Cardinal Seán's Blog

Greetings, once again.

On Thursday, I met with new president of Merrimack College, Dr. Christopher Hopey.

With Dr. Hopey and Father Raymond Delugos of Merrimack College

Prior to coming to Merrimack, Dr. Hopey was vice president and dean at Northeastern University, where he oversaw many of the university’s academic programs. Before that he was vice dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania.

Merrimack was established by the Augustinians shortly after the end of World War II. I am very pleased that the friars have recommitted to their sponsorship and support of Merrimack College, and hope to send more religious there.

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Friday, I attended the funeral Mass of long-time BC High football coach Jim Cotter, who passed away after a long bout with Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

His funeral Mass was in the McNeice Pavilion at BC High where he had spent decades working with young men there as a history teacher, guidance counselor and coach.

Although I was somewhat surprised when I heard of the venue, when I saw the number of people who were there I realized that not many churches could have accommodated that size crowd. And besides, the funeral was at the place where he had served so many for so long.

Fr. Myles Sheehan S.J., Provincial for the Jesuits of the New England Province, was the principal celebrant and offered a wonderful homily that focused us on the faith that sustained Coach Cotter. Coach’s daughter, Grace Cotter Regan, offered a heartfelt and moving reflection; her words gave great honor to her father and were a tribute to his many achievements.

In my comments I mentioned that Lou Gehrig’s Disease is such a terrible disease that induces many people to embrace immoral solutions such as physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia.

However, in the case of Coach Cotter, he was surrounded with love and his long suffering was a witness of courage and faith, and of the preciousness of human life. His family was there with him.

He was an outstanding Catholic layman. We think of the generations of priests and religious brothers and sisters that have run these schools; but here is a layman who, for his whole life, has given to Catholic education. His faith and sense of mission were foremost in his life. The outpouring of support for him and tribute of his funeral were a very striking witness to the whole community.

May he rest in peace.

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That afternoon, Sister Olga Yaqob and a group from Boston University came to visit me at the Cathedral.

They brought me a beautiful icon for the Year for Priests.

They had originally planned to give it to me at their closing celebration of the Year for Priests but unfortunately, I was called away to the funeral of an old friend at the same time I was supposed to visit BU.

The icon was written (an iconographer will tell you icons are “written”, not painted or drawn) by Marek Czarnecki, the same iconographer who gave the USCCB the rights to use the image of his Icon of Christ the High Priest during the Year for Priests. It is based on a 15th century Greek prototype.

Sister Olga explained that Marek first wrote this Icon about seven years ago for seminarians and priests to be able to see Christ in themselves and themselves in Christ.

It is truly a beautiful image. I have placed it in the chapel at the Cathedral rectory.

Sister’s group of young people (one of whom was the sister of Father Jonathan Gaspar, one of my priest secretaries) are very much involved in promoting vocations and giving great witness of the Catholic faith at BU.

It is always a great pleasure to be with them.

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Sunday, I celebrated Mass for the Sisters of St. Joseph at Bethany Health Care Center, their assisted living residence in Framingham.

The Sisters of St. Joseph have a remarkable retirement home for their sisters. Members of other religious communities and lay people live there too, though the majority of the residents are Sisters of St. Joseph.

The sisters told me that every year there is an inspection of all the nursing homes in the state and theirs is always rated among the best.

We had a lovely Mass with the sisters and those who were unable to come to the chapel had closed-circuit televisions, so they could watch the Mass from their rooms.

Afterwards, I went around visiting the sisters in their various units.

A number of sisters are over 100, and one of them I met is still very active.

These sisters have given so much to Catholic education and were the teachers of thousands upon thousands of people who were the beneficiaries of Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Boston. It was wonderful to be with them and to celebrate the Eucharist with them.

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That afternoon at the Cathedral chapel, I baptized Charles Robert Phelps, the second child of Joshua and Meredith Phelps. Josh works in our pastoral planning department.

The godparents were Josh’s brother, Jeff, and Meredith’s sister, Becca Lee.

As I told them, in the early Church the bishops used to do all baptisms and confirmations, and they were both administered at the same time.

Over the years in the Latin rite, we have separated confirmations and baptisms, but bishops still do the confirmations.

For me it is always a great joy to still be able to do baptisms, the moment when our spiritual journey with Christ really begins.

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That evening, I had dinner with some of the Capuchin friars of my province. They were in the area because of their involvement in Steubenville East, a conference for teens and parish youth ministers that was held that weekend at the University of Rhode Island.  It is organized by Life Teen.

