Anchor 04.09.10

Diocese of Fall River

The Anchor

F riday , April 9, 2010

Many still choosing to adopt, says CSS official

By Deacon James N. Dunbar FALL RIVER — Adoption remains a popular choice for many hoping to raise a family, but fewer available domestic born babies

Elaine C. Abdow

and tighter restrictions on international adoptions are causing a longer wait for some of them.

“It’s a challenge to meet the requests that come to us from so

many wonderful people considering adoption and we’re working hard to meet every important and necessary criteria in the process and remain successful as always,” said a hope-filled Elaine C. Abdow, coordinator of the Adoption Program at the Fall River Diocese’s Catholic Social Service.

With more than 30 years in the adoption field, Abdow said the current average time to complete an adoption ranges from one-anda-half to three years.

“Ninety-nine percent of the domestic born babies who are placed with us for adoption are the result of unplanned pregnancies by single women who are unsure of their future and feel they are unable to raise a child for many reasons,” Abdow explained.

“While we receive calls from approximately 20 to 25 families a year who want to adopt a domestic newborn, we receive only eight or Turn to page 18

Parishes plan devotions for Divine Mercy Sunday

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff FALL RIVER — The devotion to the Divine Mercy Chaplet — which blossomed from meditations written in the diary of a young Polish nun, St. Faustina Kowalska — has been steadily growing in popularity within the Diocese of Fall River.

As the Church prepares to celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday this weekend, it is no coincidence that it annually falls within the octave of Easter and Christ’s resurrection, as they are intimately linked.

While the Divine Mercy Chaplet has been prayed regularly in parishes and in the privacy of people’s homes for years, the observance of Divine Mercy Sunday has grown in prominence only since 2001, a year after Pope John Paul II instituted it at St. Faustina’s canonization.

“For the past several years our parish has been having devotions on Divine Mercy Sunday and it’s been a tremendous blessing in the parish,” said Father William M. Sylvia, parochial vicar at St. Mary’s Parish, MansTurn to page 18

welcome to the faith — Father Michael Racine, pastor of St. Bernard’s Parish in Assonet, confirms Crystal Isabelle during Easter services last weekend. Isabelle completed the RCIA process and was baptized and also received her first Communion at the Mass. Her sponsor, to her left, is Elizabeth Pinto. (Photo by Russell Pinto)

For some, it’s like Easter and Christmas rolled into one

By Dave Jolivet, Editor

ASSONET — Easter is the greatest celebration on the Catholic Church’s calendar. It’s a day when the faithful celebrate the risen Christ — the day when Our

Lord put an end to death and offered the hope of eternal life.

It’s a day of joy, the end of the Lenten sojourn in the desert. But for some Catholics, Easter has not only the joy of new life, but

also the excitement of Christmas — a time when they receive the greatest gift possible, a new birth as they become members of the Catholic Church.

Turn to page 14

Abortions decrease under Mass. health care reform

By Christine M. Williams Anchor Correspondent

FALL RIVER — “Isn’t it obvious?” the late English Cardinal Basil Hume once reportedly answered a journalist who asked why women in Britain have fewer abortions than American women.

“If that frightened, unemployed 19-year-old knows that she and her child will have access to medical care whenever it’s needed,” the cardinal explained, “she’s more likely

to carry the baby to term.”

New research of the universal health care system in the Commonwealth seems to prove his theory.

The cardinal, who died in 1999, served as president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales for two decades.

In a recent article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Patrick Whelan wrote that in the first two years of universal health care coverage in Massachu-

setts, the number of abortions decreased by 1.5 percent. Despite a greater number of insured citizens and “liberal” funding of abortion, the abortion rate reached its lowest level since the 1970s. The number of teen-agers obtaining abortions decreased at an even greater rate — 7.4 percent.

Whelan is president of Catholic Democrats, a Pro-Life organization affiliated with the Democratic Turn to page 14

Former Osterville pastor dies Holy Saturday FALL RIVER — Father Clarence P. Murphy, Montfort Seminary and at St. John’s Seminary in 90, the oldest priest in the Fall River Diocese, and Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and was ordained as a former pastor of Our Lady of the AsMontfort Missionary on March 1, 1947. sumption Parish in Osterville, died on He taught at the Montfort Seminary Holy Saturday, April 3, at the Catholic at Bay Shore, N.Y.; served as a parochiMemorial Home. al vicar in Ozone Park, N.Y.; and from A retired priest, he had been living at 1957 to 1968 held administrative posithe Cardinal Medeiros Residence before tions in the Montfort Community. From hospitalization several weeks ago.

1962 to 1966 he was superior of the forBorn in Boston on St. Patrick’s Day in mer Montfort House in Taunton.

1920, he was the son of the late William In 1968 he was incardinated into the and Ellen (O’Keefe) Murphy, and graduDiocese of Fall River. He spent a year ated from Mission Grammar School and as a parochial vicar at St. Mary’s Parish Mission High School in Roxbury.

Father Clarence in Mansfield, before being assigned in He prepared for the priesthood at Turn to page 14 P. Murphy

News From the Vatican

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April 9, 2010

Easter at Vatican marked by questions over handling abuse VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Even as Pope Benedict XVI was focused on solemnly marking the death and resurrection of Jesus, Vatican officials tried to respond to criticism of the way Catholic leaders have handled the clerical sex abuse scandal, and they vigorously defended the pope.

As Pope Benedict arrived to celebrate Easter morning Mass with tens of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square, the dean of the College of Cardinals told him Catholics were rallying around him with love, admiration and prayers.

In an unusual departure from the Vatican’s traditional Easter ceremony, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the dean and former Vatican secretary of state, read his message in the square before Mass April 4.

Calling the pope “the untiring rock of the holy Church of Christ,” Cardinal Sodano thanked him for his strength, courage and great love.

The world’s cardinals, bishops and “400,000 priests who generously serve the people of God” are with the pope, he said.

The world’s Catholics support the pope as well, he said, and will not let their faith be shaken by the “current petty gossip” surrounding the Church, nor by the “ordeals that occasionally strike the Church community.”

During his Holy Week and Easter celebrations, Pope Benedict did not speak publicly about the sex abuse crisis or about criticism of the way he or anyone else handled accusations of abuse.

But the preacher of the papal household, Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, did mention abuse during the sermon he gave during the pope’s Good Friday liturgy April 2 in St. Peter’s Basilica.

In a homily focused on how Jesus broke the cycle of violence and victimizing others by taking on the world’s sins and offering himself as a victim, Father Cantalamessa said he wanted to focus on all types of violence and not specifically “violence against children, concerning which even some members of clergy are wretchedly guilty.”

He then read a portion of a letter he said he received from a Jewish friend, who wrote that he was following “with disgust” attacks

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against the Church and the pope; the use of stereotypes; and using the wrongdoings of certain individuals as an excuse to paint a whole group with collective guilt, saying the current situation reminded the Jewish author of “the most shameful aspects of anti-Semitism.”

Following harsh criticism for what some saw as comparing antiSemitism and violence against the Jews to criticism of the Church’s handling of sex abuse, Father Cantalamessa told an Italian newspaper April 4 he was sincerely sorry if he offended any members of the Jewish community or any victims of sexual abuse. He added he realized that for centuries, Christian mobs would commemorate Jesus’ death on Good Friday and then go out and attack Jews.

He said no one at the Vatican, not even the pope, had read his homily before he gave it, and he said he read the passage from his Jewish friend’s letter simply because “it seemed to be a testimony of solidarity with the pope, who has been harshly attacked in these days.”

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said the Vatican does not think “the attacks on the pope for the scandal of pedophilia” are like anti-Semitism.

He responded to news reports that as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the future Pope Benedict let an Arizona case of clerical sexual abuse “languish at the Vatican for years despite repeated pleas from the bishop for the man to be removed from the priesthood.”

In the Diocese of Tucson’s case against the former Father Michael Teta, Father Lombardi said, the documentation shows “with clarity and certainty” that the doctrinal congregation actively worked in the 1990s to ensure the diocesan process “could dutifully reach its conclusion.”

Teta’s dismissal from the priesthood was announced in 2004, but, Father Lombardi said, “one must not forget that even when appeals are pending and the sentence is suspended, the cautionary measures imposed by the bishop on the accused remain in place,” so Teta’s 1990 suspension from all ministry continued until his laicization.

OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 54, No. 14

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christ is risen — Pope Benedict XVI lights the paschal candle before the start of the Easter Vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican April 3. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Without Christ, life would have no hope, pope says in Easter message

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service

the Caribbean; and he expressed his hopes that the people of Haiti VATICAN CITY — Without and Chile could rebuild the areas Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection, struck by earthquakes earlier this life would be without hope and year. human destiny would end only in The pope also called for peace death, Pope Benedict XVI said in and reconciliation in Africa, espehis Easter message. cially in the Democratic Republic However, “Easter does not work of Congo, Guinea and Nigeria; magic,” and the human journey and he asked that social harmony will still be marked by grief and come to those places experiencing anguish, as well as joy and hope terrorism and social and religious for the future, he said April 4 in his discrimination. message “urbi et orbi” (to Before celebrating the nce stripped of the “old garments” Resurrection, Pope Benethe city and the world).

Humanity today needs of one’s life of sin, he said, the dict presided over the canto free itself from sin, not Christian puts on new clothes of “love, dlelit Way of the Cross at by making superficial Rome’s Colosseum April changes, but through a joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, 2. Thousands of people, true moral and spiritual faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” most holding candles, atconversion, he said, in the tended the evening service message broadcast from and listened to the meditaSt. Peter’s Square to millions of life,” he said. tions written by Italian Cardinal people worldwide.

Once stripped of the “old gar- Camillo Ruini The basilica’s steps and central ments” of one’s life of sin, he said, “The day of greatest hope is balcony were carpeted with col- the Christian puts on new clothes Good Friday” when Christ, through orful tulips, hyacinths, blooming of “love, joy, peace, patience, his death, becomes the source of trees and other greenery; the more kindness, goodness, faithfulness, life for all of humanity, he said. than 24,000 flowers and shrubs gentleness and self-control.”

Pope Benedict left the Vatican were donated by companies in the The next morning, after cel- after the Holy Week and Easter Netherlands. ebrating the Easter Mass, the pope celebrations to spend a few days Under a cold rain, Pope Bene- called for an end to “the multiple resting at the papal residence in dict read his message and gave his tragic expressions of a culture of Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome. blessing after celebrating Easter death which are becoming increasReciting the “Regina Coeli” morning Mass with tens of thou- ingly widespread, so as to build a prayer with hundreds of visitors sands of people gathered in front future of love and truth in which gathered in the courtyard of the of St. Peter’s Basilica. Even hud- every human life is respected and villa April 5, the pope said that like dled under umbrellas, the crowd welcomed.” the angel that told the disciples Jewas jubilant, chanting the pope’s In his Easter message, he called sus had risen, Christians are called name and waving soggy banners for an end to war and violence in to be messengers of Jesus’ resurand flags. the Middle East, especially in the rection, his victory over evil and The night before, during the Holy Land; he offered consolation death, and bearers of his love to Easter Vigil Mass in St. Peter’s Ba- to persecuted Christian minorities, the world. silica, Pope Benedict baptized and especially in Iraq and Pakistan; “Certainly, we remain men and confirmed a woman from Sudan, a he denounced “the dangerous re- women, but we receive the mission woman from Somalia, two wom- surgence of crimes linked to drug of angels, messengers of Christ,” en from Albania and a man from trafficking” in Latin American and he said.

Japan. The pope also baptized a small boy from Russia.

In his homily at the vigil Mass, the pope said baptism marks the beginning of a process of renouncing a world of greed, lies and cruelty and a culture that worships power.

Becoming a Christian is not “mere cleansing, still less is it a somewhat complicated initiation into a new association. It is death and resurrection, rebirth to a new

O

April 9, 2010

The International Church

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Abuse victims meet with Irish Cardinal Brady, continue to ask him to resign

By Cian Molloy C atholic News Service DUBLIN, Ireland — Victims of clergy sexual abuse met with Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh, Northern Ireland, and said they still believed the cardinal should resign.

Amid continuing investigations into clerical child abuse and the high-level church cover-up of that abuse, the cardinal held a series of meetings March 31 with representatives of the survivors of clerical child abuse and representatives of those who suffered neglect and mistreatment while in the care of religious-run institutions, such as orphanages and industrial schools.

A statement from the car-

dinal’s office said the primary purpose of the meetings, held at the cardinal’s invitation, was for the church representatives to continue to listen to the views of survivors of abuse in the aftermath of the March 20 publication of Pope Benedict XVI’s pastoral letter to Irish Catholics. Cardinal Brady is the primate of all Ireland and president of the Irish bishops’ conference.

John Kelly, one of the representatives of the Survivors of Child Abuse organization who met with the cardinal, said there were positive aspects to the discussions, but he and other survivors’ representatives believed Cardinal Brady should consider resigning.

Priest says Moscow Catholics shocked, scared after suicide bombings WARSAW, Poland (CNS) — Catholics in Moscow were “shocked and terrorized” after two suicide bomb attacks on the Moscow Metro, said the secretary-general of the Russian bishops’ conference.

“Our own church of St Louis is at the Lubyanka (station), so we were close to the scene and very emotionally affected,” said Father Igor Kovalevsky, secretary-general of the Russian bishops’ conference.

“Our parishioners use the Metro every day to get to morning Mass and could easily have been caught up in the blasts.

Thank God, this doesn’t appear to have happened — all those who usually come to Mass were there again today,” he told Catholic News Service March 30, an official day of mourning for victims of the March 29 rush-hour explosions that left 39 dead and at least 70 seriously injured.

Father Kovalevsky said prayers for those affected would be said March 30 in the country’s 430 Catholic parishes.

“The first reactions are of shock and terror. I personally traveled on the Metro yesterday and saw fear and apprehension on the faces of people,” said Father Kovalevsky. “All we can do in these circumstances is pray for the dead and injured and call for peace in Russia. This is the Catholic Church’s mission.”

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev vowed to “find and destroy” perpetrators of the attacks, in which two suspected women suicide bombers blew themselves up at Moscow’s Lubyanka and Park Kultury stations. Russia’s Federal Security Service blamed “terrorist groups related to the North Caucasus”

in a recent statement, while U.S. President Barack Obama pledged help in bringing the plotters to justice. No one claimed responsibility for the bombings, which followed Russian security forces killings of several Islamic militant leaders in the North Caucasus region.

