vatican City which have come into the Catholic Church’s possession throughout the centuries.

One of the various initiatives undertaken by the Patrons is the restoration of “Bernini’s Angels,” the un-fired clay models used to create the angelic bronze sculptures placed on either side of the main altar inside of St. Peter’s Basilica.

The current angel undergoing the restoration process, originally crafted in 1674, “is the preliminary model for the fusion of one of the angels in the Most Holy Sacrament, one of the most important chapels of San Pietro,” restorer Alice Balteri revealed in an interview with CNA. These angels were originally designed and built in the school of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, a leading sculptor in the 15th century, and were touched up by the artist himself before the bronze castings were completed.

“In these works,” Balteri said, “we obviously have the opportunity to find things never seen before; the impression of his fingers, signs of the work, impressions of the fingertips, signs of the instruments used to smooth the clay.”

Usually, she explained, the models, made out of clay and straw, were thrown away or recycled once they were finished, but “in this case they were conserved because in 1700 there was a sort of museum, art gallery for the art-

ists where the plastercasts, models, and other various things were exposed.”

“We work meticulously,” to repair the cracked clay, the artist noted, “because today a substance does not exist that is capable of consolidating this material in the same way without staining or changing in time.”

“This angel is the prototype,” she said indicating the sculpture being restored, “was made on a different scale and, never having been cast in bronze, it is the only model. A copy of this angel in bronze does not exist.”

Balteri expressed her excitement about working specifically with the un-baked clay, “because while in the works in bronze, at the end the surfaces are clean, they are treated, they are smoothed. In these works, we obviously have the opportunity to find things never seen before.”

“Sometimes,” she noted, “there are also included things you’d never think of, the hair of the artists for example embedded in the clay, that really make you feel ‘in the moment’ of when the work was created.”

Other projects being preserved through the generosity of the Patrons include the Holy Stairs, the stairs that Jesus walked up to be judged by Pontius Pilate, as well as an excavation site underneath the parking garage of the Vatican.

Preservation of these works, Father Haydu urged, is important because “when you can clean, restore and give it a smile, give it a twinkle in its eye, it attracts, it captivates and then it can communicate its message.”

Whether that message be “theological, spiritual, human,” he stressed, “it really helps all of the five million visitors coming through each year to be startled, struck, by the beauty of a work of art.”

An angel sculpture from Bernini undergoes restoration at the Vatican Museum recently. (Photo by Alan Holdren and Elise Harris/CNA)

Domhnall Gleeson stars in a scene from the movie “About Time.” For a brief review of this film, see CNS Movie Capsules below. (CNS photo/Universal Pictures)

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

“About Time” (Universal) This romantic comedy, written and directed by Richard Curtis, is a wish-fulfillment fantasy about changing your destiny at will, to win the love of your life. On his 21st birthday, a young man (Domhnall Gleeson) is given a rather unusual present by his father (Bill Nighy): the knowledge that the men in the family can travel back in time.

He uses this special gift to land a girlfriend (Rachel McAdams), marry, and have a happy, perfect life. Unlike 1993’s “Groundhog Day,” where the hero betters himself as well as the world around him, “About Time” takes a more narrow view. The manipulation of others for selfish reasons, coupled with disrespect for the role of divine providence in one’s life, may leave the viewer feeling empty rather than satisfied.

Implied premarital sexual activity, brief nudity, several vulgar gestures, some sacrilegious humor and sexual innuendo, much profanity and crude language. The Catholic News Service classification is L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or

adult guardian.

“Thor: The Dark World” (Disney) Wielding his mighty hammer, the “God of Thunder” returns with a vengeance in this rousing 3-D adventure, based on the popular Marvel Comics series and directed by Alan Taylor.

This sequel to 2011’s “Thor” and 2012’s “The Avengers” finds our titular superhero (Chris Hemsworth) returning to Asgard, his home world, where his wayward brother (Tom Hiddleston) stands trial for war crimes. Back on Earth, Thor’s erstwhile girlfriend (Natalie Portman) gets sucked into a vortex to the Dark World of the film’s title, un-

leashing a chain of events that leads to battle. “Thor: The Dark World” assumes operatic proportions as it barrels towards a smash-bang conclusion that lays waste to multiple worlds, not to mention some lovely Georgian architecture in London. Parents should note that the violence is extreme at times and not for little ones. Intense but bloodless combat scenes, some scary sequences, and a few mild oaths.

The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults.

The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned.

Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, November 17, 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Edward A. Murphy, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Parish in New Bedford

13

November 15, 2013

National pain-capable abortion ban introduced in Senate

Washington D.C. considered in light of advances gether to reduce the number of (CNA/EWTN News) — Leg- in scientific technology since abortions.” islation that would prohibit the Supreme Court decision of “With all of the innovative abortion after 20 weeks of preg- Roe v. Wade, which declared medical treatments now availnancy, at which point science abortion to be protected by the able, more Americans are realindicates that unborn babies constitution. izing that we are talking about “Science and technology children that deserve protecare able to feel pain, has been have advanced tremendously tion and overwhelmingly bepresented in the U.S. Senate.

“At 20 weeks, mothers are since 1973,” he observed. lieve that we need a law like “We now know that an un- this,” he added. encouraged to speak and sing as the baby can recognize the born child at the 20th week of “The unborn are the most voice of the mother,” said Sena- pregnancy can feel pain,” Gra- vulnerable members of our sotor Lindsey Graham ciety, and I am com(R-S.C.), who introhat we propose today is sim- mitted to ongoing duced the bill at a reefforts to protect inple and foundational: the nocent life.” cent press conference.

“The question for child in the womb is a member of the Marjorie Dannenthe American people human family,” she said. “At six months felser, president of the is, ‘Should we be silent and even earlier that child suffers ex- Pro-Life legislation when it comes to pro- cruciating pain from the cruel dismem- group Susan B. Antecting these unborn berment of its body or the piercing of its thony List, also spoke children entering the at the recent press sixth month of preg- heart.” conference, calling the nancy? Or is it incumbill the organization’s bent on us to speak up “top priority.” and act on their behalf ?’ I say ham stated, pointing to the fact “What we propose today is that anesthesia has been given simple and foundational: the we must speak up and act.”

