Anchor 04.16.10

Diocese of Fall River

The Anchor

F riday , April 16, 2010

Catholic Charities Appeal process is an ongoing effort

By Dave Jolivet, Editor FALL RIVER — When the New England Patriots won three Super Bowls in four years, the team’s brain trust spent little of that time reveling in the fruits of its hard work. Almost immediately after each title game, they were at work preparing for the next season.

The same can be said for the core group of individuals who strive to raise crucially vital monies to assist hundreds of men, women and children across the Fall River Diocese. The diocesan Development Office, headed by Michael J. Donly, has the daunting task each year of enabling many diocesan ministries to serve those in need, especially as current economic worries escalate.

The efforts of Donly, along with his team of Cindy Iacovelli, Patty Doolan, and Doris Desro-

siers, are labors of love — love for those who are less fortunate.

And those efforts don’t end when the annual appeal runs its threemonth course from May to July.

Each year the diocesan Catholic Charities Appeal seeks the generous support of the area faithful to help those in need of corporal and spiritual assistance.

“This is the only time of the year that the diocese asks its members to help,” added Donly, “so it takes a great deal of planning and execution to ensure people can get the help they need.”

As the previous campaign winds down, the Development crew sets its sight on next year’s campaign, at which time, planning for the new campaign begins in earnest. “It’s a solid six months of planning and going through data,” Doolan told The Anchor.

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SPIRIT ON DISPLAY — Parishioners of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Parish, New Bedford, gather in the home of Nelson and Sonia Bulhoes to pray the rosary before a sterlingsilver crown representing the Holy Spirit. Following a long-standing tradition in diocesan Portuguese parishes that is still practiced in the Azores, the Bulhoes family was selected to host the first of seven Domingas, which include week-long devotion and culminates with a special Mass on Sunday during which someone will be “crowned” and blessed with the Holy Spirit. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

Portuguese parishes keep traditional devotion to the Holy Spirit burning

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

Study finds cohabitation increases likelihood of divorce

By Christine M. Williams Anchor Correspondent FALL RIVER — Couples who live together before they marry are six percent more likely to divorce before they reach their 10th wedding anniversary, according to a new study.

Like previous studies, the report from the Centers for Disease Control found that cohabitation increased the risk of divorce after couples married. The risk was comparable between couples

who never cohabitated and those who moved in together during their engagement. The report used data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth.

The data found a “strong association” between the reported importance of religion to participants and their decision about cohabitation. Men and women who reported that religion was “very important in their daily lives” were respectively 15 and Turn to page 18

NEW BEDFORD — Sevenyear-old Erica Bulhoes is probably used to being treated like a queen by her mother Sonia and father Nelson.

But during the 11 a.m. Mass last Sunday at her home parish of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, she participated in her first official coronation when she was crowned with the Holy Spirit, a long-standing

Portuguese tradition brought over from the Azorean Islands with the first immigrants to the Fall River Diocese years ago.

Although she wasn’t nervous about being crowned in front of a church filled with people, Erica was a bit concerned about the size of the large sterling-silver crown that recently took a place of prominence in her home.

“But people held it over my head, so it wouldn’t fall on me,” she said, smiling. “I felt

like a queen.”

In fact it was a queen who first inspired the time-honored devotion to the Holy Spirit among the Portuguese — one of many religious observances unique to their culture. It can be traced back to mainland Portugal around 1296 under the reign Queen Elizabeth (Isabel), also known as “The Holy Queen.”

Queen Elizabeth, wife of King Dinis of Portugal, had a Turn to page 13

Prodigal father leads son into the Church

By Deacon James N. Dunbar

MASHPEE — A fallen away Catholic whose rediscovery of the faith in Corpus Christi Parish’s Catholics Returning Home program moved his mentally-challenged son to want to receive holy Communion, has prompted a renewal of the initiative.

“It’s a heartwarming story and all of us have been moved and inspired,” reported Corpus Christi pastor Msgr. Daniel F. Hoye, who was instrumental in the return of Richard Klopfer as well as in administering the initiating sacraments for his son, Eric.

“I was baptized a Catholic and made my first Communion and went to CCD in Lexington, but after my parents moved to Washington, D.C. and then split they stopped taking me to church,” recalled Richard Klopfer, 54, during a recent inter-

view with The Anchor.

“I was 10 years old at the time and I was away from Church for 44 years — almost all my life — until I entered the wonderful Catholics Returning Home at Corpus Christi in 2009,” he added.

He recalled that he had been existing in a “comfort zone” in his life on Cape Cod, “until the wheels came off the cart” and he faced the adversity of a divorce and a family member on drugs among other things.

“But in all those years I always had a longing to get back to the faith I had learned about and which had really never left me. That feeling had been especially strong for the last 10 years.

So when everything broke, I called and made arrangements to talk to someone in the Church,” he said candidly.

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News From the Vatican

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April 16, 2010

New coadjutor of Los Angeles one of 24 Opus Dei bishops

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

2010 yearbook, the Prelature of Opus Dei has more than 87,500 VATICAN CITY — The new lay members, almost 2,000 coadjutor archbishop of Los priests and 337 seminarians.

In February Archbishop Angeles, Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, is the only U.S. bishop Gomez issued a 21-page pastowho was ordained for or incar- ral letter, “You Will Be My Witdinated in the Prelature of Opus nesses,” on the Christian mission to evangelize. Most of the Dei. With a Catholic population of 78 footnotes were references to 4.6 million, the Archdiocese of Bible passages or to the “CatLos Angeles is one of the larg- echism of the Catholic Church,” est dioceses in the world, and but one was to a homily by St. when Archbishop Gomez suc- Josemaria Escriva.

Archbishop Gomez wrote, ceeds Cardinal Roger M. Mahony it will be the most populous “My approach and understanddiocese headed by an Opus Dei ing of these matters owes a great deal to my appreciation of the member.

Archbishop Gomez is one of spirituality of St. Josemar­a Es24 Opus Dei bishops around the criva. I continue to find St. Josemara’s teachworld, although rchbishop Gomez is ings on sanctity like any priest, one of 24 Opus Dei and apostolate once a member becomes a bishops around the world, al- to be both probishop, he an- though like any priest, once a found and pracswers directly member becomes a bishop, he tical.”

The archto the pope and answers directly to the pope bishop quoted no longer to his and no longer to his bishop the saint as bishop or relisaying, “Whogious superior. or religious superior. ever said that to An additional 21 bishops belong to the Priestly speak about Christ and to spread Society of the Holy Cross, an his doctrine, you need to do anyassociation of diocesan clergy thing unusual or remarkable? associated with Opus Dei. Mem- Just live your ordinary life; work bers include three bishops in the at your job, trying to fulfill the United States: Archbishop John duties of your state in life, doJ. Myers of Newark, N.J.; Bish- ing your job, your professional op Robert W. Finn of Kansas work properly, improving, getCity-St. Joseph, Mo.; and Bish- ting better each day. Be loyal; be op Nicholas DiMarzio of Brook- understanding with others and lyn, N.Y., said Marc Carroggio, demanding on yourself.”

Cardinal Juan Cipriani an Opus Dei spokesman.

St. Josemaria Escriva de Thorne of Lima, Peru, and Balaguer founded Opus Dei, Lat- Cardinal Julian Herranz, the in for “work of God,” in Spain in retired president of the Pon1928 to promote holiness of life tifical Council for the Interand the transformation of society pretation of Legislative Texts, through the professional work of are among the bishops who beits members, the vast majority of long to the prelature, which is whom are lay people. He found- headed by Bishop Javier Echeed the Priestly Society of the varria.

Of the 24 Opus Dei bishHoly Cross in 1943 to share his message with diocesan clergy ops, three of whom are retired, and provide them with spiritual 19 were born in Spain or Latin assistance in their personal lives, America. The other three are a Frenchman, an Austrian and a Carroggio said.

According to the Vatican’s Kenyan.

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OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 54, No. 15

Member: Catholic Press Association, Catholic News Service

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

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

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a saint’s eye view — A security guard keeps watch near statues of saints on the colonnade as Pope Benedict XVI leads his general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican recently.

(CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Vatican offers online summary of clerical sex abuse procedures

By John Thavis Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — The Vatican has placed online a summary of its procedures for handling sex abuse allegations against priests, in order to illustrate the Church’s commitment to protecting children and punishing offenders.

The online “introductory guide” lists the investigative steps, trial options and possible penalties for clerical sex abuse of minors, including dismissal from the priesthood. It underlines the local bishop’s responsibility to follow civil law in reporting such crimes to the appropriate authorities.

“This is to help the public understand how we facilitate, how we proceed. This is transparency, transparency of the Vatican.

We have nothing to hide,” Passionist Father Ciro Benedettini, a Vatican spokesman, said April 10.

The move came after a spate of articles portrayed Vatican officials, including Pope Benedict XVI when he was the Vatican’s top doctrinal official, as slow to act on allegations of sex abuse by priests. Church officials have said many of the published reports exhibited a lack of knowledge about the current procedures and how they work.

The online guide explains the practices adopted in the wake of a 2001 papal document that established strict universal norms for handling cases of sexual

abuse by priests against minors and placed these cases under the authority of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The guide confirmed that the Vatican was currently updating the norms to reflect some changes over the last nine years, but said the modifications would not change the basic procedures.

The web page highlighted several essential steps in investigating and processing abuse cases.

First, it said, the local diocese is to investigate every allegation of sexual abuse of a minor by a cleric. If the allegation has a “semblance of truth,” the case is referred to the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation.

During this preliminary stage, the local bishop may restrict the activity of a priest as a precautionary measure, in order to protect children. “This is part of his ordinary authority, which he is encouraged to exercise to whatever extent is necessary to assure that children do not come to harm,” it said.

The doctrinal congregation then studies the case presented by the local bishop. It has a number of options at its disposal: — Penal processes. The doctrinal congregation may authorize a judicial penal trial at a local Church tribunal, or it can authorize the local bishop to conduct an “administrative penal process.” Under either procedure, if a cleric is judged guilty he is subject to a number

of possible penalties, including dismissal from the priesthood.

Appeal can be made to a tribunal of the doctrinal congregation or to the congregation itself.

— Cases referred directly to the pope. In “very grave cases” where a civil criminal trial has found the cleric guilty of sexual abuse of minors or where the evidence is overwhelming, the doctrinal congregation can take the case directly to the pope and request the offender’s dismissal from the priesthood. There is no recourse to such a penalty.

The congregation also takes to the pope requests by priests who acknowledge their crimes and asked to be dispensed from the obligation of the priesthood.

The pope grants these requests “for the good of the Church,” it said.

— Disciplinary measures. In cases where the accused priest has admitted his crimes and has accepted to live a life of prayer and penitence, the local bishop can issue a decree prohibiting or restricting the public ministry of the priest. If the priest violates the terms of the decree, possible penalties include dismissal from the priesthood. Recourse against such decrees is made to the doctrinal congregation, whose decision is final.

The Guide to Understanding Basic CDF Procedures Concerning Sexual Abuse Allegations is available in English at: vatican.va/resources/resources_ guide-CDF-procedures_en.html.

April 16, 2010

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The International Church St. Gianna Molla’s husband dies at 97

By Catholic News Service

making straight the path — Freddy Castaneda, adviser to the youth ministry of the Diocese of Apatzingan, Mexico, poses for a recent photo. Castaneda helped organize “Juvenile Easter,” a three-day event for young people that promoted an awareness of human rights and included charity projects and a march for peace in Tierra Caliente. (CNS photo/David Agren)

Cash, status lure youths to drug trade in troubled parts of Mexico

By David Agren Catholic News Service APATZINGAN, Mexico — Father Javier Cortes vividly recalls being approached recently with an unusual request by a group of teen-agers in this agricultural town 300 miles west of Mexico City.

There, La Familia Michoacana, a quasi-religious drug cartel, dumped four human heads at a prominent public monument during Holy Week as a warning to its rivals.

“Some young people said, ‘Father, I’ve come so that you will bless me because I’m going to kill Zetas,’” he said, referring to the gang of rogue former soldiers and police officers that La Familia members considers their mortal enemies.

Father Cortes, who is rector of the local seminary, rebuked the plan and refused to bless the killing spree.

The violence increasingly is claiming young lives as well.

Authorities blame the cartels and gangs affiliated with them for massacres such as the January murder of 15 youths at a birthday party in Ciudad Juarez and the Palm Sunday murders in Durango state of 10 young people who were returning to their communal farm.

But the request made of Father Cortes highlighted an even more disturbing trend in drug-related violence, as young people are

increasingly recruited by the cartels and lured into the seemingly easy money of the drug trade.

Security expert Pedro Isnardo de la Cruz, who teaches at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, attributed the recruitment of young people to a combination of factors that include Mexico’s long-underperforming economy, family breakdowns and the seduction of the cartels.

Church leaders and young people concurred and said such factors are at play in Apatzingan, a neglected region of downtrodden communal farms and lemon groves known as Tierra Caliente, or Hot Earth.

The region has a decades-old drug trade. But Freddy Castaneda, a youth minister in the Apatzingan Diocese, said it previously was “something very vague” and young people were seldom recruited. That changed with the turf war between La Familia and Los Zetas, which exploded in November 2006 when La Familia announced its arrival by tossing six human heads into a seedy nightclub.

Now, Castaneda said, “When you go into any neighborhood, out of every 10 families, six will be somehow involved” with the drug trade. Tierra Caliente is a region of few legal economic opportunities, where teen-agers once spoke of heading to the United States. Now, young people aspire to jobs with La Fa-

milia, with the goal of emulating their newly rich peers who cruise the city’s main streets on weekend nights in new trucks with the music blaring.

“In school, there are guys whose only ambition is to become a drug dealer,” said 15-year-old Emma Jaimes. “One week these guys are poor. Next thing you know they’re rich.

“They want to be drug dealers so they can get respect, get a car, get whatever girl they want ... it’s all that they think about,” he said.

De la Cruz said young people flirting with the cartels deceive themselves with the idea of the “easy life being within their reach,” but there are few alternatives to dissuade them.

“The objective of our Easter (activities) is that young people become integrated into their parishes, but above all, become integrated into their families,” Castaneda said.

Promoting Easter events has become more difficult, however.

Castaneda said previous events would attract up to 500 youths.

Now, temptations such as going to the beach during the traditional Mexican holiday period and the involvement of families in the drug trade have made the church’s Easter events a tougher sell.

“We have hope,” Father Cortes said. “All of these young people have a good seed somewhere inside of them.”

MESERO, Italy — Pietro Molla, the widower of St. Gianna Beretta Molla, died at his home in Mesero April 3 at the age of 97.

In September 2005, on what would have been their 50th wedding anniversary, the saint’s husband wrote, “I’ve often thought and said that not even eternity would give me enough time to thank the Lord for the very unique gift he gave me” in “seeing my beloved Gianna elevated to the highest honors of the altar.”

Fourteen months after their marriage, Gianna and Pietro welcomed their first child, Pierluigi.

Maria Zita was born in 1957 and Laura was born in 1959. But in late 1961, pregnant with the couple’s fourth child, Gianna was diagnosed with a uterine tumor.

The couple refused treatment that could have harmed the unborn child. Gianna Emanuela was born in April 1962 and her mother died one week later of an infection.

On the 40th anniversary of his wife’s death, Molla wrote that he still felt his wife’s presence “in the memory of our six months of engagement and our six and half years of married and family life, filled with full and perfect joy with our children.”

Addressing his late wife, he said, “When the Lord called you to heaven 40 years ago, although we were suffering we continued

to feel that you were increasingly present and near, our protector in heaven.”

Gianna was a pediatrician and Pietro was an engineer. They were married in Magenta, the town outside Milan, where Gianna was born.

