Cardinal Seán's Blog

Welcome back!

Last Thursday I celebrated the Confirmations for 60 young men and women at Holy Name in West Roxbury. Last year I was supposed to have celebrated confirmations there but it coincided with the Holy Father’s visit to the United States. I was happy to be able to come back this year.

It was a very fine group of young men and women. Msgr. George Carlson is doing a very good job in the parish and it is always a joy to be able to go and personally express our gratitude to the priests, the staff and the leadership in the parish for all that they do.

Holy Name is certainly one of the most beautiful parishes in the diocese, and it was from there that Cardinal Wright was buried many years ago.

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On Friday, Martin Doman came to speak with me about some of the projects he is involved in and others he would like to do. He came with his wife and gave me a copy of his latest CD, “Legacy.”

He is working in the Diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in the area of Evangelization but he has been very generous to come to this area often to help with events. His musical gifts are a great asset to the Church’s ministry.

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On Friday I was given an award from the Portuguese Consulate in Boston. The event took place at St. Anthony’s in Cambridge and there were several hundred people there for the event.

Every year the consulate honors three individuals, a Portuguese national, a Portuguese-American and an American for their dedication on behalf of the Portuguese immigrants in Boston. Of course, I was the recognized under the last category, and was very honored to receive the award.

They gave me a beautiful crystal statue of St. Antonio de Lisboa, (also known as St. Anthony of Padua if you are not Portuguese!) The focus of the evening this year was the island of Madeira and they had a wonderful Rancho Folclorico from Madeirenses living in New Bedford who danced and sang for us.

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This year, our Men’s and Women’s Conferences were on the weekend after Easter, also called the “Domenica in Albis,” and recently “Divine Mercy Sunday.”

The response was very good. We had a couple thousand men on Saturday and maybe 2,500 women on Sunday who assembled in Boston College’s Conte Forum for the conferences.

The speakers were excellent and were received with great enthusiasm. Many priests came to the events and heard confessions for hours on end. All of those who participated were very grateful to be there. There were many fathers and sons on Saturday and mothers and daughters on Sunday.

I was very pleased that we were able to initiate a new Catholic of the Year Award this year at the women’s conference, The Culture of Life Award. We honored Nellie Gray, who came up from Washington to receive the award.

Nellie was a lawyer working for the government at the time the Roe vs. Wade decision was handed down in 1973. I think many Catholics were blindsided by the whole event, but she immediately gave up her job and dedicated herself to the March for Life. The first year, 1974, there were 20,000 people at the March and this year there were over 300,000. It has been one of the most important pro-life events in the country and it is consistently the largest annual demonstration in the city of Washington.

The March for Life has been an opportunity to introduce many young people into the pro-life movement. I have gone to every March since Nellie started them over three decades ago.

At the conference, I told Nellie that some of the Latin American students that went with me to the early marches later went back to their countries and became pro-life leaders there.They later told me that their inspiration came from her and the pro-life march. So we were very pleased that she was able to come and address the crowd.

The other awardees were Sister Marian Batho, who received the Religious Sister of the Year award and recognized for her work as the Delegate for Religious and Loretta Gallagher, who was recognized with the Laywoman of the Year Award for her extensive work both at the parish and archdiocesan levels.

Loretta Gallagher receiving the award

Awards were given at the men’s conference as well.  Father Rodney Copp of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Waltham was presented with the Priest of the Year Award; Deacon Leo Donoghue, former director of the Permanent Diaconate Office for the archdiocese was given the Deacon/Religious of the Year Award; and Steve Guillotte, a Knight of Columbus from St. Anthony of Padua Parish in New Bedford, received the Laymen of the Year Award.

I was grateful that Jim Caviezel was able to return for the men’s conference this year. He spoke very eloquently.

Also, I had not heard his wife speak before but I was very impressed by the talk that she gave at the women’s conference on marriage and family life in today’s world.

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The Greek Orthodox and the Catholics of the Eastern-Rite follow the Julian Calendar so their feast days don’t necessarily coincide with ours. This year their Easter was a week after ours, so on Saturday night they had their Easter Vigil.

Father Jonathan and I went as we do every year. They invited me to read the Gospel and to address the people, to bring Easter greetings from the Catholic community to them. It is always a very moving event, much like our own Easter Vigil.