The House of Representa- to unborn patients during sur- child in the womb is a memtives passed a pain-capable gery. ber of the human family,” she “Given these facts and my said. “At six months and even abortion ban in June by a vote of 228-196. As of its intro- continued strong support for earlier that child suffers excruduction, the Senate legislation life,” he continued, “I believe ciating pain from the cruel diswas co-sponsored by 33 mem- there is a compelling inter- memberment of its body or the bers of the Senate, including est in protecting these unborn piercing of its heart.”

Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Ted Cruz children who are among the “Whether we as a nation (R-Texas), Mitch McConnell most vulnerable in our society. should continue to autho(R-Ky.), John McCain (R- I’m confident that over time rize and practice the killing Ariz.), and Marco Rubio (R- the American people and their of these innocent members of elected representatives will say our families is a great civilizaFla.).

Similar fetal pain abortion yes as well.” tional question,” Dannenfelser Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) continued. “Anything less is bans have been enacted at the state level in Alabama, Arizona, joined Graham at the press unworthy of us as a free and Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kan- conference, saying that while generous people who wish that sas, Louisiana, Nebraska, Okla- public opinion on the legality resounding phrase ‘Equal Jushoma and most recently, Texas. of abortion is divided, “on one tice Under Law’ to be someGraham explained that point there is a growing con- thing more than an echo of abortion practices should be re- sensus: we must all work to- some lost dream.”

“W

This week in

50 years ago — Eighty diocesan boys were given Ad Altare Dei crosses and 182 diocesan girls were bestowed with Marian medals as members of Catholic youth groups during ceremonies held at St. Anne’s Church in Fall River.

25 years ago — Work began to enlarge and renovate St. Bernard’s Church in Assonet. The pastor, Father Edward E. Correia, said the $800,000 project would add 5,036 square feet to the 150-year-old church building.

diocesan history 10 years ago — For only the third time in 30 years, the Fall River Diocese hosted the annual New England Region I Catholic Conference on Scouting at Cathedral Camp in East Freetown.

One year ago — Church Women United announced that Marilyn Lariviere, a parishioner of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Hyannis, had been elected as the organization’s national president by the CWU Common Council.

Pope Francis kisses a man suffering from boils in St. Peter’s Square at the end of a recent general audience. (Photo by ANSA/Claudio Peri)

Pope Francis embraces man with tumorous disease

Vatican City (CNA) — At the end of a recent general audience in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis drew attention by warmly embracing a man who suffers from a rare disease causing neuronal tumors all over his body.

The man was identified as suffering from neurofibromatosis, which causes great pain and can result in impaired vision, learning impairnment, and even cancer, according to non-profit research group Mayo Clinic. Treatment of the condition is very complicated.

People with this disease — which is genetic and not contagious — often face discrimination because of their appearance.

As he carried out his typical greeting of pilgrims at the conclusion of the general audience, Pope Francis paused

for several minutes to receive the sick man in his arms.

Moments later, he took the man’s face in his hands, kissed him, and gave him a blessing.

The gesture is the latest in a series of actions by the Holy Father that have drawn attention for their warmth and affection towards the marginalized in society. Previously, the pope made headlines by visiting imprisoned youth, responding to letters with personal phone calls, and inviting the local homeless to dine at St. Peter’s Square.

14

November 15, 2013 caused by abortion, not just on the human family but on all living things,” said Angela in the wind. After the wind O’Grady. “Prayer is powerful there was an earthquake, but but especially when you make the Lord was not in the earth- a presence at the clinic. It is because life matters. I think quake.

“After the earthquake came we want to show the women a fire, but the Lord was not who go to these clinics that in the fire. And after the fire they are not alone.”

Maryjean Cannata said that came a gentle whisper.

“The Lord was in the gentle day, “was my first time praying in front of an abortion facilwhisper.”

It was a whisper that some ity and I left there a changed person. Seeing young women, heard that day.

“I can see with my eyes some with their husbands or this great gift from the Lord,” partners, walking in left me Kathy Davis told The Anchor. with such immense sadness.

“I mourned for them and “Is it a miracle, who knows?

But I find great excitement, prayed that they would some energy and joy from it. I know day reach out to our merciful that one of the enemy’s fa- Father for forgiveness. One vorite tools is doubt. I truly couple had a toddler who believe that this image is one was most likely just about to of those simple and amazing lose a sibling. When Agatha ways that God lets us know brought our attention to the image on the tree, I said to He hears our prayers.”

The image helped some of myself ‘Thank you Lord.’ I feel the faithful present give even it was a sign to all those who more thought to why they pray there week after week hold vigil there. “When I that our Lord is there too.”

“As we watched the cars saw the image of the baby in fill up the parking lot at the the wound of this tree at the abortion clinic with women, abortion clinic I couldn’t help but wonder about the depth couples, and a couple with a of pain and suffering that is child in their arms, our hearts were so heavy and sad for the unborn, and women heading into what seemed like the holocaust,” added Bernadette Murphy.

“When the picture was shown to us, and since I was holding the poster of the unborn, it was shocking to see this affirmation given to us.

It gave me this sad and trembling feeling, but confirmed the reason I was there to support life, and pray for those who were visiting the clinic.”

“I was just saying hello to a friend from Corpus Christi and making some introduc-

‘Law of nature’ provides ‘whisper’ of affirmation for defending life continued from page one

comfortably snuggled within the womb.

A group from the Respect Life Committee of Corpus Christi Parish in East Sandwich recently made the long journey from the Cape to Attleboro to pray for women coming to the clinic with the intent of aborting their child.

