Hello everyone and welcome back!

Last Wednesday, I attended a St. Andrew’s Dinner at St. Sebastian’s School in Needham.

Regular readers will remember that these are the gatherings we hold periodically with young men who are open to considering a vocation to the priesthood.

This was the first time we met at St. Sebastian’s and the attendance was impressive — I would say there were about 100 young men. Of course, there were many students from St. Sebastian’s but, as always, attendees came from all over the diocese. There were also several priests and teachers accompanying them.

Two of our seminarians gave very good talks about how they found their vocation. Afterwards, there were some questions and answers and then I addressed the young men.

So far, 2,000 young men have participated in these St. Andrew’s Dinners. It is one of our primary tools of vocation outreach. We are very grateful to the parishes and schools that participate by sending us names of young men who may be discerning God’s call to the priesthood.

The venue was magnificent. St. Sebastian’s School is an extraordinary resource in the archdiocese. It is a school with a very strong Catholic ethos.

Bill Burke, the headmaster, has done a great job there. Our visit coincided with his birthday, so they had a nice birthday cake to celebrate.

The seal of the school has two arrows that symbolize the martyrdom of St. Sebastian. It also includes Tertullian’s famous phrase — Semen est sanguis Christianorum — which means “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”

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On Thursday, there was a vicariate dinner meeting at St. Mary Parish in Wrentham.

We have organized these dinners throughout the Year for Priests. They allow me to have an opportunity to spend an evening with the priests of each vicariate in an informal setting where we can get to know each other better.

The next day, we also had a vicariate pastoral planning meeting at Gate of Heaven Parish in South Boston. There we met to present the priorities of the archdiocese to the priests, and receive their input and ideas.

The presentation was made by Father David Couturier, our Director of Pastoral Planning.

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On Saturday morning, we had the great joy of ordaining Daniel Moloney, Guy Sciacca and Gregory Vozzo transitional deacons. These are the men who, God willing, will be ordained to the priesthood in May.

Deacon Sciacca is a graduate of Blessed John XXIII National Seminary and Deacons Molony and Vozzo attended St. John’s Seminary.

Deacon Moloney

Deacon Sciacca

Deacon Vozzo

Of course, many of the families and friends of the ordinands were there. In my homily, I thanked them for supporting these men during their formation.

I also spoke about the martyrdom of St. Sebastian (recalling my visit to St. Sebastian School earlier in the week) and St. Stephen, as well as the ministry of the deacon Philip.

Though every ordination is a great blessing, this was certainly small class for us. It was a visible reminder of the situation the Church was in six years ago.

In fact, it is a testimony to the faith of these men that they had the courage to come forward, even at that very difficult time. As I often say, following the Gospel is the ultimate counter-cultural action.

There was a wonderful joint choir who sang

We asked people to pray for vocations, particularly during this Year for Priests.

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That evening, I departed for Peru to visit our men who are serving in the missions with the Society of St. James the Apostle.

Every year, the priests of the Society meet at their central house in Lima, usually around the first week of February.

I do my best to be with them every year. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend last year so I was particularly happy to be able to be with them this year.

The St. James Society has been a great blessing for the archdiocese. Over their 52-year history, about 300 priests have been sent to minister in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. Currently, there are about 35 priests currently serving in Peru and Ecuador. Right now, only one is serving in Bolivia.

During this last year, we have sent two priests from Boston and there are more priests arriving from Ireland.

During the gathering I gave a couple of conferences on the priesthood, as we celebrate the Year for Priests.

We also had a celebration of anniversaries of priestly ordination on Candlemas Day, February 2.

In the past it was common for Boston priests to be ordained on Candlemas Day. For instance, Bishop Irwin celebrates his anniversary on Candlemas Day and some of his classmates who are priests of the St. James Society were there.

During my visit we also had a lunch with the papal nuncio in Peru and a number of the bishops who came to say how grateful they are for the presence of the St. James Society in their dioceses.

Once in Lima, we visited the Cathedral once again.

It is a very impressive structure

This is the old bishop’s palace next to the cathedral in the plaza

The seat of government is also in the main plaza which the typical Spanish design

In the cathedral, we prayed at the tomb of St. Martin de Porres and took some photos so we can share some of the cathedral’s beauty with you.

These are relics of the wooden bed of St. Martin De Porres. As you can see, people leave prayer intentions for the saint next to the tomb

This is a statue of the saint. I though it was very interesting because there is this “sombrero” on his broom, that looks like a Mariachi hat.

This is St. Rose of Lima’s altar. Around her are the other peruvian saints, San Francisco Solano, Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo and San Martin de Porres

This is the “Sala Capitular,” the chapter room with the throne, with pictures of all the archbishops

These skulls are in the crypt. They used to bury all the people down there

Those are tombs. There is a glass plate in the floor. We are looking down at the coffins below.

This is the choir and the bishop’s throne. We took the picture because the carvings are so extraordinary.

This is more of the choir stalls and you can also see the main altar

The pulpit, which is very beautiful

This is the Dolorosa (Our Lady of Sorrows) on the andas (the float) to carry her in procession through the streets of Lima on Good Friday

An old colonial cross. Below is the tomb of Cardinal Juan Landazuri, who was the archbishop I knew when I first visited Lima. He was a Franciscan and was very beloved by the peruvians

This is where Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish conquistador who founded the city, is buried.

He was the one who gave the land for the original cathedral, which was replaced eventually by the current one to accommodate the growing Catholic population.

These are the murals in the chapel where Pizarro is buried

Pizarro’s family crest

We also visited the Dominican convent where San Martin lived, which is one block away from the cathedral.

These are the tiles in the patio of the Dominican convent, which have an interesting design. Black and white are the Dominican colors

I want to leave you with a beautiful view from the Saint James Society’s central house in Lima.

From there, at night you can see a large illuminated cross that dominates the view of the bay.

Until my next post

In Christ

Cardinal Seán.

As I do every year, I went down to Washington, D.C. last week for the March for Life.

After arriving in Washington on Thursday afternoon, I visited with Father Richard Duffield from the Birmingham Oratory in England and Patrick Reilly of the Cardinal Newman Society.

With Father Duffield

They came to see me at Capuchin College, where I was staying and talk to me about Cardinal Newman’s cause of canonization. We are very proud that the miracle that was accepted in the process of beatification took place in Boston. A deacon from the archdiocese, Jack Sullivan, was cured of a debilitating back injury as he prayed to Cardinal Newman for his recovery.

The beatification will likely take place in the fall. The Holy Father has a trip planned to England in September and, hopefully, he will officiate at the ceremony during the trip. No official announcement has been made as to the details, but we hope that they will be announced soon.

Cardinal Newman was an important intellectual in the life of the Church who came out of the Anglican tradition. He was one of the founders of the Oxford Movement, an Anglo-Catholic movement that resulted in many Anglicans joining the Church, for instance the Graymoor Friars and Nuns and many other extraordinary individuals who brought with them great talent and energy to the life of the Church. Certainly, Cardinal Newman was one of the great Catholic intellectuals of the English-speaking world and his conversion to Catholicism was a very powerful testimony.

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That evening, I concelebrated at the Opening Mass of the National Prayer Vigil for Life at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, which was packed with Catholics praying for our society to respect the right to life.

I’m always amazed at how many people they manage to fit into the Shrine for that celebration. There were something like 400 priests and 400 seminarians, and many deacons, religious, bishops, and cardinals.

The entrance procession lasted over a half an hour just bringing the clergy up to the altar. The presence of so many young people there — as at the march — was a great source of encouragement.

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, who is chairman of the pro-life committee for the USCCB, officiated and preached at the Mass. He gave a very beautiful and moving homily in which he spoke about various aspects of the pro-life agenda.

After the Mass, the vigil continued all night long with different Holy Hours and opportunities for confession, culminating with a Mass the next morning celebrated by Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Military Archdiocese.

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On Friday morning, I celebrated Mass at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart with the young marchers and seminarians from Boston.

A few years ago, a youth Mass was initiated for the day of the march. This youth Mass has been held at the Verizon Center, which is a large convention center in Washington. This year, they signed up participants online, but so many people tried to sign up that within the first hour, the tickets were gone.

The Center holds about 20,000. It is an extraordinary venue because they traditionally put all the seminarians down on the main arena and the young people are sitting on the benches around them. Many bishops and priests concelebrate at the Mass. It is an extraordinary event with young people. I call it tantamount to a mini World Youth Day because the young people are exposed to the witness of thousands and thousands of their peers.

However, in the last several years, the Verizon Center, as large as it is, cannot accommodate the numbers of young people that are at the march. So, last year and again this year, I have celebrated a separate Mass for the Boston group. I was told that this year there were 13 satellite Masses at the same time as the Mass at the Verizon Center to accommodate the people that wanted to go to Mass before the march.

We had our Mass at Sacred Heart Shrine, which is staffed by the Capuchin friars of my province. I ministered there for several years.

As I told the young people, I started the Haitian ministry at that church many years ago, and used to have a Spanish Mass there. Now there are three Spanish Masses, a Haitian Mass, a Vietnamese Mass and one English Mass. So, it really reflects the Catholicity of the immigrant Church in that area.

I also shared with them that at one point as a young friar, I lived in the basement of that church with about 600 people for a week (with one bathroom!) when there were the riots in the late ‘60’s. There were 700 fires in the District of Columbia. They were bringing firemen from Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Richmond, and all over to fight the fires. There were soldiers with bayonets in every corner and tanks surrounding the White House. I said it was nice to come back at peacetime.

It’s a lovely church with many memories for me, of course. We had about 100 seminarians there who study at St. John’s Seminary as well as the parishioners and schools who came with us from Boston. They filled the church.

Meanwhile, the group from Blessed John XXIII National Seminary had tickets for the Verizon Center, so they were the “Chosen Ones” to represent Boston there.

I’ve been asking all of the Catholic schools — particularly the high schools and campus ministries — to send young people to Washington precisely because it is such an extraordinary experience for them to see how many young Catholics there are who are living their faith and trying to promote the Gospel of Life and Catholic values. It’s just a wonderful experience. I’m very grateful to the schools that sent buses and I am grateful to Father Matt Williams’ office that worked so hard to organize this, and to Marianne Luthin who helped to turn the people out.

At the same time, as I reminded our people back in the archdiocese, our Deacons for Life organized vigils in almost 200 parishes.

So, even though not everyone could be present in Washington, we were all united in prayer for the same ideal.

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After the Mass, I went to St. Matthew’s Cathedral where we had lunch with the Blessed John seminarians who were coming out of the Verizon Center.

As a young brother, I worked with the Hispanic ministry in the parish there. Back when I was ordained, my parish, La Capilla Latina, was actually a chapel of St. Matthew’s.

That cathedral was where I celebrated my first public Mass and where I had confessions, weddings, baptisms, and Masses every weekend in Spanish from the week after I was ordained until the week before I was ordained a bishop.

It’s a lovely church. It’s not a very big cathedral. In fact, it was not built as a cathedral but chosen to be the cathedral because of its proximity to the White House and the central part of the city. In fact, Sacred Heart was another church they had considered making the cathedral of Washington.

At the cathedral, there is a small chapel to St. Francis where I used to celebrate many weddings. Now, they’ve made that into the crypt for the archbishops. Cardinals O’Boyle and Hickey are buried there.

There’s also a very large side chapel to St. Anthony of Padua that has the Canticle of Brother’s Son by St. Francis on the wall, and the mosaic is the scene of Assisi.

I don’t know why there is such Franciscan influence in that church, but there certainly is.

Another wonderful feature of the cathedral is the chapel containing the baptismal font with a mosaic depicting St. Matthew baptizing the Ethiopian, which I said is so appropriate in Washington that has a very large Black Catholic population.

The mosaics there were done by John de Rosen, the same man who did the original mosaics in the shrine. He was a Polish immigrant and he was an extraordinary artist in mosaics. He has a mosaic of the angel touching the waters of the pool of Siloah so the water became curative, as with baptismal waters.

The baptismal font itself, the pulpit, the communion rail, and the high altar are all in-laid marble and were brought from Agra, India. They were created by the same craftsmen who built the Taj Mahal. It’s magnificent workmanship.

The Sacrament Chapel, depicts the two disciples on the road to Emmaus who are standing next to the tabernacle in amazement and they recognize the breaking of the bread.

The idea is that Christ has disappeared but the bread is still there and the bread is the Bread of Life, the Body and Blood of Christ.

Another altar where I used to have many weddings, is a relief of the scene of the marriage of Mary and Joseph based on the painting by Raphael.

Recently, they have built a new addition onto the rectory and that’s where Msgr. Ron Jameson was very gracious in hosting a luncheon with the Knights of Columbus, who always accompany and invite the seminarians from Pope John.

Msgr. Jameson was an assistant at St. Matthew’s when I was a seminarian and a young priest. Back then, he ran the worship office but now he’s there as rector of the cathedral. He’s done an extraordinary job.

He showed us pictures of Pope John Paul II’s visit that hang on the wall.

You can see me standing off to the side by the tree as the Holy Father greets people by the door of the rectory.

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After a quick lunch, we went to the march. There were so many people that I couldn’t even get near the stage, so I just stayed with the Boston group.

There were a lot of people from Massachusetts Citizens for Life who were with us.

As always, you run into people from all over that you know. It’s always a very moving experience.

I’m guessing there were at least 300,000 people there. It was just massive. It took so long for the march to reach the end of it.

The march is a very important public witness to our commitment to defend the unborn in this country. This year, I suspect it is the largest event that they will have at the capital. Yet, the Washington Post did not dare to put a picture of it on the front page of the paper.

Even editorialists in the Post who commented on it, like Robert McCartney, could not help but to be impressed with the youthfulness of the crowd. It was not the old babushkas and monks who were there, but enthusiastic young Catholics — and in large numbers.

Our youngest pilgrim

We are, as always, joined by people from other faiths, particularly the Greek Orthodox, Protestant, and Jewish communities.

Nellie Gray, the organizer, has run each of these marches for the last 37 years, and I am very proud to say I have been with her at each one.

We honored her last year before the Women’s Conference here in Boston. It was a testimony to her life.

On Saturday morning, I had Mass at the Basilica with the Boston group. We had it in the Sacrament Chapel upstairs. We were packed in there. It’s not a large chapel, but we had a couple hundred participants at the Mass.

I explained to them the symbolism of the manna falling down from the altar. I spoke to them about the Gospel passage “behold thy mother… behold thy son.”

Gregory Tracy from our archdiocesan newspaper, The Pilot, traveled with us for the march and took most of the photos you see here. You can see some more photos at the National Shrine, Sacred Heart and the March for Life on The Pilot’s Facebook photo page.

And, as I mentioned in an earlier post, George Martell of The Catholic Foundation accompanied the pilgrims  on their journey and posted photos along the way.  If you haven’t had a chance to see those photos yet, you can visit the archdiocese’s Flickr page. 

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On Sunday, I was back in Boston and went to MCFL’s 37^th Annual Assembly for Life at Faneuil Hall. Each year, we participate in the gathering at Faneuil Hall, which is a very historic and important landmark in Boston. We are happy to associate the cause of life with that very historic place – to call people to live our ideals and be a nation that protects the unborn. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are important ideals, but life is the first one.

There was a very moving presentation by Michael Clancy, the photographer who had taken the famous photo picture of the hand of a baby still in the womb grabbing the finger of the doctor during surgery. (You can see the photo and read more about it on his website)

Rabbi Henry Morse, of the Messianic Congregation Sha’ar Hashamayim was the master of ceremonies, and a young man, Michael Maloney, sang a pro-life song he had written for the occasion.

During the rally they presented the Thomas J. Flatley Award to Marilyn Birnie, executive director of Friends of the Unborn, which runs a crisis pregnancy center and home for pregnant, homeless young women in Quincy.

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On Monday, I went to the College of the Holy Cross. The Jesuits at Holy Cross have invited me many times because there are so many students from Boston there. They also invited me because the university was founded by Bishop Fenwick, the second bishop of Boston.

Bishop Fenwick was from one of those old Catholic Maryland families. He was a fifth-generation American descendant of those Catholics who came to Maryland when Lord Baltimore established it as a Catholic colony. He joined the Jesuits and taught at Georgetown University. He was later named second Bishop of Boston when Bishop Cheverus was recalled to France to become the Cardinal Archbishop of Bordeaux.

As a Jesuit, he had great interest in education and founded the Ursuline school in Charlestown. When that was burnt down, he decided that the college he was going to found should be farther away from the city so it would be safe from the Know-Nothings. So he built it in Worcester, which was still part of the Archdiocese of Boston in those days. He named it the College of the Holy Cross to have the connection with the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston.

The college has flourished and has been a very important ministry of the Jesuits in the New England Province.

He is buried there at the cemetery with the other Jesuits. We had a small service at his grave where we laid a wreath.

They gave me a print of this painting, which was originally painted for the Ursuline convent and was recently restored.

During my visit, I had a meeting with the students in which they talked to me about their experience at Holy Cross, particularly their activities in campus ministry. I was very happy to see that they have both a chapter of the Knights of Columbus and also the Catholic Daughters of America. They have also been very involved in relief for Haiti and a number of different activities.

After my conversation with the students, we had Mass in a beautiful chapel. Several hundred students attended. It was very gratifying to see how at 4 p.m. on a school day, so many students would come to Mass. I was joined by a number of Jesuits, including the provincial, Father Myles Sheehan, the president, Father Michael McFarland, and three bishops from Worcester – Bishop Robert McManus, retired Bishop Dan Reilly, and retired auxiliary Bishop George Rueger. The abbot of St. Joseph Abbey in Spencer was also with us.

The choir was outstanding. They did a beautiful meditation, which was the Angelus in Latin. It was gorgeous.

Until next week,

Cardinal Seán

The result of Tuesday’s special election was very surprising. It has captured the attention of the world because no one ever suspected that someone who was not a Democrat would be able to be elected to the seat the late Sen. Ted Kennedy held for nearly 50 years. Several commentators have noted that the election has significance beyond Massachusetts, specifically that it points to deeply felt anxiety about the economy, unemployment and the health care debate.

I think it is refreshing that the people of Massachusetts have voted independent of their party affiliation. In the Church we have always encouraged the people to look at issues rather than just vote party-line or vote for sectarian reasons.

We hope that Senator-elect Scott Brown will be successful in his work in Washington. He has pledged himself to represent the people of the Commonwealth well. He has my prayers and the prayers of the people of Massachusetts.

At the same time we are grateful to all the candidates who participate in the democratic process because it requires a great sacrifice from individuals and their families, yet without people willing to run for office we would not be able to have a democracy.

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Last Friday, we had the first of a series of vicariate dinners with priests at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Chelmsford. Just as I do frequently with the young priests – bringing the priests together for prayer, dinner, and conversation – we thought that during the Year for Priests it would be good to extend this opportunity to all priests.

We have such a large presbyterate, so to have the opportunity to interact in a more intimate, social way is a wonderful opportunity to get to know our priests better and build our priestly fraternity.

Through these dinners we hope to be able to listen to their ideas and to acknowledge the wonderful work that they do and encourage them in their priestly ministry.

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On Saturday, I celebrated the funeral Mass of Father Joe McGlone, the retired pastor of Corpus Christi Parish in Newton. He had been pastor there for 32 years. There was a wonderful turnout of priests and parishioners. May he rest in peace.

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Although I was unable to attend, I want to make mention of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas conference. Father Kevin O’Leary, who is their chaplain, attended it in my stead. We are very pleased they are beginning to start groups on Catholic campuses for young women.

From left to right:  Maureen Trainor, State Secretary (Bradford), Connie Pagan, 1st Vice State Regent (Framingham), Helene Shepard, CDA National Director, Linda Coletti, State Regent (Medford), Judi Shooter, 2nd Vice State Regent (Danvers) and Mary Ann Gruszecki, State Treasurer (Adams).

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I celebrated Mass with the deaf community at Sacred Heart Parish in Newton on Sunday, with Sacred Heart’s pastor Father John J. Connelly and Father Hugh Macsherry, a Franciscan, who concelebrated with me. We had a full church.

Father Shawn Carey and Father Jeremy St. Martin, who both work in our deaf apostolate here in the archdiocese, were in Texas at a meeting organized by the National Catholic Office for the Deaf and so they could not participate at the Mass.

It was a wonderful experience to be a part of their liturgy, their worshipping community. Of course, for someone with hearing, one of the strangest things is not having the singing. One of the most moving things was the Prayer of the Faithful where several people in the community prayed for different intentions.

There was a young boy who prayed for the victims of Haiti, particularly those who were in the school for the deaf there who had had some contact with the school where he goes.

I was so impressed at the proficiency of the interpreters, particularly Trudy Schafer, who teaches at Northeastern University and who is an extraordinary asset to the community there.

Then, at the reception, they gave me a crucifix.

Marge Tucker, a member of the deaf Catholic community,
presented me with the crucifix.

Until they pointed it out to me, I didn’t even notice that Christ is speaking in sign language from the cross, saying “I love you.”

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That evening, I had confirmation at St. Charles Parish in Woburn. There were about 75 young men and women and a standing-room-only crowd in the church. It was a beautiful choir and a very fine program. Father Tim Shea and Father Arthur MacKay are doing a wonderful job there.