Pope John Paul II beatified Gianna in 1994 and proclaimed her a saint in 2004. Pietro was present at the canonization in St. Peter’s Square with the couple’s three surviving children; Maria Zita had died in 1964 of kidney disease.

Basilian Father Thomas Rosica of Canada’s Salt and Light Catholic Television Network, who has known the Molla family for 11 years, said in a statement April 4 that he is convinced “the story of holiness did not end with St. Gianna Beretta Molla. Pietro Molla was a pillar and rock — a man of extraordinary faith, simplicity and holiness. He lived a remarkable, saintly life and like his beloved wife, Gianna, made holiness something attainable for all of us.”

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April 16, 2010 The Church in the U.S. Vatican rebuts allegations of stalling on California sex abuse case

By John Thavis Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Vatican officials have rebutted allegations that the future Pope Benedict XVI stalled on a priestly sex abuse case in 1985, and said critics have misunderstood the fundamental Church procedures in use at the time.

The Associated Press reported that then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger resisted pleas to defrock Father Stephen Kiesle, a California priest with a record of sexually molesting children.

It cited a letter from Cardinal

Ratzinger, who was head of the lawyer for the Vatican, said the abuser. The distinction is imporVatican’s doctrinal congrega- AP article reflected a “rush to tant, they said. At the time, Pope tion, advising further study of judgment” and presumed — in- John Paul II had introduced a policy of greatly reducthe case for “the good of atican sources said the Kiesle ing the number of such the universal Church.” case illustrates how the Vatican dispensations, out of Vatican officials pointed out that Cardinal has changed its approach over the years, concern that the commitment to the priestRatzinger was respondparticularly regarding the penalty of dis- hood was no longer seen ing to the priest’s own request for dispensa- missal from the priesthood. Laicization is as permanent.

— Cardinal Ratztion from the vow of now seen as a proportionate punishment celibacy, and at the time for “all the egregious cases” of sex abuse inger’s letter acknowledged the “grave” reahad no authority to imby minors, one official said. sons involved in this pose dismissal from the particular case, urged priesthood as a penalty for sex abuse. correctly — that Cardinal Ratz- the local bishop to follow the Jeffrey Lena, a California inger’s office had control over priest closely and advised further careful consideration of clerical sex abuse cases.

“During the entire course the situation. Kiesle was in fact of the proceeding the priest re- laicized two years later, on the mained under the control, au- eve of his 40th birthday; there thority and care of the local was a policy at the time of not bishop who was responsible to granting dispensations to priests make sure he did no harm, as the under the age of 40.

— Cardinal Ratzinger’s letcanon law provides,” Lena said.

“The abuse case wasn’t trans- ter had no bearing on protecting children from Kiesle, or proferred to the Vatican at all.”

Other Vatican experts in tecting the Church’s reputation.

Church law, who asked not to be The priest had already been conidentified because they were not victed of sexual abuse in a wellauthorized to speak on the re- publicized civil trial in 1978 and cord, made several other points had — in theory, at least — been removed from all ministry by about the Kiesle case: — Cardinal Ratzinger’s 1985 the Diocese of Oakland. Again, letter came in response to a re- at that time removal from minquest for dispensation from istry was the responsibility of priestly obligations, not a re- local Church officials, not the quest for sanctions against an Vatican.

V

— Authority over allegations of sexual abuse of minors by priests was transferred to the doctrinal congregation only in 2001. In 2003, special faculties were granted to the congregation to make it easier to dismiss offenders from the priesthood.

Cardinal Ratzinger is said by many to have pushed for these changes in order to confront what was recognized as a major problem in the Church.

Vatican sources said the Kiesle case illustrates how the Vatican has changed its approach over the years, particularly regarding the penalty of dismissal from the priesthood. Laicization is now seen as a proportionate punishment for “all the egregious cases” of sex abuse by minors, one official said.

“We have acquired a keen sense of the nature of the crime of sexual abuse of minors and of the scandal that derives from it,” he said.

In the case of Kiesle, removal from the priesthood did not prevent him from committing sexual crimes. He was convicted in 2004 of a second sex offense, that of molesting a girl in 1995, and was sentenced to six years in prison. He lives today in a California community as a registered sex offender.

Financially troubled New York Catholic hospital to close doors

By Catholic News Service NEW YORK — After exhausting “every possible alternative,” the board of directors of St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers announced April 6 that it would close St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan and end all inpatient acute, rehab and behavioral health services there.

The decision came after a six-month effort to save the 160-year-old Catholic hospital in Greenwich Village, which included layoffs of hundreds of workers, pay cuts of up to 25 percent for remaining employees and the freezing of pension and retirement benefits.

“We are deeply saddened that we were unable to come up with a viable plan to save the inpatient services at the hospital that has proudly served Manhattan’s West Side and downtown for 160 years,” said Alfred E. Smith IV, chairman of the board of St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers, in a statement.

Other facilities and programs of St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers — including an outpatient cancer center and HIV/

AIDS center, nursing homes, a home health agency, St. Vincent’s Hospital Westchester and U.S. Family Health Plan — will continue to operate without interruption as plans proceed for their sale and transfer to new sponsorship.

Under a closure plan to be submitted to the state Department of Health, all St. Vincent’s patients will be discharged or transferred to nearby nonaffiliated hospitals, as appropriate. All elective surgeries were expected to end by April 14.

St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers carries a legacy of debt inherited after St. Vincent’s Hospital merged in 2000 with seven other Catholic hospitals in the metropolitan area. It closed or sold most of the other facilities, sought bankruptcy protection in 2005 and emerged from bankruptcy in 2007.

Henry J. Amoroso, president and CEO of St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers, told Catholic News Service in February that “eight separate budget cuts from New York state over the last two years and the worst recession in many decades” were factors in the organization’s

latest financial crisis.

Sister Jane Iannucelli, a Sister of Charity who is vice chairwoman of the centers’ board, expressed gratitude in a recent statement “to our administrators, employees, physicians and nurses who have demonstrated extraordinary commitment to the mission of St. Vincent’s over these difficult times.”

“In addition, everyone appreciates all of the efforts made by our employees, union partners, elected officials and community members to save St. Vincent’s,” she added.

In an interview in early February, Sister Jane told CNS that the hospital has been a leader in caring for the neediest and “people no one else wanted,” from 19thcentury cholera victims to early AIDS sufferers who were “left on our loading dock.”

Continuum Health Partners, a New York hospital system, withdrew a solicited proposal it made in January to the St. Vincent board to take over the hospital and turn it into an outpatient treatment center, eliminating inpatient beds and most emergency services.

April 16, 2010

The Church in the U.S.

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Stupak to retire, cites health reform law as main accomplishment

praying for the victims — People attend a Mass at St. Joseph’s Church in Whitesville, W.Va., for the coal miners who were killed April 5. Twenty-nine coal miners were killed at the Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, W.Va., in what was the deadliest U.S. mining disaster since 1970. (CNS photo/Chris Keane, Reuters)

Priests need prayers, not blame for abuse by others, archbishop says WASHINGTON (CNS) — With a reminder that “the wrong actions of some do not justify the vilification of all,” Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl of Washington urged prayers during the Easter season both for victims of child sexual abuse and for faithful priests tainted by the actions of a few.

“Priests who harmed children violated the heart of their ministry and have harmed not only our young people and our community of faith, but also the vast majority of their brother priests who faithfully live out their promises to serve Christ and his people,” the archbishop said in an op-ed piece published April 4 in The Washington Post.

He sounded a similar theme in his homilies during Holy Week and at Easter and in an Easter Monday letter to Catholics of the Washington Archdiocese.

Before a Good Friday service April 2 at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, Archbishop Wuerl joined about 30 members of Voice of the Faithful who were conducting Stations of the Cross outside the cathedral in a protest of clergy sex abuse of minors.

He also listened to comments

by David Lorenz, an abuse victim from Covington, Ky., who lives in the Washington area and with whom he had met previously.

“While it was almost time to begin our ceremony at the cathedral, I joined the people at the prayer gathering to show solidarity with victims of abuse and to highlight the Church’s ongoing concern, prayers and pastoral and spiritual ministry,” he said in the April 5 letter.

Archbishop Wuerl also outlined the ways in which the U.S. Catholic Church has “dealt openly, effectively and decisively in rooting out perpetrators of sexual abuse” and said Pope Benedict XVI, as pope and in his former role as head of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, helped greatly in that process.

“The majority of media coverage this past two weeks has been full of speculation, yet has omitted the tremendous work that he has done to bring healing, accountability for those who harmed children, and protection for children over many years,” he wrote.

Although the archbishop did

not mention any specifics, Pope Benedict has been widely criticized in the media for his handling of abuse complaints and abusive priests when he was archbishop of Munich, Germany, and at the Vatican.

Archbishop Wuerl said child sexual abuse can be perpetrated by family members, teachers, youth leaders and others and much of the abuse by priests occurred “sometimes 30, 40 and even 50 years ago.”

“The impression is sometimes created that there is a disproportionate percentage of abusers in the priesthood and that the abuse continues today,” he said. “Both assertions are not true.”

Archbishop Wuerl asked Catholics to “pray for our priests and at the same time encourage them and thank them for responding to God’s call, for their continuation of Christ’s ministry in the world, and for the demonstrated selfless service in meeting the sacramental, spiritual and pastoral needs of the faithful.”

“Belief sees beyond the failure of a few men and holds fast to the mystery of God’s goodness at work in this world in the priesthood, lived in so many, many good, effective, caring and faithful priests,” he added.

In the op-ed piece, headlined “Resurrection and redemption,” the archbishop said the days of Holy Week and the Easter season “are a reminder that from pain and sorrow eventually come hope, redemption and new life.”

“As the Catholic Church continues to face the tragedy of clergy sexual abuse, we must pray for the victims, recommit to doing all that we can to keep children safe, and remember and pray for the priests who every day faithfully live out the deep love that Christ has for all of us,” he added.

MARQUETTE, Mich. care bill to extend the original (CNS) — U.S. Rep Bart Stu- Hyde Amendment that forbids pak, a Catholic Pro-Life Dem- federal funding of abortions. At ocrat from Michigan who was the time he said the calls and a central figure in the abortion letters to members of Congress debate surrounding the health from Catholic leaders and Procare reform law, said April 9 he Life organizations were helpful will retire from Congress at the in persuading 64 Democrats to end of his current term. support his amendment.

“When I first ran for ConThe House passed its version gress in 1992, I campaigned in November. A month later the on a pledge to make affordable Senate passed its version, withquality health care a right, not out a similar amendment on a privilege, for all Americans,” abortion. he said at a press conference In February President Bain Marquette, which is in his rack Obama held a health care home district. “In March we summit in hopes it would fosfinally accomplished what I set ter bipartisan support in the out to do 18 years ago.”

House for the Senate bill. Stu“I’m proud to have helped pak said he would not vote for bring it across the finish line,” the bill unless it was amended he said. to include language prohibitStupak said angry callers ing federal funds from covering who have criticized him for abortion. When it appeared that voting for health reform were was not going to happen, he not a factor in his decision to spent hours in the negotiations retire from the to push Obama ith that assur- on the execuHouse, because he had been ance Stupak and tive order. thinking about other Pro-Life Democrats Two days it for the last after the legissix years or so. in the House said they lation passed He added that could vote for the Senate Obama signed many of those bill that did not include it into law. A critics were not an abortion amendment day later he from Michigan. signed the ex“I’m not like the one in the House- ecutive order. afraid to do the passed measure.

In an April tough votes. I 9 letter to his don’t run away from the bat- constituents, Stupak thanked tles,” he said. the voters of northern MichiStupak led negotiations to gan “for putting your faith in push President Barack Obama me.” to promise he would sign an ex“For 18 years,” he said, “I ecutive order to prohibit federal have enjoyed traveling this disfunding of abortion if health trict — from Keweenaw Bay reform passed and was signed — to Grand Traverse Bay — to into law.

Saginaw Bay — and all points With that assurance Stupak in between — to hear your conand other Pro-Life Democrats cerns and share in your joys in the House said they could and disappointments.” vote for the Senate bill that did “But, now it is time for me not include an abortion amend- to spend a little more time with ment like the one in the House- my wife of 36 years, Laurie, passed measure. whose love and commitment Some Pro-Life critics of has sustained me through the Stupak said the executive order years, with my son, Ken, and would not correct “any of the his family and with my extendserious pro-abortion provisions ed family and friends,” Stupak in the bill.” said.

The U.S. Conference of He said his “main mission” Catholic Bishops applauded the of seeing health care legislation effort “to expand health care to pass is something he first talked all,” but expressed regret that about when he took office. reform came with the possibilBut what he is most proud ity of expanded abortion fund- of, he said, “is helping you, my ing and urged vigilance that the friends, my neighbors and my executive order would, as prom- constituents,” he said. “Whethised, ensure no federal funds er it was cutting through red will be spent on abortion. tape to secure veterans or SoSome Catholic groups react- cial Security benefits, obtained with enthusiasm to the pas- ing funding to weatherize sage of health reform and the homes, or securing medals for executive order. a service member who valiantLast fall Stupak was the main ly served our country, my staff sponsor of an amendment to and I always understood that the House version of the health we worked for you.”

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6

The Anchor

The truth about Pope Benedict and abuse in the Church Today is Pope Benedict’s 83rd birthday. The last few weeks have likely seemed for him as long as years, but some semblance of sanity seems to be returning, at least among those who take an honest look at facts and then draw conclusions rather than draw conclusions and then look at facts.

As we have been stressing in these pages, to defend Pope Benedict is not to deny that the double-evil of the sexual abuse of minors and the lack of a prompt, thorough and fully Christian response by Church leaders, occurred. These evils did occur, but the cause of justice is not advanced by trying to pretend that the fundamental blame for them rests with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger rather than with the abusive priests and their irresponsible immediate superiors. We have emphasized that, rather than abetting these evils, the man who became Pope Benedict XVI is one of the true heroes of the Church’s response, courageously pushing the Church at the highest levels — many of whom were in denial about the extent of the abominations — to respond adequately, decisively, forthrightly and (by historical Vatican standards) rapidly to discipline priests and protect Christ’s flock.

The truth of Cardinal Ratzinger’s real role as a crucial part of the solution not the problem is beginning to become apparent even to those who are among the fiercest critics of the Church’s overall handling of the sexual abuse of minors. Jason Berry, the investigative journalist who in 1997 exposed the sexual abuse by Father Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, described in an April 6 article in the National Catholic Reporter how Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger acted almost alone against other powerful forces in the Vatican to push an investigation of Father Maciel that eventually led to his being disgracefully disciplined.

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat argued in an April 12 article that such an approach was not an “isolated case” for Ratzinger. “In the 1990s, it was Ratzinger who pushed for a full investigation of Hans Hermann Groer, the Vienna cardinal accused of pedophilia, only to have his efforts blocked in the Vatican. It was Ratzinger who persuaded John Paul, in 2001, to centralize the Church’s haphazard system for handling sex abuse allegations in his office. It was Ratzinger who re-opened the long-dormant investigation into Maciel’s conduct in 2004, just days after John Paul II had honored the Legionaries in a Vatican ceremony. It was Ratzinger, as Pope Benedict, who banished Maciel to a monastery and ordered a comprehensive inquiry into his order.”

George Weigel amplified Douthat’s point in a April 12 column on FirstThings.com. “The truth seems to have gotten out, if slowly and incompletely, [that] the single most influential figure in reshaping the Roman Curia’s attitude toward these scandals and the Church’s legal practice in dealing with them, was Joseph Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI. The plaintiff’s bar cannot concede this, for to do so would be to destroy the narrative it has been selling to the world media; Ratzinger’s enemies cannot concede this, for they have never been able to find good in him; and European secularists cannot concede this, for in their minds the Church is, in principle, irreformably corrupt…. But those willing to look at facts and evidence have begun to understand just how crucial a role Ratzinger played in ensuring that 2010 did not automatically become 2002” all over again.