Archbishop Paolo Pezzi of Moscow sent condolence letters to Medvedev and Moscow Mayor Yuri Luskov and deplored the targeting of “innocent and simple people.”

Russia’s Council of Muftis denounced the attacks and insisted “extremism and terrorism” found no support in the Quran and Islamic teaching.

The Coordination Center of Northern Caucasus Muslims also denied the outrage had “any relation to the ideology of Islam” and urged Russians not to “associate such things with Islam.”

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow instructed priests to visit victims in hospitals and requested a list of dead and injured in order to “pray personally for each person,” according to patriarchate officials. The patriarch also urged Russians “to respond to the danger not with fear, panic or exasperation.”

“Unfortunately, this isn’t the first terrorist act committed in Russia in the recent months. We see quite clearly the danger is lurking around each of us every minute,” Patriarch Kirill said in a March 29 statement.

“Let us respond with unity among our people and with a firm will to stop terrorists and those who back, finance or justify them,” he added. “God’s punishment will extend to them, I believe, as will human justice.”

“We felt there is a perception in the public that he was a lame duck primate,” he told Ireland’s RTE Radio. “We said that to him and we asked would he end the speculation one way or the other, and he said he was reflecting on it.

“His answers were rather ambiguous. He said he received a lot of support in Newry (in his archdiocese) to stay, but we said he was the national primate and he needs to take a view from around the country and end the speculation. Talking to us, he didn’t categorically say that he wanted to stay.”

Some expected pressure on the cardinal to ease after the papal letter to Irish Catholics.

In the letter, Pope Benedict personally apologized to victims of priestly sexual abuse and announced new steps to heal the wounds of the scandal, including a Vatican investigation and a year of penitential reparation.

Earlier in March Cardinal Brady apologized and acknowledged that he never told police about statements from victims that he collected about a pedophile priest in 1975.

Kelly told RTE Radio March 31 that one of the positive elements of the meeting was that the Church’s leadership appears to be happy to work to find justice for women incarcerated in so-called Magdalene laundries.

Operated by religious orders, the laundries were asylums for “fallen women.” The incarcerated women were required to do hard physical labor for little

or no pay. Some people felt that the 30,000 women held in the laundries over the years were being forgotten because of the spotlight put on the hundreds of survivors of clerical sex abuse and the thousands of survivors of neglect and mistreatment while in residential care.

In three separate meetings at his Armagh home, Cardinal Brady met with John Kelly, Patrick Walsh and Marie Seo of the Survivors of Child Abuse organization; Dublin

clerical abuse survivor and justice campaigner Marie Collins and her husband Raymond; and Michael O’Brien of Right to Peace and Christopher Heaphy of Right of Place, both of whom represent the survivors of abuse while in institutional care. Also present with the cardinal were Bishop John McAreavey of Dromore; a Church-survivor communications facilitator, Lucy McCaffrey; and the cardinal’s assistant, Father Timothy Bartlett.

The Church in the U.S.

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April 9, 2010

Cardinal O’Connor revived Catholic pride, speakers say on anniversary of his death B y Beth Griffin C atholic News Service YONKERS, N.Y. — Cardinal John J. O’Connor was an apostle of the Gospel of life and a servantleader whose greatest gift was a revival of Catholic confidence, pride and fearlessness in the United States, said speakers at a conference marking the 10th anniversary of his death.

“He came at a time when the Catholic Church was dispirited and there was confusion, division and malaise,” said Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York. “Cardinal O’Connor transformed the raging anger of Pro-Lifers at the time into a positive respectfor-life movement. He showed us we’re not just antiabortion, we’re Pro-Life.”

The annual conference of the Family Life/Respect Life Office of the Archdiocese of New York drew more than 500 people for a daylong examination of Cardinal O’Connor’s legacy March 27 at St. Joseph Seminary in the Dunwoodie section of Yonkers.

Archbishop Dolan said Cardinal O’Connor and Pope John Paul II were two prophets raised up by God to revive Catholic identity. He said Pope John Paul “coined the word ‘countercultural’ to describe the Church. What John Paul did for the Church universal, John O’Connor did for the Church in the United States. The right-to-life cause was the podium that allowed him to do it.

“There was nothing more countercultural in the 1980s than for a man to stand up and say, ‘We’re talking about a baby,’” he added. “That demanded fearlessness and courage, which John O’Connor had in abundance.”

Archbishop Dolan said Cardinal O’Connor was the founder and patriarch of a movement in American society akin to the abolition of slavery and the civil rights movement. “All are predicated on the same moral principles,” he said.

Archbishop Dolan said Cardinal O’Connor was driven by his faith and remained steadfast, even when subjected to personal attacks for his position. He never lashed out at his detractors, said Archbishop

Dolan, and sometimes disarmed them with self-deprecating humor.

Cardinal O’Connor drew on his academic back-

lover of life — Cardinal John O’Connor of New York was an apostle of the Gospel of Life and a servant leader who helped revive the confidence and pride of U.S. Catholics, said speakers at a March 27 conference marking the 10th anniversary of his death. Cardinal O’Connor is pictured at a 1999 gathering of life ministry leaders at The Catholic University of America in Washington. (CNS file photo)

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ground in sociology, psychology and education and his experience tending the wounded as a military chaplain to focus attention on the vulnerable, Archbishop Dolan said.

Like Jesus Christ, Cardinal O’Connor knew where he came from and where he was going, said Archbishop Dolan. “If we constantly keep in mind who we are, children of God, made in the image of God and redeemed by his precious blood ... can we have anything but peace, steadfastness and charity?” he asked.

“From that flows courage and fearlessness.”

Helen Alvare, a professor at George Mason University School of Law, said Cardinal O’Connor was a model for the servant-leaders now needed in the ProLife movement. “We need people like him, willing to do grunt work and put their shoulders to the wheel.”

Alvare was introduced at the conference in Yonkers with a video clip of Cardinal O’Connor describing her to an audience in the 1990s when she served as the Pro-Life spokeswoman for the U.S. bishops’ conference. In her remarks she detailed the lessons she learned while working with Cardinal O’Connor, then chairman of the bishops’ Pro-Life committee, on a massive Pro-Life public relations campaign.

She said Cardinal O’Connor taught her that counterintuitive ideas could be successful. As examples, she said Cardinal O’Connor founded the Sisters of Life at a time when religious congregations were dwindling. He also asked the Knights of Columbus to commit $3 million to the Pro-Life public relations campaign. Alvare said Cardinal O’Connor reasoned, “If God is behind you, it’ll work.”

Cardinal O’Connor believed in telling the truth to the public and to his people, she said, and sometimes told it bluntly. In the recent run-up to the Senate vote on health care reform, Alvare said, With his use of humor and ability to “mix it up with the folks,” Alvare said Cardinal O’Connor demonstrated how to “be the human being you want to be representing the Pro-Life movement.” She said he was a master of confidence and joy who showed people to “love the light more than hate the dark.”

Bishops praise pope’s leadership WASHINGTON (CNS) — Leaders of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voiced concern for victims of clergy sexual abuse while offering praise for Pope Benedict XVI’s long-standing leadership in dealing with abuse cases.

In a Holy Week statement members of the Executive Committee of the USCCB said they are aware of the pope’s concern for abuse victims and “how he has strengthened the church’s response to victims.”

Committee members also acknowledged Pope Benedict’s support for efforts within the U.S. Catholic Church on behalf of victims as well as the steps taken to deal with perpetrators of abuse.

The committee said recent revelations of sexual abuse by clergy “saddens and angers the Church and causes us shame.” “If there is anywhere that children should be safe it should be in their homes and in the Church,” the bishops said. In recent weeks hundreds of new sex abuse allegations against priests and other Church personnel have surfaced in Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland. The Executive Committee members reiterated that U.S. bishops continue to “respond with compassion to victims (and) survivors.”

April 9, 2010

The Church in the U.S.

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USCCB Communications Department to undergo reorganization and update

holding out hope — A sign of support is seen April 6 along Route 3 near the Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, W.Va. An explosion ripped through the coal mine owned by Massey Energy, killing at least 25 miners in the deadliest U.S. mining disaster since 1984. Bishop Michael J. Bransfield of WheelingCharleston called for prayers for the miners and their families. (CNS photo/Mike Munden, Reuters)

San Antonio archbishop named coadjutor of L.A. Archdiocese WASHINGTON (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI has named Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of San Antonio as coadjutor archbishop of Los Angeles.

The appointment was announced by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, who is 74, currently heads the archdiocese. As coadjutor, Archbishop Gomez, 58, automatically becomes head of the archdiocese upon Cardinal Mahony’s retirement or death.

The cardinal will turn 75 next February, the age at which bishops are required by canon law to submit their resignation to the pope.

“I welcome Archbishop Gomez to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles with enthusiasm and personal excitement,” Cardinal Mahony said in a statement. “The auxiliary bishops and I are looking forward to working closely with him over the coming months until he becomes the archbishop early in 2011.”

Archbishop Gomez is currently the highest-ranking prelate of the 27 active Hispanic Catholic bishops in the U.S. When he succeeds Cardinal Mahony, he will become the first Hispanic archbishop of Los Angeles, the nation’s largest archdiocese. “’I’m very grateful to the Holy Father for giving me this opportunity to serve the church with a mentor and leader like Cardinal Roger Mahony,” Archbishop Gomez said in a statement. He said he was grateful to Archbishop Sambi “for supporting the Holy Father’s confidence in me. I will try with all my strength to earn that trust.”

The archbishop, one of 22 Opus Dei bishops around the world, was installed to

head the San Antonio Archdiocese in February 2005. When he was named to Texas in December 2004, then-Bishop Gomez had been an auxiliary bishop of the Denver Archdiocese for about three years.

On a national level Archbishop Gomez is chairman-elect of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Migration. He is chairman of the Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America and of the Task Force on the Spanish-language Bible. In 2007 he was elected to a two-year term as the first chairman of the Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church. He is currently a member of the Committee on Doctrine.

He was born in Monterrey, Mexico, Dec. 26, 1951. He attended the National University of Mexico, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting. In college he joined Opus Dei, an institution founded by St. Josemaria Escriva to help people turn their work and daily activities into occasions for growing closer to God, serving others and improving society.

Archbishop Gomez studied theology in Rome and at the University of Navarre in Spain, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in theology and a doctorate in moral theology. He was ordained a priest of Opus Dei Aug. 15, 1978, in Torreciudad, Spain.

After ordination he pursued pastoral work with college and high school students in Spain and Mexico. In 1987, he was sent to what was then the Diocese of Galveston-Houston to minister for Opus Dei in several capacities in Texas. He became a U.S. citizen in 1995.

In 1999, he became the vicar of Opus Dei for the state of Texas. Pope John Paul II named him a Denver auxiliary bishop in January 2001.

WASHINGTON (CNS) — The Communications Department at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is undergoing a reorganization that will allow it “to tap the benefits of the rapidly changing media environment around us,” said a statement from Helen Osman, who heads the department as secretary.

The changes become effective May 1, according to a March 25 press release from the USCCB. Under the plan, the department will get a new Office of Creative Services and an Office of Customer and Client Relations. In addition, a unit for project management will be created in the Office of the Secretary for Communications to oversee development of multimedia projects. Its staff will provide communication support for all USCCB projects.

The three new entities will provide services currently being handled by USCCB Publishing and Digital Media, both of which will no longer be stand-alone offices.

The Office of Customer and Client Relations will handle business and marketing for what has been Publishing and for Catholic News Service, the largest Englishlanguage religion news-gathering service in the world. CNS is an editorially independent and a financially self-sustaining division of the Communications Department.

The Office for Media Relations, which also is a division of the department, will increase in size and expand its outreach

through social media.

The Communications Department also will add staff to oversee Spanish-language translations.

Staff for the new Office of Creative Services and Office of Customer and Client Relations will include current employees who already handle many of those services.

In another change, the department’s Office of Film & Broadcasting will cease to exist as a stand-alone office and its work be absorbed by CNS, which currently distributes its reviews.

Osman noted that the reorganization of the Communications Department came after a review of the media landscape of the Catholic Church in the United States, particularly with regard to the growing Hispanic population and the exploding use of social media.

For example, material produced by the creative services office will be made available not only in print but also in various digital formats, such as video, audio, text, web, mobile devices and “other emerging technology,” Osman said.

“We are in a paradigm shift in how people receive information, as profound as when the printing press was invented,” she said. “It is important that the Church not only provide its wisdom regarding the primary dignity of the human person in this information evolution, but also take advantage of the opportunities this new media ecology provides.”

6

The Anchor Memoranda

Lent continues for the Church. The coverage of the sacred Triduum from the Vatican focused very little on the events of the Lord’s suffering, death and resurrection, but mainly on what Benedict didn’t say and others did with regard to the issue of the sexual abuse of minors by clergy.

Several things should be kept in mind on this extended penitential journey.

First, as American Cardinal William Levada, the successor of Cardinal Ratzinger at the Vatican’s Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, mentioned in a lengthy column in the Catholic newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, the cases being mentioned all highlight serious “failures on the part of the Church and civil authorities to act properly at the time” that some interested lawyers and journalists are falsely ascribing to Pope Benedict rather than to diocesan decisions at the time. Cardinal Levada’s statement strikes a balance that not only corresponds to the facts but to their objective interpretation. To deny the future Pope Benedict’s involvement, moreover, is not to deny that the evil events occurred, not that they were terribly handled by the Church, but to ascribe responsibility to the appropriate parties.

Second, we need to admit that one of the reasons why the focus on the Vatican and Pope Benedict has been able to gain a certain traction has been, as we have mentioned in previous editorials, that the Church has not yet adequately addressed the second major part of the sexual abuse crisis.

The first part of the crisis concerns priests and other Church employees who manipulated their positions to abuse the young. The Church in our country has responded firmly to this situation since 2002, by removing from public ministry and often from the clerical state altogether priestly predators, as well as by instituting background checks, training and safe environment programs that have made Catholic institutions among the safest places for kids today. The second part of the crisis concerns the accountability of those in authority who did not respond adequately to remove offending clergy from situations where they could continue to do harm. Just as the failure permanently to remove abusive priests raised legitimate questions about the judgment of the bishops in authority over them, the failure to discipline certain bishops whose handling of sexual abuse cases was exposed as palpably inadequate has led people to start questioning the judgment of those in the Vatican who have the duty of supervising the shepherds. The faithful have the sound assumption that members of the Church hierarchy will respond with holy horror, outrage and rapid discipline to priests who molest children and to bishops who culpably fail to put a stop to it. When that does not occur — and it has not happened sufficiently in the second instance — they begin to ask why, and even the most outrageous allegations begin to gain the possibility of plausibility.