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On Monday, I had the first of a series of vicariate meetings in Lowell. We’re having these pastoral planning meetings in order to look at pastoral priorities for the archdiocese and to get the input of the priests. It was very well attended, despite the fact that it was a very snowy day. Lowell looked like a winter wonderland. The trees and everything were covered with snow. Many diocesan priests and Oblates of Mary Immaculate who staff several parishes in the area were there.

- – -

On Wednesday, the first contingent of volunteer medical personnel from St. Elizabeth’s Hospital went to Haiti. One of the things we are doing in the Archdiocese to help the recovery efforts is providing support through our Catholic hospitals. The hospitals have asked for volunteer doctors and nurses and about 75 have volunteered.

So, they went down – the first group of them. John Fish, a good friend of the archdiocese, was kind enough to lend us a plane to transport them to Milot, which is in the north coast of Haiti. The Sacre Coeur hospital where the team was headed is sponsored by the Order of Malta. They are trying to use that facility as a trauma center. The military has begun to transport injured people by helicopter to the hospital where they have a heliport.

The Caritas team is led by Mark Pearlmutter, MD, Chief of Emergency Medicine for Caritas Christi

There is also a Haitian priest who went down with them who is also a trained emergency worker. They had Mass before they left.

NECN was there at Hanscom Field when they left and has the following news video on them:

Please keep them and all the earthquake victims they will assist in your prayers.

Peace be with you,

Cardinal Seán

News of the human tragedy unfolding in Haiti is heartbreaking, and it calls all of us to action to help the people impacted by the earthquake.

We pray for those who have perished, for the injured, for the displaced and for relief personnel who are courageously working to assist the people of Haiti during this difficult and sad time. We ask God to bless Haiti and to be merciful in their hour of need. The destruction has devastated a poor nation of people who cry out now for the help of the world community. The Archdiocese of Boston will do its part in assisting our brothers and sisters in Haiti.

As I mentioned to the people at a meeting at the Cathedral on Wednesday, it had only been two weeks since we had gathered there with so many members of the Haitian community to mark the January 1 Haitian independence day celebration with the Mass and the “Te Deum”. We had no idea that 12 days later we would be coming together again reacting to one of the most terrible crises in the history of the Haitian people – this terrible earthquake whose epicenter was so close to the capital of Haiti, which is the most densely populated part of the country.

The initial reports are saying there are many, many casualties, many deaths, as well as wholesale destruction of neighborhoods and even historic buildings – the government buildings, the Presidential Palace, and the cathedral have been destroyed.

An aerial view of the destroyed cathedral

Among the thousands of people who have lost their lives was Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot, the Archbishop of Port-au-Prince. He was a friend of mine and his death will be a great loss to the Haitian church.

In the last couple of years, Haiti has been afflicted by very terrible tropical storms that resulted in flooding, much death, and disaster. This, on top of everything that Haiti has been through, is a very devastating blow.

The fact that there is not the kind of infrastructure or resources that would be needed to deal with the necessary rescue or relief efforts compounds the severity of the situation. We hope that, as soon as possible, measures will be taken to improve the country’s ability to adequately respond to these crises.

The meeting at the Cathedral was organized by State Representatives Marie St. Fleur and Linda Dorcena Forry. Over the course of the evening, there were probably about 2,000 people who attended. The governor, the mayor, senators, many public officials, the head of Catholic Charities, the head of the Red Cross, and many representatives of different churches and civic organizations all were part of it.

I was able to announce that we will be taking up a collection in the parishes of the archdiocese to help the Haitian people. The money we collect will be turned over to Catholic Relief Services, which has a very good track record of working with natural disasters in Haiti. In our initial contact with Catholic Relief Services, they told us they have already committed $5 million to relief efforts in Haiti.

Tiziana Dearing, head of Catholic Charities, adressed the people

It was also a time for us to pray for victims and loved ones. At this point in time, one of the most difficult problems is that of communication. So many people are anxiously waiting to hear how their families have fared through the earthquake. Some people have been able to make contact. Others have not. It may be a long time before some of them are able to get any kind of assurances. The uncertainty is a very terrible anxiety for people.

Certainly, the Haitian people have suffered very much in their history and have always done so with great courage and dignity. I know that they will suffer this latest tragedy with the same determination and ability to rebound. We just hope everyone will be able to work together closely and that the international community will be generous in coming to the aid of the Haitian people.

People had a chance to ask questions to the public officials present

We look forward to sending a team down from our Catholic hospitals. We will do whatever we can to bring relief to the people of Haiti and to their families here in Boston.

The meeting was a very moving experience and I think it was an important moment for people to be able to be together and to feel the solidarity of the whole community that was gathered to express a desire to help. People are still looking for ways to be able to do that.

Priests and ministers present joined in prayer at the end of the event

There were reports on the military ships and hospitals that are being sent there. Certainly, the rescue efforts might have to be the first priority, as well as just the basic needs – food and water for the survivors. But, we hope that there will be long term solutions to the problems that Haiti faces that will come out of this.

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This week, I had hoped that this post would focus on vocations to the priesthood as each year at this time we have a very big push to invite people to vocation retreats, which are so important for the recruitment efforts of the archdiocese and to help young men in this discernment process.

Of course, Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake has taken center stage, but I still want you to read Father Dan Hennessey’s guest contribution that showcases our efforts to promote priestly vocations in the archdiocese and encourages participation in the upcoming events.

I thank Cardinal Seán for allowing me to be a guest blogger this week and for the opportunity to do so during this Vocation Awareness Week and the Year for Priests declared by Pope Benedict XVI.

My name is Father Dan Hennessey, Vocation Director for the archdiocese and part of the team that serves in the Vocation Office which includes Fr. Michael Harrington, Fr. Alonso Macias and Ms. Denise Fortin. Under the guidance of our archbishop, Cardinal Seán, and in collaboration with our priests and lay faithful we seek to promote a culture of vocations here in Boston. While the Office of Vocation is located in Braintree, our real office is the many parishes, high schools, colleges, universities, and gathering places of our archdiocese. It is in the midst of our various communities where we can encourage everyone to love and consider the ordained priesthood. I feel personally blessed to be able to serve in the Vocation Office to promote the indispensible and irreplaceable vocation of the ordained priesthood.

Right now we are blessed with 44 seminarians studying for the Archdiocese of Boston and three of those men are scheduled to be ordained to the Transitional Diaconate at the end of this month.

Our seminarians attend six different seminaries around the world:

St. John’s Seminary in Brighton, Mass.,

Blessed John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Mass.,

Redemptoris Mater House  of Formation in Brookline, Mass.,

Our Lady of Providence Seminary in Providence, Rhode Island,

Seminario Hispano de Santa María de Guadalupe in Mexico City

and the Pontifical North American College in Rome.

Although there are seemingly innumerable ways that we can encourage everyone, particularly young people, to consider what the Lord desires of their life, I want to share with you just a few of the ways we have been trying to promote a culture of vocations in Boston with a concentration on the ordained priesthood. I list them in no particular order.

First, the Vocation Office sponsors three St. Andrew’s Dinners each year. For these gatherings, a priest, parent, youth minister, religious sister or brother, DRE or campus minister invites high school boys that they know to a great evening of prayer, witness talks, dinner and conversation with Cardinal Seán, seminarians, and the vocation directors. Since our first St Andrew’s dinner at St. Brigid Parish, South Boston, in 2004, these dinners have been a huge success.

St. Brigid Church

Over one thousand high-school boys have heard talks about the priesthood, discernment, prayer, and seminary life. They have had a chance to meet other students like them who are asking similar questions and hear firsthand experiences from seminarians about their own discernment. As we know, we don’t create our vocation, as much as we discover it. We have these dinners so the students will come closer to discovering God’s call for them and we hope (and pray) for some of them to become priests some day.

Our next St. Andrew’s Dinner is just a few weeks away on Wednesday Jan 27, and if you want to attend or know someone who might like to, contact us and we can set it up.

Another way we are helping men to consider and discern the priesthood is the Annual Vocation Discernment Retreat with Cardinal Seán.

What a blessing these retreats have been. They started over 10 years ago at St. John’s Seminary in Brighton and in recent years we added one at Blessed John XXIII National Seminary in Weston.

 Both seminaries have been very gracious in hosting us. Last year, we had to start having the retreat for the younger candidates at the Connors Family Retreat Center in Dover instead of St. John’s Seminary because the seminary has had such an increase in enrollment over the last few years.

More seminarians means less empty rooms, which means less space for a retreat. What a great problem to have! This year the retreats are on February 5-7, 2010. Call us if you think it might be a good retreat for you or someone you know.

The discernment retreats are for men who are open to learning more about the priesthood and who are invited by one of their own parish priests or one of the priests of the Vocation Office. Many of our seminarians and relatively newly ordained priests went on this retreat (sometimes more than one year) before they decided to enter the seminary. The retreats are a great idea because it helps the guys who attend to learn about the seminary, the priesthood and a life of prayer. It also gives them an opportunity to speak with seminarians about these things. Sometimes the best part of the retreat is the informal conversations that they have with each other about the joys and struggles of discerning and preparing for the priesthood. A lot of college students, especially from Boston University, MIT, Harvard and Boston College have been invited and attend this retreat. Another thing that makes the discernment retreat a success is that it is low pressure. Figuring out a call to the priesthood is not always the easiest thing to do, so we make sure that those who attend learn a lot and have a lot of time to pray, but we don’t try to get them to join as much as help them discern.

Another way we are seeking to advance a culture of vocations is to get everyone in the archdiocese to pray for vocations to the priesthood.

I have found that the more we love the Great High Priest Jesus Christ and the priesthood that he established, the more we will ask God to send us more priestly vocations. One of the reasons I think this Year for Priests is such a “shot in the arm” for the Vocation Office is that it puts such an emphasis on praying for our current priests and those who will follow in their footsteps. To celebrate this year appropriately, we have renewed in our archdiocese some strong vocational initiatives. We started back up with what was once a thriving group in the archdiocese called Serra International  –  not to be confused with the organization to preserve wildlife. That’s Sierra! Rather, Serra International is named after Blessed Junipero Serra, a missionary to the US who established the missions on the West Coast.

You could check out the Serra Boston web site for more information at www.serraboston.org, but the group basically exists in order to promote a culture of vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life. The members are very devoted and have started the Spiritual Adoption of Priests and Seminarians programs as well as a number of other ways to pray for vocations.

To conclude these remarks in which I have made note of just a few of the programs we offer in the Vocation Office, I would like to mention something that Pope Benedict XVI said on the occasion of his “Pilgrimage of Hope” to New York City in April of 2008 .

He was asked by the Bishops of the United States the following question:

“The Holy Father is asked to comment on the decline in vocations despite the growing numbers of the Catholic population…”

The Holy Father responded:

“Let us be quite frank: the ability to cultivate vocations to the priesthood and the religious life is a sure sign of the health of a local Church. There is no room for complacency in this regard. God continues to call young people; it is up to all of us to encourage a generous and free response to that call. On the other hand, none of us can take this grace for granted.

In the Gospel, Jesus tells us to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send workers. He even admits that the workers are few in comparison with the abundance of the harvest (cf. Mt 9:37-38). Strange to say, I often think that prayer – the unum necessarium – is the one aspect of vocations work which we tend to forget or to undervalue!

Nor am I speaking only of prayer for vocations. Prayer itself, born in Catholic families, nurtured by programs of Christian formation, strengthened by the grace of the sacraments, is the first means by which we come to know the Lord’s will for our lives. To the extent that we teach young people to pray, and to pray well, we will be cooperating with God’s call. Programs, plans and projects have their place; but the discernment of a vocation is above all the fruit of an intimate dialogue between the Lord and his disciples. Young people, if they know how to pray, can be trusted to know what to do with God’s call.”

I put the boldiing for emphasis.

This corresponds to what I hear from so many of the young men and women with whom I speak about their calling in life. It is only when we stop and listen to the voice of God in our lives that we come to see what he desires of us. The more we come to know the Master, the better we will know His Master Plan. The closer we come to the Heart of Christ the more clearly we will know His will for us.

When I was trying to figure out if God was calling me to marriage or priesthood (I had narrowed it down that far), I asked a priest I respected what I should do. He, Fr. Murphy at St Florence in Wakefield, answered that if I wanted to know I had to ask God and the way to ask God is to pray. He then gave me a prayer card with a prayer on it. It was very helpful for me at the time so I put it here in order that it might assist others, whatever their call may be.

St. Florence Church

Prayer to the Holy Spirit:

O Holy Spirit Beloved of my Soul I adore Thee. Enlighten me, Guide me, Strengthen me, Console me. Tell me what it is I should do. Give me your holy orders. I promise to submit myself to all that you desire of me and to accept all that you permit to happen to me. Let me only know Your Will. Amen

Thank you for looking at this entry to Cardinal Seán’s Blog. Please keep our seminarians and those presently being called to the priesthood in your prayers. May the Lord bless us with many good and holy priests to serve you, His holy people.

I leave you with a great quote from St. John Vianney, the Cure of Ars and patron of priests.

“Were we to fully realize what a priest is on earth, we would die: not of fright, but of love… Without the priest, the passion and death of our Lord would be of no avail. It is the priest who continues the work of redemption on earth… What use would be a house filled with gold, were there no one to open its door? The priest holds the key to the treasures of heaven: it is he who opens the door: he is the steward of the good Lord; the administrator of his goods … Leave a parish for twenty years without a priest, and they will end by worshiping the beasts there … The priest is not a priest for himself, he is a priest for you. The Priesthood is the love of the Heart of Jesus.”

- – -

On Thursday afternoon, I visited Regina Cleri.

It is an annual visit I make in January to have Mass and dinner with the residents. I am very grateful to the staff who work there to make it a vibrant home for so many of our priests.

After the Mass, we enjoyed dinner together

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We are looking forward to this year’s March For Life. Of course, there will be a very good representation from Boston and from Massachusetts.

We understand that so many young people have signed up that the Verizon Center, which seats 20,000, is not big enough, so we may be having a satellite Mass at one of the churches in Washington. But we certainly encourage our young people to come.

And for those of you who cannot be there with us, Catholic Foundation’s Manager of Digital Communications and New Media George Martell will be accompanying the Boston pilgrims throughout the three days in Washington taking photos and uploading them to http://www.flickr.com/bostoncatholic. George tells me that he will be using a mobile Internet connection that will allow his photos to be available online within 30 seconds of them being taken. Please visit that website often to see the photos live as the events in Washington unfold.

As I always say, the March for Life is the second best thing to World Youth Day. There are so many young people there for our young Catholics to feel so affirmed in their faith by the presence of thousands of their peers who are here marching for life, praying and praising God, and receiving the sacraments. It truly is a great grace for the Church in our country and I think a moment when young people really connect with their faith and with the Church community. We are very grateful to all of the parishes and schools who have been promoting trips to Washington for the March for Life. We look forward to seeing a lot of you there at the Basilica and at the march.

Until my next post,

Cardinal Seán

Happy New Year to all!

Each year since I have been ordained a priest, I have always celebrated a midnight Mass to begin the New Year. This year was no exception.

I remember that when I was in the Virgin Islands, I was amazed at how this custom was central in the spirituality of the people there. Virtually all of the churches would be packed with people going to church to end the old year and begin the new in church. It was really a very moving experience.

When I arrived in Boston, there was already a tradition of having a midnight Mass sponsored by the Pro-Life Office and the Young Adult Ministry, and I have been happy to continue that tradition.

In the past, the New Year’s Eve Mass has usually been celebrated in one of our parishes. This year, however, we thought it might be interesting to try holding it at the Cathedral, in light of the fact that there is a First Night celebration in downtown Boston, which is nearby.

We began the evening with a Holy Hour, the theme of which was “Peace.”

Sister Olga Yaqob, who is a native of Iraq and works in campus ministry at Boston University, gave a very moving testimony about her experience of war in her own country.

Just before midnight, we began the Mass that celebrated the New Year and the Feast of Mary, the Mother of God.

Father Carlos Flor of Immaculate Conception in Revere chanted the Gospel

Afterwards, there was a social to celebrate a little bit with the people.

We had a wonderful attendance this year from all over the archdiocese — I would estimate that there were about 600 people, as well as many priests who came to concelebrate. We were very pleased that so many from the Neocatechumenal Way joined us.

Between the Holy Hour and Mass, the children of the Neocatechumenal Communities sang carols for us

  Marianne Luthin of our Pro-Life Office proclaimed the Prayers of the Faithful

This  couple, Peter Spilka and Rosa Fernandez-Pizzi, had just gotten engaged earlier in the evening, so I gave them my blessing. Congratulations Peter and Rosa!

It was a very wonderful event and a good way to begin the year 2010 asking God’s blessing for peace in the world and an end to abortion in our country and our society.

- – -

The next morning, I celebrated Mass with the Haitian community in the archdiocese at the Cathedral.

When I came to Boston, I initiated a Mass to mark Haitian Independence Day, which is January 1. It is always a wonderful opportunity to gather the Haitian Catholics from our various parishes to come together in the Cathedral to mark this very important day in their life as a nation. Haiti was the first black republic in the world, having had a slave rebellion that freed them from French colonialism over 200 years ago.

This year, in addition to the beautiful choir that always sings so beautifully, the Haitian American Marching Band of Boston performed.

The band presented me with a copy of their DVD

Here is a video of one of their performances:

At the end of the very long and beautiful Mass, we chanted the “Te Deum.” It is the custom of the Haitians to begin the New Year with that beautiful hymn that is traditionally said in Catholic countries on New Year’s Day. It is a prayer from the breviary of praise and thanksgiving to God.

It was a fitting end to our celebration of the Haitian Independence Day.

- – -

Later that day, I travelled to Florida to join a group of Boston students in attending the bi-annual conference of FOCUS (the Fellowship of Catholic University Students).

With the Boston group

There were many inspiring speakers and I celebrated the closing Mass for the conference, which, I would say, was attended by about 6,000 young people.

This video gives you a sense of the spirit of the conference.

Last year, we brought FOCUS to the archdiocese to assist in campus ministry. FOCUS is a peer ministry by young adults who commit themselves to be missionaries for a year or two and to work in campus ministry throughout the country. We have four such missionaries who come to help us in Boston with campus ministry, which, of course, for us is such an important activity since we have about a quarter of a million college students.

The service they provide to the Church is truly inspiring. We know that it is making a big difference on many, many campuses throughout the country.

While we were there, we also visited the very famous National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe in Orlando.

The sculpture of Mary, Queen of the Universe

I had never been there before. It is a very beautiful church. That church was built to accommodate the thousands of tourists who go each year to Disney World.

It is truly a stunning church that was recently elevated to a minor basilica.

Until next week,

Cardinal Seán

You may have noticed that like last week, I am preparing my post earlier than the customary Friday. Last week, Christmas fell on a Friday, so I blogged on Thursday. Being that New Years’ Day falls on a Friday as well, I am posting today, Thursday, Dec. 31.

As you may have heard or read from the copious news coverage, the Church has proclaimed two 20^th-century pontiffs – Pope John Paul II and Pope Pius XII – eligible for beatification.

The recent announcement of Pope Pius XII being named Venerable was not without its controversy because of questions concerning Pius XII’s role during World War II. Obviously, as Catholics, we are very anxious to have good relations with the Jewish people and do not want to needlessly offend anyone.

The role of Pius XII has been held up for criticism by many. However, I believe closer scrutiny will certainly demonstrate that Pius XII was not anti-Semitic, and indeed did very, very much to protect Jewish people during the war.

I was in college when Rolf Hochhuth’s play, “The Deputy”, came to Broadway. It was a great media success. The story line is very compelling. It’s the story of a young priest working in the diplomatic corps of the Vatican in Germany who goes to Pius XII to tell him about the concentration camps and the extermination of the Jewish people. The Holy Father was portrayed as inept and backless, and one who did nothing about it. The priest goes back to Germany, pins a Star of David on his cassock, and marches into the extermination camps. It’s a very powerful play, but one that has unleashed a lot of calumnies about Pius XII and his role.

At a time when the United States and Britain were turning Jewish refugees away, the Vatican was hiding refugees in Castel Gandolfo, in Vatican City and in convents and monasteries throughout Italy. I feel the more facts are known, the more people are going to be comfortable with the Holy Father’s decision to advance the cause of canonization of Pius XII.

I was encouraged by a Dec. 28 article published in the New York Post in which Pius XII’s record was explained. It was written by Gary Krupp, a member of the Jewish community from Queens who has extensively studied the Pope’s role during World War II.

The article describes the key elements of his findings that have led him to defend the man he “once believed to be a Nazi sympathizer and an anti-Semite.”

Upon investigation he shockingly found Pope Pius XII to be a friend to the Jews and very critical of the Nazi regime.

Among his findings he mentions the following:

- In 1917, at the request of World Zionist Organization Director Nachum Sokolow, Nuncio Pacelli (who later became Pius XII) intervened with the Germans to protect the Jews of Palestine from extermination by the Ottoman Turks.

- In 1925, Pacelli arranged for Sokolow to meet with Pope Benedict XV to discuss a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

- In 1930, Pacelli supported the German bishops’ orders excommunicating anyone who joined "the Hitler Party."

- In 1938, Pacelli intervened to defeat a Polish anti-koshering law.

- In 1939, A.W. Klieforth, the US consul general based in Cologne, Germany, wrote a confidential letter to Washington reporting on the "extremeness" of Pacelli’s hatred of National Socialism and of Hitler.

- In 1947, at the United Nations, he encouraged the 17 Catholic countries out of the 33 in favor to vote for the partitioning of Palestine to create the State of Israel.