Weigel candidly notes that “there is no harm in acknowledging that, like just about everyone else, Joseph Ratzinger was on a learning curve in dealing with abusive clergy and malfeasant bishops; the point to be stressed, however, is that he learned faster, and acted more decisively on what he had learned, than just about anyone else. ” In his column Weigel also provided other reasons why 2010 is not 2002 all over again, which American Catholics, beleaguered and still righteously indignant about the multivalent evil that took place in the Church, need to keep in mind.

“During the Long Lent [of 2002], the press played an important role in dragging into the light of day awful things the Church had failed to confront, or had confronted ineptly. The shame of that period still stings, as do the wounds suffered by victims. Yet 2010 is not 2002, and that is in large measure due to 2002. Despite the ignorance and tendentiousness displayed by too many journalists and commentators in recent weeks, … the facts are slowly getting out, thanks in part to the unprecedented studies and audits authorized by the bishops of the United States in the wake of the Long Lent. Reasonable people whose perceptions are not warped by the toxin of anti-Catholicism or who are not pursuing other (often financially-driven) agendas now recognize that the Church in the U.S. and Canada has [made] enormous efforts towards cleaning up what Cardinal Ratzinger called in 2005 its ‘filth,’ to the point where the Catholic Church today can be empirically shown to be the safest environment for young people and children in North America. The paralyzing drumbeat of one ghastly new story after another that went on all during 2002 has not been repeated. What we now have is, largely, the recycling of old material, usually provided to the press by contingent-fee attorneys whose strategic goal is to build a public ‘narrative’ of conspiracy that will shape American courts’ decisions as to whether the Vatican and its resources can be brought within range of U.S. liability law. The realization among serious Catholics that this is not 2002 and that things have changed dramatically since 2002, has led to a far more confident effort to fight back against misrepresentations such as those the [New York] Times perpetrated on March 25.”

One such response against misrepresentation, he said, concerns an honest critique of the motivation of some of those attacking the Church. “Are those most vigorously agitating these abuse/ misgovernance issues today genuinely interested in the safety of young people and children, or are they using the failures of the past to cripple the moral credibility of the Catholic Church in the present and future? That question would have rightly struck many people as a dodge in 2002. It cannot be credibly regarded as a dodge today, because of what the Church has done since 2002.”

If the motivation of some of the principal agitators were really about protecting children from the scourge of sexual abuse, we would anticipate that they would be seeking to attack abuse wherever it is found. As multiple studies have amply demonstrated, the sexual abuse of minors is just as prevalent in other religious denominations as in the Catholic Church, and much more prevalent in places like public schools, homes with live in boyfriends, and even, per capita, among U.S. swim coaches, as a recent television special demonstrated. While we believe that the Church should be held to a higher standard than other institutions, the fact that the Church has received the disproportionate attention of contingency lawyers, some state legislatures, and as some segments of the media do suggest, objectively, that something more than the protection of children is going on.

Weigel finishes his article by arguing how the reforms begun in 2002 need to be accelerated and expanded. “If 2010 is not to become 2002 redivivus, the Holy See must make unmistakably clear that … in addition to swift action against abusive priests, the Church is prepared to take swift and decisive action against episcopal misgovernance. … The right to choose bishops … carries with it the responsibility to address episcopal failure, even by the ultimate remedy of deposition in extreme cases. Procedures for accelerating the laicization of abusive clergy have been put in place in Rome; parallel procedures for determining when a bishop has lost the capacity to govern because of a thorough and irremediable collapse of his credibility as a leader and shepherd ought to be devised and implemented.”

As we celebrate Benedict’s birthday today and the fifth anniversary of his election on Monday, we pray that the Lord may bless him with the courage, stamina and years to continue the reform in which he has already played such an important role.

April 16, 2010

The importance of priestly stability Toward the end of St. John Vianney’s teacher, sanctifier and leader of his people, life, as pilgrims flocked to Ars from all over the pastor obviously needs to get to know his France, they would leave marveling not only flock, and this takes time. As priests get fewer about having witnessed “God in a man,” as one and the tasks for which they are responsible contemporary described Vianney, but “God become greater, even more time is needed. In in a parish.” They were amazed at the warm a small-to-midsize parish of 500 families, if a hospitality, radiant faith and ardent charity of pastor were to carve out from among parish the people of the village, who would routinely meetings and marriage, baptismal and counopen their homes to the overflow guests, wel- seling appointments one night a week to make come them as if they were Christ, feed them, home visits, it would take him 10 years to visit encourage them in the Christian life, pray every household once. In the past, pastors had with and for them, and in short, love them as a the ability to do this, because they remained in Christian should. Because many of the pilgrims their assignments for decades and were generhad to wait more than a week for five minutes ally assisted by several other priests. They got with the Curé of Ars in the confessional, it was to know families over three or four generathis much lengthier contact with the Christians tions and the people got to know them in reof Ars that would generally prepare these pil- turn. They had time to inaugurate and bring to grims for true and deep conversion: they wit- maturity schools and other pastoral programs. nessed in the ordinary people of Ars the type They were able to get to know well the pastoral of faith to which they recognized that they, too, lay of the land, to begin initiatives to improve were called. their neighborhoods and care for the needy, to The transformation of the people of Ars can develop friendships and good working relabe called their Curé’s greatest miracle. When tionships with civic leaders, to become known he was assigned as parish priest in 1818, Fa- and respected by Catholics and non-Catholics ther Courbon, the vicar general, laconically in- alike, so that they could effectively collaborate formed him, “There is not much love for God with community leaders to address various there. You must put some.” Few were practicing problems that arose. Pastors are weaker today the faith with any type of regularity, not to men- in most of these areas because they are not as tion fervor. More secure in their people went to assignments. the taverns on Pastoral stathe Lord’s Day bility is even than to church. more important Blasphemy was at a theological rampant. Only and ecclesiologa handful famiical level. The

By Father lies prayed. The pastor is meant Roger J. Landry young were subto be in his parstituting lust for ish a “quasilove. The state of sacrament” catechetical formation was abysmal, due not of Christ’s own relationship to his bride the just to the indoctrination of the French Revolu- Church: a committed presence who lays down tion and a paucity of able catechists, but also to his life for his bride and not just a transient a general lack of interest among the villagers. figure. The priest is called “father” because It took St. John Vianney decades to till the he is supposed to be true spiritual father to his soil of those in the village. Even though there people, not an ephemeral spiritual guide. Real were only 60 families and 230 people upon his dads worthy of the name are not a presence just arrival, it took him eight years to get most of for five or 10 years in their families’ lives bethe families of the village to return to Mass, fore they leave and mom brings home another 25 years to eradicate the taverns, and 29 years “dad.” When priests do not have true stability, to eliminate the debauched dances called the the familial bond between priest and people vogues. Once he had eliminated these rocks the Church envisions never has a chance to and thorns from the village soil, however, he develop because parishioners are reluctant to needed still more time truly to form them in invest the time to form deep bonds with those Christian virtue so that they could bear fruit in whom they fear are only around temporarily. abundance. Not only is all of this a testament The priest, moreover, is supposed to be a sign to Father Vianney’s pastoral perseverance, but and agent of unity in a parish community and a it is also a palpable example of the importance pastor cannot fulfill this responsibility without of priestly stability in assignments. The trans- stability; if pastors are routinely transferred evformation of Ars from a place where there was ery five or 10 years, the result is that they can “no love for God” to one that radiated piety and begin to function and be viewed like stewards charity literally took decades — and likely oc- of ecclesiastical goods, or branch managers of curred only because St. John Vianney was pas- Catholic Church, Inc. The source of unity and tor there for 41 years. stability in parish life, rather than the priest, ofPriestly stability is something that, during ten becomes the parish staff. this Year For Priests, the whole Church needs to During this Year For Priests, this discusponder anew. For priests to be pastorally effec- sion of priestly stability is very timely because tive in being the Lord’s instrument to sanctify in many places priestly transfers, rather than and save his people, it’s not enough that they be priestly stability, are looked upon at the practicontagiously holy themselves. They also need cal level as the positive good. Pastors are being time. If a priest as holy as St. John Vianney transferred not just when another pastor reneeded several decades to transform the people tires, takes ill, defects or dies — as they always of a tiny parish in a simpler era, how much more have been — but as a routine matter of course time will priests who are not as zealous as the in what can sometimes seem like an annual Curé of Ars need to transform much larger par- ecclesiastical game of musical chairs. There ishes in a more complicated one? are, clearly, some advantages to regular transPastoral stability has always been viewed fers: as in any “profession,” it can provide new by the Church as a positive good, for priest and challenges, prevent loss of zeal and personal or parishioners. The Second Vatican Council says organizational stagnation, and enable convethat the “good of souls demands” pastoral sta- nient exits from inconvenient situations. But, bility and Church law enshrines it. “It is neces- as mentioned above, there are also clear disadsary that a parish priest [pastor] have the ben- vantages, at a theological and practical level, efit of stability. Therefore, he is to be named for and that’s why priestly stability, rather than an indefinite period of time,” Canon 522 states. regular transfers, is enshrined in canon law.

Under certain conditions, the Church allows Not every priest is St. John Vianney and not dioceses to set terms for pastors, but specifies every priest, if left in place for 41 years, would that the minimal term should be a renewable help to make his people saints. But if priests at six years. In the Diocese of Fall River, there a practical level do not enjoy true stability in are no terms and pastors are appointed indefi- their office, not even priests as holy and zealnitely. ous as St. John Vianney will have the time to At a functional level, pastoral stability al- sanctify their people. lows the parish priest time to accomplish his Father Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of essential tasks. In order to be an effective Padua Parish in New Bedford.

Putting Into the Deep

April 16, 2010

I

know very well that the roots of my vocation go all the way back to my family and to my upbringing in Boston.

Both of my parents had been raised Catholic and lived it out with real conviction with us three kids. Mum was a classic Boston (Brighton) Irish Catholic girl of deep faith; dad had a more unusual background, raised in a Swedish/French Canadian farm family in Barre, Vt. His mother was the French Canadian half of the marriage, and saw to it that all six Johnson children received their sacraments and got a good grounding in the faith.

That said, my mother’s faith was the real driving force in our faith formation. She had a deep love for priests and a long time respect for the Jesuits, several of whom she had come to know well. As a boy, I thought about the priesthood for a while, but not for long and not very seriously, so I astonished everyone when I graduated from college, took a year to pay off some stu-

W

ith a worldwide membership exceeding 7 million (one million in the United States), the religion known as Jehovah’s Witnesses traces its origin to Charles Taze Russell (1852-1916), the son of a Pittsburgh haberdasher. Raised a Presbyterian, Russell became an agnostic at age 17 but later embraced Adventist and occultist beliefs. In 1881, he founded Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society as an unincorporated administrative agency for the purpose of disseminating Bibles and religious tracts. A few years later, the society was legally incorporated in Pennsylvania and officially renamed the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.

Russell laid out his fundamental doctrines in a six-volume series called “Millennial Dawn,” later renamed “Studies in the Scriptures.” By 1909 the work had become international and the society’s headquarters were moved to its present location in Brooklyn, New York.

“Judge” Joseph F. Rutherford (1869-1942), a Missouri lawyer and former Baptist, succeeded Russell as president. Rutherford’s early presidency was marked by bitter disputes with the board of directors, prompting many defections from the organization. He imposed a centralized administrative structure which he called “Theocratic Government,” introduced doctrinal revisions, and expected every member to devote many

7

The Anchor

Hijacked in Rome

dent loans, and then entered the theological studies. If you don’t Trappist Monastery in Spencer study sound theology, you’re in 1974. the type who will make up your It wasn’t always an easy road, own.” of course, but I loved monastic life: so much, in fact, that I was happy being Year For Priests a plain old monk and Vocational Reflection had no desire to go on to ordination. I made final vows in 1981.

By Father Andrew Two of my abbots did Johnson, O.C.S.O. me the great honor of urging me to become a priest, but I just couldn’t see myself in the role of priestWhat could I say to that? monk. I felt happy and fulfilled “OK, Reverend Father.” as I was.

Then he said, “You’ve alNonetheless, I did continue ready got some Italian so why philosophical and theological don’t we send you to the Gregostudies at a pretty leisurely pace rian University in Rome?” and by 1986, I had finished the “OK, Reverend Father,” equivalent of the first year in I replied, and tried to hide theology. Actually, I wasn’t too my excitement. I then asked thrilled with the idea of continu- the question I knew I had ing. to ask: “No pressure to get At this point my new abbot, ordained?”

Dom Augustine Roberts, called “No, none. Just finish your me in and said, “Look, Brother, theology.” Then he smiled a you don’t have to get ordained, little. I’ll bet he knew something but you have to finish your would happen to me during

those years in Rome.

Well, something did. I lived at Sant’Anselmo on the Aventine Hill with the Benedictines.

Rome was great all around. I loved every minute of it, and am forever grateful for that opportunity, but what changed me was this: twice I had the incredible honor of attending the pope’s Mass in his private chapel with a group of other monks.

It only needed to happen once for me to have my eyes opened and my life changed. I simply met one of the greatest priests of our age, Pope John Paul II. I didn’t change all at once, it wasn’t a lightning bolt, but it began immediately. I said to myself when he came out to greet us individually after Mass, “This is what it means to be a priest. This is a priest.” Not that I hadn’t met real, good priests before, but this was a total revelation on the gut level and every other level.

The more I thought of that experience over the coming weeks and months, the more I said, “I want to be like this man, and I think God wants me to, as well.”

My desire was not to be another John Paul, of course, but a priest of Jesus Christ such as I myself could be, inspired by that first insight: “That’s a real priest.”

I never looked back, never questioned again. I finished up a glorious course of studies in Rome in 1990, went home to Spencer and asked to be ordained. I think the abbot was surprised at first, but then he smiled a little. I was ordained priest in 1991.

All the sacraments have been great gifts in my life, but the priesthood is the most astounding because I am so utterly unworthy of it. I try to give thanks for it every day, with all my heart.

Father Johnson is chaplain at Charlton Memorial Hospital and in residence at St. Michael’s Parish, both in Fall River.

Jehovah’s Witnesses: Apocalypse soon! hours a month to door-to-door annihilated. visitations. In 1931, the society Following a literalistic adopted the name “Jehovah’s interpretation of the number Witnesses.” mentioned in Revelation 7:4 and Why “Jehovah”? Early 14:1, Witnesses believe that after written Hebrew had no vowthe final battle exactly 144,000 els. God’s name was written will go to heaven and reign with “JHVH” (Ex 3:14; probably Christ; those belonging to this pronounced “Yahweh”). Out of “anointed class” won’t have reverence its use was avoided; resurrected bodies, but “spiritwhen the Scriptures were read bodies.” The “other sheep” who the reader said Adonai, “my survive Armageddon will live Lord.” When vowels were inserted into the Hebrew text, the vowThe Fullness els of “Adonai” were added to “JHVH,” proof the Truth ducing a hybrid that

By Father was introduced into Thomas M. Kocik English as “Jehovah.”