Third, it would be useful to note that the current attempt to impugn Pope Benedict bears some similarities to the posthumous character assassination of Pope Pius XII. Despite the fact that Pius XII’s actions during World War II ended up saving tens of thousands of Jewish lives for which he was justly praised by Jewish leaders, a fictional play in 1963 concocted the storyline that his public silence, rather than being a prudent maneuver to save the lives of Jews and Christian converts in Nazi-occupied territories, was a sign of complicity in the Holocaust. It’s been shown that such a storyline was propagated — particularly by communists whose anthropology and atheism were vigorously opposed by the Church — as a means by which to attack the credibility of the Church as a whole by attacking her visible head. This historical fiction was repeated enough that it began in many places to be uncritically accepted. A similar tactic seems to be at work with Pope Benedict XVI. Despite the fact that he has been one of the most influential figures in the Vatican to remove abusive priests from ministry and the priesthood, and to alter Church law to expedite and facilitate their removal, a new story line is being suggested — by contingency lawyers with huge financial stakes in trying to portray Benedict and the Vatican in the worst possible light with regard to sexual abuse cases — that he is the head of an international cartel of clerical abusers and their episcopal enablers. The Church didn’t respond adequately to the outlandish allegations of Pius XII’s putative complicity in the Holocaust because it naively thought that few would believe it; as a consequence, it allowed the story-line to become accepted common wisdom by those unfamiliar with the facts. It’s imperative that the Church — and that means members of the Church throughout the world, and not just Vatican spokesmen and Catholic newspapers, but all the faithful — expose the fictitious claims about Pope Benedict, lest the same thing recur and, like the allegations against Pope Pius XII, wound the Church’s moral credibility.

Fourth, when processing scandals in the Church, it is important for all the faithful to know how properly to categorize the sins of priests and bishops. Judas Iscariot was one of the 12 chosen directly by Christ and he betrayed him; in every generation there will be those who betray rather than serve the Lord and others. The human reality of sin in the members and leaders of the Church, however, does not eliminate the divine treasure held in earthen vessels. Pope John Paul II described the proper ecclesiological understanding we’re all called to have in response to scandals in a 1980 Angelus catechesis.

“It is indispensable,” he said, “not to lose the divine dimension of life in the human dimension [and] to persevere in it. Christ, in fact, is at the same time the Redeemer and the Bridegroom of the Church. Christ, as Redeemer and Bridegroom, instituted [the Church] among weak people, among sinful and fallible human beings, but, at the same time, he instituted her strong, holy and infallible. She is such not by the work of human beings, but through the power of Christ’s gift.

To believe in the power of the Church does not mean believing in the power of the people who compose her, but believing in Christ’s gift: in that power that, as St. Paul says, ‘is made perfect in weakness’ (2 Cor 12:9). To believe in the holiness of the Church does not mean believing in a natural human perfection, but believing in Christ’s gift — in that gift which makes us the heirs of sin, [but also] the heirs of divine holiness. To believe in the infallibility of the Church does not mean — in any way! — believing in the infallibility of human persons, but believing in Christ’s gift — in that gift that enables fallible men to proclaim infallibly and to confess infallibly the truth revealed for our salvation. The Church of our times — of this difficult and dangerous age in which we live, of this critical age — must have a special certainty of Christ’s gift, the gift of power, the gift of holiness, the gift of infallibility. The more she is aware of human weakness, sinfulness and fallibility, the more must she guard the certainty of those gifts that come from her Redeemer and her Bridegroom.”

This is one of the reasons why John Paul II’s successor, rather than focusing on the abuse allegations during the celebration of the sacred Triduum, concentrated instead on the certainty of the gifts coming from the Church’s Redeemer and Bridegroom. We need those now more than ever.

Lastly, the whole Church needs to respond to these recent allegations against the Holy Father with the first thing that Catholics are always called to do: prayer. We need to pray, first, for the victims of clergy sexual abuse whose painful memories are often magnified and relived whenever clerical sexual abuse is mentioned. We need to pray, second, in reparation for the horror of the abuse. We need to pray, third, for the members of the media, that they may always seek the truth.

We need to pray, fourth, for those in the leadership of the Church, that they may always correspond to the graces the Lord gives them to fulfill their divine task. Finally, we need to pray for the pope, that the Lord may strengthen him so that he may strengthen and feed all Christ’s flock.

April 9, 2010

Munificence in ministry

On Monday of Holy Week, the Gospel deceased mentor’s bed and books, a couple of at daily Mass focused of Mary of Bethany’s straw chairs, two tables and the barest of cookanointing Jesus’ feet with oil made from genu- ing utensils. ine aromatic nard. Judas Iscariot immediately He then got to work on the church. He knew objected to such a gesture, saying that the oil that it order to attract people back to God, they could have been sold for 300 days wages and needed to get a glimpse of God’s beauty. He the money given to the poor. He had already began by spending his own money to have conassessed Jesus’ value at 30 pieces of silver and structed a more beautiful altar and reredos. This thought that Jesus was simply not worth such an was his priority because of its direct connection expense of precious resources. to Jesus in the Eucharist. He also bought some Objections to costly expressions of love for angels to place on both sides of the tabernacle.

God did not die with Judas Iscariot. During my He then repainted the walls. Then he began to time studying in Rome, where I often gave tours recruit artisans and carpenters and benefactors to Americans of the holy sites, some used to be to expand and consolidate the work. scandalized by the wealth that was expended The Viscount of Ars, moved by the zeal of to build St. Peter’s Basilica. Why doesn’t the the new pastor and urged on by his sister, the Vatican — they asked with a sense of indigna- chateleine, began to underwrite Father Viantion — sell St. Peter’s or the Sistine Chapel and ney’s pursuit of pastoral pulchritude. He sent give the money to the poor? I would generally from Paris some beautiful altar candlesticks, a reply that the Catholic Church is second to none gilded brass tabernacle, several reliquaries, a in the services, money and other help given to silver-gilt monstrance and throne for exposithe poor. But that seldom was enough to mol- tion, and a rich canopy and banners for Corpus lify their umbrage. Their issue was almost never Christi processions. He also gave Father Vianfundamentally about the Church’s charity to the ney money to go to the embroiderers in Lyons poor, but about the Church’s love for God. They to purchase or have made some new vestments, thought that such munificence was a sin, not a since the chasubles and copes he had inherited virtue. God was not worth extravagant sacrific- were just as ugly and unworthy of the Lord as es, they believed, even if such spending did not the church itself. The tradesmen were shocked to lessen at all the meet a priest in a Church’s charitattered cassock table work. asking to see Like Mary of and buy the most Bethany, St. John beautiful fabrics Vianney recogthey had. “In this nized that God district,” several deserves our very of them began to

By Father best. He saw that say, “there lives Roger J. Landry there’s no inhera little curé, lean, ent competition badly dressed, between the love looking as if he of God and the love of neighbor, and always had not a sou in his pocket, yet only the very sought to do both. We’ve seen in previous col- best things are good enough for his church.” umns the patron saint of priest’s legendary char- He would on occasion frustrate them when he ity to the poor, how he routinely exchanged would say to them, after they had displayed shoes, clothes, and food with the indigent, emp- specimens they thought would suffice, “Not tied his cassock “shuttle pocket” each day, sold good enough! I must have something better all his familial property to found an orphanage, than that.” When the tradesmen mentioned to and at the end of his life was sustaining more him about the asymmetry between the liturgical than 30 family farms. This was all a simple con- vestments he desired and his personal attire, the sequence of his Christian faith and the Lord’s priest responded humorously, “An old cassock call to love others according to his own standard goes very well with a beautiful chasuble!” of total self-giving.

These improvements started to draw people Father Vianney, however, was just as con- to the church, some attracted by the beauty, othcerned with concrete acts of material love for ers simply by curiosity. A few, however, began God. to raise questions about the appropriateness of When he arrived in Ars in 1818, the first the expenses. “How could we fail to give to our thing he did was to visit the Church of St. Lord the richest and most precious things we Sixtus. On the one hand, he said he felt like have?,” he asked in reply. “What ingratitude to he was returning to his paternal home; on the be miserly toward a God who is so generous! other hand, he felt that the familial home was Has he not given every drop of his Blood for us in a pitifully deplorable state. It was tiny, ugly on the cross?” and totally uninspiring. The church was 36 feet Rather than putting on the brakes, he stepped long by 16 feet wide. The walls had discolored on the gas. With the help of the mayor, he rewhite wooden paneling. The plain wooden altar paired the bell tower and added a second bell. was devoid of beauty. The ceiling was flat and He re-did the ceiling. He widened the entrance full of cracks. The wooden steeple was about to to the church, fixed the staircase, and added an collapse. The only art to speak of was a simple elegant balustrade. He cleaned and painted the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but it was in statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary and expanded the midst of a worm-eaten shrine. Priests who the shrine to her, adorning the niche with gildhad come to celebrate occasional Masses there ings and mouldings. He built other shrines to St. prior to Father Vianney’s arrival were roused to John the Baptist, St. Philomena, the Suffering pity at how ugly it was, not even considering its Christ and the Holy Angels. He also adorned the deteriorated state. The church was, in short, the white walls of the nave with statues and painted visual manifestation of spiritual condition of the images of various saints. It wasn’t just decorapopulace. “There’s no love of God there,” the tive eye candy. “Sometimes the mere sight of a vicar general told him upon giving him the as- picture is enough to move and convert us,” he signment. “You must put some.” said. “At times pictures make almost as deep an His discomfort at the state of the parish impression as the objects they represent.” church was only magnified when he compared When people began with pride to marvel that it to the rectory. The local chatelaine had loaned their church had metamorphosed from plain to the rectory all types of expensive and tasteful exquisite over the span of just three years, he furniture: velvet chairs, tables, beds, cooking stoked their desire for something even better: equipment and more. Like King David 3,800 “In heaven everything will be even more beauyears before him, Vianney couldn’t fathom that tiful!” Rather than depressing priest and people, he would be living in the lap of luxury when the the church had become a source of inspiration, Lord was abiding in a dilapidated house. a type of sacrament of the beauty of God in the Since he couldn’t improve the church im- midst of their simple village. mediately, he thought that the quickest way to The Church of Ars had become, in short, remedy the disproportion between the houses a modern Bethany, where Jesus was lavishly of Master and servant would be to reduce the loved by a faithful parish priest and, eventually, priest’s condition. He sent back to the chateau his people. almost all the permanently loaned benefacFather Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of tions, keeping only the bare essentials of his Padua Parish in New Bedford.

Putting Into the Deep

April 9, 2010

P

ope Benedict XVI, last year when he marked his fourth anniversary as successor of St. Peter, did not celebrate with triumphant tones but surprisingly referred to the alternating phases of the moon, which ceaselessly wax and wane and whose splendor depends on the light of the sun, which is the image of Christ.

Most of us are pretty much aware of at least the existence if not the experience of the monthly cycles of the moon as it is able to reflect or not the light of the sun. I think this imagery can be used well in our spiritual life. Like the moon we reflect or at times are hidden from reflecting the light of Christ.

But sometimes it takes a special positioning like a huge harvest moon or a total lunar eclipse to catch our attention.

Using this analogy, I would like to share an extraordinary moment of awakening that I had the opportunity as a priest to provide over 30 years ago soon after I was ordained. I was on vacation in Zurich, Switzerland. Early one morning, I went for a swim in the pool on the 36th floor. Afterward,

I

n recent years, some medical practitioners have suggested that death from dehydration may not be such an unpleasant way for patients to die. This conclusion, however, remains rather doubtful.

Thirst and appetite are very primal drives, and anyone who has ever done a voluntary fast knows well the discomfort that arises from even a single day of fasting. Thus, we ought to consistently maintain a presumption in favor of providing nutrition and hydration to patients in our care, using all reasonable and effective (or “proportionate”) means at our disposal to nourish and hydrate such patients, whether by spoon-feeding or by tube feeding.

The intense pains of dehydration and starvation have been graphically described by patients who were previously in a so-called “vegetative state” and had their feeding tubes withdrawn.

Kate Adamson, who was in a vegetative state due to a stroke, and later came out of it, recounted her experience in an article she wrote: I was half listening to a talk radio broadcast about a 40-year-old woman in Florida, Terri Schiavo, who was going to be starved to death. This woman had been disconnected from her feeding tube.

She was without food for eight days.

Suddenly the broadcasters had my full attention. When I was paralyzed, I, too, had a feeding tube disconnected for eight days and I knew what that felt like.

7

The Anchor

When the full moon is under eclipse

I entered the sauna where a As soon as I heard those gentleman was sitting. We exwords, without any further changed “good mornings” and he thought, I made the sign of the asked where I was from and what cross and said: “May God be in I did for a living. While someyour heart so that you can make times telling another you’re a a good confession.” priest can be a conversation stopHe was startled. He said, per, I saw no reason not to tell “Here? Like this?,” highlighthim forthrightly. His response ing the fact that we were both I’ll never forget. He replied, “O my God, Father, please sit down,” and, after telling me he had been Year For Priests away from the practice Vocational Reflection of the faith for decades, he began to tell me his story.

By Father “Every Sunday afHerbert T. Nichols ternoon, I take a walk, the same walk, but last Sunday as I passed a certain church I felt myself dressed like Adam before the sucked through the doors like a Fall. vacuum cleaner. I landed on my “There’s nobody here but the knees in the middle aisle facing three of us,” I answered, “you, the gold cross (which he later me and God — and he sees and discovered was a monstrance knows it all.” holding the Blessed Sacrament).

He chuckled and said, “I For a few moments I was unable think God has a sense of huto get up. I wept, saying: ‘Dear mor,” and he made his confesGod, I would really like to come sion. home (to the practice of the He told me afterward that he faith) but I’m terrified of going thought he would have to wait to confession.’” until Sunday to receive Holy

Communion for the first time in decades. I told him that if he knew where there was a morning Mass, he would have to wait no longer.

This eclipse was over.

