Cardinal Seán's Blog

 

Hello again!

Last Wednesday, Mary Grassa O’Neill and I both addressed over 150 Catholic school principals and pastors at the Celebration of Education here at the Pastoral Center.

Mary, who is our Secretary for Education and Superintendent of Schools, began her talk with an amusing anecdote, so I wanted to share it with you.

She told us many people presume that the head of the Catholic schools of the archdiocese must be a nun, so she’s often being called “Sister.” Some have joked with her that she needs to either wear shorter skirts, more makeup, or more jewelry. But, she said she decided maybe that she would get a tattoo, and then people would realize she was not a nun!

Mary had some of those stick-on tattoos that children use

All humor aside, she gave a beautiful talk on the state of Catholic education in the archdiocese. Her address called schools to work together and praised the wonderful job that’s being done in so many of our schools. She also spoke about the challenges that we are facing.

 

Then I addressed the principals and pastors during a question and answer session.

We also awarded certificates marking significant anniversaries of various schools.

St. Mary of the Assumption, Lawrence, 150 years

Our Lady of Perpetual Help/Mission Grammar School, Roxbury, 120 years

 

Trinity Catholic High School, Newton, 115 years

St. Mary’s Elementary School, Melrose, 100 years

St. Jeanne D’Arc Academy, Lowell, 100 years

Central Catholic High School, Lawrence, 75 years

Country Day School of the Holy Union, Groton, 60 years

St. Tarcisius, Framingham, 50 years

St. Francis of Assisi Elementary School, Braintree, 50 years

Bishop Fenwick High School, Peabody, 50 years

East Boston Central Catholic Elementary School, 35 years

Right before the end of our meeting, the folks at the Catholic Schools office surprised me with a beautiful cake in honor of my jubilee.

It was one of those cakes that are so beautiful, it seems a shame to eat it. But I think we managed pretty well, anyway!

- – -

On Thursday, I met with FOCUS, a group of college campus ministers who are coming into the archdiocese. FOCUS is a movement of young people engaged in campus ministry.  They do such things as peer ministry, setting up Bible groups and study groups.

I understand they work in 45 universities around the country.

They have been extraordinarily successful in other places they’ve been and they are being their work here at MIT. We are so pleased to have them in the archdiocese.

I was very happy to give them my blessing

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Thursday was also the first Presbyteral Council meeting of the year with a new council. Msgr. Dennis Sheehan has been reappointed as the moderator.

- – -

On Thursday night, I travelled to Rome for a few days. I was there primarily for meetings with the Congregation of the Bishops, and also to report on my visit to Cuba.

On Saturday, I was invited to attend the final days of a gathering of seminarians from the Neocatechumenal Way in Porto San Giorgio, on the Italian region of Le Marche.

The meeting took place inside this round chapel called “the tent”

Porto San Giorgio is a tourist oriented town on the Adriatic coast, not too far from Rimini where, a few years ago, I attended another very important event for youth, “Il Meeting” which is organized every year by Communion and Liberation.

Father Antonio Medeiros, the rector of the Redemptoris Mater House of Formation in Boston, our Vocation Director Father Dan Hennessey, and Antonio Enrique, the editor of The Pilot, accompanied me during the trip.

At this retreat, or “convivence” as they are called, prospective seminarians from Neocatechumenal communities from around the world gather and confirm their availability to enter one of the 76 Redemptoris Mater Seminaries around the world, including the one here in Boston.

The men who enter Redemptoris Mater Seminaries receive a formation which is both diocesan and missionary.

In many ways, it is not unlike the St. James Society, which was founded in Boston: diocesan priests who serve a time in the missions — some more, some less — but always remaining part of the diocese.

Kiko Argüello, Carmen Hernández and Father Mario Pezzi — who are the international team responsible for the Neocatechumenal Way — have always welcomed me very warmly. They were very supportive of my request to open a Redemptoris Mater House of Formation in Boston several years ago.

Greeting Carmen

To begin their missionary experience, the men entering the seminary are assigned, many of them at random, to seminaries spread over every continent. There, they will learn the local language, culture and one day, hopefully, be ordained as diocesan priests with a missionary spirit. At the Saturday evening sending event, over 250 new seminarians were assigned to different seminaries.

In addition to the new seminarians, there were also current seminarians from Europe and other places where the academic year has not begun yet. So, in all, over 1,000 seminarians and future seminarians attended — quite an impressive number.

This is the second time I have participated in one of these gatherings. I was very impressed, as I always am, at the willingness of the young men to offer themselves to go anywhere in the world to be formed as diocesan priests.

