Anchor 04.23.10

Diocese of Fall River

The Anchor

F riday , April 23, 2010

Area students tie lessons from the past to the present

By Dave Jolivet, Editor

FALL RIVER — Students in parochial and public schools in the New Bedford and Fall River areas were invited to submit special exhibits as part of a Holocaust Memorial Observance sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater New Bedford.

Nicholas Grasso and Sandra Thibault, teachers at St. Michael School in Fall River, saw this as an ideal opportunity for their eighth-grade students to learn some very important lessons from the past and how they relate to the present and future.

The topic for the Holocaust observance was “Propaganda, Then and Now.” Grasso, a writing and language arts teacher, and Thibault, a so-

cial studies teacher, presented the idea to the nine-member eighthgrade class, and they enthusiastically suggested writing and performing a play to be filmed and captured on DVD. The teachers advised their charges the endeavor would entail a great deal of work and research, but for the students, it was full steam ahead.

Thibault was currently teaching the students about World War I, but she gave them a quick lesson on the events leading up to and included in Germany’s second attempt at world dominance.

Grasso had the students reading “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,” a fictional novel by Irish author John Boyne, depicting life Turn to page 18

RENEWAL — The newly-constructed St. Mary’s Church on West Main Street, Route 123, in Norton will be officially dedicated during a 3 p.m. Mass Sunday celebrated by Bishop George W. Coleman, with a reception immediately following in the connecting parish center. A final farewell Mass at the old St. Mary’s Church on South Worcester Street will be celebrated tomorrow at 4 p.m., followed by a procession up Power Street to the new church in which parishioners will transport venerated items into the new building. No other parish Masses will be held during the weekend in preparation for the new church dedication. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

After abuse the priority is to heal, says CSS child protection official

By Deacon James N. Dunbar

learning from past mistakes — Eighth-graders from St. Michael School, Fall River, act in a play they wrote and produced as part of a project for the recent Holocaust Memorial Observance in New Bedford. The topic was “Propaganda, Then and Now.” Here they portray a German family who has bought into Adolf Hitler’s propaganda machine.

Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Parish takes life May 22

By Dave Jolivet, Editor SEEKONK — On Pentecost weekend, faithful from Seekonk, Attleboro, and Rehoboth will be part of the birth of the new Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Parish.

The new parish will encorporate the parishes of St. Stephen’s in Attleboro and St. Mary’s in Seekonk. Father Timothy L. Rita,

current pastor of St. Mary’s, will be the pastor of the new parish, and Father James Morse, pastor of St. Stephen’s will be retiring in June.

The worship site will be the old St. Mary’s Church, 385 Central Avenue, Seekonk, and the parish hall, rectory and offices there will Turn to page 13

the Vatican and Pope Benedict XVI himself as old cases and new accusers have taken FALL RIVER — The crisis of the center stage. sexual abuse of children and young “While mandated reporting of sexpeople by some deacons, priests, bishual abuse cases is important, the curops, and other Church personnel and rent reality of the focus must be on the the ways in which those crimes and victim, and our specific job is to start sins were addressed by the Catholic the healing process,” asserted Debora Church, have caused enormous pain, Jones, coordinator of the Office for anger and confusion.

Child Protection of the Fall River Exacerbating the crisis are a myriad Diocese’s Catholic Social Services of new allegations that Church hieragency. archy in Ireland and other nations for “Our promise is ‘To Protect and nearly a half-century not only overDebora Jones our Pledge to Heal’ as the title of the looked the misconduct of some clergy, but kept the incidents secret while at the same U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ published statement on its commitment to the essential time failing to reach out to the victims.

And most recently, the secular newsmedia in norms of the 2002 Charter for the Protection a series of unwarranted attacks have pilloried Turn to page five

Helping parents and teachers respond appropriately to teens with same-sex attraction

By Christine M. Williams Anchor Correspondent BOSTON — After the state Supreme Judicial Court handed down the Goodridge Decision, Massachusetts Family Institute issued its first Back to School Guide for parents. The handout warned that same-sex marriage in the Commonwealth would lead to the normalization of homosexuality in classrooms.

Now, parents have a new resource, created by pediatricians, that is designed to show educators the “proper approaches to

youth with non-heterosexual attractions.” The American College of Pediatrics sent a letter about its new resource, FactsAboutYouth.com, to the nearly 15,000 public school superintendents in the United States on April 1.

The letter said adolescence is a time of upheaval and impermanence that is accompanied by confusion about many things, including sexual orientation and gender identity. Studies have demonstrated that 85 percent of sex-questioning youth

adopt a heterosexual identity in adulthood. Even children with Gender Identity Disorder will typically lose their desire to be the opposite sex by the time they reach puberty.

Schools that push acceptance of homosexual behavior on youth, who are particularly vulnerable to environmental influences, may reinforce samesex attraction, the letter said.

“When well-intentioned but misinformed school personnel encourage students to ‘come Turn to page 13

News From the Vatican

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April 23, 2010

Young people ask pope for guidance in facing their fears and doubts VALLETTA, Malta (CNS) — In an unexpected display of honesty and frankness, five young Maltese men and women spoke to Pope Benedict XVI about their hopes, doubts, and fears as well as the contradictions they sense within the Catholic Church.

Their testimonies were part of a music-filled and prayerful gathering of about 40,000 youth along the Valletta waterfront April 18.

The first young man on stage spoke on behalf of young people such as homosexuals, substance abusers, or children of broken or dysfunctional families who may feel marginalized by the Church.

He told the pope “we should be treated with more compassion — without being judged — and with more love.”

Being shunned or looked down upon by some members of the Catholic community causes some young people to call God’s love into question, he said.

“How can we believe that God accepts us unconditionally when his own people reject us?” he asked.

Catholics who feel marginalized can experience great confusion and suffering especially when secular society seems more willing than the Church to accept them and treat them with dignity, he said.

“Your Holiness, what must we do?” he asked, and the crowd applauded.

The next speaker, a young woman, spoke on behalf of Catholics who are active members of the Church.

She said faithful Catholics, “as a group, feel excluded by society.”

They work to keep Catholic teaching and values alive in society even though they know that “we are consciously estranging ourselves from our contemporary culture.”

She told the pope that it feels like “it is our faith itself that impedes us from entering further into dialogue with society.”

Sometimes efforts to build a better world, be at the service of others and bring people closer to God feel like “a fruitless exercise,” like an unfinished building that “is far too expensive to complete,” she said.

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“We wish to leave our mark on the Church even as we are young.

Your Holiness, what must we do?” she asked.

The next to speak were a young man and woman preparing to be married within the Church.

They said they want to have a marriage that is guided by God’s own spirit, and yet they are afraid “that life offers too many hurdles for us to live our married lives in God’s light.”

A major concern, they said, was trusting completely that God would provide for their family.

“We are not sure about our own interpretation of God’s providence: whether it is totally gratuitous or whether it is a form of compensation for our wisdom and prudence in raising our children,” the young woman said.

“Show us the way to live our married life as a calling from God. Your Holiness, tell us, what must we do?” they asked.

The last young person spoke on behalf of all the young men and women preparing for consecrated life.

He said God’s call to live one’s life completely for the Lord stirs up feelings of both happiness and despair. Those preparing for consecrated life are excited to be part of a community that is dedicated to building bridges with, not walls against, the modern world, he said.

However, he said, they are often not taken seriously by members of society, especially at a time when there is heightened attention to “priests who fail other persons.”

The pope did not answer each person’s concern individually, but he gave a general response in a text that was prepared before the event, but was based on the young people’s questions.

He told the young people they should be proud that Malta “defends the unborn and promotes stable family life by saying no to abortion and divorce,” and he urged them to maintain a courageous witness to the sanctity of life and the centrality of marriage and family life in society.

OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 54, No. 16

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

PUBLISHER - Most Reverend George W. Coleman EXECUTIVE EDITOR Father Roger J. Landry fatherrogerlandry@anchornews.org EDITOR David B. Jolivet davejolivet@anchornews.org NEWS EDITOR Deacon James N. Dunbar jimdunbar@anchornews.org OFFICE MANAGER Mary Chase m arychase@anchornews.org ADVERTISING Wayne 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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impromptu gathering — Pope Benedict XVI talks with young people on a catamaran as he makes his way to a larger gathering of youths at the waterfront in Valletta, Malta, April 18. (CNS photo/Tony Gentile, Reuters)

Pope meets abuse victims, expresses shame, sorrow for their suffering VALLETTA, Malta (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI met with eight victims of priestly sex abuse in Malta and promised them the Church would do “all in its power” to bring offenders to justice and protect children.

The pope was “deeply moved by their stories and expressed his shame and sorrow over what victims and their families have suffered,” a Vatican statement said after the private encounter April 18.

“He prayed with them and assured them that the Church is doing, and will continue to do, all in its power to investigate allegations, to bring to justice those responsible for abuse and to implement effective measures designed to safeguard young people in the future,” the statement said.

“In the spirit of his recent letter to the Catholics of Ireland, he prayed that all the victims of abuse would experience healing and reconciliation, enabling them to move forward with renewed hope,” it said.

The meeting at the apostolic nunciature in Rabat came after a group of victims had asked to meet with the pope to tell him of their ordeal and ask for an apology. The encounter was not part of the pope’s official itinerary and was only announced publicly by the Vatican after it had happened.

Participants said the victims cried as they told their stories, and that the pope had tears in his eyes as he listened.

“We now have peace in our hearts, even because the pope found time to meet us. We now look forward to the end of the court case, and closure of this

chapter,” one unidentified victims told the Times of Malta.

The Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, told journalists that the private meeting in the chapel of the nunciature lasted about 20 minutes.

He said the pope, Archbishop Paul Cremona of Malta, Bishop Mario Grech of Gozo and eight male victims of abuse began the encounter kneeling in silent prayer.

The pope then stood by the altar and met with each victim one by one to hear his story and to speak with each privately, Father Lombardi said. The victims were in their 30s and 40s, Father Lombardi said.

At the end of the meeting, participants said a prayer together in Maltese and the pope blessed the victims. One victim said the pope gave each of them a rosary and promised them they would be in his prayers.

One of the victims, Lawrence Grech, told the Maltese paper that the two bishops with them shed tears during their meeting.

Another said the pope had tears in his eyes.

“I admire the pope for his courage in meeting us. He was embarrassed by the failings of others,” said Grech.

Grech, one of the victims who had asked for the papal meeting, has said he and others were abused as boys by four priests at the St. Joseph Orphanage in Santa Venera.

The meeting came after the pope returned from a public Mass to the nunciature, where he has been staying during his April 17-18 pilgrimage to Malta. Father Lombardi had told journalists before the trip that any even-

tual meeting with abuse victims would not be announced in advance and would take place out of the media spotlight to guarantee “the real chance of listening and private conversation.”

During his public events in Malta, the pope did not refer explicitly to the problem of the sexual abuse of minors by priests. He did make two subtle references to the problem when he spoke to journalists aboard the papal flight from Rome to Malta.

Speaking about the vitality of the Catholic faith in Malta, he said even when the body of the Church “is wounded by our sins, God loves this Church, and its Gospel is the true force that purifies and heals.”

He then spoke of how St. Paul turned the tragedy of being shipwrecked on Malta into a positive opportunity when he decided to heal the sick and preach the power of Christ. Out of tragedy can come a new beginning and “life’s shipwrecks can be part of God’s plan for us and they may also be useful for new beginnings in our lives,” the pope said.

Father Lombardi told journalists aboard the plane that the pope’s comments were in reference to the sex abuse crisis facing the Church.

A group of 10 victims announced April 16 that they had been granted a meeting with the promoter of justice in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Msgr. Charles Scicluna.

The meeting with the monsignor, who handles the cases local dioceses have brought against allegedly abusive priests, was to take place sometime in June at the Vatican.

The International Church

April 23, 2010

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Amid ongoing abuse cases, priest urges Canadians to remember Gospel

another killer quake hits — Locals search for their belongings amid the debris of destroyed buildings April 15, the day after a major earthquake in western China’s Qinghai province.

More than 10,000 people were injured and at least 600 were killed in the quake. (CNS photo/ China Daly via Reuters)

Pope offers prayers for Chinese after earthquake VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI offered his prayers for the people of northwest China after a strong earthquake struck April 14, causing at least 600 deaths and leaving more than 10,000 people injured.

“My thoughts go to China and to the population stricken by a strong earthquake, which caused numerous losses in human lives, injuries and enormous damage,” the pope said April 14 at the end of his weekly general audience.

“I pray for the victims and am spiritually close to those people tried by such a serious calamity; for them, I implore God to relieve their suffering and give them courage in this adversity,” he said.

Pope Benedict also said he hoped the international community would offer whatever assistance the Chinese need to carry out rescue work and provide emergency assistance after the quake in Qinghai province. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake registered magnitude 6.9, and Chinese officials said it destroyed some 80 percent of the houses around its epicenter.

In China, church organizations mobilized resources to assist the quake victims, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News.

The relief department of the nationwide Catholic Jinde Charities in Hebei province contacted its Church partner in the earthquake-hit region.

Father Joseph Li Dongsheng of Qinghai told Jinde that quake survivors were sleeping at a racecourse for fear of aftershocks.

According to China’s official Xinhua News Agency, more than

100,000 victims spent the night outside in 25-degree temperatures.

Father Li said the road leading to Yushu was cut off and most of the houses collapsed, he said.

The priest said there is only one Catholic family living in Yushu, where 93 percent of the population is ethnic Tibetan. The three members of the family, which provided the information on the situation, were unharmed although their house was slightly damaged.

Overseas church partners, such as Caritas Internationalis and other Caritas network mem-

bers, called or emailed Jinde to express their desire to cooperate with Chinese Catholics in carrying out relief work.

The Catholic Social Service Center of Xi’an Diocese appealed for donations and prayers for victims. An appeal from the center said it “feels that it is our responsibility to contribute as much as we can to help the victims in Yushu.”

The organization planned to send volunteers to assist at the disaster area, as well as food and clothing. It also planned to participate in post-quake rebuilding efforts.

OTTAWA (CNS) — As new revelations about old cases of priestly sexual abuse dominate the news, Basilian Father Thomas Rosica urged Catholics not to forget the Church’s Gospel message.

“We must address these issues, but we cannot and must not become imprisoned in the past,” the CEO of the Salt and Light Media Foundation said in an email interview. “We cannot allow the freshness, newness and reconciliation of the Gospel message to be anesthetized.”

“We must recognize the wounds and be about the work of healing and reconciling,” he said.

In mid-April a new lawsuit against the Archdiocese of St. John’s, Newfoundland, and retired Bishop Raymond Lahey of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, alleges he sexually abused a boy living at the Mount Cashel Orphanage more than 25 years ago. Bishop Lahey already faces child pornography charges.

In a lawsuit involving victims of Bernard Prince, a defrocked priest who served as a Vatican official, a letter has surfaced that

shows the bishop of his diocese worried that a credible abuse complaint might become public and hurt the Church.

“What has come to light over the past weeks are a number of cases from the past that have not been dealt with in the same ways that we deal with the cases today,” said Father Rosica, a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

He said the Church had responded poorly or inadequately in the past, putting more emphasis on “saving face for the institution rather than restoring dignity to the victim.”

But Father Rosica said it was wrong to apply what people know today to the past because “we were not fully aware of the gravity of the issues in the past.”

“Every abuse case involving a minor, no matter when it took place, is a crime, and we must respond to those who have been victimized and hurt by any person acting in the name of the Church,” Father Rosica said.

“The Church stands by the victims and wishes to be an instrument of reconciliation and healing.”

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The Church in the U.S.

April 23, 2010

Pope names bishop for New Jerseybased eparchy for Syrian Catholics WASHINGTON (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI has named a Los Angeles pastor, Chorbishop Yousif Habash, to head the Newark, N.J.-based Eparchy of Our Lady of Deliverance for Syrian Catholics.

He succeeds Bishop Joseph Younan, who was elected as the new patriarch of Antioch in January. He took the name Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan.

Bishop-designate Habash, 58, has been pastor of Sacred Heart Syrian Church in Los Angeles since 2001. He was elevated to chorbishop in 2008.