Because Jehovah’s Witnesses grew out of the nineteenth-century Adventist forever in resurrected bodies on a tradition, its emphasis is on the recreated Paradise Earth. “end times.” Russell taught that Rutherford declared that Christ would return to earth in Christ’s visible return would 1914. When that year had come occur during the lifetime of and gone, he claimed that Christ “millions” of people alive in had indeed returned 1914, but 1914. Having predicted the end that his return was invisible; times for 1914, 1918, 1925, when he finally returns physi1941, and 1975, the Watchtower cally, the final conflict between Society has learned from experigood and evil, the battle of ence not to specify dates. It is Armageddon (Rev 16:16), will enough to observe that relatively take place. Christ will triumph few people today were alive in and set up his earthly thousand1914, and their numbers are fast year kingdom. During that pedwindling! riod, people will be resurrected The most important religious and given a second chance to service of the year is the Memoreceive salvation by accepting rial of Christ’s Death, which the gospel. Then Satan and his takes place on the anniversary demons will be released for a of the Last Supper, calculated short time, after which they and according to the lunar calendar their human followers will be in use in Christ’s time. Those

only who believe themselves to be anointed partake of the bread and wine at the annual Memorial in local Kingdom Halls.

Satan is marshaling his forces for Armageddon, and his principal allies are the churches and political organizations.

Witnesses regard all public institutions as Satan’s instruments; hence, they don’t vote in local or national elections, hold public office, salute the flag, join civic associations and lodges, or volunteer for military service. (During World War I, Rutherford and his associates spent nine months in prison on charges of sedition for refusing to serve in the military.) They don’t celebrate Christmas or Easter because these festivals, they claim, have pagan origins; nor do they celebrate birthdays or other secular festivals. They interpret the biblical prohibition of ingesting blood (Gen 9:4; Lev 17:10, 14; Acts 15:29) as including blood transfusions, even in cases of medical emergency. Praying with non-Witnesses (“Gentiles”) is a grievous offense.

Witnesses reject the fundamental Christian doctrines of the divinity of Christ, his bodily resurrection, and the Trinity. Their Christology puts a new spin on the ancient Arian heresy. Christ is not God, but a created intermediary, the firstborn of creation (Col 1:15), who lived in heaven as a

“spirit-being” before he appeared on earth. In his pre-human state he was Michael the Archangel (this identification relies on a fanciful linking of Jude 9 with 1 Thessalonians 4:16). Upon coming to earth, he ceased to be angelic and was purely human.

After his execution on a single upright stake (not a cross), what was resurrected was Michael’s glorified spirit. Moreover, the Holy Spirit is not a divine Person, but God’s active power.

Like all notable heresies in Christian history, Witnesses appeal earnestly to the authority of Scripture without reference to the Tradition of Christian faith extending from the apostolic era to the present. Worse, they attempt to substantiate their beliefs using their own highly inaccurate translation of the Bible called the New World Translation (NWT). In many places it is unfaithful to the Hebrew and Greek, especially where the text fails to support and often openly contradicts Witnesses’ peculiar doctrines. For example, the NWT renders John 1:1, “In the beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.”

It’s one thing to reject historic Christianity as a corruption of the pure gospel, and quite another to rewrite Scripture to accommodate heterodoxies old and new.

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

8

I

n our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, the Apostles were being berated by the Sanhedrin for failing to obey the directive, “We gave you strict orders, did we not, to stop teaching in that name?” They, with great courage, stated: “We must obey God rather than men.” After all, it was a similar interrogation that led to the condemnation and crucifixion of Jesus.

They recognized that the Lord had indeed rescued them, as we hear in our responsorial psalm “I will praise you Lord for you have rescued me.”

Our second reading from the Book of Revelations gives us John’s colorful interpretation of God at the throne. He is surrounded by every creature in heaven and on earth, and everything

April 16, 2010

The Anchor

Jesus asked, ‘Do you love me?’

in the universe crying out: ever more impatient replied, “To the one who sits on the “Yes Lord, you know that I throne and to the Lamb, be love you.” And Jesus simply blessing and honor, glory instructed him, “Feed my and might, forever and ever.” sheep.”

In the Gospel from John, the risen Jesus appears to the Homily of the Week disciples again, this time at the Sea of Third Sunday Tiberias. They did of Easter not recognize him

By Deacon when he ordered David Akin them to cast their nets into the sea after a night without a single fish caught. They The message of these obeyed him and caught one powerful readings for me 153 fish in one pull of the is simple. We also hear the net. With this miraculous inquiry. It occurs daily, catch, they recognized that with every interaction we it was the Lord, and prohave with our fellow man or ceeded to shore to join him. woman. Whenever we are After they broke bread with confronted with injustice of him, Jesus asked Peter three any kind, we are being asked times, “Do you love me?” by our Savior, “Do you love Each time, Peter, growing me?” His instruction is as

crisp and clear for us as it was for Peter, our first pope, “Feed my sheep.” This world is literally falling apart. The environmental changes, due to the abuse of our gift of mother earth, threaten our very existence. People are starving and homeless are in our midst, and progress in that arena is blocked by restrictive zoning and a shortage of the needed volunteers to open and staff food pantries.

Millions of babies have been put to death by abortion, and Jesus cries out: “Do you love me?”

As we spend billions of dollars on war, people in our nation and across the planet are going to bed hungry or dying due to inadequate health care.

I am not naïve enough to assume that we, you and I, can go out and change the whole world for the better by ourselves, but, the call is clear for all of us. If we begin, and one fewer person dies of hunger, or one fewer family is homeless, or a family in earthquake-ravaged countries is given shelter and nourishment through our efforts, we will have made a difference. We will have answered the call as did Peter, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” That, when all is said and done, is the only acceptable answer for a practicing Christian.

Deacon Akin was ordained in 1997. He is a retired firefighter, currently is employed as a business development advisor, and serves at St. Pius X Church in Yarmouth.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Apr. 17, Acts 6:1-7; Ps 33:1-2,4-5,18-19; Jn 6:16-21. Sun. Apr. 18, Third Sunday of Easter, Acts 5:27-32,40b-41; Ps 30:2,4-6,11-13; Rv 5:11-14; Jn 21:1-19 or 21:1-14. Mon. Apr. 19, Acts 6:8-15; Ps 119:23-24,26-27,29-30; Jn 6:22-29. Tues. Apr. 20, Acts 7:51-8:1a; Ps 31:3cd-4,6,7b.8a, 17,21ab; Jn 6:30-35. Wed. Apr. 21, Acts 8:1b-8; Ps 66:1-3a,4-7a; Jn 6:35-40. Thur. Apr. 22, Acts 8:26-40; Ps 66:8-9.16-17,20; Jn 6:44-51. Fri. Apr. 23, Acts 9:1-20; Ps 117:1bc,2; Jn 6:52-59.

D

uring the preparation of the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Pope Paul VI proposed that the constitution’s discussion of papal primacy include the affirmation that the pope is “accountable to the Lord alone.” This suggestion was rejected by the Council’s Theological Commission, which wrote that “the Roman pontiff is also bound to revelation itself, to the fundamental structure of the Church, to the sacraments, to the definitions of earlier councils, and other obligations too numerous to mention.”

Pope Paul quietly dropped his proposal.

The limits of the papacy

Yet the image persists that ranking four-star to the the Catholic Church is a kind lowliest Parris Island recruit of global corporation, with staples a salute to his forehead the pope as CEO, the bishand does what he’s told. ops as branch managers, and This distorted and distortyour parish priest as the local salesman. And according to that image, the pope not only knows what’s going on all the way down the line, he gives orders that are immediately obeyed all

By George Weigel the way down the line.

Or, to vary the misimpression, the Church is like the United States Marine ing image of the pope as Corps — there, at least acdictatorial CEO or Marine cording to legend, when the commandant is, admittedly, commandant issues an order, reinforced by the language everyone from the highestof the Code of Canon Law. Thus Canon 331 states that the “Bishop of the Church of Rome … has supreme, full, immediate and universal ordinary power in the Church, and he can always freely exercise that power.” Yet, while both theology and law tells us that the pope enjoys the fullness of executive, legislative, and judicial authority in the Church, his exercise of that power is circumscribed by any number of factors.

It is circumscribed by the authority and prerogatives of local bishops. According to the teaching of Vatican II, bishops are not simply branch-managers of Catholic Church, Inc.; rather, they are the heads of local Churches

The Catholic Difference

with both the authority and the responsibility to govern them. Moreover, the pope, according to the Council, is to govern the Church with the College of Bishops who, with him and under him, share in responsibility for the well-being of the entire people of God, not only for their own local churches.

The pope’s capacity for governance is also shaped by the quality of his closest associates, and by the accuracy and timeliness of the information he receives from the Roman Curia via the nuncios and apostolic delegates who represent the Holy See and the pope around the world. An example of how this fact of ecclesiastical life can impede a pope’s ability to respond promptly to situations comes from the American crisis of clerical sexual abuse and episcopal misgovernance in 2002.

Because of grossly inadequate reporting from the apostolic nunciature in Washington between January and April 2002 — when the firestorm was at its hottest — John Paul II was about three months behind the news curve in midApril 2002; what appeared (and was often presented by the press) as papal uninterest in the U.S. crisis was in fact a significant time-lag in the

information-flow.

Papal governance can also be undermined by inept subordinates. Thus the image of an uninterested John Paul II was reinforced in 2002 by Cardinal Dario Castrillon’s disastrous presentation of the pope’s annual Holy Thursday letter to priests that year, during which Castrillon blew off questions about the U.S. crisis by saying that John Paul had more important things to worry about, like peace in the Middle East.

These very real human limits on the exercise of papal power seem almost impossible for some editors and reporters — and indeed for some Catholics — to grasp. Yet the fact remains that the overwhelming responsibility for turning the scandal of clerical sexual abuse into a full-blown Church-wide crisis lays at the feet of irresponsible local bishops, and unfortunately of bishops who bought the conventional wisdom about therapeutic “cures” for sexual predators. That underscores the imperative of getting episcopal appointments right and of removing bishops whose failures destroy their capacity to govern: see “Ireland today, Catholic Church in.”

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

April 16, 2010

Nicholas and the night visitors — an Easter tale

3 April 2010 — on the ragwas all about. In a small town, ing Three Mile River — Holy you hear about such things Saturday eventually anyway. I found out cheduled to lead Mornsooner than I expected. ing Prayer early on Arriving at the church, Jim Holy Saturday, I was driving the Janitor filled me in. Seems from the rectory to the church. As I passed the Dighton Police Station, I saw a strange sight.

Reflections of a Two male juveniles, Parish Priest perhaps 17 years old or so, were standing outBy Father Tim side the station. They Goldrick looked rather scruffy, but what caught my eye was their getup. One he had come to the church was wearing a robin’s egg blue just after dawn to unlock the terry cloth bathrobe over his building. One door, he knew, clothes. That was odd enough, he didn’t need to unlock. With but even weirder was that the my permission, it had been left other was wearing a Peptoopen a crack so that the sump Bismol pink bathrobe. I didn’t pump could continue to work even want to know what that throughout the night. There

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was still more than two feet of water in the church basement due to the recent flooding.

Jim got a surprise. There were three young men, smelling heavily of alcohol, asleep in the pews. Their heads were resting comfortably on the pillows I had used for the prostration during Good Friday’s Veneration of the Cross. “Was one wearing a blue bathrobe and another a pink one?” I asked. “How did you know, Father?” asked Jim. “Jim Jim, Jim,” I answered.

“Nothing happens in this town that I don’t know about.”

Then Jim told me the rest of the story. The young hooligans had spent Good Friday partying at a girlfriend’s house.

Our canine is far from divine

On day one, she makes ne of Igor’s favorite a point to trample, sit on, times of the year just and lay across the computer passed. My devil dog absoprintouts we use to pray the lutely loves the Divine Mercy novena. We’ve never had a set novena, running from Good of prayers make it past the first Friday through last weekend’s day without wrinkles, tears, Divine Mercy Sunday. and holes.

There are times when I She knows when it’s prayer swear she can literally talk to time, and when we head upus ... not the usual dog-speak stairs for our session, el diablo like arf, woof, yip, yap, or is well-prepared. Day two, she bark. No, she communicates brings a ball with her, tosses it through a series of moans, groans, sighs, and obvious attempts at forming words. It may seemed far-fetched to some, and if I were the only one who heard these conversations, I too, would think my

By Dave Jolivet upstairs light bulb was a bit dim. But the rest of the Jolivet housearound the bed, then nudges it hold sees and hears it on a to the floor, staring wistfully daily basis. all the while emitting a faint Border Collies are said to moan until one of us retrieves be one of the smartest dogs on the orb and starts the process the planet, and Igor is proof all over again. positive.

I’m sure some of you may But that doesn’t mean when say, “Why don’t you just close Denise, Emilie and I gather the door and not let her in.” for our nine-day Divine Mercy A valid suggestion, but Iggy prayer sessions Igor prays would sit outside the door along with us. Quite the conexpressing her displeasure in trary. Our devil dog does what dog-speak — arfs, woofs, yips, she can to distract, disturb, and yaps, and barks. It’s easier on disrupt us. I swear she gets a us and our neighbors to just let kick out of it. her in.

Just as there is a different Over the next few days, prayer intention for each day while we grab our rosary of the novena, Igor comes up beads, Igor grabs balls, bones, with nine varieties of canine and chew toys. entertainment.

It doesn’t take much for Since we pray the novena Emilie and me to share a around the crucifix above giggle or two or three while my bed, Iggy has the perfect Iggy performs. But it’s doubly queen-sized stage on which to entertaining when the devil perform.

My View From the Stands

dog makes Denise crack. This Border Collie can smile, and it’s at those moments when she looks more like the Cheshire cat than a canine.

Iggy saved her best for the last day. When prayer-time came to recite the chaplet on Divine Mercy Sunday, she brought along her brand new Easter toy, Cuz. The name is branded on the item, so I’m not sure of the pronunciation, but I think it’s similar to that of Boston Celtic great Bob Cousy — Cooooz.

Cuz is a cross between Mike Wazowski from Disney’s “Monsters, Inc.,” and PacMan. Cuz has the loudest and most obnoxious squeak-maker I’ve ever heard. And Iggy has the quickest jaw movement I’ve ever seen. The combination of the two, made for one interesting Divine Mercy finale.

Denise cracked. Igor smiled from ear to fuzzy ear.

Servant of God Father Patrick Peyton said, “The family that prays together, stays together.” I’m not sure he meant to include family pets in the equation, but if that holds true, it will be show-time for Iggy for years to come.

I don’t want to give the impression that our novena is said irreverently. It’s not. The intentions are heartfelt and soulfelt. In fact, I think the Good Lord is impressed with our tenacity. Igor is a test sent

by God — a four-legged, funloving, tail-wagging test from God. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

They got “drunk as skunks.”

(Come to think of it, I have never actually seen a drunken skunk.) At any rate, fearful of returning to their parents’ home in such an inebriated state, they decided to find a place to crash.

The girlfriend thoughtfully provided bathrobes with which to keep warm. The young men discovered the church’s open side door and the rest is history, as they say.

The police officer who arrived at the church in his squad car didn’t need directions to find us. I was scheduled to give him first Communion and administer his sacrament of confirmation in a few hours.

Off went the three young men to the police station. One of the men, an 18-year-old, had an outstanding warrant. He was quickly arrested and locked up.

The other two stood for three hours in their pastel bathrobes in front of the police station, waiting for their irate fathers to pick them up. So began my Holy Saturday, but, fortunately, things got better.

After Morning Prayer came our parish family breakfast — pancakes and sausage for everyone. At the appropriate time, the Easter Bunny appeared (Lisette Miranda), much to the delight of hoards of little children. Then came the Easter egg hunt. The kids were pumped before they even touched the sugared candy in their Easter baskets.

A group of volunteers showed up to prepare the sanctuary for the Vigil of Easter.

Men hung the 12 Easter banners from the church pillars.

Parishioners had donated all of the potted plants and cut-flower arrangements in memory of departed loved-ones. When they were finished, it looked like a setting from the New England Flower Show.