We received four new seminarians for Boston, two Polish, one Nicaraguan and one American.

Kiko introduces us as the representatives of the Boston House of Formation

With our four new seminarians

It reminds me very much of the spirit that was prevalent in the Church in the years when my own Capuchin community was sending so many people to Papua New Guinea and Puerto Rico. Every year, three, four, or five priests out of every class would be sent.

It is also impressive to see the countries where seminaries have been opened — including places like Scandinavia or Pakistan where the Church is embryonic at best.

Pope John Paul II, as Bishop of Rome, opened the first Redemptoris Mater Seminary in his diocese in the 1980s. Soon, other bishops asked the Neocatechumenate to help them start seminaries in their own dioceses with that same missionary spirit. Currently, there are six here in the U.S.

A number of bishops and archbishops were in attendance including the Bishop of Curaçao, who is opening his own seminary. When I was in the Caribbean, I was part of the Antilles bishops’ conference there and we occasionally had meetings in Curaçao. I know the Church there very well but, I had not yet met Bishop Luigi Secco, the new bishop who replaced Bishop Ellis a few years ago.

The twelve bishops attending the event

On Sunday, I presided at Mass for the group.

We processed into the chapel from the outside

The singing in the Neocatechumenal communities is always very animated and the songs are always very scriptural.

 

This year we ordained our first priest from that House of Formation, Father Israel Rodriguez, who is currently serving at Immaculate Conception Parish in Marlboro where there is a large Hispanic community.

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On Sunday afternoon, we visited the Basilica della Santa Casa in Loreto which is around 20 miles away from Porto San Giorgio.

We could hardly walk two steps without being stopped and asked for a blessing

Father Dan became the impromptu photographer of a group of pilgrims

The care of the basilica is entrusted to the Capuchins. The friars were very welcoming to us.

With the rector of the Basilica, Father Marzio Calletti

The friars there serve the pilgrims by welcoming them and offering them the sacraments, including the Sacrament of Reconciliation. They confess in many languages all day long and I could see the lines of those waiting to confess.

Friars are confessing pilgrims in several locations inside the church. This is the North American chapel

 

I was happily surprised to meet a Capuchin from the New York Province, who is originally from Medford.

With the superior of the Capuchins we visited the House of Mary, a church within the Basilica that houses the original house where, according to the tradition, Mary was born and spent her early years and where the Angel Gabriel announced that she was to be the mother of Jesus.

The outside of the Santa Casa is covered with art scenes of the life of Mary as well as scenes of other Old Testament women. They were very beautiful.

The local bishop of the Prelature of Lotero, Monsignor Giovanni Tonucci, greeted us at the Basilica and gave us a very detailed and very interesting tour of the place. I had known him from when he was in Washington at the Nunciature as a priest in the 1980s.

A beautiful fresco of the annunciation

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After visiting la Santa Casa we paid a visit to the Redemptoris Mater Seminary of Macerata, which is a few miles away from the basilica.

 

They gave us a tour of the seminary, including this beautiful chapel

There we prayed vespers with the seminarians and had dinner with them. Macerata is the home town of Father Matteo Ricci, one of the great Jesuit missionaries to China.

In fact, this seminary has a very special mission to prepare priests to work in China. In 20 years, they have ordained 50 priests, some of which are working in China.

I was very impressed to hear that they have not lost any priests ordained from that seminary!

Until my next post.

In Christ

Cardinal Seán

At last Thursday’s noon Mass in the Pastoral Center, we hosted the Driscoll Family – Roland and Alice Driscoll, and several of their family members – as we offered a memorial Mass for two of their sons.

Roland and Alice are daily communicants at the Pastoral Center and have always been very supportive of works of the archdiocese. I was very pleased to be with them to mark the first anniversary of the passing of their son Theodore and to remember their son Gregory who is also no longer with us.

Roland and Alice with two of their grandchildren, Courtney and Hannah

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On Friday, I attended the Eucharistic Congress sponsored by the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious in Washington, D.C. The gathering was held at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception under the theme “Sacrifice of Enduring Love.”

The congress focused on the meaning of the Eucharist, the priesthood, religious life, and marriage. I encourage you to visit its website for more information. Our archdiocesan newspaper, The Pilot, carried a very nice story on the congress which you can read here.

Seeing the national shrine filled for the Eucharistic Congress, particularly with young religious sisters, was such a sign of hope. It helps us to realize that, although in recent years there have been many challenges, religious life is still with us and will be with us in the future. It was very uplifting to be a part of the Eucharistic Congress.

Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus gave the opening address on Friday night on Christian vocations and a civilization of love, which was very well received.

I concelebrated the Mass on Friday night with Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia, and Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Québec.

On Saturday, I gave one of the keynotes and Cardinal Ouellet spoke as well.

Beyond just all the young religious women, it was also very encouraging to see the many students and others who came to be a part of the Eucharistic Congress.

- – -

While I was in Washington, I also went to visit a couple of friends who have been ill. One of them is Dr. Jorge Arnoldson, who is in the Agrupación Católica Universitaria, which I mentioned in last week’s post.

With friends Rosita & Jorge Arnoldson and Pepe Trujillo

Dr. Arnoldson was with me when I made my Cursillo back in the 1960’s and has been suffering with a bout of cancer. I had a nice visit with Jorge and his wife, Rosita.

I also visited Ramon Dominguez (“Mongo,” as we call him) and his wife Carmencita. He just had open-heart surgery. He’s doing very well. He is also a member of the Agrupación Católica who worked very closely with me for years in providing services to refugees and immigrants at the Centro Católico.

- – -

By Saturday night, I had arrived back in Boston. I had dinner with the Memores Domini, a group of consecrated laymen of Communion and Liberation living at Sacred Heart in the North End. They are Italians and they prepared a wonderful Italian meal for us.

We were joined by a member of the Priestly Fraternity of the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo who has recently come to the archdiocese, Father Luca Brancolini. Father Luca is teaching at the Newman School in Boston’s Back Bay and we are very pleased to welcome him.

- – -

On Sunday morning, I had a Mass at Bishop Fenwick High School, together with Bishop Francis Irwin, to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the school. The school’s principal, Sister Catherine Fleming, and chaplain, Father Richard Burton, organized this. We had a beautiful day.

They have an extraordinary choir that was just superb. They’ve sung at Carnegie Hall. In all it was a beautiful celebration of the Eucharist.

With representatives from concert choir, liturgical choir, band, student activities council, national honor society, varsity football team, and altar servers

With the current and former principals: Ralph LeDuc, David Marion, the current principal Sister Catherine Fleming, and Sister Marie Rose Julie Tierney

With present and former Sisters of Notre Dame faculty and administration members and some of their guests

 

Several local police officers have ties to the school. Here I am with Sgt. Rich Callahan, Officer James Thibodeau, Detective David B. Murphy, Officer Jim Leclerc and Officer Mark Saia

- – -

From there, I went to the celebration for the religious sisters celebrating their jubilees at St. Theresa’s in West Roxbury. Having just participated in the Eucharistic Congress, it so fitting to be able to come back to Boston to celebrate with these women who have given so much to the Church.

Sister Marian Batho, our delegate for religious, gave a wonderful talk, which I would like to share with you:

Today we celebrate 10, 895 years of years of service to the Church

We celebrate 184 women who said yes to God’s call 25, 50, 60, 65, 70, 75 and 80 years ago.

75 year jubilarians

We celebrate fidelity and steadfast love.

We celebrate the charisms of 35 religious congregations – all of them an integral part of the rich 200 year history of the Archdiocese of Boston These charisms are precious jewels in the life of the Church.

Our jubilarians are amazing women. At the time of their entrance to religious life, pastoral needs were great, resources were limited. They responded generously to God’s call to serve.

65 year jubilarians

60 year jubilarians

The document “Starting Afresh from Christ” written in 2002 speaks of the importance of religious life as a reflection of Jesus’ way of acting and his love for every person without distinction.

You, our Sister jubilarians, have brought a special relational quality to all whom you have met along the way. The love of Christ has impelled you to respond to those most in need, to take up works that others may find too difficult, that our society does not value, that are judged impossible to sustain.

50 year jubilarians

25 year jubilarians

You have done this through your prayer, your presence and your total giving of self  as teachers, social workers, health care providers, administrators, canon lawyers, advocates for the poor, chaplains, evangelizers and in countless other ways. The variety of your ministries is endless. Your single-minded devotion to God is unwavering.

The charisms of your communities have inspired you to be innovators – always responding to the signs of the times in holy and creative ways.

You have given without counting the cost. You have worked quietly without seeking recognition.

You have brought hope to so many through your witness to the enduring values of charity, compassion, and integrity.

10, 895 years of service! Imagine for a moment how many people have been part of those years. What an impact you have made for good for the Church and for our culture!

Today to you, our jubilarians we say thank you. Thank you for honoring us with your presence.

