Anchor 05.07.10

The Anchor Diocese of Fall River

F riday , May 7, 2010

Diocese to host Quo Vadis Days camp experience

By Dave Jolivet, Editor WAREHAM — The Latin phrase, “quo vadis,” translates into “Where are you going?”

It’s a question the Lord asks of each of us on our earthly journey. Many people find that question difficult to answer, especially young people beginning to contemplate their futures. This is because they struggle to decipher what God is calling them to do through prayer, and the talents and experiences he has given them.

To help young men across the diocese learn to listen for God’s call whatever it be, the Vocation Office is offering, for the first time, Quo Vadis Days, a five-day camping experience. There, a team of priests, seminarians and adult

advisors will provide guidance and advice to help young men — from entering freshmen in high school to freshmen in college — deepen their faith and better discern what God is calling them to do.

“For the last several years, I have been attending national conferences for vocation directors, and the Quo Vadis Days experience often comes up in conversation,” said Father Kevin A. Cook, associate director of Vocations and Seminarians for the Diocese of Fall River. “It’s met with much success in other dioceses across the country, and we decided to introduce it here this summer. It’s been fruitful in other areas because it provides Turn to page 18

On pastoral visit — La Salette Missionary Father Bernard Baris is greeted by children in one of the villages in Dessalines, Haiti. The pastor of Our Lady of the Cape Parish in Brewster visited its adopted sister parish of St. Claire in April and reported on it in his latest “Haiti Journal 2010.” (Anchor photo courtesy of Father Baris)

Hopeful Haitians persevering with faith, says Brewster pastor after visit

By Deacon James N. Dunbar

Mass. House passes casino, racing bill

By Christine M. Williams Anchor Correspondent BOSTON — The Massachusetts House passed a bill last month that would bring at least two casinos and thousands of racetrack slot machines to the Bay State. The deal leaves the door open for the state’s two federally-recognized Native American tribes to open their own gambling facilities. Senators said they would not take a vote on expanded gambling before June.

Under the leadership of speaker

Robert A. DeLeo, the House approved the bill by a veto-proof margin of 120 to 37. Many representatives who voted against Gov. Deval Patrick’s three-casino, no racetrack slots bill in 2008 approved DeLeo’s bid. Some of them cited the measure’s promise of jobs creation in a slumping economy as the reason for their about-face.

DeLeo called the bill “a good start” for putting people back to work and getting local aid. He estiTurn to page 18

BREWSTER — Returned from his April 7 to 14 pilgrimage to Port-au-Prince in Haiti after experiencing first-hand the widespread devastation wrought by the January 12 earthquake, La Salette Father Bernard Baris, pastor of Our Lady of the Cape Parish in Brewster, writes in his latest “Haiti Journal 2010”: “It’s Sunday, April 18. It’s cloudy on the Cape (Cod) and cool — about 50 degrees. But everything is bright and green. The forsythia and daffodils are still in bloom as when I left. The tulips are about to bloom in their varied colors. It seems that the images I carry in my head of Haiti are but a dream — some, a very bad dream. But as I type these reflections, I know all is real. I know that our brothers and sisters in Haiti depend on us and we on them to teach important lessons in life.”

They were vivid memories forged in the 95-degree heat as he traveled many miles and hours by car to visit St. Claire’s Parish in Dessalines, Haiti.

Our Lady of the Cape has twinned with St. Claire’s Parish for more than 20 years. Father Baris has visited the sister parish 11 times in the past six years. He usually visits with a group of parishioners and always writes a “Haiti Journal,” which he emails back to his parishioners in Brewster.

St. Claire’s four schools and 3,200 students are all beneficiaries of the $4,500 sent monthly from parishioners in the Cape Cod parish. The monthly stipend supports a food lunch program for the children. Each day the 3,200 receive a hot meal, for some of them the only meal of the day.

“On the way there out of Port-au-Prince, I saw many buildings that had collapsed during the earthquake. What we see on TV about the tent cities is true. I saw fields of tents made of sheets, blankets and plastic supported on a couple of sticks. Thousands are living in these conditions. In other places there are real tents, but the people find them too hot.

They bake in the sun in these tents,” Father Baris Turn to page 15

St. Michael School Choir to sing at Fenway Park May 11

By Dave Jolivet, Editor

FALL RIVER — They will be singing before audiences in three nations. No, it’s not a segment on “American Idol.” The St. Michael School Choir from Fall River was recently asked to sing the American and Canadian national anthems at Fenway Park in Boston on May 11 before the Red Sox-Toronto Blue Jays tilt that evening. That means the 30 youngsters, along with their director, Philip Pereira, will be performing before citizens of the U.S., Canada, and Red Sox Nation.

“I’m in disbelief,” Pereira told The Anchor. “Singers and musicians have been

performing for years and years and never get a chance like this. I’m so proud of our youngsters.”

Red Sox chief executive officer, Larry Lucchino invited the choir after he heard them perform at the St. Mary’s Fund Fall Dinner at White’s of Westport last December. Lucchino was the keynote speaker that evening and was much impressed with the performance.

“The whole evening at the St. Mary’s Dinner was wonderful,” Lucchino told The Anchor. “There was such a sense of community, spirit and pride. I was so impressed with the St. Michael’s choir, their

quality and the spirit of their performance.

I felt they would bring that spirit to Fenway singing the anthem.”

“I thought he was just saying it to be polite,” said Pereira of Lucchino’s offer.

“But I realized that isn’t something you just throw out in conversation to be nice.”

Holy Union Sister Marie Baldi, principal of St. Michael School, was thrilled to accept the invite. Just to be sure there was no doubt about the offer, Lucchino later called St. Michael School to shore up the plans.

“Once everything was confirmed, we waited until a special school Mass to make

the announcement,” said Pereira. “When it was announced there was shrieking and a great deal of excitement. And that wasn’t just from the kids. The parents and parish friends were just as excited.”

Pereira has been working with the choir twice a week to prepare them to sing in front of a crowd of 35,000 Red Sox faithful. “The kids are restless with excitement, and for a while it was tough to keep them focused during rehearsals,” he added. “But they have been doing a wonderful job. I don’t think they realize the magnitude of this opportunity. That won’t Turn to page 18

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News From the Vatican

May 7, 2010

Pope receives copy of complete English Roman Missal VATICAN CITY (Zenit.org) — Pope Benedict XVI welcomed the news that the English translation of the Roman Missal will be published soon, while cautioning that the liturgical changes need to be made with sensitivity.

The pope stated this while meeting over lunch with members of the Vox Clara Committee. The committee, formed in 2001 under the headship of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, is a panel of bishops who provide advice to the Holy See concerning English-language liturgical books.

The pontiff acknowledged that the committee members “have been assiduous in drawing together contributions from bishops’ conferences in English-speaking territories all over the world.”

He thanked them for the “daily, painstaking work of overseeing the preparation and translation of texts that proclaim the truth of our redemption in Christ, the Incarnate Word of God.” The Holy Father recalled that “St. Augustine spoke beautifully of the relation between John the Baptist, the vox clara that resounded on the banks of the Jordan, and the Word that he spoke.”

“A voice, he said, serves to share with the listener the message that is already in the speaker’s heart,” he affirmed. “Once the word has been spoken, it is present in the hearts of both, and so the voice, its task having been completed, can fade away.”

“I welcome the news that the English translation of the Roman Missal will soon be ready for publication,” Benedict XVI said, “so that the texts you have worked so hard to prepare may be proclaimed in the liturgy that is celebrated across the anglophone world.”

He continued: “Through these sacred texts and the actions that accompany them, Christ will be made present and active in the midst of his people.

“The voice that helped bring these words to birth will have completed its task.”

“A new task will then present itself,” the pope affirmed, “one which falls outside the direct competence of Vox Clara, but which in one way or another will involve all of you — the task of preparing for the reception of the new translation by clergy and lay faithful.”

He acknowledged that “many will find it hard to adjust to unfamiliar texts after nearly 40 years of continuous use of the previous translation.”

“The change will need to be introduced with due sensitivity,” the pontiff said, “and the opportunity for catechesis that it presents will need to be firmly grasped.”

He added, “I pray that in this way any risk of confusion or bewilderment will be averted, and the change will serve instead as a springboard for a renewal and a deepening of eucharistic devotion all over the English-speaking world.”

Pope begins reform of Legionaries of Christ in wake of founder’s scandal VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI will name a personal delegate with authority over the Legionaries of Christ and a commission to study its constitutions, the first steps toward a profound reform of the order, the Vatican said.

The Vatican indicated that the Legionaries would need to undergo very deep changes, including a redefinition of the order’s religious charism and a revision of the way authority is exercised among its members.

While the pope will have the final word on whatever changes are eventually imposed, one Vatican source said after seeing the statement: “It looks like they are calling for a refoundation of the order.”

The pope met April 30 with the five bishops who conducted a visitation of the Legionaries’ institutions over the past year.

The Vatican emphasized the high degree of sincerity and cooperation shown by the Legionaries and said the visitors encountered many young priests who were “exemplary, honest and full of talent.”

The Vatican statement castigated the Legionaries’ founder, the late Father Marcial Maciel Degollado,

who had been found to have fathered children and sexually abused seminarians. His “most grave and objectively immoral conduct” calls for “a path of profound revision” in the order, the statement said.

It said Father Maciel committed “true crimes” that reflected “a life devoid of scruples and of authentic religious sentiment.”

The Vatican said the visitation highlighted three primary requirements: — the need to “redefine the charism” of the Legionaries of Christ, preserving “the true nucleus, that of ‘militia Christi’ (the army of Christ), which distinguishes the apostolic and missionary action of the Church”; — the need to revise the exercise of authority in the order, in a way that “respects the conscience” and is closely connected with truth; — the need to preserve the enthusiasm and missionary zeal of younger members through adequate formation.

“In fact, the disappointment about the founder could place in question the vocation and that nucleus of charism that belongs particularly to the Legionaries of Christ,” it said.

among his sheep — Pope Benedict XVI greets people as he arrives for a recent general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Pope encourages vocations, calls for protection of flock, children

By Sarah Delaney Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI called for prayer and encouragement to nourish new vocations within the Church, and reminded priests that it is their job to vigorously defend their flocks from evil.

Pope Benedict marked the World Day of Prayer for Vocations by telling the faithful in St. Peter’s Square April 25 that vocations are born primarily through prayer, and that they can be nourished by the prayers of parents and ordained clergy.

Before reciting the Regina Coeli, Pope Benedict said that “the most important form of witness in inspiring vocations is prayer,” and he invited parents “to pray so that the hearts of your children open to listen to the Good Shepherd.”

The pope emphasized the role of the priest in protecting the people they are chosen to lead and steering them to God. Quoting the Gospel of St. John, the pope said, “Only the Good Shepherd, with immense tenderness, guards his flock and defends it from evil, and only in him can the faithful put their absolute faith.”

Pope Benedict reminded priests and bishops of their responsibility to “adhere totally to their vocation and mission through a severe self-discipline” of abstinence and meditation. They should be ready to listen and forgive the faithful in their care, and should also cultivate priestly fraternity, he said.

The pope reiterated the priest’s role of protector by quoting St. Gregory of Nazian-

zus, a 4th-century doctor of the Church, who wrote, “Teach us your love for the sheep ... your understanding and your watchfulness ... the battles in defense of the flock.”

The pope’s call to priests and bishops about their roles and duties came as the Church was working to address a widening scandal regarding the abuse of minors by priests and other Church personnel. Pope Benedict has pledged to do everything possible to remedy the problem.

After the prayer, the pope made a special greeting to representatives of Meter, an Italian Catholic association that promotes the protection of children from violence, exploitation and sexual abuse.

Father Fortunato Di Noto, the founder of Meter, told Vatican Radio April 25 that in Italy alone about 20,000 new cases of the sexual abuse of minors are reported each year, an increase of 10.8 percent in the past five years. He said that Italians were high on the list of

The Anchor www.anchornews.org

those involved in sexual tourism worldwide.

Meter has alerted authorities of about 200,000 pornographic websites featuring minors, he said.

“It’s astonishing that no newspaper has reported these statistics and no one decries the scandal,” he said. “The world should rise up in protest of this situation.”

As Italy began a week of national recognition of child victims of violence and pedophilia, Father Di Noto said that poverty, which is an underlying factor in child abuse, must be addressed.

In the Vatican Radio interview, he underlined the connection between the sexual abuse of minors and poverty, noting that with poverty there is often hunger, illiteracy, illness and an environment of general degradation where child abuse is more likely to occur. Father Di Noto called on parents, teachers, priests and all concerned members to become more aware of the problem.

OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 54, No. 18

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May 7, 2010

The International Church

afraid to go home — The Matti family has been stuck in Damascus, Syria, since 2006, when threats from terrorists in their old Baghdad, Iraq, neighborhood made it impossible for them to stay. An election victory for Iraq’s more secular parties backing Prime Minister-elect Ayad Allawi is not tempting Iraqi Christian refugees to return home. (CNS photo/Michael Swan)

Despite pleas from Iraqi leaders, Christians say they won’t go home DAMASCUS, Syria (CNS) — An election victory for Iraq’s more secular parties backing Prime Minister-elect Ayad Allawi is not tempting Iraqi Christian refugees to return home, even as members of the Chaldean Catholic Church hierarchy continue to express confidence that Christians can live in peace in Iraq.

“It’s very, very difficult to turn back to Iraq, impossible to turn back,” Toma Georgees said in his apartment in Damascus.

“Our problem is not with the Iraqi government. Our problem is with Iraqi people, ignorant people who want to kill us, who want to kill all the Christians. Those people are ignorant, and they just want to drink our blood as Christians.”

“Iraq is no solution. We cannot return to Iraq,” said Manhal Khoshaba Mikhail, who has spent five years in Beirut, Lebanon, waiting for a chance to resettle in the West.

“If we talk about going back to Iraq, we’re talking about going to hell,” said Hanah Abdel Hahel Salumi, widow and mother of four in Damascus.

Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk, Iraq, has said that most Christians who fled to escape death threats and violence during the run-up to the March 7 Iraqi elections have returned.

“The elections were carried out very well. During the campaign period, the political parties debated their programs in a very civilized way,” Archbishop Sako told the Church agency Aid to the Church in Need in late March. “Whatever happens, it will be a good result. I am very optimistic.”

But refugees who fled during the elections said they have no intention of returning. Many ended up in Damascus or Beirut, Lebanon.

“Impossible, impossible — no way,” said Ameera Yalda Matti, who fled her home near Mosul following the elections after barely escaping a bomb attack on her car.

“If Iraq was a free, democratic country we would not have come here,” said Ihab Ephraim Khodr, who arrived in Beirut within days of the Iraqi vote. Militants had threatened to kill him for selling liquor under the counter at a family business. “Since 2003 there was no authority in Iraq that has

found a way of preserving our rights or protecting us.”

“The parties should have looked at Iraq as if we were all Iraqis. This is what was missing,” said Khodr’s wife, Diana Ephraim.

Seven Christian parties vied for five seats reserved for Christians in the 325-seat parliament. With 91 seats and 28 percent of the vote, Allawi’s Iraqiya group edged out Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law coalition, which won 89 seats with 27.4 percent of the vote.

But neither of the major parties can form a government without the support of either the Shiite-based Iraqi National Alliance or the Kurdistan Alliance. The process of coming up with a governing coalition is expected to last months, as a court-ordered recount begins in late April.