Then followed a rehearsal for those who had a direct part in the Easter Vigil. Present were the master of ceremonies, two priests, the minister of music, eight lectors, young altar servers Quentin Brooks, Jack Moitoza, and senior servers Neil Caswell, Justin Torres, and Peter Cerce. I am convinced that there is at least one vocation to the priesthood among these altar servers. Also present was the adult I planned to baptize, and the eight adults I intended to confirm, as well as their sponsors. Patrolman George Nichols was back for his rehearsal, but not in uniform.

After supper, a woman phoned the rectory. “Yeah. You guys having Mass tonight?” she asked. I was speechless. “I must have the wrong number,” she blurted out in the silence.

“No, this is St. Nicholas Church and you’re in luck. We have the most solemn Mass of all the year here tonight at 8 — the blessing of the fire and procession, all eight Bible readings (with sung psalms,) the blessing of the Easter water, adult baptisms, confirmations, and first Communions.

Yes indeedy, we have Mass tonight,” I cheerfully informed her. “How long will it last?” was her next question. Give me a break! “You’re right, lady.

You do have the wrong number.”

There were approximately 400 people outside for the blessing of the fire. The church was packed. We used the long form for everything — no shortcuts. Everyone stayed until it was over — three hours later.

The dudes in the pastel bathrobes were not in attendance.

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

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April 16, 2010

John Markey’s unique ministry never appears in the spotlight

B y Deacon James N. Dunbar

NEW BEDFORD — John A. Markey Jr. lives two lives.

Most of the world sees a young family man and attorney who practices civil law representing many clients from New Bedford’s waterfront trades in the courts of the Commonwealth.

The man they rarely see is the dedicated, hardworking and talented president and member of the Greater New Bedford Catholic Schools Board, who also serves on Bishop Stang High School’s Advisory Board and the committed chairman of its subcommittee on enrollment and recruitment; a key player in a series of special events to attract more students to attend Catholic elementary and high schools.

Although he and his family are firmly anchored as parishioners in Our Lady of the Assumption Parish, “I don’t hold any parish ministry positions, although my wife Lynne, and I once taught in the Religious Education program,” the 45-year-old Markey said humbly.

He admits he “helps out” when daughters Jennifer, 14,

and McKenna, 13, and sons School of Law. “I came back to New BedJackson, 11, and Xavier, who is eight, are involved in special ford and to a family of cousins food and charity collections linked to St. Vincent de Paul promotions.

The younger children are students at St. James-St. John Elementary School.

“It is because I have found what is a disproportionate number of those who received a Catholic education — as I did — are currently committed to serving the Church and the community in so many ways, that I feel that Catholic education must be offered to all, and I have become dedicated to forwarding that realization,” he told The Anchor.

A 1982 graduate of Bishop Stang, where his daughter Jennifer is now a student, John Markey graduated from the College of Holy Cross, and Anchor person of the week — taught for 10 years at Markey Jr. Xavier High School in Connecticut. At the same time to practice law and became inhe attended night classes at the volved in forwarding Catholic University of Connecticut’s education, wanting to attract

more students and increase the enrollment, and became involved at Bishop Stang,” he explained.

“Catholic schools were very instrumental in helping to develop who I am as a person, and also build a foundation that involves families … and in so many ways moves one to greater service to the Church and the community,” he asserted.

One of the many events involves seventhand eighth-grade students at New Bedford’s St. James-St. John and Holy Family schools in a coed basketball tournament, as well as another tourney in mathematics.

During the annual Catholic Schools Week celebration, several events

by New Bedford Catholic schools promote the enrichment of a Catholic education even as enJohn rollments to individual schools are conducted.

Hoping to assist more needy students attain a Catholic education, and working with the Stang admissions office,

Markey is involved in the memorial scholarship in memory of former Stang Athletic director John O’Brien, who also taught Latin at the high school when Markey attended.

“He’s dynamic, a go-getter, a doer who sees his ideas through to fruition,” said Suzanne Burke, director of Advancement at Stang. “He definitely has Catholic education on his radar screen.”

Sacred Hearts Father Stanley Kolasa, former pastor at Our Lady of the Assumption, said “John Markey Jr., is an extraordinary man of great faith, extreme generosity, self-giving, a great father and husband and a hard worker — and so much hands-on when it comes to Catholic education.”

Father Kolasa, currently director of the Sacred Hearts Retreat Center in Wareham, recalled, “John also did so much for the independent Nativity Prep School in New Bedford, where he’s also on the board and works so well with its staff and volunteers.”

To nominate a Person of the Week, send an email to FatherRogerLandry@anchornews.org.

New film can shed light on Pius XII’s wartime efforts CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) — A new film on Pope Pius XII can help people, especially younger generations, understand a period of time that is often forgotten, said Pope Benedict XVI. The made-for-television, twopart miniseries, titled “Under the Roman Sky,” stars U.S. actor

James Cromwell as Pope Pius, and covers events from July 19, 1943, when Allied planes heavily bombed parts of Rome, to June 4, 1944, when Allied forces liberated Rome from German control. It also reconstructs Hitler’s plan to kidnap the pope.

Pope Benedict saw a shortened

version of the film during a screening April 9 at the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome.

The film, by Canadian director Christian Duguay, “presents the fundamental role Venerable Pius XII played in saving Rome and many persecuted people,” the pope said after the screening.

The film shows how Pope Pius urged the Allies to spare Rome from destruction and helped negotiate an open-city agreement to prevent further devastation. It also shows how some Jewish residents were hidden in church convents and religious institutes to avoid their deportation to Nazi death camps.

According to the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, April 11, the movie’s Italian and German producers wanted the film to be accessible to as many people as possible and “to overcome prejudice and malevolent criticism” about the role of the wartime pope.

Pope Benedict said historical films appealing to a wide audience were particularly important, especially for younger generations.

“Films such as this one can be useful and stimulating, helping (people) understand a period of time that is not at all in the distant past, but which the pressing events of recent history and a fragmented culture can cause one to forget,” he said.

part of youth ministry.”

Father David C. Frederici, current Scouting chaplain for the Fall River Diocese and region one chaplain for New England, said Father Salvador’s appointment is a great honor for the diocese.

GOD SPEED — Students from SS. Peter and Paul School, Fall River, extend their arms — and with them, their blessings and best wishes — to Father Stephen B. Salvador, pastor of SS. Peter and Paul Parish at Holy Cross Church, during a special Mass last week recognizing Father Salvador’s installment as the chaplain for the National Catholic Committee on Scouting which takes place today in Richmond, Va. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

Diocesan pastor installed as national Scouting chaplain

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff

FALL RIVER — Longtime Scouting advocate and supporter Father Stephen B. Salvador, pastor of SS. Peter and Paul Parish at Holy Cross Church, has been named chaplain for the National Catholic Committee on Scouting.

Father Salvador will be installed in his new post during a biannual meeting of the organization taking place today in Richmond, Va. Having previously served three years as associate chaplain, Father Salvador will now begin his threeyear tenure as chaplain and will later serve another three years as past national chaplain.

“It’s a nine-year commitment from the Fall River Diocese to National Scouting,” Father Salvador said. “I will be on the road a lot nationally. Bishop George W. Coleman had to give his permission for me to serve, so he knew before I was even asked.”

“I congratulate Father Salvador on his appointment as national chaplain to the National Catholic Committee on Scouting,” Bishop Coleman told The Anchor. “I am very pleased that a priest of the Fall River Diocese has been selected to serve in this important position, and after his many years in Catholic scouting on the diocesan, regional, and national levels, Father Salvador is well qualified. I am certain that he will do well in carrying out his responsibilities during his threeyear term.

“Over the years, Catholic Scouting has been an effective way to involve children and teen-agers into the life of their parish and Church.

Through the Religious Emblem programs, retreats, and other Scouting activities, our young people learn values, develop character and enjoy the camaraderie of their peers. The integration of the Scouting program in youth ministry is an ideal combination. In his ministry as chaplain to the National Catho-

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April 16, 2010

lic Committee on Scouting, Father Salvador will support the Church’s Scouting program in a significant way.”

Father Salvador explained the National Catholic Committee on Scouting represents the Catholic Church to the Boy Scouts of America and, as such, his duties as chaplain will include overseeing all religious programs in Catholic Scouting — from religious emblems to retreats to the Philmont Scouting Program in New Mexico.

He’ll also play an integral role during the National Scout Jamboree to take place in Virginia this July.

“The main liturgy will be on Sunday and Bishop Pietro Sambi, the papal nuncio to the United States, will be the main celebrant,” Father Salvador said. “I will be there and will be in charge of the liturgy and chaplaincies in every sub-camp. There will be 30,000 to 40,000 Scouts at the Jamboree and we expect more than 10,000 Catholic Scouts at that Mass.”

As a former Cub Scout and Boy Scout himself who worked his way up the ranks, Father Salvador’s involvement with Scouting only intensified after his ordination to the priesthood in 1974.

“As a newly-ordained priest I helped a Cub Scout get his Parvuli Dei award, and all of a sudden I was appointed to be a district Scouting chaplain, and then a council chaplain, and eventually, when Father Martin Buote retired, I took over as diocesan chaplain,” Father Salvador said. “From there I was assigned nationally — first as region one chaplain for the entire New England area, now as national chaplain.”

“I’ve known Father Salvador since 1977 when he and I got involved in Scouting around the same time,” said Donald Levesque, the diocesan lay chairman for the Catholic Committee on Scouting.

“He believes that Scouting is an important part of life and an essential

“For a small diocese, Fall River has certainly contributed a lot to the Church in the United States,” Father Frederici said. “We’ve had two cardinals with links to Fall River, we have priests who have served on the Canon Law Society, and

now the national Scouting chaplain has been appointed from our ranks.

We’ve certainly roared well and I think it just shows the talent we have here in this diocese.”

As his immediate successor for Turn to page 19

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CNS Movie Capsules NEW YORK (CNS) — The following are capsule reviews of movies recently reviewed by the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“Date Night” (Fox) This well-intentioned but ultimately wayward mix of the romantic comedy and action genres sees an ordinary suburban New Jersey couple (Steve Carell and Tina Fey) caught up in an underworld blackmail scheme after being mistaken for the cohabiting lowlifes (James Franco and Mila Kunis) who are out to sell the damning evidence. As written

by Josh Klausner and directed

by Shawn Levy, the pair’s nocturnal Manhattan odyssey — during which they flee a duo of thugs (Common and Jimmi Simpson) in the employ of a mob boss (Ray Liotta), and turn for help to a James Bondlike intelligence agent (Mark Wahlberg) — though its travails aid them to rekindle their flickering love for each other, eventually leads to an underground sex club where they briefly find themselves forced to entertain a powerful patron with perverse tastes. Considerable, though bloodless, action violence, partial rear nudity, much sexual humor, including gags about casual sex, and aberrant practices, at least one use of profanity and of the F-word, some crude and crass language. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic con-

tent many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

“Tyler Perry’s Why Did I get Married Too?” (Lionsgate) Dramatically uneven but, for the most part, morally steady sequel mixing comedy and drama and examining the renewed marital challenges of four couples — a successful self-help author (Janet Jackson) and her architect spouse (Malik Yoba), a sportscaster (Michael Jai White) and his hyper-suspicious wife (Tasha Smith), a lawyer (Sharon Leal) whose husband (Tyler Perry) begins to doubt her fidelity, and a divorcee (Jill Scott) whose second marriage is under strain due to her new partner’s (Lamman Rucker) ongoing unemployment. While implicitly endorsing Scott’s character’s remarriage after her split from her abusive ex (Richard T. Jones) — who puts in a remorseful reappearance here — writer-director Perry’s follow-up to his 2007 hit “Why Did I Get Married?” is otherwise all about commitment, though the script’s highlighted values, such as open communication and self-giving love, do not rest on a spiritual foundation. Brief, nongraphic marital lovemaking, a nonmarital bedroom scene, intense domestic discord, adultery theme, numerous sexual references, including mention of sterilization and venereal disease, drug references, frequent crass language. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting 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, April 18 at 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father John A. Gomes, pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in South Dartmouth

April 16, 2010

Prodigal father leads son back into the Church continued from page one

What looked first as coincidence, but which Klopfer truly believes are “the workings of God in my life,” was that the same day he went to talk to Deacon Richard G. Lemay, “he advised me the CRH program at Corpus Christi Parish was beginning that very night — and I got into it,” he explained.

“What a great program it is.

The people were so welcoming that I felt really at home,” asserted Klopfer. “Over the weeks I went to the sacrament of reconciliation and started going to Communion again. I found that the beliefs I had always held and the Church’s were the same. I could truly say to myself that I was Catholic — but I didn’t always know that. What a great way to become reacquainted with Christ.”

It was then he began taking his son, Eric, who currently is 23, along with him to Sunday Mass.

“Eric is mentally retarded, and I know people don’t like to hear or use that term, but that is what he is. He is a good young man, knows how to behave, but he really didn’t understand about all the standing, sitting and kneeling at Mass, so I told him he could just sit. He really enjoyed Mass and the prayers and the music. After a few Sundays he told me he would like to go to receive Communion with me.”

Knowing that Eric had not even been baptized, Richard Klopfer realized that could be a long road ahead.

“But after speaking with Sister Shirley Agnew and Msgr. Hoye, a special needs teacher from within the parish was found who began to teach Eric about the faith.

It was eventually concluded that he had sufficient capabilities to know what the Eucharist was all about,” he related.

At a morning Mass on January 11, Eric was baptized, received his first Communion and was confirmed, all by Msgr. Hoye.

“It was a happy day for us.

After years of being torn down, God finally built me up. What memories, and we took many pictures,” Richard Klopfer said.

“While Eric is bashful, I will always remember that when Msgr. Hoye formally asked him if he wanted to be baptized, Eric unhesitatingly and loudly answered, ‘Yes.’” As a father, Richard says he can see “a new glow about Eric, and he’s changed for the better.

He currently is in a Capabilities program five days a week from 7:30 a.m., to 3:30 p.m., and he’s learning and doing constructive things. I think about and am so

grateful for how much a part God is playing in his life and mine.”

Parishioner Patricia Hurton, who coordinates Catholics Returning Home, said about the program, “It is personally very rewarding as we see our people at Mass and Communion. It gives us great hope.”

Msgr. Hoye made it clear: “It is not about numbers. But it is about a success, in that we are finding those who have come back to the Church are practicing their faith and remaining faithful,” he added.

Reaching out personally to inactive Catholics who, for various reasons, have slipped away from the Church, programs like CRH are proving to be one of the best methods of getting them back into the pews and faithfully attending Sunday Mass and receiving the sacraments.

The success has so inspired Corpus Christi’s four-member evangelization team of lay people that they’re at it again for the third time.

“Like the first and second in 2009, this one is going well and while not all who participated are from our parish, many are from here,” Msgr. Hoye told The Anchor.

“We started just before Easter Sunday with six weeks of promotional materials in parish bulletins in churches in the area, in the Enterprise newspapers on the Cape as well as in radio spot advertisements. That will continue until the program begins on May 4, and we’re looking forward to it,” he added.

“It is pretty typical of CRH programs in that the five weekly sessions find participants in the first two sharing their stories — giving witness — and the topics in the following sessions centering on the Church in the 21st century, the Mass and reconciliation,” he explained.

“Some of the participants who have completed the program said how they experienced the feeling that people were reaching out to them and welcoming them back,” reported Hurton.

Three past participants, who will be joining the upcoming Catholics Returning Home program, include Maureen Hearn, Fran Ross, and Stephen Cashman.

“The program was just what I needed,” said Hearn. “It was a caring and non-judgmental setting where I could start my journey back to the Church. We were all free to share our hopes and fears in this open but confidential group. We started as strangers but ended up as friends. And we were truly welcomed every step of the way.”

Ross expressed her appreciation.

