Cardinal Seán's Blog

This week the archdiocese released the Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2006. Last year we disclosed the financial situation of the archdiocese through an important and significant effort we called the Financial Transparency Report. We presented the financial situation of the Archdiocese of Boston and of all the other agencies of the Church in Boston. That report was meant to help our people understand what our resources were, how they were used and what our shortfall was. Part of our commitment was that, on a yearly basis, we would continue presenting our finances. First I want to thank the staff members who have all worked very hard on this. I am also grateful that The Pilot is publishing the report and printing extra copies that will be available at all the parishes this weekend so that people will be able to see first-hand what our current situation is. We are anxious for our parishioners to understand what our financial situation is. The report will help our Catholic people feel comfortable with how the archdiocese is using our funds on behalf of our mission. The report can also be reviewed online.

The front page of the Financial Report
published in this week’s Pilot

The report outlines the improvement in our financial situation over the past year, for which we are happy. We have reduced the deficit that we had in our central administration�s budget. Although we feel as though there is still a long way to go, we are moving in the right direction.

- – -

Last Thursday all the bishops of our Ecclesiastical Province met in Boston. The province comprises the Archdiocese of Boston, the three other dioceses in Massachusetts � Fall River, Springfield and Worcester � and the dioceses of Portland, Maine; Burlington, Vermont; and Manchester, New Hampshire.

Praying midday prayer with the bishops

Another view of the room

Speaking with Springfield Bishop Timothy McDonnell

Those meetings take place twice a year in order to share with each other what is happening in our respective dioceses. We also invite the retired bishops to come. It is always a good opportunity for us to cooperate. We are blessed to have bishops in the region who are anxious to work together and to build up the Church. Among our tasks at the spring meeting is to make recommendations for candidates for bishop� But, of course, we do not give the names out!

- – -

This time of year we � and all the bishops � traditionally have a lot of confirmations. I find it an important part of our ministry as bishops in the Church: to be present to these young people and their families in a moment when they are recommitting themselves to the faith. I always consider it a very important moment, and I enjoy doing the confirmations.

Last Friday, as we do each year, different college campus ministries brought their students for confirmation at the cathedral. It is always a wonderful Mass. For many of them, it was the first time they had visited a cathedral. This year there were 50-some students there with their families and sponsors. The turnout underscores the excellent work that is being done on college campuses in the archdiocese. We are grateful to Father Richard Clancy, the Brotherhood of Hope and the other priests, religious and lay people who work so hard at the various campuses. We have almost a quarter of a million college students in the Archdiocese of Boston, so it is a very important ministry and service that we do. Campus ministry affects the universal Church because these students come from all over the country and the world. Here we try to give them a good experience at Church, and the programs that are in place at universities are good ones.

- – -

The following day, I went to Harvard and celebrated Mass for the campus ministry group. They meet at St. Paul�s in Cambridge. The Masses are always beautiful there, especially the music and the preparation of the liturgy. After the Mass, I met with the students at a spaghetti dinner, and they gave me a T-shirt. I met with some of the new students who are just applying and are going to start at Harvard in the fall. St. Paul Parish in Cambridge has already invited them to be part of the campus ministry and the liturgy.

In my left hand I am carrying the T-shirt
the students at Harvard gave me

I very much enjoy these encounters with college students

- – -

On Tuesday I went to St. John The Evangelist in East Bridgewater to administer the Sacrament of Confirmation. They had so many candidates that I could only confirm half. Bishop Boles, who is officially retired but in reality is still very active, is going to confirm the other half. At the Mass they had a large youth choir, and for young people music is an important part of their participation in the life of the Church, so I was happy to see that.

I also had confirmations yesterday at St. Anne Parish in Littleton. One of parents sent me this photo of his younger son who received the sacrament.

Posing with me are Father Clifton Thuma, the pastor at St. Anne’s,
Timothy David Ryan and Tim’s sponsor, his older sister Eileen Ryan.
Tim took Thomas as his confirmation name.

- – -

On Tuesday I also participated at the groundbreaking ceremony for a new adolescent center for St. Anne�s Home, a childcare center in Methuen that works with children who are emotionally or behaviorally disturbed. They have about 100 young people who are residents there. St. Anne�s Home was originally an orphanage for Franco-American children, run by the Good Shepherd Sisters. Many of the sisters were at the groundbreaking. They are still very supportive of this institution. As many other orphanages, it has transitioned from a home for orphans to a residential care center for children and adolescents who have emotional and psychological problems and need special schooling. They also have children from the area who are unable to perform adequately it in the public schools.