- A 1948 deposition by Gen. Karl Wolff, the SS commandant for Italy, revealed the Nazis’ wartime plan to kidnap the pope, kill countless cardinals and seize the Vatican.

You can read the article here.

Decisions that Pius XII made as far as denunciations, whether to do it publicly or behind the scenes, are things that people might criticize, but I think his intentions and the concrete help that he provided to rescue so many Jews (Some people would say that no one was responsible for rescuing as many Jews as Pius XII during the Second World War.) needs to be taken into account when making a judgment on this man’s character. So, I hope that the investigations will continue and that the Holy See will cooperate as much as possible. I think it is to the advantage of the Church for people to know the whole story about Pius XII. But, I feel confident it will be a very different image from the one projected by Hochhuth and his KGB cabal, which posed that play in order to smear Pius XII and the Catholic Church.

- – -

Now, I would like to share with you how I spent my Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, during the day, I went to Pondville Correctional Center and celebrated Mass for the prisoners with Deacon Jim Greer, who oversees our hospital and prison chaplaincies. Pondville’s chaplain, Mary Beth Robinson, was there and was very welcoming during my visit. Prison superintendent Michael Thompson was also very hospitable.

Following the Mass, we had a reception with the prisoners. Prisoners here are near the end of their sentences, and were sent to this prison to get ready for their after-prison life. The prison reflects the low security, and some of the prisoners are on work release. A number of the prisoners are involved in a program to train seeing-eye dogs, and to help people with disabilities. It was very moving to see how the prisoners take care of these puppies (They were mostly retrievers and black labs – very people-oriented dogs.) and to listen to the prisoners say how happy they were to train these dogs, knowing that the dogs were then going to be able to make such a difference in people’s lives. In fact, they even brought these dogs to Mass. It was a very beautiful liturgy.

Certainly, at Christmas time, people who are separated from their families and in those situations like in prisons and in hospitals, suffer a lot. In our faith, the meaning of Christmas and Jesus’ own deprivation at Christmas are signs of hope and consolation in people’s lives. It was good to see the volunteers there who provided the beautiful music and sang Christmas carols. Mary Beth decorated the chapel very beautifully.

- – -

Later that day, I went to Pine Street Inn to visit the homeless and serve them Christmas dinner.

This is the 25^th anniversary of Pine Street. I was accompanied by Lisa Alberghini, the director of our Planning Office for Urban Affairs, and Msgr. Frank Kelley, Pastor at Sacred Heart in Roslindale, who was one of the founders of Pine Street Inn. Also there was Sister Kathy Green who is doing a very impressive job in the women’s unit.

We were able to meet many of the volunteers. There was a group of girls from Weston who sang at the beginning, and another group that provided Christmas carols.

There were quite a number of volunteers. In one family, there was three generations – grandparents, parents, and children – all helping to serve the meals and to be with the homeless people.

Lyndia Downie, president and executive director of the inn, and her staff are doing a great job performing this vital corporal work of mercy.

Admiring the scrumptious meal with Lyndia

- – -

At midnight, I celebrated Mass at the Cathedral.

There was a concert of musica sacra and Christmas Carols before the Mass began. We began with the Christmas proclamation. It was very well-attended. The Cathedral looked very beautiful. So many people helped to decorate it and put up the crèche.

The next morning, I had the TV Mass with the Daughters of St. Paul, which aired on Channel 7, WHDH, as well as its affiliate WLVI. This year we had a full hour for the Mass.

It was a good opportunity to reach shut-ins and a lot of other people throughout New England who were able to receive the Mass. The sisters always provide the singing. CatholicTV’s General Manager Jay Fadden and his family were there participating at the Mass.

- – -

After that, I went to St. Francis House where I had a Christmas service of the Word. Then, we sang Christmas carols and blessed the food.

Once again, St. Francis and Pine Street are finding their resources are very, very taxed as the number of homeless people, and even those who are working but have no homes, are depending upon their services.

On Christmas night, I went to visit my family, and upon my return I was pleased to find a message from the Holy Father congratulating me on the occasion of my feast day.

My religious name, Seán, is the Gaelic form of John, in reference to St. John the Evangelist, whose feast day was Sunday, Dec. 27.

When I was a young religious novice, we celebrated our feast days in a very special way. The day before, we would kneel in the center of the refectory and the friars would serve the table but bring you food as you knelt there. But then, on your feast day, there was always a special desert. On the feast of St. John, we had the custom of blessing the wine because the legend was that St. John was poisoned. They put poison in his cup and when he blessed it, a snake came out.

This is the message the Holy Father wrote:

Your Eminence,

On the occasion on the Feast of St. John, I happily convey to you my cordial greetings and an assurance of my prayer that the Lord may sustain you with his strength and fulfill you with his peace. As a pledge of divine grace in the Lord Jesus, I willingly impart my apostolic blessing.

Benedict XVI

I was very touched and honored that the Holy Father remembered. I pray through the intercession of St. John that I will be able to be of some assistance to our Holy Father.

Happy New Year to you all!

My blessings,

Cardinal Seán

I am posting my weekly entry a bit earlier than normal this week to make time for my Christmas Eve and Christmas Day events – I’ll tell you all about those next week.

- – -

On Thursday afternoon, I celebrated a Mass for our staff here at the Pastoral Center to start our annual Advent Gathering for employees. It was my chance to thank them for all that they do to help the parishes and people of the archdiocese. Afterward, there was a light reception upstairs.

At the reception there was a cake for my anniversary

Also this week, my immediate staff joined me at the Cathedral for Mass, followed by an Advent, pre-Christmas dinner. We are so grateful to the wonderful staff that we have that facilitate the work of this office, which is so variegated because of the many different programs, problems and opportunities that surface here. It’s their hard work and fidelity that make it all possible. I was happy to be able to recognize that.

- – -

That evening, I went to Boston College for an event for St. Columbkille School in Brighton. Msgr. Fay, the pastor of St. Columbkille’s, Father William Lahey, the president of Boston College, Dr. Mary Grassa O’Neill, our Superintendent of Schools, and representatives from the Catholic Schools Foundation were all there for the program to recognize all the help in this wonderful alliance that has been able to save Catholic education in Brighton. As part of the celebration, the students from St. Columbkille’s sang Christmas carols. It was an excellent evening.

- – -

I closed out my evening by speaking at Theology on Tap at The Green Briar, an Irish pub in Brighton. We had a very large turnout of young people for it. The youth minister at St. Columbkille’s and Msgr. Fay were involved in the organization of the evening and helped make it a success.

I gave them a talk on the mercy of God and the Sacrament of Confession, and then we had questions and answers. I spoke for maybe an hour and had a half-hour of questions. It was a wonderful group. It was on a cold, cold night. I was happy to see that so many young people turned out.

These Theology on Tap sessions have been important moments for people to learn more about their faith and to gather with other young Catholics.

- – -

On Saturday morning, I presided at a rite for the First Neocatechumenal Community at Our Lady of the Assumption in East Boston.

The Neocatechumenal Way is a parish based post-Baptismal itinerary of Catholic formation that gradually initiates members in all aspects of Christian life, following a praxis similar to the early Church’s baptismal catechumenate.

This particular community, the first one that started in Boston, is at the step of the third “traditio,” that is the handing over of the Lord’s Prayer. In years past, they were presented with the breviary, which they pray every day, as well as the Creed.

I shared with them some thoughts about this traditio of the Our Father at Baptism and Confirmation, and the custom of arcanum in the early Church. Following that, we reflected on the meaning of the beautiful petitions in the Lord ’s Prayer.

Afterward, there was a reception and they gave me the gift of a brown cardigan

- – -

Later that afternoon, I celebrated Mass with our seminarians and their families here at Pastoral Center. The gathering was organized by the Vocations Office.

Some years we have had picnics (Of course in warmer weather!) and it’s always hard to find a date that’s good for everybody. This year, there were the warnings of snow, and many people called in at the last minute to let us know they didn’t think they would be able to make it.

So, the group wasn’t as large as it might have been but it was nice to get to meet some of the parents, brothers, and sisters of our seminarians.

- – -

On Sunday morning, I said Mass at the Cathedral for the ARISE program. Father Alejandro Lopez-Cardinale, who is the Hispanic/Latino Coordinator for RENEW International, came up from New Jersey to be at this Mass. Originally, we had hoped the Hispanic people participating in Arise at the various parishes would come together at the Cathedral, but with the snowstorm it was what you could call a skeleton crew, about 50 or 60 people there.

- – -

From the cathedral, I had a parish visitation at St. Leonard’s in the North End. There was a very nice turnout despite the snow. A lot of people in the neighborhood were able to just walk to church.

We were able to visit Father Michael Bercik, who is there at St. Christopher Friary and is very ill. I gave him a blessing and met with his family. Afterwards, the friars took us to lunch at Il Panino on Parmenter Street, one of the many Italian restaurants in the North End.

Father Tom washburn; Maria, the manager of Il Panino; and Father Claude Scrima

I had an excellent Italian meal. Thank you to Maria and all the staff who were so good to us!

- – -

On Monday I visited the Redemptoris Mater Seminary, and the seminarians sang some beautiful Christmas carols, including O Holy Night that I want to share with you.

Now a little something for those who are Santa Claus fans and who have a devotion to the Holy Father’s camauro:  Father Marino, a friend of mine from the Archdiocese of Miami, shared this photo with me, which I consider priceless. In the Christmas spirit and for the young at heart, we are including it in the blog.

- – -

Finally, as we prepare for Christmas Eve and Noche Buena, I assure you that you are all in my prayers. I want to share with you this greeting, which I gave on Vatican radio.

I wish you all a blessed and merry Christmas!

Cardinal Seán

Greetings,

I would like to begin this week’s post with some wonderful news.

On December 11, the Holy See announced the beatification of Fray Leopoldo de Alpandeire, a Capuchin lay brother who was a “quester” — his mission was to quest for alms. He did that for 50 years in the city of Granada, Spain. He died in 1956 at the age of 92. Brother Leopoldo is buried at the Capuchin church in Granada.

Unlike John Paul II, who presided over all the beatifications himself, Pope Benedict appoints the Prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes or another cardinal to preside at beatifications.

I am honored to say that the Holy See has asked me to preside at this celebration, which will be held on September 12, 2010.

As I mentioned, Fray Leopoldo was a brother quester. In the Franciscan tradition, some friars are assigned to beg for the community. Particularly in Italy, Switzerland, Spain, and Germany, this was a very important function. These friars would go out and usually they would not be begging for money, but for food for the friars.

This mission brought them into people’s homes every day. In those visits, they would teach catechism, pray with the people and visit the sick. These brother questers became very important spiritual fathers in the community because they became so close to the people. The first Capuchin saint was St. Felix of Cantalice, who was also a brother quester. He was called “Brother Deo Gratias,” because whenever people would give him something, he would say, “Deo gratias.”

I first came to know of Fray Leopoldo through Sister Manuela, a Carmelite sister of Vedruna who worked with me for many years in Washington. She is from southern Spain, near Granada. She said her family had a great devotion to him and she talked about pilgrimages to Fray Leopoldo’s tomb.

Interestingly enough, the next person to discuss Fray Leopoldo with me was the wife of Jose Saramago. Jose was at UMass-Dartmouth after he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Portugese literature and I was invited to have lunch with him there. His wife is from Granada, and has great devotion to Fray Leopoldo.

They are expecting a huge celebration because of his 50 years of going door-to-door in the city and being so close to many families. He was certainly a figure very well known and beloved to the people of Granada.

In fact, one of our priests in the archdiocese is actually from Fray Leopoldo’s very parish, Father Israel Rodriguez. He hopes to accompany me and be present at the beatification as well.

I will be very pleased to see the Archbishop of Granada, Francisco Javier Martinez, who is a very dear friend of mine. I know him from his time studying in Washington. Archbishop Martinez, who is very close to the Communion and Liberation movement, has been very active in interfaith outreach to the Muslims who are now very numerous in that part of Spain.

- – -

On the Second Sunday of Advent I celebrated Mass at The Bethany Chapel for the Cardinal’s Leadership Circle of The Catholic Foundation.

Following Mass we had a reception in the lobby of The Pastoral Center.

In addition to providing a home for the ministries and programs of the archdiocese, the lobby of our Pastoral Center provides a wonderful space for hosting special events.

Steve Colella of our Office of New Evangelization of Youth and Young Adults spoke about the important work of his office.

He thanked the members of the Leadership Circle for their gifts, which provide essential support to his ministry and all the ministries of the archdiocese.

With the Driscoll family

With Rick and Colette Crowley

It was Jack Shaughnessy’s 83rd birthday that day and I joked that this was all just a big surprise party for him!

With C. Michael Daley and Jack McKinnon, along with Damien DeVasto from our staff

This was the third annual Cardinal’s Leadership Circle Advent gathering and is a special occasion to express my appreciation to members of the Leadership Circle for their meaningful gifts, and for us together to give thanks for our blessings and welcome in the Advent season as a community.

- – -

Now, on to some details of my week.

On Thursday evening, I spoke at the 40^th anniversary celebration for our Planning Office for Urban Affairs. It was a beautiful reception, held at the Hotel Commonwealth in Kenmore Square.

In the 40 years since Cardinal Cushing founded the Planning Office, the Planning Office has been responsible for creating affordable housing for about 10,000 people. Though I imagine that many Catholics aren’t even aware of this important ministry of the Church, it has been a great service to the community.

We’re very proud of the work that is done there. Msgr. Groden and Lisa Alberghini particularly have made incredible contributions.

POUA president Lisa Alberghini, real estate developer and long-time supporter of the office Ed Fish and Msgr. Michael Groden

Ed Fish, who was also the chair of the celebration, spoke about the important work of the office …

  … and then I added a few words of my own

A great many people were present for the celebration. It was a recognition of what an impact the office’s work has made on the community.

The staff of the Planning Office

Over the years they have created many beautiful properties.

Near the Cathedral, we have the Rollins Square development, which is a beautiful building for people of mixed-income. In fact, many homeless people were given lovely apartments in that building.

- – -

On Friday, I had holy hour and dinner with a small group of our seminarians at the Cathedral. In addition to the meetings I have with all the seminarians of the archdiocese, where sometimes I give them a conference and we have a dialogue, we decided to have small groups of seminarians come to the Cathedral for holy hour, dinner, and an opportunity for more intimate conversation.

- – -

Following the Holy Hour I was able to stop in at the celebration for the eve of Our Lady of Guadalupe that was held at the Cathedral.

Bishop Emilio Allué celebrated the Mass. It was a large crowd with several hundred people there. 

They even had mariachis

- – -

Later that evening, I attended Catholic Charities’ Greater Boston Christmas Dinner.

There was a wonderful presentation, particularly about the shelters that are run by Catholic Charities and a dance presentation by Cape Verdians from the Teen Center at St. Peter’s.

Members of the Teen Center performed a dance about the Nativity

Kathleen Armstrong accepting the inaugural Richard D. Armstrong, Jr. Award on behalf of her brother, Richard D. Armstrong, Jr.

This year, we inaugurated the Richard D. Armstrong Jr. Award, which honors those who live the Catholic Charities mission through service and an ongoing commitment to caring for those in need.

- – -

On Saturday, I blessed the new parish center at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Chelmsford. The pastor, Father Paul Ritt, is doing an excellent job there.

They have built a magnificent parish center that matches the architecture and the lines of the church, and the brick, and everything. It’s a center with a lot of windows and high ceilings. It’s really a very attractive building. It opens right off the church itself.

It’s a wonderful facility.  There are meeting rooms, classrooms, and a gathering space.

Gaudete Sunday was a wonderful time to celebrate this great joy.

- – -

That evening, I went to Immaculate Conception Parish in Malden to mark the third anniversary of the ordinations of Bishops Hennessey and Dooher that took place on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Unfortunately, Bishop Dooher could not be there with us.

Besides Bishop Dooher and Bishop Hennessey, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is also the anniversary of Bishop Elliott Thomas. I was able to speak to him in the Virgin Islands. He was marking the occasion there.

- – -

On Sunday, I went to St. Catherine of Alexandria Parish in Westford — Father Peter Quinn’s parish. I had a Mass and a reception with the people there.

It is a parish with many young families.

The children of the parish gave me a giant Christmas card

They have an extraordinary music program — a children’s choir and an adult’s choir. It was very beautiful music.

I was also impressed by the use of lights in the church. At different moments, they would light up the pulpit and light up the altar. In the beginning, everything was in darkness for the lighting of the Advent wreath. It was very beautiful.

- – -

The following day, I was in Washington, D.C. for board meetings of the Catholic University of America and the Papal Foundation.

At Catholic University, we are regrettably accepting the resignation of Father David O’Connell who, after 11 years, is moving on to other endeavors. He has been an outstanding president of the university who has done so much to further the university’s Catholic identity and vastly expand its enrollment. One of the tasks that we are beginning to discuss now is the search for a new president for CUA.

Whenever I am on the CUA campus, I meet young people from Boston who are studying there. One young man with bright red hair came up and told me he was studying political science, and I told him to come back because we need him to run for governor in Massachusetts.

The Papal Foundation raises funds for the Holy Father to be able to help in projects throughout the third world, particularly where there are great economic needs.

Projects supported by the foundation assist the poor, sick and infirm. It provides for the construction and operation of shelters and hospitals, as well as the reconstruction of religious places like churches, seminaries, and retreat houses. The foundation also provides relief to victims of natural disasters, assists refugees and migrants, and funds pro-life programs and residences for elderly priests and religious.

Cardinal Bevilaqua serves as the chairman of the Board of Trustees.

The Foundation asks bishops or superiors of religious communities to submit grant requests to the Vatican’s Secretary of State. The Holy Father and the secretary of state, in turn, review the requests, and then submit the final grant requests to the Papal Foundation.

- – -

Unfortunately, the board meeting at the university coincided with the episcopal ordination of Bishop Bob Evans, the new auxiliary bishop of Providence.

I was not able to attend but many of the bishops and priests from Boston were there.

I understand it was an extraordinary celebration. The choir at the Cathedral in Providence is internationally known, and one of its great voices is Terry Donilon, our Secretary for Communications.

- – -

Finally, as we approach Christmas day, I would like to remind you of the importance of the Christmas collection that will be taken at all Masses on Christmas eve and Christmas day for the benefit of the medical and retirement needs of the priests. It is one of the most meaningful ways we can show our gratitude for their service. We have launched a new website to support this collection, www.CareForSeniorPriests.org, which includes a video Christmas message that I would like you to watch.

Please join me in contributing to the collection, and be assured of my deep appreciation for your generosity and your kindness.

Cardinal Seán

Greetings,

Our leaders in the House of Representatives courageously passed the Stupak Amendment in their version of the health care bill, but the Nelson-Hatch-Casey Amendment did not prevail in the Senate’s version of the legislation. Of course, that was a great disappointment to us.

We still hope and pray that some accommodation can be reached so that abortions will not receive taxpayer funding and there will be adequate conscience protection. This is of paramount importance to the Church. I ask you all to pray very hard and continue to contact your senators.

- – -

In spite of a minor illness last week, I was able to maintain a busy schedule.

On Friday, I visited with Cistercian Abbot Matthew Nguyen Ba Linh from the Abbey of Our Lady of Divine Grace in Vung Tau City, Vietnam. We have two Cistercian seminarians from Vietnam who are studying at Blessed John XXIII National Seminary in Weston. Their superior came to visit them.

With Abbot Matthew Nguyen Ba Linh (standing next to me); Father Peter Dat Vu, his secretary;  and Father Leo Manglaviti, the Director of Pre-Theology at Blessed John XXIII

He is visiting the United States in an effort to raise funds to build an abbey in Vietnam.

He showed me these photos of the church there, the monks at prayer and also a plan of the extension they are hoping to be able to build to accommodate their many vocations.

It’s encouraging to see that the contemplative life is flourishing, even in a Communist country like Vietnam. We know that there are many vocations there, and we are happy to be educating some of their men. I was very impressed by the size and the youthfulness of the community. We certainly are anxious to encourage them in their endeavors to establish full monastic life in Vietnam.

- – -

That evening, I was the main speaker at the fifth and final event of the God of This City Tour that was held at the Cathedral. The tour was a five-night event held in various parishes in each region of our archdiocese.

Each evening offered our young people the opportunity to receive the Sacrament of Confession, take part in Eucharistic Adoration, and praise God through prayer and contemporary worship music. The tour was organized by LIFT Ministries, who did a phenomenal job with it.

There were 500 or 600 young people there for the final night. It was an evening of song, reflection, and adoration with an Advent theme. There was great enthusiasm.

I addressed them for about an hour and spoke about St. John the Baptist and being a witness in the Church.

It was a wonderfully successful program at all the parishes they visited over the course of the week.

- – -

Unfortunately on Saturday, due to a cold, I was confined to quarters.

We had some important events that day that Bishop Hennessey stood in for me, including the Women Affirming Life Mass and breakfast, the 50^th anniversary of Incarnation Parish in Melrose, and St. John’s Seminary’s 125^th anniversary gala celebration, which featured Christmas lessons and carols and a special recognition of Archbishop Al Hughes, a former rector there.

Though I wasn’t able to attend I wanted to share a couple photos of the seminary celebration with you:

- – -

On Sunday, I celebrated a Mass at Northeastern University. The president, Dr. Joseph Aoun, was represented by the CFO of Northeastern, Jack McCarthy, who is on our finance council.