Born in Iraq June 1, 1951, he entered St. John’s Seminary in Mosul,

Iraq, at age 14 in 1965. Five years later, he entered military service for Iraq. By the time he was released from military service in 1972, the Mosul seminary had closed, so he resumed seminary studies in Charfet, Lebanon, and later at Holy Spirit University in Kaslik, Lebanon.

He was ordained to the priesthood in 1975. In 1994, Bishop-designate Habash was assigned to the Syrian Catholic Mission of North America. He was given two assignments: Our Lady of Deliverance in New Jersey, and the Syrian Mission in Chicago, serving in both posts until his Los Angeles assignment in 2001.

Remembering a double tragedy — Alina Szatkowski touches a sculpture April 12 outside St. Adalbert Catholic Cemetery in Niles, Ill., commemorating the 1940 Katyn massacre. The sculptor, Wojciech Seweryn, was killed in a plane crash April 10 near Smolensk, Russia, along with Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and Catholic clergy, including Archbishop Tadeusz Ploski, Poland’s military archbishop. The travelers were on their way to a service commemorating the Katyn massacre. (CNS photo/John Gress, Reuters)

Weigel says battle over nature, dignity part of U.S. culture war

By Ann Carey Catholic News Service NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The United States is currently engaged in a “great culture war” that involves “a battle over the nature and dignity of the human person,” author and scholar George Weigel told a participants at a Pro-Life conference organized by University of Notre Dame students.

On one side are those who say everything in the human condition is “plastic, malleable, changeable, improvable,” he said.

On the other side are those who say moral truths are built into the world and into human beings that they can know by reason and which teach them how to live as individuals and citizens, he said.

Weigel, who is the biographer of Pope John Paul II, delivered an address titled “Pro-Life Catholics in President Obama’s America” on the second day of the annual Notre Dame Right to Life Collegiate Conference April 9-10.

Other speakers were Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago, president of the U.S. bishops; Joan Lewis, Rome bureau chief for the Eternal Word Television Network; and Maureen Condic, associate professor of neurobiology and anatomy at the University of Utah’s medical school and senior fellow at the Westchester Institute for Ethics & the Human Person.

It was in the context of the culture war he described that

Weigel talked about President Barack Obama’s graduation address at Notre Dame last year.

He said there have been “passionate debates” within various religious communities over doctrine, identity and boundaries for centuries.

“Yet never in 350 years of these arguments, never has a president of the United States, in the exercise of his public office, and speaking as president, intervened in any such a dispute in order to secure political advantage, until that is, May 2009 here at Notre Dame,” Weigel said.

Obama’s appearance on campus ignited a national debate on the university’s status as a Catholic institution. Critics said his support of legal abortion and embryonic stem-cell research made him an inappropriate choice to be commencement speaker at a Catholic university.

Holy Cross Father John Jenkins, Notre Dame’s president, stood by his decision to invite Obama. Afterward he said he hoped the president’s visit would “lead to broader engagement on issues of importance to the country and of deep significance to Catholics.”

In his speech Obama urged those bitterly divided over abortion and other issues to adopt an approach of mutual respect and dialogue.

Weigel said Obama had suggested in his speech that good Catholics were those who agreed with a so-called common-ground approach to life issues and im-

plied that those who questioned that approach were bad Catholics.

Inserting Obama and his office into any Christian community’s debate over the definition of its identity and boundaries, Weigel said, is a serious breach of constitutional proprieties and a genuine threat to everyone’s religious freedom.

Weigel called for building a compelling Catholic public Pro-Life presence in “Obama’s America.”

He urged his listeners to do that by among other things, calling for a new appreciation of the dignity of human life; building alliances with people of various faiths who share Catholics’ ProLife views; and acknowledging the shameful behavior of some priests and bishops regarding child sexual abuse but also promoting the fact that the Catholic Church is now the country’s safest environment for children and young people.

In her remarks April 10, Condic said science does not address some questions considered fundamental to the abortion debate, such as the rights of the mother versus the rights of the developing embryo/fetus.

Condic noted that the accepted scientific definition of death is when the brain ceases organismal function and it’s irreversible. She said she finds it puzzling, then, that some people do not accept that life begins with fertilization, where there is “clear evidence for organismal behavior and function.”

After abuse, priority is to heal says CSS child protection official continued from page one

of Children and Young People points out.

“The first obligation of the Church with regard to victims is for healing and reconciliation,’ as expressed in Article 1 of the 2005 revised norms of the 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People embraced by the Church in the U.S., and which we clearly and fully embrace.”

Jones’ interview with The Anchor came as the Fall River Diocese prepares for an upcoming visit by a national audit team from the Galvin Group, to determine if the diocese is in compliance with the latest revisions of the 2002 Charter developed by the USCCB’s Ad Hoc Committee For Sexual Abuse, and approved by its full body.

“An audit of local paperwork is done electronically on a three-year cycle, but every third year the audit is done on-site by the visiting team, comprised mostly of former members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” Jones explained.

“Some parishes in our diocese will be visited, but not all,” she stated. “The schools were done first with their respective parishes and we are now in the last mode.”

In essence, the teams will look at whether the diocese is conducting criminal background checks on individuals who have unmonitored access to children; whether it has provided mandatory training for all employees and volunteers; and whether it has required all employees and volunteers to complete a questionnaire.

“But they will also look at what victim assistance is being offered, whether there have been any new allegations — the accused themselves — and at what stages allegations and assistance are in; and any ongoing services we are rendering,” said Jones. “It is most intensive and more focused.”

It is well-known that the USCCB Charter has historic links to the policy of Protection of Children in the Fall River Diocese and our Child Protection office, said Jones, who has been with the local CSS since August 2009.

In 1992, Bishop O’Malley — currently Cardinal O’Malley and Archbishop of Boston — was named bishop of Fall River after leading the Virgin Island Diocese. He inherited the case of former priest James R. Porter who would be convicted of sexual abuse of children, and imprisoned.

One of the first things Bish-

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The Anchor

April 23, 2010

op O’Malley did was to visit all the parishes where Porter had been assigned, and celebrated healing Masses at all of them. He also met with the victims themselves. He sought suggestions from across the diocese and selected a professional committee and formed a review board to draw up and implement policies to handle abuse of children.

“We immediately committed ourselves to following the state law of reporting incidents of abuse,” Bishop O’Malley recalled in a 1999 interview with The Anchor. “Then we began the education of diocesan employees as well as screening them.”

Bishop O’Malley’s innovative use of the state’s Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI system) by the local Church and sexual abuse training and reporting sessions for all diocesan priests and volunteers, are considered keys to strict and comprehensive guidelines for detecting and reporting sexual abuse.

In 1993, Bishop O’Malley appointed a Sexual Abuse Review Board and in 1994 established an Abuse Prevention Unit, currently the Office For Child Protection. The Board, in collaboration with the director of the Abuse Prevention Unit, is charged with developing procedures to be followed when a cleric, an employee, teacher, coach, or volunteer in the Church is accused of sexual abuse or misconduct with a minor.

The fruit of that effort is reflected in the current training procedures, as well as the CORI review.

When Bishop O’Malley was transferred in 2002 to the Diocese of Palm Beach, Fla., and a year later to lead the Archdiocese of Boston, his mission was to heal dioceses with sexual abuse crises. The policies forged in Fall River were again instrumental in remedying those dioceses’ respective plights.

“Much of what Bishop O’Malley set in place in the Fall River Diocese was subsequently taken up by many other dioceses across the U.S., and was instrumental in the policies and procedures of the USCCB promulgated in November 2002,” said Jones.

“Those procedures are still very much in place and are binding on all dioceses and eparchies in the U.S.,” Jones reported. “So much so that when revisions were being considered, Bishop Blase Cu-

pich of Rapid City, S.D., who is chairman of the USCCB’s Ad Hoc Committee on clergy sexual abuse, said any revisions would be ‘only minor,’ because the U.S. Church is not handing off any of its commitments to protect children and its promise to heal.”

“National and international news stories are reporting what is currently happening in the Catholic Church. I can only speak to what happens in the Fall River Diocese, and when issues come to light here, or someone reports to us, we take it seriously and we take action,” she said Locally, some changes will be made to the policies, including Internet Safety, she said.

“One of the biggest problems we have today is a child using the Internet. They are texting, sexting and putting themselves at risk and they don’t even know about it,” Jones explained.

“Predators have devised ingenious ways to find these kids.

In three minutes the predators have 20 pieces of information about you, can track you and have your address. There’s a lot parents need to know and don’t know. I realize some of them are working many jobs, but they need to be vigilant. It’s one of the prevention things I want to include in our program and I talked with Arleen McNamee, our CSS director, and she agrees that we need a teaching session for parents to understand they must monitor their children.”

Jones’ extensive background is in psychology, child protection and care.

A native of Illinois, after studying psychology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, she switched to family and child development for graduate studies. She received a master’s degree in family and consumer sciences with emphasis on human development from Eastern Illinois University. She received another master’s degree from Capella University in Minnesota, and is currently pursuing a doctorate in industrial and organizational psychology with an emphasis on consulting.

For the last 10 years she has been involved in child protection dealing with such issues as domestic violence, sexual assault, self-help, addiction, basic needs and early intervention.

A November 2007 convert to Catholicism, Jones is a member of St. Mark’s Parish in Jamestown, R.I. where she has resided since 2004.

“Everything we’re doing in the Church right now in our mandated training sessions for all diocesan employees is to protect children as well as training people working with children,” she said.

“One of the things we educate people on is how things they’re doing might be perceived, for instance, what is the appropriate way to interact with children,” Jones explained. “Every Tuesday night at our training sessions, we point out how training can help. Some people can easily spot abusive behavior and report it. We also teach them how hugging can be genuine and innocent — but sometimes be taken the wrong way. We tell people they should be aware of what’s going on around them.

If we find abuse, then we can take preventive steps to avoid any future abuse.”

But Jones also made it clear that “we’re not so naïve to think that our training can change a true abuser or pedophile from abusing a child.”

Asked to make a hypothetical walk-through of the steps taken following an alleged incident of sexual misconduct by a cleric or religious Brother or Sister with a minor, Jones said, “there will be an immediate response by us.”

She also said, “Every case is different and procedures can change depending on the person and circumstances. But if

an initial review and investigation by a delegate from the seven- to 10-member Advisory Review Board appointed by the bishop reveals the allegation is credible, the cleric or religious is placed on administrative leave pending further investigation.”

The procedures call for immediate action when the bishop receives an allegation.

“In essence,” she said, “the cleric is transferred from his residence or parish, and if a priest, will not be permitted to celebrate Mass publicly, wear clerical garb, or present himself as a priest or religious.”

“Any suspected case of sexual misconduct with a minor will be reported to the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, as required by state law,” said Jones.

And there is a follow up. No diagnosed pedophile will be given any assignment in or by the Diocese of Fall River or be authorized to do pastoral work outside the diocese, she noted.

“Of course the civil as well as Church law presumes innocence,” Jones added. “And confidential counseling is offered.

And I restate that the focus of our office of Child Protection is on the victim. Every case is different. Some need professional help. Some need family.

But it is all about grief.”

For a summary of the diocese’s procedures and policies, please see page 15.

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The Anchor

Responding compassionately, truthfully and thoroughly, Part I Concentration on the Church’s response to the evil of the sexual abuse of minors by clergy has continued unabated. In the past week, among other headlines, there has been much attention given to Pope Benedict’s meeting with victims of clergy abuse during his apostolic trip to Malta as well as to retired Vatican Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos’ 2001 letter to a French bishop praising him for not turning an abusive priest over to civil authorities. Each deserves deeper analysis.

Pope Benedict’s April 18 private meeting with eight Maltese victims of priestly sexual abuse (see story on page two) showed yet again how moving and important these encounters are, first for those who have suffered abuse, second, for the pope, and third for the whole Church internally and externally.

In meeting with the press after the meeting, two of the victims described how the pope had tears in his eyes as he listened to each of their stories, expressed his shame and embarrassment over what they had suffered, prayed with them and for them, and pledged to do all that he can to ensure that others will not have to suffer as they did.

The same impact occurred in April 2008, when the pope met with five U.S. victims in Washington. After that pilgrimage, a Marist poll revealed that, far and away, Americans thought that the “most meaningful part” of the papal trip was this private encounter with those who had suffered. A similar response occurred in July 2008, when Pope Benedict met with three Australian survivors in Sydney during World Youth Day. Why are these encounters so powerful? It’s because what the vast majority of victims, Catholics, and the world at large most long for is to see the Church at the highest level of all treat those who have been hurt by those in the Church with the compassion with which everyone knows Christ would treat them. They want to witness a true spiritual father weeping over the pain his children have endured. They want to hear him ask them for forgiveness for what those in the Church have done to them. They want to know that he is as ashamed, embarrassed, horrified and resolved as he should be, and as most Catholics are. They want to see that he treats those who innocently suffered what no one should ever endure with personal care, attention and love, rather than — as some other prelates and chancery officials have abominably looked at them — as a statistic, a problem, or worst of all, an adversary. They want to know that the pope is indeed a holy father, whose heart is pierced with sorrow, and the fitting representative of a God they believe must be weeping, too.

This is what they experience when they meet with Pope Benedict one-on-one, and that’s why so much healing is able to take place.

Such meetings are obviously not a sufficient response on the part of the Church to the evil that was done, but they clearly are one of the most important and demonstrably powerful parts of what the Church’s response has to be. That’s why it is almost inexplicable that they have taken place so infrequently. What should have always been clear a priori, but is even clearer now a posteriori after the first three such meetings, is that such private encounters should be something that the pope and diocesan bishops should do promptly and regularly. At a personal level, it’s clear that it is enormously cathartic to those who have suffered sexual abuse by clergy. It is also indisputable that it’s enormously important for Church leaders to hear from those who have suffered abuse the pains they have endured; for any pastor with a Christian heart, this should be sufficient to motivate him to overturn any structures or mentalities that hinder protecting children and bringing survivors justice. At the level of society as a whole, the less such meetings occur, the more people are prone to believe that the Church is responding to this scandal the way politicians, or defense attorneys, or CEOs normally do; the more such meetings occur, the more people will see the Church acting as the Church always should and is rightly expected to behave.

The second item in the news was the publication of a 2001 letter from the former Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy to Bishop Pierre Pican of Bayeux-Lisieux, France, in which Cardinal Castrillon praised Bishop Pican for not turning in an abusive priest from his diocese to the civil authorities. The bishop eventually was sentenced to three months in jail for refusing to denounce his priest, but the sentence was suspended. Cardinal Castrillon applauded Pican because he “preferred prison to denouncing his son, a priest.”

Some members of the secular media immediately portrayed the letter as a Vatican approval of episcopal silence and cover-ups — all the more so when Cardinal Castrillon claimed to have Pope John Paul II’s authorization to send the letter — but the truth is more complicated. The Vatican policy at the time, as Monsignor Charles Scicluna, now the Vatican’s chief prosecutor of sex abuse cases, described in an interview last month, was not to “force bishops to denounce their own priests, but to encourage them to contact the victims and invite them to denounce the priests by whom they have been abused.” In a way similar to court systems that exempt spouses from testifying against each other, the Vatican recognized the inherent conflict for a bishop to become an agent of the civil authorities in turning over priests, who have always been looked upon in Church theology, law and practice as their spiritual sons. The Vatican wasn’t trying to cover up justice, but seeking to preserve the good of a filial relationship between bishops and priests.

One of the consequences of the 2002 Dallas reforms, which mandated U.S. bishops to report all allegations of sexual abuse to the civil authorities, has been that this bond between priests and bishops has in fact been wounded, as various priestly magazines and organizations have noted. Priests who need help no longer feel confident in approaching their bishop directly and confidentially for fear of being turned in; if they’re accused, they no longer feel comfortable telling the whole truth. Often now in such circumstances the conversation between bishops and priests accused of sex abuse often takes place in the presence of civil attorneys on both sides. This is what Cardinal Castrillon was trying to avoid.

Nevertheless, it is obvious that the good of preserving the bond between bishops and priests is not sufficient to justify Cardinal Castrillon’s approach. It neglected the greater good of making sure that children, the bishops’ other spiritual sons and daughters, are kept safe from molestation by their perverted older brothers camouflaged in religious garb. The defects in this approach are obvious: in some cases the bishops did not do their job and encourage the victims to go forward to the civil authorities; sometimes when they did, the victims did not want to go forward. The result was, in some cases, the priests were not prevented from continuing to do harm, either in ecclesial or other contexts.