Three years later I had the opportunity to participate in the young adult and youth conference at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, After an illuminating talk concerning the sins that most teens and young adults never think of and a second talk challenging them to reconciliation, 1,600 young people came like lost sheep to the 13 confessional set-ups within Christ the King Chapel to be shriven of their sins and the demons that howled at them like wolves, disturbing their peace. It was the most awesome penance service that I’ve ever experienced, even to this day.

But I would like to conclude with the more common and ordinary. When I attended parochial school back in the 1950s the good Sisters “advised” us to go to confession every other week.

Towards ‘passive euthanasia’

Her husband had been saying that being starved was a relatively painless way to go. I nearly shouted at the radio dial, “That is not true.

That is a lie. You ought to try it!”

When Mrs. Adamson was interviewed on The O’Reilly Factor, she provided further details: O’Reilly: When they took the feeding tube out, what went through your mind?

Adamson: When the feeding tube was turned off for eight days, I thought I was going insane. I was screaming out in my mind, “Don’t you know I need to eat?” I just wanted something. The fact that I had nothing, the hunger pains overrode every thought I had.

O’Reilly: So you were feeling pain when they removed your tube?

Adamson: Yes. Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely. To say that — especially when Michael [Schiavo] on national TV mentioned last week that it’s a pretty painless thing to have the feeding tube removed — it is the exact opposite. It was sheer torture, Bill.

Elsewhere, she described the obsessive thirst she felt when her feeding tube was removed: I craved anything to drink.

Anything. I obsessively visualized drinking from a huge bottle of orange Gatorade. And I hate orange Gatorade.

Patients in a vegetative state are clearly a “voiceless” population of humans, unable to advocate

for themselves. Another voiceless group includes patients facing dementia. Because individuals with dementia are apparently “out of it,” they may also be unable to communicate coherently regarding any discomfort or pain they may experience. The assumption may

Making Sense Out of Bioethics

By Father Tad Pacholczyk

be too facilely made by health care professionals that because people are demented, they no longer can truly experience suffering, pain, hunger or thirst.

When patients with dementia are brought to the hospital because they can no longer swallow, some physicians will be aggressive in persuading the family not to give an IV or put in a G-tube. They may suggest that it will only prolong the person’s death, forcing him or her to live a “low quality of life.” In one such scenario that I am aware of, a physician indicated to the family that if an IV were given, the patient would likely perk back up and live for perhaps another year or two, but, he continued, what would be the point? In a different case, another physician stated that the cause of death would indeed be dehydration and not the patient’s disease, but he still advocated

declining an IV so that the patient would die. Decisions like these, when assisted hydration would be non-burdensome and effective, are sometimes termed “passive euthanasia.”

When someone dies from dehydration, of course, it is not always an example of passive euthanasia. In some instances, tube feeding will be ineffective or cause significant complications like vomiting or chronic infections.

In these circumstances, declining assisted nutrition or hydration may be a reasonable choice, not with an intention of ending life, but acknowledging that unduly burdensome or ineffective treatments may be legitimately refused.

This hearkens back to statements by Pope John Paul II in 2004 and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2007

And parents, even if they had outgrown the good “advice” of the good Sisters, enforced it for their children. I didn’t particularly like interrupting my play schedule on Saturday afternoon to run to church and wait in line. And like almost everyone I know, I didn’t particularly enjoy going into the dark confessional and having to tell my sins. But I certainly did enjoy coming out — into the light and the reconciliation of life with the Lord.

It was like jumping in a pool or a cool shower on a hot summer day and emerging refreshed and renewed.

Whether as a penitent in need of reconciliation or as a priest now empowered to restore that life-giving grace, the experience of the sacrament of reconciliation has been for me the most awesome experience of priesthood. And like the pope, I recognize the howling of wolves cannot withstand the prayers of the Church, which like the moon draws her light from the Son. Father Herbert Nichols, ordained in 1975, is in residence at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in New Bedford.

which noted that the administration of food and water (whether by natural or artificial means) to a patient in a “vegetative state” is morally obligatory except when they cannot be assimilated by the patient’s body or cannot be administered to the patient without causing significant physical discomfort.

Recognizing that dehydration is a painful way to die serves as a helpful starting point to assist family members in addressing the nutrition and hydration needs of their loved ones who may find themselves in compromised states or approaching the end of life.

Father Pacholczyk earned his doctorate in neuroscience from Yale and did post-doctoral work at Harvard. He is a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, and serves as the director of Education at The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia. See www. ncbcenter.org

8

F

or the next few weeks our first reading, which normally comes from the Hebrew Scriptures, is taken instead from the Acts of the Apostles. This New Testament book is the companion volume to the Gospel of Luke and was written around the year 85. As is evident in today’s passage, one of Luke’s favorite themes is that the reconciling and healing power of Jesus lives in the family of the Church.

During this Easter Season, our second reading will come from the book of Revelation. This book was written around the year 95 during a persecution of Christians in Asia Minor by the Roman Emperor. Fearful of what could happen if his letter fell into Roman hands, the author, John of Patmos, wrote in a very symbolic style that only believers

April 9, 2010

The Anchor

Scripture is a toolbox could easily understand. Due sinners is the antithesis of to this deliberate secrecy, the the dispassionate killing of book of Revelation is often the innocent. As Christians misinterpreted today. This we hold to the absolute grapassage presents a vision of tuitousness of God’s mercy the resurrected Jesus as one and love for us. The classic who will triumph over the evil forces that persecute the Church.

Homily of the Week The Gospel reading Divine Mercy is the original ending Sunday of the Gospel of John.

In explaining why he

By Father wrote his Gospel, the Marc H. Bergeron author suggests to us that authentic faith is based not on seeing spectacular signs, but on beexpression of this comes to lieving the Word made flesh. us from two Hebrew conToday we see two special cepts, faithfulness and loving events remembered the juxkindness. taposition of the two events, Amazingly, in the cruDivine Mercy Sunday and cifixion of Jesus, it is the Holocaust Memorial Day, ofcondemnation of innocence fers an opportunity to reflect that reveals the depth of on the difference between divine mercy. That mercy is God’s heart and ours. an absolutely unconditional God’s abundant mercy for love that is totally unearned.

We are loved by God before we could ever earn or deserve that love. That’s why it is so different from our way of living and loving. It is almost incomprehensible to us. However, it is very real and it is important to us in many ways. It is an important model for us.

We live in a world that chooses condemnation over mercy, but that choice is always ours to make. The cry of the Holocaust victims of “never again!” is a challenge to us to live the way our God loves us so unconditionally.

“Write what you see,” John of Patmos was told by the man in the gold sash whose name was AlphaOmega. So John wrote of distress, kingdom, and endurance, three conditions that every genuine disciple

in every age would know about. In the same way the Gospel evangelist also known as John tells the story of Thomas and his doubt, not to tell tales on Thomas but because one day each of us would have to stare down our own doubts and dispel them with our own touch — or be overwhelmed and defeated by them.

The Gospel isn’t words to put in a sacred book, saved for holy times and places.

Scripture is a toolbox, or the glove compartment, or a backpack in which we keep the things we truly need on hand, every day. As the evangelist says, these things are written so that you and I may come to faith. Don’t just honor them. Take them with you.

Father Bergeron is pastor of St. Anne’s Parish in Fall River.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Apr. 10, Acts 4:13-21; Ps 118:1,14-15b,16-21; Mk 16:9-15. Sun. Apr. 11, Second Sunday of Easter or Divine Mercy Sunday, Acts 5:12-16; Ps 118:2-4,13-15,22-24; Rv 1:9-11a,12-13,17-19; Jn 20:19-31. Mon. Apr. 12, Acts 4:23-31; Ps 2:1-9; Jn 3:1-8. Tues. Apr. 13, Acts 4:32-37; Ps 93:1-2,5; Jn 3:7b-15; Wed. Apr. 14, Acts 5:17-26; Ps 34:2-9; Jn 3:16-21. Thur. Apr. 15, Acts 5:27-33; Ps 34:2,9,17-20; Jn 3:31-36. Fri. Apr. 16, Acts 5:34-42; Ps 27:1,4,13-14; Jn 6:1-15.

R

eports of the clerical sexual abuse of the young in Europe — and the gross mishandling of these cases by bishops, including connivance in cover-ups — ignited a media firestorm in late March, including calls for the pope’s resignation in light of allegations that he was party to reassigning an abusive priest while archbishop of Munich-Freising and that he impeded the disciplining of an abusive Milwaukee priest while prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

As is too often the case, agendas other than an honest accounting for the sins, failures and crimes of the past, and the protection of vulnerable young people in the present and future, were at work here. Enemies of the Church saw an opportunity to discred-

Scandal-time, once more place within families. There it Catholic moral teaching by were 290,000 reported cases painting the Church as a hypof abuse in public schools ocritical criminal conspiracy in 1991-2000. There were of sexual abusers and their six credible cases of sexual enablers. Contingentfee lawyers smelled an opportunity to try to dig into the Vatican’s resources, having already bled the Church in the United States of billions of dollars. The

By George Weigel allegations against the pope, which were demonstrably false, were abuse reported in the Catholic undoubtedly made in service Church in the United States of these latter two agendas. in 2009: six, in a Church of Here are some facts relsome 68,000,000 members. evant to separating truth from Having learned the lessons of falsehood as this story un2002, the Catholic Church in folds.

America today is likely the 1. The sexual abuse of the young is a global plague. Por- safest environment for children in the country. No institraying the Catholic Church tution working with the young as its epicenter is malicious — not the public schools, not and false. Forty to 60 perthe teachers unions, not the cent of sexual abuse takes

The Catholic Difference

Scouts — has done as much to face its past failures in this area and to put in place policies to prevent such horrors in the future.

2. Pope Benedict XVI did not impede sanctions against Father Lawrence Murphy, the Milwaukee priest who abused 200 deaf children in his care; the New York Times story of March 25 alleging that is falsified by the legal documents the Times itself provided on its website.

Then there was the story’s sourcing. For the Times to cite as one of its principal sources the emeritus archbishop of Milwaukee, Rembert Weakland, who notoriously paid hush money to a male lover and who did nothing about Father Murphy for a decade and a half, was bad enough.

But to use as a second principal source Jeff Anderson, the Minnesota attorney who has a direct financial interest in the Murphy case and in painting the Vatican as the center of a global conspiracy to protect pedophiles, suggests that the nation’s former newspaper of record has abandoned serious journalistic standards.

3. The charge that the Church threatened sexual abuse whistle-blowers with excommunication is false and malicious, as is the charge

that then-Cardinal Ratzinger imposed silence on those who wished to report abusers to civil authorities. There has never been any such prohibition, and the confidentiality about abuse cases invoked in a 2001 Ratzinger letter to the world’s bishops on priests who solicited sex in the confessional was intended to protect the integrity of the sacraments and the Church’s own legal process, and to encourage victims to come forward without fear of public scandal. Under Ratzinger’s leadership, procedures were put in place in Rome to make sanctions against abusers easier to apply.

The pope’s March 20 letter to the Irish Church made clear that Joseph Ratzinger is determined to clean out what he once described as “filth” in the Church, and determined to bring the Curia along with him in that cleansing. That there is filth to be cleaned up is not in doubt; much of that filth is decades old. There is no credible evidence, however, that the Catholic Church is at the center of the global sexual abuse crisis. Honest journalists will recognize that. So will serious Catholics.

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

April 9, 2010

Come hell or high water

a T-shirt, but this most recent Wednesday 31 March storm takes the cake. You can 2010 — at the church on Three Mile River — Tenebrae keep your lousy T-shirt, thank you very much.

Prayer Service Still, we got off easier hoever could have predicted that a tsunami would hit Three Mile The Ship’s Log River? I can actually hear the roar of the Reflections of a floodwaters from the Parish Priest steps of the church.

By Father Tim Yesterday, someone Goldrick I know saw a fish happily swimming across Copicut Road here than folks in other parts in Fall River. This afternoon, of the diocese. I feel badly a guy went kayaking down about the devastation I see on Lincoln Avenue. Meteorolothe news and read about in gists are calling it a “Hunthe newspapers. Many people dred Year Storm.” They have by far experienced more say it’s the most rain since hardship from this storm than record-keeping began. I plan I have. I can’t complain. The not to be around for the next Dightons did get their 15 secone. I survived the Blizzard of ’78 and somebody gave me onds of fame on the National

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The Anchor Weather Channel, however.

With the rain continuing unabated last night, I telephoned some friends to assess their safety. I was speaking on the phone to one retired priest when his landline went dead. This was not a good omen.

I called another retired priest who lives on the shores of a large pond. The waves were lapping at his house. I offered him the use of my guest room if things got out of hand. I told him I would leave the light on for him and the door unlocked.

I phoned another priest, the pastor of a core-city parish. He said he couldn’t talk because the fire department, gas company, and electric

The Divine Mercy

those whose infirmities hrist has conquered weren’t healed, and those death, and we have who jeered him as he carried before us weeks to celebrate. them on his back to Calvary.

The lilies share their scent, Not everyone who saw his the bells have pealed and we risen body believed, and not reclaim the long-dormant Alevery invitation to be free leluia’s to ring out the triumwas taken up. Some come phant news that the Risen Lord very late to the banquet, and has paid the ultimate price for some not at all. But the table our Communion. This year, is set. the weather even cooperated Recognizing that so so that the new life in Christ many simply cannot grasp might find echo in the robes of the graces that are there for spring — and the songs of joy the taking, we’re invited to come from throats of birds as well as men.

But for some among us, the news might seem incomprehensible, and the festive songs like so much background

By Genevieve Kineke noise. These are the ones who suffer still — the chronically ill, participate in a new devotion those who cannot believe, or for their particular benefit those whose loved ones in — and those who can must crisis keep them burdened intensify their prayers for the with a dull, fragile grief. “Alrest. The crushed hearts, the leluia, maybe,” they think. aching souls and the bruised “But what of my sorrow that in spirit may be near despair hasn’t been burned away with in a human sense, but they the new Easter fire?” are very close to God. While How do we celebrate this on earth, he spoke of their season while reading of blessedness, and he revealed violent confrontations, grave to St. Faustina Kowalska economic hardship and even how very dear they are to new Christian martyrs being him. And if he loves them created around the world? that much, then so must we.