Members of the Brotherhood of Hope, including Father Phillip Merdinger, were there.

Following the Mass, there was a reception and I had a chance to take a tour of the Catholic Center.

There are many music majors from neighboring universities who are part of the music program. It was absolutely stunning. The Mass was very well attended. They have a very vibrant student ministry there.

- – -

On Monday I had the opportunity to greet the pastors who reached their goal in this year’s Annual Catholic Appeal at the Pastoral Center. For us, the Annual Appeal is the lifeline for our central administration, ministries, and works of mercy.

This was a recognition of the pastors who have gone beyond goal to show our gratitude for their outstanding efforts on the part of this very crucial endeavor for the archdiocese.

- – -

Tuesday was the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. I went to the Montrose School in Medfield. They moved there recently, after being located at St. Patrick’s in Natick for many years.

They have built a new school by taking over an old women’s hat factory. They have a bright, lovely facility with a very nice chapel.

It is an all-girls school. Many of the girls’ parents and grandparents attended. The head of school, Dr. Karen Bohlin, is a numerary of Opus Dei. Many people from Opus Dei are involved in this private, Catholic school.

It is not exclusively for Opus Dei members, but they’re the ones who have been the motor force in establishing the school. In the chapel, a portrait of St. Josemaria Escriva, their founder, is displayed.

They have an extraordinary choir. They did a number of beautiful Latin motifs. Then they did some songs afterwards as part of the reception.

They presented me with a gift of a sweatshirt

- – -

Steve Perla and Father Joseph Corpora, CSC, and Bruce Kaneb from ACE Consulting. This is part of The University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education program for recruiting Hispanics for Catholic schools. They wanted to speak to me about the program. We did have a campaign within the last few months here in Boston where 60 Hispanic students were recruited for our Catholic schools. Notre Dame is trying to promote this nationwide.

- – -

On Wednesday, it had been my hope to attend the Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral that Archbishop Dolan was celebrating to mark the 30^th anniversary memorial for Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling well enough to make the trip.

Archbishop Sheen’s cause for canonization has been introduced. It was my privilege to have served Mass for him many times when I was a child. He would come to our parish every year because our pastor, Msgr. Charlie McBride, had been his assistant in the Propagation of the Faith, and they were very close friends.

It was always an important event in the life of the parish when Bishop Sheen arrived. The other Masses would be completely empty and it would be standing room only at the Mass he celebrated during the week. There were three daily Masses but the people would all find out which Mass Bishop Sheen was going to say. Bishop Sheen would preach every day, which in those days was not done. As many of you may remember, in the old liturgy, the priests used to preach only on Sundays. So, it was almost like having a mission in the parish every time that he would visit.

He was just such an extraordinary individual, and the work that he did on behalf of the missions as well as evangelization in the United States was astonishing. Thousands of people entered the Church through him. His television program did more to dispel anti-Catholicism than any other effort that the Church has ever been able to muster.

He is certainly a very, very important figure in the history of American Catholicism. He was a man who had such great love for the Church, for the priesthood, and for the missions. He was a man of extraordinary piety and it was my privilege to have had an opportunity to know him personally and now to help in his cause of canonization as a member of the Episcopal Board of Advisors of The Archbishop Fulton John Sheen Foundation, which is the official promoter of the Cause.

In 1975, I invited him to speak to the priests in Washington at a seminar I organized on preaching social justice. The two speakers that I got for the seminar where then-Father Avery Dulles and Bishop Sheen. We must have had 500 priests come for it and we filled Harke Theater.

Both of them gave extraordinary talks, but of course, Bishop Sheen has sort of a dramatic way of speaking. The priests must have given him something like a ten-minute standing ovation. That was the last time I saw him alive.

He certainly was a bigger than life figure in the history of the Church in the United States!

- Cardinal Seán

If you stopped by to read last week’s blog, you know that I posted that entry a couple days earlier than usual. Like many of you, I traveled to be with my family for Thanksgiving, which is always a very special event in our lives as Americans.

It was a great joy to be able to be with my family in Florida this year.

On Thanksgiving morning, we celebrated Mass for the family at the local parish, St. Richard’s. Afterwards, about 50 of us gathered at my cousin’s house — the Mulligans — for Thanksgiving dinner. Of course, we had turkey with all the trimmings, and many, many pies! It certainly was a splendid evening and a wonderful chance to see everybody at once.

The following day, they took me to a magnificent concert in Fort Lauderdale given by Andrea Bocelli. He was accompanied by an orchestra from Miami and sang with a choir and a couple of other vocalists during the show, which was in two parts. The first part was classical music and the second part was a Christmas selection.

What a powerful and beautiful voice Andrea Bocelli has! The audience wouldn’t let him go — he came back and gave four encores.

I understand that he began his singing career in the parish choir, and he is a devout Catholic. It was a great joy to be able to see him personally and to hear him.

Andrea Bocelli performing for the pope in 2005

- – -

By Sunday, I was back in Boston for a celebration of the Feast of St. Andrew with our Greek Orthodox brothers and sisters. Each year, we have an exchange of delegations on the Patronal Feast of each Church, which mimics what the Holy Father and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople do.

The icon of St. Andrew being carried in procession

The five loaves are a symbol of St. Andrew. St. Andrew was the one who told Jesus “Look there is a boy here with five loaves and two fish…” at the miraculous feeding of the 5,000

This year, Cardinal Kasper was in Constantinople representing the Holy Father on the feast of St. Andrew; then, for the Feast of St. Peter, either the Ecumenical Patriarch or his representative will be in Rome.

Here, on the Feast of St. Peter, Metropolitan Methodios always comes to one of our churches. This year, on the eve of the Feast of St. Andrew, we went for vespers at the headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis.

We were able to be with Father Edward O’Flaherty, Father David Michael, and Dr. Vito Nicastro, of the archdiocese’s Office for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, who were also representing us. There was also Professor Vives, who has taught in the Greek Orthodox seminary for many, many years.

Their vespers services are very moving. They are much like ours, but with longer readings and litanies. They also sing the Kyrie Eleison many, many times, which reminds me of the days when that prayer was always part of our Mass.

Here is a brief video showing the procession, and you can hear some of the signing:

- – -

On Monday, I hosted a meeting with members of our Catholic Schools Office and the presidents of the Catholic colleges in the archdiocese.

As I have mentioned in other posts, we have been meeting periodically on  how we can coordinate the efforts to strengthen Catholic elementary and secondary schools in the archdiocese.

- – -

The following day, I met with the superiors of local religious communities at the Pastoral Center to discuss the apostolic visitation.

My intention of bringing them together was, first of all, to assure the sisters that the Church is very grateful for all of the wonderful work of our religious women. They have a glorious history in the United States that has been essential to establishing Catholic education, Catholic health care, and so many other ministries.

Of course, I was also anxious to hear their reaction as to how the visitation was going.

I encouraged them to participate in and cooperate with the visitations and assured them that the sister in charge of the visitations, Mother Mary Clare Millea, is an extraordinary religious woman who will try to be extremely helpful to the sisters.

Mother Clare

During our meeting, I shared with them some of my experiences as an apostolic visitator to seminaries. There was a certain nervousness about the seminary visitation at the beginning, but it turned out to be very positive and ultimately strengthened our seminaries.

In this case as well, the desired outcome is a study that will help us to strengthen religious life in the United States. There has been such a decline in numbers in the last several decades that, of course, the Holy See is deeply concerned.

I assured the sisters that our participation in the visitation is something that will be good for the Church in America and that we should not hesitate to cooperate.

For their part, some of the sisters shared with me that the instrument itself was difficult to complete, and I will certainly share that with Sister Clare. However, overall, I think it was a very good meeting and that the sisters had a chance to express their opinions and ask questions.

Hopefully, we all left with a greater appreciation of the implications of this visitation.

- – -

On Monday evening, I attended a gathering of recently ordained priests at St. John the Baptist Parish in Quincy.

Several times a year I gather with the priests who have been ordained within the last five years for a Holy Hour followed by a meal and conversation about priestly life. I have always done this in the different dioceses where I have been bishop. These types of gatherings are very important because, statistically, it has been demonstrated that those first five years are difficult for priests. They must learn a new identity and sometimes there have been priests who have abandoned the ministry during this period.

These kinds of programs, which support them and bring them together with their bishop, are very valuable and I am very pleased that in Boston we have not lost one young priest.

This month, our Director of Vocations, Father Dan Hennessey, joined us as we discussed how priests can be involved in vocation promotion, particularly during this Year for Priests. All of the studies indicate that one of the most important factors in discernment is when a priest suggests to a young man that he consider the possibility of a vocation. I think some priests don’t realize the impact that can have.

It was a very good exchange. It is always wonderful to have the time with our newly ordained priests.

- – -

On Wednesday, I attended the Day of Sanctification for priests held at the Campion Center in Weston. This day of recollection and sanctification for priests was one of the activities in the Year for Priests.

The auxiliary bishops periodically organize days of recollection. This one, though, was organized by Father Bill Kelly and the Office of Clergy Support and Ongoing Formation.

There were two conferences focusing on the priesthood — one given by Father Peter Grover, an Oblate of the Virgin Mary, and another given by me. We had adoration and confessions during the course of the day.

In all, there was a very fine response with a cross-section of about 50 priests participating. It is always good when we can gather as a presbyterate, particularly in this Year for Priests.

- – -

Now that the Thanksgiving holiday is behind us, the Church enters into the new Liturgical Year with the season of Advent, in which we are called to prepare for the birth of our Lord Jesus. Please be assured of my prayers for you during this Advent season!

Cardinal Seán

As I’m sure you have noticed, I have prepared this week’s post a bit earlier than usual because of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Each year we, as a country, dedicate this day to a spirit of gratitude and thanksgiving to God for our freedom, our prosperity, our families, and the many blessings that we so often take for granted.

This Thanksgiving, I will raise up a prayer of thanksgiving for all of you, my friends who read this blog, and pray that the Lord will bless you and your loved ones abundantly as we turn to him with grateful hearts.

- – -

At the conclusion of the bishops’ annual meeting last Thursday, we were invited to participate in a Mass at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception to mark the 50^th anniversary of the dedication of the church.

The lower church, the crypt, was built in the early 1900’s but it wasn’t until Cardinal O’Boyle became the Archbishop of Washington that there was really impetus to finish the shrine. The upper church was built by a Boston architectural firm, Maginnis & Walsh.

Archbishop Wuerl, who is the chairman of the board of directors, was the principal celebrant

Bishop Michael Bransfield, who is Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston in West Virginia, was the homilist

Bishop Bransfield had been the director of the shrine for over 20 years. His homily shared many of the different aspects of the history of this wonderful church.

One of the things that he pointed was that the most visited chapel in this shrine is the Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I wasn’t aware of it, but he said the chapel had been put there by Cardinal Cushing.

The Mass was very well attended. Many of us have great sentimental attachment to the shrine. It was there that I received tonsure, minor orders and was ordained a deacon.

It was a place where, during the 20 years that I worked in Washington, we would have many Marian celebrations to celebrate the patronal feasts of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Our Lady of Fatima, Mexico, and El Salvador.

It is a great monument to the faith of the United States and reflects the fact that we are an immigrant Church. It contains so many chapels that betoken devotions and piety of various immigrants who came from all parts of the world – Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America – and have made their home in this country.

Our Lady of Altotting, from Germany

Our Lady of Camarin, from Guam

Our Lady of China

This certainly is a very special place and it was wonderful to be able to celebrate the 50^th anniversary with so many bishops, priests, and people in the parish.

- – -

That evening, I had dinner in the home of Manela and Tony Diaz with three of our Cuban bishops in the United States – Bishop Octavio Cisneros, Auxiliary Bishop of Brooklyn, Bishop Felipe Estévez, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Miami, and Bishop Fernando Isern, the new Bishop of Pueblo, Colorado.

We had a wonderful evening during which we were able to talk about the situation of the Church in Cuba. Manela is also very active in supporting Caritas in Cuba.

- – -

The following day, I returned to Boston and met with the Joint International Methodist-Catholic Dialogue Commission which had been meeting for several days at the Connors Family Retreat Center in Dover. They came for a courtesy visit and to share with me the progress that they had made.

The commission is the official international Methodist-Catholic dialogue that was established by the Vatican to have theological conversations with the Methodists. It is headed by an Australian Catholic bishop.

We had a very interesting meeting. They pointed out that, while there is great awareness of Orthodox-Catholic dialogue and the Anglican-Catholic dialogue, people are largely unaware that this dialogue has been going on for many years.

I was familiar with the Methodist-Catholic dialogue because my friend, Cardinal Peter Turkson, was a part of this dialogue years ago.

- – -

On Friday night, I attended the alumni event at St. John’s Seminary, which included vespers and a dinner.

There were about 150 alumni, quite a spectrum of young and old. The oldest priest there was Father McManus, who was ordained in 1942, which was before I was born!

Father Kennedy and the seminarians did a wonderful job of organizing a beautiful vespers service and the program. Greg Vozzo, one of the seminarians, spoke very beautifully.

They gave me a rocking chair for my silver anniversary.

I’ve certainly gotten many nice things for my 25^th anniversary, lots of gifts and cards for which I am very grateful, but I think it has to come to an end soon!

- – -

On Saturday, I returned to St. John’s for a St. Andrew’s gathering. There was an 11 a.m. Mass with the New England vocation directors and the young men that they were bringing to visit the seminary.

Then there was a lunch and conversation, and after that they took a tour of the seminary.

- – -

That evening, we had the Healy Award Dinner at the Lantana. There were about 400 people there. It was a lovely event.

Lorna DesRoses, along with Linda Russo, did a wonderful job of organizing the event.

The keynote speaker was Dr. Camille Brown, from Providence, who has a master’s degree from St. Charles Seminary in Philadelphia and a doctorate in education from Boston College.

She gave a beautiful talk on catechesis and passing on the faith.

There were two awards given that night. The Bishop Healy Award was given to Father Russell Best, and the Ruffin Award was given to Sister Mary Hart.

Presenting the Healy Award to Father Best

At the event I said they both lived up to their names. Sister Mary has a great “heart” and Father Russell is the “best”!

They both gave wonderful talks. Sister Mary, who is elderly, was very funny and feisty. People enjoyed her very much.

With Sister Mary

At the head table was the new mayor of Newton, who is African-American and a Catholic. He and his wife have a two year old daughter and are long-time members of Sacred Heart Parish. He had previously served in Iraq with the military.

- – -

On Sunday morning, I went to St. Cecilia Parish in Ashland to celebrate the parish’s 125^th anniversary with the community there. It was the feast of Christ the King and the feast of St. Cecilia.

I complimented them on their choir. The children led a “Pie Jesu” and other very difficult pieces. They did them to perfection. It was very moving. I told them St. Cecilia would have been proud. They have a magnificent adult and children’s choir.

It’s a wonderful active parish. Father Paul Cornell has done a fine job there.

At the offertory, they brought up different symbols of the faith life of that community for 125 years.

The former pastor, Father Mulligan, was there. He received a great standing ovation. He was very encouraged by that.

The people are very warm and enthusiastic. It was a lovely celebration.

- – -

Following the Mass, I came back to Boston to meet with Bishop Nicanor Peña, the bishop of Higüey, in the Dominican Republic.

He is an old friend of mine who was in Boston visiting people in the Dominican community here.

The Dominican national shrine, Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia, is in his diocese.

The shrine is a very modern structure. There was some sort of competition to build it. I think it was a French architect whose plan was chosen. I love the image of Our Lady of la Altagracia. It’s a very “Christmassy” image because St. Joseph is with the Holy Family.

I told the bishop that once, when I was bishop in the West Indies, I was decorated by the president of Santo Domingo. They put a helicopter at our disposal to take me to the shrine. Cardinal Baum was with me as well as Father Lorenzo Albacete. We got there without problem but on our way home, Father Lorenzo — who in a former incarnation had his doctorate in aerospace science — pointed out to the pilot that we were running out of fuel. Of course, we had to make an emergency landing and we set down in a field.

The campesinos were so nice to us. They brought us coffee and things like that. So, I complimented the bishop on the hospitality of his people!

I very much enjoyed sharing my adventures with Bishop Nicanor and recounting them to him. I’ve tried to stay off of helicopters ever since then.

- – -

On Sunday afternoon, we had the second annual Cheverus Awards presentation at the Cathedral. This award was initiated as part of our bicentennial program to recognize the longstanding volunteers and workers in the life of the Church.  Each year we ask one-third of the parishes for nominations.

The awards were presented in the context of a vesper service.

Some parishes brought busloads of parishioners to accompany their awardee. There were many, many priests and religious in the diocese there. It was very impressive to see the Cathedral almost completely filled.

I envisioned this as being a very beautiful tradition — a way of saying thank you.

Holding it on Christ the King Sunday each year puts it near the Thanksgiving holiday. We’re certainly thankful to God for all of the wonderful people whose quiet and unassuming but faithful service to the community of faith make it possible for us to carry on the mission of the Church here in our archdiocese.

Afterward, there was a light reception across the way at Cathedral High School.

- – -

On Monday, I met with Father Red Raux, one of the many Boston priests who currently serve as chaplains in our military. He was home and I was more than happy to talk with him. He shared with me some of his experiences as a military chaplain.

- – -

Following my meeting with Father Raux, I met the family of one of our staff members who works at the Pastoral Center — Sister Mary Corripio. She has done an outstanding job for the archdiocese working with the various ethnic groups. Sister Mary made her final profession on Saturday as a Sister of Notre Dame in Ipswich. For the occasion, some of her family were here visiting, so they stopped by the Pastoral Center.

Her family is from Cuba and they live in Louisiana. In fact, her father was a classmate of Tony Diaz, in whose house I had been with the Cuban bishops the week before. Small world!

Of course, Sister Mary’s family is very proud of her and strongly supported her vocation. It was wonderful to have an opportunity to congratulate them personally.

- – -

On Tuesday, I enjoyed a visit with the Israeli ambassador to the United States, accompanied by the consul general for New England, Nancy Kauffman, Father O’Flaherty, Father David Michael, and Vito Nicastro, who works in the Ecumenical Affairs office.

It was just a social visit but we did have a chance to discuss the situation in Israel with the Palestinians. The ambassador was very interested in letting us know what progress has been made and what some of the obstacles are to the peace process. He also expressed some of the great concerns the Israeli government has in regard to Iran and nuclear weapons.

He also talked about the Christians in the Holy Land, and how they’ve been a very important bridge to the hopes that the Church will be able to encourage people not to leave.

He told a very interesting personal story. He grew up in New Jersey in a very Catholic neighborhood. The next door neighbors were very close to him and the woman came down with esophageal cancer.

For some reason, they called him up because he was in Jerusalem. He went and consulted with a rabbi who often went to different monasteries to pray. The rabbi sent him to a Melkite Catholic monastery that was built in the desert in the 4th century named St. John the Baptist.

The monks offered the Mass for the woman, and gave him some oil they had burned in the sanctuary and instructed him to tell the woman to put it on her throat. She went to the doctor the next week and she was cured.

He told me he has great faith in the power of prayer.

- – -

Then, I met with the Mexican consul general to New England, Dr. Fernando Estrada.

Among his many assignments over his career, he had been the ambassador to the Holy See from Mexico between 2001 and 2003 and he would like to have some connection with the Church here.

During our visit we spoke about immigration problems and the situation in Mexico.

- – -

Once again, let me wish you a blessed and happy Thanksgiving.  May all of you who are travelling have safe journeys!

Cardinal Seán

This week, as many of you may know, I attended the fall general meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore. Among the highlights of the meeting were approval of a pastoral letter on marriage, a study on the status of the religious life in the United States, and a report analyzing the clergy abuse crisis.

Before I left, however, I had the pleasure of visiting the South Area Solomon Schechter Day School in Norwood to accept an award on behalf of the late Pope John Paul II.

The Righteous Among the Nations Award was presented by the SASSDS and the Israel Arbeiter Gallery of Understanding. It recognized the late pope for his work in promoting relations between the Christian and Jewish communities.

The evening began with a reception where I was happy to see many members of the local Jewish community.  Israel Arbeiter, president of the American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors of Greater Boston, showed me the gallery named in his honor, which depicts his personal journey of survival and the stories of the persecution of Jewish people that took place in Europe during the Holocaust.

Nadav Tamir, the Consul General of Israel to New England, spoke during the program.

I gave the keynote address talking about the Holocaust and the Holy Father, as well as the Kristallnacht, since its anniversary was the same week as the celebration.

One of the many significant moments of the evening was the musical program presented by the children of St. Catherine of Siena School in Norwood and Solomon Schechter. It was very nice.

It was a very beautiful ceremony and I was happy to see many members of both the Catholic and Jewish communities in attendance.

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On Saturday, I attended a Mass at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Washington, D.C. marking my 25^th anniversary as a bishop with the Spanish and Haitian communities there.

Back in the 1970’s and 1980’s, I had the Masses in that parish for the Hispanics and the Haitians. They are still a very large portion of the parish along with a very vibrant Vietnamese community.

Just before I left Washington, Cardinal Hickey had assigned Sacred Heart to the Capuchin Friars. So they asked if I would celebrate this Mass to mark not only my 25^th anniversary as a bishop, but also the 25^th year that the Capuchins have been in that parish.

It’s a very interesting parish, with several Masses in Spanish, a Haitian Creole Mass, and a Vietnamese Mass, besides the English Mass. There’s a very vibrant community there, and a wonderful school.

