Anchor 10.01.10

Diocese of Fall River

The Anchor

F riday , October 1, 2010

October focus is on Respect For Life B y Rebecca Aubut A nchor Staff ATTLEBORO — September 22 was the official start of the 40 Days for Life campaign across the world, and for leadership team member Steve Marcotte, the outpouring of support for the Attleboro branch has been incredible.

“Each campaign has a unique characteristic to it and this one seems to drawing some people.

You’d be amazed at how far people are coming,” said Marcotte. “It amazes me how this campaign keeps growing.”

People are coming to Attleboro from Cape Cod, Fall River, New Bedford, Middleboro and beyond to take part

in the peaceful prayer vigil in an effort to help end abortion.

The stress is on prayer, says leadership team member Ron Larose.

“We have had comments from people that it looks like protesting,” said Larose. “We assure them that we are not protesting. We are praying for the babies who are being aborted, and their mothers as well. They need our prayers, and all the families who are impacted by the tragedy that is occurring.”

Last year two babies’ lives were saved, says Marcotte, and this year he is hoping for more.

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Religious practice boosts students’ knowledge

By Christine M. Williams Anchor Correspondent FALL RIVER — Religious observance has a direct positive effect on students, resulting in higher grade-point averages, more time spent on homework and a significant decrease in high school dropout rates. Faith makes such a difference in the education of the urban poor that it puts them on even footing with middle class schoolchildren.

“Inner city kids who go to church with their parents each week, it’s like moving them into a middle class family in a middle class neighborhood, and that’s huge. There’s nothing public schools can do that can rival that. The power of worship in this area as in many others is phenomenal,” said Patrick F. Fagan, author of the paper “Religious Practice and Educational Attainment” released by the Family Research Council last month.

Fagan, director of the FRC’s Center for Research on Marriage and Religion, told The Anchor that the data have “overwhelming implications.” It shows a way that children can move up and out of poverty, particularly because faith is just as accessible to the poor as it is to everyone else.

Fagan’s paper summarized the findings of key studies on education and religious practice published in peer-reviewed journals.

One study found that students who attend religious activities weekly had a GPA 14.4 percent higher than students who never attended. Those who never attended had an average GPA of 2.6. The average GPA jumped to 2.7 for students who went to church less than once a month, to 2.8 for students who went monthly and to 2.9 for students who attended weekly.

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FOLLOWING THEIR HEART — Members of the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate currently living and serving in the Fall River Diocese include, from left, Sister Maria Alicia, Mother Maria Simona, Sister Maria Consolatrice, Sister Maria Francis, Sister Maria Agnes, and Sister Maria Lydwine. The order is housed in a convent adjacent to St. Anthony of Padua Parish in New Bedford, where they also minister. (Photo by Kenneth J. Souza)

Sisters of the Immaculate thrive on Marian spirituality

By Kenneth J. Souza Anchor Staff NEW BEDFORD — As a teen-ager living with her family in New Jersey, Sister Maria Consolatrice had never even considered entering religious life.

But a simple inquiry from her mother was all it took to discern her calling.

“When I was 17, my mother asked me if I ever thought about

it, and initially I said ‘no,’” Sister Consolatrice said. “Not that I had anything against it — I just never thought about it before. But then I started discerning a call to religious life. So I started searching into different orders. I knew I wanted three things: an order with devotion to Our Lady, devotion to the Eucharist, and one that wore the full habit.”

After a five-year search that

included extensive Internet research and visits to several convents, Sister Consolatrice found everything she was looking for in the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate, an order started in 1965 at the end of the Second Vatican Council by two priests — Father Stefano Maria Manelli and Father Gabriel Maria Pelletieri — and later elevated to an institute of religious life by Turn to page 13

Guaimaca — 10 years of dreams fulfilled and some yet to be realized

Village students shine, but need help to maintain the glow

By Dave Jolivet, Editor

GUAIMACA, Honduras — This month marks the 10-year anniversary of the Diocese of Fall River’s expansion into the Central American region of Guaimaca, Honduras, one of the poorest countries in the world. What started out as a five-year commitment to send missionaries to the area to provide the thousands of needy villagers with a more regular priestly presJose Escoto ence, medicine, education, and spiritual guidance, has blossomed into a brotherhood of diocesan faithful, separated only by physical distance, but connected through love

and faith in Christ.

Father Craig A. Pregana, pastor of St. Rose of Lima Parish in Guaimaca, recently told The Anchor of the great things that have been accomplished in Honduras, and also of the plans for bigger and better things.

One of the most amazing transitions is that 10 years ago a simple elementary education for most was unheard of, and now many of the Guaimacan children Starman Martinez are earning a high school education and some are reaching for the stars attempting to gain a college degree. That may Turn to page 10

News From the Vatican

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October 1, 2010

Pope asks Catholics to reflect on impact of work, free time on family VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI has asked Catholics around the world to use 2011 as a time to reflect on the impact of their work and their free-time pursuits on their family life.

The reflection, he said, should help the Church prepare for the Seventh World Meeting of Families, which will be in Milan May 30-June 3, 2012.

The theme will be: “The Family: Work and Celebration.”

“Work and celebration are intimately tied with family life,” impacting the choices family members make and their relations with each other, with society and with the Church, the pope said in a letter to Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family.

The cardinal presided over a news conference to discuss initial preparations for the gathering in Milan, which Pope Benedict has promised to attend.

The World Meeting of Families and the Pontifical Council for the Family were established by Pope John Paul II in 1981 when he published his apostolic exhortation, “Familiaris Consortio,” on the role of the Christian family.

In his letter to the cardinal, Pope Benedict said the Book of Genesis makes clear that both work and rest are blessings from God. But, he said, in modern societies where market competition and maximum profit are seen as all-important,

Revised and updated ...

families have little time together and even days off are spent shopping or pursuing individual interests.

“There is a need to promote a reflection about and a commitment to reconciling the needs of work time and family time, recovering the true meaning of days off, especially Sundays,” which should be dedicated to God, to family and to solidarity, the pope said.

Cardinal Antonelli said the Church’s message is that it is possible to run a business, “aiming not at maximum profit, but a just profit, compatible with the needs of workers, their families, society, protecting the environment” and offering workers flexibility so that they can meet all their family obligations.

Family members, too, have to do more to ensure each member of the family shares in domestic chores and has free time to relax and enjoy the company of others, he said.

Cardinal Antonelli also said the pontifical council hopes that by the time the World Meeting of Families opens in May 2012 his office will have finished a new set of guidelines and suggestions for Catholic marriage preparation programs.

The cardinal said the document would not give hard and fast rules for what preparation programs must include and how long they must last, but it will include suggestions drawn from the estimated 400 program outlines sent in by dioceses and Catholic organizations that prepare couples for marriage.

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not photo shy — Pilgrims take pictures of Pope Benedict XVI as he arrives to lead his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican recently. (CNS photo/Tony Gentile, Reuters)

Forgiveness is backbone of real individual, Church reform, pope says CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) — Forgiveness is the backbone of all true reform, both in the life of an individual Christian and in the life of the whole Church community, Pope Benedict XVI said.

Today’s spiritual crisis, in fact, is rooted in “obscuring the grace of forgiveness,” the pope said recently as he met with a group of bishops from Brazil.

The bishops were making their “ad limina” visits to Rome to report on the status of their dioceses.

When forgiveness and the sacrament of reconciliation are not recognized as being “real and effective,” people tend to feel free from guilt because “the conditions for the existence of (guilt)

are never verified” or examined, the pope said.

However, even though people may think they are free from guilt, “deep down they know it’s not true, they know that sin exists and that they themselves are sinners,” he said.

No one is “so cold as not to experience feelings of guilt,” he said, adding that such feelings are necessary “for the health of the soul.”

Everyone needs God “to remove the layers of dust and filth that have collected on God’s image inscribed in us,” Pope Benedict said.

The layers of sin make God’s image within each person unrecognizable, he said. When those layers are removed, the

individual begins to look like Christ and more like everyone else who has become more Christ-like through purification, said the pope.

“We need forgiveness, which is the backbone of every real reform,” he said.

The renewal of the individual “also becomes the core of the renewal of the community,” he said. When people realize that it is Christ who lives in them, they are “torn from isolation and welcomed” into the community of believers, the pope said.

The Church accompanies each individual in the process of purification, which can start out as a long, arduous process, but will always become more joyful, he said.

Reading, especially what God has written, is great, pope tells children CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) — Being able to read and write is a really great thing, Pope Benedict XVI told about 400 elementary school children.

Learning those skills, “we can know what others think, read newspapers and books; we can know what was written 2,000 years ago or even longer ago,” but even better, we can read the Bible, he told the children.

During the special evening audience in the courtyard of the papal summer villa, the pope met the students from the Paul VI Pontifical School, an elementary school in Castel Gandolfo staffed by sisters on Vatican property, but funded by the Italian government.

The 83-year-old Pope Benedict told the kids, “I started going to school 77 years ago.”

“It was in a tiny town of 300 souls, a bit ‘beyond the moon,’” he said, translating into Italian the German saying for a town in

the middle of nowhere.

Despite the school’s remote location, “we learned the essentials. We especially learned to read and write, and I think it’s a great thing to be able to read and write,” he said.

“Here’s something extraordinary: God wrote a book, that is, he spoke to us humans and found

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people who wrote the book with the word of God,” the pope explained. “Reading it, we, too, can read what God has to say to us.”

The pope also said that school is a great place to make friends.

But a Christian’s first best friend should be Jesus, “who is everyone’s friend and really shows us the path of life,” he said.

OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 54, No. 37

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October 1, 2010

The International Church

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Mideast Catholic leaders hope synod calls attention to their problems

By Doreen Abi Raad Catholic News Service BEIRUT (CNS) — Catholic Church leaders, anticipating the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East, view it as an opportunity to call attention to the problems facing Christians in the region.

The synod, to be held at the Vatican October 10-24, will focus on “communion and witness.”

Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk, Iraq, who had asked the pope in January 2008 to convene such a synod, said the meeting “is an opportunity to revise the whole situation for Christians in the Middle East.”

He said it is a pastoral and practical synod, and not a dogmatic one.

Archbishop Sako stressed that because there are so many crucial issues to tackle — liturgical reform; formation of clergy and other religious; dialogue among the churches; and particularly the political status of Christians — he hopes this synod will be highly productive.

Chaldean Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni of Baghdad said the synod represents “a big grace for the Middle East.”

“We need it because our faithful are leaving their countries,” he told Catholic News Service. “If we have peace and security, our people would not leave.”

The Middle East has many Catholic rites, and there is some division among them, Bishop Warduni said, “but like the first Christians, we must have one spirit and one heart, as when the Holy Spirit descended upon them.”

For those participating in the synod, he said, the Holy Spirit “will guide us to do what we must do for ecumenism and dialogue with other religions.”

“We ask the Lord to give us the wisdom to guide each of us, so we can arrive at some solutions that will be good for the glory of the Lord, the good of the Church and the good of the faithful,” Bishop Warduni said.

In Israel, Melkite Catholic Archbishop Elias Chacour of Haifa said local Church leaders would like the synod to articulate why Christians should remain in the Middle East.

He said he hopes the synod will “define the reason why we need to stay in this country, which is not very favorable to our presence. What reason is there for our presence here as Christians? To propagate and introduce the value of reconciliation, which is not on the political agenda in this country?”

“We expect better understanding of our mission in this country, our role in the Catholic Church and more attention to our human presence than to

that of the presence of the holy shrines,” he said.

“We are hoping for very simple things. We don’t want miracles,” he added.

Though Catholics’ role in the Holy Land is recognized by the Holy See, Archbishop Chacour said they would like to see more consciousness of what they should do as a Christian minority within two large majorities “facing the challenge of meeting every day thousands of pilgrims who come not only to walk on the dirt and see artifacts but also to see what remains of Jesus Christ, the ‘living stones.’”

Archbishop Chacour said he would like to see the Holy See “encourage the local Christians here so they can really be aware of their role.”

“We need the Catholic communion to become more real,” he said.

Msgr. Raphael Minassian, who administers the Armenian Catholic Exarchate of Jerusalem and Amman, Jordan, said Catholics “have many hopes for the synod: hope to strengthen the communion between the churches; to give knowledge to the (Western) churches about the existence of the (Eastern) churches; to define how the destiny of our land will be practiced; how to define our presence under the current conditions.”

Cardinal tells world leaders to fight poverty, not eliminate the poor UNITED NATIONS (CNS) — Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson encouraged nations to keep their commitments to the Millennium Development Goals, which, he said, “should be used to fight poverty and not to eliminate the poor.”

Cardinal Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, represented the Vatican at the September 20-22 summit of heads of state and government on the Millennium Development Goals, which set out to halve poverty by 2015.

Addressing the leaders September 20, the Ghanaian cardinal told them that he spoke not only as a religious leader, but also as an African and a man coming from a poor family.

The summit was convoked to assess the progress made in the past 10 years toward reducing poverty, combating disease, fighting hunger, protecting the environment and improving access to education.

The battle against poverty can

be won, but it will require solidarity with the poor, favorable financial and trade policies, and assistance in fighting corruption and promoting good government, the cardinal said.

In addition, he said, more work needs to be done to reduce the foreign debt of the world’s poorest countries.

In his written intervention submitted to the summit, Cardinal Turkson called some of the earlier loan programs “situations of international usury” that plunged countries into an abyss of debt.

Economic policies and technology alone will not be enough to fulfill the development goals, he wrote.

Rather, the international community must work “to expand our vision from the donorrecipient paradigm to see each other for who we are: brothers and sisters with equal dignity and opportunity to access the same markets and networks,” he wrote.

The global financial crisis obviously has created new areas of poverty, including in wealthy nations, and has slowed progress in reducing poverty globally, but that is not because of the poor, Cardinal Turkson wrote.

“The unethical and irresponsible conduct of large private financial operators, together with the lack of foresight and control by governments and the international community, have all played a role,” he wrote.

War and violence and the related illegal trafficking of people, drugs and precious raw materials also contribute to stalling development, he said.

But the key to promoting development, the cardinal said, is to protect each individual’s political, religious and economic rights and freedoms; that is the secret to moving from “merely trying to manage poverty to creating wealth” and “from viewing the person as a burden to seeing the person as part of the solution.”

Msgr. Minassian identified the emigration of Christians from the region as a “major problem” and said the synod should work to “find a way to approach this problem and to solve it.”

Syrian Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan of Antioch, who is co-president of the synod with Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches, sees the synod as an opportunity for the world to look more carefully at the plight of Christians in the Middle East.

“I think we all, religious leaders of the churches in the Middle East, hope that something will come out of this synod, particularly that the Western world will understand the region — its culture, its history — and urge people, governments and nations in the Middle East region to not only generally live together, but to abide by the laws of respecting civil liberties for all,” the patriarch told Catholic News Service.