“I thank you all for taking time to make this possible,” Ross told the team. “It has really helped me return to the Church without so much fear.”

Cashman, who attends daily Mass after working a night shift, said, “I am grateful to have been a participant in the CRH. We had a very nice group of about 12, all bringing different ideas, backgrounds and personalities.

I never left the Church or my faith, but my attendance at Mass and the sacraments had become sporadic at best. This led me to not really feeling like a member of the parish family This program was ideal and a Godsend for me. It has helped me to renew my faith and my relationship with God. To sum it up I can say, ‘Grace happens here at Christ the King.’”

In the first session in Winter 2009, 10 people completed the program. In the fall of that year, several entered the program and another four finished the course, said Hurton.

“Some of them wanted to update their understanding of their faith, while others had what they felt were serious issues and wanted to discuss them. And there were others who had been hurt by their prior Church experience or had let their participation in the Church lapse,” she added.

She felt, she said, as did others on the CRH team, that the methodical program has had a very significant impact on those who completed, “and they indicated they were much more hopeful about returning to the Church and felt stronger about working on some of their personal struggles.”

While the program is designed to be predominately led by laity, Hurton said Msgr. Hoye plays an important role.

“He renews for them such key faith issues as the teachings and meaning of the Mass and the sacrament of reconciliation, and even takes time to explain about the vestments, the sacred vessels, and the rites,” said Hurton.

The final session of the program, she said, always concludes with a candle ritual along with group and private prayer.

Hurton said participants were asked to describe their experience in one word. “The buzz words they used were very interesting.”

They included: growth, inspirational, transforming, awakening, enlightening, peaceful, embracing, reuniting and contentment; along with thoughtprovoking, and non-threatening.

QUEEN FOR A DAY — Erica Bulhoes, center, is crowned with the Holy Spirit during a Mass at Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Parish, New Bedford, last week. Her mother Sonia holds the sterling-silver crown over her head while her father, Nelson, left, looks on. Father Daniel O. Reis, pastor of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, intones a special blessing over her. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

Portuguese parishes keep traditional devotion continued from page one

special devotion to the Holy Spirit and was also very committed to her people — especially the poor and less fortunate, much to her husband’s chagrin.

The iconic Holy Ghost crown, topped with symbolic dove, is said to have been modeled on her own crown and she was also known to select the poorest people in her kingdom to sit in the king’s throne and be crowned “emperor” for a day in a religious ceremony that would culminate in a lavish banquet in their honor.

This ritual act of kindness and humility was later incorporated into religious customs on the Azorean Islands circa 1432 and has been practiced there ever since.

The Bulhoes family was selected in a lottery drawing as the first of seven families in their New Bedford parish to host and display the crown representing the Holy Spirit in their home. Fellow parishioners would join the family each night to pray the rosary and enjoy a rare devotion outside the confines of their church.

“We’ve had about 30 to 40 people each night here to pray the rosary,” said host Nelson Bulhoes, who is also a member of the parish’s Holy Ghost Society.

On the Thursday evening before the weekend crowning Mass, a steady stream of devout parishioners filed into the Bulhoes’ living room and quickly filled the folding chairs arranged in rows in front of the Holy Ghost crown. A large flat-screen TV that typically would be broadcasting the sights and sounds of the Disney Channel for Erica and her younger brother Lucas was now displaying a screen capture of the colorful Holy Ghost crown altar for the benefit of those sitting at the back and the men who were congregating in the hallway.

Just before the group begins reciting the five decades of the rosary, Sonia and her friend Marlene Furtado, the parish choir director, help to hand out pink and blue rosary beads to those who haven’t brought their own.

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According to Father Raul M. Lagoa, pastor of St. John of God Parish, Somerset, the custom of having the Holy Ghost crown in a parishioner’s home for each of seven weeks, culminating with a Mass on each of the Sundays — or Domingas — actually began as a way for people to express their faith outside the confines of weekly church services.

“What’s interesting about the tradition is it began as a chance for people to gather at someone’s house and pray the rosary,” Father Lagoa said. “There is a fellowship afterwards over food and drink, but it’s also an opportunity for people to come together and share their faith.”

The Holy Ghost crown along with accompanying scepter and diamondshaped red-and-gold banner — adorned with the symbolic dove representing the third incarnation of the Holy Trinity — are displayed in an altar-like setting in each home and are often decorated with cloth, colored paper, candles and flower arrangements.

“The color scheme and type of decorations I do depends on the house,” said Alda Pacheco, who decorated the Bulhoes home and has been decorating Holy Ghost Domingas within the parish for the past 40 years. “I do a lot of different styles … and see what the family likes.”

Then there is the customary sharing of communal food and drink — a common bond in Portuguese culture and something that hearkens back to the eucharistic celebration itself.

On this particular evening, Father Daniel O. Reis, pastor of Our Lady of Immaculate Conception Parish, has come to lead the 7 p.m. rosary prayer — all recited and sung in Portuguese — and the Bulhoes family has treated him and their guests to a full repast of traditional Portuguese cuisine.

A table along one dining room wall is brimming with delicacies such as bacalhau (cod fish), caçoila (marinated pork),

favas, chouriço sandwiches, sweet bread, coffee, soda and wine.

Speaking of food, Queen Elizabeth’s attention to the poor and indigent in her kingdom inspired not only the crowning ceremony, but also the custom of giving out provisions during the Holy Ghost celebration.

“That’s where the tradition of the pensão came from — where we deliver meat, bread and wine to the poor during the feast of the Holy Ghost,” said Father Lagoa. “It’s all part of celebrating the traditional folklore of the feast and the crown itself.”

“Pensão is a gift to the poor,” added Father Henry Arruda, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Parish, Taunton. “Every village would celebrate the seven Sundays of Easter. They would bring the Holy Spirit into homes and celebrate with a feast on Pentecost Sunday. It’s just a beautiful demonstration of a deep faith that comes from old traditions.”

According to Mary Couto, parishioner at Our Lady of Immaculate Conception and a member of the parish Holy Ghost Society, they will be giving out pensões to approximately 450 families this year on May 8. On that day members of the society will travel in vans and trucks — some of them decorated with colorful ribbons and flowers, much like the home altars where the Holy Ghost is displayed — to deliver fresh meat, Portuguese sweet bread, and wine to families in need.

While traditionally the family selected for the seventh Dominga would take on the additional role of mordomo, literally translated to mean “house servant,” in organizing a parishwide festa (feast) on the weekend of Pentecost Sunday, the Holy Ghost crown at Immaculate Conception will return to the parish itself for the final week of devotion.

“The seventh Dominga doesn’t go to anyone’s house, we do it right at the church hall,” explained Couto. “Father Reis invites the whole parish community and we pray the rosary there every night at 7 p.m. Then we have the feast that weekend — on May 22-23. We used to have a separate mordomo, but with the way the economy has been, we decided to keep it with

the parish.”

While some Portuguese parishes in the diocese have changed the way they observe the Holy Ghost tradition, it remains strong and vibrant in others, particularly those within the New Bedford and Fall River city limits.

“What’s happening now is we have a new generation that doesn’t want to get involved with the traditions,” said Father Lagoa. “It’s basically the old-timers that are holding this thing together and they are very much involved. I think the Portuguese culture is trying to keep many traditions alive, more so than the other communities who seem to have done away with a lot of their traditions.”

After the rosary, a stirring Portuguese hymn to the Holy Spirit fills the Bulhoes’ living room as little Erica proudly walks around with the Holy Ghost scepter so that each person can kiss the silver dove atop it — a gesture of devotion akin to the veneration of the newly-born baby Jesus on Christmas or the crucified Christ on Good Friday. She gently wipes the dove with a towel after each kiss, broadly grinning from ear to ear.

It’s the same wide-eyed grin that appears at the conclusion of the 11 a.m.

Mass that Sunday as her mother holds the Holy Ghost crown over head — careful not to let it fall, mind you — while Father Reis intones a special blessing upon her in front of the entire congregation.

And it’s the typical joyful smile you’d expect from someone being crowned queen for a day.

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The Anchor

April 16, 2010

Kansas bishops urge governor to sign bill regulating late-term abortions MERRIAM, Kan. (CNS) — The Kansas bishops have urged Catholics to ask Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson to sign into law a bill that would require doctors who perform certain late-term abortions to stipulate why the procedure was medically necessary.

“In short, HB 2115 would require abortionists to follow the law as it was originally intended,” said an April 7 statement from the Merriam-based Kansas Catholic Conference, the bishops’ public policy arm.

Under current law, abortions may be performed in Kansas after the unborn child is able to survive outside the womb only when the failure to have an abortion would result in grave danger to the life or health of the mother.

“Yet for years, Kansas has been the destination of choice for anyone seeking a post-viability abortion for any reason whatsoever,” the conference statement said. “Abortionists in Kansas simply inform the state that the late-term abortion was medically necessary, without giving any further information.”

The bill recently sent to the governor for his signature “would require the abortionist to provide an actual medical diagnosis of the serious threat to the mother posed by the pregnancy,” the statement added.

The legislation is similar to a bill vetoed last year by then-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who is now secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“Nothing has been added, but the provisions she objected to in her veto message have been removed in the hopes of gaining either Governor Parkinson’s support or the support of enough legislators to override any veto,”

the Kansas Catholic Conference said. Parkinson, like Sebelius, is a Democrat.

HB 2115 passed the Kansas Senate by a vote of 24-15 and the House by an 83-36 margin.

The conference — representing the Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City and the bishops of Dodge City, Wichita and Salina — issued its call less than a week after the sentencing of Scott Roeder for the May 2009 murder in Wichita of Dr. George Tiller, one of the few U.S. doctors who had performed late-term abortions after the 21st week of pregnancy, or post-viability.

Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert sentenced Roeder April 1 to 50 years in prison without possibility of parole and an additional 24 months for aggravated assault for pointing a gun at two ushers during the murder at Tiller’s church.

Roeder, 52, was convicted of first-degree murder in the case January 29.

Catholic bishops in Kansas and neighboring Colorado quickly condemned the murder, stating that although they vigorously oppose abortion, violence against those who perform the procedure is counterproductive and contrary to Catholic teaching.

“Many Catholics have over the years engaged in peaceful protest outside of Dr. Tiller’s clinic, praying for an end to abortion, and especially late-term abortions. I have on occasion joined them for this purpose,” said Bishop Michael O. Jackels of Wichita.

“This position and hope cannot, however, serve as a justification for committing other sins and crimes, like the willful destruction of property and, even worse, murder,” he said.

rare sight — Cardinal Severino Poletto of Turin celebrates Mass in front of the Shroud of Turin in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, Italy, April 10. The shroud, believed to be the burial cloth of Jesus, bears the image of a crucified man. It was put on display for public viewing for the first time in 10 years. (CNS photo/Giorgio Perottino, Reuters)

Hitler may have wanted to steal Turin shroud, expert says

ROME (CNS) — The Shroud of Turin was hidden in an Italian Benedictine abbey during World War II in part because Church authorities feared Adolf Hitler might want to steal it, according to an official at the monastery.

The shroud, which many believe to have been the burial cloth of Christ, was transferred secretly from the Turin cathedral in 1939 to the abbey of Montevergine in southern Italy, and returned to Turin in 1946, after the war had ended.

Officially, the reason later given for the transfer was fear that the cloth could have been damaged if the city of Turin were bombed. But Benedictine Father Andrea Cardin, director of the Montevergine library that holds the relevant documents, said Church officials also seemed

to fear that the Nazis wanted to take possession of the Shroud.

Already in 1938, Church leaders were alarmed when, during a visit by Hitler to Italy, Nazi officials asked unusual and persistent questions about the shroud and its custody, Father Cardin said in an interview published in April by the Italian magazine “Diva e Donna.”

That worried the Vatican as well as the Italian royal family, the Savoys, who at the time were the owners of the shroud, Father Cardin said. Hitler was thought by some to have been obsessed about certain objects related to the life of Christ, including the Holy Grail and the Holy Lance of Longinus.

The Savoy family wanted the Vatican to take the shroud during the war, but Pope Pius XII thought that was not a good idea. Instead,

in near total secrecy, the Vatican arranged for the cloth to be brought first to Rome and then to the Montevergine abbey near Avellino, where it was hidden under the main altar.

In 1943, as fighting raged in southern Italy, Nazi soldiers arrived at Montevergine and conducted a thorough search of the abbey premises. The monks withdrew in prayer around the altar, and a Nazi official gave the order not to disturb them.

“In this way, the holy relic was not discovered,” Father Cardin said.

The shroud, which bears the image of a crucified man, goes on display April 10-May 23 in the Turin cathedral, where it is kept permanently. The Italian monarchy was abolished in Italy in 1946, and the shroud was formally given to the Vatican in 1983.

Pontiff looks forward to Malta visit; invokes prayers of St. George Preca VATICAN CITY (Zenit. org) — Benedict XVI is looking forward to his visit the Maltese Islands this Saturday and Sunday, said the pope’s secretary of state.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone affirmed this in a message publicized Saturday, in which he extended the pontiff’s greetings to the people of Malta.

“In the days of preparation that remain, His Holiness asks you to pray that his visit will be a time of spiritual renewal for the whole Church in Malta and Gozo,” the message stated.

It affirmed that “Malta has remained staunchly faithful to Christ over many centuries, and has done much to defend the faith, both at home and abroad.”

“The Holy Father knows how much you are attached to your great heritage, and he invites you to deepen this attachment as a living reality and as a truth that is always relevant, notwithstanding the fact that, in today’s soci-

ety, this carries the risk of being opposed, ignored or forgotten,” Cardinal Bertone affirmed.

He added, “At a time when the Maltese people celebrate with particular joy the 1950th anniversary of St. Paul’s arrival on their shores, the Holy Father commends all of you to the intercession of that great Apostle and missionary, who tirelessly proclaimed the good news of the crucified and risen Lord to the people of the Mediterranean.”

“And in this year when the universal Church is celebrating a Year For Priests,” the cardinal noted, “he urges you in particular to value the great gift of the priesthood and to support and pray for your priests, so that they may grow in gratitude to God and in fidelity and enthusiasm for the ministry.”

“He commends them and he commends all of you to the intercession of an outstanding Maltese priest, St. or [George] Preca, to whom, in a special way, he en-

trusts his forthcoming visit,” the prelate said.

St. George (1880-1962) was a Catholic priest in Malta who founded the Society of Christian Doctrine, an organization of lay catechists.

He was proclaimed the first Catholic saint from that nation, and was canonized on June 3, 2007 by Benedict XVI. Cardinal Bertone told the Maltese people that the Holy Father is asking “the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, venerated with particular devotion at your National Shrine of Ta’ Pinu, to look down in love upon all the people of Malta and Gozo and to intercede for them with the one she was privileged to bear in her womb, the Savior of the world.”

“With these sentiments,” the message ended, “His Holiness cordially imparts his apostolic blessing to all the people of Malta and Gozo, as a pledge of joy and peace in the risen Lord.”

April 16, 2010

a nation in mourning — A hearse carrying the body of Polish President Lech Kaczynski makes its way to the presidential palace in Warsaw April 11. The president, his wife and other government officials were killed in a plane crash near Smolensk, Russia, April 10. Catholic clergy, including military Archbishop Tadeusz Ploski, were among the 96 people who perished in the crash. The travelers were on their way to a service commemorating the Katyn massacre. (CNS photo/Wojciech Grzedzinski, Reuters)

Polish primate seeks answers, pope sends condolences after fatal crash

By Jonathan Luxmoore Catholic News Service

WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s Catholic primate has urged fellow citizens to see the death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others in a weekend air disaster as a “dramatic challenge” to build “a fuller community” at the national level and with neighboring states.