Middle East policy expert Oussama Safa believes Christians can play a meaningful role in Iraq’s sectarian politics.

“It’s incumbent on Iraqi Christians to organize themselves and sell themselves as possible coalition partners, coalition pushers or improvers,” said the director of the Beirut-based Lebanese Center for Policy Studies.

Though Safa is enthusiastic about the prospects for a healthy democracy in Iraq, impressed by the 62 percent turnout at polls, he acknowledges it is a long road back to normal civic life for Iraq’s Christians, particularly refugees.

“There is decidedly a wave to make Iraq unlivable for the Christians,” he said.

“What’s happening there is direct violence against the Christian community. It’s not a political issue there. It’s, you know, blowing up churches and shooting Christians in the streets.”

Chaldean Father Farid Botros, parish priest at St. Teresa Chaldean Catholic Church in Damascus, said statements from Chaldean Catholic leaders in Iraq encouraging refugees to return or trying to limit the exodus of Christians are not helping.

“Until now they (refugees) are coming.

Until now they don’t trust in the authority in their country,” Father Botros said. “And they don’t trust in their Church. This is very sad.”

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The Church in the U.S. Parents express concern over media content 4

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Parents are concerned about the content of the media to which their children are exposed and are eager to exert more control over that exposure.

Those are two principal findings in a national survey commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Parents are right to express concern about their children’s exposure to media but have not historically displayed a willingness to follow through, according to Emory Woodard, an associate professor of communication at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.

In the USCCB survey, dated March 2010 but not released until April 15, more than 80 percent of those who responded said they wanted to be able to control access to media content depicting sex, violence, illegal drug use, alcohol abuse and profane language.

The survey, “Parents’ Hopes & Concerns About the Impact of Media on Their Children,” found that three-fourths of respondents say makers of media products should do more to help protect children from inappropriate media content, while 58 percent say government also should do more.

Parents surveyed were asked about TV programs, TV ads, Internet sites in general, social networking sites, video games and cell phones.

Seventy-two percent of respondents cited TV programs as something they were either “concerned” or “very concerned”

about, followed by Internet sites (67 percent), TV ads (62 percent), social networking sites (59 percent), video games (57 percent), music (54 percent) and cell phones (43 percent).

The depicted behaviors most objected to by parents were sexual content (84 percent), illegal drugs (78 percent), violence (76 percent), profane language (74 percent), alcohol abuse (70 percent), the marketing of junk food to children (55 percent) and smoking (53 percent).

The study suggested that parents are using control technologies more than previously thought.

More than half of the parents surveyed said they had moderate or high knowledge of parental controls for TV, the Internet, social networking, cell phones and video games. It added that more than half of the parents report that they “sometimes” or “often” use controls on television, Internet sites in general and video games.

But Woodard, the Villanova professor, said he undertook a study 10 years ago in which 100 parents were given television sets with the v-chip, then a new technology that enabled parents to block shows with certain TV Parental Guidelines, the TV industry’s self-policing ratings system. By the time the study had concluded, according to Woodard, only 10 families had utilized the v-chip.

“Parents always have good intentions,” Woodard told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview. “But they are often

so busy with running their own lives, and shuttling the kids back and forth for various activities, that they don’t make it (parental media controls) as high a priority as they say they do.”

The survey did not take films into account. Movies remain the one form of entertainment media that is relatively difficult to access, Woodard said; the only one tougher is live performance.

But with cinema, that degree of difficulty is lessening, Woodard told CNS. “You saw ‘Avatar,’ the highest-grossing movie of all time, is out on video now, and it’s been only four months since it was released in theaters,” Woodard said. “All it takes now is four or five months and you can get it in your home. And more and more, you don’t even have to drive to a video store to get a copy. You can order it up online and maybe even see it on your computer.”

Woodard said otherwise-objectionable content, regardless of the media platform, can be safely viewed at home — but only if parents are watching with their children.

“And when you’re watching, you can’t just watch it passively,” he added. “You have to talk about what’s going on and why it’s happening. That’s how you provide understanding and context.”

The survey was conducted February 16-20 by Issues and Answers, a polling firm from Virginia Beach, Va. It interviewed 500 parents of children ages two-14. The margin of error from sampling is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

May 7, 2010

ready to roll — Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life and Alveda King, director of African-American outreach at Priests for Life and niece of the late civil rights leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., pose in the Freedom Ride Bus in Birmingham, Ala. (CNS photo/Priests for Life)

Pro-Life ‘freedom rides’ set to begin this summer in Birmingham BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (CNS) — Calling for an end to the nation’s “enslavement to legal abortion,” Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life announced that a series of “freedom rides” for the unborn would begin this summer.

The rides will be nonpartisan, interdenominational and nonviolent and will involve a diverse crosssection of people, Father Pavone said at a news conference in Birmingham’s Kelly Ingram Park.

“Like the freedom rides of five decades ago, these freedom rides symbolize the principle ... that justice and equal protection of human rights belong to each and every human being, regardless of size or age or any other condition,” he said.

Among those joining Father Pavone in the announcement was Alveda King, director of AfricanAmerican outreach at Priests for Life and niece of the late civil rights leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Her father, the Rev. A.D. King, is depicted in a statue of praying ministers at Kelly Ingram Park.

“When I lived in Birmingham, when our home was bombed in this very city, when my classmate was part of the group of four little girls killed in the bombing of historic Sixteenth Street Baptist Church across the way, I dreamed of a world when life would be better, when freedom would prevail for all,” King said. “Now, today, almost 50 years later, we pay tribute to the freedom riders of 1961.”

The Pro-Life freedom rides are to begin with a July 23 send-off concert and rally at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center, followed by a ride to Atlanta through July 25. Father Pavone said dozens of rides in all parts of the country could be scheduled over the next year.

The rides commemorate the civil rights rides protesting forced segregation in public transportation in the South, despite Supreme Court rulings that such segregation

was illegal. The first ride left Washington on May 4, 1961, headed for New Orleans; hundreds of riders were beaten and/or arrested during the rides.

“We join our lives and hearts together with those who have gone before us,” King said at the Birmingham news conference.

“We take to the bus, to the streets of America, riding for justice and freedom for all, from conception till natural death.”

Although “a woman has a right to choose what she does with her body,” King added, “the baby is not her body.”

“Where is the lawyer for the babies whose civil rights are violated by the act of abortion?” she asked.

“How can the dream survive if we murder our children.”

Father Pavone said the rides would be preceded by a period of intense prayer to end abortion, beginning on Pentecost Sunday, May 23, and continuing until July 4.

Others participating in the Birmingham news conference were the Rev. Clenard Childress, a Baptist minister from New Jersey who is director of the Life Education and Resource Network; the Rev. Stephen Broden, senior pastor of Fair Park Bible Fellowship in Dallas and a candidate for Congress; Father Michael Deering, vicar general for the Diocese of Birmingham; members of Catholics United for Life of Huntsville, Ala.; and Bishop Demetrics Roscoe, founder of Living Church Ministries in Birmingham.

Members of the Priests for Life pastoral team at the news conference included Janet Morana, executive director and co-founder of the Silent No More awareness campaign; associate directors Father Peter West and Augustinian Father Denis Wilde; and Dominican Father William Scott Daniels and Theresa and Kevin Burke, founders of Rachel’s Vineyard, a healing ministry for women and men after an abortion.

May 7, 2010

The Church in the U.S.

5

San Francisco Archdiocese sues over ruling on property transfer taxes

in prayerful opposition — People hold hands and pray as they protest against Arizona’s new tough immigration law outside the state Capitol in Phoenix recently. Protesters decried the law as a violation of U.S. civil rights. Others renewed their call for federal immigration reform.

(CNS photo/Joshua Lott, Reuters)

Speaker cites need for committed, culturally-diverse catechists

By Catholic News Service LAS VEGAS — As the Church looks to the future it must increase the number of “culturally-diverse, adequately-formed, committed and, above all, creatively faithful catechists,” said a keynote speaker at a conference in Las Vegas for catechetical leaders.

“While God does the harvesting, we must do what we can to really assure that the seed is being planted,” said Jesuit Father Allan Figueroa Deck, executive director of the Secretariat of Cultural Diversity for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, during a presentation. His talk was the opening session for the recent conference sponsored by the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership.

Father Deck praised catechists for their work and described them as the “largest, most tested and recognized cohort of lay leaders in the Church.”

He also said they were at the “front line of renewal” for the Church and had an essential role to play in “providing a vision for the entire Church moving forward.”

The priest noted that across the world, many catechists have died in defense of their faith.

Although this has not been the experience for U.S. catechists, he said they still make many sacrifices in their work in schools, parishes and dioceses.

And in the U.S. Church in particular, with its expanding cultural diversity, he said today’s catechists must be “interculturally competent.”

The priest noted that the need for catechesis for Latinos has grown significantly, especially since Hispanics make up more than half of U.S. Catholics 35 and younger.

As he sees it, Hispanics who are “properly catechized and formed have the potential to renew and enliven the Church for decades to come” and Church leaders need to double their efforts to “nurture and affirm” Hispanics in the Catholic Church and counter their flight to other faiths or away from organized religion.

The priest said the U.S. Church has recently become more diverse. “No longer can Hispanics, Asians, blacks or any other ministers see themselves as serving only ‘their’ communities,” he said. Instead, the dramatic diversity within parishes and dioceses “demands that everyone develop a sense of responsibility for the whole Church.”

Father Deck urged catechists to follow models set out by the late Cardinal Avery Dulles in his book, “Evangelization for the Third Millennium.”

In the book, the cardinal stressed that catechists must be rooted in doctrine to clarify Church teaching and make it as

“accessible as possible to everyone.” He also urged catechists to be sure to proclaim the Gospel message in a way that would “evangelize people in their concrete experience.”

Cardinal Dulles stressed the importance of catechesis in the liturgy as demonstrated in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. He also said catechists should encourage people to find God in the world and apply their faith to everyday situations.

Father Deck noted that these models of teaching work differently with Catholics who cover the gamut from those who are actively involved in the Church to those who rarely attend and all the degrees in between.

To effectively reach all Catholics, the priest said modern catechists “must be creatively faithful. This means being experts in the men and women, especially the youth and young adults of our time with their hopes and aspirations, struggles, joys and sorrows.”

He also said there simply needs to be more catechists, especially because of the “aging and decline in the number of priests and religious.”

Catechists and teachers, he said, must be “multiplied, adequately formed and authorized not to substitute for the priest or deacon ... but to work side by side in accomplishing the mission to evangelize.”

SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) — The Archdiocese of San Francisco has filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court challenging the Office of the Assessor-Recorder’s determination that it must pay property transfer taxes for moving Church properties from one nonprofit entity to another.

The archdiocese said in an April 21 statement that the San Francisco Transfer Tax Review Board in a January 26 decision issued a written administrative finding that the archdiocese was not exempt from a transfer tax, “despite the fact that the law pertaining to intra-Church property transfers of this nature is overwhelmingly in favor of the archdiocese.”

Last November in a unanimous ruling, San Francisco’s Transfer Tax Appeals Board upheld an effort by Phil Ting, who heads the assessor-recorder’s office, to collect $14.4 million in taxes from the archdiocese.

According to the lawsuit, Ting claims the archdiocese owes a total of $21.7 million, including penalties and interest.

The San Francisco Archdiocese argues that imposing the transfer tax “on a purely intra-denominational reorganization is outside the

San Francisco ordinance.”

It also “violates the California and U.S. Constitution by imposing a tax on a church for exercising its recognized constitutional rights to choose and change those civil law corporate forms that best accommodate its religious structure and needs,” the archdiocesan statement said.

Levying the transfer taxes, penalties and interest “on a religious organization in connection with an internal restructuring involving no exchange or receipt of money from which to pay any tax is inequitable.”

Such an action “threatens to confiscate substantial church assets that are devoted to religious purposes,” the archdiocese said.

Last fall when the appeals board upheld Ting’s decision to impose the tax, the archdiocese said at the time that months earlier it had presented his office with “a straightforward transaction” requesting to change the titles of ownership on various pieces of property, including churches, vacant lots, apartment buildings, schools and storefronts around the city.

“My office is simply enforcing the law — equally and fairly for all,” Ting said.

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The Anchor The reform of the Legionaries of Christ

The May 1 Vatican communiqué in response to the Apostolic Visitation of the Legionaries of Christ (see page two) was a powerful indication of Pope Benedict’s resolve to clean what he once described in meditations for the Way of the Cross as the “filth there is in the Church, and even among those who, in the priesthood, ought to belong entirely to him.”

If there were ever an archetype to embody the filth that can corrupt the life of a priest called to holiness, it would be the founder of the Legionaries, Father Marcial Maciel. Regarded throughout his life by Legionaries as a saintly founder, he has been shown posthumously to have lived, as the communiqué starkly stated “a life devoid of scruple and of genuine religious sentiment” in which he engaged in “very serious and objectively immoral behavior” and “actual crimes.” The flood of facts is still coming out about the extent and duration of his perfidies, but it now seems clear that using his sacred office and his powerful personality to do evil was part of his life from at least the 1950s. It was in the 1950s that he began to molest teen-age seminarians entrusted to his care; when several were understandably shaken by having participated in something dirty against their vocation to chastity, Father Maciel incredibly told them he had the permission of St. Pius X to engage in such behavior to address some urological issues and then would sacrilegiously give them absolution. Pretending to be a businessman — in other words, living multiple lies — he started lengthy affairs with at least two much younger women, one in Spain and another in Mexico, with whom he fathered several children. One of his Mexican biological sons is now saying he began to abuse him sexually around the time he was eight. He was the very antithesis of Christian chastity.

How could he get away with this for so long? The Vatican statement noted, first, that he created a “system of relationships” that allowed him to keep up the massive con game. He “skillfully managed to build up alibis, [and] to gain the truth, confidence and silence of those around him” as a means to continue to fool the “great majority of Legionaries” and so many others. The Vatican statement noted that there was the “lamentable discrediting and dismissal of whoever doubted the correctness of his behavior.” Those who raised questions were shown the door, guilty of having violated a fourth vow that prevented their criticizing their religious superiors (a vow that Pope Benedict rescinded soon into his papacy). The second reason why he was able to get away with it, the statement implies, is because those who suspected that something was awry — both inside and outside the Legionaries — had “the misguided conviction of not wanting to harm the good the Legion was doing.” Third, as some recent reports have demonstrated, Father Maciel often lavishly showered the affection of his order as well as expensive gifts and prestige on those in positions of responsibility in the Vatican. When he was accused of acts of sexual abuse, both in the 1950s and in the 1990s, some of the recipients of this generosity proved to be among Father Maciel’s greatest defenders. There are no accusations that any of Maciel’s powerful Vatican protectors knew they were protecting someone who had made an art form of concealing his wicked behavior; it is likely that they just thought they were protecting a friend who had done a great deal of good in the Church and whose personal reputation was being attacked because of his personal and the Legionaries’ institutional fidelity. The good fruit in the number and quality of vocations “led many people to believe that the allegations … could not have been anything other than calumnies.” All of this created, the communiqué said, “a defense mechanism around Father Maciel that rendered him untouchable for a long time and made it very difficult to know his real life.”