“About 10 of us went to the abortion clinic in Attleboro to pray,” Agatha Bodwell told The Anchor. They joined about a dozen other faithful Catholics already there. “As we were pacing in the park, praying the Rosary, I noticed a tree not far in the distance. I pointed it out to the organizers and they had never noticed it before. I took a picture on my cell phone, then went to show members of our group. Bernie Murphy happened to be holding a ProLife sign and I put my picture right up to the sign. We were awe-struck.”

“There’s an old saying that there are no coincidences, so I think the Good Lord used His laws of nature to create the image,” Kevin Ward, co-founder

and president of the Cape Cod Bus for Life, told The Anchor.

“The image on the tree of a baby of about 10 weeks of age was a surprise to me at first.

As I finished my Rosary, the thought came to me that it was a visual help for us and hopefully a reminder to those driving by that a 10-week-old baby is a human being not just a blob of matter.”

The people who saw the image for the first time didn’t view it as some major miracle sent down for all to see, but rather, many saw it as a subtle acknowledgment that what they are doing is important, and it’s appreciated.

Everyone needs a pat on the back once in a while. Elijah, needing that pat on the back, sought the Lord. The First Book of Kings explained, “The Lord said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not

tions, when someone said there was an image of a baby in utero on a tree,” Joe DePietro, coordinator for the Attleboro Cape Cod Bus for Life, and a member of the St. Vincent de Paul/St. John the Evangelist Parish Respect Life Committee in Attleboro told The Anchor. “I thought, that sounds strange, so we rushed to take a look. When I looked up where the limb of the tree was cut off I could see the resemblance.

Then when the woman in the picture raised her poster it really solidified it in my mind.

Maybe it was a sign to all of us who pray for an end to abortion, and that we are making a real difference. After all it is Angel Park, why wouldn’t we see such a sign?”

Those who have seen the image aren’t concerned if others can’t see it, or simply brush it off as a coincidence. They realize they are not there to witness “apparitions or miraculous signs from Heaven.” They are there to faithfully pray for others to realize that life is Sacred, from the moment of conception until natural death.

What the image did provide was a “whisper” of affirmation that the sacrifices they make for the sake of the unborn and their mothers are pleasing to the Lord, and ultimately, the Culture of Life will prevail.

No one holding vigil with a Rosary in their hand and a prayer in their heart has any intention of profiting off eBay or telling their story to Oprah.

The real miracles that happen at the Attleboro site are the good works of good people who help save lives.

And one doesn’t have to go out on a limb to see that image.

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November 15, 2013

Priests, deacons offer reflections on Year of Faith continued from page one

your faith.’”

The Year of Faith was an opportunity for Catholics to experience a conversion, to turn back to Jesus and enter into a deeper relationship with Him. The pope has described this conversion as opening the “door of faith,” a door opened at Baptism. During the Year of Faith, Catholics were invited to walk through and rediscover his or her relationship with Christ and the Church.

“What struck me was Benedict was a renowned, and rightfully so, scholar and theologian,” said Deacon Bruce Bonneau, assistant director of Adult Evangelization and Spirituality in the diocese’s Faith Formation Office. “Immediately it was the pastoral nature of the apostolic letter itself; it really went more to the heart than to the head. Theologians tend to work more philosophically, so that movement from the head to the heart really struck me, and the whole idea of the doorway being an entry point, but not necessarily the destination.”

Since the first few weeks of the Year of Faith were in the Advent season, each Monday at St. Bernard Parish in Assonet the church held a time of adoration and evening prayer, and offered a simple reflection on the Sunday Gospel that was not preached during the Sunday homily, said St. Bernard pastor, Father Michael Racine.

“When I first heard about the Year of Faith, I put a piece of info in the parish bulletin informing the people of this, talked about it in one of my homilies and shared with the people that it was an opportunity to look into their own faith lives and see where they were and invited them to take time each day to develop their relationship with the Lord,” said Father Racine.

He added, “Each day during the Year of Faith we have prayed for a particular intention focusing again from the Scriptures of Sunday to remind us that the Scriptures are to remain with us. A few weeks ago we hosted a visit of the International Statue of Our Lady of Fatima and all weekend long there were people visiting and praying with us as the church remained open for visits all day into the evening.”

The New Evangelization is a call to each Catholic to deepen his or her faith, and the Year of Faith called Catholics to conversion in order to begin that relationship with Christ, and for those to take up the call as a disciple of Jesus and help be a guide to those looking to connect or reconnect with the Catholic Church. As the Year of Faith continued to roll on during the year, many parishes offered special Liturgies, retreats and formation sessions, including St. Bernadette’s Parish.

“We tried to do a lot,” said Father Landry. “Every Sunday and Holy Day I sought to bring out the aspect of faithful, intentional discipleship in the readings, feast or saints of the day. Last November, we had a five-day mission on the hunger to grow in faith and the four sections of