Greeting the Good Shepherd Sisters

Methuen Mayor William Manzi attended the groundbreaking and expressed his support of the work that�s being done. I also met many of the children who are residents there. It is just a wonderful institution, and like so many of our agencies, it came about because of the spirit of sacrifice and dedication of the nuns who, since the beginning, staffed it.

The sisters did a great job with the shovels

Some of the students took a turn

Methuen Mayor William Manzi and I applaud the kids

Then it was our turn

At the house there was a picture of the orphanage�s founding in 1925. Cardinal O�Connell presided at the inauguration ceremony. A throng of thousands of people were present for the occasion. Times have changed!

�

The orphanage was founded by Father Bertrand, who was at the time pastor at the former St. Anne�s parish in Lawrence. He himself was an orphan.

- – -

That evening I attended the monthly LIFT meeting. LIFT is a new ministry recently founded in the archdiocese for youth and Catholics of all ages. I had heard about this and was supportive of the efforts to bring young Catholics together for praise and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The people who organize LIFT asked me to give a talk on �the call.� The meeting was held at the Fontbonne Academy in Milton, and the auditorium was packed with young people. The first LIFT evening took place in August last year, and each month they continue to grow. I was impressed by the enthusiasm and the seriousness of the group. The meeting started at 7 p.m., and they had songs of praise, my talk and adoration with more praise songs.

Father Matt Williams leads the LIFT presentation team in prayer

The visual effects were all controlled from this small laptop

Adoring the Blessed Sacrament

The youth were very enthusiastic

- – -

Next week, the Archdiocese of Boston will launch the 2007 Annual Appeal, our major funding source for so many central activities and ministries. I am grateful to Scot Landry, George Martell, Damien DeVasto and all those who have been involved in working on the materials for the Appeal. I think people are going to especially like the video this year. It captures the spirit of all that is happening in our parishes. For the photo of the week, I have chosen this year�s poster that will be displayed in all parishes with the theme “Giving in Faith, Giving with Love.”

Certainly everyone is praying for those affected by the massacre at the Virginia Tech on April 16. We pray for the victims, their families and all of the students who are affected directly by this horrific experience. We also pray for the family of the perpetrator of the crime. The entire situation is a great tragedy from beginning to end.

This tragic massacre of students at the Virginia Tech underscores the need we have, as a country, to be better able to deal with mental illness – both identifying and treating it. Many of the laws and regulations we have concerning privacy and individual rights go beyond the dictates of common sense. One result of these laws is that many of the homeless people living on our streets find themselves in that situation because they are suffering from mental illness but are not receiving treatment. Schools also are unable to deal effectively with students who have mental health problems. It is my hope that in the wake of this great tragedy solutions will be proposed to deal with these problems.

- – -

On April 18, pro-life supporters received some excellent news. That day, I attended the semi-annual meeting of directors of the pro-life offices of the New England dioceses and was greeted with the good news that the United States Supreme Court has upheld the ban on partial birth abortion. Although we still have not had time to analyze the decision, it certainly is a step in the right direction. The ruling upholds the Legislature�s right to pass laws that limit abortion.

The director of our Pro-Life, Marianne Luthin (on the left) is joined at the meeting by fellow directors Mary Lou Peters of the Archdiocese of Hartford and Father Ernest Esposito of the Diocese of Bridgeport and Sister Suzanne Gross of Hartford

It has been disappointing to read politicians� reaction against this decision of the Supreme Court, given the fact that most Americans are in agreement that this is a barbaric procedure that needs to be banned.

The horrific nature of partial birth abortion, which is practically infanticide, needed to be stopped. I think this has given a sense of hope to people in the pro-life movement. The ruling also underscores the importance of the judiciary in the life of the country. It points out the need for this to be carefully considered in the next presidential elections because the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court has great implications for the future of the country and the protection of human life.

At the meeting the directors share information on common concerns and efforts they are making in their home dioceses to defend life

Certainly, it was interesting that the Catholics voted in a block, and I am sure that that�s not lost on most people.

- – -

As I mentioned in my post last week, I spent a couple of days with my family after Easter. Following that, I went to Paraguay to be present at the instillation of Bishop Adalberto Martinez Flores as bishop of the diocese of San Pedro.

Bishop Adalberto was one of my priests in the Virgin Islands. In fact, he had been one of my parishioners in Washington D.C. He went to the seminary in Rome and studied with the Focolare movement. He finished his studies right around the time that I was named bishop of the Virgin Islands, and in the Focolare movement they need to find a bishop who will ordain them because they do not ordain for their own movement. So, recognizing the great need that we had in the islands for Spanish-speaking priests, I invited him to be a priest of the Diocese of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. He served for many years there, and then he was later named auxiliary bishop in his native diocese, the Archdiocese of Asunci�n in Paraguay. After being auxiliary bishop there for a couple of years, he was named bishop for a new diocese, the Diocese of San Lorenzo, which is also in Paraguay.