Of what value was Christ’s He reminded her that the blood in a world still seeped divine mercy of God is like in tears and confusion? a burning furnace that will To be sure, the confusion, never cool, because it feeds sickness and empty distracon his very essence — his tions have ever been with unending passion for us. us. They surrounded Jesus That divine love is more during his lifetime — those powerful than any sin we at the edge of the crowd,

The Feminine Genius

could commit. We only need to trust, and be absolutely certain that his goodness wants to embrace us and heal these sorrows.

In God is the fullness of justice and mercy, and they are both expressed perfectly in Christ. We have just witnessed justice being meted out in full measure through his suffering on our behalf so that he could allow a super-abundance of mercy to be in turn to be given to us.

Those who still suffer may not be able to comprehend this — so bowed down are they at present — but if we can trust in this truth, then we can allow God’s love to spill over through our intercession in this age of mercy.

No doubt, you can find references in your parish to the beautiful message of Divine Mercy that was entrusted to St. Faustina.

This would be an excellent time to pray for those who have still not grasped the Easter message nor found the graces that are buried even in their own suffering. There is — even in their sorrow — joy unclaimed and the approaching feast of Divine Mercy is a firm reminder that God patiently waits for his children.

Mrs. Kineke is the author of The Authentic Catholic Woman (Servant Books) and edits woman.catholicexchange.com.

company were there shutting everything off. I offered him the use of my guest room if things got out of hand. I told him I would leave the light on for him and the door unlocked.

Neither priest showed up here last night. Just as well.

One of them would have had to sleep on the couch.

I phoned my sister Mary in Denver to see how she was weathering the storm. “Rain?

What rain?” she asked. “It’s 80 degrees and sunny here.” I hung up.

The basement of the rectory flooded. Even in a heavy mist it floods. I made a mental note. I’ll have to do something about that. During the night, I thought I heard ducks quaking downstairs. It must have been a bad dream.

St. Nicholas Church itself wasn’t so lucky. Preparing to celebrate the Tuesday morning Mass, I noticed the building was cool. The thermostat said that it was seven degrees colder than it was supposed to be. I went into the basement. My Christmas balls were floating. Water was two-feet deep. The furnace had drowned. RIP. Where was all this water coming from?

Thieves had stolen the building’s copper downspouts.

Today, as I headed over for morning Mass, I discovered that all roads leading to the church were blocked. You can’t get there from here.

Three Mile River had overrun its banks and engulfed Steven’s Island as well as Spring Street. Lincoln Avenue was awash. I drove all the way around to Warner Boulevard. This roadway, they say, had been built as a national security measure to accommodate army tanks protecting the motherhouse of Raytheon (now demolished.) Warner Boulevard was flooded. I

drove very slowly. My truck made it through. When I finally arrived at the church, there were the “Old Faithful” patiently waiting for Mass to begin. Nothing deters the Old Faithful. They smiled smugly at their tardy pastor.

The roof in the Pastoral Life Center leaked. Down came a ceiling tile in the men’s room. Fortunately, no one was in the building. I mopped up the water, swept up the soggy tile, placed an orange cone, and made another mental note. Have the roof repaired ASAP. My other parish center also leaked during the storm.

There was water dripping in the front entry and in the classroom corridor downstairs. I had seen old evidence of water damage, so this came as no surprise.

I haven’t yet inspected the basement of my other church.

A river runs through it. Two sump pumps work 24/7.

Schools closed, so we cancelled Religious Education classes. We also cancelled our showing of the Mel Gibson’s film “Passion of the Christ.” “No, madam, there will be no ‘Passion’ here tonight.” Three funerals were held as requested. A couple who planned to validate a civil marriage showed up tonight. There were only five of us present in the church.

No matter. A sacrament is a sacrament.

Tenebrae, the “Service of Shadows,” just ended here at St. Nicholas Church. Toll the steeple bell. Depart in silence.

Last one out, turn off the lights.

Our celebration of the Lord’s death and resurrection will happen, dear readers, come hell or high water.

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

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The Anchor

April 9, 2010

An instrument in full harmony with God’s symphony

By Dave Jolivet, Editor SEEKONK — William Kearney doesn’t lead fallen-away Catholics back to the Church, or call non-Catholics to the faith. The Holy Spirit does that.

Kearney is just an instrument to that effect. An instrument finely tuned into God’s will to have all his children welcomed into the Church his Son began two millennia ago.

Kearney directs the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults process at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Seekonk. He’s

been involved with the process for eight years, and continually receives blessings of joy and fulfillment when candidates he and his RCIA team have instructed for the six months are welcomed into the Church.

“Just this past weekend, we had nine adults either initiated into the faith or who made their confirmation,” Kearney told The Anchor. “I left the church with a glow, a feeling of the presence of the Holy Spirit. There was a tingling up my spine.”

Kearney, who was born in

Kearney is quick to point out Providence, R.I., credits his Deacon Robert Lemay, diparents for the strong faith he that when it comes to the can- ocesan RCIA director, told maintains today. “My mom and didates, it is God who does the The Anchor, “The process has dad were dedicated Catholics, calling. “God whispers to them always been successful at Our and my grandmother was very for years,” he said, “and eventu- Lady of Mount Carmel, and active with priests and nuns ally it is the candidate who an- when Bill took over, that sucand the parochial school in her swer the call. These individuals cess carried on. He obviously are matured more in life than knows what he’s doing and he neighborhood.”

As a boy at his home parish they were as teens, and there does it very well. of St. Martha’s in East Provi- are events in their lives they “Bill is a clean-cut, well-spodence, Kearney was greatly sometimes don’t understand. ken individual, and the seaminfluenced by a young priest, But when they learn about the less progression when he took Father Gerry Bierne. “Father Catholic faith, or come back to over shows he is always open Bierne was active in to support his group. He sports and was good with greatly supports not only young people,” Kearney his team, but the candisaid. “He was a great indates. It’s sincere and fluence on me and many from the heart.” of my friends.”

In the Old Testament, Kearney later moved Elijah heard God in a to Maryland, was margentle whisper. Each ried in Virginia, moved Easter season, Kearney to Worcester, and eventuhears the Lord not so ally settled in Seekonk in subtly. He hears God in 1985. He and his wife of the rejection of Satan 32 years are the parents and the acceptance of of three daughters and Jesus and his Church in one son. the responses of the canAfter settling in at Our didates who he and othLady of Mount Carmel ers graciously tutored Parish, Kearney, who for half a year. He hears was already an extraorGod in the celebratory dinary minister of holy applause of his fellow Communion and a Reliparishioners following gious Education teacher, the baptismal and confelt the need to do more firmation ceremony. He for the Church he loved. hears God in the joyful “Father George Harrison conversation of the new was pastor back then, and and returned Cathohe had the most influlics, their families and ence on my faith growth friends. And he cherishas an adult,” explained Anchor person of the week — William es that.

Kearney. “Knowing I was Kearney.

“I am so happy for the looking to do more, he candidates,” he reiterasked me to become inated. “There is such joy, volved with the RCIA process it, things start to make sense to and joy is a difficult word to dethem. Things start to fall into scribe, especially for guys. But and I accepted.”

Kearney got together with place. Their inquisitiveness what I see each Easter season Chris Gregorek, who was the is stimulating. They question is joy.” parish RCIA director, and an- things and they understand.

Bill Kearney experiences the other teacher, and the trio took It’s comforting to see the Holy fulfillment of being an instruon the responsibility of prepar- Spirit working with them.” ment for others to share the joy Kearney said the parishio- he knows the Catholic Church ing candidates each year to recommit to Catholicism, or to ners are also buoyed when the offers. Being such an instrucandidates become full-fledged ment does come with benefits for join the Church anew.

The sessions were weekly members of the Church and the Kearney. “I feel like I have made and many hours were spent re- parish community. “The faith- a friend for life after each RCIA viewing the Scripture reading ful in the pews are very excited process is complete,” he said. of that given day. “We each had when the candidates are initiAnd through the years, Bill a presentation to give the can- ated,” he said. “They know God Kearney has made himself quite didates on a weekly basis, and is working. At the completion a few friends for life. it’s amazing to see how they of the ceremony they break into To nominate a Person change, how they mature in the applause, and after the Mass of the Week, send an email faith in the six or seven months many come to congratulate note to FatherRogerLandry their new fellow parishioners.” @anchornews.org. we mentor them.”

The Anchor

April 9, 2010

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But the big kids are still up

hen I was a lad growing up in the 60s, there were no iPods, laptops, Sidekicks, iPads, Palm Pres, Blackberries, or hand-held digital games.

My best friend was a small Philco transistor radio with an large white earphone, the size of a small potato.

Back then, bedtime for this small tyke was about 8 or 8:30 p.m. So whenever the Red Sox headed to the left coast to play the California Angels, or to the midwest to play the Minnesota Twins, Kansas City Athletics, or Chicago White Sox, I’d crawl under the covers, wedge that small potato into one ear, tune my Philco into WHDH and listen to Ken Coleman, Ned Martin, Mel Parnell and

My View From the Stands

By Dave Jolivet

later Johnny Pesky fill my head with visions of double-plays, towering home runs, and leaping catches at the wall.

I would listen to the games until I drifted off into baseball la la land. When I awoke, it felt like the small potato lodged in my ear had morphed into a pineapple.

My ear would be sore the next day, but only until game-time that night.

I longed for the days when I could stay up and either listen to my beloved Sox sans the ear plug, or watch them on WHDH-TV whenever they aired.

Those days finally arrived and I spent many a late night watching the Sox well into the New England night or early morning as the case may be.

But fate can be cruel. As each year passes now, it seems my bedtime is ebbing closer and closer to that 8:30 p.m. mark again. Most of us would love to relive our childhood again, but only certain aspects of it — being carefree, worrying only about what game to play next, hoping for snow on Saturdays so the games of tackle football in Kennedy Park would be more fun, and heading to Horseneck

Beach for a day of sun, sand, and body surfing. But not resorting back to an early bedtime.

As a child I remember hearing the older kids playing outside while I was getting ready to hit the sack. Today, I feel I’m missing the fun all over again.

Thanks to the huge dollar signs pouring from the coffers of national television, starting times for major sporting events are pushed further and further back. Those of us (youngsters and oldsters) pay the price for the later starting times.

Last week’s Red Sox opener at Fenway against the Yankees was a real humdinger — back and forth, nip and tuck, with the Sox eventually prevailing. Unfortunately, I only got to see it on Sports Desk the next morning. The game-time start? — 8:10 p.m., which gave me access to a few innings before I drifted off into baseball la la land.

The epic NCAA March Madness final on Monday started at 9:20 p.m. I never got to see David fall one pebble short of delivering the knockout blow to Goliath — after four weeks of watching March Madness. That’s like cooking up a good old turkey dinner with all the fixin’s, to watch everyone else eat it.

There’s always the video recording option, but in this age of instant information there’s no way to isolate one’s self from knowing the outcome before getting to watch the tape.

Thank goodness the Sox regularly begin at 7:10 p.m. But those are only the east coast games. Once the Home Towne Team inches its way west, I’m relegated to getting my results from morning sports shows.

In this world of iPods, iPads and the like, surely someone can come up with a device that can transmit baseball telecasts into my subconscious as I sleep. There could be some nasty side effects though.

Someday I may find myself going out and buying a full living room set from Bob, and not even knowing why. But at least I’ll be up to date on my beloved Sox.

storm damage — A 30-foot sinkhole opened up just a few feet away from Santo Christo Church on Columbia Street in Fall River during last month’s record-breaking rain storm. The pastor, Father Gastao Oliveira, told The Anchor that the damage to the street, part of the Portuguese Cultural District of the city, did not affect the church or any of the Holy Week activities. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

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The Anchor

April 9, 2010

FCC tries to clear docket of indecency complaints WASHINGTON (CNS) — More than one million complaints about indecent programming have been lodged with the Federal Communications Commission, and the FCC in March started taking action to clear the backlog.

Nobody knows exactly how many complaints are sitting in the FCC’s inbox. But FCC Commissioner Bob McDowell said last June during his renomination hearing in the Senate that the number of complaints had reached 1.2 million.

It does not appear to be a partisan thing. The logjam reaches back four years, when Republicans controlled the commission, as the FCC recently sent a letter of inquiry regarding an installment of “Dr. Phil” that aired in 2006. And Michael Copps, one of three Democrats on the fivemember FCC, has been an ardent foe of indecent programming.

Nor is it a matter of everything on the tube being bad, or worse.

Some zealous groups exploit their email networks and implore their followers to complain to the FCC over an episode of a particular show.

For instance, in January 2009, the FCC took in 578 indecency complaints. The following month, 505 complaints came in.

Then, in March 2009, the FCC got slammed with 179,997 complaints. Most of them had to do with one episode of the animated Fox sitcom “Family Guy” that became the source of a campaign by the Parents Television Council.

The 2009 first-quarter complaint total of 188,558 swamped the 2008 fourth-quarter complaint total of 29,008.

As for how many came in the rest of last year, good luck getting a figure. FCC spokeswoman Rosemary Kimball said in a March 31 e-mail to Catholic News Service that the report on the first quarter of 2009, issued September 8, was the most recent report to be released.

But making a complaint got easier in the past decade. “If you didn’t have a transcript or a tape, it was a waste of time. Somebody at the FCC probably decided they didn’t want to deal with it, so they had that rule” requiring a tape or transcript to be submitted with a

complaint, said Robert Peters, president of Morality in Media.

“That rule changed under former (FCC) chairman (Michael) Powell.”

Now the FCC puts the onus on broadcasters to supply the commission with transcripts or tapes.

Broadcasters chafe at this, citing the expense involved in a weak economy — not just from supplying tapes and transcripts, but the legal bills that are sure to follow.

Peters told CNS the Parents Television Council was, at its start in 1995, “not putting pressure on the FCC. Instead they were putting it on sponsors. They still put pressure on sponsors, but their main focus is on the FCC.” Peters also cited the Mississippi-based American Family Association for having “contributed to the large number of complaints. They’ve got a lot of members.”

Of course, individuals don’t need organizations to tell them what is indecent. People, if they choose, can file their own FCC complaint online thanks to Morality in Media, by going to www. moralityinmedia.org, clicking on “Radio/TV Indecency” in the right column, then click on the top menu item in the center column with “FCC Form 475B” in red.

The form will ask for the month, date and year of the program in question; the time it aired; the network that aired it; the channel or call letters of the station airing the program; the city and state where the show was seen or heard (the form can be used for radio indecency complaints as well); plus there is space to describe the content that the viewer or listener found indecent.