apostolic letter as the theme for this year’s retreats; “We decided to go with the ‘Door of Faith,’” said Deacon Bonneau. “We ofthe ‘Catechism.’ We launched an Alpha fered that through the office and retreat for Catholics Program to help us get to house, and one of the things we said that know our faith better and equip us to it’s the doorway but not the destination.” share it. We followed that with a 10-week Deacon Bonneau said it’s “hard to arexploration of our faith with the help of ticulate” exactly what people took from Father Barron’s excellent ‘Catholicism’ attending a retreat, “but one of the things series. We had two different Bible Study that resonated with people is, the first programs pondering the great figures of question of faith is not whether God exfaith found in Sacred Scripture. We had a ists or not, but the first question of faith study session on Pope Francis’ first encyc- is, can God be trusted? In fact, that’s what lical, ‘The Light of Faith.’ And we hosted Benedict brings up in the second paraFather Scott Hurd for a lecture on how to graph, when he talks about the Exodus, live by faith when faith feels fragile.” leading people through the desert towards Father Landry added, “I was very edi- friendship — that’s when the trust is realfied by the high numbers we got through- ly developed. So I think people rethought out the year for all of these events, which the whole concept of what faith is really were opportunities for parishioners to say about. It’s not a once-in-a-lifetime, set that faith wasn’t just a Sunday duty but a deal; it really is a journey.” way of life. One my hopes from the Year There will be moments of doubt, fear of Faith will be that as Catholics our faith and distress, but “the real enemy of the will remain or become the most defining spiritual journey is not doubt, it’s fear,” reality of our life and make us confident, he said, and if you’re going to open new like St. Paul, to pass on ‘as of the greatest doors, you have to close doors. importance’ the faith we ourselves have Father Kolasa and Deacon Bonneau received.” are offering a final “Evening of ReflecAs a member of the Congregation of tion” on November 19 at the Holy Cross the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Fa- Parish Center in South Easton, with the ther Patrick Killilea was assigned to St. idea that even though the Year of Faith Francis Parish in Kalaupapa, Hawaii, fol- is concluding, the journey continues. lowing in the footsteps of St. Damien of “In my talk, I talk about places where Molokai. And while tending to the dozen we might want to consider closing the or so residents of the former leper colony doors to — shame, anger, guilt, resenton the island, Father Killilea said that ments,” said Deacon Bonneau. “Father while the Year of Faith officially began months after his arrival, he was still pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in Fairhaven when Pope Benedict released “Porta Fidei.”

“When I first learned that Pope Benedict had called us to a special Year of Faith, my initial thought was, ‘What is this? Aren’t we called to live the faith every year?’” said Father Killilea. “Perhaps it is the son of a farmer in me which tells me that a farmer’s work is every day of every week of every year. So every year for the Christian Catholic should be a Year of Faith. Then, of course, it dawned on me that Pope Benedict intended that this Year of Faith is meant to renew the entire people of God in the faith and to challenge us ‘to share our faith boldly with others.’”

And while the residents of Kalaupapa continued to welcome pilgrims who visit every day except Sundays, the Year of Faith didn’t offer many opportunities for the residents to “go out and become disciples of Christ” because of isolation of the settlement, but that didn’t stop the residents “joining in its spirit.”

“As you can guess, our life is much different here in Kalaupapa but we do not separate ourselves from the world outside,” said Father Killilea. “Those who live the faith here live the faith profoundly and try to joyfully share it with those who are blessed to visit here, as well as those who work here and who dedicate their lives to the care and the service of the patients in this special land of SS. Damien and Marianne.”

Deacon Bonneau works with Father Stan Kolasa putting on annual retreats and speaking engagements, and used the

Stan really speaks to the whole Year of Faith and the whole concept of leading with your heart. What you love, and what you have fallen in love with? We need to close some doors and lead with our heart, and when we do that, we open the doors of mercy and forgiveness, that God will never abandon us.”

The Year of Faith draws to a close on November 24, and Pope Francis will take the “Porta Fidei” at its most literal meaning and open that door of faith to catechumens at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, and welcome them into the faith.

And while the banner is coming down at St. Bernard Parish, Father Racine hopes the Year of Faith message remains in the hearts of the people long after the banner is packed away.

“Hopefully the message remains in the hearts of the people that our faith is something that always sustains us in our daily lives and that we do not need to wait for an invitation to find our faith but continue to live and practice it as Christ wants us to do,” said Father Racine.

“We share our faith not only with words but with the witness of life, of a faith working through love,” said Father Landry. “As the Year of Faith concludes, we’ve finished, in a sense, the time of preparation. Now we put that faith into action. I’m praying that we will all live our faith and hunger to share it as the greatest gift we’ve ever received with others.”

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Youth Pages

Holy Name School in Fall River recently celebrated Mass on the feast of All Saints. Fourth-grade students chose a saint, learned about the saint, dressed as that saint for Mass and then shared the information about the saints with the entire school.

Students from St. Pius X School in South Yarmouth collected new pajamas, socks and underwear for Katelynn’s Closet, a local organization that provides new and gently-used clothing to children on the Cape and Islands who are in need.

First-grade students at St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro presented the 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.” According to first-grade teacher MaryBeth Barken, “It was a great opportunity for the children to get up in front of their peers and speak publicly about something so special to them!”

The first- and second-graders from All Saints Catholic School in New Bedford recently enjoyed a corn maze and picked pumpkins at Escobar’s Farm in Portsmouth, R.I.

November 15, 2013

Pre-kindergarten students at Our Lady of Lourdes School in Taunton celebrated Halloween with a costume parade around the school.

During the month of October, the children at Holy Trinity School in Fall River gathered together each week to pray the Rosary in honor of our Blessed Mother and for the intention of respect for life.

November 15, 2013

“T

he Red Sox are world champions!!!”

It has been a long six years since we last heard those words. In April, I would have never imagined standing at the rolling rally for the Red Sox this year, but there I was on Saturday, celebrating another championship for the home team with two million other Fenway “faithful.”

I am an avid listener of sports talk radio. For most of the season, they barely mentioned the Sox. After last year’s season, I completely understand why radio was hesitant to get excited.

For those of you who don’t watch sports, last season was a disaster. They finished the regular season with a record of 69-93 and in last place.

Fans were angry at the coach, ownership, and some of the players for not performing to their level of expectation. So as the 2013 season began, the number of people watching the team declined significantly. The sell-out streak was over. The people who became fans during the winning years of 2004 and 2007 finally had enough. It was not easy to be

Youth Pages Pink hat Christianity

a fan, many people gave up.

Pink Hats!

If you do not know what a Pink Hat is, Urban Dictionary (and I do not suggest using them as a legitimate source) defines it as an overenthusiastic, bandwagon fan of a recently successful local pro sports team.

There are many Pink Hat fans in New England with their recent success. It is easy to be a Pink Hat. What was difficult was being a Patriots fan before the 2001 season, a Red Sox fan from 1918-2004, a Celtics fan after 1986, and a Bruins fan after 1972.