They bring the flames into the Church around midnight and as the bishop blesses them they sing the “Khristos anesti”

Khristos anesti ek nekron,
Thanato thanaton patisas,
Kai tis en tis mnimasi
Zo-in kharisamenos!

Which is translated as: “Christ is risen from the dead, Trampling down death by death, And upon those in the tombs Bestowing life!”

They repeat that song over and over again as they are blessed with the candles.

You see people leaving the Greek cathedral with the flames that they take home and use to light oil lamps in front of their icons with the paschal flame.

They gave us two Easter baskets with red eggs, which is a very Greek custom.

We got back to the cathedral around 12:30 a.m. for the ending of the Easter Vigil for our Geez community – the Ethiopian community which meets regularly at the cathedral.  I was able to wish them a happy Easter and to bless the food for their Easter meal that began around 1 o’clock in the morning.

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This year I regretted very much having to miss the annual Knights of Columbus Lantern Award ceremony but the nuncio had invited me to partake in a celebration of the Holy Father’s anniversary in Washington. I went down for the day and there was a very lovely celebration at the Apostolic Nunciature and it was an opportunity to connect with many of the bishops and Catholic leaders throughout the nation who were gathered for this event.

The next morning, I celebrated the Mass of Saint Conrad of Parzham for the Capuchin community in Washington. Saint Conrad is the only saint from my province, and we hope not the last one!

He was a German lay-brother at the famous Marian shrine of Altoetting in Germany — a place the Holy Father visited in his last trip to Germany. The Holy Father was actually born right near that monastery and has always had a great devotion to Our Lady of Altoetting and “Bruder” (brother in German) Conrad so I was happy to be able to celebrate that.

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Tuesday evening I was invited to BC to attend the book launch of “Two Centuries of Faith,” a historical project celebrating our diocese’s bicentennial.

The book’s editor, Tom O’Connor, gave an address on the genesis of the project and spoke about the essays included in the book.

The book focuses on the influence of our Catholic Church on Boston over the past two hundred years. Afterwards, Father Leahy gave me a copy of the book—a special deluxe version!

I am so pleased at how the book turned out and know that it will be a very valuable resource for many years to come.

In the photo, from left, François Gauthier, Aubrey J. Scheopner, Joseph M. O’Keefe, James M. O’Toole, Thomas H. O’Connor, Father J. Bryan Hehir, Libby MacDonald Bischof, Carol Hurd Green and Father William T. Schmidt

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I understand that a movie based on Brown’s book Angels and Demons is about to premier. Portions of the plot take place in my titular church in Rome.

I read the book a few years ago and I didn’t find it a great piece of literature. The ending is a kind of a “deus ex machina” and, although it does not present a favorable picture of the Church, in my recollection is not as damaging as The Da Vinci Code, which calls into question the basic tenets of Christianity — Jesus’ divinity and the divine origins of the Church.

I understand that “The Da Vinci Code” was not a successful movie and this one will probably not be very successful either, but Dan Brown’s books were very profitable.

But “The Da Vinci Code” was a particularly virulent attack on the Church filled with many untruths that underscores the need for our Catholics to be more informed about their faith and the history of the Church.

The story line of “Angels and Demons,” I’m sure, will underscore many of the interesting architectural and artistic aspects of the city of Rome, including my own Church, Santa Maria della Vittoria, which has one of the finest statues in Rome: the Bernini statue of “The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa.”

I always joked that I wanted to bring that statue back to Boston, but the Carmelite friars who run my church told me that Napoleon tried to take it to Paris and not even he was able to. They also tell me that they get a lot of tourists coming to the church because it is on the Angels and Demons tour of Rome. But, apparently, the director of the film was refused admission into the Church (although I’m sure they will still do something to replicate it in the film).

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Wednesday, I visited with Bishop Musie Ghebreghiorghis, O.F.M. Cap. He is the bishop of a relatively new diocese in Ethiopia. There are 10 dioceses in Ethiopia and three of them are led by Capuchin bishops. The Capuchins have been very involved in the history of the Church in Ethiopia because it was a Capuchin missionary, Cardinal Massaia, who in the 1800’s reintroduced the Catholic Church into Ethiopia.

Cardinal Massaia was a missionary there for almost 40 years and wrote a several volume history of Ethiopia, which has been very important to understanding the history of the country. He was also, along with other missionaries, responsible for writing down the native language and translating the bible into their native language. His cause of beatification has been introduced; he is certainly one of the great Capuchin missionaries from Italy.