“I think until now we spoke very little of this need. Unfortunately, the countries of the West, especially the govern-

ments, have been linked to mostly compromise and silence regarding the civil rights of all citizens (in this region), because they think that in urging those governments to respect the human dignity and the laws for all means that they would insult Islam and, therefore, they prefer to keep silent,” he said.

“For us (Christians), it’s a matter of survival,” the patriarch said. “We can’t just close our eyes and say we happen to be here and we have to continue. We have to try to convince the whole world, especially the developed world, that we can’t accept just to endure or take our destiny so negatively, as in saying ‘It’s the will of God, and that’s it.’ We have to fight for our human rights,” the patriarch said.

Melkite Bishop Elie Haddad of Sidon, Lebanon, said the synod “can send a message to the world to save the countries in this region.”

Noting that a synod, by its very nature, orients the faithful toward the Gospel, Bishop Haddad said, “It is the Church that can lead us again to the safe side.”

October 1, 2010 The Church in the U.S. Cardinal George urges Hispanics to stay rooted in their Catholic faith

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work in Hispanic ministry to decide what that ministry will look like as Hispanics become more mainstream members of the U.S. Catholic Church. Hispanics already account for more than 35 percent

of Catholics in the United States and more than 50 percent of Catholics under age 25, according to the USCCB. Participants in “Raices y Alas” included leaders in Hispanic ministry as well as representatives from

Upcoming Events Oct. 3 - Fr. (Sun.) 3pm

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Oct. 16 - (Sat.) 10am-3pm

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Nov. 2 - (Tues.) 10am-3pm

HEALING SERVICE: “Respect Life.” Presenter: Joe McDermott, Pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Stoughton.

A DAY OF HEALING: “Redirecting the Ricochet Life.” Finding Serentiy-Peace-Joy. Mt. 11:28a.

Presenter: Jacqueline M. Sitte, RN, CARN, LADCI, LRC WHAT ARE YOUR GIFTS?: “A Day of Opening Up to the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.” 1 Cor. 12:4-11.

Presenter: Dorothea Degrandis-Sudol praise and worship: Presenter: Fr. Tom DiLorenzo a day of recollection: “Celebrating the feast of the Holy Souls.” “That They May Be One.” John 17:21. Presenter: Fr. Mike McNamara.

Nov. 6 - A TIME OF HEALING: “Healed by the Power of (Sat.) 10am-1:30pm the Holy Spirit at Any Age of Any Malady.” Luke

11:13, Acts 1:8. Presenter: Dr. Hugh Boyle Jr.,

ED.D. Christian Psychologist.

Nov. 20 - A Time For Healing: Presenter: Dr. Joseph (Sat.) 10am-1:30pm Coyle, PH.D. Christian Psychologist.

Nov. 30 - (Tues.) 10am-3pm

colleges and universities, religious congregations and other institutions.

To emphasize the integration of Hispanics in the Church in the United States, the meeting agenda

nity? What do they require of the Hispanic community?” said Sister Dominga, who works with formation for permanent Hispanic deacons in the Archdiocese of Chicago and vocation ministry. “These are

deeply rooted — Milagros Calvetti of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Mo., Sister Ana Josefa Fajardo and Francisco Valliciergo, from the Diocese of Newark, N.J., sing during a prayer service at “Roots and Wings 2010,” a national congress on Hispanic ministry held in Rosemont, Ill. (CNS photo/Karen Callaway, Catholic New World)

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ROSEMONT, Ill. (CNS) — Hispanic Catholics can be leaven for the Church, but that can only happen if they remain rooted in their faith, Chicago Cardinal Francis E. George said in a September 24 address at a national Hispanic ministry congress held in Rosemont.

“You will be leaven not because you are Hispanic but because you are Catholic,” he said.

But some Hispanic Catholics are leaving the Church, lured by fundamentalist Protestant churches, and even more by the secularism that threatens all faiths.

“Their temptation is to be Catholic only on December 12 and Ash Wednesday, and forget everything else,” said Cardinal George. December 12 is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

More than 500 people attended the four-day event, which had as its theme “Raices y Alas” (“Roots and Wings”). It was organized by the National Catholic Council for Hispanic Ministry, an umbrella organization of more than 50 Hispanic Catholic movements and organizations, in collaboration with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church.

The goal was for people who

praise and worship: Presenter: Fr. Tom DiLorenzo BRING A LUNCH TEA AND COFFEE WILL BE SERVED

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was organized around the five priorities the USCCB has set for all of its offices: — Marriage and family.

— Faith formation and sacramental practice.

— Young people and vocations.

— Life and dignity of the human person.

— Diversity with special emphasis on Hispanics.

Sister Dominga Zapata, a member of the Society of Helpers and a conference board member, said it was important to focus on common issues with the bishops and the broader Catholic community.

“How do these priorities affect and involve the Hispanic commu-

the priorities that affect everyone.

Everyone is looking at these issues: African-Americans, Native Americans.”

To make it relate better to the Hispanic experience, the formation area was expanded to include academic education, life and dignity focused on immigration and vocations focused on the baptismal vocation of all Catholics, said Carmen Aguinaco, president of the National Catholic Council for Hispanic Ministry.

Aguinaco directs the Hispanic Ministry Resource Center at Claretian Publications, based in Chicago.

Hispanic Catholic are concerned

about keeping young people — the second generation of immigrant families — engaged in the church, she said. “That is a really big issue.”

Jaime Buscanan, also a board member, said the congress helped bring people in Hispanic ministry from around the country together to share their experiences and ideas and go forth renewed in strength for their mission.

“The growth in the Hispanic population of Catholics has led to great needs for pastoral assistance and pastoral leadership,” said Buscanan, director of Hispanic ministry formation at University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary.

“In Chicago, we have many resources. In smaller dioceses, there are few resources.”

But the situation of Hispanic ministry has changed, he said.

“The Church has become more aware of the impact Hispanic Catholics are going to have in the Church,” he told the Catholic New World, newspaper of the Chicago Archdiocese. “The leadership is more open to investing resources in Hispanic leaders. We are no longer just finding a place in the Church.

We are the Church — we are part of the Church. Before, we were looking for a place to be Catholic. Now we are looking at how to make our contribution.”

Aguinaco agreed.

“In the past, when we talked about Hispanic ministry, it was about ministry to Hispanics from a position of superiority,” she said.

“Now it’s about ministry Hispanics can have for each other and for the wider Church. It’s almost like a coming of age.”

Bishop urges Congress to remember working poor in tax-policy debates WASHINGTON (CNS) — The head of the bishops’ domestic policy committee has urged Congress to make the working poor a priority in current taxpolicy debates.

“Too often the weak and vulnerable are not heard in the tax debate,” wrote Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y., in a September 20 letter to Congress. He asked Congress specifically to preserve and improve the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit.

The tax cuts for all individuals, enacted in 2001 and 2003, will expire at the end of the year unless Congress takes action to extend them. President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress are pushing for an extension of tax cuts for all but the wealthiest Americans, while Republicans want to extend the cuts for all taxpayers.

“Poor children and their families have compelling needs yet they often lack powerful allies and influential advocates,” Bish-

op Murphy noted.

He particularly stressed the importance of extending the income eligibility requirements for the current child tax credit. He said if this provision is not continued, 600,000 more children will become poor and four million children already in poverty will fall into deeper poverty.

The bishop also emphasized the importance of retaining the current provisions of the earned income tax credit, which Congress modified in 2009. The tax credit currently helps families with three or more children and has increased the amount of tax relief for married couples. These changes, the bishop said, prevented three million people from falling into poverty in 2009 and increased the size of credit to seven million families.

“This is no time to abandon these important parts of the safety net for low-income families and married couples,” he said.

Bishop Murphy drew on Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 encyclical,

“Caritas in Veritate” (“Charity in Truth”), which said that economic decisions have ethical consequences.

Quoting the document, he said: “The Church’s social doctrine has always maintained that justice must be applied to every phase of economic activity, because this is always concerned with man and his needs.

Locating resources, financing, production, consumption and all the other phases in the economic cycle inevitably have moral implications. Thus, every economic decision has a moral consequence.”

The bishop stressed that U.S. Catholic bishops have been strong supporters of the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit for years saying they help “workers and families raising children to provide the necessities of life.”

“Unless Congress acts,” he wrote, “these vulnerable workers and their children will be left worse off than they are now.”

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The Church in the U.S.

October 1, 2010

USCCB officials urge HHS not to require coverage of contraception and sterilization

it’s all about life — These are two new ads from the U.S. bishops’ Office of Pro-Life Activities that illustrate current abortion policy under Roe v. Wade and the threats posed by the proposed Freedom of Choice Act. (CNS photo)

Infertility, sex trafficking, death penalty among Respect Life topics WASHINGTON (CNS) — specifically includes among Pro- ticle, this year’s Respect Life proPro-Life concerns ranging from Life concerns — for the first time gram packet includes articles on: — “American Youth and the infertility treatments to sexual since 2006 — opposition to capitrafficking and from population tal punishment. Members of Cath- Culture of Life” by graduate stucontrol to the death penalty are olics Against Capital Punishment dents Megan Breen and Samuel part of the U.S. Conference of had asked Cardinal Daniel N. Vasquez; — “Sex Trafficking: The New Catholic Bishops’ Respect Life DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, chairman of the USCCB Com- Slavery” by Diane Bayly of the program for 2010-11.

Materials in English and Span- mittee on Pro-Life Activities, to USCCB’s Office of Migration and Refugee Services; ish, including posters, fliers, litur- include the issue this year.

“We are concerned that by dis— “Hope for Married Couples gy guides, recommended resources, bulletin inserts and artwork, regarding the issue of the death Who Want to Have a Child” by Dr. are available to help parishes, or- penalty, the Pro-Life committee John Bruchalski of the Tepeyac Family Center; ganizations and individ— “Caring for Each ual Catholics participate s we seek a reason to put aside Other, Even Unto Death” in the yearlong program the practice of the death pen- by Marie Hilliard of the that begins October 3, Respect Life Sunday. alty, perhaps the best motive is our desire National Catholic BioethThe theme of this to imitate God in his mercy toward those ics Center; — “Make Room year’s observance is “The for whom Jesus died.” for People” by Steven measure of love is to love Mosher of the Population without measure.”

A brochure for this year’s pro- may be ignoring the wise counsel Research Institute; — “Losing a Child to Suicide: gram offers vignettes from the offered three decades ago by the experiences of Catholic families U.S. bishops in their historic 1980 Trusting in God’s Mercy” by dealing with a teen’s unexpected statement on capital punishment,” Gladys Sweeney of the Institute pregnancy, an elderly relative’s the organization said in a letter for the Psychological Sciences.

This year’s liturgy guide offers persistent vegetative state and to the cardinal. “In it, the bishthe impending birth of a special- ops affirmed that in voicing their intercessions for life; suggested opposition to the death penalty, homily reflections for Respect needs child.

“There are no easy answers to they sought to remove a ‘certain Life Sunday and January 22, the challenges like these that fami- ambiguity’ about our Church’s af- anniversary of the Supreme Court lies face everyday, but there are firmation of the sanctity of all hu- decisions that legalized abortion; a litany for life; and a prayer, enclear answers, and we know deep man life.”

In an article for the 2010-11 thronement and novena to Our down which answers are right and which are wrong,” the brochure package, Bishop Robert W. Finn Lady of Guadalupe.

Begun in 1972, the Respect says. “Without trying to minimize of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., the enormous sacrifices facing linked the issue of capital punish- Life program brings Church teaching on the value and digeach of these families, the ques- ment to God’s divine mercy.

“As we seek a reason to put nity of human life to the Catholic tion comes down to this: Is it morally permissible to have a mem- aside the practice of the death community and the wider public ber of our family killed to avoid penalty, perhaps the best motive through education, prayer, service the tremendous personal sacrifice is our desire to imitate God in his and advocacy.

Information can be found at / his or her care requires of us? The mercy toward those for whom Jesus died,” he wrote. www.usccb.org/prolife/programs/ answer should be obvious: no.”

In addition to Bishop Finn’s ar- rlp/index.shtml.

The Respect Life package also

“A

WASHINGTON — The Department of Health and Human Services should not require coverage of contraception or sterilization in group and individual health plans as part of “preventive” services for women, said representatives of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops as HHS continued its deliberations on a final list of required preventive services under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. “These drugs, devices and procedures prevent not a disease condition, but the healthy condition known as fertility,” said Anthony Picarello, USCCB general counsel, and Michael Moses, associate general counsel, in a recent letter to HHS. They added that contraception and sterilization “pose significant risks of their own to women’s life and health; and a federal program to mandate their inclusion would pose an unprecedented threat to rights of conscience.”

Picarello and Moses argued that contraception cannot be considered “preventive” on the grounds of preventing abortion because “abortion is not itself a disease condition, but a separate procedure that is performed only by agreement between a woman and a health professional,” and “studies

have shown that the percentage of unintended pregnancies that are ended by abortion is higher if the pregnancy occurred during use of a contraceptive.”

They noted that at least one drug already approved by the Food and Drug Administration for “emergency contraception” can actually cause early abortions, so a mandate of prescription contraception coverage as a preventive service would “be in direct tension with PPACA’s statutory prohibition on mandating any abortion service.”

They also noted that such a mandate would threaten “rights of conscience for religious employers and others who have moral or religious objections to these procedures. In this regard, the administration’s promise that Americans who like their current coverage will be able to keep it under health care reform would be a hollow pledge.”

They added that this “would also contradict longstanding federal precedents on respect for conscientious objection to such procedures and such coverage,” including the Church amendment, which since 1973 has protected conscientious objection to abortion and sterilization.

The full text of the letter can be found online at: www.usccb. org/ogc/preventive.pdf.

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- Polynesian Cultural Center - Pearl Harbor & Arizona Tour - Guided tour of USS Missouri & National Cemetery - Circle Island Tour - 5 nights @ Outrigger Reef Hotel (5 Star) in Honolulu, located on the beach - 4 nights Royal Lahaina Hotel in Maui - 3 Luaus - Tour Iao Valley & Iao Needle & Wailuku Town

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6

The Anchor No longer business as usual

Last week we examined how Pope Benedict, in his visit to Great Britain, got the “whole country to sit up and think,” to use the appreciative words of Prime Minister David Cameron.

He reminded the British of the deep Christian roots of their country and the Christian inspiration underlying so many of their past national glories. At the same time, he politely but prophetically sought to awaken them to the dangers posed by an aggressive secularism and practical atheism that seeks to evict not just Christianity but religious faith in general from the public square. Even a cursory glance at British websites since the papal visit shows that many are still sitting up and thinking about the concerns Pope Benedict raised.

