Cardinal Seán's Blog

Hello again and welcome!

I have announced this week the creation of the Catholic Media Group, which is wonderful news for the archdiocese. We are committed to do even more in the way we use the media to communicate the Gospel message. We are grateful for Scot Landry’s willingness to head up this excellent new initiative. His ability and commitment to evangelization makes him the right person for this task.

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Last Thursday we hosted a meeting with 32 of the major superiors of women religious of congregations present in the archdiocese.

Sister Marian Batho, our Delegate for Religious

At that meeting we presented, as we have been doing in the vicariates, the various priorities of the diocese and gave them the opportunity to give their input and reaction.

Father David

Father David Couturier made a presentation and then the sisters voiced their opinions and had an opportunity to ask questions.

It was a wonderful opportunity to gather with the leaders of our women religious, who make such an important contribution to the life of our archdiocese.

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That same day Bishop Norbert Strotmann, Bishop of Chosica, Peru came by for a visit.

Bishop Strotmann

He’s a German national but he’s been a missionary his whole life in Peru. He was up for the graduation at Stonehill College, where he received an honorary degree over the weekend. Bishop Strotmann has always been very supportive of the St. James Society in Peru.

With Bishop Strotmann, Father Arthur Colgan and Father Mark Cregan and Tom Shields

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That evening, Catholic Charities held its annual spring celebration at the JFK Library.

Honored this year was a native Bostonian, Ken Hackett. Ken is the president of Catholic Relief Services.

It was a unique opportunity to showcase the work of Catholic Charities locally as well as the relief work being done by the Catholic community in the United States throughout the world, particularly in Haiti .

There was quite an emphasis on what CRS has done in Haiti. You can read Ken’s interview with The Pilot here.

We also honored the late Jack Driscoll, who had been a chair of Catholic Charities. His son, John, gave a very beautiful account of his father’s faith and his devotion to the Church and to Catholic Charities. It was quite touching.

John Driscoll

We presented his wife, Jane, with a plaque remembering all the great work he had done for Catholic Charities.

We also announced a gift in honor of the memory of philanthropist Ray Tye from his family. The gift of $75,000 will go toward the St. Peter’s Teen Center in Dorchester.

Catholic Charities president Tiziana Dearing also spoke about Charities’ great commitment to the poor and the great work they do, especially in the current economic climate.

It was good to see my friends there at the Spring Celebration…

… including my good friend Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Cardinal McCarrick is on the board of CRS.

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On Saturday, I ordained three men to the priesthood: Fathers Daniel Moloney, Guy Sciacca and Gregory Vozzo. Fathers Moloney and Vozzo studied at St. John’s seminary and Father Sciacca completed his studies at Blessed John XXIII.

Fathers Vozzo, Sciacca and Moloney

It is always a wonderful event for me to welcome new priests and, although this is a very small class for us, the day was beautiful.

As I have mentioned in the past, in a way the size of the class reflects the fact that seven years ago the crisis was, in a sense, in full bloom. So, it wasn’t a time when there were a lot of men coming to the seminary.

You can hear my homily here:

and you can see more photos for the ordination here:

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That evening I attended the 125^th Anniversary of Immaculate Conception parish in Everett.

It was wonderful to be able to celebrate this wonderful milestone with the parish.

Father Gerry Osterman is doing a such a good job there.

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On Pentecost Sunday, I celebrated the Mass at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Methuen. It was the 10^th anniversary of the merging of the parishes which became Our Lady of Good Counsel. Fr. Peter Gori, the former pastor, was there along with Bishop McNaughton, who is originally from this parish. Father Gosselin, who celebrated the 51^st anniversary of his ordination this year and who lives in the parish, also concelebrated.

Father Marc Bishop is the pastor there and the communities have come together beautifully.

It is a very beautiful church with wonderful stained glass windows of St. Theresa in the apse.

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Later that day I attended the dedication of a Memorial Stone dedicated to the founders of the Massachusetts Ace of Clubs organization: Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy and Miriam Finnigan at the St. Mary’s Women and Children’s Center in Dorchester. The club is marking its 100^th Anniversary this year, and so they wanted to mark it in a special way by this event.