Morality in Media also has a link on its website called “TV Smut.” It doesn’t show actual smut, but it contains information about federal obscenity and indecency laws, the FCC’s definition of indecency, plus instructions on how to make a formal complaint to the FCC. And, when material isn’t obscene or indecent but morally offensive nonetheless, Morality in Media includes a list of tactics on how to deal with advertisers, networks, and local TV affiliates and cable operators.

Perseus pursues evil — Sam Worthington stars in a scene from the movie “Clash of the Titans.” For a brief review of this film, see CNS Movie Capsules below. (CNS photo/Warner Bros.)

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

“Clash of the Titans” (Warner Bros.)

Muddled mythological epic, set in ancient Greece, in which the demigod Perseus (Sam Worthington) embarks on a quest to defend humanity against the forces of Hades (Ralph Fiennes), the god of death, whom his brother Zeus (Liam Neeson), as king of the gods, has unleashed to punish humankind for their growing dissatisfaction with, and attempted rebellion against, the Olympian deities. Long action sequences and an emphasis on special effects leave little room for engaging drama in director Louis Leterrier’s frequently violent 3-D remake of Desmond

Davis’ 1981 swords-and-sandals exercise, though undemanding viewers may be content enough with the proceedings not notice the gifts of top-tier players such as Fiennes and Neeson being squandered on stilted dialogue.

Complex, though undeveloped, religious themes, constant action violence, some of it bloody or gruesome, a bedroom encounter with implied sexual activity, at least one sexual reference, a couple of mildly crass terms.

The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is AIII — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

“Hot Tub Time Machine” (MGM) Tasteless time travel comedy in which three former best friends (John Cusack, Rob Corddry and Craig Robinson) who have drifted apart over the years reunite and, with Cusack’s geeky 24-year-old nephew (Clark Duke) in tow, embark on a road trip to a ski resort where a magically malfunctioning hot tub suddenly transports them back

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Divine Mercy Sunday April 11, 11 a.m.

Specializing in: Brand Name/ Foreign Auto Parts 1420 Fall River Avenue (Route 6) Seekonk, MA 02771

Celebrant is Father Henry S. Arruda, pastor of St. Anthony’s Parish in Taunton

to 1986. As directed by Steve Pink, the tedious proceedings — which see the pals reliving their supposed glory days of youthful drug- and sex-fueled hedonism, and dithering between the desire to preserve the past in order to ensure the future — including the nephew’s very existence — and the temptation to improve their destinies by making better choices — are at once artistically ramshackle and morally repugnant. Graphic nonmarital sexual activity, upper female and rear nudity, repeated drug use, about 10 instances of profanity, much sexual and some scatological humor, ceaseless rough and crude language. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is O — morally offensive.

The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

“The Last Song” (Disney/Touchstone) Based on the eponymous Nicholas Sparks novel, this oldfashioned romance features teen singing sensation Miley Cyrus in her first dramatic role as the troubled child of divorced parents who is shipped off, along with her younger brother (precocious Bobby Coleman), to spend the summer with their father (Greg Kinnear) in a picture-perfect seaside Georgia town where she falls for Will (Liam Hemsworth) a hunky volleyball player who quotes Tolstoy and saves baby sea turtles. As these star-crossed lovers from different worlds learn important life lessons about love and forgiveness, broken hearts heal and second chances rule in a film calculated to please both teens their parents. Some scenes of teen-age drinking, a few mildly crass terms, and brief images of a fire that could frighten very young viewers. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG — parental guidance suggested.

The Anchor

April 9, 2010

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Fleeing back to the faith

hen Hilaire Belloc was but the warrior fights because buried at the Shrine he loves what he defends. Yet, of Our Lady of Consolation despite his unapologetic belin July of 1953, the homilist, licosity, he was an impassioned Monsignor Ronald Knox, and sometimes melancholy said of this week’s French poet with an added talent for born, naturalized English children’s verses. Distinctive, Catholic Thinker: “never has absurd whimsy runs amok a man fought so hard for good through them, inspiring Engthings.” Belloc, known since lish children’s writers, Roald childhood as “Old Thunder,” Dahl in particular, unmistakleft behind 153 books and an ably. Though often poor, Belloc indelible impressure on Engloved travel, and he sketched lish and Catholic consciousand wrote verse in exchange ness. It was an impressure so for board as he traveled about deep that his biographer, A.N. the English countryside. He Wilson, remarked: “If I created became a known travelogist and a character in a novel as Hilaire the pilgrimage he recorded in Belloc, people would not believe it.”

As you read this series, you may notice that friendships, of the legendary sort, are often the connective

By Jennifer Pierce tissue in this web of Catholic brains, which brings us to the closest friend of last week’s figure, “The Path to Rome” is thought G.K. Chesterton. Belloc and by many to represent the height Chesterton’s acquaintance was of Bellocian eloquence, as a so intimate that their commere travel diary morphed into mon debate opponent, George a literary, spiritual classic.

Bernard Shaw considered them He rose to prominence in one organism, dubbing the two England as a debater when he “the Chesterbelloc,” though won a debate, not as featured he may have been thinking as speaker, but from an audience much about their differences chair. A graduate of John Henry as their similarities. Despite Newman Oratory, his rhetorical striking contrasts in character skills were not only apparent, and temperament their points of but to some, shockingly supercontact were profound, which natural, provoking H.G. Wells Ralph McInerny named in three to say that debating Belloc was essentials: like “debating a hailstorm.”

First, there is their fecundity, We tend to look back at the seemingly ceaseless flow of history to note how different words from their pens. Second, things once were, but what is the variety of their literary strikes me is the opposite. Vocal products. Third, is the Christian opposition to religion permevision that was as natural to ates the media, most promithem as the air they breathed. nently emanating from the New The last point produced Atheists, who perpetually prea political, socio-economic dict a secular humanity as an theory often called the Chesinevitable fact of evolution. It is terbelloc Mandate or Distributism. Distributism represented a social and economic “Third Way” between socialism and capitalism, built upon Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical on living the Catholic faith as a political being.

It’s difficult to cover someone as expansive and contradictory as Belloc in so small a space; any one point of his character risks an unjust reduction. His military experience and his fierce, though not uncritical, English patriotism, gave him a booming, courageous voice, which is why the name “Belloc” always makes me think “Bellicose,” but not in the sense of warmongering. To paraphrase his friend, Chesterton: the warmonger fights because he hates what he fights,

Great Catholic Thinkers

tempting to despair. However, this presumed to be staggering blow — the idea that religion is an artifact of human existence suited only for unfit simpletons — has been an extant argument since man first became religious, which seems to be the moment after he was wrought.

Belloc felt the same atheistic wind in his culture that blows still today and Old Thunder stood, steadfast in the face of it, unafraid, optimistic, unwavering: the sceptical attitude upon transcendental things cannot, for masses of men, endure. It has been the despair of many that this should be so.

They deplore the despicable weakness of mankind which compels the acceptation of some philosophy or some religion in order to carry on life at all.

But we have here a matter of positive and universal experience.

Defending the faith is the beating heart of Belloc’s love and hope. It was a faith he turned from in his youth but he fled back to it, and the love of Our Lady, like a prodigal son seeking the comfort of home. For Belloc, Catholicism was designed to fit into the crevasses of the human heart, bringing with it a comfort so strong, so secure, that the only fruit could be joy and the festival spirit. Or as he liked to express it: “Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine/ There’s always laughter and good red wine/At least I’ve always found it so./Benedicamus Domino!”

Jennifer Pierce is a parishioner of Corpus Christi in East Sandwich, where she lives with her husband Jim and two daughters.

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The Anchor

April 9, 2010

For some, it’s Easter and Christmas rolled into one

Abortions decrease under Mass. reform

continued from page one

continued from page one

Each Easter weekend, scores of adults across the diocese, and the globe, are welcomed into the Church as full-fledged members.

After completing the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults process, these individuals receive the three sacraments of initiation, baptism, confirmation and first Communion, before the whole congregation gathered to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection and our salvation.

The reasons why these people choose to enter the faith are as many as those who are initiated.

But the end result is the same — becoming members of the Church and receiving all of the benefits she has to offer.

Crystal Isabelle, 28, was one of those who entered the faith last weekend at St. Bernard’s Church in Assonet.

“I was thinking of joining the Church for a long time,” she told The Anchor. “I wanted to raise my children as Catholics and my fiancee is Catholic. My children were baptized last year, and it was then that I began the RCIA process.”

As she progressed, Isabelle knew she was making the right decision. “I was excited about it as we went along,” she said.

“There was a lot to absorb, but I read some books on my own and my sponsor, Elizabeth Pinto, was very supportive and answered any questions I may have had.”

Isabelle’s daughter made her first Communion on Holy Thursday, “so she was very excited that I was making mine on Easter,” she said.

When the time arrived for Isabelle to make the commitment, she was thrilled. “I wasn’t nervous at all,” she said. “I was very, very excited and was thinking to myself, ‘This is it.’

My four-year-old son was very happy and after the Mass he told me, ‘Mom, they were talking about you.’ He thought that was

very cool. And my fiance was very happy for me.” A few days after the big event, Isabelle was still aglow. “I can’t wait to go to Mass now and fully participate at St. Bernard’s Parish.”

At the Easter Vigil, Rachel Fouts received the sacraments of initiation at St. Kilian’s Church in New Bedford.

The road to the Catholic Church was a long and winding one for the 30-year-old. “I had been away from the Church for a long time,” she told The Anchor.

“My father is an Episcopalian minister, and I was raised in that faith. I drifted away as a teenager and explored many types of spirituality through the years.

Some that were wrong. But I was never satisfied.”

Having endured many struggles along the way, Fouts elected to attend a Catholic Mass, something she had done as a child when her mother was alive. She recalled the reverence she sensed then. “I went to the Mass and found myself crying, and I didn’t know why,” she said. “I didn’t get a great feeling of peace, but I found myself very emotional and wanted to find out why.”

Fouts became friends with the Missionaries of Charity in New Bedford and found herself drifting toward the faith. “I felt like that was the best place to be,” she said. She soon became a teachers’ aide at St. Kilian’s.

Her RCIA process was intense and thorough. Fouts realized some major differences from the Episcopal and Catholic faiths, particularly regarding the Eucharist. “I appreciated the thoroughness of the process.

Even approaching the Ten Commandments, the teachers broke them down into so many elements that applied to my life,” added Fouts. “I learned so much and know there is so much more to learn.”

As Easter approached, Fouts was concerned with how her father and siblings would react to her entering the Catholic faith.

“My family is spread all over and no one is

nearby, so I felt a bit alone,” she said. “But, I also knew I would be joining a new family soon, and was excited about that.”

At the Vigil, Fouts was nervous, but happy. “Receiving the sacraments and entering the Church was comforting and reassuring,” she said. “I was baptized because no one, including my father, knew if I had been baptized in the Episcopal faith.” That information disappeared when her mother passed away.

“I know I made the right decision,” Fouts added. “It’s exciting to say, ‘I am a Catholic now.’ I never thought it would be so important to say that. Years ago, I never would have imagined this.

I feel great.”

At the Easter Vigil at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Seekonk, Elizabeth Long, 26, received a warm welcome into the Church and parish. Long told The Anchor that while receiving the sacraments of initiation she “felt like there was no one around me at the time, just God. I love the Church.”

Long felt the tugging at her heartstrings to join the Church since college when she began attending Mass. “It’s always been on my mind, and last year I decided to make it official,” she said. “I contacted Our Lady of Mount Carmel, but the class was already well into session, so I had to wait another year. But when the process began, I was so welcomed by everyone. The instructors had genuine concern and answered all our questions and concerns. It wasn’t a class, rather, they made it a community. They were from all different backgrounds and gave perspectives of the faith based on their experiences.

“When the Vigil came, I was very nervous, but very emotional. And the parish family was so welcoming, shaking our hands and hugging us after Mass.

“I feel so complete now. I feel more me. The big change is that now I have a new perspective on the little things. My thought process has changed and I’m so happy I made this decision to join the Church.”

Former Osterville pastor dies continued from page one

1969 as pastor of Our Lady of the Assumption. He retired on July 28, 1993, and marked the 60th anniversary of his priesthood in 2007.

He leaves a niece, Mary Conlon.

In accordance with his wishes, Father Murphy has been cremated.

His funeral Mass was celebrated Thursday in SS. Margaret and Mary Chapel in the Catholic Memorial Home. Bishop George W. Coleman was the principal celebrant.

Party, and a pediatric specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children in Boston and faculty member of Harvard Medical School.

Whelan told The Anchor that at the very least claims that national health care reform would increase the number of abortions have been “greatly exaggerated.”

“Massachusetts had already done the experiment,” he said.

In the “NEJM,” he wrote, “I believe it is reasonable to conclude that the possibility of some federal subsidization of overall care, for a fraction of the additional 31 million people who would be covered, would not mean a significant or even likely increase in the number of abortions performed nationally.”

Whelan also cited as proof the fact that many European countries provide universal health care and have lower abortion rates than the United States.

According to statistics from the United Nations, the United States has the highest abortion rate in the developed world — 20.8 per 1,000 women. By contrast, Britain’s rate is 17.0 and in other countries it is even lower.

Michael J. New, who holds a doctorate in political science and is an assistant professor at the University of Alabama, told The Anchor that these figures are misleading. The Guttmacher Institute and the Centers for Disease Control report lower abortion rates in the U.S., which are more comparable to those in European countries. He further pointed out that the U.S. has a “far more racially diverse population” than many European countries, and statistics show higher abortion rates among minority groups.

To New and other opponents of the Senate Health Care bill, the idea that the new law will decrease abortions is far from obvious. Many of them believe expanded coverage will equal an increase in the abortion rate. New called the argument put forth by Cardinal Hume — that women who have health care are less likely to abort — “theoretical.”

New said that there is no “nice, neat, tidy correlation” between universal health care and lower abortion rates. And while research has been done, no major peer-reviewed studies have been conducted yet.

In other states where health care reform has already been implemented, the abortion rate remains higher than the national average.

Abortion in Hawaii, which passed reform legislation in 1974, and Tennessee, which launched a public insurance program in 1994, has declined at a rate that is “well below” the decline seen in the national average.

As for Massachusetts, New said that he would not expect the abortion rate to increase “overnight.”