As much as Benedict got non-Catholic political and cultural leaders, journalists and ordinary citizens to rise and ponder, however, he had an even more provocative message for British Catholics and Church leaders. With fraternal tenderness but also paternal firmness, he basically implied that many Catholics in Britain have been conducting themselves before the aggressive secularist cultural, political and educational onslaught as imprudently and wimpishly as Neville Chamberlain behaved in seeking a policy of appeasement in 1938.

“No one who looks realistically at our world today,” he said at a Saturday night prayer vigil in London’s Hyde Park, “could think that Christians can afford to go on with business as usual, ignoring the profound crisis of faith that has overtaken our society, or simply trusting that the patrimony of values handed down by the Christian centuries will continue to inspire and shape the future of our society.” It’s not a time for disciples timidly to lock themselves in an upper room hoping for the external situation to ameliorate and for people to discover or rediscover the truth on their own. It’s not a time to raise a white flag and capitulate to the desires of the secularists to marginalize the faithful to the point of cultural and political irrelevance, especially with respect to the secularists’ radical agenda for marriage, sex and abortion. But it’s also not a time for the Church to revert to the paradigms of cultural and political interaction that perhaps worked in more placid eras but are ill-suited to the present.

In his talk to British bishops to conclude his pilgrimage, Pope Benedict emphasized that it was no longer possible for them to go on with “business as usual.” The British episcopate — and following its lead, a large proportion of British clergy and faithful — has a reputation inside and outside the British Isles for being exceedingly conflict-adverse, inoffensive to the point of being inert. This tendency has taken much of the salt out of British Catholicism, precisely at a time in which more salt is needed to prevent social decomposition. Pope Benedict told the bishops, “In the course of my visit it has become clear to me how deep a thirst there is among the British people for the Good News of Jesus Christ.” That might seem like an obvious point, but it isn’t, because prior to Benedict’s visit there were many articles, from Catholics and non-Catholics, describing how British society as a whole has lost a hunger and thirst for the Gospel. Pope Benedict reminded his brother bishops, “You have been chosen by God to offer them the living water of the Gospel, encouraging them to place their hopes, not in the vain enticements of this world, but in the firm assurances of the next.” This “living water,” he said, may not always taste good to those addicted to the spirits of the age, but bishops are called to serve it, rather than a flavored substitute, with confidence and prodigality. Benedict specifically charged his brothers to “be sure to present in its fullness the life-giving message of the Gospel, including those elements that call into question the widespread assumptions of today’s culture.” In the business-as-usual of recent times, such controversial teachings were often neglected in favor of causes popular culture finds more palatable or praiseworthy.

In his counsel to the bishops, Pope Benedict was essentially elaborating on a profound point he made to journalists aboard the flight from Rome to Glasgow. To the straightforward question of what the Church could do in the context of a secular culture to be “more credible and attractive to all,” Pope Benedict replied in a manner that caught the press corps, and many others, off-guard: “One might say that a Church that seeks above all to be attractive would already be on the wrong path. The Church does not work for itself. It does not work to increase its numbers so as to have more power. The Church is at the service of another. … to make the Gospel of Jesus Christ accessible. … In this sense, the Church does not seek to be attractive, but rather to make herself transparent for Jesus Christ.” Christ lives in the Church and the Church’s mission is to make herself transparent so that all can see him. Some may reject him and his teachings, like he was rejected during his lifetime; those who seek the light, however, will be attracted to him through the Church, where they will encounter him and be saved by him.

That’s why the Church’s pastoral plan in Britain and elsewhere must be to help those in the Church become truly transparent for Christ, to let the radiance of his holiness shine through. This should be “business as usual” for the Church in every age, but sometimes the call to holiness stays at the level of spiritual platitudes rather than takes over daily life. Benedict commented at the prayer vigil, in the context of how the Church should respond to the present crisis of faith in society: “We know that in times of crisis and upheaval God has raised up great saints and prophets for the renewal of the Church and Christian society.” That’s the way the British Church and British society — and every Church or society — will be renewed.

He tried to jumpstart that renewal himself in his meeting with English Catholic high school and university students. “I hope that among those of you listening to me today there are some of the future saints of the 21st century,” he underlined at the beginning of his address. “What God wants most of all for each one of you is that you should become holy.” He then showed them how to become saints by receiving and reciprocating God’s gift of love and friendship.

He continued that renewal of the British Church as a whole when he lifted one of their own, Cardinal John Henry Newman, to the altars. “The drama of Newman’s life,” he said before beatifying him, “invites us to examine our lives, to see them against the vast horizon of God’s plan …

Newman teaches us that if we have accepted the truth of Christ and committed our lives to him, there can be no separation between what we believe and the way we live our lives. Our every thought, word and action must be directed to the glory of God and the spread of his kingdom.”

Living the truth, “by the witness of lives lived in integrity, fidelity and holiness,” is the greatest way to transmit the truth, Benedict emphasized.

In support of that point, Benedict recalled the scores of British martyrs, who are the perennial antithesis of “business as usual.” “Not far from here, at Tyburn,” the pope said, “great numbers of our brothers and sisters died for the faith. The witness of their fidelity to the end was ever more powerful than the inspired words that so many of them spoke before surrendering everything to the Lord.” He said their example should embolden all Catholics to confront the challenges of proclaiming the Gospel today. “In our own time, the price to be paid for fidelity to the Gospel is no longer being hanged, drawn and quartered but it often involves being dismissed out of hand, ridiculed or parodied. And yet the Church cannot withdraw from the task of proclaiming Christ and his Gospel as saving truth, the source of our ultimate happiness as individuals and as the foundation of a just and humane society.”

That is the Church’s unusual business and habitual mission in every age.

October 1, 2010

‘May the Lord accept this sacrifice’

T

he Red Sox’s season is practisee this as an opportunity to go to the cally over and the Patriots and the bathroom, chat with those sitting close new football season are well underway. by or rustle through their wallets or Today I would like to discuss something pocketbooks looking for their “envethat football has but baseball doesn’t: lopes.” halftime.

The offertory is such a beautiful part Today I would like to reflect upon of the Mass and if we are not focused what I once heard referred to as the we can miss something that can make “Catholic Mass Halftime” — the the holy Mass so much more spiritually “offertory.” Let’s think about it from fulfilling for us. The Second Vatican this perspective: If someone who had Council eloquently spoke of this spirinever experienced the celebration of the tual reality: “For all their works, prayers Catholic Mass before walked into one of and apostolic endeavors, their ordinary our churches on a Sunday morning, what married and family life, their daily ocwould she think about the offertory? cupations, their physical and mental reHow would he see each of us acting? laxation, if carried out in the Spirit, and Does it look more like an intermission or even the hardships of life, if patiently a true preparation for the Eucharist? borne — all these become spiritual sacriAfter the recitation of the Nicene fices acceptable to God through Jesus Creed (where we stand to profess the Christ. Together with the offering of the faith of the Church) and “Prayer of the Lord’s Body, they are most fittingly ofFaithful” (where we pray for the needs fered in the celebration of the Eucharist of the Church, the world and our own (Lumen Gentium, 34). personal needs), we have the “offerThe Fathers of the Church describe tory.” Often this can be perceived as a Christ’s incarnation with the phrase “halftime” of “wondrous the Mass — a exchange,” break between that still forms Putting Into the Liturgy of part of the the Deep the Word (the Christmas readings and Mass prayers. homily) and “Wondrous

By Father the Liturgy of exchange” Jay Mello the Eucharist is what the (eucharistic offertory is prayer and all about; we Communion). present our gifts of bread and wine to In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI adGod. We give them to God so that he can dressed this problematic phenomenon in transform them into the Body and Blood his Apostolic Exhortation, Sacramentum of Christ himself, so that the Eucharist Caritatis. Our Holy Father explained, can nourish us in our efforts to live holy “This [the offertory] is not to be viewed and faithful lives. We give what is husimply as a kind of ‘interval’ between man and receive what is divine — a truly the liturgy of the Word and the liturgy admirable exchange! of the Eucharist. To do so would tend to As the gifts are prepared, the priest weaken, at the least, the sense of a single invites us to deepen our prayer with the rite made up of two interrelated parts.” words, “Pray, my brothers and sisters, The pope continues, “This humble and that my sacrifice and yours may be acsimple gesture is actually very significeptable to God, the almighty Father.” cant: in the bread and wine that we bring We pray together, that God will receive to the altar, all creation is taken up by our gifts that we offer with sincere, faithChrist the redeemer to be transformed ful and humble hearts. We accept the and presented to the Father. In this way invitation of Christ to follow him to the we also bring to the altar all the pain and foot of the cross where his sacrifice was suffering of the world, in the certainty accomplished once and for all. that everything has value in God’s eyes” This is such a profound invitation to (47). prayer, as it reminds us that those sitting During the “offertory,” or “Preparain the congregation are not supposed to tion of the Altar” as it is more properly be silent spectators of the holy Mass or called, there is a lot going on. The priest, of what the priest is doing, but are acdeacon and altar servers are setting up tively joined together in offering the sacthe altar with the proper linens, the misrifices, joys, hopes and desires of their sal and sacred vessels necessary for the lives along with the bread and wine.

Mass; usually at this time the collection We offer our lives to God along with is taken up. The money we give shows the bread and wine and pray for the that our daily work forms part of the same result — that God will take our Mass. What we offer is not meant to be sacrifice and transform it. He takes the merely something external, but rather bread and wine and gives it back to us our whole lives should become an offer- as the Body and Blood of his only son. ing to God. Like the bread and wine, our At each celebration of the holy Mass, lives are the result of God’s gift and our we pray that he also take our lives and own work, “fruit of the vine and work of transform them as well, so that as we human hands.” receive the Eucharist, we may become With all of these things going on more like his son, Jesus Christ, who is at one time, one impression that some Lord forever and ever. could get is that this is a break, an interFather Mello is a parochial vicar at mission or a “halftime.” Sadly, people St. Patrick’s Parish in Falmouth.

October 1, 2010

Q: In a certain church in New York state a priest told parishioners they could not kneel during the consecration.

He also told them they could not say the rosary in front of the Blessed Sacrament. The question I have concerns obedience. Are the laity obligated to obey a priest when it comes to liturgical practices or devotional practices? Is it a sin not to obey the orders of the priest? — M.A.E., Rochester, New York A: There are several questions here and several levels of obedience.

First of all, both priest and faithful owe obedience to Christ and his Church in matters of faith, morals and liturgical discipline.

Neither the priest nor the faithful are lords and masters of the liturgy but must receive it as a gift through which, by actively and consciously participating, they enter into communion with Christ and the Church, and benefit from an increase of grace.

This fundamental obedience of the assembly to Christ and the Church is the basis for the other forms of mutual obedience within the assembly. In a way, the priest owes obedience to the faithful in that he has a solemn mission to lead them in prayer and worship according to the mind of the Church. And the faithful have a corresponding right and duty to pray and worship in communion with the universal Church.

This also leads to a proper understanding of the faithful’s obedience to their pastor. They should be docile in accepting his guidance in all that touches on the mind of the Church.

Thus, with respect to the liturgy, the priest is called to direct the faithful in the Church’s li-

7

The Anchor

Obedience to a priest turgical worship. The faithful, in always be one of a charitable dialogue in search of mutual turn, have an obligation to obey understanding. him insofar as his direction corCertainly, and not only in responds to the Church’s mind the developed world, the days as expressed in the liturgical are past when a priest was the books or in the dispositions of exclusive source of doctrinal inlegitimate Church authority.

With respect to acts of private formation. Today, most educated Catholics can find out for themdevotion, the priest, as teacher, selves what the Church teaches is called to guide the faithful to a solid spiritual life. In this he may sometimes be required to warn them against certain devotional practices that deviate from sound doctrine or that are

By Father prone to confuse his Edward McNamara flock regarding the priority of the sacramental life.

In some grave cases the priest or regulates on any topic.

Yet this extra knowledge might even have to forbid the should be an aid to mutual use of the church as a venue for understanding rather than a public manifestations of probweapon of discordance and the lematic devotions. In carrying out these actions he must always attitude should always be one of construction rather than conbe guided by sound Church frontation. doctrine and not his personal Sometimes an apparently erspiritual preferences. roneous directive may be justiAs said, the obedience of the fied by contextual circumstances faithful to the priest is in virtue not readily perceivable and in of communion with the Church an attitude of mutual charity and consequently they have no the priest should be willing to obligation to obey a priest who explain the motivations behind directs them to perform or omit his actions and the faithful be acts contrary to Church norms, disposed to weigh carefully because in doing so he fails to what he has to say. fulfill his mission of leading in If necessary, all should be communion. willing to ask the bishop to clarThe faithful are also free to practice any devotional exercise ify the situation. To some this that is in conformity with sound might seem overly optimistic, but as the ancient hymn reminds doctrine and Church norms. us, “Ubi caritas est vera, Deus However, the faithful should ibi est” — Where true charity always have a presumption in and love are found, there is God. favor of the correctness of the Now, alas, we have to come priest’s directives in liturgical to the nitty-gritty of the first part or spiritual matters and should of the question. avoid the danger of allowing The directive issued by the suspicion to reign in their spiritual lives. If they have a positive priest not to kneel during the consecration is erroneous if doubt regarding any specific taken as a general rule. The issue, the initial attitude should

Liturgical Q&A

norms for kneeling in the United States are stated in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, No. 43: “In the dioceses of the United States of America, they (the faithful) should kneel beginning after the singing or recitation of the Sanctus until after the Amen of the Eucharistic Prayer, except when prevented on occasion by reasons of health, lack of space, the large number of people present, or some other good reason. Those who do not kneel ought to make a profound bow when the priest genuflects after the consecration. The faithful kneel after the Agnus Dei unless the diocesan bishop determines otherwise.”

The debate in the bishops’ conference leading up to the formulation of this adaptation, especially with the insertion of the expression “on occasion,” made it clear that the bishops desired to prevent the exception from becoming a blanket permission to abolish kneeling.

Thus, unless some particular good reason led the priest to indicate to the people that they not kneel on that occasion, and especially if he indicated a stable norm for the parish, then he was going beyond his authority.

Similarly, there is no law

forbidding the rosary before the Blessed Sacrament. Indeed, the Holy See specifically permitted it in an official response to a doubt, published Jan. 15, 1997.

The document did state that the Blessed Sacrament should not be exposed just to pray the rosary. But it allowed the rosary to be among the prayers carried out during adoration.

While there is no prohibition in principle, one could surmise that specific circumstances might arise that would induce a pastor not to allow public recitation of the rosary before the Blessed Sacrament. In such (supposedly rare) occurrences, he would be acting within his rights and duties as spiritual guide.

He would have no authority, however, to forbid the faithful from praying the rosary privately before the Blessed Sacrament.

