My memory of you, Cardinal Sean, is when you were Bishop of Fall River. I was touched by your simplicity. I’ll never forget when you were re-assigned to Florida and you visited the Holy Spirit conference at the Cape. After your humble goodby, you left on foot, walked out of the arena and all around the perimeter to your awaiting vehicle without pomp and circumstance. Now that you are in the “RED” so to speak, you still convey a simplicty with power, much like Jesus! It is a true blessing to me to have been touched by our ministry. God bless all that he calls you to do. Be assured of my prayers.

Keep on writing. God bless your ministry in Boston.

I wish more of our Catholic leaders would make use of this technology to reach out to the faithful and those who are searching for faith.

God Bless you, Carmela del Sagrado Corazon, OCDS

I read your sotry on cnn.com and think your leadership in the tecnology area is fantastic. All my prayers for a successful evangilization to the rest of the church!

All the best in this Christmas season.

Nancy

I just read about your blog in the Florida Catholic and I couldn’t resist visiting. This is my first visit to a blog, ever !

I grew up in the Fall River Diocese (1950-1968) and lived in the Archdiocese of Boston (1968-2000), prior to moving to Florida.
I am so impressed by how you are providing leadership in the Catholic Church. You are truly acting like a shepherd.

As I read your blog, I got a real sense of the universality of the Catholic Church. What you are talking about in Boston, and in your travels, matches what I am hearing about here in Florida.

My husband and I attended Mass on Thanksgiving at our new home parish, St. Margaret Mary in Winter Park, FL. It has become a tradition for us. The church was full, as always, and it was a very uplifting way to start our Thanksgiving holiday.

I enjoyed seeing the photos of Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower. It was like visiting my childhood, without having to
experience the New England weather.

I have bookmarked your site for future visits. My other favorite Catholic sites are the “Sacred Space” in Ireland (www.jesuit.ie/prayer) and the American Catholic (www.americancatholic.org).

Thank you for your openness in sharing your life as a Roman Catholic Cardinal.

Sincerely,

Janet Cameron-Barry
Boston College, 1972

It was great to meet you in person last Sept. when you celebrated 30th anniversay of Korean Catholic community at St. Philip Neri Sept. this year.
I was pleasantly surprised to find your blog and read with great interest. Thanks for sharing your reflections and insights.

Sincerely,
Mira

I, and a few of my friends, will be in Rome for Easter week of 2007, and we are hoping to get tickets for any/all of the celebrations going on. Unfortunately, we are not sure how to do so and have had little luck in determining the best way to go about it. I am hoping that you will be able point me in the right direction. Thank you very much for all of your services and leadership, and I hope that you had a blessed Thanksgiving!

with peace and love in Christ,
Leah Tangney
Boston College 2008

p.s. keep up the wonderful work with your blog! What a blessing to your archdiocese, for us to have such easily accessible input into the life of our Cardinal!

I am thoroughly enjoying your blog updates. Thank you for sharing your life and ministry with us. Most of all, I am grateful for your humility and prayerfulness. In the words of the old Latin greeting: Ad mutos annos. May God continue to bless you and our Blessed Mother intercede for you with her Divine Son. Rest assured of my prayers.
Respectfully in Christ,
Father Paul A. Burke, Atlanta, GA

During the last few years we have witnessed efforts by industry, government and the church to become more efficient. With the advent of technology, many staff positions have been eliminated and organizations have merged.

I sometimes wonder if the USCCB might take a look at the number of diocese we have with a look at possible mergers and elimination of duplicate staff effort.

The plus might be the ability to deploy more clergy to the parishes where we need them so desparately.

Thank you for all you do.

Ann

Thanks so much for being front and center and so accessible to us. It makes our faith come alive.

God bless you,
Susan Montalbano

This week I told myself that I was going to church. I go in , sit down start to read the bulletin and then I saw a white piece of paper with a letter from you about the Constitutional Convention. Again, you are using the church as a political machine…something I thought was not suppose to happen. The mixture of church and state leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths…why must you continually focus on a group of people
who never did anything to you? My brother is gay. He was an altar boy, grew up in an Irish Catholic Family where the church was a central part of our lives. He is a walking saint. Always does for others. He goes to church weekly, helps out the pastor , gives lots of his hard earned cash to the church. Yet he must put up with the letters like the one today, plus listen to people in churh who make comments about about gay people. The look in his eyes is hearbreaking.

I don’t understand.

I must say when I first visited this page and realized that you had a blog I laughed, but then I realized if any cardinal would have a blog it would be you. I love the idea that I can read your words of wisdom whenever I have time. I was saddened to hear that I missed your visit to my school, Emmanuel College. I remember when you were Bishop of Fall River. Such great memories were held there, especially the “Bishop’s days off” which I believe you had started. At my old high school, as silly as this sounds, we were worried if the new Bishop would continue the time honored tradition, he did. We were very lucky to have you in our presence. You were greatly missed and still a great part of our lives.