The Vatican recognized the problem in the approach in 2001 and, as Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi noted in a shockingly direct statement last week, that explains “how opportune it was” to take the sex abuse cases out of the hands of Cardinal Castrillon and place them into the hands of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who wanted to “assure their rigorous and coherent management.” Protecting the filial relationship between priests and bishops is an important good, but not the highest priority: protecting God’s and the bishops’ smaller and more vulnerable children is a much greater one, which is something that Cardinal Ratzinger realized much earlier and with greater conviction than many of his Vatican colleagues.

April 23, 2010

St. John Vianney’s greatest temptation Last week we focused on the importance of his fiercest temptation against perseverance in St. John Vianney’s longevity as pastor in Ars. his priestly work in Ars. After he had almost Even though he was a holy, hardworking, ami- died through — and was miraculously cured able, and supremely self-sacrificing pastor, and of — a case of pneumonia that was so severe even though Ars was a tiny parish of 60 fami- that several doctors had given him only 30 minlies and 230 individuals, it still took him eight utes to live, he asked the bishop for two weeks years of hard pastoral labor, prayer and penance to recuperate in his hometown of Dardilly. The to get most of his people just to come back to 58-year-old priest’s intention was not to return, Sunday Mass. It took him 10 years to get them but instead to write his bishop from his brother’s regularly to receive the sacrament of penance, house begging once again for permission to 25 years to root out the taverns that were rob- head to a monastery, where he could prepare for bing men of paychecks and sobriety, and 29 death and weep over his “poor life.” He penned, years to eliminate the debauched dances that “I am becoming more and more infirm. Unable were turning the hearts of the young from love to rest for long in bed, I am compelled to spend to lust. Had the Curé of Ars not had the gift parts of the night in a chair. I have attacks of dizof pastoral stability in office to till the rough ziness in the confessional, when I lose myself spiritual soil of the village, he would not have for two or three minutes at a time. Considering borne much fruit. The great transformation of my infirmities and age, I should like to bid farethe people of Ars required heroic priestly per- well to Ars forever, Monseigneur.” severance and much time.

The bishop once again did not want to It’s ironic, therefore, that the Curé of Ars “lose” his saintly priest, but also knew that if most persistent temptation — and the one he simply refused, the temptation might just to which he was most vulnerable — was to grow stronger. So as was done in 1830, he ofabandon his post. The “Grappin,” who was fered Father Vianney a choice: to return to Ars unsuccessful in getting him to succumb to 35 or to take one of two other posts, including one years of nightly torments, almost succeeded as chaplain at the Shrine of Our Lady of Beauin destroying his eventual pastoral harvest by mont. The priest went on pilgrimage to the persuading the laborer to take his hands off shrine anticipating that that would be where the plough. FaGod would want ther Vianney did him, but as he not recognize unwas serving the til late in life this Mass of another subtle and conpriest, he saw stant machination in prayer that it of the evil one, was not God’s which he mistakwill to become

By Father enly thought was chaplain there.

Roger J. Landry the will of God. He returned to The first maArs, where the jor temptation people received came in 1827. After nine years of work, Fa- him triumphantly. ther Vianney was exhausted. He was continuThe last temptation happened in 1853. ously sick with a persistent fever accompanied Knowing that on account of his age and mulby migraines. He was frustrated by the lack tiple health problems his death might not be of success in his battle to eliminate the vices far off, he asked his new bishop once again for that were spiritually killing his people. He was permission to go to the Trappist Monastery of worn down by the daily struggle to keep the La Neylière. The bishop replied that if he gave orphanage and girls school he had established permission, “it would be so big a sin that no alive. Most challenging of all were the oppo- one would give me absolution!” Father Viansition and scandalous calumnies being hurled ney knew, therefore, that he would never receive at him by those who opposed his work. He re- permission, so he decided upon a plan to ask for solved that for his own good and the good of forgiveness instead. He plotted to leave at midothers it was probably better that he leave. night and just head to the monastery and write So he asked Bishop Devie to accept his the bishop from there, asking that he accept his resignation and permit him to go to a Trappist resignation. But his priest assistant, the Brothers monastery so that he could dedicate himself of the boys’ school, and his catechists caught on unreservedly to a life of prayer and penance. to the plot and met him as he was leaving. They The bishop admired him and certainly didn’t offered to accompany him, until he realized they want to lose him. He also had a difficult situa- were just leading him around in circles. When tion in the village of Fareins, five times the size he resolved to go on without them, they stole his of Ars, where a heresy fueled by Jansenism had breviary, so that he wouldn’t be able to pray his taken root. The bishop thought that a holy, as- office. Their tricks worked, even though Father cetic pastor like Father Vianney might be able Vianney didn’t appreciate them. “I behaved like to bring the wayward people — who had taken a child,” he said later. He returned to the church to doing scourgings and crucifixions inside the to try to leave again.

Church — back to spiritual sanity. So the bishA priest he very much respected sent him a op offered him a transfer. The priest, somewhat letter saying that his “intemperate” longing for disappointed that he would not be able to lay solitude was a temptation of the devil, and Fadown his pastoral responsibilities for the life of ther Vianney, looking back at decades worth of a monk, hesitated, but eventually informed the similar temptations, recognized that the priest bishop that he would accept the offer. A short was right. All his life, he saw, he had been time later, however, after more prayer, he asked fighting against it. Solitude was good; but that the bishop to let him stay in Ars. “Here I am good was the enemy of something better. prepared to take charge of a large parish,” he Once, in describing the primacy of Chrissaid, “when I am hard put not to give way to tian charity, he had said, “You desire to pray despair in a small one!” to God and pass your day in the church, but The next challenge happened in 1840, when you imagine that it might be better to work for the longing for solitude in a monastery and the some poor people you know who are in great temptation to flee the pastoral work for which need.” He gave the conclusion: “The latter is he always considered himself ill-equipped be- more pleasing to God even than a day passed came intense once again. He anticipated that in front of the holy tabernacle.” his bishop would respond more favorably to his That was ultimately the story of his life. As request if he actually wrote from the monastery good as his desire for solitude and for a life than from Ars, so one dark night, at 2 a.m., he totally spent in front of the Lord in the tabersecretly left the rectory. After he had walked a nacle were, there was something more pleasfew miles, however, he paused and asked, “Is it ing, which he realized only late in life: a life of really the will of God that I am doing now? Is not charity for those who are in great need, as were the conversion of even one soul of greater value the penitents, orphans and spiritually and mathan all the prayers that I might say in solitude?” terially indigent of Ars. That’s the life he lived He recognized his desire to flee as a temptation as pastor of Ars, where, like Jesus, he loved his and returned to the church, where there was al- own to the end (Jn 13:1). ready a line of penitents awaiting him.

Father Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of A few years later, in 1843, he experienced Padua Parish in New Bedford.

Putting Into the Deep

April 23, 2010

L

ike some of the other priests who have reflected on their vocation in these pages, I’m hard-put to specify a moment when I heard the Lord calling me to serve him as a priest.

Then again, I really haven’t given it much effort. And with good reason: it’s tricky business, sorting out subjective experience and egotistic assertiveness from the workings of grace.

In the easy wisdom of hindsight, the most I can safely say is that the seeds of a priestly vocation were planted in my boyhood and nurtured over the years by loving parents, a careful commitment to Mass on Sundays (I didn’t mind having to go, even after I was confirmed!), the privilege of serving at the altar, Catholic schooling, prayers in the home, affable parish priests, and a dedicated priestuncle (my dad’s brother Frank).

This isn’t to suggest that mine was an especially devout upbringing or that I was conspicuously saintly. I didn’t lack for shortcomings, and I behaved at times with a selfishness that I can only recall with shame.

As a young man I began to question my faith. That’s neither unusual nor bad; for, as Cardinal John Henry Newman understood, a thousand questions don’t add up

P

ope Benedict has been the successor of St. Peter, visible Head of the Church, for five years, as of April 19. But because the sexual abuse of minors by priests and other persons in positions of trust has been a widespread and longstanding problem in the Church as elsewhere, people are now blaming the pope for not having done enough to address this problem. The irony here is that, of all the prelates in the Catholic Church, the pope has probably done more than anyone to vigorously address the problem, especially since 2001 when his Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith acquired general jurisdiction over the matter.

Let the sunshine in. My point here is a different one: to see the matter in deeper perspective. St. Josemaría Escriva used to love to recite the Creed at St. Peter’s.

When he got to the part “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church,” he would say three times over, “I believe in my Mother the Roman Church,” and then add, “in spite of everything.”

He once told this to Cardinal Tardini, who worked for many years as Cardinal Secretary of State at the Vatican. Tardini asked him what he meant by that. “I mean in spite of my failings and yours,” replied St. Josemaría.

Our faith is in Jesus Christ and in the Church he founded, one,

7

The Anchor

Son, brother, friend, ‘father’

to a single doubt. The more I read from this, the ordained priesthood and inquired, the more I came to simply makes no sense. appreciate the Catholic faith as an Neither, for that matter, does the intellectually coherent and compel- priesthood common to all believling account of God and the world. ers (1 Pt 2:4-10). For the role of Or, to put it more boldly, I aca priest is to offer sacrifice. This cepted Catholicism as the fullness holds true not only for ordained of divinely revealed truth. priests but for all Christians, too.

Eventually I found myself relThe offering of one’s own life, that ishing every opportunity to defend is, all the good one does and all the and share this pearl of great price. That alone, of course, is no indicator Year For Priests of a priestly calling. One Vocational Reflection needn’t wear a Roman collar to profess the good news of what God has

By Father done, is doing, and will Thomas M. Kocik continue to do for us in Jesus Christ.

What led me to the seminary and ultimately to the evil one avoids, in union with the altar of God was a graced attracperfect sacrifice of Christ, is what tion to the work of the priesthood: being a “priestly people” is all preaching the Gospel, teaching the about. Whatever our vocation, the eternal truths of the faith, adminis- Eucharist is the “source and sumtering the sacraments, and, above mit” of the entire Christian life, to all, offering to God the sacrifice of quote the Second Vatican Council.

Christ for the world’s salvation.

I realize that there is more to The “above all” in the precedour life of faith than the Eucharist ing sentence is quite deliberate. or liturgical worship in general.

While I’m not indifferent to other But our whole life as Christians “models” of priesthood, I believe should be permeated with the spirit the act of offering Christ’s atoning of the liturgy. By that I mean thinksacrifice in the liturgy of the Mass ing, acting, and living liturgically: is the most important factor in the taking God’s word into our hearts priest’s sense of who he is. Apart and being transformed by the

Church’s sacred rites.

As I see it, my job is to help the Catholic faithful develop a “liturgical spirituality,” drawing them into spiritual conversion to Christ principally through the sacred liturgy. This is a huge challenge, because participation in the liturgy demands self-offering, childlikeness, humility, confession, the soul of a martyr.

When I consider the shadow side of the digital revolution — individualism, introversion, consumerism, the “freedom” to escape into our own private world at the click of a button — it makes me wonder whether we moderns are capable of liturgical celebration, no matter how energetically we might sing, or what liturgical books we might use. Yet I know that the sacrament of holy orders has given me special helps so that I can inspire, guide, and teach God’s people in the face of any challenge to living fully the faith that we profess.

Nearly 13 years have gone by since my priestly ordination at St. Mary’s Cathedral in June 1997.

Over the years, I’ve served Christ and his people as a parish priest, hospital chaplain, high school chaplain, spiritual director, teacher,

and writer.

The longer I’m a priest, the more I experience a sense of how privileged I am to be invited into people’s lives during times of joy and sorrow, happiness and pain.

Many priests will tell you that. In fact, it has become almost a cliché to say that. But so many priests say it because they know it to be true.

It is indeed a great privilege to be afforded such intimacy and trust, to offer the wisdom of the Gospel and the grace of the sacraments in good times and bad. What a consoling thing it is for me to receive unexpectedly a letter or email informing me of the difference I’ve made in someone’s life — or rather, the difference God has made through my spiritual fatherhood in Christ.

Keenly aware of my own unworthiness, I’m profoundly grateful to our merciful Savior for having called me to share in his unique priesthood: teaching, preaching, blessing, reconciling, offering sacrifice, and renewing the bonds of friendship between heaven and earth. I look back in gratitude. And I go forward with a heart filled with love for all those who, to my eternal responsibility, have called me son, brother, friend, “Father.”

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

Cornerstone or stumbling block? holy, Catholic and apostolic. The gnors, and priests in the country, Church is Christ himself extended even the pope, could be crooked in space and time, bringing us … and it wouldn’t make a damn his word and his sacraments. bit of difference.”

And so our faith is not in Father In 1991 then-Cardinal Ratzso-and-so or Bishop what’s-his-name or even pope whomever. These are men, and they are sinners, to one degree or another.

The sacraments are effective, regardless of the worthiness (or unworthiBy Dwight Duncan ness) of their ministers.

The Church has survived bad priests, bad bishops and bad popes. Christ promised as inger gave a talk in Rome on the much when he said “You are Peter, Primacy of Peter. “To understand and on this rock I will build my the way in which Peter is rock, church, and the gates of Hell shall a prerogative which he does not not prevail against it” (Mt. 16:18). have on his own account, it is useMy favorite author, Flannery ful to keep in mind the rest of the O’Connor, had a Jesuit friend and story in Matthew. Not from ‘flesh spiritual adviser named Father and blood’ but by a revelation of James McCown. He wrote a mem- the Father did he recognize Christ oir entitled “With Crooked Lines,” on behalf of the Twelve. Then, which recounts a conversation he when Jesus explains the manner had with his father about a wayand way of the Christ in this world, ward priest. When his father called prophesying his death and resurhim a “damn crook,” the priest rection, then flesh and blood reply: said that such priests almost made Peter ‘rebuked the Lord’: ‘No such him want to leave the Catholic thing shall ever happen to you’ Church. His father was horrified: (16:22). And Jesus answered him: “Don’t forget that the Church is ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are the Church of Jesus Christ. He an obstacle (skandalon) to me.’ (v. founded it. He guides it. And he 23). He, who by the gift of God guarantees that it will always teach can be solid rock, on his own is a the truth.” Human beings “are not stone along the road which will the Church. They are people in the cause the foot to stumble.”

Church. Half the bishops, monsiJesus also entrusted Peter with

Judge For Yourself

the power of the keys: “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Mt 16:19). “The power of binding and loosing,” said Cardinal Ratzinger, “means essentially the supreme authority entrusted in Peter to the Church of forgiving sins. It seems to me that this is a matter of the greatest importance. The grace of forgiveness stands at the very heart of the new ministry which takes away the power of the forces of destruction. It is this grace which establishes the Church. The Church is established on forgiveness. Peter himself represents this fact in his own person since he, who can be the holder of the keys, although having fallen into temptation, is also capable of confessing his fault and is restored by means of forgiveness. The Church in her essential being is the place of forgiveness: She is not a community of the perfect, but a community of sinners who need forgiveness and seek it.

“The New Testament does not just hand on documentary proofs [of the Roman primacy] but remains a criterion and a duty. It shows us the tension between the stumbling block and the rock: precisely in the disproportion between human capacities and the divine

plan, God allows himself to be recognized as he who is truly present and at work. If the granting of such supreme authority to men can, in the course of history, continually give rise to the fear of an arbitrary human authority (and not without reason), nevertheless, not only the promise of the New Testament, but also the course of history itself, demonstrates the contrary. The disproportion between men and this office is so striking, so evident, that the very act of conferring on a man this function of being rock makes it clear that it is not these men who sustain the Church, but only he who accomplishes it in spite of men, rather than through them.

“Therefore, with the same realism with which we today admit the faults of the popes, their failure to live up to the greatness of their ministry, we must also recognize that Peter continues to be the rock against ideologies; against the reduction of the Word to what is plausible in a given age; against submission to the powers of this world. The promise made to Peter and its historical realization in Rome thus remain, on the deepest level, a continuous reason for rejoicing: the powers of hell will not prevail against her.”

Dwight Duncan is a professor at Southern New England School of Law in North Dartmouth. He holds degrees in civil and canon law.

8

I

April 23, 2010

The Anchor

Whose voice? The master’s or the Shepherd’s

am probably dating myself but when records were the popular venue for listening to music, the RCA record label had a picture of an old gramophone with a small dog listening to the sound.