Recently, there have been some rather dramatic developments in the life of the Church in Paraguay. Namely, that the bishop of San Pedro, Bishop Emeritus Fernando Armindo Lugo M�ndez, resigned his post two years ago, has become involved in politics and is now running for president of the country. As a result, the Holy Father has asked Bishop Adalberto to take over that diocese, which is a very rural, very poor diocese. It is a great challenge.

Bishop Adalberto�s previous diocese, San Lorenzo, was carved out of the Archdiocese of Asuncion and actually extends from the capital into a rural area. Territorially, the new diocese is probably the largest in Paraguay although it has perhaps half the population of the Diocese of San Lorenzo: around 350,000 Catholics. He only has 20 priests to minister to them.

Just to get to San Pedro was an adventure. I arrived on Friday in Asunci�n; the installation was Saturday morning. The vice president of Paraguay, Luis Castiglioni, offered to take me in his plane, so we went in a twin engine plane and landed in a grass field not far from the cathedral.

Our plane was the small one in the back

The vice president is a very young man who is also running for president. In fact, there were three presidential candidates at the installation. Politics are very contentious in Paraguay. They do not have a long tradition of democracy, having had a dictatorship for over 30 years under General Alfredo Stroessner. So trying to strengthen political parties and civic institutions has been a difficult task for them.

All of the bishops of the country and the nuncio were present at Bishop Adalberto�s installation. Bishop Adalberto�s parents and his brothers and their families also joined us for the occasion. There were also many, many young people there. The population is a very young population in Paraguay, and it was good to see the great representation of the different youth movements who were a part of the celebration.

The bishops of Paraguay process into the cathedral

Next to me is the papal nuncio to Paraguay, Archbishop Orlando Antonini

The main altar of the cathedral is magnificent. It features a statue of St. Peter

Following the installation there was a celebratory lunch

There was an abundance of lively music and dancing

Bishop Adalberto’s mother and I. We had beautiful weather
for the day of the installation � thank God.

The next day, April 15, there was a terrible storm, and when it rains, people just stay home because the roads are just so bad. I was worried I would not be able to get back to Asunci�n to get my plane the following day. It was about an eight-hour ride on 200 miles of dirt road, which had turned into rivers of mud. We traveled in a truck with four-wheel drive and saw very few other cars on the road. So I was confident we would make it if we did not get stuck in some river or small lake we had to drive through.

It was an eight-hour run back to Asunci�n on roads like this

Thank goodness, we arrived back in Asuncion, and in the afternoon, I was able to perform the baptism of a little baby whose mother I had baptized in Washington many years ago. Another young man, whom I also baptized in Washington, came to visit me with his wife and children. Having been in Washington for so many years, almost everywhere I go in Latin America now, I end up meeting people I have baptized!

Ana Veronica, whom I baptized in Washington,
and her baby Diego Maria whom I baptized last week

In the morning of April 16, the last day of my trip, I went to visit the capuchin friary where the postulants are. The capucjins there are from Brazil and came to open a couple of houses in Paraguay. One of those houses is this postulancy house.

The Capuchin postulants

They have a chapel for confession where people come for the sacrament of reconciliation, much like we have the Franciscans chapel on Arch Street here in Boston. They do not have as many friars, but they have many hours for confessions during the week. It is very, very popular. The chapel is named after St. Leopold Mandic, who was a famous capuchin confessor. He died in Padua, Italy in 1942. You can read his biography here.

- – -

Once a year I meet with all the superiors of the women�s and men�s religious orders. Sister Marian Batho the archdiocese�s delegate for religious, organizes these events and brings people together. It is a chance to give them an update on what is happening in the archdiocese.

Sister Marian addresses the superiors of the men’s congregation’s

On April 18, I met with the superiors from orders of brothers and priests. The men serve in a variety of ministries. Some of them have educational institutions, others are doing chaplaincy work in the prisons, some are doing work with the poor and homeless, some are working in campus ministry and still others have parishes.

At the meeting, we talked with them about plans for the bicentennial and different things that are happening in the different ministries of the diocese, the 2010 Initiative and things like that. It is an opportunity to have a conversation with the male religious. Some of them had questions or ideas that they wanted to share with me. It was a very good meeting.

- – -
For the photo of the week I have chosen another view of the main road which links San Pedro to Asunci�n. It is the best road in all the area!