We remember especially our contemplative sister jubilarians who are united with us. Their prayers for the intentions of the Archdiocese and the Universal Church are a great support.

We say thank you and pray for those who were not able to attend today because of illness. The Archdiocese of Boston stands on the shoulders of these Sisters who labored for so many years. May we never forget them! We are who we are and we have what we have because of their selfless dedication to the Mission of the Church.

We remember those who celebrate their anniversaries of entrance or profession with God in eternal life. May their prayers intercede for us in the days ahead!

In writing Novo Millennio Adveniente (On the Coming of the Third Millennium) in 2001, Pope John Paul II called the Church of the Third Millennium to:

Contemplate the Face of Christ

Stake Everything on Charity

Move Out Into the Deep

To be on fire with the love of God

In your religious lives and in the histories of your communities we have a great legacy, a blueprint for the days ahead for making Pope John Paul’s Vision for the Church become a reality.

May God bless you in the days ahead! Ad Multos Annos!

- – -

Cardinal Seán Brady, who is Archbishop of Armagh and the Primate of Ireland, visited the Archdiocese and stayed at the Cathedral.

Unfortunately, I was not able to be with him because I was attending meetings at the bishop’s conference in Washington but we were very happy to host him.

- – -

Wednesday night was the Priest Appreciation Dinner at the Seaport with 1,630 people who gathered for a very moving tribute to our priests. The dinner committee also very kindly provided for the celebration of the 25th anniversary of my ordination as a bishop.

 

We were very grateful for the kind words of Ambassador Ray Flynn, Jill Ker Conway, Joe D’Arrigo and Senate President William Bulger.

 

Father Reed

Father Reed and the people of CatholicTV prepared this wonderful video on the priesthood, interviewing priests and people of the archdiocese.

Msgr. Frank Strahan regaled us with some beautiful songs, including “Simon, Son of Jonah” and “The Impossible Dream.”

Msgr. Strahan

As we concluded all the priests stood to join him in singing the Salve.

 

Father John MacInnis gave an extraordinary reflection on the priesthood, particularly the priesthood in the Archdiocese. I’d like to share it with you:

Father MacInnis

I am very honored to speak to you this evening about something I love very much and we all value so highly – the priesthood of Jesus Christ.

Every one of us here is called to serve the mission of Christ, but not all in the same way. Tonight we celebrate the vocation of priesthood, but in doing so we want to honor every vocation. If there is a grace to be found in the dwindling number of priests, it may be this: the realization in all of us that we need one another. The Body of Christ needs each one of us to be the living presence of the Lord in the world. As a pastor of a large and diverse parish, I cannot imagine ministering alone, without the manifold gifts of our parishioners.

As priests, how do we serve the Church’s mission? One way to define our role is by describing what we do. Our priestly functions identify us to others and help to shape our identity. We celebrate the Eucharist and the sacraments. We preach and teach the word of God. We guide our congregations in service to others. This is what we do and strive to do well – or rather what God does with us and through us. Through these actions Christ works to help and heal both his people and their ministers. But let me invite you – my fellow priests and our dedicated lay people – to consider also what we call the relational side of the priesthood.

Greeting John and Margarete McNeice

For who are we as priests? We are men who appear at the thresholds of people’s lives at tender and transformative moments of joy and grief, doubt and confidence, guilt and forgiveness. Christ speaks and acts through us, making known the Father’s love and mercy. People turn to us for gospel wisdom and a strong but gentle hand to steady them. Traditionally, they call us fathers while in fact we are also their brothers in the family of faith.

We are fathers and brothers in the family of faith. I grew up in a family that cherished faith in God. From the blessings we enjoyed and the hardships we shared, I came to realize that the words “father” and “brother” meant more than sharing the same blood or the same name. They signify belonging to, and taking responsibility for, those who shared the same home and the same table.

What does it mean for us as priests to be called father? There may be a certain ambivalence to that word today. On the one hand, I think most priests would agree that there is something humbling and gratifying in being called father. From the day of ordination onward, we became known by this title both by life-long friends and total strangers. For me, forty years later, it still touches a profound human reality in my core. I think it echoes deep down inside all of us as men, longing, yearning for fatherhood.

Yet it can descend into a kind of paternalism. The Church today is not a rerun of “Father knows best.” Furthermore, the dark cloud of suspicion and distrust that came over the priesthood in the past decade lingers and casts its shadow over us. We feel uncomfortable at times, worried about getting close to our people, especially children. From the mistakes that were made and the hurt that was caused, we have had to learn aright how to be “strong, and loving and wise” in the ways we look out for and protect all of God’s children.