Father Edward McNamara is a Legionary of Christ and professor of Liturgy at Regina Apostolorum University in Rome. His column appears weekly at zenit.org. To submit questions, email liturgy@ zenit.org. Please put the word “Liturgy” in the subject field.

The text should include your initials, your city and state.

SE RE ATIN GI G ST LIM ER IT NO ED W! !

8

H

ow do you respond to challenging assignments, such as a difficult homework assignment from your teacher, or a daunting job delegated to you by your employer, or a demanding task asked of you by your family? How do you accept these assignments? With resignation and whining or with a sense of wonder and zeal, as if starting a quest? Do you feel “picked upon” or do you feel grateful that you were entrusted with such a difficult task?

Most of us have to admit that we usually feel overwhelmed when given difficult and challenging assignments.

Our first reaction is usually not gratitude and eagerness, but resentment and anxiety. And this is especially true if the task demands skills that we have never mastered. Our fear of failure is fed by this awareness.

But difficult tasks are assigned to people who have shown promise and faithfulness in simpler tasks. Challenging jobs are given to those who

October 1, 2010

The Anchor

Twin risks

have performed well in lesser Jesus to their cry gives us two roles. In other words, if it feels insights that will help us when that you are being singled out we are faced with daunting for the assignment, you are. challenges.

But you are singled out, not for The first risk of service to punishment, but because the God is that we will fail to recperson making the assignment ognize or use the faith God has sees greater potential in you. A good parent, teacher, coach, or Homily of the Week employer recognizes Twenty-seventh Sunday untapped potential and in Ordinary Time seeks to draw that potential out into maturity

By Deacon and success. That is Richard Zeich accomplished via new and challenging tasks given to us to accomplish the that force us to grow, to think, task and try instead to use our to exercise, and to dream. Only own resources. then can we discover our true When the disciples asked potential, and make our best for faith, Jesus replied, “If contribution to the world. you have the faith the size of a In this week’s Gospel mustard seed ....” Is Jesus chidJesus challenged the Apostles ing the Apostles for their lack charging them with the heavy of faith with this analogy? Is burden of leadership within he saying they have no faith at the Church. In response to this all? No. In fact, Jesus is saying stern challenge, the Apostles to them that they already have answered, “Lord, increase our more faith than they realfaith!” A fitting request indeed. ize, and more than enough to And they were more right than accomplish the difficult task they knew. The response of

he has given them. We might translate the saying this way: “If you have the faith of a mustard seed — and you do — you can accomplish what would be impossible without faith, like hurling a tree or a mountain into the sea.”

Jesus does not assign us a task without giving us the tools needed to accomplish that task.

If you have been given a difficult role in life, or your faith leads you to face steep challenges, give thanks to God. He obviously has great plans for you. But make sure you utilize that faith as the prime resource to accomplish the task.

The other risk of service to God is that we will lose our humility after God accomplishes a great work through us.

Just as we must be dependent upon God to serve him in times of great challenge, we must retain our sense of dependence upon him when we see him accomplish great things through us. There is no place in the com-

munity of Christ for the kind of fist-pumping and egocentric end-zone dancing that is so prevalent among our sports stars.

Jesus tells the disciples a story that illustrates this point.

After serving, the servant should not think she or he has done anything particularly noteworthy. It is right and normal for servants to serve, as it is for parents to parent, or pilots to fly, or doctors to practice medicine. Followers of Christ must resist taking undue credit for the work of God accomplished through them by faith. The Church is not the place for hero worship, but for the worship of God who does great things through us.

Instead, we celebrate the work of God and humbly give thanks that God would allow us to be used in that good work. We have served, and that is all. The glory belongs to God. Deacon Zeich was ordained in the Diocese of Paterson, N.J. in 1988 and has served at St. Pius X Parish in South Yarmouth since 1999.

Upcoming Daily Readings: Sat. Oct. 2, Jb 42:1-3,5-6,12-17; Ps 119:66,71,75,91,125,130; Mt 18:1-5,10. Sun. Oct. 3, Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Hb 1:2-3;2:2-4; Ps 95:1-2,6-9; 2 Tm 1:6-8,13-14; Lk 17:5-10. Mon. Oct. 4, Gal 1:6-12; Ps 111:1b-2,7-9,10c; Lk 10:25-37. Tues. Oct. 5, Gal 1:13-24; Ps 139:1b-3,13-15; Lk 10:38-42. Wed. Oct. 6, Gal 2:1-2,7-14; Ps 117:1bc,2; Lk 11:1-4. Thur. Oct. 7, Gal 3:1-5; (Ps) Lk 1:69-75; Lk 11:5-13. Fri. Oct. 8, Gal 3:7-14; Ps 111:1b-6; Lk 11:15-26.

I

n the war over Pius XII and the Holy See’s policy toward Nazi Germany before and during World War II, there are fanatically anti-Pacelli/Pius XII writers like Daniel Jonah Goldhagen and Sergio Minerbi, whose imperviousness to evidence that challenges their presuppositions raises grave questions about their scholarship.

And then there are the serious academic historians. The latter’s critique of Pius XII often begins with the charge that, as cardinal

The Pius Wars, continued

this charge of a “package deal” secretary of state to Pius XI, Pacelli engineered the demise of between the Vatican and Hitler the Catholic Center Party, urged fails when the documentary evidence is examined seriously. the German bishops to lift their Recently-available archival mateban on Catholic membership in rials from the pontificate of Pius the Nazi Party, and prompted XI make clear that Pacelli and German Catholics to support the Enabling Act that granted Hitler dictatorial powers: all in exchange for a concordat — a formal treaty — between the Third Reich and the Holy See. This strategy,

By George Weigel these historians argue, weakened the Church’s capacity to resist the unfolding Nazi tyranny and gave Pius XI never offered any such trade to the Nazis. the new German regime an unIn fact, the Holy See was deserved degree of international blindsided by the German legal credibility. bishops’ initiative in lifting the As Hubert Wolf, professor ban on Nazi Party membership, of Church history at the Univerand the Center Party acted on its sity of Muenster, demonstrates own in supporting the Enabling conclusively in “Pope and Devil: Act. Wolf also argues that The Vatican Archives and the Third Reich” (Harvard/Belknap), Pacelli, far from being the Roman manipulator of the Church in Germany, was undercut in his diplomacy by the German bishops’ preemptive concessions to the Nazi regime. As Wolf writes, “If Pacelli had had his way, if he had pulled all the strings, Hitler would have paid a heavy price for the Center’s consent to the Enabling Act and the bishops’ retraction of their condemnation. The cardinal secretary of

The Catholic Difference

state would have dictated hard concessions for the conditions that Hitler was so eager to get from the Church.”

The net result was not a happy one: as Pacelli put it to British diplomat Ivone Kirkpatrick, “a pistol had been pointed at his head and he had had no alternative” but to conclude a concordat quickly, in order to provide a minimum of legal protection for Catholic life in a Germany he knew was heading for disaster. As for the concordat itself, Wolf concludes that, while “there is no doubt that this agreement further opened the floodgates for the involvement of German Catholics in the National Socialist state,” it also helped prevent German Catholicism from being completely absorbed (or “coordinated,” as the Nazis put it) by the Third Reich, such that “the Catholic Church in Nazi Germany was the only large-scale social institution Hitler never managed to co-opt.”

Precisely because Wolf’s conclusion is based on documentary evidence rather than presupposition or conjecture, it should definitively resolve this battle in the Pius Wars: “The Reichskonkordat was a pact

with the devil — no one had any illusions about that fact in Rome — but it guaranteed pastoral care and the continued existence of the Catholic Church during the Third Reich. Pacelli did not make this deal by having the Center Party consent to the Enabling Act or by lifting the condemnation of National Socialism. The German Church bears sole responsibility for these steps.”

“Pope and Devil” is not without its problems. Wolf’s critique of Roman “centralism” is belied by his own demonstration that, in the case of Nazi Germany, the Roman centralizers could be far more forceful in defending the “locals” than the locals could themselves.

Wolf also posits a false dichotomy between “dogma and diplomacy,” when the real issue in the Pius Wars is the exercise of prudence. Nonetheless, Wolf has done the Pius debate a great service by demonstrating that, in response to the charge that the Holy See undercut the Catholic opposition in Germany in exchange for a concordat, the only responsible verdict is “not guilty.”

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

October 1, 2010

Hocus pocus

Wednesday 29 September just a nonsense word. One at2010 — Three Mile River — tempt at an explanation of the Michaelmas (feast of Archangels origin comes from John TillotMichael, Gabriel, and Raphael) son, Anglican Archbishop of ’m fascinated, dear readers, Canterbury (1694.) He suggests by the historical developit’s a parody of the consecration ment of words. Take, for example, the word “Christmas.” Its original meaning is “Christ’s Reflections of a Mass.” Knowing the etyParish Priest mology, I took offense when visiting a Florida

By Father Tim theme park. I’ll not name Goldrick the theme park, but this popular pilgrimage destination is a shrine to an iconic rodent. of the Catholic Mass in Latin, At any rate, it was the Christ- hoc est corpus. His theory is mas season. There was a stage supported by no evidence whatpresentation entitled “Merry soever. Seems the Archbishop Christmoose.” I wrote a letter of held a personal bias against us concern. I received no response. Catholics.

Then there’s the phrase hocus Over the centuries, there has pocus. Its origin is unknown. It been frequent denigration of was used by medieval jugglers the beliefs and practices of our and illusionists. It’s probably Catholic Church. First it came

I

The Ship’s Log

I

9

The Anchor from pagans, then from other Christians, and then from the skeptics, agnostics, freethinkers, secular humanists, and atheists.

Most recently, Stephen Hawking, the British astrophysicist, says he’s changed his mind about our creator God’s existence. Intelligence does not assure wisdom.

Once baptized a Catholic, forever a Catholic. Baptism is indelible. That’s why it’s crucial that parents carefully consider what they are about when baptizing their child. During the administration of the sacrament of baptism, parents are publicly asked (twice) if they understand the responsibilities involved in requesting baptism. Are they willing and able to pass on our Catholic faith? The major tenets of our creed are enunciated, just

How to get to ‘I do’

with land mines and distraccan imagine countless tions in relation to courtship. young women around the The land mines would be country, gathered in two and serious dangers imbedded threes, in a variety of settings, in the promiscuity and false bemoaning the dearth of good intimacy all around us, which men. Those who yearn to marry corrupt and distort the beauty compare stories of frustrating of human love as willed by our encounters, compiling a doleful creator. The distractions are less litany, and surely they crown dangerous — comprised of a the exercise with, “Someone wealth of entertainments, the should write a book.” pursuit of dating as a diversion, Well, dear ladies, someand the jejune lifestyles that one has — and she’s done a encourage young adults to put marvelous job. Amy Bonacoff marriage and family out corso’s “How to Get to “I Do” — A Dating Guide for Catholic Women” (Servant Books) has just been published and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Acknowledging

By Genevieve Kineke that dating with a view to marriage these days is a singular trial, the book is chock full of of fear of commitment and all well-chosen anecdotes from rethat it implies. Both are toxic to cent years, revealing her downestablishing healthy and stable to-earth wisdom on the topic. families.

Her combination of an engagThus, if a young woman is ing and pragmatic style and a honest about the culture and realistic appraisal of courtship make this an excellent book and subsequently honest about human nature, she should have an entertaining page-turner. an excellent grounding in what Thankfully, her frankness obstacles await her as she seeks about current realities saves the a husband. Those with some book from devolving into either an over-pious fantasy or a hand- grasp of history will harbor added compassion, realizing wringing exercise in discourthat only in the most modern agement; rather she approaches era have communities so withthe topic with two firm assumpdrawn from the decision-maktions: first, that finding a good ing process that young people husband has unique challenges are entirely on their own. in this particular generation; While the standard support and second that one has a great networks may no longer be chance of success with the right available to young women (and attitude and common sense. surely they were a mixed blessIt should be obvious that our ing for some) there are other contemporary culture is filled

The Feminine Genius

newer networks that do exist, and it would behoove a serious woman to find them. These revolve around parishes, book clubs, sporting events, political circles, lecture circuits and hobbies — among other activities, not to mention the Internet and its singles sites that have had a steady string of successes. Readers may already be aware of excellent sites devoted to Catholics alone, which are entirely worthy forums in our technological age.

Concerning each venue, the author is refreshingly honest about her expectations, her missteps and the dangers one must be aware of along the way. One could liken her to a dear friend who is a seasoned shopper — the one who thinks ahead about the parking, appropriate stores, the sales, the durability of various brands, suitable coordinates, and other details that make a necessary chore a streamlined and successful task. But while one would never compare finding a man with snagging the perfect set of heels, there is a shared sense of tackling a mission with wit and wisdom, with forthrightness and good cheer. As Benedick noted before nervously popping the question to Beatrice, “The world must be peopled.” With this book in hand, a small chunk of the next generation should be quite grateful.

Mrs. Kineke is the author of “The Authentic Catholic Woman.” She blogs at feminine-genius.typepad.com.

to make sure. Parents attest their belief and declare they can and will raise their child in the faith.

Some parents succeed; some don’t. You can’t win them all.

You do the best that you can. It’s the intention that’s important.

Catholic sponsors, too, are asked to profess their faith.

Some godparents will end up being vitally involved in the life of their godchild, others, not so much. I knew the name of my godfather, but that’s about it. On the day of my ordination, I was greeting guests at my reception.

A complete stranger came up and shook my hand. “You don’t know me, Father, but I’m your godfather.”

Occasionally a parent will have a falling out with one of the godparents. I’ll get a letter: “Please erase the name of my child’s godmother and replace it with another.” Sorry, I cannot white-out entries in the parish baptismal records.

Very rarely, I get a note from someone who has renounced the Catholic faith to join “The Church of What’s Happening Now,” as Flip Wilson calls it.

“Dear Sir: Remove my name from your baptismal records. I have seen the light and left the Catholic Church.” Of course, I cannot. I remember one such request. On a hunch, I looked up the name. I took sinful pleasure in responding. “Dear Madam, I have searched the records of the People of God as entered in our baptismal records. You will be pleased to know you are not among them.”

I was shocked, I tell you, shocked by a recent televised report on “Nightline.” Not being one to stay up to such late hours, I watched it at my convenience on the Internet.

The report featured Edwin Kagin, an in-your-face secular humanist Kentuckian lawyer

dressed in a bogus monk’s habit and cowl. He allegedly represented the 15 percent of Americans who are self-declared atheists. He was pontificating at a session of the annual National Convention of American Atheists in Newark, N.J. He used a blow dryer, christened “Truth and Reason” to “de-baptize” participants. The concept was that it symbolically evaporated the waters of baptism. He even issued an official-looking “Certificate of De-baptism.”

He also staged a mock Eucharist using crackers and dip.