One Vatican figure who the evidence shows was impervious to Father Maciel’s charm and gifts was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Former Legionaries have told reporters that he refused the lavish “thank yous” that were customary for visiting prelates. He had tried to begin an investigation of accusations of the sexual abuse of seminarians in the late 1990s until it seems to have been shut down by the Vatican Secretariat of State for being imprudent. In 2004, however, he sent his top investigator at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to investigate the charges. Soon after becoming Pope Benedict XVI, having received the report of the investigation, he forced Father Maciel to a life of prayer and penance, a sign that was interpreted by all who know as a disgrace and as an admission on the part of the Vatican and Father Maciel that the accusations against him had merit. In 2009, Pope Benedict, knowing that Father Maciel had built a system around him to protect him, ordered an apostolic visitation of the Legionaries, to be able to determine what consequences his behavior has had on the structure of the Legionaries as a whole, and whether, if there were consequences, the good could be separated from the evil and the whole institution salvaged.

“The apostolic visit,” the communiqué taciturnly stated, “was able to ascertain that the behavior of Father Marcial Maciel Degollado has had serious consequences for the life and structure of the Legion, such as to require a process of in-depth revision.”

The first step concerns the leadership. In stating that “most of the Legionaries were unaware of his life” and evidence “sincere zeal,” the statement implies that some Legionaries were aware of his life and may not be marked above all by a desire for truth and holiness. This seems to apply most clearly to Father Maciel’s closest collaborators, who are still in charge of the Legionaries. It pushes credulity to believe that they did not suspect or know what Father Maciel was doing; if they didn’t, it would demonstrate that they’re outright incompetent to serve in such offices. Even after they say they first became aware of their founder’s perfidies, they continued to allow their fellow Legionaries and members of Regnum Christi to believe the lie that their founder was a holy priest suffering unjustly out of love for the Church. To address the situation of leadership in the Legionaries, Pope Benedict will appoint a delegate to assume control of the Legionaries and seek to implement the reform. There will be a thorough review of the exercise of authority in the Legionaries, where various practices have been allowed that are against canon law, like the fourth vow noted above or superiors’ hearing the confessions of those entrusted to them. Legionaries were formed in a notion of religious obedience that made them particularly vulnerable to manipulation of their consciences by their superiors. This needs to be addressed at its roots.

The second step involves a revision of the constitutions and a clarification of the Legionaries’ charism. The third step involves a visitation of its associated apostolic movement Regnum Christi.

The reform of the Legionaries is something that must concern the whole Church. Not only is it an instance of the Church’s will to root out priests who harm others and reform structures that abet them, but the sheer size of the Legionaries (800 priests, 2,500 seminarians) and Regnum Christi (hundreds of consecrated women and 70,000 committed lay people) makes trying to save what is good imperative. The communiqué stated that the pope encouraged Legionaries and Regnum Christi members “not to lose sight of the fact that their vocation, sprung from the call of Christ and inspired by the ideal of being witnesses of his love to the world, is an authentic gift from God, a treasure for the Church, the indestructible foundation on which to build their personal future and that of the Legion.” The Church wants to nourish and protect the divine gift of so many vocations committed to seeking to bring Christ’s kingdom to the world. The process of cleansing has begun. We should all pray that it be done thoroughly, so that these vocations can flourish in a structure, and under superiors worthy of the gift of their vocations.

May 7, 2010

Preaching as a good pastor should

One of the most humbling events in the life anney’s many debilities in the pulpit, however, of St. John Vianney occurred in May 1845 when Father Lacordaire considered him a model to be Father Henri-Dominique Lacordaire, the famous imitated by all parish priests. This is a striking Dominican whose homilies at Paris’ Notre Dame comment, considering that Lacordaire well knew Cathedral established him as one of the greatest that many of the parish priests of France were tryecclesiastical orators of all time, came to Ars. ing to model themselves — unsuccessfully— on He had heard so much about the saintly Curé of him, not on Vianney. These priests focused on Ars that he wanted to meet him and witness his the “language” and style of the Dominican rather ministry in action. While staying in Lyons for a than the “sentiments” that inspired Vianney and few days, he arranged to make a trip to Ars-en- him both. It led to a concentration on rhetoriDombe. cal beauty rather than effective communication He tried to make the trip as a humble dis- toward conversion and holiness. It’s hard not to ciple, incognito. Someone however caught sight think that the devil was behind misunderstanding of his white habit underneath his black coat and of preaching. Once, during an exorcism, the devil word began to spread that the most famous per- spoke to Vianney, saying, “Why do you preach so son in France had come to Ars. After receiving simply? It makes you pass for an ignorant man. quiet hospitality from the Châtelaine the night Why not preach in the big style, like they do in before, he arose at dawn and went to the church the towns?” Lacordaire, for one, was happy that at dawn to celebrate Mass. He introduced himself Vianney never succumbed to that temptation. to Father Vianney, who couldn’t contain his joy One of the aspects of Father Vianney’s preachin meeting him. At first he couldn’t understand ing that we need to look at a little more deeply how the famous Dominican had been detoured is length. As I mentioned last week, he used to to his tiny village; it didn’t even cross his mind preach each Sunday for a solid hour, which is a that Father Lacordaire had come to meet and hear point that priests and faithful today should both him. Father Vianney excitedly got out the best ponder. There’s an informal preaching motto vestments and most precious chalice he had for among certain contemporary homiletic profesFather Lacordaire to use, and then headed back to sors, which runs, “Be succinct, be sincere, be reconcile penitents. seated.” Some of these seminary professors claim At the time of that Catholic listhe main Sunday teners today can Mass at 10 a.m., only pay attenFather Vianney tion for about was moved to see 10 minutes, so Father Lacordaire anything beyond sitting in the pews that is not only with the Châtewasted but counBy Father laine. Father Laterproductive. cordaire listened But I think Roger J. Landry in a spirit of the patron saint humble recollecof priests would tion to the pastor preach on the Gifts of the Holy have a huge problem with such notions. To a Spirit. He later said that Father Vianney “uttered fellow pastor who once complained to him that in a striking way a thought in connection with the his curate was too long-winded, Father Vianney Holy Spirit that I myself have been pondering for somewhat vividly corrected him. The assistant, he a long time.” said, puts the people “into ecstasy,” literally lifting After Mass, Father Vianney begged Father them up to God, “but you do not even given them Lacordaire to go up to the pulpit to preach. Father time to sit down!” He would question whether Lacordaire replied that he had come to listen, to short preachers really have the proper goal in ask advice and be edified, not to speak. Father Vi- mind: If the goal of a homily or sermon is merely anney, however, refused to take no for an answer. to give people a spiritual thought to consider durHe wanted his parishioners to hear him and be ing the week, or to enlighten them about one part converted by him. He announced to them and to of the Gospel, or to encourage them toward a spethe pilgrims that at Vespers that evening someone cific moral action, it may be possible to do that in else would preach who “will speak much better under 10 minutes. But if the goal of preaching, than I can.” They knew to whom he was referring. as the Second Vatican Council stressed, is “conAt Evening Prayer, Father Lacordaire mounted version and holiness,” Vianney would be hardthe pulpit and preached to a packed crowd. He pressed to think that even the greatest preachers admitted to being humbled to have been asked would be able to do that effectively in such a short to preach in the same pulpit where the Curé of period. St. Augustine wasn’t able to do it. Neither Ars preached. The people of Ars were filled with was St. John Chrysostom, nor Father Lacordaire, a holy pride as the most celebrated preacher in nor Archbishop Sheen. Vianney knew he certainFrench history ranked himself below their Curé. ly couldn’t do it. To bring people to a reform of After the homily, Father Vianney was ebul- their life and to total adhesion to Christ, a preacher lient at having heard Father Lacordaire. As he needs to be able to go beyond the intellect to the often did whenever anyone else preached, he pro- will and the emotions of his listener. He also has nounced himself converted. But he also knew that to clear away the various forms of spiritual debris there was something special about Father Lacor- that are obstacles to that total change of direction. daire’s charism to convert hearts. Father Vianney Doing so simply takes time. quipped, without any attempt at flattery, “I don’t Vianney, moreover, would likely challenge dare appear in that pulpit any more. I am like the the notion of the supposedly limited attention man who met the pope and had him mount his span of today’s Catholics as well. His people horse. After that he didn’t dare mount his own were uneducated peasants. Over time, he was horse anymore.” He later asked someone, “Do able to get them not just to stay awake but to you know the thought that came to me during give full attention to the hour-long sermons of Father Lacordaire’s visit? It was this: he who is an ineloquent man with a shrill voice. Today’s greatest in knowledge came to humble himself Catholics, priests and faithful both, are on averbefore the one who is lowliest in ignorance. The age much more educated and should be far more two extremes met.” capable of such attention.

A few days later, Father Lacordaire was the We also should note that Protestant Christians guest of honor at a clergy gathering in Lyons and — who grow up in the same culture, attend the mentioned that he had been in Ars and had heard same hour-long classes in schools or lectures in Father Vianney preach. One of the priests said, university, watch the same two-hour uninterrupt“You must not have thought the Curé of Ars very ed movies as Catholics — are somehow able to eloquent.” Father Lacordaire forcefully replied to listen to their ministers preach for 45 minutes or the haughty insult against Father Vianney: “This more at their Sunday services. holy priest and I do not speak the same language.

The patron saint of priests is not supposed to But I am happy to be able to give this testimony be imitated literally in every detail, but in terms on my own behalf: our sentiments are the same, of his understanding of the purpose of sacred even though we do not say the same things.” He preaching and the time and language it takes to added, simply, “He preached as a good pastor achieve it, Father Lacordaire was on to someshould preach.” thing, however controversial and ill-appreciated it Last week we took up the subject of the might be today even in ecclesiastical circles: Fapreaching of the Curé of Ars and how much of ther Vianney preached as a good pastor should. a challenge preparing and delivering sermons Father Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of constituted for him. Notwithstanding Father Vi- Padua Parish in New Bedford.

Putting Into the Deep

May 7, 2010

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ncreasingly, we hear talk about the lack of priestly vocations. Many folks wonder out loud: “What’s happening to the priesthood?” or “Why are there fewer vocations to the priesthood?” While many responses are given to these questions, I note that parishioners in our parishes are dismayed by such news, brought home to them by the inevitable effects this shortage has on keeping parishes operating.

During this Year For Priests, while I look back on my 40 years of priesthood and the years that led up to ordination, let me say that “things happen.”

When people asked me as a child what I wanted to be when I grew up, I responded, “I want to be a priest.” My grandparents encouraged me to be a priest in word and in deed. They already had a nephew who was a priest.

They had a picture of him in the living room and often I heard stories about Father Eugene and his love for Mass.

While living “next door” to my grandparents, I grew up in a family setting and neighborhood where there was much love and a good deal of faith. The priests and nuns at St. James’ Church in New Bedford knew the Rita

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uring a ride on the Acela from New York to Boston I shared a table with three high-powered young business women who were also married and raising families. The topic turned to religion (and I promise it was not I who brought it up) and only the Jewish woman and I were raising our children to practice our respective faiths.

In light of the findings of the National Study of Youth and Religion, which I have written about before, the children of the other women will most likely never come to worship in any faith tradition. One woman was concerned about this because her sons have friends that belong to some organized religion. Her candor gives us insight that may not have come from someone who claims attachment to their faith. She had briefly attended a Unitarian church, but left when the faith community became too concerned about places like Darfur.

“I don’t want to go to church to feel guilty; I just want to hear words of encouragement about life and faith.” This woman is not alone in her feelings, just more honest about them.

Mohandas Gandhi, one of the most influential people of our times, believed that one of the seven most spiritually peril-

7

The Anchor

Things happen

boys (four of ’em) — for a vain Kentucky to learn that Latin riety of reasons. Each of us was again. I was assigned later on to an altar boy, trained (for Latin St. John’s Seminary in Brighton. responses) by Sister Teresita.

Those years were the 1960s, “Things happen.” quite an eventful decade for My appreciation of holy our society and for our Church.

Mass continued through childAt the seminary I made friends hood, almost a daily commuwith faculty and other seminarnicant during my seventh and ians, friends who are still very eighth grade and high school much a part of my life today. years. It was during my senior year of high school (1962) that I Year For Priests approached Msgr. GalVocational Reflection lagher, my pastor, and asked about entering the seminary and becoming

By Father a priest. He and Sister Thomas L. Rita Virginia, the principal of Holy Family High School, urged me to go on a “Things happen.” vocations retreat at Cathedral Vatican II happened, demonCamp. (In late 1970, one-fifth strations happened, and so did of the active parish priests of the Vietnam War. What times. the Diocese of Fall River were Our teachers were (mostly) exgraduates of Holy Family High cellent. With family and friends School.) I went on the retreat. encouraging us as we studied, Meanwhile, Msgr. Gallagher philosophized, theologized, made an appointment for me and with much prayer and soul with the then-Msgr. Humberto searching, six years later our Medeiros, diocesan chancellor, class of five men was ordained perhaps the most gentlemanly

by Bishop Connolly. priest I have ever known. He “Things happen.” encouraged me to enter the We new priests were asseminary. Soon I heard from signed to parishes. St. Mary’s Bishop James L. Connolly and in Mansfield would be “my first was sent to St. Mary’s College love.” Do not underestimate my

affections for the people in the other parishes and ministries in which I have served. During my time there I was sent for classes in Church law at Catholic University, preparing me for work in the Marriage Tribunal, work which I continue to do today. As a young priest, I was appointed assistant director of Catholic Social Services for the diocese and was director of St. Vincent’s Home of Fall River and the former St. Mary’s Home of New Bedford. I enjoyed those ministries for so many youngsters and doing so while working with dedicated and hardworking people.

“Things happen.”

Priests have families. In my family I have baptized babies, later on given some of them their first holy Communion, and have witnessed their marriages.

Some of my family members have entered into eternity. It has been a gift for me to encourage my family as a son, a brother, an uncle, and to comfort my family as a priest.

“Things happen.”

Assignments at parishes over the years were great joys for me.

The Cape Cod pastorates were

The Eucharist: Our source and summit

ous traits of modern society the faith of this man. Perhaps is to have worship without we should measure this display sacrifice. Each of the traits of worship against our insisincluded in Gandhi’s list of sins tence on spectacular liturgies. are essentially good, but they have been distorted by society’s tendency toward selfishness.

Gandhi’s Seven Deadly Sins include, wealth without work; pleasure without conscience;

By Claire McManus science without humanity; knowledge without character; politics without principle; commerce An honest introspection of our without morality; and worship attitudes should cut right across without sacrifice. the spectrum from those begIn our search for reasons ging for the grandeur of the Tribehind the decline in Mass dentine Mass to the rock ’em, attendance perhaps we should sock ’em Life Teen advocates. examine closely Gandhi’s warnWe Catholics need to refresh ing against “worship without our understanding of what worsacrifice.” Bishop George W. ship at the eucharistic assembly Coleman ended his homily at really means. We call our worthe Chrism Mass this year with ship a sacrifice, yet we are not the story of the late Cardinal of always willing to sacrifice for Saigon, Francis Xavier Nguyen our worship. We have a mixed Van Thuan, who had spent 13 bag of theology about the Mass years in a communist prison that confuses the message that during the Vietnam War. Nine Jesus gave his disciples at the of those years in prison were Last Supper. Do this in memory spent in solitary confinement, of me means that the eucharistic but Cardinal Van Thuan manconsecration is connected to aged to say daily Mass using Christ’s ultimate sacrifice on bread crumbs and drops of wine the cross, which is linked to the smuggled into the prison by the daily sacrifice of our lives to faithful on the outside, aided by Christ. Simply put, we give it guards who were converted by all over to God when we go to

The Great Commission

Mass — our joys, our suffering, our work, our play. In return, Christ asks that we go out into the world and reenact his love and mercy toward the least among us.