The title for this label was called “listening to his master’s voice.”

This Sunday’s Gospel refers to the Good Shepherd, specifically about hearing his voice.

Barbara Brown Taylor discussed the difference between sheep and cows: cows need to be pushed; sheep need to be led. She mentioned this because some people disliked being regarded as sheep. Maybe these people never encountered the shepherd.

The relationship between the shepherd and the sheep can best be described as exclusive.

They have a language all their own. The shepherd knows the

difference between bleats of J.S. Whale said “Jesus is pain versus those of well-bewhat God means by human … ing. A whistle can mean food Jesus is what humanity means or that it’s time to go home.

by God.” The knowledge of the Sheep know their security is Father and Son is not simply in the hands of the shepherd. He can walk through the flock Homily of the Week and the sheep will not move; let a stranger Fourth Sunday do it and the result of Easter would be pandemoBy Deacon nium.

James M. Barrett Jr. Jesus uses the example of the shepherd when referring to himself. “I know my sheep. about one another or merely I call them by name.” Who the knowledge of an acquaindoes not like being called by tance. Rather it is an intimacy name? He wants his people to of love and this love is shared know how secure they are in with us. Jesus shares with us his hands. Jesus talks of the his divinity and humanity. He knowledge of his flock and shares our pain, our loneliness, their knowledge of him. He our weakness, our happiness, compares this knowledge to and our joys. that which he and the Father We matter to Jesus perhave of each other. sonally. He is the God of all

humanity. He is the Good Shepherd.

He is our shepherd and he hears our call as we should hear his. As we go through life at times with all that goes on around us we have difficulty hearing God calling us by name. The voice of the master we pay attention to now is found in voice mails, ipods, cell phones, and texting.

These tools have their uses, but one of them is not to govern our very existence. With all this worldly noise we need to work at hearing our name called. We need to work at listening. Silence, I believe has become a lost art.

To be silent is important for it is in this silence we get to hear God. When we make this choice to listen — and — we do have this choice — it is

here we often hear God ask us to serve him and his people.

These words from the hymn of David Haas “You Are Mine” speak the Shepherd’s words: “I will come to you in silence.

I will lift you of all you fear.

You will hear my voice. I claim you as my choice. Be still and know I am here. Do not be afraid I am with you. I have called you each by name.

Come follow me. I will bring you home. I love you and you are mine.”

This Sunday is also World Prayer Day for Vocations.

We not only need to pray for vocations but we need to encourage vocations. We need more shepherds. Please pray for vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and religious life.

God bless.

Deacon Barrett serves at Our Lady of Victory Parish in Centerville.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Apr. 24, Acts 9:31-42; Ps 116:12-17; Jn 6:60-69. Sun. Apr. 25, Fourth Sunday of Easter, Acts 13:14,43-52; Ps 100:1-2,3,5; Rv 7:9,14b-17; Jn 10:27-30. Mon. Apr. 26, Acts 11:1-18; Ps 42:2-3;3-4; Jn 10:1-10. Tues. Apr. 27, Acts 11:19-26; Ps 87:1b-7; Jn 10: 22-30. Wed. Apr. 28, Acts 12:2413:5a; Ps 67:2-3,5-6,8; Jn 12:44-50. Thur. Apr. 29, Acts 13:13-25; Ps 89:2-3,21-22,25,27; Jn 13:16-20. Fri. Apr. 30, Acts 13:26-33; Ps 2:6-11b; Jn 14:1-6.

I

t was virtually inevitable that the media firestorm over Benedict XVI’s handling of sexually abusive clerics — even if the insinuations against the pope were unsubstantiated and unfair — would spill backwards toward the late John Paul II. It was also inevitable that the point of attack would be John Paul’s endorsement of the work of Father Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, a religious congregation that enjoyed considerable papal favor during John Paul’s pontificate.

Since John Paul II died, it has become clear that Maciel led a double-life of moral dissolution for decades, fathering out-of-wedlock children, sexually abusing seminarians,

Money, scandal, and Rome

and violating the sacrament of When the extraordinary penance. The abuse charges range of Maciel’s perfidies were known during John became known, Benedict XVI Paul’s time, but the pope did ordered an apostolic visitation not believe them; he may have of the Legionaries, which has thought them the by-product been completed. Strong meaof tawdry Mexican politics (politics and ecclesiastical politics). In the last months of John Paul’s life, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger re-opened

By George Weigel an investigation into Maciel’s affairs; in 2006 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the sures, one hopes, will now be Faith “invited” Maciel, no taken to address Maciel’s sins longer head of the Legionand crimes, to deal with anyone aries, to a “reserved life of in the Legion who may have prayer and penance” with no aided him in his double-life, public ministry. This amountand to save the good that can ed to ecclesiastical house arbe saved from the Legion and rest; Maciel died in 2008. its lay affiliate organization, Regnum Christi. That salvage job will require a definitive break with the past, and with the Maciel mythology that was a large part of his power.

Maciel was well-known for spreading money all over Rome, as Jason Berry has recently written in the National Catholic Reporter.

Some Catholics may find it shocking that envelopes of cash were left in the papal apartment. But the fact is that a great many people give money to the pope: visiting bishops, heads of religious

The Catholic Difference

orders, Catholic organizations, etc. As John Paul died with virtually no worldly goods, no plausible charge can be made that he personally benefited from Maciel’s “generosity”; and as these things work, the money was likely given to the late pope’s secretary, Stanislaw Dziwisz, now cardinal archbishop of Cracow.

Dziwisz often gave cash to poor bishops and others he sensed were in financial need; perhaps some of Maciel’s money went in this direction. A good novelist might even create a scenario in which Dziwisz used money from Maciel and others to fund underground Solidarity clandestinely during the martial law period in Poland in the early 1980s.

The immediate temptation, to which Ross Douthat unhappily succumbed in the April 12 New York Times, is to conclude that these monetary gifts “explain” John Paul II’s support for the Legionaries of Christ and for Maciel. Prudent analysts will resist that temptation. John Paul and Dziwisz were badly deceived by Maciel. So were many other people, including hundreds of high-ranking churchmen, his own religious community,

a lot of very wealthy and presumably astute Mexicans and Americans — in fact, people all over the world.

Falling prey to this deception constituted a failure in the late pope’s governance, objectively. But this failure was neither willful (he knew something was awry and did nothing about it), nor venal (he was “bought”), nor malicious (he knew what was going on, and didn’t care), and thus doesn’t call into question John Paul II’s heroic virtue. Nobody ever “bought” Karol Wojtyla with money, in which he had zero interest since his days as a manual laborer in Nazioccupied Cracow.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger politely and firmly declined Maciel’s gifts; whatever effect Maciel’s money may have had on others in the Roman Curia ought to be investigated as the apostolic visitation of the Legion of Christ is brought to a conclusion. Having spent more than two decades studying the life of John Paul II, however, it seems to me utterly implausible that the late pope’s failure to read Marcial Maciel correctly had anything to do with money.

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

April 23, 2010

Can we talk?

that in Japan, gift-wrappings 23 April 2010 — waiting are important because they are around in Philadelphia Internaconsidered part of the gift. The tional Airport — St. George Day wrappings show the affection of was sitting in my most comfortable chair, sipping coffee the gift-giver towards the giftrecipient. If I were living in Japan, and reading the morning papers.

The newspapers contained several and not in The Dightons, these wrappings would be sending me a articles pillorying the Catholic Church. One newspaper carried a front-page article about some pastor who had demanded Pope Reflections of a Benedict resign forthwith.

Parish Priest I’m sure the priest is well intentioned, but what in

By Father Tim the world is he thinking?

Goldrick What is going on in the Church I love? I wish I knew. I just shook my head, put down the newspaper and message. Maybe they are anyway.

My first reaction was that the left to celebrate morning Mass.

Following Mass, I walked over gift must be intended for somebody else. It must have been to my office. There on my desk placed on the wrong desk. Then was a beautifully wrapped packI saw the card and the envelope age. Somebody took a lot of care with the presentation. I understand with my name on it. I was even

I

The Ship’s Log

T

9

The Anchor more confused. Why was I being given a gift?

My mother taught me never to open a gift without first reading the card. I did as my mother taught me. The card read, “To our Priest, with appreciation. Thank you for the way you tenderly care for your parish. You have blessed us with your words and with your thoughtful ways.”

Some of the regulars at morning Mass had signed the card. It was a random act of kindness.

I opened the package. It contained a lovely framed image of St. John Vianney, recently named patron saint of all priests. It was the nicest picture of St. John Vianney I had ever seen. Usually he looks like “death warmed over,” as they say. The priest who preached the Taunton Deanery Lenten Mission explained to me one night in the

Wading through the scandal

then the entire Catholic Church he media is absorbed is ipso facto without credibility with the question of our or authority.

Church and sexual abuse, and Honest journalism is careful each day offers a wide range of to distinguish between defiopinions on what the tea leaves cient structures and corrupt indicate. What did Benedict personalities, though we simknow? What did local bishops ply don’t know all the facts. do? Is our faith itself deficient The key year to remember is in the face of such evil?

Despite the inevitable feelings of helplessness or frustration, the lay faithful have a key role to play in the unfolding of this drama. Although we

By Genevieve Kineke may think that we are “on the sidelines,” so to speak, our task is 2001, when the accusations actually one of active particiwere streamlined into one pation. Our response should be office — the Congregation for study and meditation, illumithe Doctrine of the Faith — nated by prayer and sacrifice. and subject to a more rigorous We begin with the simple response. Whatever deficienacademic exercise concerning cies had allowed for ineffectual what our faith teaches about responses and dodgy accountchastity. Does our faith enability were quickly curtailed. dorse or excuse in any way the The prayer required at this behavior of abusers (or those point should take the worst who facilitated abuse)? Of course not. Jesus Christ excori- of the information (which is, sadly, a reflection of our fallen ated those who would damage nature) and meditate on it in children in any way, and the light of our absolute need for Church he founded has firm the sacraments and catechesis. teachings against such actions.

Our Lord left us the EuchaIf clergymen of any rank failed rist and other essential chanto protect children, it was not nels of grace, along with the by clinging to religion, for commandment to teach each nothing in the Catholic faith subsequent generation about can provide such a refuge. his life, death and resurrecSecondly, there is the more tion. Historically, that has been confusing explanation of what done around the world through episcopal structures allowed the laying on of hands and the abuse to go unchecked and gathering of local communichildren to remain in danger. ties. Prayerfully, we may well Many in the media seem to ascertain that no scandal can think that if they can find a keep us from the sacraments smoking gun — a wicked which foster God’s life in our prelate or a complicit office —

The Feminine Genius

soul. They operate independently of the ministers and sustain us in the face of trials.

Simply, we cannot abandon that which Christ died to give us.

Finally, we must bring two brutally frank realities to the discussion. First, sin has to be named for what it is and the corruption of innocence is sinful — whether it takes place in a confessional or a classroom, by a priest, a family member or a media outlet. The outrage against those who abused our trust has to be equally applied to the entertainment industry, the educational establishment, and any other structures that undermine the purity of our children.

Secondly, in the end, those who suffer must eventually forgive those who harmed them. This doesn’t preclude justice — either human or divine, or our push for vigilance or the need for crystal-clear accountability. But when the time is right, through forgiveness, even the most gravely harmed will understand that Christ was outraged by their abuse — especially that hidden behind the very means through which he ministers to us — and that only the Church can provide the supernatural solace which can truly set them free.

Mrs. Kineke is the author of “The Authentic Catholic Woman” (Servant Books) and associate editor of woman. catholicexchange.com.

sacristy of St. Andrew the Apostle Church that this was because St. John Vianney would not allow any photographs during his lifetime.

After his death, however, a plaster cast was made of his face. No wonder St. John Vianney always looked like death warmed over.

The man was dead at the time.

Before this Year For Priests, I had known only a few basic facts about St. John Vianney. I have been reading more about his life.

I am especially interested in the accounts of how the Curé d’Ars was often tormented by Satan.

The accounts include Satan making loud noises and throwing the rectory furniture around. St. John Vianney took this as a sign that something good was about to happen. Perhaps a “big fish,” as he called recalcitrant penitents, was about to seek out the sacrament of reconciliation. The saint was delighted at the possibilities, and brushed away Satan’s terrorist antics as one would a pesky gnat.

Once I was chatting at a dinner party with my friend Arthur, a Jewish scholar and mystic. He said that we Christians make too big a deal out of the power of Satan. He reminded me that Satan, aka Beelzebub, is “Lord of the Flies.” Satan is not some unbeatable enemy, but rather prince of the gnats, fruit flies, and mosquitoes. Satan is an annoyance. Swat the little devil.

The morning newspaper, the wisdom of my Jewish friend, and the picture of St. John Vianney melded in my mind. I know what’s going on. Satan is actively at work

against the Church, only now he doesn’t throw the furniture around.

He uses other tactics. Satan is using the mortal sins of renegade priests as a weapon against the Church. Satan is on the warpath.

This means that, according to St. John Vianney, an unexpected grace is about to come upon the Church.

It means we are about to see something hugely beneficial.

A special place in hell awaits that handful of priests who have despicably and unrepentantly abused children. This also applies to Scout leaders, coaches, teachers, etc., who have done the same.

They must be prosecuted in this life to the full extent of the law.

Prison will be nothing compared to their punishment in the next life. Victims must be assisted to overcome their long-festering wounds. Overseers must be held accountable, within the milieu in which their management decisions were made. Remember that not so long ago, psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers themselves were clueless as to the causes of the abuse of children.

We are experiencing Satan’s latest volley. We are now and so remain the strongest voice of morals and ethical behavior in the world. We need to continue the discussion. Satan, be afraid. Be very afraid. When sin, injustice and scandal have been addressed, the Church will grow.

Can we talk?

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

St. Brendan’s Parish

384 Hartford Ave., Bellingham, MA Sat., 1 May 2010• 508-966-9802

9:30 am

Church Hall: Fatima Video Presentation.

10:40 am

Church: Procession of Our Lady. Angelus. Crowning Ceremony. Sung Litany of Loreto. The Five Joyful Mysteries.

11:40 am Mass of Our Lady: Main Celebrant and Preacher, Fr. Dominic, FI. 12:45 pm Lunch break (please bring bag lunch). Bookstore will be open.

1:45 pm Exposition and Procession of the Blessed Sacrament.

2:05 pm Sermon on Our Lady by Fr. Raphael, FI. Silent Adoration.

2:35 pm “Via Lucis” (a Meditation on Our Blessed Lord). The Five Glorious Mysteries 3:30 pm

Act of Consecration. Benediction. Procession of Our Lady.

4:05 pm

Church Hall: Enrollment in the Brown Scapular and Conferment of Miraculous Medal.

- Confessions available throughout the day - Finish approx 4:20 pm Wheelchair accessible SELECTION OF VENUES FOR 2010: Saturday, 5 Jun 2010 Our Lady of Grace, Westport, MA Saturday, 3 July 2010 St. Lawrence Church, New Bedford, MA Saturday, 7 Aug 2010 St. Patrick’s Somerset, MA Saturday, 4, Sep 2010 St. Francis Xavier, Acushnet, MA

10

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff TAUNTON — For Mary Melo, every day is a gift from God. So it only makes sense that she spends all of her days giving something back to him.

“If I don’t go to Mass, it’s not a day for me,” said Melo, a daily communicant and parishioner at St. Anthony’s Parish, Taunton.

When she first immigrated here

The Anchor

April 23, 2010

Leading by example from the Azores in 1955, the then19-year-old Melo went straight to work in a factory. But it didn’t take long before she became involved with her new parish.

“It only took about a year before I became involved with the parish and I’ve been active ever since,” she said.

Active may be an understatement for someone like Melo.

Her pastor, Father Henry S. Ar-

ruda, described her as “one of the Well, I decided to follow Jesus and More recently, Melo has been singularly most dedicated parish- do what he wants of me. I think the involved in keeping the parish St. ioners” he knows and said she is Holy Spirit answered for me.”

Vincent de Paul Society afloat, a vital part of the “spiritual life of Admitting she was initially hes- previously serving as its president the parish.” itant to get involved with the Char- for seven years and now as treaBut it hasn’t always been easy ismatic Movement, Melo soon surer. for Melo. Stricken with polio sensed there was something to it.