What is even more difficult than being a New England sports fan in the 80s and 90s is being a Christian. Seeing all the people at the parade, listening to “fans” mispronounce the names of star players on the team, got me thinking about other times in life where we join in when everything is going right. It is so easy to be Christian when everything is going well. My spiritual director read me a reflection a few weeks ago.

St. Vincent’s Home names new clinical director

FALL RIVER — St. Vin- work with the children, youth cent’s executive director, John and families we serve as well as T. Weldon, announced the pro- support our program staff, that motion of Kristen L. Dutra, provides direct care on a daily MA, LMHC to the position of basis,” noted Weldon. “Ms. Duclinical director of St. Vincent’s tra has many years of demonHome in Fall River. In mak- strated leadership qualities and ing the announcement, Weldon experience which will enhance said, “We are pleased to have the agency’s clinical service deMs. Dutra oversee the livery,” added Weldon. clinical operation of all Dutra has worked agency programs and at St. Vincent’s for services.” Dutra’s sumore than 13 years in pervisory responsibilivarious clinical superties will include all of visory roles. In 2011, the community-based she received St. Vinservices including: the cent’s Mission Award Outpatient Behavin recognition of her ioral Health Clinic, significant contribuIn-Home Therapy and Kristen L. Dutra tions to St. Vincent’s Therapeutic Mentorchildren, youth and ing, Group Home, families.

Intensive Group Home, and Prior to coming to St. VinPre-Independent Living pro- cent’s in 2000, Dutra was the digrams, Comprehensive Support rector of Children’s Day Servicand Stabilization, Community- es at South Bay Mental Health Based Acute Treatment, Tran- Center in Fall River. She is a sitional Care Unit, Short Term graduate of Lesley College and Assessment and Rapid Reinte- is a Licensed Mental Health gration, Central Intake, Respite Counselor.

Care and Health Services.

Referrals to St. Vincent’s con“Ms. Dutra’s knowledge and tinuum of services can be made expertise in child welfare and by contacting Allison Garside, behavioral health are strong LICSW, Intake Coordinator, at assets which will support our 508-679-8511, extension 3425.

17

He laughed. Later that night I was on Facebook and one of my favorite musicians posted, “Even if things aren’t going well, you can choose to have an attitude of thanksgiving because God’s working all things out for your good.” I am pretty sure it was God that I heard laugh this time.

As I talked about this topic with some friends we thought about the people in Christ’s life. It was not easy for them to always love God and He was walking right there with them. Palm Sunday is a perfect example. It should be renamed the feast of the Pink Hat. Everyone was waving and throwing their palm branches and shouting “Hosanna” as Jesus passed by them. It was so easy to join the crowd and celebrate this miracle worker, this Savior for all, for less than a week.

Those same people, six days later, were screaming “Crucify Him!” They did not want to be

associated with an unpopular situation. Judas betrayed Him, Peter denied Him and the rest ran away and hid in fear. Pink Hats!

It takes great faith to love God all of the time. It takes hard work to find something to be thankful for in all situations. I don’t consider myself a pink hat Christian. Most days, I find it easy to be grateful to God. I can see the appeal of pink hat Christianity right now though. I lost my dad two weeks ago. He has been battling Alzheimer’s for about five years. My dad was my Superman. He could fix anything. He taught me how to fish, swing a bat, throw a football, check my oil, the different types of screw drivers, and the love of football. I was daddy’s little girl. I still am.

I have not received Communion since my dad passed. I’ve been to church (several times) but when it comes to getting up to receive Our Lord, my heart just isn’t in it. One of the last things I told my dad was, “When you see Jesus, tell Him I won’t be angry forever, but right now I’m ticked off.”

I’m not mad at God, at least not consciously. I know that He did not give my dad his illness. I know that He did not take my dad from me and I know that I will not be mad forever. The feelings of anger and sadness just happen to be

easier right now.

A few days ago, I spoke with our sophomore class. I was sharing what it means to be spiritually well. I wrote these five steps to spiritual wellness about three years ago, the first time I did this presentation.

According to me, the third step to spiritual wellness is gratitude (stop laughing God, it’s getting rude!). Without thinking, I start talking about how I am grateful for 33 years with my dad. I am grateful for all that he has taught me. I am grateful that he now has all of his memories back and he is healthy and well. This is when I realized I am grateful that I am grateful. Even in my darkest moments, my faith has not abandoned me (just faltered a little). My goal is to go to Reconciliation this weekend and then receive my Lord in the Eucharist. I have been trying to pray the following prayer every day and I share it with you. “Dear God, I may not understand why everything is happening in my life right now, but I just wanted to say I trust You and I love You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.” No pink hat here … just a slightly faded red one!

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

Vatican City (CNA/ EWTN News) — A Vatican official announced that in anticipation of the close of the Year of Faith, the relics of the first Bishop of Rome will be exposed with the aim of re-awakening the faith of the first Christians.

“A final culminating sign will consist in the exposition for the first time of the relics that tradition recognizes as those of the Apostle that gave his life for the Lord,” Archbishop Rino Fisichella stated in a recent article published in the Vatican’s daily newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.

Archbishop Fisichella is the president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, and has previously served as president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

“The faith of Peter,” said the archbishop, “therefore will confirm once again that the door for encounter with Christ is always

open and waits to be crossed with the same enthusiasm and conviction of the first believers.”

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI instituted the Year of Faith, running from Oct. 11, 2012 until Nov. 24, 2013, with the aim of fostering a fresh momentum in the New Evangelization.

“It will be a moment of grace and commitment to a more complete conversion to God, to strengthen our faith in Him and proclaim Him with joy to the people of our time,” the thenpontiff stated in the fall of 2011 upon the announcement of the event.

The enthusiasm of the first believers, Fisichella remarked, is “a path that the Christians of today know they need to pursue untiringly, as they are strong and reassured by the contemplation of the face of Christ.”