Likely during the Advent season of 2011 the New Roman Missal will be promulgated and we are going to hear some changes to the words prayed at Mass. Most people will hardly notice, but for some it will be a big deal. Maybe we can use this change in the liturgy as a time to re-dedicate ourselves to the Mass. Since the change in wording will no doubt take

special. During this 40th year of priestly service, I am excited by my recent pastoral re-assignment to St. Mary’s of Seekonk.

I have been asked to join with a good friend, Father Jim Morse of St. Stephen’s Parish, so that we may help with the merger of our two wonderful parish communities.

By the way, there is a priestly fraternity, a spirit of camaraderie that grows over the years. Some, maybe several, close priest friendships develop over that time. I know that we priests continue to renew our dedication and friendship, remembering those who have gone before us.

“Things happen.”

I know that my priestly ministry and all the work in God’s name have brought me closer to him, probably the chief reason for my persevering. Personally, in spite of my weaknesses — and I have many — my life as a priest has brought me much joy.

I am blessed by the Master who said to us all at his Last Supper: “You are my friends. … Do this in my memory.”

Yes, “things happen.”

Father Rita, ordained in 1970, is pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in Seekonk.

the rote out of our responses, this may be a great way to pay attention to the rich theology contained within. The Mass is the sacrifice of the whole Church, not just a few people who are in charge of the liturgy.

Let us all re-dedicate ourselves to making the Eucharist our source and summit, not just something we do for entertainment or out of obligation. And for those who want a “mecentered,” feel-good experience when they worship, too bad, the train left the station and you missed it.

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

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n 1974 while stationed in Spain with the Air Force, I had the opportunity to visit the shrine of Lourdes located just across the border in the Pyrenees Mountains. It so happened that on this particular weekend the annual military pilgrimage was being celebrated. Upon our arrival we saw countless men and women dressed in a variety of military uniforms from countries all over the world. Naturally, those in my party were wearing the dress blue uniform of the U.S. Air Force. The entire town seemed to be caught up in the spirit of friendship and camaraderie that prevailed. The various shops and restaurants were buzzing with sailors, soldiers, or airmen from all over the world and all appeared to be enjoying this cosmopolitan

May 7, 2010

The Anchor

‘Let all the nations praise you’

holiday. That evening this vast lections of this memorable throng of military worshipevent was the response to this ers became reverent as they week’s responsorial psalm: “O prayed and sang during the God, let all the nations praise candlelight procession. This you.” Like many of the other also was a sight to behold — thousands of hands raised aloft Homily of the Week holding candles and thousands of voices Sixth Sunday joined in singing of Easter the popular Lourdes

By Deacon hymn, “Immaculate Philip E. Bedard Mary.” I later found out that this military pilgrimage had been started in 1958 by French and psalms, there is the awareness German soldiers who just a that all the other nations are few years earlier had been invited to join in the worship involved in World War II. Apof the God of Israel. Psalm 117 proximately 30 nations will proclaims: “Praise the Lord, all join the pilgrimage this year, you nations! Give glory, all you as it continues to this day, and peoples! The Lord’s love for us will be held from May 21-23. is strong; the Lord is faithful What prompted my recolforever. Hallelujah.” Psalm 87

celebrates the pilgrimages that came to Jerusalem every year from all the various nations.

Zion is a mother to all these: “Of Zion it must be said, ‘They all were born here’” (v. 6).

If this was true of Jerusalem in the glory days of David and Solomon, it became even more so with the Church, the new Jerusalem, the bride of the Lamb that is described in the second reading, Interestingly, however, there is no temple, only the “Lord God almighty and the Lamb.” Also the only source of light is the glory of God. Then, the very next verse states: “The nations will walk by its light and to it the kings of the earth will bring their treasure.” At the

heart of the new Jerusalem is the Trinity. Just as Jesus promised that God would dwell within those who believe and keep [his] word, so also does the Triune God dwell within the bride of the Lamb.

The universality of the Church is also at stake in the first reading. Must the gentile converts to Christianity observe the Jewish laws and customs? The question was settled by the first Church council in 52 A.D., guided by the Holy Spirit. That decision made possible the easier reception of the Gospel by gentiles. I facilitated the growth of the Church, so that all nations might praise the Lord in them most fitting way of all.

Deacon Bedard serves at St. Jude the Apostle Parish in Taunton.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. May 8, Acts 16:1-10; Ps 100:1b-2,3,5; Jn 15:18-21. Sun. May 9, Sixth Sunday of Easter, Acts 15:1-2,22-29; Ps 67:2-3,5-6,8; Rv.21:10-14,22-23; Jn 14:23-29. Mon. May 10, Acts 16:11-15; Ps 149:1b-6a,9b; Jn 15:26-16:4a. Tues. May 11, Acts 16:22-34; Ps 138:1-3,7c-8; Jn 16:5-11. Wed. May 12, Acts 17:15,22-18:1; Ps 148:1-2,11-14; Jn 16:12-15. Thur. May 13, feast of the Ascension of the Lord, Acts 1:1-11; Ps 47:2-3,6-9; Eph 1:17-23 or Heb 9:24-28, 10:19-23; Lk 24:46-53. Fri. May 14, Acts 1:15-17,20-26; Ps 113:1-8; Jn 15:9-17.

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he three years of service that Cardinal Francis George of Chicago has given the Church as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have been a great blessing. A recent speech the cardinal gave at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, suggests that that service will continue long after Cardinal George hands the gavel to his successor as USCCB president in November. Scholarbishops have been rare in the history of the Church in the U.S; Cardinal George is an exception, a true intellectual with the gifted teacher’s capacity for making serious material accessible to people who’ve earned fewer degrees than he has. That gift was

The cardinal among the Latter-Day Saints

on full display at BYU this past shared commitment to reformFebruary 23. ing our culture. The first point of After noting that Mormons tangency in this new relationship and Catholics had lived “mostly has to do with religious freedom. apart from one another” for As I’ve noted before, there 180 years, and telling a nifty is an attempt in some quarters story about his 2007 experience today to hollow out religious guest-conducting the Mormon freedom by reducing it to a variTabernacle Choir (while getting in a plug for his beloved Chicago Cubs), Cardinal George got down to the business at hand, which was to explore why distance

By George Weigel and suspicion have been replaced by mutual recognition and co-belligerency, as Catholic and Mormons ant on lifestyle choice — an eshave discovered in each other sentially private matter. Cardinal common moral principles and a George is not buying that and he told his Mormon audience why: “Religious freedom cannot be reduced to freedom of worship or even freedom of private conscience. Religious freedom means that religious groups as well as religious individuals have a right to exercise their influence in the public square. Any attempt to reduce that fuller sense of religious freedom, which has been part of our history in this country

The Catholic Difference

for more than two centuries, to a private reality of worship and individual conscience as long as you don’t make anybody else unhappy, is not in our tradition.

It was the tradition of the Soviet Union, where Lenin permitted freedom of worship (it was in the constitution of the Soviet Union) but not freedom of religion.”

The cardinal then moved on to the defense of the family: “…[It’s] not individuals and their rights that are the basis of society, although they might be the basis of a political order, but it is the family that is the basic unit of society: mothers and fathers who have duties and obligations to their children, and children who learn how to be human in the school of love which is the family, which tells us that we’re not the center of the world individually but are rather always someone’s son, someone’s daughter, someone’s brother or sister or cousin or uncle. The family relationships are prior to individual self-consciousness.

That is the basis of Catholic social teaching....”

Marriage, which is the basis of the family, is not something the state can redefine: marriage is an institution of civil society that a just state must acknowledge and protect. States that insist on redefining marriage will therefore get pushback from religious institutions that understand that the state is attempting to encroach on territory that is in principle beyond its reach. The state will not like this. It will attempt to compel compliance with its redefinitions, and “if this first wave is successfully resisted, there will be a second series of government punishments for our persistence. We will lose state or local government contracts, tax exemptions, anything else that could be characterized as a ‘subsidy’ for our ‘discrimination.’”

And that is why, Cardinal George concluded, “interreligious coalitions formed to defend the rights of conscience for individuals or for religious institutions should become a vital bulwark against the tide of forces at work in our government and society to reduce religion to a purely private reality. At stake is whether or not the religious voice will maintain its right to be heard in the public square.”

Let the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing “Amen.”

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

May 7, 2010

A fly on the wall of the Apostolic Palace

Father goes to his summer resiThursday 6 May 2010 — dence, Castel Gandolfo, in the Vatican City — Anniversary of Italian Alps. Neither are there the sack of Rome by German window screens in the Papal troops (1527) Apartment. This is an eyewithe Vatican’s Apostolic Palace is four stories high. A nice feature is the roof garden. The pope’s private Reflections of a apartment is located on Parish Priest the top floor.

The windows of the

By Father Tim pope’s apartment overGoldrick look St. Peter’s Square.

The balcony from which the Supreme Pontiff ness account of a fly on the wall blesses the crowds is that of his of the Apostolic Palace. personal study.

According to The Fly, in In warmer weather, Pope Pope Benedict XVI’s private Benedict opens the windows. study, you’ll find an unclutThere’s no air-conditioning, tered desk. On the pope’s desk, since in the sweltering heat there’s a well-worn writing of July and August, the Holy

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The Ship’s Log

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The Anchor pad, a pencil, and an old white telephone. His extension is VAT 69. There’s a statuette of St. Joseph, an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and a figurine of a cat. Whether or not the pope keeps a real pet cat is unknown, even to The Fly. The walls of the pope’s study are lined with books — more than 20,000 volumes. In his younger days, the pope was a university professor. He still enjoys reading and studying. When Benedict was elected pope, he had his books moved up the street from his former residence, just a short walk away.

Although the Apostolic Palace is elegant, with marble

The United Nations and women

bands, have no independent he United Nations has right to education after marlong sent confusing riage, no right to divorce, no signals about its commitment right to child custody, have to human rights. Its Security no protection from violent Council has welcomed the treatment in public spaces, heads of totalitarian states, are restricted by quotas and various members of high for women’s admission at rank have tip-toed through universities, and are arrested, mine fields of graft and corruption, but the latest decision beaten, and imprisoned for peacefully seeking change of is a staggering example of such laws.” how ludicrous this internaWomen who have protested tional body has become. their treatment in Iran have The U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, “dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women,” has just elected Iran to its deliberative body for a four-year

By Genevieve Kineke term. This would be the theocratic state that adheres strictly to been subsequently arrested, Islam’s shari’a law that posits interrogated, tortured, and that women are only worth raped while in custody. Thus half the value of a man. This the regime has used brute is the legal code that demands force to enforce both the that women be lashed for fundamental inequality of immodest behavior (to be women under shari’a and the determined by the state) and oppressive tactics of a totalipublicly stoned to death for tarian state to any who speak particular offenses. This is out against the injustice. In the government who gunned addition to all of these indigdown Neda Agha-Soltan last nities, the government’s most summer, an aspiring Persian perverse response to human singer who had the audacity rights protesters is to arrest to congregate with her counand jail their mothers — as trymen who rallied for weeks a twisted recognition of the for open elections and basic honored place that mothers human rights. hold in the hearts of their own A group of 214 Iranian children. activists circulated a petition Interestingly, Iran is also asking that member states of the home of a high-ranking the United Nations oppose Islamic cleric who recently Iranian’s election to the comblamed earthquakes on immission and their appeal was modest women. His ridicuendorsed by over a dozen human rights bodies. Their letter lous assertion drew a sharp reaction from western femioutlines the status of women nists who decried the right in Iran where they “lack the of anyone to determine for ability to choose their hus-

The Feminine Genius

others what apparel or behavior is modest or appropriate.

Their hysterical response was to call on women everywhere to dress immodestly to prove him wrong — only proving that they are as radically wrong as he is.

That impasse underscored once again that women are served neither by the radical feminists who insist on unbridled individualism at the expense of the community or radical theocrats who insist that the human person be subject to draconian suppression of basic rights.

Given the fact that the U.N. Commission on Women is dominated by gender feminists who are rabidly proabortion and anti-family, there may be fireworks in the coming years, but that cannot endear us to a regime that denies basic freedoms to its people and equality to its women.

As usual, our Christian anthropology avoids both extremes and offers the only authentic view of the beauty of the human person. Modesty matters, as does collaboration between men and women, and the right to religious determination. Until the United Nations honors the dignity of the human person as a gift of God and a reflection of his love and reason, this institution cannot be trusted to promote those things the world needs most.

Mrs. Kineke is the author of “The Authentic Catholic Woman.” She is the editor of woman.catholicexhange. com.

floors and all, the furniture is rather sparse. Most of the furnishings in the Papal Apartments go back to Pope John Paul II, although there are a few newer pieces donated by friends of Pope Benedict.

A German admirer donated the renovated kitchen. Four consecrated women from Memores Domini, an affiliate of the Communion and Liberation Movement, cook for the pope. The women are German. So, says The Fly, are the meals. Each of the women has her own apartment on the third floor.

In a wing of the Papal Apartments is a fully-equipped medical center. Pope Benedict suffered a minor stroke while on vacation in Switzerland with his brother George in 1991.

Cardinal Joseph Alois Ratzinger fell and hit his head on a radiator. There is also a troublesome family history of cardiac problems.

Next to the medical center is a dental clinic. The pope is very careful about his diet, but he has a sweet tooth, reports The Fly. The pope celebrated his 83rd birthday on April 16. The pope rises at 5:30 a.m. He proceeds to the daily Mass chapel built by Pope Paul VI. The pope’s morning Mass is usually attended by the four women in the pontifical household and the priestsecretaries to His Holiness. By the way, the priest-secretaries to the Holy Father have their apartments on the fourth floor.

After Mass comes breakfast.

By 8 a.m., His Holiness is in the study. He works at his desk until 11 a.m., when his public schedule begins. He takes an elevator down to the second floor, where the papal library is located. Most of the formal meetings take place in the library.

He meets with visiting heads of state, ambassadors, bishops, and other dignitaries. Each of these meetings usually lasts about 30 minutes. Photos are allowed, but not flashbulbs. The Vatican Press Office daily publishes the list of official visitors.

Then Pope Benedict takes

the elevator back to the Papal Apartments for lunch in the dining room. Although lunch is the pope’s main meal, the menu is simple, ordinarily taken with the priest-secretaries. There are seldom outside guests. The pope is an introvert in personality type.

After lunch, the pope takes a short break, sometimes playing his baby grand piano. He likes Mozart. After the break, the Pontiff is back working at his desk.

At precisely 4:30 p.m., a sedan with tinted windows pulls up in the courtyard of the Apostolic Palace. The pope is driven to the Vatican Gardens, where he takes a brisk walk for daily exercise.

Then, it’s back to the Papal Apartments where he meets with Curial Officials at prescheduled weekly sessions.

Only the Vatican’s Secretary of State can enter the pope’s office without appointment.

In the late afternoon, the pope meets with “unannounced” guests. Sometimes he tries to talk some sense into an errant bishop or a dissident theologian. According to Father Hans Kung, Pope Benedict met with him for four hours one afternoon. Father Kung probably did most of the talking. It doesn’t seem to have worked.

After a light supper at 7 p.m., the pope retreats behind closed doors. By 9 p.m., it’s lights out.