There was a choir of women dressed in burka, but I didn’t get the connection. He proclaimed that you can say and do whatever you want; offend anyone your little heart desires, as long as you don’t violate civil law.

Really? That doesn’t sound “civil” to me. How well did Kagin raise his own children in unbelief? His son grew up to be an evangelical minister. What’s a parent to do?

Militant atheism isn’t new.

Consider the late Madalyn Murray O’Hair. Her son William Murray, a Baptist convert, is chairman of the Religious Freedom Coalition, a Washington-based organization dedicated to aiding believers living in anti-Christian nations. Kids these days.

The current director of the Massachusetts State chapter of American Atheists was appointed last year. Zachary Bos is a 20-something dude at Boston University. He sent me an email complaining about parish activities. I’m sure he’ll send another about this column. When the atheists get concerned, it means we’re doing something right in The Dightons.

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

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The Anchor

Guaimaca — 10 years of progress and still growing continued from page one

not seem like much here, but for them it was once as attainable as Massachusetts students walking on Mars.

“When we started here, a major focus was building up the community and the parish medical clinic,” he said. “Through the years, the St. Vincent de Paul Society reached out to families in need of food and clothing. Then, St. Mary’s Parish in Mansfield began the ‘Schoolbag Program,’ which assisted parents in getting their children to grammar school. With families of five, eight, or 10 kids, it was virtually impossible for parents here to buy the school shoes, pants, shirts, supplies, etc. The program made it possible for children to receive their elementary education.”

In an area of the world where a simple grammar school education was nothing but a dream, the Fall River Mission, through the generosity and prayers of thousands of faithful in southeastern Massachusetts, made that dream a reality.

In 10 short years, the mission — members of the Diocese of Fall River, the priests and Sisters who serve there, and

the hundreds of volunteers who have trekked to the mountainous region — have assisted thousands who lived in extreme poverty. The Guaimacan people are healthier, more self-sufficient, better educated and happier than they ever thought possible.

“Each time we celebrate Mass, we remember those who have helped us to make a difference,” said Father Pregana.

Several years ago, the Diocese of Fall River helped establish the Marie Poussepin Center to help young girls to receive their high school formation with the Dominican Sisters. The families help as much as possible, but the center is maintained through donations and grants.

Once the young women graduate they are able to attend the local Agricultural University with a full scholarship arranged by the Sisters.

“Unfortunately for other parish youth, the future is not as promising,” Father Pregana told The Anchor. “They struggle with the costs of high school — supplies, clothing, food, etc. — and they simply finish without a thought to college because it is cost-prohibitive.”

A few years ago, Father David Pignato was visiting the mission with Bishop George W. Coleman. “Father Dave met with some of the young parishioners and heard of their need and struggle,” said Father Pregana. “He was very interested in the idea of helping promote a college education among them and returned home with an idea.

He contacted some of his law school friends and asked them to make a donation to help young people who had received their high school diploma to continue on to college. Through the donations he received, we were able to begin the John Paul II Scholarship Program.”

Those who receive the scholarships are asked to volunteer time and service in some aspect of parish life. “In whatever they offer, they realize that they must pay back in service what they have received through the generosity of others,” said Father Pregana.

“In our town, when a young person graduates from high school, they are seen as ‘professionals’ and ready for work,” said Father Pregana, “whereas in the Fall River Diocese, in many

October 1, 2010 cases high school is simply another stepping stone to college.”

There are several students completing their first year of college thanks the JPII Scholarship, but the funds are just about used up.

One student is 19-year-old Jose Francisco Moncada Escoto, a freshman at the Catholic University of Honduras. He graduated from a trade school where he earned a diploma in the electrical field. He is the middle of seven children and has been very active in parish life at St. Rose of Lima as an altar server and a member of the youth group.

He is currently studying civil engineering. As part of his service work, Escoto coordinates a group of seminarians who visit the parish each weekend for their pastoral work. The group of eight arrives by bus on Saturday and leaves on Sunday.

Escoto is responsible for coordinating their transportation to the various barrios, arranging the dorms, and helping serve meals.

“First I want to thank God for having had the opportunity that you are offering me to be able to study and have a better future,” Escoto told The Anchor. “I thank you infinitely for helping us in our education even though you don’t know us; you give us your help to be better people. Many thanks for your help. May God bless you and grant you prosperity. Many thanks.”

Starman Alduvin Silva Martinez is another student in college in Honduras. The 23-yearold graduated from high school with a diploma in the electrical field. He is currently enrolled in Metropolitan University, studying business engineering and English.

As part of his parish service, Martinez is responsible for repairs and maintenance of parish buildings, especially the electrical work. He is also the coordinator of a youth group in his barrios.

“With much respect and affection, I thank you for helping with the economic part of my

education to better my life and my academic level,” said Martinez. “I thank God and I thank you.”

There is a local college where students attend part-time on weekends, that allows them time to work during the week.

“The expenses are relatively low in comparison to the U.S., said Father Pregana, “but beyond the reach of families in Guaimaca. With the JPII Scholarships, we are trying to help the young people create a better future for themselves, their families and communities. To me it seems clear that education is the way to make a lasting change in the society.”

For Escoto, Martinez and a handful of others, college is that walk on Mars. But the funds are nearly depleted and for them and others to continue receiving a college education, funds are desperately needed via the JPII Scholarship program.

“My parents sacrificed for our education so that our life situation would be better than theirs,” added Father Pregana.

“By their example they taught us the value of sacrifice and education, as well as giving back to society. Through the JPII Scholarship we are trying to instill the same values for our parish youth who live in tremendous poverty.”

For 10 years the faithful from the Diocese of Fall River have reached out to their brothers and sisters in Honduras, and the results have been phenomenal.

The need there is still great.

The terrain is mountainous and at times treacherous. Weather conditions can be extreme and destructive. Transportation is limited, and some folks there don’t have the great gift of Mass and Eucharist each weekend.

But through the efforts of the missionaries, volunteers and caring members of the diocese, some of the suffering and despair has been alleviated. There is something in the towns and villages surrounding Guaimaca that wasn’t there 10 years ago — hope — something on which no price value can be placed.

To sponsor a student, contact Father Pregana at www. fallrivermissions.org. The cost is a 10-month commitment of $125 a month, which includes a photo and correspondence with the student.

Donations may be sent to the diocesan Propagation of the Faith Office, Honduran Mission, 106 Illinois Street, New Bedford, Mass. 02745.

The check should be made payable to “Honduran Mission,” with the memo section noted “John Paul II Scholarship.”

October 1, 2010

W

hen did it all get so complicated? For all the technology that’s been developed in the last three or four decades, I wish some things were left as is.

I’m not against progress and change at all. In fact many things, particularly in the health field, have helped save lives and made life easier to a degree.

When I started working at The Anchor, we filed our stories using typewriters, then we spent two days at the printers where those stories were typeset into a veritype machine and printed out. The stories were then literally cut and pasted onto the pages. The photographs were cropped, scaled and shot, and they too were pasted on the pages. The pages were “photographed” and from that process, the plates were created that ultimately produced the finished product.

Today I have a computer system that looks like I could send the NASA International Space Station to Neptune and back. Everything is done onscreen and sent electronically to the printer and voila, The Anchor.

The technological big bang of the last quarter century has been nothing short of amazing, astounding, and at times scary.

For instance, on a contraption (do we still use that

My View From the Stands

By Dave Jolivet word?) the size of a matchbook (do we still use matchbooks?), I can store all of the music on every LP album I ever owned, on every eight-track I ever owned, on every cassette I ever owned, and on every CD I ever owned ... and still have room for the entire “Encyclopedia Britannica.”

From the comfy confines of home, I can visit China, France, or even Azerbaijan, all with the click of a mouse. I can see news as it’s happening live, and I can cook a TV dinner (do we still use that word?) in a minute or less.

This is all good stuff, but sometimes I long for the simpler things in life, like not knowing who won a presidential election before the polls even close; like the smell of a roast cooking all day in a conventional oven; like hearing the pops and scratches and skips emoting from a disc on a turntable rotating at 33.3 RPMs.; and simply enjoying a win by my favorite team without an army of self-proclaimed know-italls making it sound more like a loss. When did it all get so complicated?

Following Sunday’s Patriots’ 38-30 win over the Buffalo Bills, all I saw and heard on the multitude of sports shows on cable were talking-heads complaining that it was a poor showing by the Pats and that they never should have struggled to emerge with an eight-point win against the lowly Bills.

I think that was the first time I realized just how saturated the sports world has become with way too much information, opinion, stats, and experts.

What I saw last week was a win by the Patriots.

Randy Moss made two sweet TD catches; rookie tight end Rob Gronkowski scored his first NFL touchdown; and the Pats’ newest little-big-man, Danny Woodhead (ala Wes Welker and Julian Edelman) notched his first NFL TD. That was fun to watch.

But no. The defense is porous; the Patriots have no running game; a better team would have won the game; the Pats are in trouble as the schedule becomes more difficult. Gee, I was just happy we won.

It’s not just football. Every sports channel, whether it be on television or radio, has connoisseurs in every sport who can take the wind out of

The Anchor

11

Gee, I thought we won anyone’s sails.

It’s time to slip into one of my “when I was a lad” modes. When I was a lad, most of my Boston/New England teams were, to be diplomatic, not so hot. There were a couple of Bruins’ championships in the early ’70s and the Celtics dynasty was flowing and not ebbing. But that didn’t matter. I would watch them and the Red Sox and the Boston/New England Patriots whenever I could, and when I couldn’t, I listened on my trusty transistor radio.

When they won, they won. There were no talkingheads around to trash what, to me, was the ultimate result — a win.

I would lie awake in bed and provide my own instant replay of all the great things I saw or heard happen on the field, court or ice. Never were my thoughts clouded by poor defense, costly mistakes, or blown plays.

I’d pick up the sports section in the morning and the headlines would key on the win. The sports shows on the six o’clock news would show highlights of the win. There were no sports channels that had hours of air time to fill, so there was no need for all the peripherals of the game.

And there were times when I was growing up when a win was a treat.

None of us were spoiled with great teams year after year. We loved our teams win or lose or lose or lose.

So when a win cropped up, it was savored until I drifted off to sleep.

How I wish it were that way again. How I wish I could have risen this

morning with the smell of victory still lingering in the air. How I wish I could have clicked on the TV (sorry, I meant hit the remote) and not have had to listen to everything the Pats did wrong yesterday.

It makes me want to turn on my turntable, throw on “The Monkees,” and listen to the snap, crackle and pop as they sing, “Take the last train to Clarksville, and I’ll meet you .... meet you ... meet you ... meet you.”

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The Anchor

October 1, 2010

Chicago priest to host weekly national program on commercial TV network CHICAGO (CNS) — A Chicago archdiocesan priest who teaches systematic theology and is a wellknown homilist with a popular evangelization website and radio program is now launching a weekly national program on a commercial TV network.

Beginning October 3, “Word on Fire With Father Barron” will appear on WGN America Sundays at 8:30 a.m. central time.

The Chicago-based network, which offers its national programming across North America, is carried on various cable outlets.

An announcement on Father Robert Barron’s website, www. wordonfire.org, said his show will be “a groundbreaking broadcast” because he “will become the first priest since Archbishop Fulton Sheen in the 1950s to have a regular, national program on a commercial television network.” The archbishop’s show was called “Life Is Worth Living.”

Father Barron, a professor at the University of St. Mary of the Lake/ Mundelein Seminary since 1992, has a global media ministry called “Word on Fire,” which aims “to educate and engage the culture.”

The priest said he has the same mission for his TV show, which is being funded by private donations, according to the announcement.

“Now is the time to reach out to Catholics and others who are searching for meaning in their lives or who have left the Church because they are disillusioned,” he said. “In each episode, our mission will be to encourage believers and bring the transformative power of the Gospel to the culture.”

He holds the Francis Cardinal George chair of faith and culture at Mundelein. Ordained a priest in Chicago in 1986, he has published numerous books, essays and DVDs. Father Barron also lectures and leads retreats and workshops around the world. In downtown Chicago, he holds a series of missions for business, civic and cultural leaders.

His homilies can be heard Thursday mornings on Relevant Radio. He is a regular commentator on the Paulists’ “Busted Halo Show” on the Sirius satellite radio network based in New York. He appears on the Eternal Word Television Network, and videos of his commentaries can be found regularly on YouTube.

Father Barron holds a master’s degree in philosophy from The Catholic University of America in Washington and a doctorate in sacred theology from the Institut Catholique de Paris.

For the past two years, he has been producing a 10-part documentary series called “Catholicism,” traveling to 16 countries to tell the story of the Church. The release is set for next year, but Father Barron said he will preview some highlights of the series in his weekly broadcasts.

“The faith of the Church is our strength,” said the priest. “Our program will strive to show viewers the richness of the Catholic faith and how it is a treasure to be shared now and with future generations. The faith imbues our life with meaning and imparts to all a renewed sense of purpose.”

gives a hoot — Soren, voiced by Jim Sturgess, is seen in the animated movie “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’ Hoole.” For a brief review of this film, see CNS Movie Capsules below.

(CNS photo/Warner Bros.)

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

“Devil” (Universal) Rapidly fizzling horror entry in which Satan stalks an elevator stuck between floors in a Philadelphia high-rise. Director John Erick Dowdle, working from a story by M. Night Shyamalan, puts reliable scream queen Bojana Novakovic and a handful of other riders with unsavory pasts through some decidedly lessthan-scary paces as the Prince of Darkness dispenses some rough justice. Fleeting crude and crass language, dubious, though incidental, use of Catholic imagery.

The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

“Easy A” (Screen Gems) A clean cut but lost-in-thecrowd teen (Emma Stone) becomes notorious among her peers when a self-righteous fellow high school student (Amanda Bynes) overhears her lying to her best friend (Aly Michalka) about losing her virginity. The gossip about her sexual exploits rapidly snowballs out of control. Though director Will Gluck’s satire conveys some worthwhile messages about the dangers of judging from appearances and the temptation to pigeonhole or belittle others, the script presents all Christians as hypocrites and implies that any consensual form of bedroom

behavior is acceptable. Negative portrayal of Christianity, including Catholicism, benign view of premarital sex and homosexuality, implied drug use, brief partial nudity, venereal disease theme, some sexual humor, at least 10 uses of profanity, much crude and crass language. The Catholic News Service 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.

“Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole” (Warner Bros.)

3D animated adventure in which, after being kidnapped and enslaved by a force of militaristic owls led by a scheming queen (voice of Helen Mirren), a plucky owlet (voice of Jim Sturgess), accompanied by a diminutive fellow captive (voice

of Emily Barclay), escapes and embarks on a quest to enlist the help of a legendary group of heroic warrior owls (voiced, among others, by Geoffrey Rush and Sam Neill) to defeat the evildoers. Director Zack Snyder’s visually engaging adaptation of the first three novels in Kathryn Lasky’s popular “Guardians of Ga’Hoole” series of children’s books offers a sound, if somewhat bulky and not overly original, narrative of downtrodden right versus overweening might.