The headquarters of the Centro Catolico, where I had worked for many years in Washington, are now in what was the convent of the school. At that time, though, our headquarters were down the street.

I was honored that Cardinal McCarrick was able to join us along with many old friends from my time in Washington including many whom I had married, baptized, given First Communion and worked with in different social programs as well as members of the Agrupacion Catolica (many of whom volunteered at the Centro Catolico) and friars from Capuchin College.

Afterwards, they had food in the parish hall with Mariachis.

Some of the friars came from Puerto Rico, some of whom I had ordained priests. They presented me with a lovely plaque of Our Lady of Providence, the patroness of Puerto Rico.

It was a lovely celebration.

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From Monday through Wednesday I attended the U.S. Bishops’ meeting in Baltimore.

At the meeting we approved the pastoral letter Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan.

It was part of the Marriage Initiative that the USCCB has been working on for several years now.

Indeed, one of the five priorities that was set for the bishops’ conference was marriage and the family. I think this letter will be an important foundational document that will be quite helpful to us going forward.

Marriage is the centerpiece of God’s plan for humanity, so it is crucial for human society as well as for the Church. As we know, marriage is constantly under attack. The divorce mentality, cohabitation, and now the redefinition of marriage have been three very strong blows against the institution of marriage. In light of that reality, this pastoral letter is particularly important. I am pleased it was approved and we will work very hard to promote it in the Archdiocese of Boston.

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As the chairman of the Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations Committee I introduced Brother Paul Bednarczyk, CSC, the executive director of the National Religious Vocation Conference. Along with the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), they recently sponsored a study on religious life.

The study stressed the fact that, although most religious institutions in the United States are experiencing diminishing numbers, there are still young people who are coming to religious life. Seventy-eight percent of the men’s communities and 66 percent of the women’s communities have at least one candidate in initial formation.

Brother Paul

They gave some further information about the characteristics of these new members:

- The average age for entrance is 30.

- 21 percent of those in initial formation are Hispanic, 14 percent are Asian, and 6 percent are African-American. (This is quite a change from the past.)

- 9 in 10 were raised as Catholic (Meaning, of course, that 10 percent of them were received into the Church as adults.)

- Almost 75 percent of them attended a Catholic school. (This, I think, underlies the importance of Catholic education for the formation of leaders in our Church.)

- More than two-thirds of them had considered religious life by the time they were 21.

The most successful institutes, in terms of attracting and retaining new members are those that follow a more traditional style of religious life where the members live together in community, participate in daily Eucharist, pray the divine office, and engage in devotional practices together. Communities whose members wear a religious habit, work together in a common apostolate, and are explicit about their fidelity to the Church and the teachings of the Magisterium are the most successful communities — both men’s and women’s — in recruiting young candidates.

The best practices that Brother Paul and the study tried to promote were to instill a culture of vocations and to involve the membership and leadership in a concerted vocations promotion effort. They also underscored the importance of having a full-time vocation director, and talked about the importance of using the media, especially the internet. They also talked about the importance of discernment programs and opportunities for potential candidates to meet members of the religious community.

It was a very positive and hope-filled report on religious life at a time when the religious communities in the United States are being visited. I think it’s a hopeful sign that the Church is very concerned about promoting religious life. I was very happy to make that presentation to the Bishops Conference.

You can read much more about the study, including the text of Brother Paul’s address and a link to a video of the presentation, at the NRVC web site.

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The conference also received additional reports from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice regarding the causes and context of the sexual abuse crisis.

The Bishops Conference engaged this very prestigious institution to perform studies to help us understand how the sexual abuse crisis arose in the Church. Previously, they have presented interim reports on the dimensions of the problems, and now they are the studying causes and context.

I think it was an interesting report that was, in some ways, encouraging. The study indicates that the period of the 1970’s and early 1980’s was a period of a great deal of social turmoil in the country during which there was a particularly high incidence of sexual abuse of children. However, the study also indicates how there was a very sharp drop in sexual abuse in Church institutions.

Some people have said that since the reporting comes so much later it is hard to tell whether the abuse is still going on. But all of the reporting that has come in always returns to the same years. The sociologists are telling us that that is an indication that, indeed, the curve of high incidents in the ‘70’s and early ‘80’s is behind us.

The measures that have been taken by the Church have done much to eliminate the problems in Church institutions. At a time when sexual abuse in other institutions has been on the rise, the Church has brought it under control by intensive screening, massive education, and very careful reporting. I think that’s a very important fact.

This study has been given funds by the Bishops Conference, but also by the Justice Department and other institutions trying to better understand the whole phenomenon of sexual abuse, not just in the Church but in society.

The report certainly indicated that, during its height when these problems had arisen, there was very little awareness in the Church, and also in society in general, as to the profound damage that was done to the victims. The Church, as well as others in society, did neglect to focus on that.

I was comforted by the fact that, in the last several years, and particularly after the Dallas document was approved in 2002, there has been marked improvement in the way the Church has dealt with this. I think the Church has made a very positive contribution to other institutions that can learn from steps that we have taken to ensure the safety of our children.

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Another highlight of the week was the dinner organized by the Archdiocese of the Military Services. Archbishop Timothy Broglio sponsors the dinner for the bishops every year. Because our archdiocese has so many chaplains and priests working in the military, I always try to attend.

The Military Ordinariate’s vocation director, Father John McLaughlin, who is from Boston, and Father Redmond Raux, also a Boston priest, were there. There were a number of testimonies given by members of the military and their families about the importance of the chaplains in their lives.

Then, a 150-member Catholic choir consisting of midshipmen from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, sang for us. It was very moving.

With the midshipmen

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I also want to mention that on Monday evening we were treated to a show about St. John Vianney presented by St. Luke’s Productions. In fact, I had written a letter to the bishops inviting them to it.

It was a beautiful presentation about the life of the Curé of Ars performed by Leonardo Defilipis who also starred in the 2004 movie Therese, which some of you may be familiar with.

Here’s a video from the production’s web site http://www.vianneydrama.com which can give a sense of the play.

Until next week,

- Cardinal Seán

As you may know, last week the House of Representatives passed its version of the health care reform bill that included the Stupak amendment, which prevents the use of taxpayer money to support abortion.

We were very pleased that the amendment was passed by such a large margin in the House. I think it shows that the Representatives are aware that the American people, as a whole, do not want the government to be funding abortions. We’re very grateful for all the pastors and the parishioners who contacted legislators to share with them our concerns.

Of course, in addition to the taxpayer funding of abortions, other issues of concern for Catholics are the protection of conscience rights for health care workers and care for the immigrants and the poor.

We will be very interested in how the Senate bill addresses all these issues.

Please continue to join me in praying that our government leaders will act with justice and prudence, and maintain the wording of the Stupak amendment in the final bill. If you have not contacted your Senator, please do so. Also, if your Representative voted for the Stupak Amendment, I encourage you to thank them for their courage.

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In the last year, some 20,000 people have come to the Pastoral Center.

The many different groups using this facility, I think, demonstrates that the Pastoral Center truly is getting to be a home for people of the Archdiocese.

One of the latest groups we had the pleasure of hosting was a group of Catholic development professionals who met here last Thursday.

The group was composed of development professionals of various parishes, schools, and agencies throughout the Archdiocese. They gathered to talk about the challenges and ways we raise money to be able support the mission of the Catholic Church.

I was happy to address them and thank them for the work that they do. I encouraged them to carry on their work in a spirit of faith and a desire to make the good works of the Church possible now and in the future.

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On Sunday, I celebrated Mass at St. James Parish in Haverhill to mark the parish’s 150^th anniversary.

Father Robert Murray is the pastor there. I told his parishioners that everyone misses him at the Cathedral where he was assigned before going to Haverhill.

He is doing a great job at St. James. I was particularly impressed by the renovations they have made: they have re-pointed the brick walls, fixed up the lower church, repaired the doors… . The church just looks stunning and the parishioners are justifiably proud of it.

Like the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, St. James is one of our Keely churches.

The parish has been very welcoming to immigrant groups. I told them that Patrick Keely who built the church, was an immigrant who came from Ireland with his 20 children. In all, he built around 700 churches and 20 cathedrals.

I commented to the people it was so beautiful to see that this church, which was built by immigrants and for immigrants, is still a welcoming parish where the Hispanic, Vietnamese, and Brazilian communities have joined the original parishioners there. Together, they all have contributed so much to the life of that parish.

Many of the altar servers who served at the Mass had been with us at the Cathedral the week before at the Altar Server Appreciation Mass, so I was able to tell them the Cathedral was built by the same man who built their parish.

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Then, that evening, I went to Boston College High School for the St. James Society’s Annual Cushing Awards Banquet.

The banquet is held each year to support the work of the Society, which is made up of diocesan priests who work in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador.

They sold crafts made in the missions as a fundraiser

With Bishop Hennessey’s nephews Tim and Keith.  Tim got a great round of applause toward the end of the program when Bishop Hennessey announce that Tim recently completed his service with the Marines in Iraq and earned a Purple Heart

Connor and Mara, children of the dinner Chair, Michael Burke, helped raise funds for the “split the pot” raffle

The Society was founded 51 years ago by my predecessor, Cardinal Richard Cushing. Since then, about 300 priests from all over the world have served in the society. Many of them not only served in those countries, but then returned to Boston, having been immersed in the language and the culture, to carry on our Hispanic ministries here in the archdiocese. So, in many ways, the St. James Society has always been a double blessing for us.

Speaking with the Society’s president, Father Kevin Hayes, and WBZ Radio host Dan Rhea, our emcee for the evening

One of those missionaries who went and returned was our own Bishop Robert Hennessey, regional bishop for the Central Region. I was happy to present him with a Cardinal Cushing Award, along with former state legislator and president of the New England Council Jim Brett and a lovely couple, Robert and Rose Crimmins who have traveled to Ecuador and helped build Catholic schools and clinics there.

Presenting the Cushing Award to Jim Brett …

…. Bishop Hennessy

… and Mr. and Mrs. Crimmins

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On Tuesday evening, I gave a lecture at Boston College sponsored by the School of Theology and Minstry entitled, “The Eucharist and Our Formation as the People of the Church.”

It was a very good turnout. There were a lot of young people there.

I’d like to share some highlights of my talk with you:

Life is a journey, but we do not make the journey alone. The Lord is with us, and he has given us a family. At the Last Supper, Jesus bids us farewell. He gives us a command and a gift. The command is the New Commandment. The Great Commandment is, “Love God above all else. Love your neighbor as yourself. But at the Last Supper, where Jesus is gathered with His disciples, He gives us a New Commandment. But the Lord not only gives us the Commandment, He also gives us the Sacrament so that we can have the strength to live that life of love. Jesus gives us His enduring love in the Eucharist. To those who are of the household of the faith, those who are the members of His Church, to the people of God, he says, “Love one another as I love you.” Jesus has established a new standard, now His love for us is the measuring stick for the love that we have to have for each other.

In reflecting on the gift of the Eucharist, the gift of Jesus making Himself present through the ministry of the Church for all time, we remember that when God was knocking on the door of humanity, it was Mary who opened that door in our name. By way of Mary’s fiat, her “yes”, God came into our world in the person of Jesus. Mary gave Jesus his human body and blood, and she is the Mother of the Eucharist. My favorite painting of the Blessed Mother is one that is in St. Mary’s Church in Charlestown, in Boston. It depicts Saint John, the Beloved Disciple, giving Holy Communion to our Blessed Mother. It reminds me of Faber’s beautiful hymn, “Had I but Mary’s sinless heart to love thee with, my Dearest King. Oh, with what bursts of fervent praise Thy goodness, Jesus, would I sing.”

Today, we know that there are many, even among the people of God, who do not accept Jesus’ teaching on the Eucharist. We should not be surprised. In John’s Gospel, when Jesus explains the Eucharist, He says, “Unless you eat of my body and drink of my blood, you will not have life in you.” At that time, many of the disciples said, “These are hard words. Who can accept them?”, and they left Jesus’ company. Today many people find the central teachings of our faith too hard to believe and simply stop coming to church. Jesus asked His Apostles, “Are you going to leave me like the others?” And Peter says, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Jesus’ words and His actions assure us that He has left us a miracle of love in the Eucharist. We need to be witnesses of that truth to our brothers and sisters who have drifted away from the community of faith.

There is direct connection between the Eucharist and the ongoing process of our formation as the People of God. The Eucharist is the source of our strength for a life of faithful discipleship, where through the Sacraments of initiation we respond to the call to holiness. Enlightened by the Eucharist, we discern our personal vocation, whether to the priesthood, religious life, marriage, or the single life. Whatever our role in the life of the Church, we are all called to be part of a communal mission to transform the world, to build a civilization of love.

The Mass begins with a penitential rite that reminds us of the need for conversion and repentance as a preparation to enter into the sacred mysteries. The very holiness of the Eucharist is an invitation to conversion, to live the ideals of the Gospel, the costly grace of discipleship. When believers truly reverence the sacredness of the Eucharist, that sense of awe and Eucharistic amazement causes people to examine their lives in the light of the commandments and strive to put their lives in order before receiving the Eucharist.

A Holy Ghost Father who served as a missionary in Africa states that one of the most important symbolic gestures that the Massai people have is to offer one another a handful of grass as a sign of peace and reconciliation. During any dispute a handful of grass offered by one Massai, and acceptance by another is a guarantee that peace will reign, that neither will turn to violence. This spirit of reconciliation is essential for the celebration of the Eucharist. That same Holy Ghost missionary, Father Donovan, gives a moving description of how Mass preparation begins among the Massai people as soon as the celebrant arrives at the village. There is much dancing and prayers are offered for the sick. This sort of pre-celebration can go on for a whole day before culminating in the celebration of the Eucharist. Yet the missionary priest never knew if indeed the Mass would follow. The leaders of the tribe would have to decide whether they could celebrate the Eucharist. If there had been selfishness, forgetfulness, hatefulness or lack of forgiveness in the life of the village, they would not make a sacrilege out of the Eucharist by calling it the Body of Christ when there was a lack of unity among the people. The celebration of the Eucharist would be postponed until the whole community could deal with its shortcomings.

When believers are aware of their need to be spiritually prepared for the Eucharist, the call to conversion is part of the experience of the Eucharist. Jesus washed the feet of the Apostles in part to denote the cleansing and repentance that must seek in preparation for participation in the Eucharist. We present ourselves before God and before the community acknowledging our need for forgiveness and reconciliation. Jesus says clearly in the Gospel that before we offer our gifts on the altar, we must be reconciled with our brothers and sisters. We need to be aware of our call to wear the garment of grace and mercy as we come to the Eucharist. We must approach the Eucharist like Moses who removed his sandals drawing near the burning bush, with a sense of wonder and awe. At the same time, we have a sense of our own unworthiness in the presence of God’s boundless and gratuitous love, like Peter, who throws himself at Jesus’ feet and says: “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”

What magnificent witnesses we have in our Catholic tradition of those who have been converted and inspired to holiness by the word of God proclaimed at the Eucharist: St. Anthony of the Desert, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Augustine and Blessed Charles de Foucauld among many others. The Word of God finds its home in the Eucharist. Here our Lord speaks to us and leaves us breathless with the challenge: How can we live the demands of His loving word? After the Word of God is proclaimed at the Liturgy of the Word in the lessons, then the Word is “proclaimed” intimately upon the altar in the bread of life and love.

Not only are we loved by God, but in Christ we are loved first. Is there a more beautiful passage in the New Testament than John’s exclamation in his first epistle: “Love, then consists in this, not that we have loved God but that He has loved us and sent His Son as an offering for our sins” (1 John 10:4). And “we, for our part, love because He loved us first,” (1 John 10:19). Pope Benedict emphasizes that our conversion, our turning to God and to our fellow men and women, is grounded in the immense grace and energy of God’s first love. “More than anything, they (who serve others in need) must be persons moved by Christ’s love, persons whose hearts Christ has conquered with His love” (Deus Caritas Est, #33). This “first love” clearly comes to us from the Cross of Christ. It is the Cross and the Resurrection, as in the Eucharistic reenactment, that love is revealed to us, and even more, the most humble love of God for us. The correct formation of our hearts as Christians, rising from our contact with the Word and Sacrament, is the basis for our formation as the Christian community, the people of the Church.

It must be stated that every Christian who seeks to be faithful to the high standard of Christian living must gratefully receive the call to live chastely in this world, each Christian is called to humbly and faithfully live the chastity that has a profound reverence for the sacrament of marriage and for the proper expression of sexuality within a faithful spousal covenant. We live in the midst of a world which is addicted to selfish and violent sexual expression. It is beyond comprehension that every day children and women are exploited with complete disregard for their humanity and their dignity. We cannot accept this as “the ways things are”. In a world where so many people are disfigured by poverty, neglect and injustice, we cannot truly be the people of the Church, followers of Christ, if we step over Lazarus starving on his porch. It is the transformational presence of Christ in the Eucharist that gives us the strength to resist our culture’s “will to power”, to be witnesses of Jesus’ sacrificial love as given to us in the Church and her teachings.

The two disciples of Emmaus, upon recognizing the Lord, “set out immediately” in order to report what they had seen and heard. The Holy Father points out: “the encounter with Christ, constantly intensified and deepened in the Eucharist, results in an urgent summons to witness and to evangelize. St. Paul wrote in the First Letter to the Corinthians: “As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor. 11:26). When we enter into communion with Christ we will sense the duty to be a missionary of the event that made present Jesus’ abiding love, (Mane Nobiscum Domine, #24). To be the people of the Church, to live as a community that witnesses our faith that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the way, the truth and the life, we must be people who are devoted to the Eucharist. Going forth to live our call to discipleship, let us share with those around us that “we have seen the Lord and we have recognized Him in the breaking of the bread.”

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Finally, I want to remind you that on Nov. 22, the feast of Christ the King, I will be presenting Cheverus Awards to those many Catholics around the Archdiocese who have witnessed to Christ’s call to discipleship through their loving support of the Church of Boston’s work and mission.

This will take place at evening prayer beginning at 3 p.m. at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. I hope that you, like I, find this year’s honorees to be role models for Catholic discipleship today. Please join me in praying for this year’s recipients — that God may continue to grant them the courage to witness to Him.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Cardinal Seán

This week, our nation experienced a tragedy at the U.S. military base in Fort Hood, Texas. There is a great deal of trauma and suffering at Ft. Hood following the shooting. I spoke with Father Edward McCabe, a priest from the Archdiocese of Boston who serves our troops at Ft. Hood and who is providing pastoral care and solace in the aftermath of the shooting. I promised him our prayers for those who were killed and injured, for their families, and for all who are serving them. The fine men and women of our military are essential to the freedom we hold dear as a nation. We honor them with our prayers, thoughts and support now and always.

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I was relieved that a ballot initiative in Maine on behalf of traditional marriage prevailed, although I was also saddened that such an initiative had to be held, realizing how divisive this issue can be in a community.

The Mainers demonstrated for the thirty-first time that whenever the American people have an opportunity to express their opinion on marriage, they come down in favor of traditional marriage. I believe in my heart that if we had had the same opportunity in Massachusetts, the people of Massachusetts would also have voted in favor of traditional marriage.

Unfortunately, Governor Deval Patrick and our legislators did not allow us to exercise that right. I think that was a great injustice to the people of the Commonwealth.

By the same token, I think it’s very unfortunate that it has been impossible to carry on a serious dialogue about the importance of traditional marriage for family life and for the raising of children in our country. This has always been cast in the light of the great emotional debate over prejudice and discrimination against homosexual persons.

I am positive that the people in Maine who voted for traditional marriage were not doing so out of any rancor or disdain for homosexual persons. While there are a small number who hold extreme views in almost any cause, I am convinced the vast majority of people were looking at what is good for society.

We, of course, live in a culture where individual rights are supreme and sometimes the common good and the rights of the community are trampled because of an exaggerated stress on individualism in our country. It is my hope that someday we will be able to have a serious conversation and public debate on the wider subject of marriage. Perhaps the bishops’ upcoming pastoral letter on marriage will allow this conversation to begin.

To say that gay marriage doesn’t affect other people’s marriages is disingenuous, at best. Changing ideas impacts the culture and society, even though the consequences may not be visible immediately. To help illustrate this, I like to compare it to a nation’s change from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. Perhaps the external trappings look the same but the difference in the end results and what transpires historically is going to be very dramatic.

We see that there have already been so many assaults on marriage and family life, and we are convinced that a redefinition of marriage is also detrimental to marriage. What is bad for marriage is bad for American society.

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As we have seen in Maine, the power of the people can make a positive difference. I also hope the American people, especially Catholics, participate in the democratic process in the current health care debate in our nation.

I am pleased that a number of congressmen have come forward voicing their objection to the present form of the legislation which does not have sufficient conscience protections and would propose the government funding of abortions, something that the vast majority of American people are against and that historically we have not done.

I am once again urging you, if you have not yet approached your legislators, to click on the link provided below. This will take you to a web page that will allow you to e-mail your comments to your legislators.

I think it is particularly important that those legislators who are standing up for the unborn and conscience protections know that they are supported by the public.

This is a very important moment for us in our country. If the legislation is passed in its present form, it will do irreparable harm.

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Now, onto the events of my week…

On Friday, I attended a Holy Hour and dinner with all of our seminarians — those studying at Blessed John XXIII National Seminary, the Redemptoris Mater House of Formation, and St. John’s Seminary, as well as those studying at Our Lady of Providence Seminary in R.I. In fact, only those studying outside the United States could not be with us.