 

Joe D’Arrigo

To be true spiritual fathers we priests need to keep our eyes focused daily on the God who is father of us all. God is the source of our loving and our giving. On a human plane we learn how to be like fathers from men we know and admire who live powerfully their vocation of human fatherhood. Such sacrificial love compels us as priests to reach ever higher toward that standard that Jesus sets before every disciple, lay or ordained, single or married: the standard of the cross and of God’s radical love.

As I stand before so many dedicated lay women and men, grateful for your support, I ask this of you: please pray for us priests. Pray that in spite of our weakness and weariness at times, we will always bring true fatherly care and devotion to you wherever we are called to be there for you: at the altar, or in the pulpit, at the meeting table or in the confessional, at the bedside or the graveside. And there is something we must pray for together: that from your families and our parishes will come future priests, ready and willing to say “yes” to what God asks of them.

William Bulger

But the word father does not say it all. There is another relationship that belongs to the priesthood. Before we are or can be fathers to you, we are brothers with you in the family of the Church. St. Augustine brilliantly captured the tension that we find in being leaders and servants at the one and the same time. He described the leadership of the ordained in these words: “We are at your head … but only if we are at your side.” More than ever we need to stand shoulder to shoulder beside the people we lead and serve.

As your brothers we priests need to be stretched by your dreams and your hopes, your aspirations — and your candor as well, coming as these must from people who love the Church. Countless times parishioners have come up to me with what seemed like an improbable idea, an impossible dream. I must confess a certain dread that used to come over me whenever a very creative parishioner I once knew would approach me with the words: “Father, I was thinking…”

But, then I look at what parishioners at my parish have initiated and sustained:

a thrift store, a food pantry, a lecture series, a parish library, a parish archives, building a home and rebuilding a chapel at our sister parish the Dominican Republic, to name just a few examples. A seasoned pastor once told me that one of the best things we can do as priests is just not get in the in the way of the Holy Spirit. Another assured me: “John, whenever your people succeed, you’ll get all the credit!” And you know what: they were right!

Today we need to stretch each other to accomplish a rebirth of our faith communities. We need to know how to serve as “good leaders and good shepherds,” never afraid to challenge the people we love… but never forgetting that we are sheep as well, along with the whole flock of Christ, our one true shepherd. By virtue of baptism we are all sons and daughters of God, our Father. Our first and constant calling is to live the priestly holiness of Jesus as brothers and sisters, equal by God’s grace. The wondrous grace of Holy Orders has been given to us as priests and it is an overwhelming honor and privilege. But it is given to us so that we might glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, and build up his body, the Church.

“We are at your head but only if we are at your side.” Just as critical for us as priests today is that we see our fellow priests as brothers needing to support each other. As our ranks keep growing thinner — and if I might add, as the age of retirement keeps going higher — the bond of priesthood must grow even stronger among us and show itself in the way we care for one other as brother priests.

Six years ago, the priests of this a rchdiocese gathered with others in the cathedral of the Holy Cross to welcome the man who would be father and brother to us. We looked the installation of a new archbishop to bring a glimmer of light and hope to the Church of Boston. We sought relief and renewal after the long night of shame and pain surrounding the abuse scandal. We were not disappointed. With the wit and wisdom that are the hallmarks of his preaching, Archbishop Sean paid tribute to us, now to be his priests. Clearly then and now, he stood with us and for us. …not quite like the rest of us, mind you, in his sandals, brown capuchin robes and zucchetto …yet one like us at the altar of God. For being father and brother to us, Cardinal Sean, we are very grateful to you.

Yet something else happened at that Mass… something wonderfully unexpected. The archbishop’s homily was interrupted when he spoke about the life and ministry of priests. The congregation stood and a thunderous applause erupted … applause for their priests. Suddenly, we felt an esteem and a respect that, honestly, we feared had been badly, perhaps irreparably, diminished.

You, God’s faithful people, had not forgotten your good priests, your imperfect but faithful fathers, your brothers in the Lord. You stood for us and with us so that we could once again stand with you and continue to do the work we were called to do for you.

Tonight I thank you for staying with your priests then, and for walking with us now, into whatever lies ahead in the future.

That future, with all of its uncertainties, is still “a future filled with hope.” Of this we can be sure, as we rely more than ever on the faithful love of our God, and as every one of us keeps saying “yes” to his call, and as we believe in and cherish the gift that he has given us in his Son, our High Priest, and the gift that we are for one another in his Church.

Thank you and God bless you!