A number of young people from our archdiocese were there as well. I asked them to share some of their photos of the event with you.

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Later that evening, I joined the active and retired bishops in the archdiocese, and our two new bishops-elect, for a social evening at St. James Rectory in the Chinatown section of Boston. Bishop Robert Hennessey, Auxiliary Bishop for the Central Region, hosted the evening of prayer, camaraderie and dinner. The dinner was facilitated by seminarians who assist Bishop Hennessey from time to time.  (Though I did not join them for dinner because I had already eaten.)

At Bishop Hennessey’s request, there was no agenda for the evening and no meeting, just a time for fraternity, and no one objected to that!  I am grateful for his having provided us the time together.

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On Wednesday, we rededicated St. Therese Chapel, a chapel run by the Carmelites at the North Shore Mall in Peabody.

They have refurbished the chapel and it is lovely.

They were celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the chapel that the Carmelite friars have been staffing for 50 years since Cardinal Cushing initiated it at that mall. I understand the Carmelites are one of only two remaining original tenants of the mall.

Cardinal Cushing with plans for the new Carmelite Chapel in 1959

The place was packed with people. They do an extraordinary ministry there with the Eucharist, confession, adoration, and prayer groups. Also, they have a Catholic gift shop there. It really is a very important presence at the mall.

Masses are offered there three times per day, with confessions 30 minutes before each Mass. Saturday vigil Masses are offered at 4:00 and 5:30.

We have three such ministries in the archdiocese, including the North Shore Mall.

The Oblates of the Virgin Mary are running the St. Francis Chapel at the Prudential Center in the Back Bay.

And the Atonement Friars staff the Chapel of Our Savior at the Westgate Mall in Brockton.

This is a very important ministry. Many people take advantage of the accessibility of these facilities when they are out shopping and with their families. It really is a great service. We are grateful to the three religious communities for staffing these chapels.

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Also on Wednesday, Father Gabe Troy celebrated Mass at the Cathedral for Peruvian Independence Day. For me, being at the Mass brought back memories of the many years I was in Washington. I used to celebrate the 28 de Julio (the 28th of July) with the Peruvian community there.

The Peruvian government has a huge estate in the center of northwest Washington. It is a very unusual site for an embassy and they have an incredible amount of land.

We would have the Mass on the embassy grounds and they would invite all of the Peruvians in Washington for the Mass and a big reception afterwards,  of course serving Inca Cola, chicha morada and ceviche! So, it brought back many memories.

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And finally, you may remember from last week’s post that I officiated at the wedding of the daughter of Peter and Carolyn Lynch, Elizabeth, to Count Gonzague de Montrichard. Unfortunately, the photos weren’t available in time for last week’s post, but they were kind enough to send some along earlier this week.

I thought you might enjoy seeing them:

Peter walking Elizabeth down the aisle

The ceremony was at Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish in Marblehead

Peter and Carolyn

Carolyn proclaiming a reading

The choir from St. Paul’s in Cambridge

Until next week,

Cardinal Seán

Hello and welcome back,

Last Friday, I was the main celebrant at the funeral of Father Jim Field, the pastor of Incarnation Parish in Melrose, who had been battling cancer for many months.

Many parishioners were able to come to the Mass at his parish church.

It was a Friday morning, but the church was packed. Many priests accompanied me.

He was a great example of courage and faith as he prepared for death. I gave him the sacraments when I visited him in the hospital a few weeks ago. We had a wonderful visit. We were able to pray and talk together.

His parishioners were very, very supportive of him throughout his long illness.

He will be sorely missed, but fondly remembered.

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Friday evening, there was a concert by the Paris Boys Choir at the Cathedral.

They were from Neuilly-sur-Seine in Paris. They call them Les Petits Chanteurs de Sainte-Croix de Neuilly.

 

The concert was stunning. The choir, I think there were about 50 or 60 boys, performed beautiful polyphonic music in Latin and French.

They sang music by composers such as Palestrina, Victoria, Bach, Mozart, and French composers Fauré, Poulenc, Duruflé and Franck.

While here in the United States, they performed at St. Paul’s in Cambridge, as well as New York and Washington.

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On Saturday, I officiated at the wedding Mass of Peter Lynch’s youngest daughter at Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish in Marblehead.

Peter Lynch’s daughter Elizabeth married a French count, Gonzague de Montrichard, a very fine Catholic gentleman.

Peter Lynch, a Fidelity executive, has been involved in the Catholic Schools Foundation and is a promoter of Catholic philanthropy.