Two years after health care reform is not enough time to understand all its effects, and Whelan’s “NEJM” article does not outline how many of the newly-insured citizens of the Commonwealth have abortion coverage.

Under its state health care reform, Massachusetts provides full coverage for abortion through its Medicaid program and all Commonwealth Care plans, which are subsidized for individuals with incomes below 300 percent of the federal poverty level. “Every financial disincentive was lifted,” and yet the number of abortions decreased, Whelan said.

Whelan added that the same is true for 70 percent of the 17 states that provide full coverage for abortion as part of their Medicaid programs. Abortion rates are highest in southern states that do not fund abortions, he said.

Whelan said, “I would love to see the abortion rate significantly reduced from where it is now,” adding that it is hard for him to understand how a Pro-Life position could oppose health care coverage for millions of Americans.

Health care reform is one of many innovative and pragmatic ways to decrease the number of abortions, which should be the focus of all Pro-Life efforts.

On the other hand, New’s research has found a correlation between federal funding for abortion and an increase in the abortion rate.

Plus, 20 out of 24 peer-reviewed studies on the topic found a rise in the abortion rate, he said.

“If you offer federal funding for abortion, the rate goes up,” he said.

“This is a broad consensus position.”

New said federal funding for abortion must be turned off.

“One reason why the abortion rate in the United States has fallen is the substantial decline in the number of abortion providers.

A steady flow of federal funds to abortion providers could stem or even reverse this trend,” he said.

The U.S. bishops, long-time advocates for health care reform, have expressed concern over the Senate bill and ultimately said that its “flaws are so fundamental that they vitiate the good that the bill intends to promote.”

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote in a March 15 statement that the Senate health care bill “forces all of us to become involved in an act that profoundly violates the conscience of many, the deliberate destruction of unwanted members of the human family still waiting to be born.”

April 9, 2010

15

The Anchor

At five-year mark, Pope Benedict’s teaching mission hits both targets and obstacles

By John Thavis Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — As the five-year mark of Pope Benedict’s election approaches, two key objectives of his pontificate have come into clear focus: creating space for religion in the public sphere and space for God in private lives.

In hundreds of speeches and homilies, in three encyclicals, on 13 foreign trips, during synods of bishops and even through new websites, the German pontiff has confronted what he calls a modern “crisis of faith,” saying the root cause of moral and social ills is a reluctance to acknowledge the truth that comes from God. To counter this crisis, he has proposed Christianity as a religion of love, not rules. Its core mission, he has said repeatedly, is to help people accept God’s love and share it, recognizing that true love involves a willingness to make sacrifices.

His emphasis on God as Creator has tapped into ecological awareness, for which he’s been dubbed the “green pope.” He has presented the faith as a path not only to salvation, but also to social justice and true happiness.

Elected April 19, 2005, Pope Benedict has surprised those who expected a doctrinaire disciplinarian. As universal pastor, he has led Catholics back to the basics of their faith, catechizing them on Christianity’s foundational practices, writings and beliefs, ranging from the Confessions of St. Augustine to the sign of the cross.

But Pope Benedict’s qui-

et teaching mission has been and inhuman, such as his com- liturgy that predates the Second praying with a group of abuse frequently overshadowed by mand” to spread the faith by the Vatican Council, was a major victims. It was a gesture he problems and crises that have sword. concession to traditionalists and would repeat three months later grabbed headlines. part of a push toward an on a trip to Australia for World The fifth anniversary of agreement with the break- Youth Day. his election was viewed away Society of St. Pius His three encyclicals have by many in the Vatican as X. But when he lifted the placed love and charity at the opportunity for the pope excommunications of four center of church life. In 2006, to stand in the media spotof the society’s bishops the encyclical “God Is Love” delight, underline the essenin early 2009, that rec- scribed the faith as charity in actial themes of his pontifionciliation project nearly tion, and said God cannot be shut cate and prepare the world derailed. out of personal and social life. for the second volume of Although he never “On Christian Hope” in 2007 his work, “Jesus of Nazaplanned to imitate his presented Jesus Christ as the reth.” globetrotting predecessor, source of love and hope in eternal But in recent weeks, Pope Benedict has trav- salvation, the “great hope” that fallout from the priestly eled to six continents on can sustain contemporary men sex abuse crisis has mut13 foreign trips during his and women. “Charity in Truth” ed the celebratory atmofirst five years. The 14th in 2009 said social justice was sphere at the Vatican and will come in mid-April inseparable from the concept of placed papal aides on the when he visits Malta, the Christian charity, and called for defensive. first of five trips planned reform of international economic In a letter to Irish Cathfor 2010. institutions and practices. olics in March, the pope One of his most sucThe “Year of St. Paul” in 2008personally apologized to cessful journeys was to 2009 familiarized Catholics with victims of priestly sexual the United States in 2008, the man considered the model of abuse and announced new when he visited Wash- Christian conversion and the arsteps to heal the wounds much done in five yars — Pope Bene- ington and New York and chetypal evangelizer. It sought to of the scandal, including a dict XVI talks with Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, addressed the United Na- rekindle a missionary awareness Vatican investigation and a the chief rabbi of Rome, during his visit to tions. He he set forth a throughout the Church. year of penitential repara- Rome’s main synagogue in this Jan. 17, moral challenge to the In calling the “Year for tion. But soon the Vatican 2010, file photo. The pope also has visited wider U.S. culture on is- Priests,” which ends in June, was denying accusations synagogues in Cologne, Germany, and New sues ranging from eco- the pope said the Church must that the pope himself, as a York during his five years as pontiff. (CNS nomic justice to abortion. acknowledge that some priests German archbishop, failed photo/Paul Haring) The pope also expressed have done great harm to othto adequately monitor a his personal shame at ers, but must also thank God for priest abuser.

During a late 2006 visit to the priestly sex abuse scandal the gifts the majority of priests Other controversies have Turkey, the pope prayed in Is- that had shaken the Church in have given to the Church and the eclipsed the pope’s wider mes- tanbul’s Blue Mosque next to the United States, meeting and world. sage. Visiting his native Bavaria an Islamic cleric, a gesture of in 2006, he upset many Islamic respect that resonated positively pilgrimage / tour to leaders when he quoted a me- throughout the Islamic world. dieval Byzantine emperor who In 2007, the pope’s removal said the prophet Mohammed of restrictions on use of the TriSpiritual Director: Fr. Joseph P. McDermott, Pastor had brought “things only evil dentine rite, the Latin-language Immaculate Conception Church 122 Canton Street, Stoughton, MA 02072

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Youth Pages

16

April 9, 2010

we hold these truths — During his recent “Abraham Lincoln Portrait” performance at SS. Peter and Paul School in Fall River, actor Robb Dimmick shared a tale about President Lincoln’s wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, portrayed by first-grader Marisol Sousa. The “Encounters with History” performance was funded through a grant from the Fall River Cultural Council, a local agency supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. At the close of school’s sixth annual Spring Auction fundraiser, pastor Father Stephen Salvador congratulated Elizabeth Caetano and her son, fourth-grader Tristan Caetano, upon winning the art masterpiece created by his grade-four class. This year’s event raised more than $15,000 to help support the school’s ongoing academic and enrichment programs.

The Making of a Book — St. Mary’s Catholic School, Mansfield, welcomed author Mary Newell DePalma who presented the ins and outs of creating, writing, editing and publishing a children’s book. Many students have been seen roaming the halls with notebooks in hopes of making it big in the world as an author.

take a deep breath — Amy Parkinson, a kindergartner at St. Mary-Sacred Heart School in North Attleboro, experienced being “Nurse for a Day.” Jeannine Souza, the school nurse, presented her with her very own scrubs. As an apprentice, Parkinson helped teach health classes on nutrition to the third- and fourth-graders.

She also prepped all the nurse’s instruments and learned how to use a stethoscope and ear thermometer.

hoop heaven — The PTO at St. Joseph’s School in Fairhaven has been keeping the students and families active with a March Madness Basketball-themed event. In its first year the event drew in nearly 75 students and parents who took part in various basketball contests throughout the night. The highlight was the parents vs. students game — everyone from the pre-schoolers to the middle-schoolers had their chance to play ... and they gave the parents some tough competition.

17

Youth Pages

April 9, 2010

Connection failed, server not found

T

he cell phone rings. The text message notification dings. The email bings. The Facebook update and instant messenger pings. With all this ringing, dinging, binging and pinging one would think relief set in when the unthinkable happened at the office a few weeks ago.

I tried to open my email — connection failed.

The Internet browser — server not found.

This could not be happening.

My fingers furiously flew over the keyboard. This cannot be happening. I need to get things done. How am I supposed to work? There had to be a click I was missing. Perhaps a cable became disconnected from the back of the computer. On my hands and knees I went searching, hoping to see someway to connect to the outside world.

Nothing.

Every wire was connected.

Every power source turned on.

No email.

No Internet.

Two straightforward and unNo Facebook. demanding words that drive me Connection failed. Unable to locate the server. (Well, it didn’t and every other over-connected, uber-stressed, highly motivated go too far, someone better find (to a fault), type A young adult it.)

Are you kidding me? The cell absolutely insane. I cannot “simply be” — I am not even sure phone battery is dying too? that I remember how. If I am not I was lost. I was stressed. I was aggravated. I did not know how I was going to communicate with the outside world.

How would I contact Cathedral Camp about the YES! Retreat? How

By Crystal Medeiros would I organize my next meeting? How was I going to get an answer to a quick question that I had? But more importantly, how doing something, planning for the next event, organizing the could I possibly work? next meeting, reviewing the latLike most of my young adult est bishops’ document, reading friends and teen-agers I know, the latest research on x-y-and-z, I am too connected. I rely too I simply do not know what to do much on the convenience of with myself. technology to forge new relaAs I gazed into the useless tionships and strengthen old ones or even to complete simple computer screen wishing for that connection that would make tasks. I have lost the balance on everything easier, I took a deep how to turn everything off and breath. simply be.

And then I saw them.

Simply be.

Be Not Afraid

The several translations of the Bible sitting on my shelf gazed back at me, admonishing me for ignoring what was in front of my face all along.

God’s Word. <INSERT CATHOLIC GUILT HERE> Yup. It really is funny how God reminds us of what is important. Every once in a while, we need him to stand in front of us, both arms waving and saying, “Hey, remember me?” The sad truth is, he should not have to do that for us.

We should always be conscious and aware of his presence in our lives. We should not be so consumed with ourselves that we forget the essence of who we are as Catholic Christians.

But the fact of the matter is, we do forget. By our own hand, we become that failed connection to God. We are far too often the servers not found. That is why his Word became flesh and became our salvation. Jesus is

the main server to and for us. He breaks through those firewalls we have built around us with a love so intense we cannot comprehend no matter how many theology courses we take or workshops we attend. His love is real. His faith in humanity is overwhelming.

Do we deserve that kind of love and faith? Probably not. But that is the beauty of it all. That is the beauty of his saving grace.

As we enter into this Easter season, the most beautiful and grace-filled of our Church, we are reminded of how great his love is for us. How great it was for the generations before us and how great it will be for the generations to come. His love is everlasting.

His connection has not and will not fail. Our server has always been found.

We only have to take the time to stop, see, listen and simply be.

Crystal is assistant director for Youth & Young Adult Ministry for the diocese. She can be contacted at cmedeiros@dfrcec. com.

Teens advised to take time making decisions; and to seek God’s help

By Doris Benavides Catholic News Service ANAHEIM, Calif. — It is common to see relaxed walkers at any given time and day on Harbor Boulevard near Disneyland in Anaheim, but the picture changed early March 18 during the annual Religious Education Congress Youth Day. The cross streets surrounding the Anaheim Convention Center were busy with groups of 20, 30, 50 or more teen-agers and their chaperones, making noise and wearing colorful T-shirts, and busloads more from across the country continued to join them throughout the early morning.

By 8:30 a.m. the arena at the center was at full capacity — 11,000 — but more teen-agers with their chaperones were still arriving. Another 4,860 people were sent to Hall B — another section of the convention center.

With contemporary Christian singers, musicians and artists, and energetic speakers, the youth day set the tone for the Los Angeles archdiocesan congress that followed March 19-21.

During a mid-morning liturgy in the arena, Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony commended students Samantha Perez and Daniel Rafferty, who shared their stories about finding God in the midst of their sufferings.

Perez’s father was in jail for a time and she regretted he was not in her life. her involvement in Church helped her come to accept

her stepfather. Rafferty’s parents divorced when he was five and he longed for his father’s presence, he said, when he and his mother and brothers went to activities. But he

ferent choice.”

“Teen-age girls were making decisions about sex with absolutely no idea of what the consequences of that choice would be,” the psy-

but cautioned them not to take it lightly.

In Hall B, Father Tony Ricard, pastor of Our Lady Star of the Sea Church in the Archdiocese of New

the future of the church — Young people attend the Religious Education Congress at the Anaheim Convention Center in California recently. The four-day event drew 15,000 teenagers and young adults from across the country and as far away as the United Kingdom and Australia. (CNS photo/Victor Aleman, Vida Nueva)

realized, he said, Jesus had been there for him the whole time.

Keynote speaker Pam Stenzel talked about her experience working at pregnancy centers in Chicago and Minneapolis for nine years and how she often heard teen-age girls say, “If someone would have told me, I would have made a dif-

chologist told the young audience in the arena. “Your parents can’t make choices for you. My goal is that you don’t ever have to tell your physician, your parent, your husband or wife, ‘Well, nobody told me.’”

Stenzel told her listeners that sex is a precious gift from God,

Orleans, told the crowd that they were given special gifts when they were baptized.

“Too many kids don’t know what their gifts are, and I tell you that confirmation is an opportunity to stand up and say, ‘I’ve got the gifts.’ But too many see it as a graduation from religion, too

many think it’s emancipation from Church. They think it’s over, but it’s not.”

The priest said the sacrament of confirmation is “a serious step in our Church, it is an obligation to be a true follower of Christ.”

Among the diverse audience was a 15-year-old girl whose parents gave her away to her godparents when she was 11 months old; a confirmation student who has been suffering peer pressure to attend parties where drinking and using drugs is the norm; and a boy who was forced by his parents to attend the congress youth day and was hiding behind the hood of his jacket.

Not all of the participants were Catholic, but there was common ground. In interviews with The Tidings, newspaper of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, many admitted to having made some bad choices.