During our meeting, I gave a short address on perseverance. We had a dialogue on the priestly life. I talked to them about the celibacy conference and the Holy Father’s document on the Anglicans.

It’s always a wonderful opportunity for the seminarians to get to know each other, particularly those who study at different seminaries.

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After gathering with the seminarians at the Pastoral Center, I went to the Friends of Don Orione 43 Annual Banchetto.  At this year’s dinner, held in recognition of the 60^th anniversary of the Don Orione Home in East Boston, Mr. Joseph Milano was presented the Don Orione Man of the Year Award.  Joseph and his family are dedicated parishioners at St. Maria Goretti parish in Lynnfield and  the proprietors of the historic Union Oyster House in Boston. 

On a number of occasions Joseph has been recognized for his contributions to the work of the Church, including his having received the Cardinal Cushing Medal from the Society of St. James the Apostle, being named a Knight of Don Orione, and Knight of the American Association of the Sovereign Military Order of St. John of Jerusalem and Malta.   It was a pleasure to be able to join the hundreds people gathered for the dinner in congratulating Joseph on this well-deserved honor .

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Bishop Seamus Hegarty, the bishop of the Diocese of Derry, Ireland, and Father John McCarthy, of the Irish Pastoral Centre in Quincy visited me Saturday morning.

Bishop Hegarty is in charge of the Irish bishops’ ministry to migrants. He has a special responsibility within the Irish Bishops’ Conference to deal with the questions of immigration.

He is here visiting Irish immigrants in the United States and those who serve them pastorally, so one of his stops was our Irish Pastoral Centre. The Bishop was also meeting with the Irish ambassador, and the Irish consul during his visit to the area.

Of course, we have always had a large number of Irish immigrants in Boston. In fact, when he told me that Boston was a twin city with Derry, I told him some people would say Boston is more like a colony of Ireland!

He discussed immigration legislation that could be proposed in the next year here in the United States and the impact that would have on immigrants.

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Later that morning, I presided at the annual Altar Server Appreciation Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. There were about 700 altar servers present.

This year, members of the Boston Boy Choir at St. Paul Church in Cambridge who are also altar servers sang. It was a beautiful Mass. It was also very good for the other youngsters to see the choir and to realize that young people have such a love for the liturgy, and the proficiency for singing the Latin Mass and beautiful hymns.

Afterwards, there were awards given out — the Pope John Paul II Awards and Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta Awards — to servers who exemplify reverence, piety, a love of the liturgy, and a strong record of parish and community service. To conclude the day, the servers and their families were treated to ice cream sundaes in the Cathedral High School gymnasium.

Please join me in congratulating the award winners.

The winners of the Pope John Paul II Award were:

- Ryan Wallace of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Braintree,

- Noel Reed of St. Michael Parish in Avon,

- William Haughey of St. Columbkille Parish in Brighton, and

- Eddie Newton of St. Andrew Parish in Billerica

Winners of the Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta Award were

- Michelle Beazley of Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta Parish in Dorchester,

- Alejandra Tejeda of Holy Family Parish in Dorchester,

- Sarah Hennessey of St. Elizabeth of Hungary Parish in Acton, and

- Catherine Campagna of Sacred Heart Parish in Waltham.

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That afternoon, I gave a lecture at St. Francis Chapel, located in the Prudential Center in downtown Boston, as part of a lecture series there. Given that this is the Year for Priests, I spoke on the topic of the priesthood.

We also marked the 40^th anniversary of the chapel. It was originally run by the Friars of the Holy Name Province, but for many years now, it has been staffed by the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, who are doing an extraordinary job there.

After the lecture, I celebrated the Vigil Mass for the Feast of All Saints.

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After that, I went to the North End for our monthly gathering with young adults — our “Piazza Navona project,” as I call it, because of a similar initiative in Rome that inspired our gatherings.

There was a holy hour and opportunities for confession. I had Mass there at 8 p.m. There were many priests concelebrating. Afterwards, there were pizzas.

The seminarians were standing out in front of the church inviting people in. Because it was Halloween, some people would see the seminarians in the collar and say, “Is that real?”

I recounted to them that once I was visiting a nursing home and one of the residents said, “Oh, I have a statue of him on my patio.” I said, “I hope it wasn’t a bird bath.”

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On Sunday, I celebrated the centennial Mass at St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Waltham. It is a very beautiful church. They have a wonderful choir. Father Rodney Copp has done an extraordinary job in building up the parish.

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Later, I attended a Mass and a reception for the leadership of the Knights of Columbus throughout the state — the state board and the state district deputies.

I told them we are very anxious for the Knights to grow in the diocese — in the universities and the parishes.

The Knights of Columbus has shown itself to be so supportive of the Church and all of our ministries — particularly with promoting vocations, a defense of the Gospel of Life, and standing firmly with our priests. The Knights have been so faithful in enduring these difficult years. Wherever they have councils at the parishes, it has been an invaluable aid to the pastors and a great source of volunteers. We are encouraging all the pastors to consider initiating a council at their parishes if they don’t already have one.

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Monday, as you know, was All Souls’ Day. That morning, I presided at the funeral Mass for Father James O’Donohoe, Father O’D as he was affectionately known, who died on Oct. 27 at St. Patrick Manor in Framingham at the age of 88.

For priests, All Souls’ Day is very special because it is one of only two days on which priests are authorized to celebrate Mass three times. The other is Christmas.

My first celebration was privately at the cathedral rectory, but my second celebration was the funeral Mass of Father O’Donohoe.

During his life, he taught at numerous Catholic colleges and seminaries across the country, including Boston College and our own St. John’s Seminary. He also served at many parishes in the archdiocese, including St. Joseph Parish in Medway and St. Joseph Parish in Somerville. He was also a chaplain to the Gray Nuns in Lexington.

The Mass was very well attended. I commented that we should all be so lucky to have our funeral on All Souls’ Day when millions of Catholics are praying for our faithful departed!

Father O’Donohoe obviously had made a great impact on the people of Lexington, where he helped out in the parishes. Many people came to the Mass, and many priests whom he had taught in the seminary were a part of it. It was a very beautiful celebration.

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Later that day, I met with presidents of Catholic colleges within the archdiocese. We had an opportunity to thank them for all that they do to support our Catholic schools in the archdiocese, and we talked about ways we can continue to look to them for support of our Catholic school system.

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At 4:30 p.m., I celebrated my third Mass of the day  — for the Sisters Disciples at their chapel on West Street in Boston.

Afterwards, I joined them for dinner.

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I then attended evening prayer at St. Theresa of Avila Parish in West Roxbury. We prayed the office of the dead for our deceased priests. It was organized by Bishop Hennessey. Many of our priests were able to be there, and our seminarians were invited as well.

Father Tom Buckley preached the sermon. Afterwards, there was a reception in the atrium of St. Theresa’s.

We’re all looking forward to the mosaics Father Raymond Helmick, S.J., the brother of the pastor who lives at the parish, has been making, and is going to hang in the atrium in the very near future.

Father Helmick is also the one who made the tabernacle for the parish which I have always admired.

Here are some photos which give you a sense of the beautiful tabernacle:

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On Tuesday, I had dinner and attended evening prayer with the archdiocese’s marriage ministry committee. For three years, the marriage committee has been working on designing a new marriage preparation program for us.

With the pilot program being launched, this was bringing their work to a conclusion. It was a way of recognizing them and thanking them for their contributions.

We also talked a little bit about the fact that this month, God willing, the new pastoral letter on marriage will be published.

Kari Colella, our Marriage Ministries Coordinator, was very pleased to announce that she feels the new marriage preparation course that we have designed reflects many of the themes that have been developed in the marriage pastoral.

One of the biggest challenges we have in the American church today is to instill in our people a sense of vocation, particularly vocation to married life and to being mothers and fathers.

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On Wednesday, I had a luncheon with the vicars and auxiliary bishops. Father David Couturier, our Director of Pastoral Planning addressed us at the gathering.

I thanked the vicars for their work; their service to the priests is so important. I encouraged them in faithfully conducting the vicariate meetings as an opportunity for shared prayer and fellowship, and to discuss the pastoral themes that are being discussed in the Presbyteral Council, so there can be that communication directly and all the priests can have participation in the conversations that are taking place at the archdiocesan level.

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I closed out the events for this week’s posting with a Mass for deceased members of the diaconate community held at the Bethany Chapel at the Pastoral Center. It was very well attended.

There were seven lamps that were lit representing seven people who died last year. Then, we read the names of the deceased deacons and their immediate family members, whether it was a child or a spouse.

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Finally, as I close my post for this week,  I ask you once again to pray for all those affected by the violence at Ft. Hood.

I leave you with my prayers,

Cardinal Seán

Before I begin with the events of my week, I want to briefly comment on the news that the Holy Father is going to issue an Apostolic Constitution in order to accommodate Anglicans who wish to join the Church, and at the same time, preserve some of their Anglican traditions.

In the years immediately following the Second Vatican Council there was a great optimism about the possibility of the Anglican Church being reunited with the Roman Catholic Church. I had many Anglican friends who were very positive and very hopeful about this. After all, the Anglican Church, unlike other Protestant groups, was not founded so much on theological differences but rather because of certain political expediencies of King Henry VIII who was anxious to have a legitimate heir to prevent dynastic wars. Although Henry was very Catholic in his outlook (having authored “The Defense of the Seven Sacraments”) more Protestant elements were introduced into the Anglican Church after separation from the Church of Rome. However there was always a strong Anglo-Catholic tradition, which of course flowered with the Oxford Movement, as well as the conversion of Cardinal John Henry Newman, the Graymoor Friars and Sisters, and so many others who came into the Church.

Much of our optimism about the corporate reunification of our churches, however, was dashed by decisions since the Council that were made within the Anglican communion by which they have distanced themselves from Catholic teaching and practice. Those decisions seem to be without reference to the Catholic or Orthodox Churches, particularly with regard to orders.  In light of that, many Anglo-Catholics have felt alienated and have sought to be received into the Catholic Church.

In our immediate history, we have been accepting Anglican priests into the Catholic Church, and in some cases even entire congregations that sought to become Catholic as a group. There are nine of those Anglican-use parishes in the United States and one of them is here in Boston. Those parishes have permission to use a modified version of the Book of Common Prayer as their liturgical book.

Given this, the Holy Father’s move is simply building on a practice that has been going for nearly 20 years now.

His gesture is in response to a pastoral need to reach out to those others who are anxious to become part of the Catholic Church, yet, at the same time, allow them to maintain some of their own traditions and culture.

I know people are saying that this threatens the practice of celibacy in the Catholic Church. But, I look at it as being actually a better solution than the one that we have had — particularly in England — where scores of Anglican priests have been ordained as Catholic priests. This resulted in presbyterates wherein you have both married and celibate clergy. I think that was a much greater challenge than the current decision that will establish a separate jurisdiction for the Anglican priests who would become Catholic priests.

The Holy Father’s decision was a courageous one. Some are criticizing it as un-ecumenical but I think that the decisions that the Anglican Church has made in the past have been un-ecumenical, as they have moved away from their Catholic roots. For this reason, the Holy Father’s decision is a wise one. The hopes for corporate union with the Anglican Church have been greatly diminished. However, there are many within the Anglican Communion who are very close to us and this allows them to find a spiritual home in the Catholic Church.

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On Thursday, I went to Boston College for a Mass and dinner with the Order of Malta.

The Order’s spiritual advisor, Msgr. Kevin Wallin, a priest of the Diocese of Bridgeport, gave the keynote address. It was a thorough presentation on the life of Blessed Gérard Tonque, who was the founder of the Order. It was very interesting, detailing much of the historical context surrounding his life and the Order’s founding. It was very informative, I think we all learned quite a bit. Father had a wonderful way of presenting it. He was very animated in his delivery.

With Suzanne Downing, the area chair for the Order

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The following day, Father Anthony Salim, the new pastor of St. Theresa Maronite Catholic Church in Brockton, came to pay a visit. We are very fortunate to have a number of Maronite parishes within our territory. Although they belong to the Maronite Eparchy, we are very close with them.

During the visit we talked about Archbishop Francis Zayek, who is the retired bishop of the Eparchy of St. Maron of Brooklyn and a very good friend of mine. He is now returning to Lebanon.

Bishop Zayek happens to be Cuban. I told Father Salim that at the bishops’ conference we always spoke to each other in Spanish. One day, one of the bishops said to me, “I didn’t know you spoke Arabic.” I told him, “I don’t speak Arabic. I am talking in Spanish.” Of course, they were shocked that a Maronite bishop spoke Spanish. He is of Lebanese origin, but was born in Cuba.

I asked Father Salim if he is a relative of Carlos Slim, a man whom Forbes Magazine recently ranked as the third richest person in the world. Carlos is a Maronite in Mexico. He just bought a part of the New York Times and owns most, if not all of, the telephone companies in Mexico, as well as Sanborns, a chain of department and drug stores in Mexico. They interviewed him once and asked him how much money he had.

He answered, “Do you mean now?” Then he paused for a few seconds. “Or now?”

Father Anthony said, unfortunately, he is not a relative!

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That evening, I went to St. John’s Seminary for the annual White Mass, for members of the Guild of St. Luke, an organization of Catholic physicians in the archdiocese.

With Guild chaplain Msgr. Timothy Moran, past-president Dr. Gerald Corcoran and Guild president Dr. Helen Jackson

A number of health care workers were present, including a good number of medical students from Harvard.

With the students

Father Myles Sheehan, a gerontologist and the new provincial of the Jesuits’ New England province, was the keynote speaker at the banquet in the seminary’s refectory which followed the Mass.

They presented me a lovely pen and a cake to mark my 25^th anniversary.

Health care has always been a very important part of our ministry. In the homily at Mass, I urged all the health care workers to be in touch with their professional organizations so that we can weigh in on the health care bill before Congress.

Recently, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops developed a bulletin insert detailing their position on the current health care debate. I have urged our pastors across the archdiocese to print it in their bulletins. Please click the image below to see it larger or visit the USCCB web site for more information on this important topic.

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On Saturday, I led a multi-lingual prayer service and gave the opening remarks at the archdiocese’s annual Catechetical Congress. This year’s event was at The Lantana in Randolph. There were about 700 catechists there. The group was divided more or less evenly between the English and Spansih-language programs.

I offered some remarks

Janet Benestad, our Secretary of Faith Formation & Evangelization, also addressed them

They had keynotes in English and Spanish, as well as a number of workshops in both languages. Susan Kay, Susan Abbott and Pilar Latorre did a wonderful job organizing the event. Bishop Irwin was there as well.

They presented the winners of the 2009 Sister Marion O’Connor, RC Award for Excellence in Catechetical Leadership.

The awards were given to Frances Taylor, the religious education director at Sacred Heart Parish in Lynn and Sister Elisette Signor of the Brazilian apostolate at St. Anthony Parish in Allston.

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From there, I went to the Mass at St. Catherine of Genoa Parish in Somerville at the invitation of Mother Gertrude Mary, the superior of the Somerville community of the Little Sisters of the Poor, to have Mass for the sisters, many of the people who live in their home, their friends, and benefactors to celebrate the canonization of the order’s foundress, St. Jeanne Jugan.

I want to share with you an excerpt from the Holy Father’s homily he gave at the canonization Mass in Rome on Oct. 11. Some of the sisters from Somerville, as well as their friends, made a pilgrimage to Rome to attend:

Through her admirable work in the service of the poorest elderly, Saint Marie de la Croix is also like a beacon to guide our societies which must always rediscover the place and unique contribution of this period of life. Born in 1792 in Cancale, Brittany, Jeanne Jugan was concerned with the dignity of her brothers and sister in humanity whom age had made vulnerable, recognizing in them the person of Christ Himself. "Look at the poor with compassion, she would say, and Jesus will look at you with goodness on your last day". This compassionate gaze on the aged, drawn from a profound communion with God, was carried by Jeanne Jugan throughout her joyous and disinterested service, practiced with gentleness and humility of heart, wishing to be herself a poor person among the poor. Jeanne lived the mystery of love by peacefully accepting darkness and divesting herself of all material possessions until her death. Her charism is always relevant, while so many aged persons suffer different types of poverty and solitude, sometimes even abandoned by their families. The spirit of hospitality and fraternal love, founded on limitless trust in Providence, which Jeanne Jugan drew from the Beatitudes, illuminated her whole existence. The evangelical impulse is followed today throughout the world in the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Poor, which she founded and which bears witness to her following the mercy of God and the compassionate love of the Heart of Jesus for the littlest ones. May Saint Jeanne Jugan be for the elderly a living source of hope and for the persons so generously placing themselves at their service a powerful stimulus to pursue and develop her work!

The Little Sisters of the Poor have been in the archdiocese for 130 years and have been such a blessing to us. St. Jeanne Jugan, as I told them in my homily, came out of that period of the French Revolution when there were so many martyrs, so many who suffered for the faith, that resulted in a great blossoming of sanctity, holiness, and new religious movements in France. The Curé of Ars was also from that revolutionary period, as was Bishop Cheverus, our first bishop here in Boston.

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That evening, I gave the keynote address at the annual President’s Council Dinner for the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts which was held at the Omni Parker House here in Boston.

Thomas More is a Catholic college in Merrimack, N.H. and they have a number of students from our area.

I was happy to have a chance to see Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon and Dr. William Fahey, the college’s president.

Thomas More College — like Magdalen, Christendom, and Ave Maria — is a small college that is intensely dedicated to transmitting a Catholic culture and a firm theological training to its students. The college uses a Great Books approach to higher education, but also places great importance on the classical liberal arts, as well as a very strong catechetical and theological training and spiritual formation of students. Although their numbers are small, the impact that their graduates make on the community is great, so I was happy to lend my support to them.

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On Sunday, I went to Most Precious Blood Parish in Dover to celebrate the parish’s 50^th anniversary.

Father John Grimes is the pastor there

It was a beautiful Mass with a great musical program. There was a children’s choir that sang as well.

After the Mass we had a reception, then I had a Baptism for little Blaire Mae Fox, daughter and fourth child of Charles and Michelle Fox, who are parishioners there.

Charles is the son of Janice and Charles Fox, longtime friends of the Archdiocese. Janice is a great supporter of Laboure College.

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Then, on Sunday evening, I attended a vesper service and a reception with the permanent deacons who also wanted to celebrate my 25^th anniversary as a bishop.

I told them it had been my wish not to have any celebrations, and I was tricked into it because I was told that this was a good way to raise money for the priests’ retirement fund. Since then, the celebrations haven’t stopped!

It was a lovely event here at the Pastoral Center. Deacon John Nicholson spoke at the event and they made a gift in my name to the St. Francis House in Boston, for which I am very grateful.

Deacon Nicholson with his wife Claire

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On Wednesday, I went to New York to be present at a meeting with His All Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.  He was on an apostolic visit throughout the United States and that day went to the United Nations and met with its Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

I was invited to a luncheon at their headquarters. There was a group of religious leaders also invited at the event.

I went down with Metropolitan Methodios

Dimitros Panagos, of the Greek American News Photo Agency, kindly sent us this photo in which Metropolitan Methodios and I are greeting the Patriarch

I remember the Patriarch’s warm welcoming when we visited him in Istanbul two years ago as part of the itinerary of the Catholic-Orthodox pilgrimage.

That pilgrimage was a wonderful experience. We met with the Holy Father in Rome, the Ecumenical Patriarch in Istanbul, and went to St. Petersburg. About 100 pilgrims accompanied us.

The patriarch has always been trying to bring our churches closer together. He shares with Pope Benedict the great desire to see the Eastern and Western churches, which had been united for the first 1,000 years of our history, be reunited once again.

The patriarch, in his visit, chose to give out a commemorative stamp marking the visit of Pope Benedict to him at the See of Constantinople in December 2006 which I thought, was a significant example of his desire for unity.

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Cardinal George, archbishop of Chicago, president of our Bishops Conference and a very fine intellect has published a book, “The Difference God Makes: A Catholic Vision of Faith, Communion, and Culture.”

It is a fine volume of themes he has often spoken about. I certainly recommend it very highly to those who wish to have a firm understanding of the interplay of faith and culture in our modern world. I think it’s a great contribution and we are very pleased that Cardinal George took the time to publish the book for us.

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Finally, I want to encourage college students and young adults to join us on Saturday evening for a time of prayer, Mass and fellowship at St. Leonard’s Church in the North End of Boston.

For the second year in a row, the Vocation Office, the Campus Ministry Office and the Office for the New Evangelization have organized “The Night of the Living” on the eve of All Saints. It is a wonderful opportunity for young adults to gather, beginning with Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at 7pm. Mass will be at 8pm, followed by a social with delicious food from various establishments in the North End at the Nazzaro Center next door.

This event began one year ago on Halloween and has continued every month since then. I have been present at several of these gatherings, and am always pleased to see so many college students and young adults excited about the Catholic faith. I hope to see you there!

— Cardinal Seán

First, I want to share with you some news from the archdiocese. This week, the Holy Father accepted Bishop Francis X. Irwin’s letter of resignation that he tendered last year. We are very grateful that he has generously served so long, even beyond his 75^th birthday. We look forward to his retirement and his continued presence to the people of Boston in many different ways.