Archbishop Fisichella also revealed that as symbol of faith and in anticipation of the close

of the year dedicated to this virtue, Pope Francis has chosen to travel to a cloistered monastery on November 21 for a moment of prayer.

“The union between action and contemplation is one of the cardinal points that the faith expresses and that always needs to be repeated” he stated, adding that “the faith lives principally of adoration.”

Pope Francis will visit the monastery of the Camaldolese monks on the Aventine hill, located in ancient Rome, and is an order which “conjugates” the life of prayer and work “in a peculiar way” through their service to the poor.

Exposing the remains of St. Peter will be a unique “epilogue” to the Year of Faith, insisted Archbishop Fisichella, because it “has been marked in particular by the profession of faith that millions of pilgrims have made to the tomb of Peter.”

It stated something to the effect of “When things are out of control, thank Him.” I laughed. He asked me what I should do with that reflection and I said throw it into the fire place and let it burn.

Be Not Afraid

By Amanda Tarantelli

Year of Faith to be marked by exposition of St. Peter relics

18

November 15, 2013

Taunton parish maintains Miraculous Medal devotion continued from page one

come together every Monday night at 7 p.m. to pray the novena asking for Mary’s intercession for the past seven decades.

“It was during World War II, in the fall of 1943, when we began praying the Miraculous Medal novena (in our parish),” Rose said. “Many people came out to pray at that time — the church was filled. It was like that in most churches. They had this novena going in many parishes throughout the diocese and throughout the country. I thought we were unique that we’ve been able to continue it for 70 years. I think it’s a testament to the parishioners and the pastors who have kept it going.”

With the exception of a brief period in the 1980s when renovations to St. Joseph’s Church forced them to move the Monday night perpetual novena to nearby St. Paul’s Church, and then the time when those two parishes were eventually merged to form St. Andrew the Apostle Parish, Rose said attendance has remained steady throughout the last 70 years.

“I’d say in the past month we’ve averaged about 33 people (every Monday night),” she said. “We do have people who come home from work and still attend the novena every Monday night, which I think is wonderful. It can be a sacrifice. We have working people, retired people, husbands and wives, and children who attend.”

For Rose, who said she has a strong belief in the “power

of intercessory prayer to Jesus through Mary,” the weekly novenas have been a blessing for her and her parish.

“For me, personally, the Blessed Mother has answered many of my petitions through the novena,” she said. “When things get tough, I make the nine Mondays … and she’s been so very good to me. The Blessed Mother has been such an important part of my life through prayer and the novena. She’s been there through many difficulties and through many joys, too.”

And just as the Blessed Mother remains a constant in our lives; so, too, are the devoted who attend the weekly novena sessions at the Taunton church.

“It goes on even when we have a Monday holiday — we’re still there,” she said.

Our Blessed Mother appeared to St. Catherine Labouré numerous times during her life.

Born in France on May 2, 1806, Catherine was the ninth of 11 children. She became a Daughter of Charity and when she was a novice, at 24 years of age, the Virgin Mary appeared to her for the first time.

But it was on Nov. 27, 1830 when she asked her to have a medal struck with her image and entitle it “Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception.” This was more than two decades before the Church officially declared Mary’s Immaculate Conception as a doctrine of the faith.

St. Catherine, whose personal feast is celebrated on

the following day, November 28, was at that time shown a vision of the Blessed Mother and she heard a voice tell her: “Have a medal struck after this model. All who wear this medal will receive great favors. They should wear it around the neck. Favors will abound if worn with devotion.”

According to St. Catherine, the Blessed Mother displayed herself inside an oval frame, standing upon a globe, wearing many rings of dif-

St. Andrew the Apostle Parish in Taunton is home to this rare firstclass relic of St. Catherine, the nun to whom the Blessed Mother appeared in 1830 and asked to have the Miraculous Medal created. The relic is venerated every Monday at the church during the weekly perpetual Miraculous Medal novena.

ferent colors, most of which shone rays of light over the globe. Around the margin of the frame appeared the words in French: “O Marie, conçue sans péché, priez pour nous qui avons recours à vous,” translated as “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.”

As St. Catherine watched, the frame seemed to rotate,

showing the reverse side of the medal: a circle of 12 stars (representing the 12 Apostles), a large letter ‘M’ (for Mary the mediatrix) surmounted by the horizontal crossbeam of the crucifix (for Christ), and the stylized Sacred Heart of Jesus crowned with thorns and Immaculate Heart of Mary pierced with a sword.

Asked why some of her rings did not shed light, Mary reportedly replied: “Those are the graces for which people forget to ask.”

Catherine then heard the Blessed Mother ask her to take these images to her father confessor, telling him that they should be put on medallions.

Catherine did as she was asked, but it took two years of investigation and observation before the first batch of 2,000 medals was approved and eventually minted by goldsmith Adrien Vachette in 1832.

The medals were distributed throughout Europe and people were encouraged to wear them and pray the “Memorare.” As a result of many reported miracles, the medal soon took on a new name — the Miraculous Medal.

“The Blessed Mother originally called it the Medal of the Immaculate Conception, but it became so popular and so many miracles were attributed to it, that it became known as the Miraculous Medal,” Rose said.

“That’s what we call it today.”

After the visions ceased, St. Catherine spent the rest of her life working with the sick in humble and obedient service in a convent outside Paris. She spent that time in silence, not telling her superior that she was the one to whom Mary appeared and gave the medal until 45 years after the fact.

St. Catherine died in 1876 and in 1933, upon her beatification, she was exhumed and found to be incorrupted — or as “fresh as the day she was buried.”

“She’s (buried) at the motherhouse where she was when Mary first appeared to her,” Rose said. “She’s buried beneath one of the altars (in France).”

Canonized by Pope Pius XII on July 27, 1947, St. Catherine Labouré now rests encased in glass at 140 Rue de Bac in Paris, beneath one

of the spots where Our Lady appeared to her.