As a young woman Rose Kennedy, along with Miriam Finnigan founded the club for Catholic women to support different charitable institutions. They have done so much to help many worthy causes over the years. We are so grateful for all they do.

For 100 years the club has been very supportive of many different organizations, particularly of what is now called the St. Mary’s Women and Children’s Center. Originally it was called St. Margaret’s Hospital and Rose even delivered Ted Kennedy there.

Judy Beckler is the president at St. Mary’s and she is doing an outstanding job.

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That evening, I confirmed close to 200 people from the Brazilian community. This is the second year that we have celebrated the confirmations for the Brazilian community at the Cathedral.

in addition to the teens, there were also quite a number of young adults who were confirmed.

It was a very long celebration – over three hours – but it was met with great enthusiasm and great energy.

I was sorry that Sister Lissette was not with us this year, but she is in Rome celebrating her silver anniversary. I want to give special congratulations to her. She is a dynamo in the Brazilian apostolate and she was sorely missed this year. We wish her many more beautiful years in her life as a sister.

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On Monday, May 24^th Boston College held its commencement.

The commencement speech was given by Jeffrey Immelt, the chairman and CEO of General Electric.

Among the candidates honored was Sister Mary Hart who is a religious and has worked for many years at St. Katharine Drexel Parish in Roxbury.

She is very much an icon in that community.  I was so happy that Boston College chose to honor her. I am very pleased that in the last few years Boston College has honored someone working with the poor in the archdiocese, and I think that is a very good thing to hold up for the students to see.

They also gave an honorary degree to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor – the Archbishop Emeritus of Westminster in England.

It was a beautiful and joyous day.

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On Tuesday I celebrated Mass and attended the Annual Dinner of Por Cristo, a charitable medical services organization working in Ecuador. Por Cristo is part of Caritas Christi.

The Mass took place in the chapel at Emmanuel College and the dinner, which was extraordinarily delicious, was in the College’s Yawkey Center.

Sister Janet

Sister Janet Eisner, President of Emmanuel, and everyone there always offer such wonderful hospitality.

It was great to be with a number of members of the Por Cristo Board of Trustees, including Gary Kaneb who is the board chair. Gary and his wife, Diane, sponsor the dinner which means that all the money raised goes to the important mission of Por Cristo.

Gary and Diane Kaneb

As I mentioned, Por Cristo’s work takes place in Ecuador and involves providing health care to some of the poorest of the poor. Por Cristo has been around for over 30 years having started in response to Pope John Paul II’s visit to Boston in 1979.

For many years, they sent over 120 volunteer medical teams on short missions to Ecuador. Then in 1995, in response to requests for help in dealing with the terrible problem of malnutrition which was killing many children, Por Cristo developed a new model which employed local Ecuadorian medical professionals working full-time year round. This led to the construction of the Por Cristo Nutrition and Health Center, which is a primary care clinic in the Isla Trinitaria barrio of the city of Guayaquil. Last year at the center, the staff of 16 conducted over 18,500 consultations, mainly to children under the age of five and women of child-bearing age, in all sorts of medical disciplines.

Por Cristo has maintained one of the traveling teams, that being its Pediatric Cardiology Team. Dr. Tom Hougen, the team’s leader and a member of the Por Cristo Board came up for the Mass and dinner from Washington, DC, and it was great to see him. This group has been at work for over 20 years and in addition to their annual visit to Ecuador, they donate a great deal of materials and equipment. Last year, thanks to Por Cristo’s donations and teaching, Ecuadorian doctors were able to conduct over 1,0000 cardiac procedures on children throughout the year.

With Dr. Hougen and Joe Reardon

As Joe Reardon, Executive Director, of Por Cristo pointed out at the dinner, with the world economy being what it is and the real need to respond to so many disasters around the world, it would be very easy to forget the everyday poor in so many places like Ecuador. We can’t let that happen.

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On Sunday I visited with Pablo and Beatriz Casco — they were visiting from Honduras. They are both attorneys and were here for a legal convention.  They are brother and sister.

I baptized Beatriz 25 years ago in Washington. Her parents are very dear friends of mine who, many years ago, gave me the lovely statue of the patroness of Honduras – Nuestra Señora de Suyapa – which is in the chapel in the rectory.

We took this picture so that they could show their parents.