His generosity, good humor, and pastoral wisdom have been gifts that he has brought to the archdiocese. We’re very grateful for all of his goodness and friendship, and hope that his retirement will be filled with many blessings and graces.

Now, onto my week.

In last week’s post, I mentioned very briefly that last Thursday I had attended the Adopt-a-Student Dinner at the Seaport Hotel for Cathedral High School. I wanted to share my thoughts of the evening in bit more detail with you this week.

Every year there is a dinner to raise funds for Cathedral High School. It is sponsored by the Board of Trustees, under the leadership of Mr. John Raimonde. Father Kevin O’Leary, pastor of the Cathedral parish, was there with us. There are a number of sisters from different communities who help staff the school, including the Sisters of Saint Joseph, Franciscan Sisters, and School Sisters of Notre Dame. They also have one religious brother. He is a member of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart.

It was a very successful evening. Catholic philanthropist Jack Connors spoke to the group about Catholic education. Earnest McNeil, one of the senior students spoke very eloquently. There was a film presentation about the school as well.

Cathedral has undergone some impressive facilities improvements in recent years. This past summer, they put in new science labs, purchased new desks for the students and teachers, and repainted and installed a new floor and tables in the cafeteria. Last year, they replaced all the bathrooms, and two years ago they put a new roof on the building. Three years ago, they built a new gymnasium. They have been working very assiduously.

The new headmaster, Tom Arria, has provided terrific leadership for the school. He came from Malden Catholic High School. They are doing a fine job there providing a quality education to low income students.

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On Friday, I was the main celebrant at a funeral Mass for Mother Anne of the Mother of God, prioress of the discalced Carmelite monastery in Danvers.

As you may know, Mother Anne passed to the Lord on October 10. Her death was sudden and unexpected. It was moving to see how many people turned out for the wake and funeral. It really made quite an impact on the whole community. She has given extraordinary leadership to the sisters there and was truly a spiritual mother to them.

Bishop Irwin, the regional bishop there, preached at the Mass. A number of priests concelebrated.

We have two cloistered communities of Carmelite sisters in the diocese. The Danvers convent, which I have mentioned in previous posts, was headed by Mother Anne, who has been a beloved religious figure in that part of the diocese. The presence of the sisters in the area has always made a very positive impact on the life of the Church. People frequently visit the convent and go there to pray.

The nuns’ life is one of work and prayer, and, as you can see, Mother was not averse to using a power saw.

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On Saturday, I gave the opening remarks and led the opening prayer service at the first social justice convocation, titled “In the Footsteps of Christ.” It was held at Boston College High School.

One of the activities that has come out of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council was a conference on the social teachings of the Catholic Church. The Archdiocesan Pastoral Council worked very closely with the ARISE Office. It was very successful. Over 300 people came.

There were a number of speakers from different areas, including pro-life, immigration, economic justice, and housing.

In my remarks, I talked about how the social Gospel of the Church is part and parcel of who we are as Catholics. I used the example of the opening talk Pope John Paul II gave at the Puebla Conference in 1979, where he challenged us to teach the truth about Christ, the truth about the Church, and the truth about the human person. I said all of these are interconnected in the Church, so it’s very important that we have that sense of our belief in God and the Trinity and our belief in the Church as the Sacrament of Christ, and the belief in the dignity of the human person made in the image and likeness of God, with an eternal destiny.

Father J. Bryan Hehir

All of those things are the background for the Church’s social Gospel. Having said that, I also commented that in the early centuries, the Church was often persecuted for what we taught about God, the Trinity, Christ, the Eucharist, and the sacraments, but in modern times, the opposition to the Church is strongest in the area of what we teach about the dignity of the human person, the Gospel of life, and the sacredness of marriage.

Participants enjoyed the conference

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Later that day, I attended the New England Middle School Rally at Xaverian Brothers High School in Westwood.

The Office of New Evangelization is trying to expand the ministry to middle school students. This was an attempt to do that. We’ve realized in the past that oftentimes this age group falls through the cracks. They’re there for sacramental preparation, and then when that passes their contact with the Church is minimal. I applaud the efforts that are being done by the office for this ministry.

I think that this can be replicated in the parishes. It’s a model of what can be done with the youngsters of this age group. There was great enthusiasm amongst the youngsters. I was happy to address them and greet them.

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On Monday, I met with Cardinal Cushing School’s President and CEO Jo Ann Simon and Board Chairman John Boucher at the Pastoral Center. The purpose of the meeting was so they could update me on the good work they are doing there. They gave me a cross which the students made. It’s a Franciscan cross.

The Franciscan sisters are the founders of the school. Historically, it was Cardinal Cushing who brought them there. Cardinal Cushing was very close to that institution. He used to spend a lot of time there and asked to be buried there. So they built a replica of the Chapel of Saint Francis Portiuncula in Assisi. The exterior is an exact replica. It’s very, very beautiful. It’s part of the Franciscan roots of that institution. I was very pleased to see the students are still being taught in the Franciscan tradition.

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Later in the day, I received a pleasant visit from Father Bill Devine, one of the many wonderful Boston priests who has served courageously and generously the men and women of our armed forces. He is presently in Okinawa, but has done many tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was home and wanted to pay a visit to update me on where his life is and what is happening with him.

In this 2003 photo, Father Bill is celebrating the Eucharist in the Iraq desert

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On Wednesday, I visited the newest Catholic school in the archdiocese, Good Shepherd School. It is a preschool that has been opened in Charlestown.

They renovated the first floor of St. Mary-St. Catherine of Siena Parish, which is a beautiful old Keely church. Like many of those churches, the church itself is on the second floor. The school is not in the basement. It is actually on the ground level. They had had a lower chapel there, so the windows are stained glass. They did a wonderful job of renovating this for the children but preserving a lot of the natural beauty of the old building. They are going to have a daily Mass chapel down there. It is just wonderful work that has been done on it. It is going to be a bi-lingual program because there are many Hispanic children in the neighborhood. The parents are very, very enthused. When Father Ronan became the pastor there, he was interested in reopening the Catholic school, but did a study – a needs assessment. What he discovered was there were many young Catholic families with small children, and there was great interest in a preschool program. As I said, it is our newest Catholic school and we are very pleased.

Until next week,

In Christ,

Cardinal Seán

Last Thursday, at the Pastoral Center, I celebrated Mass for leaders and board members of archdiocesan schools, agencies, and other affiliated organizations.

Following the Mass, they gathered in the Flatley Conference Room here at the Pastoral Center for a discussion on strategies for effective board governance. Father Richard Erikson, Neal Finnegan, Ken Quigley and Mary Grassa O’Neill served as panelists for the discussion.

We are very grateful to them, to Kevin Kiley who did such a great job organizing the event and to all those who took time out of their busy schedules to attend. Their presence shows their great dedication to our Catholic institutions.

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Later that evening, I attended a St. Andrew’s Dinner at Central Catholic High School, in Lawrence.

St. Andrew’s Dinners, which we hold periodically, give young men considering a vocation an opportunity to ask me, seminarians, and other professed religious about vocations in an informal atmosphere.

The attendees came from all over the archdiocese, but most of those at this particular gathering were from Lawrence. It was a large group, about 70 young men.

I gave a brief talk, as did a number of seminarians and one of the vocation directors. Because a large number of the participants were Hispanics, we asked two of the seminarians to address them in Spanish. In addition, Brother Rene Roy, the school’s vice president, spoke about his vocation.

As I mentioned, we hold these gatherings periodically. So if you or someone you know thinks they might be called to the priesthood, I encourage you to visit the website of our Vocations Office to find the date and location of our next St. Andrew’s Dinner.

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On Saturday, I presided at the ordination of seven new transitional deacons for the Jesuits at St. Ignatius, on the campus of Boston College. It was something of a first for me. Though, on a number of occasions, I have ordained priests for the Jesuits, this is the first time I have ordained deacons for them.

The men were from seven different provinces — two of them in Latin and South America, one from Chile, and one from Peru — but they are all studying here in Boston.

As I often do, the night before, I had dinner with the men about to be ordained. Father Brad Schaeffer was with us and I had a chance to meet the men and many of their families.

It was a wonderful day and I will continue to pray for these men as they make their way toward priesthood. I ask that you continue to pray for them, also.

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That evening, I went to St. Jude’s Parish in Norfolk for their 60^th parish anniversary and 50^th church anniversary.

I was privileged to bless their new outdoor Marian shrine.

Afterwards I celebrated the 5 p.m. Mass.

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On Sunday, morning, I presided at the Rite of Candidacy for permanent deacons at Immaculate Conception Parish in Malden.

Candidacy is one of the steps leading up to ordination. Historically, there have been what we would call minor orders, or sacramentals, that were steps on the road to ordination. The first one was always tonsure, in which the cleric’s hair was cut by the bishop.

When I was in the seminary we still had these minor orders. Of course, I attribute my permanent tonsure to this sacramental that I received as a young man!

Now, we have the Rite of Candidacy which is a public declaration by the men that they are going to continue in preparing themselves spiritually, academically, and humanly for ordination.

This year, it was at one of the parish masses Immaculate Conception. Deacons Dan Burns and Pat Guerrini, and the pastor, Father Richard Mehm, were with me.

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That evening, I had a Mass for the Ethiopian and Eritrean Community at the Cathedral and blessed an icon for them.

I celebrated the Mass in the Latin Rite, though they sang their hymns in Ge’ez and played the drums, so it had a very African flavor, so to speak.

Afterwards they gave me some lovely gifts.

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On Monday, I attended a vesper service at St. Paul’s Parish in Hingham, and dedicated a new statue of St. Paul that was commissioned during the Pauline year.

The sculptor who created it, Susan Luery, the man who modeled for the statue, Bruce Retlogle, and the benefactors who were responsible for the statue were all there along with a large turnout of parishioners.

Of course, my visit also gave me a chance to see many of the students from St. Paul’s School who are such faithful readers of the blog. Hello to you all!

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I spent Wednesday in Sudbury, Ontario. I was invited by Bishop Jean-Louis Plouffe and a lay group, the Servants of Christ who organized a Mass and a dinner to celebrate the Year for Priests. Although my family came through Ontario when they came from Ireland, I had never been to that part of the province.

Sudbury is a mining town. There’s a nickel mine there, but right now nearly 4,000 miners are out on strike.

There is a very large Francophone community in Sudbury — one of the few outside of Quebec, along with Ottawa.

In Sudbury, one third of the people are French-speaking and they have a great deal of cultural pride. This was evident in the church we had Mass in: St. Ann Des-Pins. It wasn’t so much because of the architecture or anything like that, but because the church had burned down three times and has been rebuilt each time even though there is another church, the English church, right next door. Standing between them, you can almost touch both churches.

St. Ann Des-Pins a modern church but it’s very beautiful. They have a beautiful statue of Our Lady. A lot of the work behind the altar was all done in nickel, which is so abundant there.

At the Mass, there were probably 700 people, and at the dinner there were 650. I estimate that about 75 of the 90 priests in the diocese were there, despite the fact that many of them had to drive for hours to get there.

The diocese of Sault Ste. Marie, where Sudbury is located, is very spread out. To counteract this, the bishop has moved his residence and the chancery to the geographic center of the diocese. He has two auxiliary bishops — one English speaking and one French speaking — to help minister to the two the language groups and to cover the vast territory they have.

There is also a large Native American population in the area, the Anishinabe people. They are also an important part of the makeup of the diocese and they featured prominently in the liturgy.

We have this video of the “smudging rite” which they have special permission to use during the penitential rite of the Mass.

Terry and Gerry Shannon were instrumental in organizing the celebration of the Year for Priests. They also helped bring Perpetual Adoration back to the diocese which is now in its 20th year

I had the Mass and I gave an hour talk on the priesthood that night. It was well-received and they were very enthusiastic.

- – -

Finally, last night we held a very important fundraising event for our Cathedral High School. We are so grateful to the trustees of Cathedral High School, many whom are alumni. Under the leadership of John Remondi, they have raised so much money to keep this important ministry alive, to allow inner-city youth to receive a fine Catholic education.

As I mentioned in last week’s post, I was in Ars, France, where I participated in the International Priests Retreat held to mark the Year for Priests.

At Logan Airport, as I was about the take the plane to France, I was invited by the kitchen workers there to bless their kitchen. Of course, I was very happy to do it.

The retreat in Ars was attended by about 1,500 priests, both young and old, from about 75 different countries.

The confessional of St. John Vianney

The room where he died

As you might suppose, the largest group of attendees was from France. The second largest group was from the United States and there were priests from Africa, Latin America, China, and Eastern Europe there, as well.

Those who travelled the farthest to attend were a group of priests and a bishop from Samoa. It took them three days to get there. Unfortunately, the bishop had to return home early because of the tsunami that struck the islands.

We had a very nice group of about 20 priests from Boston and the New England area. Father Bill Kelly, our director of the Office for Clergy Support and Ongoing Formation, organized the trip for us.

Father Bill Kelly

The venue for the retreat talks was a very large underground church built near St. John Vianney’s Parish Church and Basilica.

For our meals, the organizers put up a big tent in a field near the basilica

Many priests stayed in hotels in the area. I stayed at the Le Foyer Sacerdotale, a retreat house that is very close to the basilica.

The retreat was preached by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, so he gave most of the talks. Cardinal Schönborn spoke in French. I gave four talks during the retreat, though I delivered mine in English.

Cardinal Schönborn

One of the talks was given by Jean Vanier, the founder of L’Arche communities, on the theme of Jesus’ washing the feet of his disciples.

The retreat opened with a video of the Holy Father greeting the priests. You can read the text of his speech here.

One night there was a beautiful Eucharistic procession through the streets of Ars.

In one of the liturgies, we renewed our priestly vows from the Holy Thursday Mass. That was a very moving experience as well.

There was also a large penance service for the priests

When I celebrated Mass for the group on Wednesday, we used the Cure of Ars’ chalices and his vestments. We used his monstrance during the Eucharistic Adoration.

One of the Masses was celebrated by Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, the Archbishop of Paris. Then, Cardinal Christian Tumi, the Archbishop of Douala, Cameroon, arrived and celebrated Mass towards the end of the retreat.

The Community of the Beatitudes was in charge of the music and they did a terrific job.

I had the opportunity to meet again Cathy Brenti who came to Boston together with her bishop in 2006 with the relic of the heart of the Cure D’Ars. She was one of the coordinators of this priests retreat.

It was a wonderful way to mark the Year for Priests. In fact, this event was planned even before the Year for Priests was announced, particularly with the occasion of the 150^th anniversary of the death of St. John Vianney, but it was very fitting in this context.

It was a grace-filled experience for all those who were able to be a part of it.

I had never been to Ars before. It is a very beautiful town in the rural agricultural part of France. It is in the southeastern part of the country, an area with many important religious shrines. It is not far from Taizé, Cluny, Paray-le-Monial, which are all in that area. LaSalette is also not terribly far away.

While in Ars, my priest secretary Father Jonathan tried a new video camera and created the following short videos.

First a beautiful story on the arrival of Father Jean-Marie Vianney to Ars

Then, with the help of Father Marcel Taillon, a tour of the home of the Cure D’Ars and of the museum.

He also taped me as I was at the original church where St. Jean Marie Vianney served the people.

And we asked Cardinal Schönborn and Jean Vanier to greet our blog readers.

While in France, I was also able to visit some other parts of the country as well. I had the opportunity to visit the nearby town of Paray-le-Monial where Our Lord appeared to Marguerite Marie Alacoque in the 17^th century. In the visions, Christ asked for greater devotion to the Eucharist and also for the celebration of the Feast of the Sacred Heart.

On our way back, we came through Paris. We arrived there on October 2. I had always heard that there were certain days when they venerated the relic of the Crown of Thorns at the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Knowing this, I checked the browser on my phone to see when the veneration would be taking place.

Sure enough, there it was. I saw that veneration was to happen within two hours! We went right to Notre Dame. Though we just showed up, they were very kind to us.

The Knights of the Holy Sepulcher take care of the relics.

I was able to hold the crown of thorns for veneration by the people

The church was packed with people for the veneration. Many Russian Orthodox faithful came to be a part of it as well.

This is a reliquary that hosts the crown of thorns. I believe it was made by Napoleon

Another reliquary

This is the tunic that belonged to St. Louis, the King of France

These are medallions of all the popes, down to Benedict XVI. They are cameos, carved out on sea shells

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Following the retreat, I flew directly from Paris to Washington, D.C., for the annual meeting of the National Catholic Education Association on Monday, October 5.

The NCEA is the professional association for the 200,000 people who work in Catholic education at all levels — primary schools, secondary schools, universities, seminaries.

Each year, they honor people from throughout the country for their contributions to Catholic education.

Two President’s awards and six Ann Seton awards were presented this year, one of them to Jack and Eileen Connors.

Each of the honorees was able to name one person who would receive a scholarship. The Connors named a young man, Addison Atanga, an eighth grader at Holy Trinity in Brockton, as the beneficiary of the scholarship.

It was very enlightening to see what is happening throughout the country and how people are stepping forward to support Catholic education and to work for the renewal of our Catholic schools. We are very proud that among the people who were singled out for their philanthropy and dedication to Catholic schools was Jack and Eileen Connors.

- – -

By Tuesday, I was back home in Boston. On Tuesday night, I went to Stonehill College for a celebration to honor Father Mark Cregan. He was given the Thomas and Mary Shields Awards for all of his support of Trinity Catholic Academy in Brockton. The event was held at the college’s new science hall, which was named in honor of the Shields.

The children from Trinity Academy sang a number of songs and the band played a number of pieces. The children did a fantastic job.

Three or four students read essays that they had submitted for a contest. It was just amazing to listen to the caliber of these essays because it sounded more like high school material. Everyone was so impressed with what they are doing.

- – -

Finally, don’t forget about our Social Justice Convocation on Saturday, Oct. 17 at Boston College High School, from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. I invite you all to attend what will help you bring to the world Christ’s compassion and love for all. I am looking forward to seeing you there.

Until next week,

Cardinal Seán

Pope John Paul II offered hope to the world. He guided our Church for more than two decades, touching the lives of millions of people, young and old, calling each of us to trust in the goodness of our Lord.

His presence and his imprint on our Church remain as strong today as it did throughout his entire pontificate. In his funeral homily for the late Holy Father, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who himself would be elected Pope just two short weeks later, said, “We can be sure that our beloved Pope is standing today at the window of the Father’s house, that he sees us and blesses us.

Pope John Paul II continues to bless Boston and all of the Catholic Church just as he did 30 years ago on a windswept rainy occasion of his visit to the United States.

- – -

The Archdiocesan Pastoral Council has organized and is promoting a convocation discussing the social gospel of the Church. They’re very excited about the possibility of being able to present to our people the very rich teachings of the Church on social justice — life issues, economic justice, immigration, and so many areas of our lives. We’re grateful to all those who have been working very hard at preparing this.

The Archdiocesan Justice Convocation is on October 17, from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Boston College High School. Please register early to ensure your spot at this important convocation. I encourage you all to attend!

- – -

Last Wednesday night, Blessed John XXIII National Seminary had their annual Lawn Party. It was a great success, with about 400 in attendance. In all, I believe they raised close to $250,000 in funds for the seminary.

During the evening’s speaking program we heard from two seminarians who spoke about their lives and how they heard the call to the priesthood.

Seminarian Guy Sciacca

Several bishops from the neighboring dioceses attended, which indicates the wonderful support that Blessed John is receiving.

Currently, there are seminarians from over 30 dioceses studying there.

We’re very grateful to the rector, Father Peter Uglietto, and Dr. John and Mrs. Gretchen LaRossa, who were in charge of the event

We all wished Father Peter Uglietto a happy birthday since the next day was his birthday.

- – -

On Thursday afternoon, I celebrated a Mass with the priests and bishops of the archdiocese to mark the 25^th anniversary of my episcopal ordination. The Mass was at St. Theresa of Avila Parish in West Roxbury.

A number of priests suggested that I celebrate a Mass to mark my silver anniversary and to have an opportunity to gather with the priests. The bishops from the region and His Eminence, Metropolitan Methodius of Boston also came. Metropolitan Methodius shepherds the Greek Orthodox Church in the Boston area.

After Communion, I was in for a big surprise. Our Central Region Bishop, Robert Hennessey, presented me with a beautiful crozier, handcrafted of silver in Italy, as a gift from the bishops and priests of the archdiocese. I remarked that when I saw Bishop Hennessey walking out of the sacristy with the crozier, I thought there was a coup d’etat!

The homilist at the Mass was Father Robert McCreary, who had been one of my major professors in the seminary.

He is a wonderful theologian and very spiritual friar. He was one of the two chaplains — the priests that assist a bishop-elect during the ceremony — who was present when I was ordained a bishop in the Virgin Islands. The other chaplain was Father Paul Brody, who has gone home to God. Father McCreary was very generous in preaching. I want to share a recording of Father McCreary’s homily with you.

Afterwards, I had a very nice luncheon at St. Theresa’s with the priests.

That evening, I had dinner with the bishops at the cathedral.

Later, I attended a very beautiful concert offered by the community of Jesus, Gloria Dei Cantores, to mark my Episcopal anniversary. They sang liturgical music in Russian as well as Gregorian chant. It was a lovely celebration.

- – -

On Friday, I attended a meeting with Tom Peterson and his associates about an exciting initiative called Catholics, Come Home.