The first friars who went there were Italian, but now we have a province of friars in Eritrea, which was the first province of Capuchins in Africa, and another province in Ethiopia.

The bishop was here as part of the 800^th anniversary of the Franciscan order and he gave a lecture at St. Bonaventure’s University in New York. While he was in the country he wanted to visit Archbishop Chaput and myself, the two Capuchin bishops in the U.S. We were very pleased to have him celebrate Mass for our own Ethiopian community in Boston and he brought me a beautiful Ethiopian icon of Our Lady.

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In the afternoon I had a meeting with the major superiors of communities of men that are present in the archdiocese. Some of them were visiting the Pastoral Center for the first time and they were pleased to see it. It was an opportunity for information sharing and updates on what is happening in the diocese as well as an opportunity for the religious communities to share with each other what is going on within their own individual ministries.

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In the evening, Fathers George Szal and Carlos Flor invited me to preside over a Liturgy of the Word at Immaculate Conception in Revere where a team of catechists of the Neocatechumenal Way have been catechizing for two months.

There were about 40 people who had gone through the program. Towards the end, the people came to receive the bibles that they will be using as they begin their formation in a neocatechumenal community.

There was great enthusiasm among the people and, even though the catecheses were given in English, quite a number of Hispanics were there.

With the team of catechists

Father George and Father Carlos are doing a wonderful job in Revere and the parishioners are very pleased with what has been happening in the parish.

Until my next post.

In Christ,

Cardinal Seán

I hope you are all having a blessed beginning of this Easter season.

Our celebration of the Easter Triduum at the cathedral was wonderful and we have some very beautiful pictures that I want to share with you.

However, before I get to that, I want to mention what a joy it was to attend the 25th anniversary celebration for Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Methodios on Wednesday of Holy Week.

Though they had a liturgical celebration, unfortunately I was only able to go to the reception. There were several hundred people there and a number of community leaders, including Mayor Menino and John Silber. The head of the Greek Orthodox Church in the United States, Archbishop Demetrios, was also in attendance and gave the keynote.

With Dr. Silber, Metropolitan Methodios, Archbishop Demetrios and Mayor Menino

I presented Methodios with a replica of a 14th century stone reliquary that I brought back from Rome.

He, in turn, gave me very beautifully framed San Damiano Cross.

Our friendship with the Metropolitan has been very, very close. I thanked him for always standing with the Church, even in the most difficult times. I also thanked him for his leadership in the community and his great work on behalf of unity between our two churches.

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Holy Thursday we celebrated the Mass of the Lord’s Supper and the mandatum.

In my homily, I reminded people that in Jesus’ farewell address he gives us a gift and a command.

The gift is the Eucharist and the command is the New Commandment (mandatum novum) that we should love one another.

I said that it is in the Eucharist, where Jesus makes a gift of himself, that we find the strength to be able to live the new commandment of love.

After the Mass, it is a custom to reserve the sacrament in the repository and hold a eucharistic vigil.

We had a wonderful vigil at the cathedral and many of those attending were college students involved in local campus ministries. It was impressive to see that the chapel was standing room only until midnight!

On Good Friday, around noon, we joined the last stations of the Way of the Cross for Life which prays the stations with a pro-life theme while processing through the streets of downtown Boston. There was a very good turn out this year.

Then at 2 o’clock we also welcomed at the cathedral the Way of the Cross organized every year by Communion and Liberation. They start on Boston Common and walk throughout the city. They had a beautiful schola that sung for them and I preached on one of the stations for them.

Immediately afterwards, we had our Good Friday services in English at the Cathedral and Father Romanus Cessario gave a reflection after the reading of The Passion.

In the evening, I celebrated the services in Spanish.

As always, we had the stations of the cross with someone representing Christ and carrying the cross.

Most years we make the procession through the neighborhood around the cathedral but this year we did it indoors because of the rain.

On Holy Saturday we had lunch with the Memores Domini, who are members of the lay association of Communion and Liberation, at their residence in the North End.

And then, of course, in the evening we celebrated the Easter Vigil.

This liturgy is the most important liturgy of the year when we go through the history of salvation, with the blessing of the fire, the blessing of the water and the renewal of our baptismal promises.  It is sort of the culmination of Lent — which is a baptismal retreat preparing us to renew our commitment as the Lord’s disciples in the Catholic Church.