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Also on Sunday we were visited by four Capuchin friars. They were here for the Brazilian Confirmations. They were Father Paul Dressler, Brother Richard, Brother Juan Antonio and Brother Philip from Bavaria, Germany, who has been studying at Capuchin College in Washington.

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Every year we try to identify the tackiest piece of kitsch-art that comes from Lourdes. This year it’s the Lourdes back scratcher and shoe horn that somebody brought to me. Last year it was a potholder, and the year before that it was a clock that played the Lourdes hymn for the alarm!

This year’s winner!

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Finally, this Memorial Day, please remember to pray for all those who have given their lives for our country. May they rest with the Lord.

I hope and pray you all have a safe and restful long weekend!

Cardinal Seán

 

I was very happy to be back in Boston this week, though I enjoyed the pilgrimage and the opportunity to be with our Holy Father. His visit to Portugal was a great success. I was very privileged to have been a part of it.

While I was there news reports focused on one of our schools whose pastor decided to rescind the admission of a child of a same-sex couple. Due to the importance of the matter, I published a special post on Wednesday that you can read here.

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On the way back from Portugal I passed through Cleveland in order to preside at the wedding of Gabriel Somarriba and Mary Rose Rybac.

Gabriel’s family is from Nicaragua and his father works at the Nunciature. I married his parents and have known his family for many, many years.

Gabriel married a wonderful woman who is the managing editor of the Catholic journal First Things. Mary Rose is from Fairview Park, Ohio, which is very close to where my family lives.

So, in addition to having the wedding Mass, I was able to celebrate Mass with the Poor Clare Colettine Nuns where I celebrated my first Mass 40 years ago. I was also able to visit with my Uncle Ed, Aunt Therese, my cousin Annette, her husband John, and their three children — Patrick, Matthew, and Seán.

I also had a chance to visit with the Capuchin friars there. I was pleased to see Father Bob McCreary and the friars who are at Borromeo Seminary in Wickliffe, which is near Cleveland. Father McCreary is the formation director at the seminary.

As you can imagine, it was a very busy schedule.

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Sunday afternoon I arrived back in Boston, and I was off to the Redemptoris Mater Seminary’s gala dinner. John and Marguerite McNeice were honored for their support of the House of Formation and I was also honored with the first Evangelization Award that they are planning to offer every year.

The event began with a Mass at the Bethany Chapel followed by a cocktail hour.

During that event, some members of the Haitian community attending spoke very kindly of our efforts to help in the recovery efforts there after the earthquake, and they gave me a plaque.

The gala dinner, the first one they have organized, took place at the Pastoral Center and it was a great success.  I understand this was the largest function we have hosted to date at the Pastoral Center.

The evening gave the seminarians a chance to meet the people and tell them a little bit about the seminary.

 

They gave John and Margarete an icon of the Blessed Mother.

They gave me this wonderful icon of St. Francis, a replica of the one in Florence.

As at many Catholic events, though, there were great challenges in getting the audiovisual to work. In the meantime, the seminarians regaled us with wonderful singing. Here is the video presentation that we were finally able to enjoy.

At the end of the evening, they presented me with a lovely cake in honor of my 40th anniversary of priestly ordination.

As they presented it the seminarians sang Las Mañanitas for us!

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Mary Jane England, the president of Regis College in Weston, visited me Tuesday to share with me information about an important outreach program of the college.

Regis is working to develop a program in Haiti to train nursing instructors. They have brought a number of nurses up to their program at the Boston hospitals to acquaint them with the most modern equipment, and emergency and operating room procedures. It is one more example of our Catholic institutions of higher learning participating in this wider mission of the Church to help the people of Haiti.

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The Sisters of St. Joseph held an evening prayer at their motherhouse in Boston on Tuesday to mark the Year for Priests. Individual sisters invited priests of the archdiocese.

There was a vesper service, and afterwards we had a reception.

Everyone had a wonderful time and it seemed the sisters really enjoyed the priests’ company. There were about 200 priests in attendance. There was standing room only in the chapel.

At the end, they asked me to give some brief remarks. I thanked the sisters and I acknowledged the very important role that religious women have had in the history of our archdiocese and our personal lives as priests.