As Pope John XXIII once said, “God will have to run the world without me for awhile. The pope is tired and going to bed.”

You don’t need to consult The Fly, dear readers. You can find this buzz on the web. I did.

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

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The Anchor

Pope calls Shroud of Turin ‘icon’ of Christ’s solidarity with humanity TURIN, Italy (CNS) — The Shroud of Turin is an icon of “the most radical solidarity”: Christ sharing the loneliest moment of human existence by lying in a tomb, Pope Benedict XVI said after he knelt in silent prayer before the linen cloth.

The pope did not discuss the authenticity of the shroud as the cloth used to wrap the dead body of Jesus, but he said it clearly “is a burial cloth that wrapped the body of a man who was crucified in a way corresponding completely to what the Gospels tell us of Jesus.”

Pope Benedict paid a daylong visit to Turin May 2, celebrating an outdoor Mass, venerating the shroud in Turin’s cathedral, meeting with young people and visiting the sick.

During his evening visit to the exposition of the shroud, which is on public display until May 23, the 83-year-old pope said that while he has seen it before, this time there was a special “intensity, perhaps because the passing of years has made me more sensitive to the message of this extraordinary icon.”

The Bible accounts say that Jesus was in the tomb from Friday night to dawn on Sunday — a time that was “chronologically brief, but immense, infinite in its value and

meaning,” the pope said. For a day and a half, Jesus’ body lay dead in the tomb and it appeared as if God had hidden himself from the world, he added.

As with a “photographic document” with a positive and negative image, he said, the shroud conveys that “the darkest mystery of faith is at the same time the brightest sign of a hope without limits” because it reminds people that Christ willingly embraced death to give all people the possibility of eternal life.

“The shroud is an icon written with blood: the blood of a man flagellated, crowned with thorns, crucified and wounded on his right side,” exactly as the Gospels say Jesus was, the pope said.

Visiting the sick immediately after venerating the shroud, the pope said that in the linen cloth, which is about 14 feet long and 43 inches wide, Christians see not only a sign of intense suffering, but also a sign of the power of the resurrection that transforms suffering into redemption.

“Living your suffering in union with the crucified and risen Christ, you participate in the mystery of his suffering for the salvation of the world,” the pope told the sick.

In the shroud, “we see reflections of our suffering in the suffering of Christ,” he said.

May 7, 2010

A guiding light to his troops

By Kenneth J. Souza, Anchor Staff

ATTLEBORO — There’s a stained-glass suncatcher in the shape of the familiar Boy Scouts of America logo hanging in the window next to Henri Brousseau as he reflects back on more than 50 years of involvement with the BSA. Coincidentally, Brousseau mentions how a similar sun-catcher in his living room window used to project a colorful array of light across a painting above his fireplace mantelpiece — a beautiful image of Christ embracing a Scout that he was given as a gift by one of his former troops.

It’s a fitting image that parallels how Brousseau himself has encouraged others to embrace Christ; and how he’s served as a beacon of light for so many young souls searching for Jesus like that mid-afternoon sun dancing across the living room painting.

“My kids have all done well — I could go on and on,” Brousseau said.

He affectionately refers to all his Scouts — past and present — as “my kids.”

“In fact, I wish I had written a book,” he added.

For the past 55 years Brousseau has been involved with scouting, serving 40 of those years as a Scoutmaster with troops beginning in Rhode Island and now with BSA Troop 37 based out of his home parish of St. Joseph’s in Attleboro.

Along the way he’s earned some of scouting’s Anchor person of highest honors including Brousseau. the Silver Beaver Award, the Bronze Pelican Award, and the St. George Emblem.

At his parish he does everything from church sacristan to volunteering as an extraordinary minister of holy Communion to the sick and elderly three times a week.

Brousseau proudly boasts about having three families — his wife Lorraine, his son George, and his two twin grandchildren; then his parish family; and then his scouting family.

“They’re all interlocked,” he said. “I can’t talk about one without talking about the other.”

Although he had planned to give up scouting after moving to Attleboro more than a half-century ago, Brousseau soon became involved with a new troop that was being started at St. Therese’s Parish in South Attleboro. It wasn’t long after that he founded BSA Troop 37 at St. Joseph’s for which he’s served as Scoutmaster ever since.

He even helped start the since-disbanded BSA Troop 76 for autistic and mentally-challenged kids based out of Bishop Feehan High School, his son’s alma mater.

Within minutes of meeting Brousseau, it’s obvious there are two things he has always been passionate about: scouting and his faith.

“My faith has certainly had a great influence on my life,” Brousseau said. “I was an altar server as a kid, I occasionally served Mass in the service, and now I serve Mass everyday.”

Brousseau explained how since his retirement he’s become the default altar server for weekday Masses and funerals since they no longer excuse students from school to serve Mass.

But he doesn’t mind. He’s there everyday to open the church and get things ready anyway.

In fact, Father John M. Murray, pastor of St. Jo-

seph’s Parish, said he’s come to rely on Brousseau’s sharp institutional memory to help him find things.

“Henri has been a faithful parishioner here for more than 50 years,” Father Murray said. “Being here only 10 months, if I can’t find something, Henri is the one I turn to. He’s a very faith-filled man and someone I can always rely on.”

Of his many parish activities, Brousseau is partial to his weekly visits to the sick and elderly in three Attleboro facilities — one nursing home and two assisted living residences.

“When I was growing up, there were no nursing homes and my father always used to say to me: ‘You owe these people a debt’ and it kind of rubbed off on me,” Brousseau said. “I’ve been more involved with youth than the elderly, but what I’m doing now matches my age.”

As one of the first lay extraordinary ministers of holy Communion commissioned in the diocese, Brousseau visits each of the three sites on a weekly basis and also helps coordinate monthly Masses at each location when a priest is available.

But it’s the many Scouts he’s guided over the years that have left a lasting impression on him, and in turn, he on them.

“I’ve worked with lots of great kids and I have nothing but fond memories,” said Brousseau.

“I’ve seen a lot of them move on and a lot of them get married and now kids the week — Henri who used to be in Scouts with me are parents themselves — some are even grandparents. It’s been an important part of my life.”

Waxing nostalgic like a proud papa, Brousseau mentions how some of his former Scouts have gone on to successful military careers, one who’s a politician, one who just earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering, another who works as a police detective, and one who is a lieutenant with the local fire department.

“I brag because I read these guys constantly and think some of them won’t remember me and they come back and are always glad to see me,” he said.

Even though it happens fairly frequently, Brousseau said he’s still surprised to see one of his former Scouts — usually much taller and broad-shouldered — standing in his doorway to greet him.

“They knock on my door just to say ‘Hi,’” he said.

“I wish I could see the bottom line on how many I’ve straightened out and how many didn’t make it.”

Of all the Scouts he’s mastered over the last 40 years, the one he made the greatest impression on is probably his own grandson and namesake, Henri George Brousseau, who nominated his grandfather to be The Anchor’s Person of the Week.

“My grandson has kept up with his faith,” Brousseau said. “He’s now stationed aboard a U.S. Coast Guard cutter in Key West, Fla., with 126 crew members and he’ll lead a prayer service on Sunday mornings. That pleases me to no end. He brags about his parish down there — Our Lady of the Seas, he calls it.”

It’s good to know that Brousseau’s guiding light continues to shine well beyond the boundaries of his parish and diocese, beckoning people to Christ.

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

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The Anchor

May 7, 2010

International Statue of Our Lady of Fatima to visit Assonet parish

By Dave Jolivet, Editor

ASSONET — One of four official International Pilgrim Virgin Statues of Our Lady of Fatima will call St. Bernard’s Church home for three days during this month of Mary.

The special tribute to our Blessed Mother makes her visit from May 15-17. Each of the four statues, property of the Fatima Sanctuary in Portugal, was blessed on May 13, 1947, by Pope Pius XII. On that day, the 30th anniversary of the apparitions at Fatima, each of the statues began their world-wide pilgrimages.

Pastor, Father Michael Racine, told The Anchor the statue would be welcomed to his parish with a 9 a.m. Mass on May 15, followed by recitation of the rosary. The rosary will again be prayed at 3:30 that afternoon, followed by a 4 p.m.

Mass.

The statue will remain in the church for the Sunday Masses at 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. on May 16.

Marian hymns will be sung at the liturgies. On Monday, May 17, there will be a 9 a.m. Mass and recitation of the rosary and Benediction will take place that evening at 7. Father Racine said the church will remain open all day on Saturday and Monday, and through the

Masses on Sunday.

“It’s absolutely wonderful that the statue will be with us for three

special visitor — One of four International Statues of Our Lady of Fatima will visit St. Bernard’s Parish in Assonet from May 15-17.

days this month,” Father Racine said. “This is a great opportunity for people to show their devotion to the Blessed Mother. It’s an awesome experience to have her here.

Everyone is invited to share in the joy.”

Father Racine also pointed out that prayer intentions will be for peace in hearts, families, the Church and the world. He also indicated that rosaries and medals blessed by Pope Benedict XVI will be available during the statue’s visit.

The statue recently made a oneday stop at Holy Name Church in Fall River.

Father George E. Harrison, pastor of Holy Name told The Anchor, “It was a great event to have the statue of Our Lady visit.”

Father Harrison was offered the chance to host the statue on very short notice. “I was only able to get it into the bulletin once, but when she arrived, we had a 9 a.m.

Mass with the children from Holy Name School, and the church was packed,” he said. “And later that day, we had a Mass at 5 p.m. and that, too, was packed.

“All day long there was a constant stream of anywhere from 50 to 100 people visiting the statue.

They kept streaming in. We ended the day with the Stations of the Cross and Benediction. Our Lady bestowed great blessings on our parish and on everyone who came to see her.”

Father Harrison mentioned that he goes to the school every day and prays a decade of the rosary with the students, and there is eucharistic adoration at the school every First Friday, in keeping with Our Lady’s request. “I think the surprise visit was her way of thank-

ing us for our devotion to her. She gave us great graces.

“I would recommend to anyone to go visit the statue at St. Bernard’s if they have the opportunity. I encourage them to express their devotion to our Blessed Mother.”

happy birthday — The Ministry Of Mothers Sharing from St. John the Evangelist in Attleboro celebrated its eighth season in April.

The season’s participants included, front, from left: Leslie Courtney, Donna Neuendorf, and Tiffany Foster. Back: Anna Dafulas, Jennifer Donnelly, and Jackie Murphy. The facilitators (not pictured) were Debbie Carroll, Maureen Wilcox, and Lisa Lancaster. Season VIII was organized by Debbie Carroll and Keri Blanchard.

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The Anchor

May 7, 2010

Catholic TV Series on St. John Vianney BOSTON — Throughout the month of May, Catholic TV is running a new three-part miniseries by Father Roger Landry on St. John Vianney. The series is entitled “The Curé of Ars: Our Path to Heaven” and will air three times a week throughout the month.

The new series aims to help Catholics, during this Year For Priests, profit from the life and wisdom of the patron saint of priests.

The episodes will air on Mondays at 8 p.m., Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. and Fridays at 3:30 p.m. throughout the month of May. The first episode is on the virtue of perseverance in the life of the saint as a model for our own spiritual endurance. It will air the week of May 10.

The second episode, airing the week of May 17, will be on St. John Vianney and the Eucha-

rist, and will ponder the practical ways he sought to help his parishioners learn to live truly eucharistic lives. The final episode, which will be broadcast the week of May 24, will focus on St. John Vianney’s thoughts on heaven, holiness and the saints and will seek to make his insights on the universal call to holiness practical for believers today.

Father Landry has been doing a year-long series on St. John Vianney in The Anchor and has been preaching retreats on St. John Vianney to priests and faithful throughout the year.

Catholic TV is channel 268 on the Comcast Cable Network, Channel 142 on the Sky Family and Faith TV, and Channel 296 on Verizon Fios. All programs can also be watched live and on video-on-demand at CatholicTV.com.

saintly series — Father Roger J. Landry, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Parish in New Bedford, will host a series on St. John Vianney on cable channel Catholic TV this month.

animal instincts — Brendan Fraser stars in a scene from the movie “Furry Vengeance.” For a brief review of this film, see CNS Movie Capsules below. (CNS photo/Summit)

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.

“The Back-Up Plan” (CBS Films) In this dull and predictable romantic comedy, single pet store owner Zoe (Jennifer Lopez) conceives twins through artificial insemination, and seems blissfully happy until Mr. Right appears in the form of cheese maker Stan (Alex O’Loughlin). Zoe falls hard, but when she confesses her condition to Stan, he freaks.

Despite a “happy” ending, director Alan Poul’s film presents a thoroughly warped view of love, marriage and parenthood, and contradicts Catholic moral teachings on the necessity of maintaining the connection between the unitive and procreative aspects of marital love.

Morally skewed treatment of human sexuality, graphic premarital sexual activity, rear and partial nudity, scenes of defecation, much crude language, graphic gynecological exams and a gruesome water birth scene. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is O — morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

“Furry Vengeance” (Summit) Painfully flat comedy in which a Chicago-based con-

struction supervisor (Brendan Fraser) moves to the Oregon woods to oversee a new housing development but finds his work stymied by a mischievous conspiracy of the forest creatures whose habitat the supposedly eco-friendly development will displace, leading to complications with his scheming boss (Ken Jeong) and his unwillingly uprooted wife (Brooke Shields) and son (Matt Prokop). Director Roger Kumble’s frequently distasteful romp registers as more juvenile than sprightly, while its underlying themes of respect for nature and the priority of family life over career advancement, though honorable, are driven home far too hamhandedly. Much scatological humor and some comic violence. 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. Some material may not be suitable for children.

“The Losers” (Warner Bros.)

This slick action comedy

about a unit of ex-special forces soldiers (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Chris Evans, Idris Elba, Columbus Short and Oscar Jaenada) who are betrayed by a fiendish spymaster (Jason Patric) holds itself in much higher regard than its deprecatory title and flippant tone would suggest — or than the disposable project as a whole deserves. Director Sylvain White applies a music-video sensibility to the comic-book source material, and the stylized violence, though considerable, is never explicit, while the jocularity is more juvenile than offensive. A moderately explicit nonmarital sexual encounter, some profanity, at least two instances of rough language, a steady stream of crude and crass verbiage, frequent bloodless violence and some sexual innuendo and banter. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, May 9 at 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Holy Cross Father John Phalen, president of Holy Cross Family Ministries in North Easton

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The Anchor

May 7, 2010

The physics of grace: Fulton Sheen and conversion

we were formed, a clay God n the age of new media, it continually reworks, reshapes, is a good moment for us to and reforms, in an image more remember the Servant of God, satisfying to himself. A vocaArchbishop Fulton J. Sheen.

Sheen innovated the first religious tion — not just a priestly vocation but every Christian one, of which service television broadcast at a there are as many breeds as there moment in history when televiare people — blends a sense of sion revolutionized American the exceptional with the sense of culture, much as the Internet the lowly. It is at once uplifting and digital publishing are now. and deeply humbling, something A gifted theologian and philosoSheen provocatively phrased as a pher, John Peter Sheen, known “dialectic between the sublimity as “Fulton,” developed a weekly of the vocation on the one hand, television program called “Life is and the frailty of the human clay Worth Living,” which competed on the other.” successfully in ratings against the In talking frankly about his likes of Milton Berle and Frank Sinatra. His provocative preaching and hypnotic voice drew 30 million people to his program on a weekly basis.