We were blessed to receive four people into the Church at the vigil, which is always a joy. Israel Rodriguez, our deacon, sang the Exultet beautifully and did a wonderful job.

On Sunday morning I traveled to WHDH Channel 7 to celebrate the televised Easter Sunday Mass.  We are grateful to all the folks over at channel 7 for their help and support through the years.

If you would like to see more of my Holy week activities be sure to watch this slideshow put together by George Martell of our Catholic Foundation. He was with me at many of my events week, documenting my activities.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

If you have trouble with the video above, you may also watch it by clicking on the image below

 

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On Wednesday of this week I was happy to attend the installation of the new Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan.

I was very pleased to see the enthusiastic reception that the people of New York gave their new archbishop. Of course, that is one of the wonderful things about New York; everything there is always sort of bigger than life! (It certainly is a very different “Geist” than Boston, which is more understated and reserved.)

I think Archbishop Dolan will fit right in to the culture of New York. He is a very joyful man with a wonderful personality as well as a gifted preacher and communicator.

I knew him at the nunciature in Washington and then, later on, as the rector of the North American College in Rome. I sent a number of seminarians there precisely because he was the rector. I had confidence in the formation he would give them and the sense of joy at being a priest he was able to communicate to the seminarians.

He gave a lovely homily.  Of course, the readings for the day were beautiful because it was the story of the road to Emmaus.  He told a story about being in the Holy Land with a Franciscan friar who was showing him around.

The archbishop said he asked the friar, “I want to walk on the road to Emmaus” and the friar responded, “Well, nobody really knows where that is. But, of course, the advantage to that is that any road can be the road to Emmaus for you.”  Archbishop Dolan went on to talk about how Broadway or Fifth Avenue can be our road to Emmaus.

But then, at one point, he talked about Christ’s resurrection as being manifest in the Church in our defense of the unborn and there was an explosion of applause and enthusiasm. People jumped to their feet!

I couldn’t help but to notice the politicians sitting in the front row.  They stood with the rest of the assembly, but I thought to myself that its so good for them to see this, because many people want to give them the impression that Catholics really don’t care about abortion—that it’s just the bishops—but the response was wildly enthusiastic.

I think the archbishop was even surprised by it. He even had to stop his homily because of the outburst. I think it shows that Catholics who love the Church, or practice their faith, are deeply identified with the pro-life cause.

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On the subject of great communicators, I’m pleased to say that I recently became a member of the episcopal board of advisors for the beatification cause of Archbishop Fulton Sheen.   I was very honored to be asked to be a part of that group.

For those younger blog readers who may not be familiar with Archbishop Sheen, here’s a YouTube video of one of his classic television programs.

It was my privilege to have known Archbishop Sheen. When I was a child he would visit our parish regularly and I would often serve Mass for him. In those days, of course, the Masses were in Latin and ordinarily there was no preaching during the week — preaching was on Sunday — and then the lessons were in Latin. However, when Archbishop Sheen was at the parish during the week, the church would be standing room only. He would preach every day of the week, which was very, very unusual at the time.

Later on, in 1975, I organized a preaching seminar for the Holy Year at Catholic University, in the Hartke Theater and we had about 600 priests come to it. The two speakers I had invited were Father Avery Dulles and Archbishop Fulton Sheen and, of course, they were both spectacular. Archbishop Sheen, at that time, must have been in his 80s, but he had not changed, he looked like he always did on television and was still playing tennis everyday.

The only thing that shocked me, having not seen him since I was a child, was how short he was!  But, he was a huge personality and a very important figure in the history of the United States.

No one did as much to break down prejudice against the Catholic Church as Fulton Sheen. I always say that John F. Kennedy could never have been elected president of the United States had it not been for the television program and radio programs of Archbishop Sheen.

He made thousands of converts during his life by his preaching. Of course, his main job was supporting the missions as head of the Propagation of the Faith. He did an extraordinary job at that.

Archbishop Sheen was a very holy priest, and I think that his role in the history of the Church in the United States was a very important one. It would be wonderful to see him elevated to the altars.

We have a new archbishop in New York who is also a great communicator and we hope that his ministry there will be like Archbishop Sheen’s that attracted so many people to the Church.

Cardinal Seán