“The members of the St. Vinwhen she was just three-and-a-half “They brought out of me what cent de Paul Society were getting years old, she learned to bear her I wanted everyone else to feel,” old, and they couldn’t do much own cross at an early age.

Melo said. “Before everything else anymore,” she said. “I asked some “I couldn’t walk for a period. I was for me. With the Charismat- people to get involved and then I couldn’t play with kids my age,” ics, you want to spread the word started to go a few months later. she said. “In the Azores, my par- of God, you want others to feel It’s been working very well.” ents had a big house. There was what you feel. I think they’ve been In order to keep things going a huge round table in the dining a blessing to our parish and to the she’s even recruited two of her room. My dad would take me and Catholic Church.” grandsons as the society’s newest hold me up, because back then The Holy Spirit also seemed to members. there was no physical ther“It’s very sad that a lot apy. That’s how I learned to of parishes don’t even have walk again.” some of these organizaWith the love and suptions anymore,” she said. port of her parents and the “We have to do more to get grace of God, Melo was young people involved with soon walking again and folthe Church.” lowing a lifelong path that Of all her volunteer efled to her local church. forts, Melo said she’s most “When I started to walk proud of ministering to the again, I started to go to sick and dying as part of the church everyday,” she said. parish’s pastoral care pro“My elderly neighbors gram. would stop by the house and “I enjoy being with the I would go with them — it sick and bringing them wasn’t too far.” holy Communion,” she Melo said she gets her said. “I enjoy being at the courage from the Eucharist bedside of someone who and she firmly believes that is dying, to encourage the Lord wanted her to walk them that the Lord is meragain. It was all part of his ciful and he’s waiting to plan. welcome them with open “God has blessed me in arms.” so many different ways,” Melo beams with pride she said. “Not for me but for looking over photos of her the honor and glory of God, family — her two daughters whatever I put my mind to Anchor person of the week — Mary Melo. and her three grandsons. do, I can do it — whether She laughs when asked it’s sewing, painting, or flower ar- be working through Melo when what her family thinks about her rangements in the church. I enjoy she helped revive the traditional involvement with the parish. everything I do.”

Holy Ghost Domingas in the par“Before we got married, I Today the vibrant 74-year-old ish. warned my husband: ‘You know still relies on a cane to steady her“We had two beautiful Holy I’m very involved in the Church,’” self, but that hasn’t stopped her Ghost crowns locked in the church she said. “He’s not as active as I from getting involved with the closet and we only brought them am, but he helps me and he gives parish St. Vincent de Paul Society, out to carry in the procession dur- me his blessing.” teaching first- and second-grade ing St. Anthony’s Feast,” Melo Melo believes God chose a Religious Education classes, serv- explained. “I asked the pastor then path for her that day when she first ing as an extraordinary minister of if we could bring the tradition of learned to walk again, and it’s a holy Communion, acting as a lec- the Holy Ghost Domingas back path she’s determined to keep foltor at daily and weekend Masses, to the parish. He didn’t want any lowing. and being involved with the parish more feast committees, but I asked “Everyday I go to Mass and I Charismatic group, to name just a if I could get the seven families ask the Lord to give me strength in few. together myself. He looked at me my path,” she said. “I think my beBut Melo is quick to point out like I was crazy. But I got 12 fami- ing handicapped has given courage she seldom looks for new activities lies to volunteer. So we started to some people. I’ve heard them — they somehow always seem to having the Domingas again. Then say to me: ‘My goodness, if you find her. when Father Arruda came back to can do it, why shouldn’t I?’ I think “One time Father Arruda asked the parish as pastor, I asked him if we all have to encourage people by me to be the leader of the Charis- we could expand it and we formed example.” matic group,” she said. “He said, a committee and now we have the To nominate a Person of the ‘You don’t have to give me an annual Holy Ghost Feast with the Week, email a message to Fatheranswer today. Just think about it.’ procession.”

RogerLandry@anchornews.org.

The Anchor

April 23, 2010

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Family Ministry Office recognizes volunteers Longtime program directors, Scottie and Jerry Foley, announce retirement B y Kenneth J. Souza A nchor Staff NORTH DARTMOUTH — Although the 74 people present at the Diocesan Office of Family Ministry annual recognition banquet last weekend at the Hawthorne Country Club only represented a little more than one-third of the 172 volunteers who serve various familial ministries throughout the diocese, Father Greg Mathias, Family Ministry Office director, wished to express his appreciation to all those who make their work possible.

“It may be safe to say that no one appreciates your ministry more than we do,” Father Mathias said. “We are blessed with people who reach out to support diocesan families in all stages of the life cycle — through the good times and the difficult. You continually respond to the invitation of Jesus to ‘come follow me.’”

Noting that the collective volunteers have an estimated 1,027 years of combined experience among them and have donated more than 12,170 hours of service during the year to the six different ministries under the office’s purview, Father Mathias said it would cost close to $100,000 annually just to compensate their efforts at minimum wage levels.

“We wish we had that kind of money,” Father Mathias said. “You are worth so much more.”

As a way of offering a collective “thank you” to these essential volunteers, Father Mathias along with Office of Family Ministry program directors Jerry and Scottie Foley and Bishop George W. Coleman publicly recognized their important contributions to such ministries as Marriage Preparation, Preparation for Remarriage, Natural Family Planning, the Divorced and Separated Support Group, Parish Family Ministry, and RAINBOWS, an outreach for children who have experienced loss through death or divorce.

While the various ministries cover a wide array of topics, Bishop Coleman noted how they are all essentially linked to the sacrament of marriage.

“The future of humanity depends on marriage and the family,” Bishop Coleman said.

“Every one of you is involved

in talking about, teaching about, and living out marriage in one way or another. Everything you do — all of the accomplishments recognized this evening — is focused on marriage. Thank you all for your service to the Church and to our local Diocese of Fall River.”

Bishop Coleman presented nine Outstanding Service Awards to key volunteers who have been instrumental in helping specific diocesan-wide programs under the Family Ministry Office thrive in recent years. Among the recipients of this honor: — Arleen Booker, who first established the Taunton area RAINBOWS program at Our Lady of Lourdes School in 1998 and continues to oversee this important ministry to children who are grieving due to the loss of a parent through death or divorce; — John and Celina Dellamorte, for overseeing and teaching four-month Natural Family Planning classes as part of the diocesan Marriage Preparation program, offering lessons in English and Spanish; — Joanne Dupre and Bob Menard, who have jointly led and administered the New Bedford area Divorced and Separated Support group for the past 18 years; — Mary Ann Eaton, who has been affiliated with the South Yarmouth- and Mashpee-based Cape Cod area Divorced and Separated Support groups for the past 30 years; — Deacon Tino and Celia Pires, who have led the Portuguese-speaking Marriage Preparation program in the diocese; — Deacon David and Rosemary Akin, who have been involved with the Cape Cod Marriage Preparation team for the past 25 years, serving as team leaders for the last 20 years; — Ron and Mary Dupuis, who founded the diocesan Remarriage Preparation program and have served as its leaders for the last 15 years; — Todd and Betsy Johnston, longtime members of the Attleboro area Marriage Preparation team, serving as team leaders for the last six years; and — Ken and Jeannine Pacheco, who worked on the Turn to page 20

FAMILY PLANNERS — Fall River Diocesan Office of Family Ministry program directors Scottie and Jerry Foley, center, pose with Bishop George W. Coleman and Father Greg Mathias, director, during the annual volunteer recognition banquet held at Hawthorne Country Club last weekend. The Foleys announced their plans to retire next month after nearly 30 years of service. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

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The Anchor

April 23, 2010

Correspondence with Christ is the key

F

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, April 25 at 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Rodney E. Thibault, chaplain at St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford

rom the last column, it is designed to fit the hustandard. He asked, “Why do you’ll remember Monthey believe their reason when man heart. “For, after all,” our signor Ronald Knox as the friend Knox confides in us, it tells them a thing is untrue, homilist at Hilaire Belloc’s “the rule of man’s conduct is but will not use it to find out funeral. Knox was ordained written in his own heart. Neiwhether a thing is true — to as an Anglican priest in 1912, find out, for example, whether ther Catholicism or any other but he was not destined to stay a God exists?” form of Christianity pretends long. While studying at Eton to have a special morality of Knox possessed a fine College at age 16, he read its own; religion is meant to sense of humor and displayed a new novel that captivated enforce, not to supersede, the an unusual gift for satire. He his imagination and haunted wrote satires of Sherlock Hol- natural code of morals.” his thoughts. He became I’ve often noted in this mes and created a prank radio an ardent fan of its author, space the interconnectedness broadcast called “Broadcastan author who worked on of these Catholic thinkers ing from the Barricades,” in his theological imagination we’ve been chatting about, consistently until his the way in which influence came to it’s their fecundity seems inevitable conclusion: to spring up from Knox was received relationships as much into the Roman Cathas from their own, olic Church in 1917 individual and prodiand was ordained gious talents. It was

By Jennifer Pierce a Catholic priest in Knox who explained 1918. The book he this phenomenon read was “The Napoto me. Knox realleon of Notting Hill” and the which he broadcast a mock re- ized that the goal of feeding author was none other than our Catholic brains was not port of a revolution sweeping our friend G.K. Chesterton, simply to complete ourselves London. He included alleged the subject of this column but to seek correspondence, live reports of lynchings and four weeks ago. Writing of to find relationship, and to a mortar attack on the Savoy Chesterton’s influence, Knox deepen connection; he exHotel. A minor panic ensued penned: “In regard to orthoas there was a snow-storm that plained to me that in seeking doxy, my views when I left correspondence with each left people unable to get to Eton were orthodox above the the newspapers until after the other (through intellect first, average; my oracle was G.K. and heart second) we are weekend — it’s been noted Chesterton, he is so still.” seeking the ultimate correthat the cleverness of Knox’s Like his oracle, he also spondence which is the corsham report was the inspirawrote detective novels, and respondence of our heart with tion for Orson Welles similar even wrote a guide to writing the Sacred Heart: “the goal of device in the now famous mystery stories, laying out the “War of the Worlds” broadcast ordinary human love,” Knox Ten Commandments of mysexplained, “is not identity in 1938. tery fiction. Mystery, in all but correspondence. And it is Perhaps Knox’s most its forms, intrigued these men in complete correspondence scholarly contribution was and they not only felt drawn between his heart and the his translation of St. Jerome’s to it, but into it, and took heart of Jesus that the Chris“Vulgate” into idiomatic great delight in the application English, and was the main tian looks forward to that full of logic to them; for one thing translation used in the lection- fruition of love, which is hope unites Knox and Chesterton in ary from 1965 to 1970. It was for eternity. Mystical union is paradox: Catholicism was the noted for its freshness, humor, not the drop falling into the most mysterious and mystical stream, but the key fitting into and sometimes has been of religions, one that required the lock.” called “racy” — which all belief in ritual and unseen Jennifer Pierce is a paseems characteristic of Knox. forces, supernatural occurHe exudes an unwavering cer- rishioner of Corpus Christi rences, transubstantiation, in East Sandwich, where she tainty that religion is for man and mystic reconciliations. It lives with her husband Jim and not the other way around. was not, however, a rejection and two daughters.

Catholicism works because of reason. On the contrary, both men believed deeply that reason fortified belief and that belief was reasonable.

Knox’s spiritual writMASHPEE — A story on the successful Catholics Returning ing reflected this worldview Home program at Christ the King Parish that invites non-practicclearly and with what one of ing Catholics to return to the faith, erroneously placed the prohis biographers called “the gram and pastor Msgr. Daniel F. Hoye at another parish further wine of certitude.” At a time down the Cape. when many people began to The Anchor and story author Jim Dunbar profoundly regret hold up vague understandthe error. ings of Catholic teaching as a The third and newest Catholics Returning Home series of five flight from reason into irratioweekly informal sessions on Tuesdays will begin on May 4 and nality, Knox addressed these continue until June 1, from 7 to 8:30 p.m., in Christ the King Pararguments with characteristic ish Hall in Mashpee. common sense and a calm auAll Catholics, no matter how long they have been away and no thority that comes from a man matter the reason, are welcome in the program. who has embraced reason and For more information call 508-477-7700 or go to www.christnot fled from it. To Knox, this thekingparish.com. kind of thinking was a double-

Great Catholic Thinkers

Catholics Returning Home is at Christ the King Parish

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The Anchor

April 23, 2010

New parish to be dedicated May 22

Helping parents and teachers respond to same-sex attraction

continued from page one

continued from page one

also be utilized. St. Stephen’s Cemetery in Dodgeville will be part of the parish as well.

For many months, the Parish Founding Task Force, comprised of parishioners of St. Stephen’s and St. Mary’s, has been meeting and it was their recommendation that the parishes merge to become one vibrant parish.

The task force also recommended the new name, declaring, in a message in both parish bulletins, “The dedication of our new parish to Our Lady Queen of Martyrs honors the Mother of Jesus in one of her many roles. Queen of Martyrs primarily remembers Mary’s presence at the foot of the cross — her living martyrdom — as her Son was crucified. For those of us in the local Church of Attleboro, Seekonk, and Rehoboth, Our Lady Queen of Martyrs connects our future to the long history of our current parishes. In suggesting the name, many parishioners connected Mary to St. Stephen the first martyr.”

All aspects of parish life have been discussed and planned out for the new parish, including the St. Vincent de Paul Societies, greeters, ushers, lectors, extraordinary ministers of holy Communion, and Religious Education programs.

Tom Nunan, a member of St. Stephen’s Parish is on the Parish Founding Task Force. “I’m very hopeful that everyone comes together in a renewed faith community,” he told The Anchor.

“It’s our hope that people know that we are one faith, one Church, one discipleship with Christ as the center.

“It would be nice to see the Masses filled and the new parish be an active one. There is some pain and some emptiness that comes with the closing of the two parishes and the emergence of a new one, but we can feel better about the new faith community bringing their talents together and not feeling isolated and struggling to get by.”

Paul Hodge is a St. Mary’s representative on the Parish Founding Task Force and shared Nunan’s hopes for the future. “Our hope is we can realize that as two communities that are suffering the loss and dying of a parish, we are faith-filled and hope-filled people who will join together and lift each other,” he told The Anchor.

“For every Good Friday comes an Easter Sunday, and the spirit of the St. Stephen’s parishioners will join with that of St. Mary’s and make Our Lady Queen of Martyrs a spirit-filled community sharing our charisms. We pray the fire of Pentecost will fill our new parish community.”

Several special events have been planned for the closure of the two parishes and the dawn of the new one.

There will be a closing liturgy at St. Stephen’s Church on May 16 at 11 a.m. That same day will be the final Mass of St. Mary’s Parish at the church at 11:30 a.m.

Later that day, at 1 p.m., there will be a joint parish closing ceremony at St. Mary’s Parish Center.

On the evening of May 18, there will be a joint parish remembering ceremony, again at the parish center.

Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Parish will be officially dedicated and established at the 4 p.m.

Mass on May 22 at the former St. Mary’s Church.

“This is an exciting time,” said Father Rita. “The preparation for this has been a nostalgic trip tracing our common origins, and now we’ll be coming together literally. Everyone involved has been very cooperative.

“We look forward to carrying on the legacy of both parishes as a new community into the future.

It’s an opportunity to move into the future with an excited community of faith. Combining our talents will make a stronger parish. To those who are hesitant to join the new parish, Father Rita says, “I hope they come along and join their fellow parishioners. Nothing but good is going to come from this.”

“I am very pleased with the way our merge with St. Mary’s has gone,” Father Morse told The Anchor. “In the beginning there was a lot of negative feelings among the parishioners but the majority have grieved the loss of St. Stephen’s Church appropriately. They have become a part of the excitement and challenge associated with creating a new parish. I know they will be actively involved in creating the new faith community of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs. There are some parishioners who are still struggling with the loss of St. Stephen’s Church and they will need more time to resolve these painful feelings. We all need sufficient time and caring support to adjust to major changes in our life.”

St. Stephen’s, once a mission of St. Joseph’s Parish of Pawtucket, then in the Providence Diocese, was formally made a parish by Bishop Hendricken in 1885.