The wedding was very beautifully executed. The boys from our choir school at St. Paul’s in Cambridge sang. The reception was at the Lynch’s home. The dinner was preceded by spectacular fireworks — they could have been in Washington, D.C. at the mall for the Fourth of July! There was 40 minutes of music in the background, and the fireworks show was over the water. It was quite amazing.

I didn’t stay for the dinner, which started quite late — about 10:00p.m.

I was very happy to meet many of the groom’s family. About 60 of his family came from France.

Peter and Carolyn Lynch were radiantly happy with the wedding, which was good to see. They do so much to help so many people.

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I was at Our Lady Help of Christians in Newton on Sunday for their annual Italian feast in honor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

They celebrated it on the Sunday after the actual feast, which is on July 16.

I celebrated the 8 a.m. Mass in Italian and the church was packed.  Msgr. Deeley had just preached a triduum in Italian, three days of Masses.

Unfortunately, I was not able to stay the whole day, but I understand that there was a procession with the statue of Our Lady in the afternoon. They even have an angel on a cord that comes zipping across the sky as part of the procession!

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That afternoon, I participated in the 36^th Annual Benefit for the City of St. Jude at a celebration in Malden.  As it does each year, the event drew hundreds of people and raised thousands of dollars for the charitable ministry and works of mercy of the City of St. Jude in Montgomery, Alabama.  

This year’s celebration was bittersweet because the local founder of the benefit, Malden Police Commissioner Anthony Spadafora, passed away in May. 

His wife, children, grandchildren and extended family did a great job in carrying on the generosity of “Papa Tony.” 

It was wonderful to have the opportunity to gather with local clergy at the event from Jewish, Muslim and other Christian faiths.

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That night, I had dinner with Archbishop Hughes, Msgr. Francis Kelly, and Msgr. Cornelius McRae at the small cottage that Msgr. McRae has in Marshfield. Archbishop Hughes, who is originally from Boston, was back home on vacation.

The archbishop and Msgr. McRae had been out sailing that afternoon, and they invited Msgr. Kelly and me to join them for dinner and conversation. It was wonderful to catch up.

Archbishop Hughes showed us a book they had just published about the Church’s response to Hurricane Katrina. It is called “The Archdiocese of New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina: A Story of Hope in a Time of Destruction,” and is soon to be released.

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Bishop Charles Dufour of Montego Bay was here Tuesday for a visit. I knew him from the days when I was bishop in the Virgin Islands. I had been the Apostolic Visitator for the seminary in Kingston, where he was the rector at the time.

Bishop Dufour is now the Bishop of Montego Bay, which territorially is the largest of the three dioceses on the island of Jamaica.

The archdiocese, of course, is Kingston, and Mandeville is the newest diocese, and then there is Montego Bay.

It’s a very poor missionary diocese with a small number of Catholics.

The bishop is an extraordinary individual. He is a priest of the Archdiocese of Kingston. He knows many of the Jesuits who have been missionaries in Jamaica, and was here visiting some of them.

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On Wednesday, for the second time since being named archbishop, I was called for jury duty.

I reported with my fellow prospective jurors and we first listened to a presentation given by one of the judges to prepare us for jury, and then there was a video presentation. 

I was not chosen to sit on a jury.  I guess they didn’t need me! 

In Massachusetts there is a system where people are called to serve on a jury for one day or for one trial.  Of course, that means there is a fairly heavy turnover and people are called frequently. 

I haven’t been selected to sit on a jury either time I have been called, which is too bad. I was looking forward to serving.  Jury duty is an important civic responsibility, in order that citizens have the opportunity to have their cases heard by fair minded peers.  We should remember that if it was our case being heard, we would want good people on the jury, and so we should respond to this important call to service as it is asked of us.

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The patronal feast for the Brazilians is the feast of Nossa Senhor Aparecida (Our Lady Who Appeared), which is on October 8. They always have a Mass in the middle of the summer because it is easier to gather people. They have an outdoor Mass at the Fatima Shrine in Holliston. I have joined them in the past, but was unable to attend this year but I asked them to send some photos to share with you.

It’s always an extraordinary event with many, many young families.

 

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Finally, last month the Holy Father celebrated the closing of the Year for Priests at the Vatican. I hear it was a wonderful celebration with thousands of priests and bishops in attendance.

 

Unfortunately my obligations in Boston prevented me from attending the event so I was happily surprised when I received a memento of the celebration in the mail.

The pope’s coat of arms

Cardinal Hummes, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, sent me this stole that was designed for the occasion.

Until next week,

Cardinal Seán