So often it was the sisters who taught us how to pray and taught us our faith, and planted the seed of vocation in our heart. They were frequently the ones who nourished our spiritual life by their example, their prayer, and their ministry in Catholic education, health care, and so many other areas.

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On Wednesday, I celebrated a Mass for the consecrated virgins in our archdiocese. We have about a dozen in all, most of whom were able to be with us that day.

Every year, we have a Mass and lunch with the consecrated virgins of the archdiocese to support and pray with them and be updated on their lives and activities. Sister Marian Batho is my delegate and liaison with the consecrated virgins.

At the Mass, I outlined for the people the history of the consecrated virgins in the Church and their restoration after the Second Vatican Council, as well as the important contribution they make as witnesses of the Resurrection and ministers of charity in our midst.

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After that, members of the St. Boniface Haiti Foundation from Randolph visited me at Pastoral Center.

They were here to talk to me about the hospital, Fond des Blancs, and the school they are supporting in Haiti and to invite me on some future trip there to go and say Mass for their people. This is one of the longstanding commitments of the Catholics of Boston, under the leadership of Father Gerry Osterman, to support the people of Haiti.

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I was also fortunate to be visited that day by Dr. Paul O’Malley, his wife Carolyn, and Dr. Michael Lescault for a brief conversation about Irish history. Dr. O’Malley (no relation) is a history professor at Providence College and Dr. Lescault is a PC alum and theology teacher at Bishop Fenwick High School in Peabody. So, they updated me on things at the college as well.

With Michael Lescault  and  Carolyn and Paul O’Malley

Dr. O’Malley is an associate of Dr. Richard Grace, who is a very good friend of mine from my Fall River days. Dr. Grace also teaches history at PC.

I was happy to show them my picture of Grace O’Malley’s castle, which was given to me as a gift. One of the big legends in our family is about this pirate queen, Grace O’Malley. It depicts her castle on Clare Island, which is, in reality, little more than a fortified tower.

On my coat of arms I have a ship, which actually comes from her coat of arms.

Dr. O’Malley was telling me that he met a priest in Ireland who was a Father O’Malley who commented that the family motto is “Terre Marique Potens,” which in one reading means “powerful on land and sea” but, in a play on words, “potens” sounds very much like the latin word for “drinking,” so “drinking on land and sea.”

I may have mentioned that the historical documents about her indicate that once when she met with Queen Elizabeth I, Elizabeth offered her a title of nobility because that was a way Elizabeth would co-opt these Catholic leaders. Grace turned her down, saying “In Ireland, I’m already a queen. I don’t need your titles.”

The interesting thing is their conversation was in Latin. She probably didn’t speak English. Back in the 1500’s English had not penetrated western Ireland. So, the lingua franca in that part of the country was still Latin.

Grace was quite a character. There are many songs, plays and books written about her and her exploits. She was certainly the scourge of the British!

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Recently there was a cursillo, Cursillo #416 at MCI Norfolk, which is a house of correction here in Massachusetts. Paul Blanchette was the rector.

I had sent them a “palanca” for the cursillo and in acknowledgement of that, they sent me this card. It was signed by all the prisoners who made the cursillo.

 

 

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You may recall that in last week’s post, I wrote that I recently published a book in Portugal and while I was there on my pilgrimage to Fatima, I gave a number of interviews about it.

The name of the book is “Anel e Sandálias”, which in Portuguese means “The Ring and Sandals.”

It is a book that contains a lot of different conferences and talks that I have given in various languages, all translated into Portuguese.

Perhaps the most salient feature of the book was that the preface was written by Ignacio Larrañaga, who is one of the best spiritual writers in Latin America. As I mentioned in the introduction, the only problem with the preface is that it is so good it eclipses the rest of the book!

It is the second book I have published in Portugal. It just happened to come out while I was there. The Daughters of St. Paul asked me to give a number of interviews about it. In both cases, the book was relegated to about one sentence and the rest was about the Pope.  If you speak some portuguese you can watch one of those interviews here.

This Sunday is Pentecost, which marks the birthday of the Church. The feast recalls the Holy Spirit descending upon the Apostles. May the fruits of the Holy Spirit be alive in your lives.

As always, peace,

Cardinal Seán