“We are all asking ourselves the same painful question — how was this possible?” Archbishop Henryk Muszynski of Gniezno said at an April 11 Mass in his archdiocese.

“Why has a new drama been added to the greatest drama of the last war in the innocent deaths of our nation’s political and religious elites?” he asked. “We can expect the causes of this tragic accident to be explained directly in the future. But the wider question will no doubt stay unanswered, along with the pain and sadness not just of close families but also of all Poles.”

The plane carrying Kaczynski, top government and military officials and religious leaders crashed in heavy fog April 10 while attempting to land at the Russian airport of Smolensk.

The plane was carrying a delegation that was to attend a ceremony commemorating the Katyn Forest massacre, a Soviet massacre of more than 20,000 members of Poland’s elite officer corps 70 years ago.

The other passengers included the first lady, the head of the Polish central bank, the deputy foreign minister, heads of the Polish navy and air forces, the army chief of staff and nine clergy, in-

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cluding the Catholic archbishop who heads the country’s military archdiocese.

Archbishop Muszynski said the president had given an “eloquent testimony of endeavor and care throughout his life for faithfulness to Christ and history.”

“He knew the one whom he trusted and the one who was his hope was greater than the lure of despair and death,” Archbishop Muszynski said. “He certainly thought about his worldly political plans. But he was also aware that he was not master of life and death, and that someone else was directing the fate of peoples and nations.

“Everything great and lasting in life is built with effort, labor and sacrifice. This tragic accident at Smolensk is a dramatic sum-

mons to all of us to help build a fuller community both at a national level and with our immediate neighbors, so that the sacrifice of those who have died will not be in vain,” the archbishop said.

Archbishop Tadeusz Ploski, Poland’s military archbishop who held the rank of division general, was among nine clergy victims.

Others included Orthodox Archbishop Miron Chodakowski, who headed the Polish Orthodox military chaplaincy, as well as the rector of Warsaw’s Cardinal Wyszynski University, Father Ryszard Rumianek.

The president’s chaplain, Msgr. Roman Indrzejczyk, and the chaplain of Poland’s Katyn Families Association, Msgr. Zdzislaw Krol, also were killed.

In an April 10 message, Pope Benedict XVI told Poland’s acting head of state, parliament Speaker Bronislaw Komorowski, that he had received the news with “deep pain.”

“I entrust all the victims of this dramatic accident — parliamentarians, politicians, military representatives and families of Katyn, as well as all the others — to the goodness of the merciful God. May he welcome them into his glory,” he said in the telegram.

Tributes and condolences were sent by U.S. President Barack Obama and other foreign state and church leaders, including Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Russia, who said Katyn was a “place of common historical pain for both the Russian and Polish people” and would now also be associated with the latest air disaster.

Kaczynski, born in Warsaw in June 1949, taught law at Cardinal Wyszynski University after coming to prominence as a communist-era dissident and adviser to the Solidarity movement.

He was elected to Poland’s first senate in 1989 and later served as president of the national audit office, as justice minister and as mayor of Warsaw. He was elected president in October 2005 on a ticket that included adherence of the teachings of the late Pope John Paul II. Kaczynski’s presidency was often controversial, marked by efforts to combat corruption and bring former communists to account, as well as a nationalistic

approach to foreign policy.

The president’s twin brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who traveled to Moscow to identify his body, heads the Law and Justice Party and served as prime minister in 2006-2007.

Memorial Masses for the disaster victims were held nationwide and among Polish communities abroad, as well as at Katyn Forest and in Russia and neighboring countries.

Cardinal Jozef Glemp, retired archbishop of Warsaw, and the Vatican’s nuncio, Archbishop Jozef Kowalczyk, concelebrated a Mass in Warsaw’s military cathedral April 11 and led prayers over the president’s coffin at Warsaw’s military airport.

In an April 10 statement, the Polish bishops’ conference said the whole nation was “united in pain and suffering,” adding that Masses would continue for the victims throughout the week.

“A president, directly elected by the nation, is a personification of concern for what is most important in Poland in our tradition, animating our contemporary state interests,” the statement said.

“As Christians, we must view this national tragedy in the light of Christ’s resurrection, whose secret we experience in the Church’s liturgy. May the victor over death open the gate of divine mercy to those who have died, soothe the pain in the hearts of those who weep for them, and strengthen a country united in pain with his blessing,” it said.

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Youth Pages

SCOUTS’ HONOR — Representatives from the local Boy Scout, Cub Scout, Girl Scout and Brownie troops pose with Father Stephen B. Salvador, pastor of SS. Peter and Paul Parish at Holy Cross Church, after a special Mass last week recognizing Father Salvador’s installment as the chaplain for the National Catholic Committee on Scouting which takes place today in Richmond, Va. Story on page 11. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

April 16, 2010

every picture tells a story — During the Lenten season, students in the fourth grade at Holy Family-Holy Name School in New Bedford created dioramas depicting the Stations of the Cross.

walking the road to calvary — The faculty and staff of the four Catholic schools in the city of Taunton spent their Holy Thursday professional day on a pilgrimage, traveling to the various parishes throughout the city and praying the Stations of the Cross.

The Anchor is always pleased to run news and photos about our diocesan youth. If schools or parish Religious Education programs have newsworthy stories and photos they would like to share with our readers, send them to: schools@anchornews.org great track record — Bishop Feehan High School track coach Bob L’Homme was presented with the Mike Byrnes Coach of the Year award by the National Scholastic Sports Foundation. L’Homme was presented with a ring and plaque honoring his incredible career record of 513-85-7. Since beginning his coaching tenure at Feehan in 1984, his boys’ outdoor track and field teams have won 18 league and seven state divisional championships.

April 16, 2010

T

here was a boy who was very popular among others his age.

He was an excellent leader in his school groups. One of his friends visited him and saw a homemade plaque in his room with the words “I Am Third” on it. His friend asked him what it meant and he replied, “It is the motto I try to use in my life. It means ‘God is first, others are second, and I am third.’”

I first heard this simple quote in the book, “I Am Third,” the memoir of Gale Sayers, one of the best running backs in the history of the NCAA and pro football. It is also the story of his friendship with Brian Piccolo. Known as a community leader and great friend to all, Sayers’ credo was, “The Lord is first, my friends are second, and I am third.”

The source of this simple phrase is supported by Jesus himself in the Gospel of Mark. “One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, ‘Which is the first of all the commandments?’ Jesus replied, ‘The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!

Your shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall

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Youth Pages I am third

love your neighbor as yourself. There lack of health care? Would there be is no other commandment greater than those that are poorly educated? Would these.’” there be those who are left alone and This little credo is simple to reafraid? Wouldn’t the world be so much member, to say and to hear, but how closer to what God wants for us if we easy is it to put into practice? Imagine lived by these words and commandwhat the effect would be in our family, ments? in our community, and in our world if Is it possible? Yes, it is. I think we we all lived by these simple words. see evidence of this especially when Let’s imagine for a moment a famone participates in a retreat. Last week ily in which I had the joy everyone lives of serving according to on the team Gale Sayers’ of ECHO little motto 270 and this “I am third.” weekend I That would am directing

By Frank Lucca be a family in YES! 26. In which each both of these member of the retreats we family would live three always put God first, and then each “perfect” days of “I am third.” On the other second. The father of the houseretreat we place God first and it is hold would put God first and his famamazing to see how we actually put ily an immediate second. Each other each other second and ourselves third. member of the family would do the It works and it creates an environment same. Imagine the family dynamics if where no one wants to leave. It’s not we lived these words. something we do or talk about on a Now think about what the world retreat. It’s not forced. It just happens would be like if we put God first, othbecause during that weekend we allow ers second and ourselves third. Would ourselves to place all of our focus on there be poverty? Would there be a God and the rest just falls into place.

Be Not Afraid

In this small microcosm of the world we are actually able to live that credo.

Even in the world, we see evidence of this, especially when our brothers and sisters suffer from earthquakes or even the recent floods that have hit our area. We seem to step up and live this little credo. Unfortunately, many seem to fall back to their “me first” M.O. (modus operandi — usual manner of working) when the crisis passes.

As we continue through this Easter season, let us resolve to let the driving force in our lives be trying to please God. Secondly, we should take into consideration the needs and wants of others. With our own wants taking a secondary position to the needs of others, we will truly be the humble servants of God — sharing in the very mission that Jesus calls each of us to live. It would be like being on retreat every day. Now that’s how to live.

Give it a try.

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

He is chair and director of the YES! Retreat and director of the Christian Leadership Institute (CLI). He is a husband and a father of two daughters.

Student suicides highlight need for bullying programs

By Teri Breguet Catholic News Service SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. — Bullying is just part of growing up. After all, the victim teased in the movies always comes out on top. Not so in real life.

The tragic consequences of bullying have increasingly made headlines, prompting Massachusetts lawmakers to pass legislation in March aimed at curbing bullying at schools and in cyberspace.

During what was an emotional debate over the anti-bullying legislation, lawmakers cited the suicides of 15-yearold Phoebe Prince and Carl J. WalkerHoover, 11. The two youths, who went to different schools, both hanged themselves allegedly because of peer harassment.

According to Jodee Blanco, author of the New York Times best-seller “Please Stop Laughing at Me,” parents and educators need to realize that both the victim and the bully are bleeding emotionally.

“Kids don’t bully because they’re cruel. Bullying is the desperate need to fit in run amuck. The bully and the victim are flip sides of the same coin. Both are driven by the desperate need to fit in,” Blanco told The Catholic Observer, newspaper of the Springfield Diocese.

“Typically, the big schoolyard bully who steals everybody’s lunch money is no threat. It’s those mean popular kids that I call elite tormenters, the ones who exclude on purpose. Those are the kind of bullies who do the most danger and are driven by insecurity,” she said.

In the case of Prince, who died January 14, three girls accused of bullying

her were to be arraigned April 6 on charges of violation of civil rights resulting in bodily injury. Two of the three also faced stalking charges.

The three defendants are among nine students facing charges related to bullying Prince, an Irish immigrant who enrolled at South Hadley High School in September, when she moved to the area.

A letter to parents from school principal Dan Smith said there was reason to believe Prince had been tormented by a clique of girls over dating and relationship issues.

While school personnel immediately intervened, it may not have been enough. “It is what happened after those incidents were over that is cause for significant concern,” Smith wrote. “Because of the aforementioned disagreements, some students — to be confirmed through investigations — made mean-spirited comments to Phoebe in school and on the way home from school, but also through texting and social networking websites. This insidious, harassing behavior knows no bounds.”

In April 2009, 11-year-old Carl hanged himself after relentless bullying by classmates at the New Leadership Charter School in Springfield. He was a Boy Scout, football player and Church volunteer and known as a student who loved his schoolwork.

Blanco, a publicist who resides in Chicago, was the victim of bullying when she was in school. She decided to go public with her story after the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, when two seniors went on a shooting

rampage, killing 13 and then committing suicide. “I became enraged because I said, ‘What happened at Columbine had nothing to do with the availability of guns,’” she explained.

Blanco, who addressed educators in the Springfield Diocese last fall, has written two books since then and is executive producer of a critically acclaimed anti-bullying program called, “It’s NOT Just Joking Around.” She also has been called on to intervene in the aftermath of two dozen suicides related to bullying.

“Their (the victims’) rage isn’t about the abuse — the talking, name-calling,

the taunting, teasing, the hitting, kicking,” she said. “It’s the exclusion. It’s the chronic escalating exclusion that really causes the most psychic damage.”

She was told simply to ignore the bullies — advice she does not recommend.

She also tells parents to help children being bullied to find things to do to remedy the loneliness.

She said bullying is no more common than it was 30 years ago, but modern technology now allows cyberbullying where tormenting can be done quickly, is much broader and takes place outside of school through text messaging and the Internet.

young at heart — Pope Benedict XVI greets a cheering crowd as he arrives with young people for his visit to the cathedral in Cologne, Germany, during World Youth Day in this Aug. 18, 2005, file photo. The pope has placed young people at the center of his concerns and reached out to them with networking media such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. (CNS photo/Wolfgang Rattay, Reuters)

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Charities Appeal process is an ongoing effort continued from page one

“Throughout the year we are taking notes about what worked and what didn’t, what we should do next time and what we shouldn’t do,” said Donly.

Much of that feedback comes from the surveys the Development Office sends to each parish. The survey, in part, asks what Appeal materials were used; were they helpful; what were the successes and failures of the just-passed campaign; and suggestions for next year.

“Once we dissect the results of these surveys, we compile the results and share them with the parishes, that they may see what worked and didn’t work in their sister parishes,” said Donly.

Other steps to be taken before the next campaign include preparing an Appeal manual to be utilized by parish chairmen and committees; compiling and preparing parish reports detailing the percentages of each parish total from the prior year; requesting from pastors a list of potential parish chairmen and committee members; and setting up individual meetings with parish committees.

The planning also incorporates the various kick-off events that have become so popular. Some of those kickoffs began last week in areas of the diocese.

One of the most vital tools for a successful drive is the communication vehicle. “We carefully plan our promotional materials,” said Donly. “We prepare an annual brochure, the periodic ‘Sharings’ newsletter, and we work with Dave Fortin on a new video each year.”

“The videos are very helpful in helping people in the diocese see where their dollars are going,” said Donly. “We ask the various diocesan ministries for stories and examples of how they help those less fortunate, and when we receive a response, Dave is ready to go out and film an aspect of that story.

They are very powerful.”

Another communication instrument is Bishop George W. Coleman’s audio message, taped in three languages.

“We’re now able to get to some parishes that don’t have the proper equipment and show the video to those who wouldn’t normally have had the chance,” added Donly.

The video is also available on the Catholic Charities website, frdioc-catholiccharities.org; and this year in the video link section on The Anchor website, anchornews. org.

Donly stressed that while they want quality materials available to publicize the good works done through Catholic Charities donations, it’s vital that they don’t overspend to accomplish that.

He said the Diocese of Fall River’s Catholic Charities Appeal devotes a mere six percent to overhead, far less than most charities, even the national Catholic Charities Appeal which assesses 10 percent.

“It’s so true that 94 cents of every donated dollar is directed solely to the agencies and apostolates funded by the Appeal,” he said.

Donly added that Appeal materials must be of high quality, but also the people who are doing the asking must be credible as well. “That’s why it’s so important that parishes get lay people involved in the Appeal,” he said. “If good people are doing the asking, donors will feel good about giving, knowing their donations are going to help a lot of bodies. Being so parish-based is a great strength of our Appeal.”

“Ten years ago, much of the work we do now on the computer was done by hand,” recalled Iacovelli. “It’s much more efficient now.”

Another change is the great strides made in the communications field during the last decade. “People won’t give if they don’t understand what they’re giving to,” said Donly. “We’re now much more capable, via print and electronic communications, to let people know who is being helped, where, how many, and what the need is.”

The work doesn’t end at the conclusion of the public appeal.

There are many more steps to be taken to complete process.

“Even as the appeal is ongoing, pledge cards must be input into the data base,” said Iacovelli.

“And after the appeal closes, that process continues for quite some time.”

The data input ensures that all of the pledged monies are billed or collected at the appropriate times.

“The ministries assisted by the appeal receive their allocations on a quarterly basis,” explained Donly. “Therefore, we must be certain that for the next 10 months, the pledges are collected. The input is a lot of work, but it is crucial to the success of the campaign.”

The pledge aspect is a 10-month process. There are thank you notes to be sent to the thousands of generous donors; bills to be mailed to those who don’t pay electronically; and responses to questions or concerns from people who contact the Development Office. These efforts carry into November.

While this year-round preparation takes place, the Development Office also casts its sights and a great deal of effort on the St. Mary’s Education Fund events to raise funds to help send need-based youngsters to area diocesan Catholic schools.