But intense scenes of animal combat preclude endorsement for the youngest of this otherwise unobjectionable tale. Also shown in Imax. Strong, though stylized, violence, situations of peril. The Catholic News Service classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG — parental guidance suggested.

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, October 3 at 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Kevin A. Cook, pastor Holy Family Parish in East Taunton

Sisters of the Immaculate thrive on Marian spirituality continued from page one

Pope John Paul II in January 1998.

“When I found this order near the end of my search, I visited a convent and noticed the happiness of the Sisters,” said Sister Consolatrice. “It was everything I was looking for — especially the Marian spirituality. For me, it was a perfect fit.”

Together with their male counterparts, the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, who staff and maintain Our Lady’s Chapel in downtown New Bedford, the Sisters have become a vital presence within the Fall River Diocese since beginning their mission here in August 1993.

“There are three things that drew me to this order,” said Mother Mary Simona, the superior in the convent house on Bullard Street in New Bedford.

“First, we love Our Lady very much and it’s expressed in a very tangible way, even in our greeting of ‘Ave Maria.’ Second, I liked the way the Friars and the Sisters have a great love and veneration for the Eucharist. And the third thing was our faithfulness to the Holy Father and our love for the Church. To be true sons of St. Francis, our mission is to sustain and uphold the Church.”

Having previously resided in a convent adjacent to the former Sacred Hearts Parish in Fairhaven, the Sisters were invited by Father Roger J. Landry, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Parish in New Bedford, to move into a building adjacent to his church. After some needed renovations, they moved into their new convent on March 31, 2008.

“We were called here specifically by Father Landry, be-

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The Anchor

October 1, 2010

cause he wanted the presence of the Sisters in his parish,” Sister Consolatrice said. “He invited us here with the condition that we would open up our prayer lives to the parishioners — so that’s why we’re here Monday through Thursday working in the parish, because from 5:15 to 6:15 every evening we have holy hour in the church.”

In addition to participating in the daily prayer life at St. Anthony of Padua Parish, the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate also assist with the weekly parish food pantry held every Thursday which feeds and clothes more than 300 poor and needy; they also help staff the bookstore run by the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate; once a month they teach catechism to the children of the lay members of their order in Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut; and they organize monthly retreats for Faith Formation students at St. Anthony of Padua Parish.

“Within the convent house we also assist with translations,” said Sister Consolatrice, whose name is Italian for the Marian title “Comforter of the afflicted.”

“Our main apostolate is mass media,” she added. “We don’t have a television station here and the radio station is not up and running yet, but we would help with those, too. In Italy our order operates a radio station and we also have our own publishing house.”

Since there are only six Sisters, two aspirants, and one postulant currently living in the New Bedford convent, Sister Consolatrice said their ministry is somewhat limited.

“Right now we have more Friars than Sisters — that’s why

This week in 50 years ago — Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth launched its sports program with an opening football game against Dartmouth Jayvees during a memorable game in which John Giasson scored the first touchdown in Stang history.

25 years ago — Bishop Daniel A. Cronin blessed a 20-foot steel cross that was installed atop the newly-built Notre Dame Church in Fall River. The new church replaced the previous historic building destroyed in a May 1981 fire.

they take care of everything,” she said.

According to Mother Simona, who just arrived in New Bedford at the beginning of September after a two-and-ahalf year mission working in a leper colony in Nigeria, there aren’t any set rules for when and where a Sister might be assigned to minister.

“We have a special vow — we call it our fourth vow — but it’s really the main reason that we exist as an order,” Mother Simona said. “It’s a Marian vow where you consecrate yourself entirely to Mary the Immaculate and you just give everything to her. It’s something that permeates our spirituality completely, according to the teachings of St. Maximilian Kolbe. We’re the first institute in the Church to have this public vow of total consecration to the Immaculate. As such, you can be called to go anywhere. It doesn’t mean you’ll be called to go to Africa as I did, but it’s very unpredictable.”

Mother Simona described her order as being “semi-contemplative,” meaning that prayer is a key component in all their ministries and apostolates.

“Even when working at a mission, we still have five hours of prayer in common everyday,” she said. “We also follow Pope Benedict XVI’s call with his motu proprio in 2007 where he encouraged religious orders to take up the practice of a more traditional liturgy according to the Tridentine Rite, both for the holy Mass and recitation of the Divine Office. Because the way you pray is the way that you live and we’re trying to remain faithful to the wishes of the Holy Father.”

In addition to their deep de-

Diocesan history 10 years ago — The Fall River District Council of Catholic Women prepared to sponsor a visit to the diocese of a replica of the icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The icon made stops at eight parishes and several schools in the diocese for viewing and veneration.

One year ago — Msgr. John A. Perry blessed and dedicated the state-of-the-art Saint Anne’s Hospital Regional Cancer Care Center located in the Hawthorn Medical Center complex in North Dartmouth. The new $21 million facility will provide unprecedented access to advanced radiation oncology therapies for cancer patients in the area.

votion to Mary, their love for the Blessed Sacrament, and their loyalty to Church tradition, the Sisters also follow in the footsteps of St. Francis by refusing to maintain any personal possessions.

“We also practice the first rule of St. Francis — which is a vow of poverty,” Sister Consolatrice said. “We want to rely completely on divine providence, which is very freeing.

We don’t own any possessions — when you own things, you have to take care of them. We don’t have anything in the way of keeping our focus on freely loving God. And if I’m attached to things of this world, how can I love God?” Because of their vow of poverty, Mother Simona noted they also don’t have any people assist them with cleaning or cooking in the convent house.

“We do all the work ourselves,” she said.

Like Sister Consolatrice, Mother Simona never thought she’d enter religious life as a young woman back in Australia.

“To me, Sisters were just old ladies who sat around drinking cups of tea,” she said. “That’s what they did all day. But this really is the best vocation — and not just because we’ve chosen it. We have a wonderful husband [Jesus} … and he’s always right.”

While she admits it’s difficult for young people today to discern a vocation with all the distractions in life, Mother Simona urged them to just open their hearts and pray to the Lord for guidance and support.

“St. John Bosco said that one in three youth will have a calling to religious life,” she said.

“They can find out through prayer, by trying to find a good spiritual guide — preferably a Catholic priest who can become

a confessor. But you have to be careful about who you choose — you need someone who will be a good shepherd, because vocations are not always encouraged. Just pray a lot and reach out to some of the orders.

It doesn’t hurt to find out.”

Sister Consolatrice credits her mother and a solid family life with giving her the confidence to answer God’s call.

“Thanks be to God, we always prayed the rosary together, and we had all our meals together,” she said. “We were also able to go to daily Mass and then to daily holy hour, which really helped nurture our vocations.”

Sister Consolatrice has a brother and sister in Italy who have already joined the order, and a younger sister about to enter as well.

“If my mom hadn’t asked me, I don’t think I ever would have thought about entering religious life,” she added. “I didn’t have any Sisters around where I grew up — I only had ‘Sister Act’ with Whoopi Goldberg, and that’s a movie, that’s not reality.”

And once someone has discerned a vocation to religious life, Mother Simona said often the next hurdle to overcome is the idea of giving everything up for God. “I think our culture has difficulty with making sacrifices,” she said. “It puts people off. But people readily make sacrifices for their families, or for their careers, or for sports. I think it’s good to make a sacrifice for God.” To find out more about the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate, you can visit their convent at 106 Bullard Street in New Bedford, just behind St. Anthony of Padua Church, or visit their website at http:// marymediatrix.com/religious-life/ sisters-of-the-immaculate.

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The Anchor

October 1, 2010

October focus is on Respect For Life continued from page one

“That campaign continues to roll on,” said Marcotte, “and I continue to be impressed by the way it rolls on.

The cooperation with the city and community support has been key.”

In another strong show of support, several buses from across the diocese will head to Boston October 3, Respect Life Sunday, to participate in the annual Respect Life Walk to Aid Mothers and Children, sponsored by Mass. Citizens for Life.

The battle lines on abortion can be followed all the way up to the White House, where the newly-launched health care bill approved by the Obama administration is already seeing backlash over its potential to allow certain federal agencies to subsidize and administer health plans that cover abortion on demand.

“First of all, pregnancy is not a disease, so I don’t understand why we would be funding something under health care that is treating it as such,” said Marian Desrosiers, director of the Pro-Life Apostolate for the Diocese of Fall River. “Just by funding these things, a mandate like that would pose an unprecedented threat to the rights of conscience of people with their taxpayer dollars.”

“To not recognize our right of conscience is quite frightening, actually,” she added, “and it’s taking away a very

large freedom in the country.”

The number of abortions performed since 1973 is fast approaching 50 million, with more than one million abortions performed annually. To coun-

“Protect Life Act” and “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” are two initiatives that have the support from members of the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities.

life is precious — Diocesan Pro-Life advocates pray peacefully for an end to abortion, outside the only remaining abortion clinic operating within the Fall River Diocese — Four Women, Inc., located at 150 Emory Street in Attleboro, just steps from the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette.

ter that number from possibly going higher under the new health care bill, legislation has been introduced to help repeal and correct all the pro-abortion components of the health care bill. The

“The federal government should not use taxpayers’ money to support and promote elective abortion,” said chairman of the Bishop’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, in his letter to members of the House of Representatives. “Even public officials who take a pro-choice stand on abortion, and courts that have insisted on the validity of a constitutional right to abortion, have agreed that the government can validly use its funding power to encourage childbirth over abortion.”

His letter especially addressed the difficult position Catholic hospitals would be placed in. “No hospital, doctor or nurse should be forced to stop providing much-needed legitimate health care because they cannot in conscience participate in destroying a developing human life,” he wrote.

And while the flames burn hot for those caught up on both sides of the abortion debate, there is a small, repentant group of people whose flames are dimmed by what they have already done.

“These men and women are sitting in our pews, or are in our schools,” said Desrosiers, of those who chose to have an abortion. “They are more than welcome in our Christian community. We need to be there to extend that mercy and compassion to them and invite them to that sacrament of reconciliation. Let them know we condemn sin, not sinners, because obviously we are all sinners.”

Project Rachel is a post-abortion ministry that reaches out to women, men or medical personnel who have been involved in the tragedy of abortion. Open to those of any faith, said Desrosiers, Project Rachel allows those to heal the emotional wounds caused by choosing abortion.

“While we condemn the action of the taking of the life of the unborn

child, we reach out as Catholics and Christians with compassion and mercy to those who have been involved, in any way, with the mercy and love of Christ,” said Desrosiers.

Even though 58 percent of women consider abortion morally wrong, said Desrosiers, 48 percent of women, by the time they reach 40 years old, have had an abortion. And while women tend to shoulder the burden of both the emotional and physical cost of abortion; those seeking help from Project Rachel also include men.

“I think many men of today’s generation are carrying a heavy burden of having either been directly involved with an abortion or indirectly,” said Desrosiers. “Maybe the woman chose to have an abortion and he had no say.

Sometimes there are ramifications that they are trying to deal with, or they may have been directly involved and paid for the procedure, or maybe forced or manipulated to a certain degree. Or maybe just remained silent and said nothing.

We see all of those scenarios.”

Desrosiers is currently preparing to bring a Pro-Life Boot Camp to the area sometime next summer, and is putting the final touches on an invitation-only luncheon to introduce two young women who will speak about their participation in a Boot Camp in Texas.

Desrosiers is also keeping an eye on a newly-introduced “emergency contraceptive” that was FDA approved this past August, fittingly on the date of Friday the 13th. Pro-Life groups say that the drug is being marketed to blur the lines between preventing conception and abortion, and Desrosiers couldn’t agree more.

“They are calling it an emergency contraceptive but it is crossing the line between contraceptive and abortion very clearly,” said Desrosiers. “It’s being hailed as an emergency contraceptive but it is actually very strongly associated with the family of RU-486, which induces abortion.”

The new prescription-only contraceptive “ella” contains ulipristal, the non-hormonal drug that blocks the effects of hormones necessary for conception. Ulipristal is the hormone listed on the package and is clearly being touted as the “active” hormone in the drug. Desrosiers says the drug mifeprestone is also present, and is a drug used as part of the treatment of abortion.

“It undermines a woman’s informed decision,” said Desrosiers. “It doesn’t even give them the right to make a clear decision because they don’t even know the truth about the drug.”

As 40 Days for Life continues to bring people of faith together to help end the tragedy of abortion, Desrosiers knows that the message goes beyond the prayer for the life of the unborn child.

“We hope that everyone understands that this is a spiritual battle we are fighting. We need to show compassion and care so that hearts will be transformed. We want everyone to have that conversion,” she said.

October 1, 2010

Central focus of the Mass I was dismayed to read the response of Father Kocik to Father Mello’s article (September 17) about the central focus of the Mass. Father Kocik’s “elephant in the room” reference regarding which way the priest is facing seems to be part of the new movement to focus on meaningless superficial things like clothing or position or language that can be easily controlled, rather than the difficult things like holiness and love of which Christ is the ultimate example. I have never read that Christ turned away from the Apostles during the Last Supper. Many times priest and people look up in prayer: this is symbolic, but I hope no one really believes that the

The Anchor

Our readers respond

words reach God better that way. Up, down, east, west are human and earthly terms but don’t really exist in the spiritual. Our Church is presently in crisis both spiritually and financially and doesn’t need to focus on trivial matters that tend to set up combative support groups. Christ’s commandment was to love one another, not to ensure we’re all facing in a certain direction.

George R. Powers Taunton, Mass.

toward God, which he believes is better symbolized and catalyzed liturgically by facing the tabernacle or crucifix (ad orientem) than by facing the people. One can certainly have a different opinion on the matter (as many do), but the matter is not meaningless or superficial. To argue that other things, like love of neighbor, are more important, moreover, does not mean that the subject of liturgical orientation is unimportant.

Father Landry replies: Father Kocik’s point was not so much about the physical direction of the priest but his liturgical orientation: leading the entire community

Sacramental presence As Deacon Pierce and Father Landry note (September 17), there’s a difference between the blood Jesus shed at his passion and death, and that Blood’s sacramental presence. On Reichenau Island, on a lake in Germany, the faithful are convinced that they have a reliquary vial with the real Blood of Jesus. On the annual “Holy Blood Feast,” it is venerated. At Mass that day, though, the Eucharist is honored with genuflections and incense, less so the real Blood. In procession, the monstrance with the Eucharist is of more honor than Christ’s actual Blood, as they are convinced it is.