Thank you for bearing such a cross and hope for us.

I was privileged last week to take photographs during the Mass you celebrated at St. Anthony’s Church in Revere on October 14. The Mass celebrated the Fifth Anniversary of the successful suppression and merger of the former St. Anthony, St. John Vianney, and St. Teresa churches in the city.

You and any interested visitors to the Blog could view the slide show I put together by pasting this link into the internet browser

Your presence at St. Anthony’s was a blessed event in the history of our Parish for which we are all grateful.

Robert Marra, Revere

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/memberbrowsego.html

I am from Ireland and I think that your “Blog” is a great idea.

I remember a neighbour once telling me that though there was a shortage of Priests that the whole neighbourhood felt comforted when they would see a Priest just walking in their area.

I feel that your presence here on the Internet is a comfort to all God’s people everywhere. The internet can be a lonely place eventhough there is so much information on it. when I see your “blog” I feel comforted just like the neighbourhood who saw the Priest passing by.

I wish you the Blessing and protection of Almighty God and Our Lady and that you might be encouraged and not tormented by too much administration, so you can walk among God’s people and comfort them.

Best wishes

Brendan Walsh

Congratulations for being the first Cardinal to have his own blog! You are continuing the great tradition of the Early Fathers, albeit in a very up-to-date medium. In some ways it was a good thing there weren’t any blogs or email during the Church’s formative years: The Romans would’ve wiped us all out!

I pray that you will continue this service to all Catholics and Christians for a long time to come. It’s time we Catholics started to make inroads with the so-called “seeker crowd,” and your blog will assist the Church greatly in this necessary endeavor.

Although I’m Catholic, it’s a great privilege for me to be a volunteer sexton at my family’s local (First) Baptist church in Amherst, MA. Unofficially speaking, I guess you could dub me a “missionary” to all my beloved evangelical brothers and sisters; if for nothing else than to show them that Catholics are a pretty nice bunch after all.
Somebody has to untangle their version of Church history. It might as well be a Church history buff like myself.

So far I’ve managed to convince more than a handful that some pretty interesting things (besides the Crusades) happened between Constantine’s reign and Luther’s 95 theses.

In any event, may God’s Blessings be upon you, the Church, your arcdiocese and your blog!

Steven Barrett, aka “papistbaptist” of the Amherst area.

Lucky (John J.Riley,M.A.,M.Div.)

I love your blog! I am 14 years old and I love reading blogs, so when I found out about your blog, I visited your site right away. I’m glad I did! This is an amazing blog and I really enjoy reading about your experiences. Keep it up! God bless you!

Much love and many prayers,
L. Robeck

I read about your blog in “The Long Island Catholic” today. Thanks for sharing your trip to Rome and your photos.
My youngest daughter now lives in the Boston area with her husband and two young children. After attending Boston College she never wanted to return home.
Thank you for your tireless efforts to create stability in the Boston church. Many times I wondered how the Church in Boston would be able to survive this crisis. Thank you for being at the helm in this critical time. May God continue to bless you and keep you.
Peace and love,
Mary, SFO

God bless you!

DEUS CARITAS EST
Erros and Agape,

Allen

I heard about your blog on CBS news. Two of my children (the others are still too young) are Latin students and we are very pleased and amused that the Vatican ATM uses Latin. It will be a part of our visit.

God bless you.

Thet-Shay Nyunt, Petersburg, VA

Have fun!!

Jo (21 year old girl in Advertising Program)

Howdy! from Texas. I’m a 26-year old MBA student and live in the Dallas Diocese. I came across your blog after reading about it in, of all places, The New York Times. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that you have a blog! Though I obviously wasn’t around at the time, I’ve read alot about the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s efforts to promote the faith through the use of mass media, and I have to say I’ve become somewhat of a fan of his.

I sincerely believe we need this kind of evangelization in our Church, especially now. Many people today are confused about Catholicism, even Catholics themselves. I believe media and public relations tools are vastly under-utilized by our Church today. I don’t believe their use will be a blanket solution for the issues facing our Chuch, but I do believe they will help immensly.

Anyway, as a former journalist, current Media Relations coordinator, and practicing Catholic, I can’t tell you how excited I am that you’re maintaining this blog and hope you continue to do so when you return to your Archdiocese of Boston. I hope other leaders in our Church see your example and engage their flock in a similarly modern manner.

Yours in Christ,

Seth

I am twenty-five years old – and I do not have a blog, but I am so happy that YOU do! Regardless of whether you will continue this project or not, its very existence has already taught me two things. One: “Do not be afraid!” and Two: the Church, my Church, is flesh and blood. That is a wonderful thing to know! Thank you!

Iwona S.