St. Stephen’s and St. Mary’s parishes have been connected since the early 20th century. They were twin parishes, serving twin communities. In 1906, St. Mary’s Church was built for non-Frenchspeaking Catholics, forming a new parish.

out as gay’ and be ‘affirmed,’ there is a serious risk of erroneously labeling students (who may merely be experiencing transient sexual confusion and/ or engaging in sexual experimentation),” it said.

The letter added that it is not a school’s role to diagnose a student’s medical condition or “affirm” a student’s perceived sexual orientation.

The American College of Pediatricians, a non-profit formed in 2002, is dedicated to the health and well-being of children, who deserve to be “reared in the best possible family environment.”

Its website states, “The American College of Pediatricians was created by doctors who were concerned that social consensus was driving the recommendations of many medical organizations, rather than sound research and time-honored standards. Of particular concern was the downplaying of the importance of the twoparent, mother-father, family unit in the healthy development of the child, and the increasing disregard for the intrinsic value of human life, from conception to natural death.”

On its FactsAboutYouth.com website, the ACP said that some organizations have pressured schools to teach that homosexuality is a normal, immutable trait that should be validated during childhood.

In January 2008, 13 organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, released a misleading brochure entitled “Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth.

Like the ACP’s Facts website, the brochure recognizes that experimentation is a normal part of adolescence. The brochure, however, encourages educators to treat heterosexual and homosexual expression equally and warns that any mention of sexual orientation conversion therapy “seems likely” to increase fear for homosexual students.

On its Facts website, the ACP refutes the brochure’s claims, noting that the entire handout is based on statements of its sponsor organizations, not studies.

The ACP asserts that change therapy can be effective for some individuals. Homosexual attraction is influenced by familial, environmental and social influences, and for some individuals genetic traits may play a role. The website quotes Dr. Francis Collins, director of the Genome Project, who said sexual orientation is “genetically influenced but not hardwired

by DNA, and that whatever

genes are involved represent predispositions, not predeterminations.”

In its catechism, the Catholic Church says that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered,” and “under no circumstances can they be approved.” Persons experiencing same-sex attraction are called to chastity.

The Facts website agrees that sexual activity, no matter an individual’s sexual orientation, is a choice — one that carries serious health risks outside of a monogamous relationship.

Sexual relationships between members of the same sex put individuals at greater risk for health problems, particularly because fewer homosexual relationships are monogamous.

One study found that two-thirds of gay couples reported sex outside the relationship within the first year.

Adolescents who identify themselves as “gay” experience higher rates of sexually transmitted infections, substance abuse and depression than their peers. The website contends that delaying such labeling reduces medical and psychiatric health risks. The 1991 study “Risk factors for attempted suicide in gay and bisexual youth” found that adolescents who defer “coming out as gay” decrease the risk of suicide at a rate of 20 percent for each year they delay self-labeling as homosexual or bisexual.

In order to protect the teens in their schools, administrators need to provide an environment that teaches the value of each individual student. Students also need to learn about the physical and mental health risks of sexual activity.

Schools should not encourage the formation of on-campus clubs that promote unhealthy lifestyles, like homosexuality, the Facts website added.

Many public schools in Massachusetts have GayStraight Alliance groups, a phenomenon that started in the Commonwealth.

They organize field trips to gay pride parades and an annual “Day of Silence” when students “spend the day in a mute expression of the silencing effect of in-

tolerance.” This year’s national “Day of Silence” was held April 16.

A governor’s commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth was formed in 1992 and was replaced by the Massachusetts Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth in 2006. The commission makes recommendations about policies and programs supporting gay, lesbian and bisexual youth. Information about the commission as well as advice for students who want to start Gay-Straight Alliance groups at their schools can be found on the website of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Since same-sex marriage was legalized in the Commonwealth, parents have reported that their children, some in elementary school, have been exposed to books about same-sex romantic relationships, conversations about transgendered individuals and the “coming out” of their fellow students and teachers.

School officials in several locations have refused to notify parents before such incidents occur. Federal judges dismissed a lawsuit brought by parents against a Lexington school.

The Massachusetts Family Institute hopes that the Facts About Youth website will provide parents and educators with important insight on same-sex attraction in adolescence and the harm that can be done in normalizing homosexual behavior.

“It is absolutely critical that adults and teens understand the information that’s contained in this website and all the research that’s been done that refutes the idea that people are born to be homosexual,” Evelyn Reilly, director of public policy for MFI, told The Anchor. “We are looking for a way to communicate this insight which we feel is essential and life-saving.”

14

The Catholic Response

April 23, 2010

USCCB secretariat offers 10 tips to prevent sexual abuse of minors

Abuse scandal painful, but doing penance leads to grace, pope says VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Recognizing the sins of priests who have sexually abused children, performing penance and asking for forgiveness, the Catholic Church trusts that God will purify and transform the Church, Pope Benedict XVI said.

“I must say that we Christians, even in recent times, have often avoided the word ‘penance,’ which seemed too harsh to us. Now, under the attacks of the world that speaks to us of our sins, we see that being able to do penance is a grace,” the pope said April 15 in a homily during a Mass with members of the Pontifical Biblical Commission.

“We see how it is necessary to do penance, that is, to recognize what is mistaken in our life,” he said during the morning Mass in the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace.

Audio clips and a transcript of part the pope’s homily, delivered without a prepared text, were posted on the Vatican Radio Web site.

The pope said Christians know that “to open oneself to forgiveness, to prepare oneself for forgiveness, to allow oneself to be transformed, the pain of penance — that is to say of purification and of transformation — this pain is grace, because it is renewal, and it is the work of divine mercy.”

In his homily, the pope also spoke about the liberating effect of obeying God, even in a world that likes to pretend that freedom means doing whatever the

individual wants to do, but still insists on everyone conforming to what the majority believes and does.

Without a reference to God and to God’s will for his creation, the final arbiter of right and wrong becomes majority rule or the dictates of the most powerful, he said.

“The Nazi dictatorship, the Marxist dictatorship” in the 1900s were examples of regimes that could not stand the idea of God’s primacy, he said.

Fortunately, he said, such dictatorships do not exist today, but there are subtle forms of pressure on people to conform to a worldly opinion and not to God’s will.

“A conformism under which it becomes obligatory to think as everyone thinks, to act as everyone acts, and the subtle or not so subtle aggression against the Church demonstrate that this conformism really can become a real dictatorship,” he said.

The reason Christians are called to obey God is because they want to enjoy eternal life, the pope said. Unfortunately today, Christians seem embarrassed to talk about the final judgment and eternal life, so instead they focus on the good works and solidarity faith inspires, he said.

The promise of eternal life is also the reason why it is a grace to be able to recognize one’s sins, perform penance, ask pardon and know that God will bring forgiveness and healing, Pope Benedict said.

WASHINGTON — Child sexual abuse can be prevented, although it requires vigilance by adults to make sure it is, according to the head of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection.

To mark Child Abuse Prevention Month, observed each April, Teresa Kettelkamp, executive director of the secretariat, offered 10 tips to prevent abuse and to prevent dismissing the gravity of the abuse if it does occur.

In an announcement listing the tips, Kettelkamp said she developed them after reviewing what the Church has learned in facing the clergy sexual abuse problem.

In 2002, the U.S. bishops adopted the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” in response to reports of clergy sexual abuse of children.

Since then, each April, child protection staff in dioceses nationwide re-examine and publicize efforts for child protection.

The charter mandates safe environment programs be set up in dioceses and parishes and requires an annual audit on how dioceses and religious orders are complying with provisions in the charter.

Kettelkamp’s 10 tips follow: — sexual molestation is about the victim. Many people are affected when a priest abuses a minor, but the individual affected the most is the victim who has suffered a violation of trust that can affect his or her entire life; — no one has the right to have access to children. If people wish to volunteer for the Church, for example, in a parish or school, they must follow diocesan guidelines on background checks, safe environment training, policies and procedures, and codes of conduct. No one, no matter who they are, has an automatic right to be around children or young people who are in the care of the Church without proper screening and without following the rules; — common sense is not all that common. It is naive to presume that people automatically know boundaries, so organizations and families have to spell them out. For example, no youth minister, cleric or other adult leader should be in a child’s bedroom alone with the child; — child sexual abuse can be prevented. Awareness that child sexual abuse exists and can exist anywhere is a start. It is then critical to build safety barriers around children and young people to keep them from harm.

Such barriers include protective guardians, codes of conduct, background evaluations, policies and proce-

dures, and safety training programs; — the residual effects of having been abused can last a lifetime. Those who have been abused seldom “just get over it,” Kettelkamp said. The sense of violation goes deep into a person’s psyche and feelings of anger, shame, hurt and betrayal can build long after the abuse has taken place; — feeling heard leads toward healing. Relief from hurt and anger often comes when one feels heard, when one’s pain and concerns are taken seriously, and a victim/survivor’s appropriate sense of rage and indignation is acknowledged. Not being acknowledged contributes to a victim’s sense of being invisible, unimportant and unworthy; when this happens, victims are in some way “revictimized,” Kettelkamp said; — you cannot always predict who will be an abuser.

Experience shows that most abuse is at the hands of someone who has gained the trust of a victim/survivor and his/her family. Most abuse also occurs in the family setting. Sometimes a person who seems to be the nicest person in the world is an abuser, and this “niceness” creates a false sense of trust between the abuser and the abused; — there are behavioral warning signs of child abusers. Training and education help adults recognize what Kettelkamp called “grooming” techniques that are precursors to abuse. Some abusers isolate a potential victim by giving him or her undue attention or lavish gifts. Another common grooming technique is to allow young people to participate in activities which their parents or guardians would not approve, such as watching pornography, drinking alcohol, using drugs and excessive touching, which includes wrestling and tickling; — people can be taught to identify grooming behavior. Abusers take actions to project the image that they are kind, generous, caring people, while their intent is to lure a minor into an inappropriate relationship.

An abuser may develop a relationship with the family to increase his credibility. Offenders can be patient and may groom their victim, his or her family, or community for years; — background checks work. Background checks in churches, schools and other organizations keep predators away from children both because they scare off some predators and because they uncover past actions which should ban an adult from working or volunteering with children. “Never forget that offenders lie,” said Kettelkamp.

Cardinal: Church sides with victims, sex crimes must be condemned VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Catholic Church is determined not to hide or minimize the “horrible” crime of the sexual abuse of minors by priests, said the head of the Vatican Congregation for Clergy.

Cardinal Claudio Hummes said members of Church “are on the side of the victims and want to support their recovery and their offended rights.”

The cardinal’s comments came in a letter preparing for the conclusion of the Year For Priests, which ends June 11. The letter was published April 12 on the congregation’s Year For Priests website.

Even though a proportionately small number of Catholic priests are guilty of abuse, these “horrible and most serious crimes” must be condemned and admonished “in an absolute and uncompromising manner,” wrote Cardinal Hummes.

“Those individuals must answer

for their actions before God and before tribunals, including the civil courts,” he wrote.

Yet people also should pray that those guilty of abuse “achieve spiritual conversion and receive pardon from God,” the letter said.

“The Church, for her part, is determined neither to hide nor to minimize such crimes,” it said.

However, Cardinal Hummes criticized attempts to “use the crimes of the few in order to sully the entire ecclesial body of priests,” adding that those who did so were committing “a profound injustice.”

The Year For Priests, which Pope Benedict XVI established last year, has been a valuable occasion to give special attention and recognition to “the great, hardworking and irreplaceable presbyterium, and to each individual priest of the Church,” he wrote.

Speaking to priests around

the world, the cardinal said, “The Church loves you, admires you and respects you,” and he reminded them that they have the support of the Catholic faithful, “especially in these times of suffering.”

Cardinal Hummes called on the world’s priests to converge on St. Peter’s Square for the concluding ceremonies of the Year For Priests so as to “show themselves ready and un-intimidated” to serve humanity.

A large and visible presence of priests in the square “will be a proclamation before the modern world of their being sent not to condemn the world, but to save it.”

The cardinal said that the pope has been unjustly attacked for his handling of clerics involved in the sexual abuse of minors because no one has done as much as Pope Benedict “to condemn and combat properly such crimes.”

April 23, 2010

Policies & Procedures of the Fall River Diocese As part of its ongoing abuse prevention efforts and in compliance with the U.S. Bishops’ “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” the Fall River Diocese periodically publishes its policies detailing procedures to be followed when an accusation of sexual abuse of a minor is made against an employee or volunteer of the diocese or a cleric or religious Brother or Sister in the diocese. Please note that the policies & procedures described below have been abridged for this publication. Complete policies and procedures are available for review by contacting Catholic Social Services at 508-674-4681 or cssdioc.org, or by accessing the Diocesan Website, fallriverdiocese.org.

1. INTRODUCTION In an ongoing commitment by the Diocese of Fall River to address the issue of sexual abuse or misconduct with a minor, the Review Board appointed by the Bishop of Fall River was given the task of developing policies and procedures to be followed when dealing with accusations of sexual abuse or misconduct with a minor by any employee or volunteer within Diocesan departments, agencies, apostolates, programs or institutions.

SEXUAL ABUSE PREVENTION POLICIES & PROCEDURES FOR LAY EMPLOYEES/VOLUNTEERS/ SUBCONTRACTORS A. MANDATES 1. Prior to being hired, each prospective Diocesan and parish employee shall complete an informational questionnaire, to be filed with the Director of the local entity or the pastor, where applicable.

2. All volunteers shall complete the volunteer questionnaire. A copy shall be kept on file at the local parish or local Diocesan agency, to be inspected by the Deans at their annual visitation to the parish or by the Directors of the individual agencies of the Diocese.

3. The informational questionnaire for an employee and the volunteer questionnaire for a volunteer shall be updated as needed so that the information is current.

4. An employee/volunteer who may have unmonitored access to children shall be trained by the Office for Child Protection of Catholic Social Services. This training is mandatory and attendance shall be documented.

5. Each employee/volunteer shall be given a copy of the Diocesan procedures regarding the sexual and physical abuse of children and shall, in writing, acknowledge receipt of same.

6. The Diocesan Education Office and the Office for Child Protection of Catholic Social Services are to provide mandated, regular education for students, concerning sexual abuse.

7. The Diocesan Education Office and the Office for Child Protection are to provide mandated, regular education for religious education students, concerning sexual abuse.

8. Background checks on Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) shall be conducted on every current Diocesan employee/volunteer/subcontractor having unmonitored access to children. A background check is also to be done on all new employees/volunteers/subcontractors prior to having unmonitored access to children.

Per Massachusetts Law, every Diocesan employee shall complete a new CORI every three years, and every Diocesan volunteer shall complete a new CORI every year as a condition of providing services to the children and/or youth of our Diocese.

9. Each employee/volunteer/priest/ deacon/religious will sign and strictly follow the Diocesan Code of Conduct as a condition of providing services to the children and/or youth of our parish/school/ Diocese).

B. SPECIAL CONCERNS In the case of overnight retreats, ski trips, etc., great care is to be taken so that sexual abuse or misconduct with a minor does not occur. The following guidelines are to be followed: 1. A sufficient number of chaperones is to be used; at least one chaperone per every five students.

2. No chaperone is to sleep in a room with an individual student unless the student is a member of the chaperone’s immediate family.

3. In the case of dormitory-style sleeping quarters, at least two adults are to be in each dorm.

4. Buses are the preferred choice for use during trips. If individual cars are used, there must be at least three students/passengers with each driver unless the driver is a member of the student’s immediate family.

C. NOTE

15

The Anchor

Semi-official Church organizations, such as ECHO and Emmaus, because they use Church facilities, are to follow all of the above procedures.

D. SUBCONTRACTORS Background checks on Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) forms shall be conducted on every current Diocesan subcontractor who may have unmonitored access to children. A background check is also to be done on all new subcontractors who may have unmonitored access to children prior to having such access.

E. GENERAL PROCEDURES 1. When there is reasonable cause to believe a child under the age of 18 is suffering serious physical or emotional injury resulting from sexual abuse inflicted upon him or her by a lay employee or volunteer, the person in charge, or their designee, of such institution or facility, Diocesan Director or Department, Agency, Apostolate, Program and Institution, as well as Pastor, within the Diocese where such alleged abuse has been reported shall immediately report such allegations to the Office for Child Protection of Catholic Social Services. He or she will then notify the Moderator of the Curia and the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families. If following an initial investigation by the Office for Child Protection of Catholic Social Services, it is determined that the allegation of abuse has substance, the volunteer or employee is to be suspended without pay (if applicable) pending the outcome of the final investigation.