St. Andrew the Apostle Parish is home to a rare firstclass relic of St. Catherine — a piece of bone, physical remains — which is venerated every Monday after the novena.

“In 1956 Msgr. Patrick H. Hurley went to Europe and purchased it and brought it back,” Rose said. “It was handed over to the parish on Nov. 28, 2011. St. Catherine’s feast day just happened to fall on a Monday night that year … and that’s when it was given to us and it was the first time that our parishioners were able to venerate the relic.”

Along with the Rosary, Rose said the Miraculous Medal has become a powerful symbol of the Blessed Mother’s intercessory connection to her Son and His Father.

St. Maximilian Kolbe was reportedly wearing a Miraculous Medal on him when he died at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi Germany during World War II. St. Bernadette was also said to be wearing the medal when the Blessed Mother appeared to her at the grotto in Lourdes.

“I know Blessed Mother Teresa, wherever she went, carried a basket full of Miraculous Medals,” Rose said.

“She would give them out to everyone she came in contact with — she always carried them with her.”

The perpetual novena devotion to the Miraculous Medal can be traced back to a shrine built in 1927 in Germantown, Pa. to honor the Blessed Mother and her apparitions to St. Catherine.

“The perpetual novenas began Dec. 8, 1930 at this shrine — which was 100 years after Mary appeared to St. Catherine,” Rose said. “In 1932 a diocesan priest asked and received permission to start the novena in his parish. And today thousands of churches and chapels carry on this devotion throughout the world.”

For more information about the perpetual Miraculous Medal novena at St. Andrew the Apostle Parish, visit www.standrewtaunton.org.

St. Jude the Apostle Parish in Taunton also has a perpetual novena to the Miraculous Medal every Monday night at 6:30 p.m.

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November 15, 2013

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

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

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

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

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

Mass.

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

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

Use the Chapel entrance on the side of the church.

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

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

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

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

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

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

FALL RIVER — Good Shepherd Parish has Eucharistic Adoration every Friday following the 8 a.m. Mass and concluding with 3 p.m. Benediction in the Daily Mass Chapel. A bilingual holy hour takes place from 2 to 3 p.m. Park behind the church and enter the back door of the connector between the church and the rectory.

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

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 every Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

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

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

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

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

Taunton — Eucharistic Adoration takes place every Tuesday at St. Anthony Church, 126 School Street, following the 8 a.m. Mass with prayers including the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for vocations, concluding at 6 p.m. with Chaplet of St. Anthony and Benediction.

Recitation of the Rosary for peace is prayed Monday through Saturday at 7:30 a.m. prior to the 8 a.m. Mass.

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

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

WAREHAM — 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.

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

James F. McGlynn, father of Father Thomas E. McGlynn

FAIRHAVEN — James F. McGlynn, 93, of New Bedford died November 4, at Alden Court Nursing Home. He was the husband of the late Teresa E. (Callanan) McGlynn.

Born in Webster, the son of the late Edward and Anna (Lavery) McGlynn, he lived in New Bedford for most of his life.

He was a communicant of St. Lawrence Church.

McGlynn was formerly employed as an executive vice president and director of the First National Bank of New Bedford until his retirement.

During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army and participated in the Normandy Invasion. He was seriously wounded on Utah Beach and was awarded the Purple Heart medal.

He enjoyed dancing and family relationships.

He is survived by a son, Father Thomas E. McGlynn; a brother, Leonard McGlynn of Connecticut; two grandsons, James F. McGlynn III of Arizona and Patrick T. McGlynn of Taunton; and his longtime companion, Cynthia Kenworthy and her daughter, Carol McGlynn. He was the father of the late James F. McGlynn Jr. His Funeral Mass was celebrated on November 8 at St. Lawrence Church. Burial followed in St. Mary’s Cemetery.

Saunders-Dwyer Home for Funerals was in charge of the arrangements.

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks 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 Nov. 21 Rev. Stephen J. Downey, Retired Pastor, Holy Ghost, Attleboro, 1975 Rev. James F. Kenney, Retired Pastor, Corpus Christi, Sandwich, 1994

Around the Diocese “A Mighty Powerlessness” afternoon of reflection will be held November 16 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at St. John the Evangelist Church, One St. John Place in Attleboro. A free-will offering will be accepted and registration is not required. For more information, call 774-381-1890 or visit www.annaprae.com.

St. Joseph-St. Therese Parish on Acushnet Avenue in New Bedford will be hosting its eighth annual Vendor/Craft Fair on November 17 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. A variety of craft booths, raffles, and a full kitchen menu will be available. Call 508-995-5235 for more information.

An Open House for prospective students will be held on November 17 at 1 p.m. at Bishop Connolly High School, 373 Elsbree Street in Fall River.

All prospective students and their families are encouraged to attend this informative event. Students interested in the school’s innovative eighth grade LEAP program for gifted students are also encouraged to attend.

The Placement Test will be held on December 7 at 8 a.m. For more information call 508-676-1071.

On November 17 the Holy Trinity Women’s Guild will be hosting a spectacular Fall Penny Sale at 1 p.m. in the church basement on the corner of Tucker Street and Stafford Road in Fall River. The sale will include raffles and larger prizes such as food baskets and appliances. A luncheon menu will be available including: chow mein sandwiches, hot dogs, chourico and peppers, and a variety of delicious pastries and other goodies.

A prayer for “Building a New Culture of Life” will be held November 21 at 1 p.m. in St. Jude’s Chapel of Christ the King Parish in Mashpee. Prayers will consist of the four mysteries of the Rosary with brief meditations.

A Healing Mass will be celebrated on November 21 at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 1359 Acushnet Avenue in New Bedford. The Mass will begin at 6:30 p.m. and include Benediction and healing prayers. At 5:15 p.m. there will be a Holy Hour and the Rosary. For more information call 508-993-1691 or visit www.saintanthonyofnewbedford.com.