They also said they needed to take time to think about their decisions and seek help from God. “God is everywhere and he will help you through everything,” said Safiya al-Sarraf, a Muslim who attends Sierra Madre’s all-girls Alverno High School.

“The whole experience is not a message only for Catholics,” said Lana el-Farra, her Muslim friend and Alverno classmate. “It is a universal message and I can also get something out of it.”

Kimberly Ruano, a Sacred Heart ninth-grader, also felt she would she could get plenty of support from fellow participants. “I feel like this is one big family,” she said.

18

The Anchor

Many still choosing to adopt says CSS official continued from page one

nine babies a year for placement.”

The reason for so many requests, she said, “is because we are licensed not only in Massachusetts but for the last 13 years in Rhode Island as well.”

Along with three other team members, Abdow’s prime task is to offer pregnancy counseling to the expectant mothers looking to put their child up for adoption long before the child is born. “If there is need for therapeutic counseling, we make sure that is provided too,” she added.

Once the baby is in her custody, it is temporarily placed in a foster home for care, she said.

“Because there are so few domestic born babies, we can’t offer a choice of gender, but usually there aren’t many couples that make gender demands,” she added.

The placing of foreign-born babies is a whole different scenario, said Abdow.

“While there are several countries from which we receive children for adoption — through qualified international agencies that we hold hands with — the prospective adoptive couples or single parents usually have done their homework well in advance and request what country they want their child to come from,” she told The Anchor.

“We don’t restrict our services to just Catholics, but to people of various faiths,” she added. “And while we accept requests from

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single parents, to date they have all been women.”

The international adoptions, of which the CSS completes an average of 12 to 15 a year, are completed in accordance with rigorous standards and procedures set by the Hague Convention, an inter-country agency that educates participating countries and nations in best adoptive practices.

It has two goals in mind: to prevent abductions, exploitation, sale or trafficking of children; and by way of protecting birth and adoptive families, ensuring the most accurate information regarding each of the children at issue.

“Although the U.S. has been linked with the Hague Convention since 1893, its membership has been in force only since April 1, 2008,” Abdow noted.

She said that “some popular adoption providing countries — like Guatemala — don’t have their ducks in place, and so no adoptions are currently approved from that country,” the director reported. “But Guatemala is scrambling to bring things up to speed.”

Abdow, who is an official evaluator for the Hague Convention, is sent regularly to visit various states seeking to receive accreditation for adoption programs in order to meet U.S. standards and needed certification.

She will be traveling to Texas this month to make an evaluation of its methods.

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“Currently we receive children from Russia, Taiwan, South Korea, Ethiopia, China, Thailand and Liberia, but are finding trouble receiving children for adoption from Vietnam and Bulgaria because their respective documents have proven faulty and don’t yet meet the requirements,” Abdow commented.

Is adopting a child through international channels costly?

“There is a sliding scale, from $1,700 to as much as $7,000,” she said.

Asked about the CSS Adoption Program’s success rate, she said, “I can truthfully and happily say all the children we have placed have stayed with their families.”

On the topic of placing adoptive children with those in a samesex union, Abdow made it clear: “As a Catholic agency we can’t, and don’t do that. But then, in my 30 years at this, we have never received such a request because people know better. They know they can find other adoption agencies who regularly do place children with those in a same-sex union.”

Referring to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, which in recent years has opted out of the adoption business because it chose not to conform to Massachusetts funding demands to place children with same-sex couples, Abdow also noted that the CSS in the Fall River Diocese, unlike Boston, does not work under any state charter program.

One of the legal issues Abdow regularly faces is the frequent request by those placed in adoptive families to learn about or seek to meet with their birth mother or parents.

“By Massachusetts law we are not allowed to offer any information — unless a consent agreement had been signed earlier by the adoptive as well as the birth parents to allow revealing that information,” she explained.

A resident of Dartmouth and a parishioner of St. George’s Parish in Westport, Abdow, who describes herself as a “late bloomer,” received a degree in psychology from UMass-Dartmouth to further her career in social work.

Apparently the trait to help others has been passed on. Her son, Mark Abdow, is the program coordinator for the Solanus Casey Food Pantry in New Bedford.

Well known in the New England adoption community, Elaine Abdow was selected to be a presenter at the 37th Annual New England Adoption Conference on April 17 at Bellingham High School in Bellingham.

Her workshop, entitled “Want to Search: Where do I Start?” will be among more than 85 conference

April 9, 2010 workshops that traditionally draw hundreds of prospective birth and adoptive parents and professionals from across the nation.

“Many of those who attend this conference are people who are looking to adopt and have many questions and this is a wonderful opportunity to answer them,” she stated. “And we also

have people who have adopted a child and might be looking to do so again.”

“We also have another resource — state-run schools and agencies — with listings of older children who are in need of a home, and we look forward to getting all that important information out.”

Divine Mercy services at many parishes continued from page one

field. “We usually have a good number of people who come — those who have been away from the sacrament for a long time, or those who are practicing Catholics can fulfill their Easter duty by taking advantage of the sacrament of reconciliation.”

Noting that 200 people attended the devotion last year, Father Sylvia said he’s seen a trend whereby those who cannot make the popular pilgrimage to the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy in nearby Stockbridge have opted to come to his parish.

“That venue can be overrun at times,” he said. “And people are seeking alternatives to Divine Mercy Devotions … without having to deal with the large crowds.”

“It’s certainly been growing in popularity over the years,” agreed Lucy Pinto, secretary at Our Lady of Fatima Parish in New Bedford, who has organized the devotion there since 1998. “We had about 60 people who attended Divine Mercy Sunday last year. It’s about trusting in Jesus and forgiveness.”

Through Sister Faustina, who died in 1938, Jesus revealed five special ways to live out the response to his mercy: veneration of the image of Divine Mercy; recitation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet; celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday; a novena prior to Divine Mercy Sunday; and special prayers at 3 p.m. each day, which he called the Hour of Mercy.

The Chaplet of Mercy, recited using ordinary rosary beads of five decades, is prayed daily by the faithful all over the world.

The message Jesus gave to Sister Faustina Kowalska of the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy was that God loves all of us not matter how great our sins; that he wants us to recognize his mercy is greater than our sins, so that we will call upon him with trust and receive his mercy.

While that message is nothing new and had always been taught by the Church in Scripture and tradition, the new Divine Mercy devotion that St. Faustina promoted, takes on a powerful new focus, calling people — all sinners — to accept God’s mercy with thanksgiving and to spread that knowledge to others that they may come to share his joy,

resurrection, and ultimately their own.

St. Faustina’s 600-page diary, “Divine Mercy in My Soul,” written in obedience to her spiritual director, has become a handbook for the devotion which is firmly rooted in Church doctrines and is linked to Christ’s resurrection message.

Born Helena Kowalska in the village of Glogowiec west of Lodz, Poland, on Aug. 15, 1905, St. Faustina was the third of 10 children. When she was nearly 20, she entered the Congregation whose members devote themselves to the care and education of troubled women.

After receiving her religious habit, she was given the name Sister Maria Faustina, to which she added: “of the Most Blessed Sacrament.”

Divine Mercy devotions in the diocese will be held Sunday at: — Corpus Christi Parish, 324 Quaker Meetinghouse Rd., East Sandwich beginning at 2:40 p.m. with narration from St. Faustina’s Diary and Benediction; — Holy Trinity Parish, Route 28, West Harwich beginning at 2:45 p.m.; — Our Lady of Fatima Parish, 4256 Acushnet Ave., New Bedford beginning at 3 p.m.; — St. Andrew the Apostle Parish, 19 Kilmer Ave., Taunton beginning at 3 p.m.; — St. Anthony of Padua Parish, 1359 Acushnet Ave., New Bedford, beginning at 3 p.m.; — St. Francis of Assisi Parish, 530 Gardner’s Neck Rd., Swansea beginning at 3 p.m.; — St. Margaret’s Parish, 141 Main St., Buzzards Bay beginning at 2 p.m. with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and miraculous healing testimony from Artie Boyle; — St. Mary’s Cathedral, 327 Second St., Fall River beginning at 3 p.m. along with Holy Hour for Vocations; — St. Mary’s Parish, 330 Pratt St., Mansfield beginning at 3 p.m.; — St. Patrick’s Parish, 511 Main St., Falmouth (sponsored by the Falmouth Council Knights of Columbus) beginning at 3 p.m.; — St. Stanislaus Parish, 36 Rockland St., Fall River beginning at 3 p.m.

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Traveling Monstrance to visit Fall River Diocese FALL RIVER — One of the six Traveling Monstrances blessed by Pope John Paul II in November 2004 to promote Adoration for Vocations worldwide, will be visiting schools throughout the Fall River Diocese during the day and there will be a holy hour for vocations each evening at 7 p.m., at the following churches.

Sunday, April 11, 3 p.m. St. Mary’s Cathedral — Fall River Bishop Coleman

Monday April 12, Morning and daytime: Holy Name, Fall River, Bishop Connolly High School 7 p.m. — Holy Name Church — Fall River Tuesday April 13, Morning and daytime: Holy FamilyHoly Name — New Bedford, Bishop Stang 7 p.m. — St. Julies Church ­­— Dartmouth Wednesday April 14, Morning and/or daytime: Coyle & Cassidy High School, Bishop Feehan High School 7 p.m. —

St. Mary’s Mansfield Thursday April 15, 7 p.m. — Assumption — E. Taunton Friday April 16, morning and daytime: So. Yarmouth — St. Pius X School, Pope John Paul II High School, St. Francis Xavier School, Hyannis, 7 p.m. — St. Francis Church — Hyannis Saturday April 17, 11 a.m. — St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church — No. Falmouth, 1-4 p.m. — St. Patrick’s Church — Wareham

Christ’s passion is model for Christian pilgrimage, pope says VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Celebrating Palm Sunday Mass for 50,000 people at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI said the passion of Christ is a model for every Christian’s spiritual pilgrimage through life.

Following Christ is not easy, the pope said March 28. It’s an uphill path that often goes against contemporary trends.

“People can choose the easy way

In Your Prayers Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks April 12 Rev. John Tobin, Assistant, St. Patrick, Fall River, 1909 Rev. Msgr. Alfred J. Gendreau, STD, Retired Pastor, Notre Dame, Fall River, 1996 Rev. Edward P. Doyle, O.P., St. Raymond, Providence, R.I., 1997 Rev. Bertrand R. Chabot, Retired Pastor, St. Anthony of Padua, New Bedford, 2002 April 13 Rev. Deacon Joseph P. Stanley Jr., 2006 April 14 Rev. Louis N. Dequoy, Pastor, Sacred Heart, North Attleboro, 1935 Rev. Cosmas Chaloner, SS.CC., St. Francis Xavier, Acushnet, 1977 April 15 Rev. Christopher G. Hughes, D.D., Retired Rector, St. Mary’s Cathedral, Fall River, 1908 April 16 Rev. Arthur E. Langlois, on sick leave, Denver, Colo., 1928 Rev. Norman F. Lord, C.S.Sp., Hemet, Calif., 1995 Rev. John W. Pegnam, USN, Retired Chaplain, 1996 April 18 Rev. Hugh B. Harrold, Pastor, St. Mary, Mansfield, 1935 Rt. Rev. John F. McKeon, P.R., Pastor, St. Lawrence, New Bedford, 1956 Rev. Joao Vieira Resendes, Retired Pastor, Espirito Santo, Fall River, 1984 Rev. Wilfred C. Boulanger, M.S., La Salette Shrine, Attleboro, 1985 Rev. George E. Amaral, Retired Pastor, St. Anthony, Taunton, 1992

and avoid every hardship. They can descend toward the bottom, the vulgar. They can sink in the swamp of lies and dishonesty. Jesus walks ahead of us, and goes toward the heights,” he said.

The papal liturgy, celebrated in St. Peter’s Square on a beautiful spring day, began with a procession led by an international group of young people, who carried palm and olive branches in commemoration of Christ’s

triumphal entry into Jerusalem a few days before his passion and death. The pope, who turns 83 in April, rode in a white jeep to the altar, holding a garland of braided palm fronds.

It was the first of nine Holy Week events for the pontiff and it came as he and other Church officials faced questions and criticism from some quarters for their handling of the priestly sex abuse crisis.

Around the Diocese 4/11

A Mass of the anointing of the sick will be held Sunday at 2 p.m. at St. Patrick’s Parish, Wareham. All parishioners who feel they would benefit from receiving the sacrament or those who would like to join in and pray for the sick are invited to attend. For more information call Sister Catherine at 508-295-0799.

4/12

A spiritual gathering of Christian women will be held at Our Lady of Victory Parish, Centerville, on April 12 at 1 p.m. All women are invited to hear speaker Marilyn Dean use Scripture and her own life experiences to bring insight and understanding into the process of being made into a vessel of purpose. Refreshments will be served.

4/13

The Catholic Cancer Support Group will meet April 13 at Our Lady of Victory Parish, Centerville, beginning with Mass and anointing of the sick at 7 p.m. in the church. Following Mass, a meeting and social hour will take place in the parish center with speaker Jeff Gaudet, a clinical oncological social worker with the VNA of Cape Cod. For more information call 508-771-1106.

4/16

A Healing Mass will be held at St. Anne’s Parish, Fall River, on April 16 beginning with recitation of the rosary at 6 p.m. and Mass at 6:30 p.m., followed by Benediction and healing prayers.

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

4/16

4/24

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

4/29

An evening on Respect for Life issues will take place April 29 at 6:30 p.m. in the Holy Family Parish Center, 438 Middleboro Ave., East Taunton.

The evening will feature a showing of the movie “Assumption,” followed by a panel discussion on respect for life issues, moderated by Holy Cross Father Leo Polselli.

Panelists from the Fall River Diocese Pro-Life Apostolate, A Woman’s Concern, Silent No More, and Birthright will also be participating. The evening will include a pot luck supper.

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

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

Brewster — Eucharistic adoration takes place in the La Salette Chapel in the lower level of Our Lady of the Cape Church, 468 Stony Brook Road, on First Fridays following the 11 a.m. Mass until 7:45 a.m. on the First Saturday of the month, concluding with Benediction and Mass.

Buzzards Bay — Eucharistic adoration takes place at St. Margaret Church, 141 Main Street, every first Friday after the 8 a.m. Mass and ending the following day before the 8 a.m. Mass.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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April 9, 2010