If the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families finds the allegation to be supported and subsequently the alleged perpetrator is found not guilty by a court of law, a decision shall still then be made as to whether or not the employee/ volunteer shall be reinstated. Such a decision concerning reinstatement shall be made after a consultation by the Moderator of the Curia with the head of a Diocesan Department, Agency, Apostolate, Program or Institution or the pastor.

2. If the allegation of sexual abuse involves a cleric or an employee of Catholic Social Services, then the normal investigative procedures of the Bishop’s Review Board shall apply and in all such cases the Bishop’s Delegate shall be the designated agent to investigate/report the allegation both to the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families and to notify the Moderator of the Curia.

3. The alleged perpetrator employee or volunteer will be notified of the allegations made against him/her, and given an opportunity to respond during the initial investigation process. Anyone affiliated with Catholic Social Services will be notified by the Bishop’s Delegate.

4. The initial investigation involving non-clerics should include interviews with the accused employee or volunteer, the person making the complaint, and any witness(es). The interview will be extended to members of the alleged victim’s family and with the alleged victim if permission is given by a parent or guardian to interview the minor, and it is deemed appropriate. When a young child is interviewed, it should be done by a recognized expert in this field. Interviews should be performed in person, but telephone interviews might be necessary in exceptional circumstances.

5. If after these initial interviews the allegation has been found to be initially credible, an oral report of the suspected child abuse or misconduct must then be given immediately to the Moderator of the Curia as described above in number 1.

6. The personnel file of any employee or volunteer against whom an allegation has been finally substantiated by the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, is to be properly noted.

7. If an allegation of child sexual abuse or misconduct involves a parish employee or volunteer, the pastor should contact the family of the alleged victim and offer spiritual care and support, as his function is strictly pastoral in nature. Catholic Social Services will be available to provide con-

fidential counseling and/or identify other resources for assistance.

SEXUAL ABUSE PREVENTION POLICIES & PROCEDURES FOR PRIESTS/DEACONS/RELIGIOUS A. POLICY It is painful to address the issue of sexual abuse of children, especially when this abuse is inflicted by members of the clergy.

This pain is caused in part by the growing realization of the long term injury sexual abuse inflicts on a child and his/her family.

The distress is also due to the injury inflicted on the community that is the Church.

Despite the pain, or perhaps because of it, the situation should be addressed in a pastoral yet forthright manner.

Developments in the psychological sciences underscore the real and long term injury done to the children who are abused.

It is also known that certain types of abuse are of a compulsive and perhaps incurable nature.

It is appropriate, therefore, that a clear written policy be made public so that all will know how the Diocese of Fall River handles accusations of sexual misconduct by a priest/deacon/religious with a minor (under eighteen).

The procedures that follow are but a first step in a comprehensive approach to the issue of sexual abuse undertaken by the Diocese of Fall River.

By instituting these procedures in 1993, the Review Board has insured that proper personnel procedures govern accusations of sexual misconduct by all employees and volunteers of the Church. Such policies have addressed not only child abuse but also the issues of sexual harassment and sexual exploitation.

The Review Board, in consultation with the Vocation Team of the Diocese and the Office for the Permanent Diaconate, will continue to study the psychological screening currently undertaken to assess potential candidates for the priesthood and diaconate. The tests given at the various seminaries will be reviewed from the perspective of identifying, to the extent possible, potential problems in the area of sexuality. Problem candidates will be disqualified.

Another issue which has been addressed in a comprehensive fashion is the ongoing development of appropriate educational programs in the area of human sexuality incorporated into the various educational programs offered by the Church.

This study has been done in consultation with the Diocesan Education Office.

The first step taken by the Bishop in addressing the overall issue of sexual misconduct was the establishment of the Review Board and the promulgation of procedures to be followed when a cleric or religious brother or sister is accused of sexual misconduct with a minor.

The Diocese commits itself to the following action: · There will be an immediate response to all allegations of sexual misconduct by a cleric or religious brother or sister with a minor. For allegations of such conduct made by a person who is an adult at the time the allegation is received by the Diocese, the response shall be made within a reasonable period of time, not to exceed thirty (30) days. · If an initial review reveals that the allegation is credible, the cleric or religious brother or sister will be placed on administrative leave pending further investigation.

Administrative leave involves the transfer of the residence of a cleric to another residence, the private celebration of Mass, and restriction of his celebration of the Sacraments. The alleged offender will not be permitted to celebrate Mass publicly, to wear clerical garb, or to present himself or herself as a priest or religious brother or sister. The Diocese will continue to pay the salary and benefits of a cleric while on administrative leave. · Any suspected case of sexual misconduct with a minor will be reported to civil authorities. · Confidential counseling will be of-

fered to the alleged victim and his/her family. · No cleric against whom a credible allegation of abuse has been found will be given any assignments in or by the Diocese of Fall River or be authorized to seek pastoral work outside the Diocese.

It should be noted here that both the law of our land and the law of our Church calls for the presumption of innocence.

Every allegation will be investigated seriously and fairly, and a judgment can be made only after all parties are heard and the evidence is reviewed.

The procedures do not detail the processes that are found in the Canon Law of the Church. In order to appreciate the rights and obligations of the clergy in a more complete manner, reference needs to be made to the procedural and penal laws of the Church.

These procedures are to be reviewed and perhaps revised on at least an annual basis. Comments and suggestions for improvement are always welcome.

REVIEW BOARD 1. A Review Board shall be established by the Bishop to serve as an advisory body in general matters concerning the issue of sexual misconduct and to serve as a monitoring and advisory board when a specific accusation of sexual misconduct by a cleric or religious brother or sister with a minor is made. The Board will have no fewer than 7, but no more than 10 members, at the Bishop’s discretion. The members shall, at a minimum, include: · An appropriately credentialed mental health worker who has expertise in matters concerning child abuse; · A civil lawyer; · A canon lawyer; · A priest with a pastoral/parochial assignment; · An adult survivor of child sexual abuse; · A parent of a victim of sexual abuse; and · A lay person.

The members of the Review Board are appointed by the Bishop, for a term of five years, which can be renewed. The Review Board is composed of men and women, lay and clergy, who have (or gain) expertise in the area of child abuse. It is anticipated that the members of the Review Board will have staggered terms in order to assure continuity. This body is to serve in an advisory capacity to the Bishop with reference to policies for Diocesan agencies and apostolates.

Among other things, the Review Board shall assist these agencies in the development and/or refinement of personnel policies for all Diocesan employees regarding sexual abuse, the development of appropriate continuing education programs for clergy and laity, etc. Among the tasks the Bishop shall give to the Review Board is to work with the Vocation Team of the Diocese and the Office for the Permanent Diaconate to establish a system to review the psychological screenings given to potential candidates for the diaconate or priesthood.

Moreover, a protocol has been developed to screen clerical personnel from outside the Diocese before an assignment is given or confirmed by the Bishop to minister within the Diocese of Fall River. Finally, the Board will consult with the Bishop’s Representative for Religious to assure that appropriate procedures are in place to deal with accusations of women religious and non-ordained men religious concerning sexual misconduct with minors.

2. The Bishop shall appoint a Delegate from among the members of the Review Board to serve as his representative in cases involving an accusation of sexual misconduct by a cleric or religious brother or sister with a minor. The Delegate will chair the Review Board. The Bishop is free to appoint a substitute Delegate as circumstances warrant.

The Bishop’s Delegate represents him in these matters. This person may be any member of the Review Team. For various reasons a substitute or alternate Delegate may be named to assume the role. It could be that the Delegate is not available at the time or that a particular case may call for a certain type of person being named by the Bishop, e.g. a woman rather than a man, someone who speaks a foreign language, etc.

B. PROCEDURES 1. Upon receipt of an allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor by a cleric

or religious brother or sister, the Delegate (or a substitute Delegate) shall conduct a preliminary investigation and shall file a report with the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, if required. This initial review is expected to be completed within twenty-four (24) to seventy-two (72) hours of receipt of an allegation involving a victim who is a minor. For allegations by adults who were minors at the time of the alleged act(s), the initial review is to be completed within two weeks of the allegation’s receipt. If the cleric or religious brother or sister is a member of a religious order, his religious superior is to be notified and made part of the subsequent steps in the process, with due regard for the requirements of canon law.

The procedures call for immediate action when an allegation is received by the Bishop. The intent of this point is that the investigation be done without delay. It is recognized, of course, that the accused is innocent until proven guilty. This does not preclude, however, swift action in response to any and all accusations of this nature. Finally, this point calls attention to the fact that Church law requires the involvement of a religious superior when the accused is a member of a religious order.

2. The initial review will ordinarily include interviews with the accused cleric or religious brother or sister, the person making the complaint, and any witnesses. The review may include interviews with members of the alleged victim’s family and the alleged victim himself/herself (with a parent or guardian’s consent if with a minor) and it is judged appropriate to do so.

The Delegate, and in certain limited circumstances, another individual, at the Delegate’s direction, is to talk to the key people involved and as many others as he/ she feels are warranted. The intent of the initial review is to clarify the nature of the claim. Ordinarily, the interviews should be done in person, but some circumstances may warrant a telephone interview with some individuals. When a small child is interviewed, this is to be done only by a person with recognized expertise in this specialized field.

3. The accused cleric or religious brother or sister is to be advised of his/her right to retain independent legal and canonical counsel. He/she shall also be provided with a list of approved clerics or religious brothers or sisters appointed by the Bishop from whom to choose a “support advocate,” but not for the purposes of either actively participating in the proceedings or rendering civil or canonical law advice.

It is important that the cleric or religious brother or sister be aware of his/her rights under the laws of church and state from the beginning of the process.

The cleric or religious brother or sister is to be advised of his/her legal right to seek the advice of his/her own counsel and that of a canon lawyer so that his/her rights may be protected.

4. Upon receipt of an allegation, the Delegate shall notify the Review Board which shall meet within forty-eight (48) hours of the completion of the initial review, when the alleged victim is a minor, and within a reasonable period of time upon completion of the initial review, when the alleged victim is no longer a minor. If the alleged victim is presently a minor, the Delegate shall immediately notify the proper civil authorities, as required under State Law. The Board oversees all the steps of the procedure dealing with the accusation.

It is the intent of this point that the Board is convened without delay. The Board reviews the results of the initial investigation conducted by the Delegate and advises the Bishop regarding the need for additional action. The Review Board receives periodic reports from the Delegate and offers its advice to the Bishop until the case is concluded. Substitutes and additions to the team may be made by the Bishop as needed. The alleged victim and his/her parent or guardian shall use their best efforts to convey all necessary information regarding the alleged incident to the Delegate, in a timely manner. A recommendation by the Board to the Bishop should be made no later than six weeks from the date of the Delegate’s initial receipt of the allegation, when the alleged victim is a minor, or three months when the alleged victim is no longer a minor.

16

Youth Pages

April 23, 2010

St. Mary’s students raise $2,500 to help kids battling cancer

great memories — St. John the Evangelist School in Attleboro recently held its annual Father-Daughter Dance. Along with dancing, each girl received a flower and had a photograph taken with her dad.

MANSFIELD — Students in grades two and three at St. Mary’s School, Mansfield, recently participated in the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Math-A-Thon program and raised $2,500 to help kids battling cancer and other deadly diseases at St. Jude, one of the world’s premier pediatric cancer research centers. The Mansfield community supported St. Mary’s students by making donations in honor of their participation in the program.

“We are very proud of our students for working so hard to raise money for St. Jude through MathA-Thon,” said Theresa Pergerson, second-grade teacher and coordinator of the event. “Our school, students and community have helped St. Jude in its work to find cures and save children.”

Math-A-Thon allows students to build and practice essential math skills while they raise funds for kids battling cancer at St. Jude. The program works in the following way: Teachers serve as volunteer coordinators for Math-A-Thon at their school.

Participating students solve math problems in a printed or online Funbook. Students ask family and friends for donations in support of their participation in the Math-A-Thon. All donations are sent to St. Jude, where no child is

ever turned away because of the family’s inability to pay.

Now in its 30th year, Math-AThon is one of America’s largest education-based fund-raisers.

More than 10,000 schools across the country participate in the program. Math-A-Thon is also one of the most successful fund-raising campaigns for St. Jude, having raised nearly $400 million since its inception.

In 2009, St. Jude joined Scholastic Inc. to make Math-A-Thon a more valuable resource for teachers as they prepare students for standardized testing.

Beginning with the 2009-2010 school year, the new print and online versions of Math-A-Thon Funbooks contain colorful activities developed by Scholastic.

The activities support National Standards and are aligned to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) focal points for each grade level from K–eight. The online version of the Funbook allows students to complete grade-specific activities like those offered in the print version but in an engaging game format that tracks points for the student.

For more information on how to host a Math-A-Thon event, call 1-800-386-2665 or visit www.mathathon.org.

quality time — Students from Holy Family-Holy Name School and parishioners from St. Lawrence Martyr Parish in New Bedford gathered recently for eucharistic adoration, recitation of the rosary and Benediction using a monstrance blessed by Pope John Paul II. The monstrance travelled to a number of parishes in the New Bedford area.

solving problems to solve problems — Students at St. Mary’s School in Mansfield recently took part in a St. Jude Math-a-Thon and raised $2,500 to help children battling cancer.

winning pi recipe — Bishop Feehan High School Senior Thanacha “Pi” Choopojcharoen, third from right, recently received the Dwayne Cameron Mathlete of the Year Award by the Southeastern Massachusetts Conference Math League (SMCML). Choopojcharoen is co-captain of the Feehan Math Team and was the SMCML All-Star Team and Highest Scoring student for the last three years. Choopojcharoen teaches other students at team practices and tutors all math subjects. He is the top student in his AP Calculus class and is also a member of the Art and French Honor Societies and a recipient of a Scholastic Art Silver Key award. Choopojcharoen poses with the Feehan Math Team who took fourth place in the SMCML. From left, Dimitri Andrikopoulos, Math Coach Jacqueline Briant, Steven Ketchum, Co-Captain Choopojcharoen, Dan Scannell, and Co-Captain Stephanie Geiger.

board meeting — John Paul II High School principal Christopher Keavy studies his next move against a student at a Chess tourney pitting the faculty and staff against students at the Hyannis school.

Youth Pages

April 23, 2010

I

I don’t care what you think

our search for truth, and your t’s an intriguing title for this column. There are so personal opinion just isn’t well many ways you could interpret supported.

Our society seems to place it. It could mean that I am so a great deal of emphasis on confident in my thoughts or opinion. That could explain actions that I will do what why our “news” shows now I believe is right regardless include much more “gossip” of someone’s opinion. Or it news, and why so many end could mean that I am so selfwith an opportunity for us to absorbed that I will simply tell them what we think by not take your thoughts into taking their on-line poll or account. ctually, the idea for the calling a 1-888 number. When I hear an anchorperson say title came from years of reading student essays and engaging in classroom discussions and hearing things like: “Well, I think if two people are in love, it’s OK for them to have

By Jean Revil sex.” And that is when I want to yell: “I don’t care what you think. I “tell us what you think” my want to know what the truth first reaction is to say “Who is.” cares what you think?” Can We all hear it: people someone tell me what is true expressing their opinions and expecting that somehow, that’s instead? It is frustrating to me that opinion and fact seem to it. If I think it, it must be true. carry the same weight. SomeThis is moral relativism in thing is really out of whack action. Come on people. Who here. Objective truth exists. do you think you are? The Some things are just wrong holy Bible, the inspired word no matter what people think. of God, tells us fornication is Murder is wrong, child abuse a sin. Jesus himself said that is wrong, abortion is wrong. it is a sin. The magisterium Personal opinion will not of the Church tells us that it change these objective moral is a sin. Some of the greatest thinkers in human history have truths. These things will never been members of this Catholic be seen as good. Never. They are evils and they cause harm Church, and they recognized the sinfulness of sex outside of to individuals and to societies.

Sex outside of marriage also marriage. So, again, I have to causes harm to individuals and ask: who are you? We should to societies. Just look at the be evaluating all sources in

A

Be Not Afraid

rates of HIV, STDs, divorce, and abortion. The family, the core of our society, is not the strong foundation that it once was. These are facts outside of personal opinion.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I really do care what you think if we are talking about movies or restaurants, what’s going on at home or at work, or perhaps some sticky situation that I find myself in and I need some guidance or advice.