St. Margaret Regional School on Main Street in Buzzards Bay will host its eighth annual Holiday Craft and Vendor Fair on November 23 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Attractions will include handcrafted jewelry, stocking stuffers, ornaments, fresh Maine wreaths, baked goods, concessions, the children’s choir singing carols, and lots of raffle items. The event is free to the public with plenty of parking.

A Christmas Fair will be held at St. Elizabeth Seton Church, Quaker Road in North Falmouth on November 23 from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. featuring coffee and donuts at 8:30, luncheon from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., serving lobster rolls, clam chowder, turkey salad sandwiches and more. Visit the 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.

The Fall River Diocesan Council of Catholic Women will meet November 23 at St. George’s Parish, 12 Highland Avenue, Westport with coffee and pastries at 9 a.m. followed by a 9:30 meeting. A slide show of Pope Francis’ recent trip to Brazil will be shown, and there will be an opportunity to meet the council’s new spiritual advisor, Father Michael Racine. All are welcome.

For information call 508-672-6900.

20

November 15, 2013

U.S. bishops discuss relief aid, defense of Marriage, religious liberty

BALTIMORE (CNS) — During the first day of the U.S. bishops’ fall general assembly in Baltimore, the bishops discussed protecting religious liberty, providing typhoon relief in the Philippines and supporting efforts to defend traditional Marriage.

New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, in his final address as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, stressed the importance of protecting religious freedom around the world and outlined action steps the bishops could take on the issue.

In his November 11 remarks, he urged the bishops to create an awareness of “today’s new martyrs” persecuted for their beliefs by writing and talking about the issue in diocesan newspapers, blogs, speeches and pastoral letters. He also said the bishops should contact their political leaders and urge them to make the protection of “at-risk Christians a foreign policy priority.”

“Our good experience defending religious freedom here at home shows that, when we turn our minds to an issue, we can put it on the map,” Cardinal Dolan said. “It’s time to harness that energy for our fellow members of the household of faith hounded for their beliefs around the world.”

The cardinal cited the words of Pope Francis, who, in a September 25 general audience, invited the world to exam its conscience with regard to the plight of Christians around the world. The pope asked people to ask themselves if they were indifferent to the suffering of Christians and if they offered prayers for them.

The pontiff ’s questions must be answered not just by individual believers, but by the bishops “collectively as a body,” Cardinal Dolan said.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States, reflected on Pope Francis’ call to have a Church built on Christ’s love.

“The Holy Father wants bishops in tune with their people,” he said. When he met with the pope this summer, he noted, the pontiff made “a special point of saying that he wants pastoral bishops, not bishops who profess or follow a particular ideology.”

In a brief report on the extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family, called by Pope Francis for next October, Cardinal Dolan said it has been drawing great interest from everyday Catholics, many of whom are anxious to weigh in on questions the Vatican has sent out in preparation for the session.

He said he was awaiting clarification from the Holy See about how preparatory material such as the answers to a questionnaire sent to the world’s bishops’ conferences will be used.

Several bishops said they had already begun consulting with their priests’ councils or other diocesan organizations about ways Catholics can respond to the Vatican’s questions.

In a report on USCCB efforts to promote and defend traditional Marriage, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone said the Supreme Court’s ruling that rendered the federal Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional and the Senate’s passage November 7 of the Employment NonDiscrimination Act put the legal defense of Marriage “at a critical point in this country.”

The archbishop, who heads the U.S. bishops’ Subcommittee on the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, said the DOMA decision is now being used to judicially challenge Marriage laws in more than a dozen states that still recognize Marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

He also noted that “ENDAlike laws have contributed to the erosion and redefinition of marriage at the state level.”

The bishops voted 203-17, with five abstentions, to ex-

tend through 2016 a “Call to Prayer for Life, Marriage and Religious Freedom,” originally intended to coincide with the now-ended Year of Faith and itself scheduled to end with the feast of Christ the King November 24.

A report on the work of Catholic Relief Services highlighted what the agency is doing for survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan.

The agency has already committed $20 million in emergency aid, with the funds expected to come from a second collection the agency asked U.S. bishops to undertake in their dioceses before the end of the year.

Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., chairman of the CRS board, said the collection could be taken in dioceses the weekends of November 16-17 or November 30-December 1.

CRS president Carolyn Woo said the agency’s goal is to serve about a half million people.

Bishop Kicanas said it is expected that some funds will be set aside for the reconstruction of Catholic churches, schools and agencies, but the immediate need was for relief services.

He stressed that CRS partnerships with secular and government organizations are vital in the delivery of humanitarian services around the world.

Such partnerships are carefully

vetted, he said, before they are finalized to assure that what work is covered is in line with Catholic teaching.

The bishops were also updated on the reconstruction work the Church was sponsoring in Haiti in its recovery from the 2010 earthquake.

Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr of Cincinnati, chairman of the Committee on National Collections, said: “The hard work of collaboration and reconstruction has taken time, but it is now bearing fruit,” in the rebuilding of homes, churches and hospitals. U.S. Catholics gave more than $80 million toward this effort.

In a report on the U.S. bishops’ priorities for 2013-16, Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle, chairman of that committee, said the bishops were continuing to “make important progress” in their efforts to protect the life and dignity of the human person, to strengthen Marriage and family life, to promote religious liberty, and to improve Faith Formation and Sacramental practice.

Archbishop Sartain said the effort also included several “planning lenses,” especially with New Evangelization efforts through strengthening intercultural competency, supporting priestly and religious vocations, training pastoral leaders and creating more effective communication strategies.

Retired Archbishop Joseph A. Fiorenza of GalvestonHouston, a former president of the U.S. bishops, asked if the priorities could also include recognition of the priority for the poor outlined by Pope Francis.

The bishops elected three new members of the Catholic Relief Services board: Bishops William P. Callahan of La Crosse, Wis., Frank J. Dewane of Venice, Fla., and Cirilo B. Flores of San Diego.