Contemplating Fulton Sheen is a contemplation

By Jennifer Pierce of one thing, ultimately: conversion. Conversion of heart, conversion of mind, conversion of soul. For him, own vocation he gives us a model for our own — ultimately Sheen conversion emanated from the center of vocation. Like the fractal believed in the conversion of souls, and his dedication to that in mathematics, all of reality is contained within each small piece divinely inspired task reminds us also that following our vocation of it, and Sheen’s reflections on means giving up the worldly illuthe details reveal essential truths sion that what good we do emafor us all. nates from us. It emanates in spite His vocation to the priestof us. Though his effectiveness hood gave him an understanding in converting souls was widely of vocation in a more general recognized, Sheen realized he was sense — all of life is a vocation, an arriving at the will of him who simply stepping out of the way created us, becoming in the world so that God’s will for man could be done. Recognizing that Sheen but not of it. “No true vocation,” wrote Sheen in his autobiography, had converted so many, Pope Pius XII once asked him, “How many “Treasure in Clay,” “starts with souls have you converted?” Sheen ‘what I want’ or with ‘a work I replied that he had never stopped would like to do.’ If we are called to count them. He was afraid that

by God, we may be sent to a if he did, “I might think I had work we do not like ... If I am made them instead of the Lord.” convinced that a vocation is to be For Sheen, there was only identified with the world, then I one thing that converts souls and have completely forgotten him that is grace. He thought of his who warned: ‘I have taken you television and radio missions as out of the world.’” an electronic gospel, he deemed He reminds us that we are work he performed as the answer nothing but the clay from which

Great Catholic Thinkers

New media needs more Christian witnesses, pope tells communicators VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI called on Catholic communication workers to give witness to their beliefs and to help infuse new media outlets with “a soul. More than through technical resources, although necessary, we want to confirm ourselves living in this (digital) universe, too, with a believing heart so that it may contribute to giving a soul to the Internet’s endless flow of communication,” he said.

The pope made his comments during an audience with participants of a national congress on digital media. The congress was

titled, “Digital Witnesses. Faces and Languages in the Cross-media Era.” During the congress, the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, told participants that truth, transparency and credibility were paramount in communications.

The times “that we are experiencing, the price we are paying, all indicate that our witness must be decisively in line with rigor, consistency with what we say and what we are, and the refusal of every hypocrisy and duplicity,” Father Lombardi said in his address to the congress.

to a divine vocation, and he recognized his power to persuade and change people (not to mention matching Berle and Sinatra in the ratings) could easily have made him a prideful man, self-satisfied in his own talents. On the contrary, his message was simple and clear — it is grace that saves, not man. He described that grace in the manner of physics, illustrating the grand inertia of those living the empty existence of the narcissist: “When we are living our lives in the direction of selfishness and lust and pride, there will be a continuity in that way of life unless some superior force intervenes from the outside, and that is grace — to know things which we did not know before.” Implied in Sheen’s physics of grace is that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction — and the reaction to grace is tripartite: obedience, humility, and love.

Though he may be remembered for opposing the cultural forces of communism and psychoanalysis, it is for these three things that he is not only remembered but memorialized, as he is in the process of being canonized: obedience, humility, and great love.

Approaching the end of his life Sheen noted: “I know I am not afraid to appear before him. And this is not because I am worthy, nor because I have loved him with deep intensity but because he has loved me. That is the only reason that any one of us is really lovable. When the Lord puts his love into us, then we become lovable.”

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

Appeal action ‘heating up’ FALL RIVER — The phones and faxes in the Catholic Charities Appeal Office were heating up on Tuesday, as the parishes of the diocese were making their initial reports of the 2010 campaign.

The 69th Annual Appeal began as always on May 1 in all of the 91 parish communities across Southeastern Mass., Cape Cod, and the Islands.

This annual springtime Appeal comes at a time when this area of the state is facing serious economic decline. Some of the stories coming out of the diocesan agencies funded by the Catholic Charities Appeal are startling but not surprising. Arlene McNamee, director of the Office of Catholic Social Services, shared two examples of this: “When we came back after the Christmas weekend there was a woman sleeping in her car in our parking lot.

She had been there since Christmas Day. Shortly after that our staff went to an apartment where a woman who was five months pregnant was living with no heat or electricity, hadn’t eaten, and had been living like that for two weeks.

Both of these women are now safe in one of our residences.”

“From all accounts, stories like these are not few and far between as we would hope for,” states Mike Donly, director of the Appeal Office. “They have become all too frequent, as does the number of children that are usually involved. For instance, when we think of foreclosures we used to think only about a family losing their own house. Now more and more frequently it is three, four, and sometimes five families living in an apartment house who have been paying their rent, with great difficulty, but are now being

This week in 50 years ago — Ground-breaking was held for a new, two-story novitiate house of the Sisters of St. Dorothy at Villa Fatima in Taunton. As an addition to the main house and chapel it provided living quarters including a dormitory and workroom facilities to accommodate the growing number of novices entering that religious congregation.

25 years ago — At the annual meeting of the Fall River District Council of Catholic Women in Taunton, Bishop Daniel A. Cronin presented Lahey Memorial Awards to Connie Arruda of Fall River, Hilda Ferreira of New Bedford, Rosianne Lincoln of Taunton, Hilda Dagenais of Cape Cod, and Mary McGinn of Attleboro.

evicted because the landlord wasn’t paying the mortgage and they are now given as little as a few days to find a new place to live.”

“Stories of Hardship” to be sure, but “Stories of Hope” exist as well.

Steven, a resident of Samaritan House, said, “You come in here and people really take an interest in you.

It has been kind of a life saver for me. I was diagnosed with a terminal illness in October, and I was living outside. They took us in here. We spent last February out in a tent.”

“In the end we were living with Coleman lanterns, and no electricity and no heat. Trying to find a way out. Then I was made aware of St. Anne’s through the Catholic Social Services Office. This has literally saved my life,” said Ainslee, a resident of St. Anne’s in Fall River.

Donly added, “In John’s Gospel Christ said he came that they might have life, and have it to the full. That’s our goal here at Catholic Charities; to do whatever we can to make the burdens of those in need a little lighter, and in some instances lift the burden off of them completely and help them begin anew.

In essence, to offer them hope. And as always our most fervent desire is that all parishioners and friends of anyone and everyone in need will step up and give what they can to the Appeal. It is crucial for people to realize that ‘no gift is too small when offering hope to someone in need.’”

Donations to the Appeal can be sent to the Catholic Charities Appeal Office, P.O. Box 1470, Fall River, Mass. 02722; dropped off at any parish in the diocese; or made on the Appeal website: www. frdioc-catholiccharities.org

Diocesan history 10 years ago — More than 3,000 young adults from the Fall River Diocese celebrated their faith at a day of spiritual renewal at Fenway Park in Boston, during which some from several New Bedford parishes were baptized and confirmed and others received their first Communion at an evening Mass.

One year ago — Stonehill College’s Family Rosary Fest found 590 teens forming a living Mission Rosary, each representing a bead in the five decades that represented the five continents, as they prayed in various languages for all the people of the world as part of celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of famed “Rosary Priest” Father Patrick Peyton.

14

The Catholic Response

May 7, 2010

Self-examination: Catholic communicators look to address scandal

By John Thavis Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — With workshops such as “Benedict XVI, sexual abuse and The New York Times” on the program, it wasn’t surprising that a conference of Catholic communicators in Rome provoked more interest than usual this year.

But those expecting a round of media-bashing were disappointed.

Most of the April 26-28 discussion focused on how the Church itself should be more transparent, more proactive in communicating and more journalist-friendly if it wants to get its message out on clerical sex abuse.

Sponsored by the Opus Dei-run Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, the conference over the years has become a regular networking event for hundreds of Church communications personnel, including diocesan spokespersons.

The new round of disclosures on priestly sex abuse, which has taken the Vatican by storm, has also impacted these local Catholic media professionals, most of whom are lay people.

One might have expected the workshop on The New York Times to have served up a welcome scapegoat. The newspaper’s recent reporting on the sex abuse cases has been criticized as unfair by several high Church officials.

Instead, Diego Contreras, the dean of the Holy Cross university’s communications faculty, began the session by saying that overall, the press has had a positive role in bringing sex abuse to light and helping make it a priority issue for the Church.

He then offered a “just the facts” presentation. Over the past seven weeks, he said, The New York Times has run 65 news reports on the Church and sex abuse in its print edition — including 10 on page one — as well as 12 oped pieces, one editorial, one interview and 29 letters.

His statistical analysis found that the most common “message” communicated through text or headline was that this scandal directly affects Pope Benedict. The impression, without always being explicitly stated, was that the pope knew about sex abuse cases and yet said or did nothing, he said.

Contreras concluded by saying The New York Times had clearly made a major effort to provide information on the crisis. The problems arose, he said, in journalistic interpretation, and in what he termed an excessive reliance on the narrative provided by the lawyers involved in sex abuse cases.

Rachel Donadio, The New York Times’ Rome correspondent, afterward chatted with Contreras and told him that while people sometimes complain that the lawyers are driving this story, it’s very hard to get an alternative narrative from the Vatican.

Donadio addressed the conference the previous day, saying that covering the Vatican was the hardest thing she’d ever done in her life. The Vatican, she said, in many ways remains a “hermetic culture that doesn’t want to be known or explained.”

Covering the sex abuse scan-

dal has been especially difficult, and sometimes she has felt like a translator between different cultures, she said.

“For a while, I felt like I was trying to explain to American readers that the pope’s not the head of Toyota. He’s not going to give a press conference and apologize for brake failure. This is not how the Vatican works,” she said.

At the same time, she said, she had to explain to some people in the Roman Curia that “the problem of sex abuse in the Church is not a problem invented by The New York Times or by anybody in the press.”

“This is an issue within the Catholic Church, not just the press versus the Church,” she said.

Some of the most challenging comments at the conference came from the Catholic communicators on the program.

Pia de Solenni, a U.S. Catholic theologian and writer, said she was disturbed that some Church officials seemed to exhibit “a sort of tone-deafness” in their defensive comments on sex abuse. She said it doesn’t really help the Church to describe itself as persecuted, or to say that because only a small percentage of priests

commit abuse, “we’re just about the same as others.”

She said the Church’s message should focus on several key elements: asking forgiveness from the victims, accountability for those who have made mistakes and transparency in how cases have been handled. There are good models for this, including in the United States, but they need to be implemented in every diocese around the world, she said.

The Church also needs to get its good news out, including the very low numbers of new sex abuse cases being reported, de Solenni said. Above all, she said, the Church needs to be proactive, going to media with its information and not “waiting for the story to come and get us.”

What hurts the communications effort on sex abuse are “conflicting and uncoordinated statements,” especially when they involve red herrings like homosexuality or “cultural land mines” like the Holocaust, she said.

Although de Solenni didn’t name names, many at the conference thought some recent and apparently unvetted statements from Vatican officials on those very topics had only made their

jobs harder.

As close followers of the Vatican’s communications strategy, they sympathize with the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, who they correctly believe has had to overcome some internal pressures in his campaign to publish more detailed and timely information on sex abuse cases and policies.

On the conference’s final day, Father Lombardi met with participants at the Vatican and told them his overall strategy is based on a simple principle: that the Vatican should provide as much information as possible in order to “reduce the widespread impression that we have a culture of secrecy or are trying to hide something.”

He also said responding to the sex abuse scandal must go beyond answering accusations by critics or the media. One fundamental task — in which local Catholic communicators can take the lead — is to provide concrete examples that illustrate how the Church is today a model environment for child safety, he said.

The Vatican spokesman received something from this audience that he hasn’t heard in a while: a big round of applause.

Pope sets example in meeting with abuse victims, cardinal says VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Bishops worldwide are encouraged to meet with victims of clerical sex abuse, just as Pope Benedict XVI has done, said the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

“There is nothing that helps bishops or priests learn about this problem better than meeting with the victims and hearing their stories,” U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada said in a recent interview.

Pope Benedict XVI has met with victims several times, and “that’s an example to bishops,” he said.

The interview, which took place in the cardinal’s Vatican office, aired on PBS’ “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,” and was to be one of a series of reports from the Vatican.

In the 14-minute interview, Cardinal Levada said he didn’t want to “scapegoat anybody or have a conspiracy theory,” but he thought there has been “a certain media bias” in the way media outlets have covered the sex abuse scandals.

Reports, especially by U.S. media, have largely relied on information coming from attorneys representing alleged abuse victims and, because of that, “have not been fair in giving a balanced picture, a picture in context,” he said.

He said more media attention should be paid to the positive steps the Church in the United States has taken to address its own sex abuse scandals.

The U.S. bishops in 2002 adopted landmark policies to address and prevent child sex abuse, which included the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”

The cardinal said the Vaticanapproved U.S. programs are “a real success story” that should serve as a model for other bishops’ conferences as well as for public schools and organizations that work with children.

The U.S. bishops took “very concrete action” and “I think that the United States can rightly offer a model,” he said.

He said that while sex abuse occurs in other environments, members of the Church “should hold ourselves to a higher standard, in the sense that this is not something that one would have expected” because a priest is ordained to be a good shepherd of his flock.”

Concerning the recent resignation of bishops over their handling of sex abuse cases, Cardinal Levada said he would not be surprised if there were more resignations to follow. He said the standard by which bishops are expected to address clerical sex abuse is “not

new, but it’s being applied more rigorously than in the past.”

“I will look forward to helping my brother bishops around the world see what can be done if you take good concrete steps, put things out on the table, make sure that you’ve got a program to educate your priests and screen for any problem areas as you are admitting priests and have a good program for (a) safe environment,” he said.

“I think those are key things that make our people feel secure” and such procedures “should be something that can be done throughout the Church,” he said.

The Vatican posted online in mid-April a summary of the Vatican’s procedures for handling sex abuse allegations against priests, which were adopted in the wake of a 2001 papal document that established strict universal norms for handling such cases and placed these cases under the authority of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Cardinal Levada said publishing the summary online was done because “it seemed good to put this in writing and at least put it as guidance for bishops” as well as to answer the general public’s questions about what the Church’s rules were and what bishops were required to do.

May 7, 2010

on a mission — A warm reception is offered pilgrims to Haiti by Sister Mary Finnick of the Sisters of Charity of Philadelphia, director of the Matthew 25 House in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It offers assistance to North Americans involved in the Twinning Program of the Americas and other missionary and humanitarian organizations. (Photo courtesy of Father Bernard Baris)

Hopeful Haitians persevering says area pastor after visit continued from page one

wrote.

Latrines had been scooped out and showers built and wells dug to help serve the estimated halfmillion people displaced and in the tent cities.

After nearly four hours on the road from the airport accompanied by Father Marc-Edy, pastor of St. Claire’s, they arrived at St. Claire’s Convent in Dessalines, where Sisters Christine and Denise of the Sisters of Charity of Ottawa welcome them. Each nun has been working in Haiti for more than 30 years.

Father Evariste, the first La Salette missionary to work in Haiti, joined the group for a welcome dinner at the convent.

“The country is paralyzed.

Everything in Haiti is centralized in Port-au-Prince. All the government offices are working out of tents. Everyone is waiting for answers and help and nothing is coming forth,” Father Baris lamented.

“The parish in Dessalines is like a small oasis in comparison to the situation in Port-auPrince,” he told The Anchor.

“There is food and medical care.