But when it comes to moral truths, obedience trumps opinion.

Even in a democracy, not everything can be settled by a vote.

Some things will be wrong, even if there is a law allowing it; slavery and abortion are two very good examples.

So, to all of the young people reading this column, I know that pretty much everything you see on TV and hear in song says that sex outside of marriage is fine. I also know that God and his Church say that sex is such a sacred gift that it shouldn’t be taken for granted or misused, it belongs in marriage.

Society says one thing, God says another. Which one shall we go with? For the sake of our souls, I do care what you think.

Jean Revil teaches theology and is campus minister at Bishop Stang High School.

Comments welcome at: jrevil@bishopStang.com.

whaling city winners — Students from the Greater New Bedford Catholic schools competed in a Catholic Challenge recently at Bishop Stang High School. The challenge consisted of an athletic and academic tournament and teams earned points by playing a basketball game and a round of board games against each of the schools. Pictured here is the winning team from St. James-St. John School, New Bedford, with its coach.

17 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

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The Anchor

April 23, 2010

St. Michael School students learn about and discuss propaganda continued from page one

in pre-World War II Germany, and a young boy’s struggle not to get caught up in Adolf Hitler’s propaganda machine.

“While learning about Hitler, the students discovered the dictator’s tactics to convince the German people they had to pay back their enemies for the country’s woes following World War I,” explained Thibault. “Hitler angered his people into action.”

The combination of the history and literary lessons gave the students the idea to write and produce a play based on three families at the dawn of World War II: a German Nationalist family; a Jewish family; and an unpatriotic German family.

Entitled “Through the Eyes of a Forsaken Nation: The Ballad of Germany,” the story reveals the effects of propaganda through the eyes of very different individuals.

While the production of the play took a great deal of hard work, building sets, writing the script, editing the film, and creating costumes, it was the lessons learned in the project that stood out most to the students and the teachers.

“Propaganda can be a bunch of lies that can persuade people’s opinions,” said Jessica Fournier.

“It’s an important topic because we realized that it can happen today like it did in World War II.” Blaine Payer, who was the film

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editor, said, “Propaganda paints a pretty picture of the topic being pushed. Just look at the presidential elections a couple of years ago. Each side said bad things about the other to persuade the voters to vote their way.”

learning the pain of others — In this scene from “Through the Eyes of a Forsaken Nation: The Ballad of Germany,” eighth-graders from St. Michael School portray a Jewish family shortly before the tragedy of the Holocaust began in earnest.

Tori Borges told The Anchor, “The book, the history lessons, and our play gave us a good look at what people went through.”

“In many cases it showed the true meaning of friendship,” added classmate Cody Medeiros.

“The Holocaust and Hitler’s propaganda affected everyone,” said Rachel Rodrigues. “People

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After viewing the finished product and submitting it to the Jewish Federation, the students were pleased and proud of their efforts. “I thought it was pretty creative and the script came out very well,” said Tianna Gittens.

Following the play, the DVD also includes a brief roundtable discussion by the students about the historical implications of propaganda, and about how those tactics are still used today.

“Propaganda back then was used to manipulate people to do what others wanted,” said Zachary Boudria. “It’s important for people to just follow their heart.”

“It still goes on today in TV

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were persuaded that the Jewish people were to blame for their tough conditions following World War I.” Kaela Resendes said she and her classmates “really learned what the Jewish people went through.”

commercials,” added Sabrina Amaral. “But people are out there trying to get everyone to buy use their product. It’s propaganda.”

When asked if there have been similar tragic events in current history where propaganda played a significant role, the students quickly noted 9/11.

“The terrorists were convinced

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that by dying they would be heroes and rewarded,” said Gittens.

The class also realized that the 9/11 attackers were brainwashed with propaganda as well.

The general consensus from the eighth-graders was that propaganda isn’t necessarily all lies, but it isn’t all truths either, and that people “should believe in their hearts what is right.”

“After 9/11 the American government pointed the finger at Iraq and wanted the people to agree,” said Payer. “President Bush rallied Americans that we had to go after those people.”

“I’m very proud of the final results,” said Thibault. “The students learned that as Christians they must be aware of others’ perspectives.”

Grasso added, “I was very impressed with the effort put into the project. It was something they really wanted to do, and it helped them learn to think outside themselves and think about what other people experience.”

Olga Yorish, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Bedford, told The Anchor, “All of us who saw the production were very much impacted by what we saw and heard. Everyone here was very impressed with the effort of the initiative, and more importantly, we were very pleased with what they learned.

“While the play was very good, the discussion following the play was very important. They learned what evils took place in the past and they related them to the present day. They took the past and brought it forward and that’s so

important.”

James Wilcox, a parishioner of Holy Name Parish in Fall River, and a teacher in the Fall River School System for 43 years, is cochairman of the Holocaust Education Committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Bedford. He told The Anchor, “I’m so impressed with the effort and time put in by the students and teachers at St. Michael School.

The play was excellent, but the last four or five minutes of dialogue revealed just how much they learned and processed about the Holocaust and the effects of propaganda.”

Wilcox has spent 29 years teaching about the Holocaust and has been involved with the Jewish Federation for 15 years. “A few years ago, I was given the chance to take a sabbatical to Poland and Israel. I saw first-hand the death camps and it made a great impression on me.

“The 20th century showed the greatest advancement of technology and growth ever, but it also has seen the greatest acts of genocide in history. It’s good to keep the Holocaust in mind.

“Regarding the Holocaust, the motto of the Jewish people is ‘Never again.’ But unfortunately that’s not the case yet. It’s still going on in Africa and the Middle East and other places.”

Wilcox stressed the importance of today’s youth learning about mistakes of the past. “If nothing else, projects like this help young people become more discerning. They will question what they read and hear.”

Students Boudria and Payne were invited to the memorial observance in New Bedford on April 11. They took part in a candle-light procession from the Holocaust Monument in Buttonwood Park to Tifereth Israel Synagogue. “It was eye-opening to witness what Jewish culture is about,” said Boudria. “The service was so silent and there was so much respect.”

Payne added, “It’s amazing that something that happened 70 or 80 years ago still has such a great impact on so many people.”

Wilcox told The Anchor, “There is a real concern by people of the Catholic faith about the Holocaust. Particularly in Catholic schools and colleges in the U.S.” Holy Union Sister Marie Baldi, principal of St. Michael School was very proud of her youngsters. “I’m totally amazed at their creativity, but even more impressed with the discussion at the end of the production.

“The eighth-graders expressed some very adult views on a major topic.”

That is something the Jewish Federation is hoping to maintain and expand upon with the youth of today.

DCCW convention is May 8 in East Sandwich EAST SANDWICH — The annual Diocesan Council of Catholic Women convention will take place May 8 at the Corpus Christi Family Life Center.

Registration, along with coffee and pastries, will take place from 7:30-8:15 a.m. The event commences at 8:30 a.m., followed by a business meeting.

The keynote speaker is Dr. Joan Marie Kelly, a native of Massachusetts, who attended Catholic elementary and secondary schools there staffed by the Religious of the Holy Union of the Sacred Hearts.

She received her undergraduate degree from St. Joseph College in West Hartford, Conn., a master’s degree in religious studies from the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., a master’s in counseling psychology from Fairfield University, and a doctorate from the Graduate Theological Foundation formerly headquartered at Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. For the past 19 years, the Institute for Religious Education and Pastoral Studies at Sacred Heart University has sent Kelly throughout the state to provide theological classes for the clergy, religious, and laity of the various dioceses.

She is also responsible for the theological formation of deacon candidates at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Conn.

The Our Lady of Good Counsel Awards will be presented, followed by lunch, Mass and an afternoon session.

Bus transportation will be provided in the Fall River and New

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks April 26 Rev. Ubalde Deneault, Retired Pastor, St. Joseph, Attleboro, 1982 Rev. James F. Greene, Pastor, Our Lady of Fatima, New Bedford, 2002 April 27 Rev. Francis J. Bradley, D.D., Retired Rector, St. Mary’s Cathedral, Fall River, 1925 Rev. Romeo D. Archambault, St. Anne, New Bedford, 1949 Rev. Edward F. O’Keefe, S.J., Retired, St. Francis Xavier, Boston, 1973 April 28 Rev. Stanislaus J. Goyette, Pastor, St. Louis de France, Swansea, 1959 April 29 Rev. James Leo Maguire, Pastor, Diocese of Monterey, Calif., 1987 Rev. Adolph Szelagowksi, OFM Conv., Parochial Vicar, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, New Bedford, 1989 Rev. Peter P. Mullen, M.M., Maryknoll Missioner, 1999 Rev. John M. Breen, M.M., Maryknoll Missioner, 2005 April 30 Rev. John A. Hurley, Pastor, St. Mary, North Attleboro, 1900 Rev. David F. Sheedy, Pastor, St. John Evangelist, Attleboro, 1930 Rev. John Moda, Pastor, St. Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic Church, Ford City, Pa., 1993 May 1 Rev. Francis J. Quinn, Founder, Immaculate Conception, North Easton; Founder, Sacred Heart, Fall River, 1882 Rev. Joseph F. D’Amico, Pastor, Sacred Heart, Oak Bluffs, 1996 Rev. Walter A. Sullivan, Pastor, St. Mary, South Dartmouth, 1997 May 2 Rt. Rev. Msgr. M.P. Leonidas Lariviere, Pastor, St. Jean Baptiste, Fall River, 1963

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April 23, 2010

Bedford deaneries. Contact Lynette Ouellette at 508-674-7036 for information. Those wishing to attend

should contact their district presidents or affiliate presidents.

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.

planning stage — Planning for the annual DCCW convention are, from left: Second Vice President Mary Mitchell; President Jeanne Alves; Moderator Sister Eugenia Brady, SJC; and Holy Union Sister Jane Sellmayer.

Around the Diocese 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” tomorrow 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.

4/28

The Diocesan Divorced and Separated Support Group will meet April 28 at 7 p.m. at the Family Life Center, 500 Slocum Road, North Dartmouth. The session will be an open meeting and all are welcome to attend. Coffee and tea will be available. For more information call 508-965-9296 or 508-965-2919.

4/28

The Joseph W. Martin Jr. Institute for Law and Society at Stonehill College, 320 Washington Street, Easton, will screen “The Skin Quilt Project,” a film that addresses the issue of colorism within the AfricanAmerican community, on April 28 at 6 p.m. Parking is available in Lot 11 behind the sports complex. For more information, visit www.stonehill.edu/x10444.xml.

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 Avenue, 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. Those planning to attend should RSVP by calling 508-8232044 or emailing carlaumar@gmail.com.

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.

5/2

St. Mary’s Parish, Fairhaven, will be serving its famous spring parish buffet breakfast May 2 from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The menu will include pancakes, scrambled eggs, baked ham, sausages, homemade potatoes, fruit, juice and coffee. A special Family Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. followed by social activities. For tickets or more information call 508-992-7300 or email stmarysfairhaven@comcast.net.

5/4

“Catholics Returning Home, An Invitation for Non-Practicing Catholics,” a five-part informal session will be held at Christ the King Parish Hall, Mashpee, on Tuesdays from May 4 to June 1, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. No matter how long you have been away and no matter the reason, Christ the King Parish welcomes you back. For more information call 508-477-7700, or visit www.christthekingparish.com.

5/11

Adoption by Choice, a program of Catholic Social Services, will hold an information session for individuals and families interested in domestic newborn or international adoption on May 11 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Catholic Social Services, 1600 Bay Street, Fall River. Call 508-674-4681 or visit www. cssdioc.org to register or for more information.

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 508-336-5549.

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 — 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 (Rte. 28), holds perpetual eucharistic adoration. We are a regional chapel serving all of the surrounding parishes. All from other parishes are invited to sign up to cover open hours. For open hours, or to sign up call 508-430-4716.

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

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Family Ministry Office recognizes volunteers continued from page 11

Marriage Preparation and Remarriage Preparation programs in the New Bedford area, serving as team leaders on the former.

Several Peer Recognition Awards were also given to volunteers in each ministry as recommended by their fellow volunteers. These included: — Marriage Preparation: Todd and Betsy Johnston, Attleboro; Rosemary Akin, Cape Cod; Kurt and Suzanne Gent, New Bedford; Victor and Melissa Vieira, Taunton/New Bedford; — Marriage Preparation in Portuguese: Carlos and Adelia Machado; and Jose and Odete Pina;

— Preparation for Remarriage: Ken and Jeannine Pacheco; and Ron and Mary Dupuis; — Natural Family Planning/Parish Family Ministry: Robert and Joanne Bangs; — Divorced and Separated Support Groups: Jane Greene, Cape Cod; Bob Barrett, New Bedford; — Parish Family Ministry: Andy and Blanca Browne, for planning World Marriage Day in the diocese.

While many were pleasantly surprised to be singled out during the awards ceremony, the biggest shock of the night came during closing remarks

April 23, 2010

from longtime program directors Jerry and Scottie Foley, who announced their intention to retire next month after nearly 30 years with the Diocesan Office of Family Ministry.

“Through three very supportive bishops and four wonderful priestdirectors, ours has not been so much a job as a passion,” Jerry Foley said.

“Our own four children, their spouses and now our eight grandchildren have been our inspiration to build marriages, and oftentimes have been our on-thejob training. Now after almost 30 years of spending time trying to support and enrich the families of the Fall River Diocese, we are going to return to focusing on our own family. As of the end of May, we will be retiring from our job

I

as program directors with the Office of Family Ministry.”

“Through the years we’ve worked with hundreds of amazingly generous, fun and inspiring people — not the least of whom are sitting with us tonight,” Scottie Foley added. “We’ve been blessed to really get to know many of you and your families. God has blessed us in a way that has been evident to us everyday. We have loved being with you and we will miss you and we can never thank you enough.”

Bishop Coleman and Father Mathias said they will be conferring with the Pastoral Planning Office during the next month to determine how best to fill the vacancy that will be left in the wake of the Foleys’ pending retirement.

Will it go ’round in circles?

t’s a phrase that one either loves or games at Tropicana Field sounded more hates, depending on which side one like a Fenway game, with Boston fans far falls on — “What goes around, comes outnumbering the native Floridians. around.” There’s no rule of thumb as to But in 2008 the ebb began to flow. The when the 180-degree turn begins and ends, Rays took 10 of 18 games from the Sox or how long the process takes. and one could sense a shift in momenI remember one such instance that took tum and a torch being passed. In October a mere few weeks for the tides to turn. In of that year, the perennial punching bag 1986, the Red Sox were a skinny strike punched back, beating the Sox for the away from being eliminated from the American League pennant, 4-3.

American League Championship Series In 2009 the two went 9-9. Now it’s against the California Angels. But up 2010 and I sense it “coming around.” The stepped Dave Henderson for the Sox with Rays just completed a four-game sweep two outs in the ninth, the Home Towne Team trailing by one and down in the series 3-1. With two strikes, Henderson launched a two-run home run, leading to an eventual extra-inning win by the Sox, who ultimately won the series

By Dave Jolivet and headed to the World Series.

Just eight games later, what went around, came around. In Game 6 of the World Series, the Sox were at Friendly Fenway, and they looked great one strike away from their first championdoing it. They look like a far superior team ship in 68 years. Whammy — the Mets than my aging, offensively anemic Red overcame a two-run 10th-inning deficit to Sox. As Billy Preston sang, “Will it go tie the series at 3-3, and went on to win the ’round in circles?” Oh yeah. series. Sox second-baseman Marty Barrett If the Sox continue stepping up to the was quoted as saying, “What goes around, plate without a bat, their beefy sell-out comes around. I just didn’t think it would streak may come to a screeching halt. be that fast.”

Who knows, by year’s end when the Rays Remember the days when the Red Sox come to town September 6, 7, and 8, there would toy with the Tampa Bay Rays? The may be more fans from the Sunshine State fledgeling Devil Rays, as they were known on Landsdowne Street than Bostonians. back then, began in 1998. From their inAnd the Rays may be headed to postception until 2007, the Sox beat up on the season baseball ... and the Sox? They’ll be Rays with a record of 111-58. A whopping headed to Florida for some golf and fun in .650 winning percentage. the sun.

Adding insult to injury, the Rays home What goes around, comes around.

My View From the Stands