The work never ends in the Development Office on Highland Avenue in Fall River … but then again, nor does the need.

Many diocesan agencies are reporting that not only are the homeless and poor greatly in need of assistance, as usual, but

April 16, 2010 more and more middle class families are falling prey to a very unstable economy and need help.

“Now, more than ever, we need the diocesan faithful to help in any way they can,” said Donly. “So many people are in need.

This year’s Appeal slogan is ‘No gift is too small.’” Those who have felt the helping hand of an Appeal-financed ministry can attest to that.

This year’s Catholic Charities Appeal, in its 69th year, will run from May 1 to June 22.

Cohabitation increases likelihood of divorce continued from page one

19.4 percent, and in 2004 it was 40.7 percent. Last year it was 47.6 percent — the highest rate ever, by just a fraction.

“Couples have started to make this the step before engagement or right after engagement,” said Scottie Foley, who with her husband Jerry, serves as program director for the diocesan Office of Family Ministry. “Many of them see it as an insurance policy, and it’s certainly not that.”

“Many of the couples do it because they fear commitment,” she added.

Couples who live together without the benefit of marriage are less invested than their married counterparts. One local man told The Anchor that the difference is like that of the contrast between tenants and property owners. David Akin, along with his wife Rosemary, has been involved with marriage preparation in the Cape Cod region for over two decades. They are now the team leaders and will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary in June.

“People aren’t who they are in a cohabitation situation,” he said.

The marriage preparation in the diocese seeks to help couples merge backgrounds, communicate effectively and transition into their new family life. One aspect of that is giving the couples information about the fact that cohabitation increases the risk of divorce.

“My obligation is to warn them,” he said. “I would be doing less than my job if I didn’t tell them.”

But cohabitation has become so commonplace that couples have no problem talking about it openly, he added.

“When we started helping with this program, cohabiting couples feigned living apart. Now they talk about the children they have together,” he said.

In a summary of leading literature on cohabitation, Glenn T. Stanton, director of family formation studies for Focus on the Family, said that in the past 50 years, the number of cohabiting couples has increased 14 times over.

“In terms of the growth of family formation trends over the last four decades, the dramatic increase in unmarried cohabitation has no close rival. It has exploded in growth,” he wrote.

The research community accepts that cohabitation is “generally very harmful to a future marriage,” though there is debate about why and to what degree cohabitation harms marital success, he said.

The results from the most recent study need to be put into context with all the previous research, he told The Anchor.

“It is critically important to note that this CDC report does not become the new ‘truth’ on how cohabitation impacts

marital success. Good social science conclusions are not based on just one or two studies, but more on the collective body of research on a topic,” he wrote in a March memo. “Cohabitation is certainly a moral issue, but seeing it as a sociological and psychological issue as well reveals that cohabiting relationships tend — with all other things being equal — to be shorterlived and more volatile than marriages because cohabitation is an ambiguous relationship.”

Consistently, research has found that marriages preceded by cohabitation are 65 percent more likely to end in divorce.

One study found that more than half of cohabiting unions end in separation within five years, while the same was true of only 20 percent of marriages with no history of cohabitation, he said.

In a 2003 study published in the “Journal of Marriage and Family,” Jay Teachman wrote that premarital cohabitation is “one of the most robust predictors of marital dissolution.”

Stanton said cohabitation is marked by a lack of commitment even after the couple marries. It teaches unhealthy relationship skills that are brought into marriage and put the couple at greater risk for poor communication.

Cohabiting relationships are also more violent and less stable, which harms both spouses and their children. Cohabiting families resemble single-parent homes, he said.

“This strongly indicates that it is not the number of parents in a home, the love they share and provide, but the nature of the relationship between them,” he wrote.

“Marriage, with its stronger commitment and cohesion, makes a dramatic and measurable difference.”

In 2004, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops launched the National Pastoral Initiative for Marriage to address problems like the high divorce rate, falling marriage rate and rapid rise in cohabitation.

The initiative’s website, ForYourMarriage.org, lists cohabitation as a “must have conversation” for engaged couples.

It encourages cohabiting couples without children to separate before marriage “as a sign of their free, loving decision to follow the Church’s vision of marriage and sexuality” and for all cohabiting couples to seek reconciliation through the sacrament of confession.

The site explains, “Every act of sexual intercourse is intended by God to express love, commitment and openness to life in the total gift of the spouses to each other.

Sexual intercourse outside of marriage cannot express what God intended.”

Diocesan pastor takes over as national Scouting chaplain continued from page 11

the diocese and New England region, Father Frederici expressed great joy and pride in hearing about Father Salvador’s appointment.

“Father Salvador has many years of experience with Scouting and parish ministry, and he has a huge love for both,” he said. “He loves being a priest, he loves his work in Scouting, and he loves his work with the National Catholic Committee on Scouting.”

While the new appointment will require Father Salvador to frequently travel outside the diocese, he said Bishop Coleman fully supported and endorsed his taking on the added responsibility.

“He told me this is an honor for the diocese, it’s an honor for him, and it’s an honor for me and our parish, too,” Father Salvador said.

“We realize it’s a sacrifice, because while I’m away we’ll have to find substitute priests for me here at the parish … but Bishop Coleman gave me his blessing.”

Father Salvador’s workload will increase almost immediately during this week’s biannual meeting in Richmond, Va., where he will meet with Catholic Scouting representatives from all over the U.S. “There will be priests and laity who are all involved in Catholic Scouting representing every diocese there,” he said. “We’ll be working to strengthen the scouting program nationwide.”

Members of his own parish and

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks April 19 Rev. William Wiley, Pastor, St. Mary, Taunton, 1855 Rev. Msgr. Leo J. Duart, Pastor, St. Peter the Apostle, Provincetown, 1975 Rev. Daniel E. Carey, Chaplain, Catholic Memorial Home, Retired Pastor, St. Dominic, Swansea, 1990 Rev. Msgr. Antonino Tavares, Retired Pastor, Santo Christo, Fall River, 2008 April 20 Rev. Edward F. Coyle, S.S., St. Mary Seminary, Baltimore, Md., 1954 Rev. James E. O’Reilly, Retired Pastor, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Seekonk, 1970 Rev. James P. Dalzell, Retired Pastor, St. Joseph, Woods Hole, 1999 April 21 Rev. John O’Beirne, Pastor, St. Mary, Taunton Rev. Thomas Feeley, C.S.C., Holy Cross Family Ministries, North Easton, 2004 April 22 Rev. James L. Smith, Pastor, Sacred Heart, Taunton, 1910 Rev. Thomas F. Fitzgerald, Pastor, St. Mary, Nantucket, 1954 April 23 Rev. John J. Murphy, Retired, Catholic Memorial Home, 2007 April 25 Rev. John J. Wade, Assistant, Sacred Heart, Fall River, 1940 Rev. Raymond J. Lynch, Chaplain, Catholic Memorial Home, Fall River, 1955

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April 16, 2010

the students at SS. Peter and Paul School also showed they support Father Salvador’s new position by surprising him at the 8 a.m. Mass last Friday, during which they presented him with special handmade gifts and offered their prayers for a safe trip.

Father Salvador admitted he was

“shocked” to see the nave filled with young people — including representatives from every Scouting organization — and the gesture was a rare occasion that left him speechless.

“This has been my whole ministry,” he said. “From school children to Scouts.”

Eucharistic Adoration in the Diocese Acushnet — Eucharistic adoration takes place at St. Francis Xavier Parish on Mondays and Wednesdays 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Fridays 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Saturdays 8 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays end with Evening Prayer and Benediction at 6:30 p.m.; Saturdays end with Benediction at 2:45 p.m.

ATTLEBORO — St. Joseph Church holds perpetual eucharistic adoration in the Adoration Chapel located at the (south) side entrance at 208 South Main Street. For open hours, or to sign up, call Liesse at 401-864-8539.

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 following the 11 a.m. Mass until 7:45 a.m. on the First Saturday of the month, concluding with Benediction and Mass.

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

FAIRHAVEN — St. Mary’s Church, Main St., has a First Friday Mass each month at 7 p.m., followed by a Holy Hour with eucharistic adoration. Refreshments follow.

FALL RIVER — St. Anthony of the Desert Church, 300 North Eastern Avenue, has eucharistic adoration Mondays and Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and on the first Sunday of the month from noon to 4 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.

HYANNIS — A Holy Hour with eucharistic adoration will take place each First Friday at St. Francis Xavier Church, 21 Cross Street, beginning at 4 p.m.

MASHPEE — Christ the King Parish, Route 151 and Job’s Fishing Road has 8:30 a.m.

Mass every First Friday with special intentions for Respect Life, followed by 24 hours of eucharistic adoration in the Chapel, concluding with Benediction Saturday morning followed immediately by an 8:30 Mass.

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

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.

SEEKONK ­— Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish has eucharistic adoration seven days a week, 24 hours a day in the chapel at 984 Taunton Avenue. For information call 508336-5549.

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

OSTERVILLE — Eucharistic adoration takes place at Our Lady of the Assumption Church, 76 Wianno Avenue on First Fridays following the 8 a.m. Mass until Benediction at 5 p.m. The Divine Mercy Chaplet is prayed at 4:45 p.m.; on the third Friday of the month from 1 p.m. to Benediction at 5 p.m.; and for the Year For Priests, the second Thursday of the month from 1 p.m. to Benediction at 5 p.m.

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

Mass and continues throughout the day. Confessions are heard from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m., concluding with recitation of the rosary and Benediction at 6:30 p.m.

Taunton — Eucharistic adoration takes place every Tuesday at St. Anthony Church, 126 School 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.

WAREHAM — Eucharistic Adoration is canceled on the first Friday of April due to the observance of Good Friday, adorers are encouraged to spend an hour with the Lord on Thursday night at St. Patrick’s Church from 8:30, following the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, until midnight. Benediction will be held at 11:50 p.m.

Beginning in May, adoration with opportunities for private and formal prayer is offered on the First Friday of each month from 8:30 a.m. until 8 p.m. The Prayer Schedule is as follows: 7:30 a.m. the rosary; 8 a.m. Mass; 8:30 a.m. exposition and Morning Prayer; 12 p.m. the Angelus; 3 p.m. Divine Mercy Chaplet; 5:30 p.m. Evening Prayer; 7 p.m. sacrament of confession; 8 p.m. Benediction.

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

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

Around the Diocese 4/16

A 15-hour prayer vigil for the diocesan priests of the New Bedford Deanery will take place tonight, tomorrow and Sunday at Our Lady’s Chapel, 600 Pleasant St., New Bedford. The vigil will begin with Mass at 6 p.m. on April 16 and then have hourly prayers designated for specific priests from 7 to 11 p.m. Prayers will resume April 17 from 6 to 11 p.m., then on April 18 from 1 to 5 p.m.

4/18

The Knights of Columbus will sponsor a Blood Drive at Notre Dame Parish, 529 Eastern Avenue, Fall River, April 18 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sponsored by the Southcoast Hospital Group, the drive will be conducted in the Southcoast Mobile Van. Refreshments will be provided. Two forms of positive identification are required to donate.

4/21

The final meeting of the season for the District I Diocesan Council of Catholic Women will take place April 21 at 7 p.m. at Our Lady of Grace Recreation Hall in Westport. The theme of the evening is “Organization.” All are welcome.

4/24

The Fall River Diocesan Council of Catholic Nurses will present “John 10:29 — What My Father Has Given Me is Greater Than All: Reflections on the Vocation of a Christian Nurse” on April 24 from 8:30 a.m. to noon at Our Lady of Victory Parish, Centerville. Father Mark Hession’s presentation will connect the weekend of the Church’s worldwide prayer for vocations and the Sunday Gospel of the Good Shepherd. Lunch will follow the presentation. For registration or more information call 508-678-2373.

4/26

The Pro-Life Prayer Groups of Holy Trinity and Holy Redeemer parishes will host a holy hour April 26 at 1 p.m. at Holy Trinity Church, Route 29, West Harwich. The rosary will be followed by Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. All are invited to come and pray for an end to abortion.

4/29

An evening on Respect for Life issues will take place April 29 at 6:30 p.m. in the Holy Family Parish Center, 438 Middleboro Ave., East Taunton. The evening will feature a showing of the movie “Assumption,” followed by a panel discussion on respect for life issues, moderated by Holy Cross Father Leo Polselli. Panelists from the Fall River Diocese Pro-Life Apostolate, A Woman’s Concern, Silent No More, and Birthright will also be participating. The evening will include a pot luck supper.

4/30

There will be a prayer service to honor Our Lady, Queen of Peace, with Medjugorje seer Ivan Dragicevic at St. Joseph’s Church, 208 South Main Street, Attleboro April 30. Confessions will be available at 5 p.m.; rosary at 6; Mass at 7; a witness talk from cancer survivor Arthur Boyle at 8; and an address by Ivan at 8:30. All are invited.

5/1

Spring Into Health, a fair presented by the parish nurse ministries of St. Anthony’s Parish, East Falmouth, Our Lady of Victory Parish, Centerville, and Christ the King Parish, Mashpee, will be held May 1 from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Christ the King Parish, Mashpee. The fair will include speakers, table exhibitors, and other presentations. A blood drive will also be taking place on-site. For more information or directions, visit www. christthekingparish.com.

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April 16, 2010

West Harwich Easter luncheon filled with fun, food, and ‘God instances’

easter sweets — Betty Pina, left, and Erin Sullivan, make cakes for the Holy Trinity Parish Easter luncheon held in Dennisport.

WEST HARWICH — Holy Trinity Par- shared a very emotional meeting at the lunish recently held its second annual Easter cheon and shared some very similar and luncheon at the Our Lady of the Annuncia- horrifying experiences. tion Chapel in Dennisport.

Another “God instance” occurred while The idea, drawn up by Deacon John a pair of luncheon volunteer drivers were Foley and his wife Barbara-Anne, was picking up seniors who weren’t able to drive spawned from the already successful par- to the event. ish Thanksgiving ComThe father-son team munity Meal and the of Peter and Thomas Christmas luncheon.

Lomenzo picked up This year, the lunLarry Hyde and Charles cheon served 73 meals Kennedy to transport and sent out another them to the luncheon. seven to homebound During the drive, the parishioners not mobile fact that Thomas was enough to attend. attending B.C. High In addition to the School in Dorchester, miraculous meeting — Rudy camaraderie and good came up in conversaSchwarzer, left, provided entertainfood, two amazing sto- ment at the Holy Trinity Easter lun- tion. It turned out that ries emerged from the cheon, while Rufus Pina wrapped Hyde and Kennedy, Easter celebration. silverware for the event. Schwarzer who are in their 80s, An accordion player, was a Nazi prison camp escapee had also attended B.C. Rudy Schwarzer, was and Pina liberated prisoners from High. hired to provide en- similar camps during the Holocaust.

Remarkably, each tertainment at the lun- The two met for the first time and had graduated the very cheon. Schwarzer was shared emotional experiences. same year, and hadn’t a Nazi prison camp seen the other since. survivor during the Holocaust, and has writ- In a shared ride to the luncheon, old high ten two books about his remarkable escape school friends were reunited nearly 65 years from almost certain death. later.

One of the luncheon volunteer workers, Everyone enjoyed the event, and one Rufus Pina, was a Nazi prison camp libera- guest stated, “It was a splendid afternoon. tor of some of the Buchenwald Camp de- I’m so grateful to Barbara-Anne and Deatainees during the same time period. con John for having this. I would have been The two men who had never before met, all alone today, otherwise.”

rock solid belief — La Salette Father Bernard Baris, pastor of Our Lady of the Cape Parish in Brewster, recently blessed and dedicated a “Choose Life” stone on parish grounds. The stone was sponsored by the parish’s Respect Life Ministry.

(Photo by Vincent Scarnecchia)