Reverence for this real sacramental presence — of more value than having the actual Blood from the cross — doesn’t necessitate priests with backs to us. In a letter September 17, Father Kocik says “the rubrics of the Roman Missal presuppose a common direction of priest and people for the Liturgy of the Eucharist.” Presupposition? The law (2003 Missal translation approved by Rome) says:

St. Mary’s Education Fund holds fashion show and luncheon OSTERVILLE — Dr. Donna Boyle and Kate Simpson, assistant superintendents of the diocesan Education Department, were the guest speakers as well as models at the St. Mary’s Education Fund Fashion Show held recently at the Oyster Harbors Club.

As honorary guest, Father Philip Davignon, Pastor of Our Lady of Assumption Parish welcomed everyone along with event chairman, Peggy Foley of East Falmouth.

Fashions were provided by Annabelle’s Children’s Boutique of Centerville, J.

McLaughlin of Osterville, Mulberry Corners of Osterville and C.J. Blum Handbags, Totes & Resort Accessories.

Other models participating in the show were students from St. Francis Xavier Preparatory School, St. Margaret Regional School, St. Pius X School and friends of the St. Mary’s Education Fund.

All proceeds continue to help children to receive “need-based” scholarships in need of financial assistance to attend one of the schools of the Diocese of Fall River.

welcome to the show — Father Philip Davignon, pastor of Our Lady of Assumption Parish in Osterville, with students from St. Margaret Regional School greeted guests at the St. Mary’s Education Fund Fashion Show, held at Oyster Harbors Club.

dinner and a show — Dr. Donna Boyle, left, assistant superintendent for Curriculum, and Kathleen A. Simpson, assistant director for Personnel for the diocesan Education Department were invited to be guest speakers and models at the recent St. Mary’s Education Fund Fashion Show and Dinner at Oyster Harbors Club in Osterville.

15 “The altar should be built apart from the wall, in such a way that it is possible to walk around it easily and that Mass can be celebrated at it facing the people, which is desirable wherever possible” (#299). In forming priestly spirituality and attitude, let’s build on actual laws of Mother Church, not “presuppositions” of some expert.

G. Thomas Ryan Orleans, Mass.

Concerned about photo I was saddened to read that Father Landry was no longer going to be writing the “Putting into the Deep” column, but I’m very happy that Father Mello was chosen to fill his shoes. He is doing a very good job with the column and I am sure that there are many like me who are going to be learning from him a lot about our wonderful and rich Catholic Church.

I was also disturbed to see in the September 10 edition the picture about the faculty Mass held at an Attleboro parish where the teachers of the school were pictured around the altar standing during the consecration.

Aren’t we supposed to be kneeling at the moment of the consecration, the moment when the Lord Jesus comes down upon the altar?

My 13-year-old daughter reads The Anchor every week and I worry that the photo would give a counter witness to what the Church expects of Catholics at the moment of consecration and in general with respect to the Lord.

Judith Sousa Fall River, Mass.

16

Youth Pages

helping out to the maxx — The TJX Foundation has, for the third year, awarded a $5,000 grant to St. Vincent’s Home to support youth transitioning to independent living. St. Vincent’s Life Skills Program staff works with youth, ages 14 to 21, to engage them in school-to-work experiences, helping them to master the thinking, self-confidence, teamwork, and problem-solving skills necessary to compete in the workplace or in a postsecondary education placement. St. Vincent’s youth have participated in school-to-work experiences at the Dartmouth TJ Maxx Store for a number of years. Store Manager Paulette D’Amato and her staff have provided a foundation through which the youth learn employable skills while developing the ability to make informed choices about careers and occupations. From left: St. Vincent’s Life Skills Services Coordinator Rachele Foley, Dartmouth TJMaxx Store Manager Paulette D’Amato, St. Vincent’s Life Skills Job Counselor Carlton Rodrigues, and St. Vincent’s students Evan Giles and Adam Furtado.

warm-hearted — Beginning last March, Bishop Connolly High School students from the French, Spanish and Portuguese Language Honors Societies, under the direction of Susan Silvia, began collecting “gently-used” coats, jackets, sweaters, sweatshirts and blankets to pass along to those less fortunate in the Fall River community. Recently, several large boxes were delivered to the Sacred Heart Parish in Fall River. This has become an annual charitable project for the language students. Toward the end of winter, another appeal will go out to the school community. Mary Cate Maher, left, and Madelaine Duarte prepare to ship out some of the items.

let the games begin — Students, faculty and staff at Holy Family-Holy Name School in New Bedford gathered to kick off the Holympics for the new school year. Father Marek Chmurski, Pastor of Saint Lawrence Martyr Church in New Bedford, lit the Holympic torch from the Christ candle, signifying the passing on of the torch of faith. The Holympic Torch was passed on from grade to grade to a student representative, and given to Sue Massoud, who led the students into the auditorium for a Scriptural PowerPoint presentation. Sister Muriel Lebeau highlighted the theme for the school year, “Holympic athletes, called to be holy, called to be champions for Christ,” challenging the students to “walk always as children of the light and to keep the Holympic flame of faith alive.” Each month there will be a different Holympic theme for the students to take part in.

October 1, 2010

summer project — During the summer third-graders at St. MarySacred Heart School, North Attleboro, were required to read “John, Paul, George, and Ben” by Lane Smith. The book focused on the forefathers of American history. Each student chose his or her favorite character, created and decorated a cut-out model of the individual, and wrote a paragraph about the person’s role in American history. In addition, they wrote about their favorite part of the book. The students delivered oral presentations upon returning to school. Pictured are Samantha Dubord and Ashley Stefanik and their artistic interpretation of Benjamin Franklin.

off and running — Our Lady Queen of Saints Catholic Home-Education Co-op has started the school year with its annual Mass, celebrated by Father Jason Worthley at Holy Family Church in East Taunton. Here, members of the group gathered for a picnic at Ted Williams Camp in Lakeville after the Mass. The group’s upcoming events include an All Saints Day Party, Thanksgiving luncheon, field trips, First Friday Virtues Club, and other happenings that promote the spiritual growth and community relationships among members.

getting to know you — Bishop Feehan High School, Attleboro, recently hosted an annual luncheon in honor of scholarship benefactors and the students who received them. Bishop Feehan has 50 named scholarships established by alumni and past parents, most of which honor alumni families or are created in remembrance of deceased alums. The total value of these scholarships is $1.5 million. Bill Papp, left, gets to know senior Adam Markopoulos, recipient of the William Papp Sr. Scholarship established by the Papp family.

I

n our lives of discipleship, it is prayer that helps keep our eyes opened to the Lord’s presence as we walk our personal faith journey. Prayer helps us to recognize the risen Lord in all we do, so that he does not become a stranger to us. Prayer helps deepen our friendship with the Lord and nourishes our life of discipleship with hope and joy.

People of all religions of the world turn to prayer to sustain, calm, nurture, and inspire themselves. Our hearts long to be with the one who gave us life and who breathes within us. And so we pray. We pray, not because we should, but because we must. In our joys and in our sorrows, we breathe a prayer. In times of temptation and confusion, we cry out our prayers. In times of happiness and peace, we smile our prayers. In times of awe and adoration, we sing our prayers.

What do we do when we pray? How do we pray? What is this ache and passion that pulls on our hearts, our lives, our souls? What, really, is prayer?

17

Youth Pages

October 1, 2010

Ask and you shall receive

Prayer is not intended to nally, we asked the Lord for his work on God; prayer works blessings upon all our cateon the one who prays and on chists and our priests, that they the people one prays for. If may be humbled by the call we look in the Bible we find to serve all of God’s people no systematic treatise on the through their example of love, hows and the wheres of praycommitment and sacrifice. I am ing, but we do find a simple sentence that’s repeated in three of the four Gospels: “Ask and you shall receive.” With these few words, we know that prayer has

By Ozzie Pacheco power and that everything that happens to us in our experiences and in our prayer comes from God. confident and I believe that this Last month, our parish prayer will be answered; we began Faith Formation classes shall receive the Lord’s blesswith a gathering of all parents. ings.

In prayer, we asked the Lord Take a moment now, listen to bless our young people, to your heart, and complete that their hunger to know the this sentence: “To me, prayer is Lord and experience his love ______.” If your prayer life is will bring them happiness and genuine and sincere, then you joy and stir in them a longing are in a personal relationship to encounter the living Word. with God the Father, through We also asked for the Lord’s his son, Jesus Christ. Here are blessing on their parents, that four ways that indicate that we by their living the Gospel have been in touch with God and acting on the truth, their through prayer. children will come to see Jesus Time: it permanently truly present in their lives. Fichanges us in some way, our

Be Not Afraid

experiences endure.

Reality: we become more in touch with the real world.

People: we see the world more clearly as God’s beautiful creation — we move beyond thinking of ourselves and more on the needs of others.

Charity: we become more loving individuals. St. John reminds us, “those who abide in God, abide in love; those who live in God, live in love.” Through charity, we share that love with others.

Pray, pray always; it helps us to recognize the presence of Christ in our lives and in the world. Need some help with your prayer? Turn to the Bible. Want some help looking for a specific need? Read on….

When in sorrow — John 14; When people fail you — Psalm 27; If you want to be fruitful — John 15; When you have sinned — Psalm 51; When you worry — Matthew 6:19-34;

When you are in danger — Psalm 91; When God seems far away — Psalm 139; When your faith needs stirring — Hebrews 11; When you are lonely and fearful — Psalm 23; When you grow bitter and critical — 1 Cor. 13; When you feel down and out — Romans 8:31-39; When you want peace and rest — Matt. 11:25-30; When the world seems bigger than God — Psalm 90; When your prayers grow narrow or selfish — Psalm 67; For a great opportunity — Isaiah 55; When you want courage for a task — Joshua 1; How to get along with others — Romans 12; If you are depressed — Psalm 27 For Paul’s secret to happiness — Col. 3:12-17; Ask and you shall receive — Matthew 7:7, Luke 11:9, John 14:13.

Ozzie Pacheco is Faith Formation director at Santo Christo Parish, Fall River.

Modern teen to be raised to the altars Chiara Badano died happy

By Carmen Elena Villa ROME (Zenit.org) — Chiara Badano was a modern teenager: She liked to sing, dance, play tennis and skate, until cancer took her life at age 18, only two decades ago.

Last Saturday, at the shrine of Divine Love in Rome, Chiara was beatified in a ceremony presided over by Archbishop Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, in representation of Benedict XVI. Chiara was a member of the Focolare Movement, founded in Italy by Chiara Lubich in 1943.

On Sunday, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the pope’s secretary of state, offered a Mass in thanksgiving in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

After 11 years of marriage, Ruggero and Maria Teresa Badano had the joy of the arrival of their first and only daughter, Chiara, who was born on Oct. 29, 1971, in the small village of Sassello, in the region of Liguria in northern Italy.

Her mother said: “She was not only our daughter. She belonged, in the first place, to God and as such, we had to educate her, respecting her liberty.”

In 1981 Chiara discovered the Focolare movement, thanks

to a friend called Chicca who invited her to be part of the GEN (New Generation) movement.

Maria Grazia Magrini, vicepostulator of Chiara Badano’s cause for canonization, told ZENIT: “She put Jesus in the first place. She called him ‘my spouse.’”

As a young girl, she liked to sing, dance, play tennis and skate. She loved the mountains and the sea. “She also tried to go to Mass everyday,” said Magrini.

One day, at age 17, while playing tennis the adolescent felt an acute pain. Her mother recalled: “She returned home and was very pale. She went upstairs.”

The mother asked her: “Why did you come back, Chiara?”

The youth explained, “Because during the match I felt such an sharp pain in my back that I dropped the racquet.”

The pain worsened. Doctors soon discovered bone cancer.

As the disease progressed, Badano faced repeated hospitalizations and increasing pain.

She often repeated, “For you, Jesus. If you wish it, so do I!” Her mother still remembers when she came home after the first session of chemotherapy.

She did not want to talk. Ma-

ria Teresa recalled: “I looked at her and I saw the expression on her face, all the struggle she was combating within herself to say her ‘yes’ to Jesus.” After 25 minutes, she said to her mother “now you can talk.”

Chiara underwent surgery, which was unsuccessful; from that moment she lost the use of her legs.

According to her vice postulator, this young athlete, notwithstanding the very painful moment, exclaimed: “If I had to choose between walking or going to paradise, I wouldn’t hesitate, I’d choose paradise.”

At that time her friendship with Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare movement, who decided to call the youth Chiara “Luce” Badano, became very close.

She spent several months in agony, preparing for her encounter with Jesus. “The most beautiful moments were during the last summer,” said her friend, Chicca. “She was motionless in her bed,” she recalled.

Magrini highlighted Chiara’s attitude: “She didn’t cry, didn’t lament, she looked at the image of Jesus.”

Chicca recalled how Chiara wished to prepare her own funeral: the songs of the Mass,

the dress and hairdo: Everything was for her a celebration.

The friend recalled, “She told me she wanted to be buried in a white dress, as a bride that goes to meet Jesus.”

Chiara made one last exhortation to her mother: “When

you dress me, you must repeat three times: Now Chiara is seeing Jesus.” Chiara also asked that the cornea of her eyes be donated to two youths.

She died on Oct. 7, 1990. Her last words to her mother were: “Be happy because I’m happy.”

18

The Anchor

Religious practice boosts students’ knowledge continued from page one

Frequent religious attendance also correlates with lower dropout rates. “One study found that 19.5 percent of students who infrequently worshiped drop out of school, compared to only 9.1 percent of students who attended worship often,” the paper said.

Worship strengthens work habits and self-discipline. Adolescents who attend weekly religious services are less likely to use drugs and alcohol and to engage in delinquent behavior, Fagan said.

“Going to church also fosters higher personal expectations.

The kids themselves tend to expect more of themselves,” he said. “It’s not that they become saints or anything like that. But it has its impact.”

Religious practice addresses transcendental questions about life’s purpose. It tends to cause people to consider what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. Further, it asks them to right their wrongs and continually better themselves, he said.

Fagan added that trying to keep religion out of the public square is like trying to keep “air out of the buildings.” Religious practice strengthens society by strengthening the people who make up society.

“When we have conversation with God — either communally in worship or personally in prayer — it helps us to be ourselves,” he said. “Do you go to church to be healthy? No. But if you go, you tend to get it.”

Private schools run by faith groups tend to be more effective because of their ability to merge intellectual learning with moral knowledge. Fagan’s paper said the legacy of Catholic schools is worthy of it

s own in-depth review.

“Roman Catholic students in Catholic-controlled schools are more likely to plan for college than Catholic pupils in public schools — even if Catholics are in the majority at the public school,” a 1970 study “The Religious Context of Educational Expectations” found. The paper described such findings as “typical.”