And Our Lady of the Cape is sponsoring various projects which give employment to many people in a country that has an 80 percent unemployment rate.”

At a chapel in Poste Pirot, a new threeroom rectory had been built.

Although it has a bathroom and shower, there is no running

15

The Anchor

water however, said Father Baris.

“The priest has to go the newly-dug well on the property to get a bucket of water to shower and flush. But it is a big improvement,” he quickly added.

Reflecting on what has been done, he wrote: “I asked myself … how is this helping all the people of the earthquake? I’ve said from the beginning, Our Lady of the Cape can’t rebuild Portau-Prince. But we can help the displaced people who have come to Dessalines for help. There are 350 of their children just enrolled in the four parish schools: St. Claire’s, Claire Lumiere, St. Maria Goretti’s and Fabias.

“More than 3,200 students are now enrolled in these schools and are fed daily. Sister Christine is saying that many of these children need counseling. They’ve seen the bodies of dead siblings being thrown into trucks. Some have lost a parent. In the U.S., when one student is killed in a car accident there’s a team of specially trained counselors who come in to help the other students. In Haiti, there’s no one to help these kids. The Sisters and the teachers

in all four schools are doing their very best to cope.”

The stories are many, said Father Baris.

He recalled that as he prepared to leave one morning, a man along with 13 members of his family knocked on the convent door seeking assistance because their house had been destroyed.

“The Sisters, with donations we gave them, are paying the rent on their ‘house,’” he reported.

One of the members of that family needed an eye exam. It was given by Dr. Bruny, an ophthalmologist and brother of Father Marc-Edy who runs an eye clinic monthly at St. Claire’s Dispensary. It is equipped with an apparatus used to check for glaucoma, “another good thing being done here at St. Claire’s,” Father Baris pointed out.

He also wrote about Kiki, a young person well-known to those from the Cape parish who have been pilgrims to Haiti. Kiki, a second-year student at the local

university, was on the sixth floor cafeteria when the earthquake struck, and as the structure rolled over, Kiki was thrown from the building and landed unscathed on the ground.

“God saved me,” Kiki exclaimed. “He has a mission for me and will let me know what it is,” Kiki was quoted by Father Baris.

With the university demolished, Kiki is looking for acceptance — and a source for tuition — at the university in the adjacent Dominican Republic.

Seminarians in Haiti were especially hard hit by the earthquake, with all three seminaries destroyed and some seminarians were killed, Father Baris recorded in his journal.

“There are 225 seminarians living in tents. There are 75 in philosophy and 150 in theology.

They are four to a tent with all their belongings. When it rains, everything that’s on the ground gets wet. During the day the tents are unbearable because of the heat. There’s no electricity; there are common latrines and a few outside showers. But there is a chapel. My heart went out them.”

He also described the ruins of Matthew 25 House where Our Lady of the Cape parishioners Patrick and Vivian Tortora directed the activities for three years.

“Its kitchen became an emergency hospital, and the dining table, where we often ate, became the operating table.”

One evening he stayed at the rectory of Missionhurst Father Andrew Labatorio, pastor of St. Jude Parish in the Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince. Father Labatorio, a Filipino, who was featured in an April 2 Anchor story by Editor Dave Jolivet, was away, spending a month in the Philippines.

Talking about Haiti’s eternal struggle to survive, Father Labatorio had told The Anchor, “Haiti will always be a forgotten Eden.”

“The rectory is in one of the poorest sections of the city,” said Father Baris. “Father Guy, a member of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, received us very warmly. The cook had a delicious dinner of goat, rice, veggies and cake. And we didn’t have to sleep in tents,” the pastor wrote.

While in Haiti, the Cape pastor celebrated the 40th anniversary of his priestly ordination, and received a card and the gift of a song from the staff and students at St. Claire’s School.

Like all missionaries, Father Baris doesn’t hesitate to perform his priestly duties. His pastoral expertise came in handy. On a Sunday morning he baptized 20, ranging in age from two to 20 in a church in Augé.

In his journal he wrote: “I baptized more this morning than I do in a year at Our Lady of the Cape. It was 90 degrees. Even the Haitians are complaining about the heat. It’s not just me. I took a half-hour snooze. We all had dinner with the Sisters — a nice roast pork, roasted goat, rice, sauce and salad … and one of Sister Denise’s desserts.”

Father Baris also announced that on July 30, Our Lady of the Cape will host “Haiti Night” with Haitian food featured, and Sisters Christine and Denise will be coming to the Cape and be guests of honor.

In his final journal entries he wrote: “No one was spared by the earthquake. You see signs of life everywhere. Vendors selling everything. In some ways Port-AuPrince has not changed.”

Yet, wrote the priest, “through it all, Haitians are people of faith — a very resilient people.

Some say ‘Haitians are experts in managing pain and suffering.

It’s what they do best.’ I hope that changes. I pray they will not need to manage such suffering in the future.”

16

Youth Pages

Where in the World is msgr. Steve? — Students at St. Mary’s School, Mansfield, enjoyed keeping track of Msgr. Stephen J. Avila as he journeyed on a pilgrimage through Italy. They studied the shroud, kept track of the weather in Italy compared to the weather in Mansfield and moved a replica of Msgr. Avila on a map as he visited Florence, Assisi, and Rome. Students were delighted when they received a call from him to announce details of his journey over the intercom system. Lauren Hart and Zachary Vogel are pictured reading magazine articles describing Italy.

May 7, 2010

just ducky — The Division of Fisheries and Wildlife selected three Bishop Feehan High School students among the winners in the 2010 Massachusetts Junior Duck Stamp Program. The following freshmen won in the Group III (grades seven – nine) category: First Place, Lindsey Chou; Third Place, Sarah Green; and Honorable Mention, Courtney Gareau. There were 413 student participants from across the Commonwealth who participated in this year’s program. Students from the Attleboro school had their works recently displayed with the top 100 pieces of artwork during the awards ceremony at the Doyle Conservation Center in Leominster. Feehan artist, Courtney Gareau, poses with her award-winning entry in this year’s Massachusetts Junior Duck Stamp Program.

psst, they did great on their psat — Four outstanding juniors from Coyle and Cassidy High School, Taunton, recently qualified for Preliminary National Merit Scholarship consideration. These students scored among the highest on their PSAT exam this year, and will be considered for National Merit commended and semi-finalist selection, which in turn might result in being name a National Merit Finalist. More than 1.5 million students took the PSAT exam and less than five percent qualify for this prestigious designation. Front, from left: Ben Williams, Jennifer Estrompa, James Anderson, and Connor Sullivan. Back: Guidance Department Director Brian Dickinson, and counselors Mary Haynes, and Judy D’Agostino.

The Anchor is always pleased to run news and photos about our diocesan youth. If schools or parish Religious Education programs have newsworthy stories and photos they would like to share with our readers, send them to: schools@anchornews.org

peace prize — Elaine Holland, left, presents Aliyah Ponte, a sixth-grader at Espirito Santo School in Fall River, with a check from the Fall River Carousel Lions Club for her winning entry in the Lions International Peace Poster Contest, where students were asked to depict their ideas of peace. Ponte’s drawing was of the Blessed Mother kneeling in prayer. With Ponte is Christine Mello, a teacher at Espirito Santo.

17

Youth Pages

May 7, 2010

“A

nd who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29) is one of several questions that a scholar of the law asks of Jesus. He replies to the scholar with the parable of the Good Samaritan.

This parable weighs heavily on my mind lately.

Perhaps a shocking video played on the morning news programs last week had something to do with that.

A “good samaritan” was stabbed last week in New York while trying to prevent a mugging. While he lay on the sidewalk, bleeding, pedestrians walked by and over him. One person even stopped to take pictures of the man crumpled on the sidewalk. Not one person stopped to help him. The body language of the pedestrians was nothing short of indifference and lack of human compassion. Where has our human compassion gone? Tragically, this gentleman did not survive the ordeal but I believe that Christ never left his side.

And who is my neighbor?

Or perhaps the new imJesus who gave it to us. In migration law in Arizona has the parable, after the priest brought this parable to the and Levite leave the man, forefront for me. A college broken and battered by robfriend of mine who happens bers, by the side of the road, to be an Egyptian Sunni it is the Samaritan who Muslim resides in Arizona stops to help and treats him and leaves her house with with kindness and compasher husband and son with trepidation and concern that she will be among the many stopped for simply looking different.

She is married to

By Crystal Medeiros an American, her son is American and she has lived here for more than 10 years. Conceptually, I sion. At the time, Samariunderstand the need for imtans were often viewed by migration reform but laws the Jews as enemies. Jesus that are in danger of causing then flips the question back xenophobic behaviors and onto the scholar. “‘Which racial profiling cannot be of these, in your opinion, the answer. I wonder what was neighbor to the robwould have happened if the bers’ victim?’ He answered, Native Americans adopted ‘The one who treated him such laws when the first with mercy.’ Jesus said to settlements were established. him, ‘Go and do likewise,’” Would we even be having (Luke 10:37). this conversation?

Go and do likewise. That But there is an answer to is the basic tenet of our all of this chaos and it was Catholic social teaching, to

Be Not Afraid

Social networks key to reaching the young, USCCB official says ROME (CNS) — Social networks and other interactive media challenge traditional Church models of communication but offer unprecedented evangelizing opportunities, a leading U.S. Catholic communications official said.

“In some ways, we are returning to the pre-printing press means of communication — oldfashioned word of mouth. St. Paul had his stump or rock upon which he stood to broadcast the Gospel in the marketplace. We have devices that literally can put the Gospel message in the palm of people’s hands,” Helen Osman, secretary for communications at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told a Rome conference recently.

“We now have an opportunity to get the Church’s message and story directly to Catholics — and others — without having to negotiate the filters of mainstream media. We have the opportunity to connect with young adult and youth Catholics to create relationships that will last their entire lives,” she said.

Osman spoke at a seminar for Church communications officials sponsored by the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.

She described how being the Church’s spokesperson in the

digital age brought a whole new set of challenges and uncertainties.

In social media, she said, the Church needs to view itself as “one participant in the dialogue among many.” The traditional one-way model of communication has been replaced by a more interactive model, in which everyone participates on the same level.

“This has enormous implications for our Church, which is not accustomed to people questioning its authority or competency,” she said.

Likewise, the relationships created in social media are a series of overlapping networks.

This fits well with the Church’s focus on community but not as easily with its hierarchical structure, she said.

Osman said trust is important for social media users, who tend to follow sources of information they consider reliable and block others.

The explosion in social media has placed new demands on those who act as spokespersons for the Church and who try to present its message in a cohesive manner, Osman said.

“Most days it feels very chaotic. We find ourselves responding to one particular blog post,

or a video that has ‘gone viral,’” she said. Misinformation circulates online, and one can spend a lot of time stamping out a fire created by a sloppy or malicious blogger, she said.

At the same time, the opportunities offered by new media are immense, she said. It costs the Church nothing, for example, to have bloggers, Facebook fans and Twitter forward its digital messages throughout their social networks.

Osman said the USCCB’s Facebook page, launched a year ago, has grown to include nearly 14,000 fans. Comments are allowed, and although they are monitored, there’s a “fairly high tolerance of various opinions,” she said. Commenters are required to stay on topic and to practice Christian charity.

“The delicate balance is in allowing conversations without letting it get so out of hand that others ‘un-friend’ us,” she said.

Such initiatives are important because young people today often use their Facebook community as their first reference point when doing research. If the Church is not there, “it perpetuates for them the concept that the faith is not relevant to their daily lives,” Osman said.

go and do likewise and treat others with mercy, compassion and love. Through Catholic social teaching we are reminded that we should stand together not as one human family of the same race, ethnicity or social class, but as one human family.

Period. One body made up of many parts. Our teaching reminds us that we are to respect, love and take care of one another the way the Good Samaritan did even if the other person is our “enemy.”

Upon opening my Bible to read the parable for this article, I realized something for the very first time. This parable occurs in Luke’s Gospel immediately following the greatest Commandment — “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself,” (Luke 10:27). I am afraid that far too many

of us have forgotten how to love our neighbors as ourselves. Is it because — in this “me” generation with its self-indulgent attitude of our society — we simply cannot love ourselves in the smallest fraction that God loves us, thereby rendering our love of neighbor as no less inadequate?

I do not have the answers to these questions. They are simply food for thought. It is my fervent prayer, however, that our young people will be able to fix the problems my generation, and those before me, have created for them. It is my hope that they will someday have an easier time identifying exactly who their neighbor is.

For if they are able to accomplish this small feat, then they will be able to stand together as one human family united in their love and mercy for and to one another.

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

18

The Anchor

May 7, 2010

Fall River school to sing at Bosox game

Mass. House passes casino, racing bill

continued from page one

continued from page one

happen until they step foot on the Fenway field and see all those people. As for me, right now I’m more nervous than excited. Nothing remotely close to this has ever happened to me.”

Pereira, a self-proclaimed hardcore Red Sox fan, has been in music ministry for 15 years. The 30-year-old has been music director at St. Michael’s Parish since 2001, and has taught music at the school for three years. “This is a dream come true,” he interjected.

“This is something that I will never forget for the rest of my life. I just won’t be able to enjoy it until we’re sitting in the stands after the anthems, and I can sit back, relax and breathe again.”

The students knew the “Star Spangled Banner,” already, but “Oh, Canada” was completely new to them. “We’ve worked hard with the Canadian anthem,” said Pereira. “They have done a wonderful job with the song. I know we’ll do the Canadians proud.”

Father Edward E. Correia, pastor of St. Michael’s, told The Anchor, “This is such a wonderful thing to happen to the school.

I never expected anything like this. It has brought a great deal of excitement to the school and the parish.”

“Everyone is so excited,” added Sister Baldi. “The children have been working so hard to prepare. Phil does such a wonderful job with the choir. I’m so proud of all of them.”

Come game day, a bus carrying the choir, Pereira and the chaperones will leave St. Michael’s for Fenway at 11:30 a.m. “We have to get up there and work on sound checks and get a feel for where we’ll be,” said Pereira. “There will be an echo in such a large area, and the children have to get used to it. The sound check will help, but I’ve also brought in some

sound equipment to the rehearsals to replicate the echo effect. They should be well-prepared.” Also along for the ride will be Father Correia, Sister Baldi, and Father Bruce Neylon, pastor of St. Stanislaus Parish in Fall River and a huge baseball fan, who was instrumental in introducing Pereira to Lucchino back in December.

After the sound check, the group will receive a private tour of the venerable old ballpark. Later in the day, two more bus-loads will leave the school with parents and friends who have purchased tickets to the game.

“Any time the Red Sox organization can connect with its fan base and vice versa is a great thing,” Lucchino said. “Sometimes we don’t realize just what something like this means to people since we’re there day-to-day.

I’m glad the St. Michael’s family is so excited about this. I grew up in Pittsburgh with neighbors not unlike the close community down in Fall River. I know they will bring their great spirit.”

The game will be broadcast on cable channel NESN at 7 p.m. on May 11, and a pre-game show airs one hour before that. It’s unclear whether the students will get any TV time, but if it were to happen it would be either on the pregame show, or at the beginning of the game broadcast.

“I’m very proud of everyone involved in this, and, I won’t be singing along with them. I want them to do a good job,” quipped Father Correia.

Sister Baldi added that everyone is “stocking up on his or her Red Sox gear for the trip. I’m from New York, but for one special night I’m going to be a Red Sox fan.” When told of Sister Baldi’s comments, Lucchino quipped, “We’ll take it for one night, and eventually win her over.”

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mated the bill would create 15,000 jobs and bring in $260 million in licensing fees as well as more than $300 million in tax revenue each year.

But opponents of the bill said its benefits have been overstated and its costs outweigh any gain. They have consistently called for an independent cost-benefits analysis.

Opponents of expanded gambling contest the assertion that Massachusetts residents spend $1.1 billion on gambling in Connecticut and Rhode Island. That figure has been touted by supporters as proof that a market exists for casinos and slots in the Commonwealth.

Supporters of the bill base their revenue claims on a study by the Spectrum Gaming Group of New Jersey, which was requested by the Massachusetts Legislature. The study projects high profits for Massachusetts gambling and is built on the supposition that Massachusetts casinos would regain 60 percent of money spent by Massachusetts residents at out-of-state casinos. The study predicts that out-of-staters will spend money in Massachusetts to the tune of $500 million each year.

The study also assumes that Massachusetts residents will spend more money — $200 million more — on gambling if casinos can be found at home.

Kathleen Conley Norbut, president of United to Stop the Slots in Massachusetts, faults the study for not being independent and relying

on assumptions. She also faults the Legislature for requesting a benefits analysis only, not a cost-benefits analysis.

Opponents of the bill say that in addition to bringing in less money than predicted, casinos will cost the state. Casinos are expensive to regulate and have a high social cost.

The USS Mass website said studies have shown that five years after a casino opens, the neighborhood sees an increase in robberies by 136 percent, aggravated assaults by 91 percent, auto theft by 78 percent, burglary 50 percent, larceny 38 percent and rape 21 percent.

Casinos and slots prey on the addicted, gaining the highest profits from the few who visit frequently and lose the most money. Somewhere between 70-90 percent of casinos’ profits come from 10 percent of the gamblers, the website said.

Amendments to DeLeo’s bill, meant to regulate unethical casino practices, were rejected by legislators. They voted against guaranteed health care coverage for pathological gambling. They also voted against requiring casinos in the state to display clocks in prominent areas and outlawing adding pheromones to the airflow.

Norbut said in a press release that the bill was “rammed” through the House. Legislators were pressured to support the bill and given misleading information. The unfair and unbalanced process should alarm every citizen, she said.

“It is clear that truth and trans-

parency have left the House,” she added.

Gov. Patrick still supports bringing casinos to the Commonwealth and continues to oppose slot machines at racetracks. Senate President Therese Murray holds that same view. Senators said they would craft their own bill and hold a public hearing — a step the House opted not to do. While senators do not expect to take a vote before June, Murray said she wants a gambling bill on the governor’s desk by July 31 — the end of the legislative session. Many believe the final bill will need to be resolved in a conference committee of House and Senate leaders this summer.

Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, said he is encouraged by the senate’s willingness to listen to the people of the Commonwealth by holding a public hearing. The fight over expanded gambling is “far from over.”

“The bigger battle will be in the Senate,” he said. “That is our last stand.”

When someone wagers at a casino, they do not spend that money on clothing, food and other items. For that reason, jobs are lost because local businesses suffer.

Gambling is like throwing money away into a “black hole that leads to Vegas.”

“We need to have our state senators hear loud and clear why expanded gambling is bad for Massachusetts,” Mineau added.

Diocese to host Quo Vadis Days camp experience continued from page one

an environment for young men that is fun, and it’s time shared with other individuals who share a similar mind-set — discerning what God wants of them.

“It’s not always easy to share those feelings in an everyday environment, and the Quo Vadis Days let the campers see that priests and seminarians are not so different than anyone else.

They’re normal guys that the Lord has chosen.”

The event will take place July 5-9 at the Sacred Heart Retreat Youth Center in Wareham.

Father Cook indicated that a letter and flyers were sent to all pastors and high school chaplains across the diocese. “We’re hoping that parish priests and school chaplains will invite young men who would be open to the camp and who would enjoy that environment,” he told The Anchor. “We would like to extend a personal invitation to those individuals.”

The Quo Vadis Days, which had their beginning in 2000 in the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., have quickly spread to oth-

er dioceses in the U.S. While the format is standard, each diocese can formulate the event to meet its own desires. “At our camp this summer, we will have daily Mass and holy hour,” advised Father Cook. “We’ll have two or three talks each day, time for prayer and discernment, focus on various virtues, ideas and examples of how to live one’s faith, and question and answer sessions. But that’s not all there is to it. There will be sporting events in which to participate, time to just hang out and build up friendships that will hopefully last past the camp. And one day, we’ll be heading up to New Hampshire for a day of mountain hiking.”

Father Cook said the five-day experience is meant to help bring clarity to young men who may be struggling with what they will do with their lives. “It will be a great experience for the young men to reflect on a vocation. You never know what is going on internally in someone, and being with others who share those feelings and struggles can be a great help.”

The hope is that after the ex-

perience, the attendees will want to meet periodically to discuss what happened to them and what is happening in their lives. “We’d love to see a follow-up,” said Father Cook. “Maybe a monthly gathering could happen, and if the experience is a positive one, there’s a good chance the word will spread, causing a ripple effect that will lead more to come to next year’s Quo Vadis Days.

“This year, our priests can promote the event, but in the future, those attending this year could form a fraternity and come back next year, and bring a friend or two. That’s how this grows.”

Father Cook said that the July Quo Vadis Days is not just for young men in the Fall River Diocese. “If someone wants to attend, and they have a friend in another diocese who may be interested, they’re by all means welcome.”

Individuals who are interested in the event, or who would like more information are encouraged to contact their pastor or call Father Cook at 508-8232521.

May 7, 2010

Report: Pope to create Vatican office for ‘new evangelization’ VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI is planning to create a Roman Curia department charged with overseeing the “re-evangelization” of traditionally Christian countries, an Italian newspaper reported.

The Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization will be announced in an apostolic letter being prepared by the pope and will be headed by Italian Archbishop Rino Fisichella, Il Giornale said April 25. The Vatican had no immediate comment on the report.

The step would represent the first major Roman Curia innovation under Pope Benedict, who has frequently spoken about the need to renew the roots of the faith in European and other Western societies.

It was Pope John Paul II who first used the term “new evangelization,” and Il Giornale said a proposal to create a Vatican department to promote this type of activity was made in the 1980s by Father Luigi Giussani, the founder of the Italian lay movement Communion and Liberation.

More recently, the newspaper said, Cardinal Angelo Scola of Venice re-proposed the idea to Pope Benedict, and the German pontiff decided to move ahead with the project.

Archbishop Fisichella has headed the Pontifical Academy for Life since 2008. He came under fire recently from a small number of academy members, who said in a statement that he should be replaced because he “does not understand what absolute respect for innocent human lives entails.”

The criticism of Archbishop Fisichella stemmed from an article he wrote in 2009, which said a Brazilian archbishop’s response to an abortion performed on a nine-yearold girl had shown a lack of pastoral care and compassion.

The Vatican later issued a clarification reiterating its teaching against abortion and saying the Brazilian archbishop had, in fact, acted with “pastoral delicacy” in the matter.

In Your Prayers

Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks May 13 Rev. Msgr. Osias Boucher, USA Ret., Pastor, Blessed Sacrament, Fall River, 1955 May 14 Rev. Robert E. McDonnell, C.S.C., 2006 May 16 Rev. William McDonald, SS., St. Patrick, Falmouth, 1941 Rev. Msgr. J. Joseph Sullivan, P.R., Pastor, Sacred Heart, Fall River, 1960 Rev. Arthur dos Reis, Retired Pastor, Santo Christo, Fall River, 1981

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The Anchor 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 508-336-5549.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Evening Prayer; 7 p.m. sacrament of confession; 8 p.m. Benediction.

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

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

Around the Diocese 5/7

The Fall River area Men’s First Friday Club will meet today at Good Shepherd Parish, 1598 South Main Street, Fall River. Following the 6 p.m. Mass celebrated

by Father Freddie Babiczuk, a hot meal will be served in the parish hall, followed by guest speaker, Massachusetts State Senator Kevin Aguiar. For more information or to RSVP, call 508-672-8174.

5/9

The Legion of Mary of the Fall River Diocese is sponsoring a May Crowning Ceremony Sunday at 2:30 p.m. on the grounds of the Sacred Hearts Fathers, Adams Street, Fairhaven. This yearly Mother’s Day event will include recitation of the rosary and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. All are invited.

5/10

A mission, “Living the Mysteries of the Rosary,” led by Holy Cross Father John Phalen, will take place Monday through Thursday evenings, May 10-13, at 7 p.m., at Holy Cross Church, 225 Purchase Street, South Easton. Each successive evening will focus on the joyful, luminous, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries of the rosary, helping us to see and appreciate our own experiences of God in our lives. Thursday, which is the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, will include Mass.

5/10

St. Francis Xavier Parish, Hyannis, is holding a day of prayer and celebration for the Year For Priests on May 10. It will start with adoration from 1-4:30 p.m., and end with a 5 p.m. Mass celebrated by priests of the Cape Cod Deanery.

5/11

The next meeting of the Catholic Cancer Support Group of Our Lady of Victory Parish will be held May 11 at the church in Centerville, beginning with a 7 p.m.

Mass and anointing, followed by a meeting and social in the parish center.

Guest speaker is Dr. Kumara Sidhartha who will speak on “Cancer and Nutrition: Evidencebased Program to Achieve Your Best Health.” For information call Mary Lees at 508-771-1106.

5/11

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

5/12

The Fall River Diocese Divorced and Separated Group will continue its video series with “New Relationships” on May 12 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Family Life Center, 500 Slocum Road, North Dartmouth. There is no charge to attend and all separated and divorced persons are welcome. Refreshments will be served.

5/15 508-992-9408.

COURAGE, a welcoming support group for Catholics wounded by same-sex attraction who gather to seek God’s wisdom, mercy and love, will next meet on May 15 at 7 p.m. For location information, call Father Richard Wilson at

5/16

Divorced and Separated Catholics of the upper and lower Cape will gather for a presentation by Dorothy Levesque, past president of the National Association of Divorced and Separated Catholics, on May 16 at Christ the King Parish, Mashpee, at 12:30 p.m. Her presentation will be “Good Catholics Do Get Divorced.” For information email janegreene1@comcast.net.

5/17

St. Mary’s Primary School, 106 Washington Street, Taunton, will sponsor a Golf Tournament May 17 at the LeBaron Hills Country Club, 183 Rhode Island Road, Lakeville with registration beginning at noon and a shotgun start at 1 p.m. To register individual players or a foursome, call 508-822-9480 or visit www. stmarystaunton.com.

5/20 5/21

A Healing Mass will be held at St. Anne’s Church, 818 Middle Street, Fall River, on May 20 at 6:30 p.m. Rosary will precede the Mass at 6 p.m. and benediction and healing prayers will immediately follow.

A retreat weekend for parish workers and religious educators will be held at La Salette Retreat Center, 947 Park Street, Attleboro, from May 21-23.

The retreat will be facilitated by Karen Laroche, M.A., and Claire Lamoureux, Ph.D. For information or to register, call 508-222-8530.

Misc.

Allegiance Hospice, which has recently contracted with diocesan nursing homes is looking for volunteers to be a part of the team serving residents under hospice care. Volunteers are formally screened and trained. For information contact Karen Spangler at 800-792-5808, Ext. 2608, or email kspangler@allegiancehospice.com.

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The Anchor

May 7, 2010

Bishop says saint’s relic could make priests more aware of sin The story of the story-tellers

KNOCK, Ireland (CNS) — Bishop Philip Boyce of Raphoe told priests the relic of the heart of St. John Vianney could make them “more keenly aware of the horror of sin.”

The life of St. John Vianney, known as the Curé of Ars, can “inspire us priests to give ourselves wholeheartedly to the Lord, who called us to be faithful to our duties in the confessional, at the altar and with the sick and afflicted;

in a word, to the work of saving souls,” the bishop said recently at the Marian shrine in Knock.

The Year For Priests had “given rise to much prayer to God for the faithfulness, interior renewal and holiness of priests,” said Bishop Boyce. “Yet this year has been marked with the revelation of the scandalous sins and crimes of those whose hands were anointed for a sacred service but who betrayed the trust placed in

them by innocent children. Instead of leading them to God, they led them astray and ruined their lives.

“May the Curé of Ars, your patron, inspire you with new energy. The waves of stormy criticism may lash against us, but the Lord of history is with his Church, as he was in Peter’s boat,” he said, referring to Ireland’s clergy sex abuse crisis. “We need not be afraid or lose heart.”

I

t’s like getting all snuggly Now, as the story climaxes, we in bed ... tucked up nice and have an anonymous voice making tight, the pillow is still cool behind the call and some ex-hock-jock your noggin, and your mom or who’s taken one too many hits in dad plops down and begins readthe head during his career providing your favorite bed-time story. ing color.

That comfortable, familiar, The Bs analysts, Kathryn Tapsoothing voice brings the story pen, Mike Milbury, Gord Kluzak, alive. You could even shut your Barry Pederson, and Naoko Fueyes and the story unfolds in your nayama have been replaced with mind’s eye. purported hockey gurus. For me, Each night the plot thickens between periods is time to switch and the characters, who have to the Red Sox or log-rolling. already come alive, have become Our comfy Celtic announcclose friends — friends who have ers, the eloquent Mike Gorman welcomed you into their world. and the rambunctious Tommy It’s not the story, nor the Heinsohn have handed over the characters that make the narramics to obnoxious and annoying tive something you can’t wait “national” announcers. Good luck to get into each night — it’s the figuring out which network is narrator(s). televising the Celtics on any given Now imagine your epic night ... or day. journey has reached the climax.

At least we have our comfort The tension has mounted, the zone intact with the Red Sox right characters must rally and save the day. There you are, with the blankets up to your eyes.

You’re clutching

By Dave Jolivet the sheets with white knuckles.

And then ... mom or dad isn’t there to finish now. Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy the saga. Instead, an anonymous will keep us amused and entervoice bellows out the finale. Gone tained until October. In the past, is that comfort zone. Gone are the they too have had to step aside as familiar, soothing tones. the season climaxed. (Hopefully You raise one eyebrow and they’ll have to do the same this think, “This stinks.” Most of the year ... but ....) excitement has been sucked dry.

Only with the Patriots are the The story has become a venfaithful spared the trauma of lostriloquist, and the story-teller, its ing that tucked-in comfy feeling. dummy.

The national networks give us the That’s what happens every year feed for all games, so there are no the Bruins, Celtics and Red Sox local TV announcers. Although make the playoffs. muting the TV volume and listenRight now the Cs and the Bs ing to the venerable radio team of are nearing the halfway point Gil Santos and Gino Cappelletti is to the respective championship always a prudent preference. series. The over-achieving Bruins It has everything to do with are exciting and may give the the almighty dollar come playoff Stanley Cup a run for the money time. The networks must get their after a 38-year hiatus. All season big fat piece of the pie. One would long Bruins’ fans nestled in with think in this age of mind-boggling the call from the effervescent Jack technology that there would be a Edwards and the keenly knowlway to let the networks reap the edgeable Andy Brickley. While profits while allowing the locals Edwards can be a bit over the top to keep their story-tellers. But I with his play-by-play at times, suppose that would spell doom he’s still a homer and a treat to for those anonymous voices in the listen to. night.

My View From the Stands