“In addition, religious schooling has a positive long-term impact on adolescents’ religiosity, especially in high school, and especially if students receive a considerable amount of classroom instruction in religion,” the paper said.

In a 2008 letter addressed to the Diocese of Rome, Pope Benedict XVI wrote about a “great educational emergency.”

In the letter, entitled “Education Today: An Urgent Task,” the Holy Father addressed the importance and current challenges facing education.

“We all have at heart the good of the people we love, especially

Our Lady’s Monthly Message From Medjugorje September 25, 2010 Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina “Dear children! Today I am with you and bless you all with my motherly blessing of peace, and I urge you to live your life of faith even more, because you are still weak and are not humble. I urge you, little children, to speak less and to work more on your personal conversion so that your witness may be fruitful. And may your life be unceasing prayer.

“Thank you for having responded to my call.”

Spiritual Life Center of Marian Community One Marian Way Medway, MA 02053 • Tel. 508-533-5377 Paid advertisement

our children, adolescents and young people. Indeed, we know that it is on them that the future of our city depends. Therefore, it is impossible not to be concerned about the formation of the new generations, about their ability to give their lives a direction and to discern good from evil, and about their health, not only physical but also moral.

Educating, however, has never been an easy task and today seems to be becoming ever more difficult,” he wrote.

Pope Benedict added that education would be “impoverished” if it were limited to providing information and neglected the important question about the truth. But our current culture causes individuals to doubt the very meaning of truth, the value of the human person and the goodness of life.

“What may be the deepest difficulty for a true educational endeavor consists precisely in this: the fact that at the root of the crisis of education lies a crisis of trust in life,” he wrote.

“None of these difficulties is insurmountable. They are, as it were, the other side of the coin of that great and precious gift which is our freedom, with the responsibility that rightly goes with it.”

October 1, 2010

Belgian bishops pledge measures to prevent further clergy sex abuse BRUSSELS (CNS) — Belgium’s Catholic bishops said they would learn from their errors after an independent report highlighted hundreds of cases of sexual abuse by clergy.

The bishops said the Church would work with Belgium’s Justice and Interior ministries in devising ways of preventing abuse and bringing past cases to light. They said Church officials would honor victims’ demands to be personally involved in new “healing initiatives.”

They pledged to set up a “center for recognition, healing and reconciliation,” staffed by four experts who would work with Church and state institutions and draw up plans for financial compensation. They also pledged to establish guidelines for all Church personnel working with children and young people.

The initiatives were presented at a recent news conference, three days after the report from a commission headed by Peter Adriaenssens recounted sexual abuse in most Catholic dioceses and all Church-run boarding schools and religious orders.

The commission said 475 cases of abuse had been reported to it between January and June, including more than 300 cases that involved boys younger than 15 at the time the abuse occurred.

Two-thirds of victims had been male, the report said, while 13 had killed themselves and six more attempted suicide.

The commission reported clergy assaulted more than 160 girls, many of whom had faced abuse into adulthood.

The problem was worst in the 1960s and declined in the 1980s, when there were fewer Catholic priests in Belgium and the Church was less involved in education.

Pope Benedict XVI has been following the situation in Belgium very closely and feels “much pain” after learning the extent of the abuse, said the Vati-

can’s spokesman.

“Like everybody, he feels much pain after the publication of the report, which again reveals the huge suffering of victims and gives us an even more vivid sense of the gravity of the crimes,” Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi told RTL-TV1, a Belgian television network.

“The pope is following very closely what is happening in the Belgian Catholic Church,” he said, adding that the pope and his collaborators are in direct contact with Belgian bishops, offering guidelines and advice on how best to deal with the situation.

Although prosecutors had yet to bring charges against those accused, half of whom are now dead, the commission recommended punishing those who failed to come forward and setting up a solidarity fund for victims.

“These accounts and the suffering they contain make us shudder — they confront us with something which should never have happened and deserve our deepest and greatest attention for the human drama played out in them,” the bishops said in a statement.

“This series of upsetting events touches us grievously, like all those who, in one way or another, are active continuously or voluntarily in the Church. A feeling of anger and powerlessness predominates among the faithful, notably among priests and pastoral workers. It is hard to find any way out of such a complex crisis,” the statement said.

“We wish to learn the necessary lessons from these past errors,” the Church statement said.

“We now need to find a new structure for cooperation between the different actors — the Church and justice system, the justice system and social services, and between the victims on one side, and the Church, justice system and social services on the other.”

The bishops said every account in the report was unique and merited “competent and specially tailored assistance.”

“Sexual abuse fundamentally undermines everything one can say about God, the Gospel or a Christian life,” the bishops said.

“The words evil, sin, confession, reparation, healing, asking and giving forgiveness form the core of the Christian language.

These words are tragically, terribly polluted and deformed by the many accounts of sexual abuse.

However regrettable the confrontation may be, these accounts and the faces of their victims cannot be hidden from our community,” they said.

The Anchor

October 1, 2010

Several diocesan events slated FALL RIVER — Faithful across the Diocese of Fall River are invited to attend several events in the upcoming weeks.

On Sunday, many from the diocese will be attending the annual Respect Life Walk to Aid Mothers and Children in Boston. Registration for the walk begins at the Boston Commons, on the corner of Tremont and Boylston streets at 1:30 p.m. with the 3.1-mile walk beginning at 2:30 p.m.

Also on Sunday is the annual Mass for Boy and Girl Scouts at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River, beginning at 3 p.m.

Bishop George W. Coleman will celebrate a special Wedding Anniversary Mass for couples marking special anniversaries this year. The Mass is October 10 at St. Julie Billiart Church in North Dartmouth, beginning at 2 p.m.

Couples who are celebrating special anniversaries, and who would like to be acknowledged at the Mass are asked to contact their pastors.

Bishop Coleman will lead the annual candle-lit Procession and Mass for Peace on October 11. The procession is from St. Mary’s Cathedral to St. Anne’s Church where the Mass will be celebrated.

Parish groups are encouraged to attend, bringing banners, flags, etc. Walkers will meet at the Cathedral by 5:45 p.m. for the trek beginning at 6 p.m. The Mass is scheduled at St. Anne’s at 7 p.m.

Participants are asked to bring their own candles.

Sick individuals in wheelchairs, handicapped and disabled persons should proceed directly to St. Anne’s Church, where a special area is designated for them.

In Your Prayers

Please pray for these priests during the coming weeks Oct. 5 Rev. Jean D. Pare, O.P., Assistant Director, St. Anne Shrine, Fall River, 1999 Oct. 6 Rev. Stephen B. Magill, Assistant, Immaculate Conception, North Easton, 1916 Rev. Roland Brodeur, Uniondale, N.Y., 1987 Oct. 7 Rev. Caesar Phares, Pastor, St. Anthony of the Desert, Fall River, 1951 Rev. Msgr. Arthur G. Dupuis, Retired Pastor, St. Louis de France, Swansea, 1975 Rev. Andrew Jahn, SS.CC., Sacred Hearts Seminary, Wareham, 1988 Oct. 8 Rev. Roger P. Nolette, Our Lady of the Assumption, Osterville, 2006 Oct. 9 Rev. Paul J. Dalbec, M.S., La Salette Shrine, Attleboro, 2000 Oct. 10 Rev. James C.J. Ryan, Assistant, Immaculate Conception, North Easton, 1918 Rev. Boniface Jones, SS.CC., Chaplain, Sacred Heart Home, New Bedford, 1987 Rev. Joseph A. Martineau, Retired Pastor, St. Theresa, New Bedford, 1990

Around the Diocese 10/3 10/3

The Knights of Columbus Council 813 will sponsor a Holy Hour For Vocations at St. Elizabeth Seton Church, 481 Quaker Road, North Falmouth on Sunday from 3 to 4 p.m. All are invited.

A Living Rosary, sponsored by the Legion of Mary of St. Joseph-St. Therese Parish, New Bedford, will be held Sunday at 3 p.m. beginning with an outside procession from the parking lot behind the church. This year’s prayer intentions will be united with the “Walk for Life” held in Boston. For more information about the event or the Legion of Mary, contact Father Barry W. Wall at 508-679-1408 or Father Philip N. Hamel at 508-995-5235.

10/3

St. Mary’s Primary School, 106 Washington Street, Taunton, will host its 12th annual 5K Road Race Sunday beginning at 10 a.m. Registration will take place from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the school. T-shirts will be given to the first 100 paid runners and awards will be given at the conclusion of the race. For more information call 508-822-9480 or visit www.needtorace.com.

10/9

Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Route 6, Wellfleet, will host its annual Holly Fair on Columbus Day weekend, October 9, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Photos with Santa will be taken from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and a session on how to make a hydrangea wreath will take place at 2 p.m. The event will include lunch, baked goods, refreshments, and plenty of gift ideas.

10/9

A Bible study on the Second Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians will take place at the Chapel of Reconciliation at La Salette Shrine, Attleboro, Saturday mornings, October 9, 16, 23, 30 and November 6 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. The discussion leader will be La Salette Father Donald Paradis. Participants are expected to bring a Bible. You can register at the door or email programsoffice@lasaletteshrine.org.

10/12

The Catholic Cancer Support Group will hold its next monthly meeting on October 12 at 7 p.m. at Our Lady of Victory Parish in Centerville.

The meeting will start with Mass and anointing of the sick in the church and then move over to the parish center for social time and refreshments. The support group is faith-based but all are welcome. For more information call 508-771-1106 or 508775-5744.

10/13

The Men’s Club and Ladies Guild of St. Elizabeth Seton Parish, North Falmouth, will host “La Bella Notte,” on October 13 at 6 p.m. Experience a beautiful night of Italian music and food prepared onsite including fresh antipasto, Scala bread and butter, chicken Parmesan, penne, meatballs in marinara sauce and seasonal vegetables. Social hour is from 6 to 7 p.m., with complimentary beverages and hors d’ oeuvres preceding dinner. Dessert will include Italian cookies and mini-pastries with coffee and tea. Call 508 457-6282 for reservations or further information.

10/14

The Divorced and Separated Support Group will meet on October 14 at 7 p.m. in St. Julie Billiart’s Parish Center, North Dartmouth. This will be an open meeting where attendees can discuss personal difficulties regarding separation or divorce. All are welcome. For more information call 508-678-2828.

10/16

Holy Cross Parish, 225 Purchase Street, South Easton, will host its fall festival on October 16 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., rain or shine. The event will include games, entertainment, food and more. For more information visit www.holycrosseaston.org.

10/16

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 October 16 at 7 p.m. For location information call Father Richard Wilson at 508-992-9408.

10/17 10/21 10/23

Bishop Connolly High School, Fall River, will hold an Open House October 17 at 1 p.m. Prospective students and their families are encouraged to attend. For information call 508-676-1071.

A healing Mass will be held at St. Anne’s Church, Middle Street, Fall River, October 21 at 6:30 p.m. beginning with rosary at 6 p.m. and Benediction and prayers after Mass. For information call 508-674-5651.

The Fill These Hearts Tour, sponsored by the Diocese of Providence and featuring Theology of the Body Speaker Christopher West and the Christian band Mike Mangione and the Union, will take place October 23 from 6:30-10:30 p.m. at the R.I. Center for the Performing Arts in Cranston, R.I. To register, visit fillthesehearts.com or call Father Greg Stowe at 401.331.1316.

10/28

The Divorced and Separated Support Group will meet on October 28 at 7 p.m. in St. Julie Billiart’s Parish Center, North Dartmouth. This meeting will include a screening of the video “Dreams End” and will cover “Death of a Relationship,” “A New Reality” and “The Mourning Process.” Discussion will follow and all are welcome. For information call 508-678-2828.

19 Eucharistic Adoration in the Diocese Acushnet — Eucharistic adoration takes place at St. Francis Xavier Parish on Mondays, Tuesdays, 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, Tuesdays, 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 eucharistic adoration in the Adoration Chapel located at the (south) side entrance at 208 South Main Street, Sunday through Thursday from 6 a.m. to midnight, with overnight adoration on Friday and Saturday only.

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

EAST 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 eucharistic adoration every Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to noon in the Chapel of Reconciliation, with Benediction at noon. Also, there is a First Friday Mass each month at 7 p.m., followed by a Holy Hour with eucharistic adoration. Refreshments follow.

FALL RIVER — 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.

FALL RIVER — Good Shepherd Parish has eucharistic adoration every Friday following the 8 a.m. Mass until 6 p.m. in the Daily Mass Chapel. There is a bilingual Holy Hour in English and Portuguese from 5-6 p.m. Park behind the church and enter the back door of the connector between the church and the rectory.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

OSTERVILLE — Eucharistic adoration takes place at Our Lady of the Assumption Church, 76 Wianno Avenue on First Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and every Friday from noon to 5 p.m., with Benediction at 5 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 — 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. at St. Patrick’s Church, High Street. 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.

20

The Anchor

October 1, 2010

Archbishop Wuerl to guide Anglican groups joining U.S. Catholic Church WASHINGTON (CNS) — The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has named Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl of Washington to guide the incorporation of Anglican groups into the Catholic Church in the United States.

In this position, the archbishop is a delegate of the congregation and heads the U.S. bishops’ ad

hoc committee charged with assisting the Vatican congregation in implementing the apostolic constitution “Anglicanorum Coetibus” (“Groups of Anglicans”), which provides for creating personal ordinariates for Anglicans who want to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church.

A personal ordinariate is a

Do you want to know a secret?

In preparation for its annual marriage supplement, The Anchor is seeking input from couples that have found the secrets to a successful marriage. Please consider sharing your personal “Top 10 Secrets for a Successful Marriage.” They can be as mundane and predictable as “avoiding conflicts” to more serious matters such as “remaining faithful.”

Jot down your list — even if you can’t come up with 10 — and email them to beckyaubut@anchornews. org by October 22. Please include your name, parish and hometown.

Select answers may be published and/or used in an aggregated list in our upcoming marriage supplement to be included in the October 30 edition of The Anchor.

canonical structure similar to a diocese that covers the area of a bishops’ conference. It allows Anglicans to join the Church while retaining their distinctive patrimony and liturgical practices.

The constitution was issued by Pope Benedict XVI last November.

No ordinariates have been established anywhere yet, according to Vatican officials.

The announcement about Archbishop Wuerl said that the ad hoc committee’s duties are to facilitate implementation of the apostolic constitution in the United States and “assess the level of interest in such an ordinariate” in the U.S. Other members of the ad hoc committee are Bishop Kevin W. Vann of Fort Worth, Texas, and Bishop Robert J. McManus of

Worcester.

The committee will be assisted

by Father Scott Hurd, who was ordained an Episcopal priest in 1993, joined the Catholic Church in 1996 and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Washington in 2000. Father Hurd will assist Archbishop Wuerl as staff to the ad hoc committee and as a liaison to the USCCB.