They have developed some very beautiful programs to invite people to return to the practice of the faith. He was reporting to us about the great successes that dioceses have had using these. In the dioceses of Phoenix and Corpus Christi the organization aired commercials on television, prompting an upsurge in Mass attendance of more than 15 percent and a significant increase in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The initiative is being expanded to 15 more dioceses across the country this Advent, including the diocese of Providence, RI.

We were talking about the possibility of presenting this group to our priests and people here to see if this might be a good way for us to evangelize and to have outreach to inactive Catholics and those who are un-churched.

CatholicsComeHome.org‘s “Epic” commercial is a beautiful representation of our Church’s history and mission.

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From Sept. 25 to 27, St. John’s Seminary hosted a Conference on Priestly Celibacy, entitled, “Chaste Celibacy and Continence of the Diocesan Priest.”

Over a year ago, I had a conversation with Cardinal Francis Stafford (who, at that time, was still heading the Apostolic Penitentiary) in which we both realized how important it is for us to present, particularly to our seminarians and priests, the very deep theological meaning of celibacy.

Cardinal Stafford

We were very lucky to be able to assemble an extraordinary group of speakers, including Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Quebec, Cardinal Stafford, and Archbishop Allen Vigneron from Detroit, as well as Father Stefan Heid from Cologne, Germany.

Archbishop Vigneron

Father Heid, like Father Christian Cochini, a French Jesuit, has written extensively on the apostolic origins of celibacy.

It’s a theme that interests me very much because people often have difficulty understanding clerical celibacy. You read in the popular media that it was invented in the Middle Ages to protect the real estate holdings and avoid nepotism and such things. But, the real meaning of celibacy, in faith, is the celibacy of Christ, which he invites the apostles to participate in. That was a tradition in the Church right from the first century.

Father Heid made a magnificent presentation. We were happy that the seminarians were able to participate in it so much.

We had two sessions at the seminary and one evening session at Our Lady Help of Christians in Newton that was open to the priests in the archdiocese.

The evening session at Our Lady Help of Christians

Most of those participating were seminary rectors from about 60 seminaries around the country. St. John’s will publish the talks.

It was certainly an extraordinary event and one that was very timely given the fact that the Holy Father announced the Year for Priests after we planned it. This was certainly a very important way to celebrate the Year for Priests by focusing on celibacy, which is an important charism for the Catholic priesthood.

- – -

On Sunday, I presided at the 150^th Anniversary Mass for Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish in Marblehead. I celebrated Mass and afterward had a chance to greet some of the parishioners.

It was a wonderful occasion and I was pleased to see Father Michael Steele is doing such a good job there.

This is a photo with Marie Adams, the oldest parishioner at Our Lady’s. She’s 91!

- – -

This week I want to mention that Father Bob Kickham, one of my priest secretaries, let me know that the senior league hockey team he plays on recently won their division championship after sweeping several challengers.

Though the team’s name, “Shock”, is a little jarring, Father assures me that they are all good family men, involved with activities in their local communities and at their churches and synagogues, and that many volunteer their free time for youth sports and other activities for young people. Congratulations to the team!

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Finally, I want to let you know that I am preparing this post from Ars, France where I am on a pilgrimage with a group of priests from the archdiocese. We are attending an international retreat for priests to help mark the Year for Priests. (Ars is where St. John Vianney, the patron saint of priests, performed his priestly ministry.) But more on that next week…

In Christ,

Cardinal Seán

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

- – -

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

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

- – -

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!

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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.

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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!

Last Friday I celebrated the Mass of the Holy Spirit at Blessed John XXIII National Seminary. This was their opening Mass for the year.

It’s a great joy to see the seminarians at Blessed John XXIII, who come from dioceses throughout the country and who are receiving a wonderful formation there. This seminary was begun by my predecessor, Cardinal Cushing, in response to Pope John’s statement that a vocation can come at any moment during life. Therefore, he named the seminary after Pope John. The rector Father Peter Uglietto, the faculty, and the Board of Directors are all doing a wonderful job there. There’s a great spirit in the house.

As I mentioned in last Friday’s post, I also celebrated the opening Mass for St. John’s Seminary on Wednesday of last week. The photos did not arrive in time for that post, so I want to share them with you now.

Blessed John XXIII was, in fact, the third seminary I visited in two weeks. The first one was the seminary in Havana, Cuba, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago.

I had visited there 10 years ago as the Apostolic Visitator, and I was very, very moved when I realized that 90 percent of the 65 seminarians were converts. They had been atheists, agnostics and communists who attributed their conversion to the Holy Father’s visit. That was the moment of grace for them to find their way into the Church and, eventually, their vocation to the priesthood. But when I first arrived, the rector discovered a spy infiltrated among the seminarians who had been sent by the government, and, of course, they expelled him immediately. Afterward the rector told me, “O, Bishop, it’s just so shocking. This young man was so pious, so studious, so polite, so punctual.” I told him: “That should have been a dead giveaway!”

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On Labor Day, I attended a cookout for priests held at St. Brigid in South Boston. We had a great time and it was a wonderful opportunity to spend time with my brother priests.

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On Tuesday, I received a visit from Father Simeon Gallagher, who was one of my classmates. He is a very well known preacher and is often in the Northeast preaching at parish missions. He is an extraordinary preacher. It was very nice to have the opportunity to visit with him. He is stationed in Denver now, but travels extensively in his ministry.

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That evening, I presided over the religious profession of Brother Labrie-Marie of the Little Brothers of St. Francis at Mission Church.

It was very well attended. There were many religious from other communities there, as well as friends and relatives and many of the people that the Little Brothers minister to. Theirs is a very contemplative community, but with a special ministry to the poor and to the street people. Their house is very close to Mission Church and they’re very much a part of that community. (Some people refer to them as the Sons of Levi because their habit looks like denim!)

With Brother James

The profession was held on the Feast of the Nativity of Mary. It was the 39^th Anniversary to the day of the founding of their community by Brother James Curran.

I told them during my sermon that on that very day, 39 years ago on the feast of the Blessed Mother, I celebrated my first public Mass, which was for Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre with the Cuban community in Washington at St. Matthew’s Cathedral.

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On Wednesday, I returned to St. Brigid’s to celebrate the opening Mass of the new South Boston Catholic Academy.

In South Boston, the number of children is far less than it was many years ago, so the decision was made to unite the two remaining parish schools — Gate of Heaven and St. Brigid’s. The St. Brigid’s building was selected for a number of reasons as being the more adequate to house the larger number of children.

This was the opening Mass for the school year. There was great enthusiasm. The children singing were just astounding – they even sang a happy anniversary song for me!

There  were a number of Irish policemen who were there to direct the traffic.

Ambassador Ray Flynn and his wife Kathy were there. Their grandchildren attend the school.

Margaret Lynch, the wife of Congressman Stephen Lynch, was also at the Mass. They have a daughter in 4^th grade as well.

Afterwards I had the opportunity to visit some of the classrooms, and meet with some of the faculty and the principal, Nancy Carr.

It will be a very strong school. By joining resources, the new academy guarantees the continuance and the strengthening of Catholic education so that we can offer our children excellence in academic preparation as well as the solid faith formation that they need to be good Catholics and good Christians.

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Wednesday afternoon, I was paid a visit by some friends whom I know from my long involvement with the Agrupación Católica Universitaria.

ACU is a wonderful Christian life community of professional Catholic men. It was started in Cuba at Belen — the Jesuit school in Havana — by a Spanish Jesuit named Padre Felipe Rey de Castro. His assistant was Padre Amando Llorente, who is still the spiritual director and in charge of the movement.

During my 20 years in Washington, I was very involved with that movement.

Back in 2006 I celebrated a Mass for the 75th anniversary of the ACU. I remember I was struck by the great number of vocations that have come out of the movement. If I recall correctly, in those 75 years, they had 45 vocations. (Many of them I have ordained for several different orders and dioceses. Men from the movement have gone on to be ordained as Jesuits, Capuchins and diocesan priests.)

When I worked at the Centro Católico, because our budget was very limited and we had literally many thousands of refugees we were serving, we depended greatly on volunteers. It was the Agrupados and their wives who stepped forward and were an incredible help in so many ways. Many of them were doctors, and helped begin the medical clinics, the dental clinics, and the educational programs there.

Jorge Campañá, whom I have known since he was in high school, is now an eye doctor. He was up in the area for a wedding with some of his family members, and he wanted to stop in.

He is also a very good friend of Sister Anthony Mary, who works in my office. She has known him for many years. It was a pleasant surprise, and it gives me a chance to say something about the Agrupación and the wonderful contribution they have made to the life of the Church, both in Cuba and certainly in the United States — in Miami and Washington.

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I also want to share with you pictures of a gathering with the priests of the diocese of Fall River.

A couple of weeks ago they invited me to vespers and a cookout to mark the Year for Priests. They also invited Hartford Archbishop Daniel Cronin, who is also former bishop of Fall River.

So, they had the three amigos, as they called us, there — three current or former bishops from Fall River. It was very gracious.

It was at Our Lady of Victory in Centerville and Father Hession is the pastor there. Many of the priests from the Diocese, and some of the retired priests from Boston who help out on the Cape, were also there. About 100 priests attended.

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Finally, I wanted to mention an event which took place back on August 31. Richard Armstrong made final profession as a First Class Knight of Justice, a vowed religious in the Order of Malta, at a Mass and ceremony held in the chapel at Massachusetts General Hospital.

The principal celebrant of the Mass was Msgr. Dennis Sheehan, Magistral Chaplain for the American Association of the Order of Malta, assisted by Father Richard Mullins, a priest of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia and Master of Ceremonies for the Subpriory of Our Lady of Lourdes, which exercises oversight for professed Knights. Richard has been a long standing member of the Order and an active parishioner at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. Though dealing with significant health issues at this time, Richard was very happy to be able to follow through with his intention to make final profession. The medical and support staff at Mass General were very helpful with the planning for the Mass and assisting Richard, we are most grateful for their assistance and all their good work.

We pray for Richard, that he may find strength and comfort at this time, and give thanks for the gift of his commitment to the Order of Malta and the good of the Church.

The vesture and implements of the Knights of Justice

Father Mullins; Knight Gus Grace; Richard Armstrong; Fra. Ely Comgae of the Order; Fra. James-Michael von Strobel, Regent of the Supriory of Our Lady of Lourdes; Msgr. Sheehan

Assisting Rich ard are Danielle Duma RN; Mary O’Malley RN Case Manager; Richard Huton RT; Maria Winne RN

Richard with family members, including his sisters Patricia, Kathleen and Mary

Until next week, blessings to you all!

- Cardinal Seán

On Wednesday, in light of the public attention the funeral of Senator Kennedy received, I posted the following comments that I am now adding to my regular Friday post. We are grateful to all those who have contributed their comments in response to that post. Because of the overwhelming number of comments, not all of them will be posted, but those posted fairly represent those received.

Saturday was the 39^th anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood, at St. Augustine’s Church in Pittsburgh by Bishop John B. McDowell, who is still going strong today.  In the Church’s calendar, the feast day for August 29 is the Beheading of John the Baptist.  People usually take note when I tell them that I was professed to religious life on Bastille Day, July 14, and ordained on the feast of the Beheading.  Not that I am superstitious.

On Saturday morning I attended the funeral Mass for Senator Edward M. Kennedy.  Father Donald Monan, S.J., former president of Boston College, celebrated the Mass and Father Mark Hession, pastor of Our Lady of Victories in Centerville, preached the homily.

The music was outstanding with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus enriching the liturgy along with mezzo-soprano Susan Graham who later sang an absolutely striking rendition of Schubert’s “Ave Maria.”  Cellist Yo-Yo Ma graced us with his beautiful solo performance of Bach and later joined Placido Domingo, who sang the “Panis Angelicus.”  Placido has a superb voice.  I told him how much I like the Zarzuela, the Spanish classical musical theater productions.  His family had a troupe that presented Zarzuelas in Mexico and he promised to arrange a performance.

The venue for the funeral Mass was Mission Church, the magnificent Redemptorist Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

Senator Kennedy prayed often in this church when his daughter, Kara, was stricken with cancer.  It is a church where countless faithful have gone to pray and ask for healing, grace and forgiveness.

In light of these themes, I wish to address our Catholic faithful who have voiced both support and disappointment at my having presided at the Senator’s funeral Mass.

Needless to say, the Senator’s wake and Catholic funeral were controversial because of the fact that he did not publically support Catholic teaching and advocacy on behalf of the unborn. ­­­Given the profound effect of Catholic social teaching on so many of the programs and policies espoused by Senator Kennedy and the millions who benefitted from them, there is a tragic sense of lost opportunity in his lack of support for the unborn.  To me and many Catholics it was a great disappointment because, had he placed the issue of life at the centerpiece of the Social Gospel where it belongs, he could have multiplied the immensely valuable work he accomplished.

The thousands of people who lined the roads as the late Senator’s motorcade travelled from Cape Cod to Boston and the throngs that crowded the Kennedy Library for two days during the lying in repose, I believe, were there to pay tribute to these many accomplishments rather than as an endorsement of the Senator’s voting record on abortion.

The crowds also were there to pay tribute to the Kennedy family as a whole.  On the national political landscape, if Barack Obama broke the glass ceiling of the presidency for African Americans, Jack Kennedy broke it for American Catholics.

As a young lad, I saw photographs of both Pope John XXIII and President John Kennedy hanging in the thatched cottages of County Mayo and heard the Gaelic greeting, “God and Mary be with you.” Three of the Kennedy brothers died in service of our country in the prime of life.  And Eunice Shriver, who died just a few weeks ago, was an outspoken defender of the unborn and an apostle of the Gospel of Life.  She taught us all how to love special children and to make room for everyone at the table of life. In 1992, Eunice petitioned her party’s convention to consider “a new understanding” of the issue, “one that does not pit mother against child,” but instead seeks “policies that responsibly protect and advance the interest of mothers and their children, both before and after birth.”

Much of what is noble in the politics and work of the Kennedys had its origins in the bedrock of the faith of Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy.  As a young woman she had a profound experience of God’s love that transformed her life.  She strove to communicate that faith to her large clan.  Since the time of her funeral Mass I have kept her memorial prayer card, inscribed with Rose Kennedy’s own words:

“If God were to take away all His blessings, health, physical fitness, wealth, intelligence, and leave me but one gift, I would ask for faith – for with faith in Him and His goodness, mercy, love for me, and belief in everlasting life, I believe I could suffer the loss of my other gifts and still be happy – trustful, leaving all to His inscrutable Providence.”

There are those who objected, in some cases vociferously, to the Church’s providing a Catholic funeral for the Senator.   In the strongest terms I disagree with that position.   At the Senator’s interment on Saturday evening, with his family’s permission, we learned of details of his recent personal correspondence with Pope Benedict XVI.   It was very moving to hear the Senator acknowledging his failing to always be a faithful Catholic, and his request for prayers as he faced the end of his life.  The Holy Father’s expression of gratitude for the Senator’s pledge of prayer for the Church, his commendation of the Senator and his family to the intercession of the Blessed Mother, and his imparting the Apostolic Blessing, spoke of His Holiness’ role as the Vicar of Christ, the Good Shepherd who leaves none of the flock behind.

As Archbishop of Boston, I considered it appropriate to represent the Church at this liturgy out of respect for the Senator, his family, those who attended the Mass and all those who were praying for the Senator and his family at this difficult time.  We are people of faith and we believe in a loving and forgiving God from whom we seek mercy.

Advocating for the dignity of life is central to my role as a priest and a bishop. One of my greatest satisfactions in my ministry thus far was helping to overturn the abortion laws in Honduras.  The person who answered my call for help with that effort was Dr. Bernard Nathanson, who had been a prominent leader in NARAL and the abortion rights movement.  His own change of heart led Dr. Nathanson from a practice of providing abortions to becoming one of the most eloquent exponents of the pro-life movement.

Helen Alvaré, who is one of the most outstanding pro-life jurists, a former Director of the Bishops´ Pro-life Office and a long standing consultant to the USCCB Committee for Pro-Life Activities, has always said that the pro-life movement is best characterized by what it is for, not against.  We are for the precious gift of life, and our task is to build a civilization of love.  We must show those who do not share our belief about life that we care about them.  We will stop the practice of abortion by changing the law, and we will be successful in changing the law if we change people’s hearts.  We will not change hearts by turning away from people in their time of need and when they are experiencing grief and loss.

At times, even in the Church, zeal can lead people to issue harsh judgments and impute the worst motives to one another.  These attitudes and practices do irreparable damage to the communion of the Church.  If any cause is motivated by judgment, anger or vindictiveness, it will be doomed to marginalization and failure.  Jesus’ words to us were that we must love one another as He loves us.  Jesus loves us while we are still in sin.  He loves each of us first, and He loves us to the end.  Our ability to change people’s hearts and help them to grasp the dignity of each and every life, from the first moment of conception to the last moment of natural death, is directly related to our ability to increase love and unity in the Church, for our proclamation of the Truth is hindered when we are divided and fighting with each other.

President Obama and three former presidents attended Senator Kennedy’s funeral.  I had the opportunity to speak briefly with President Obama, to welcome him to the Basilica and to share with him that the bishops of the Catholic Church are anxious to support a plan for universal health care, but we will not support a plan that will include a provision for abortion or could open the way to abortions in the future.  The President was gracious in the short time we spoke, he listened intently to what I was saying.

Democrats and Republicans sat side by side in the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, praying for Senator Kennedy and his family.  It is my sincere hope that all people who long to promote the cause of life  will pray and work together to change hearts, to bring about an increased respect for life, and to change laws so as to make America a safe place for all, including the unborn.

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I spent Monday in Colorado where I officiated at the marriage of my sister, Mary.

This photo shows Mary and Craig Woods, her new husband

I was very happy to be with my family on this joyous occasion. We pray that the Lord will bless their marriage.

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On Wednesday, I attended the Mass of the Holy Spirit and a cookout at St. John’s Seminary. This year, we have about 100 students at St. John’s and the enrollment continues to grow.

We’re very enthusiastic about the wonderful spirit. The seminary’s rector, Father Arthur Kennedy, in his welcoming remarks, reminded us that this is the 125^th class to enter St. John’s, and this year will be a year of special anniversary celebrations.

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Over the last week I have had a chance to go through some more of the many photos we took on our recent visit to Cuba as part of U.S. bishops conference delegation. I want to share them with you:

With Father Emilio Biosca, OFM Cap., a great friend of mine. Capuchins who work in the tropics sometimes wear white

The cloister garden of the “Casa Sacerdotal” which was formerly a Convent for Nuns.

We visited a new monastery of Benedictine Monks who are mostly from Africa.  This is the first monastic community to be formed in the city of Havana since the Revolution.

Interesting photo of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.  The Cuban authorities put up all those flagpoles in front of the building to block sight of a large ticker that was counting the number of visas the Interests Section was granting to citizens.

We visited a church that was being restored after its roof collapsed following last year’s hurricane.  This restoration has been paid for by the Collection for the Church in Latin America.

You can see the broken windows over the main door that still haven’t been repaired

We were able to bring much-needed medical supplies to the local communities down there.  The pastor of this parish was extremely grateful for the supplies, as they are very hard to find in Cuba.

Meeting with Ricardo Alarcón, a prominent Cuban statesman

A photo of members of the delegation who met with Mr. Alarcón

This parish was built and is staffed by the Capuchins.  I often joke that this province built the largest Churches – and this Church happens to be the largest Church in Havana!

In Holguin – very different from Havana!

These are some of the neighbors of a Church that was completely destroyed in the hurricanes.  Money from the Collection has gone to rebuild their church and the roofs on their homes.

Another neighbor who was very interesting looking…

Visiting the site of a former church that was completely destroyed years ago by a hurricane.  The Cuban government has not given permission to rebuild, but the façade of the Church remains as a sign of hope.

In what was the doorway of the Church

Typical billboards seen throughout Cuba.  There are no advertisements.  Every billboard is covered with Communist propaganda, and is completely controlled by the authorities.

Visiting the Bishop of Holguin in his Cathedral, which was damaged by the water and winds.

Father Andrew Small and Bishop Oscar Cantu address a group of young Cubans who are walking the island on pilgrimage to the famous Shrine of Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre

A typical “bus” in Santiago de Cuba

The Bishop of Santiago gave the delegation a very warm welcome; he is most grateful to the Church in the U.S. for their generosity to the Church in Cuba.  Many of his churches were completely destroyed, and are being rebuilt now with money collected in the National Collection for the Church in Latin America.

The Bishop’s collection of Images of Nuestra Señora

Bishop Cantu preached at Mass at the Shrine of Nuestra Señora

Ex-Votos left at the Shrine

Doctoral theses dedicated to Our Lady – ex votos

The old Seminary in Santiago

The Cathedral in Santiago was damaged, but the Archbishop of Santiago has been restoring it piece by piece, beginning with the Choir behind the Altar.

There are whole sections of the Cathedral that are roped off, for fear that the roof will collapse on peoples’ heads.

The Chasuble worn by Pope John Paul II during his historic visit to Cuba

Yes, there really are 50’s era American cars still in use in Cuba, such as these taxi cabs

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Until next week, I wish you a safe and blessed Labor Day holiday!

Cardinal Seán

On Saturday morning I attended the funeral Mass for Senator Edward M. Kennedy.  Father Donald Monan, S.J., former president of Boston College, celebrated the Mass and Father Mark Hession, pastor of Our Lady of Victories in Centerville, preached the homily.

The music was outstanding with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus enriching the liturgy along with mezzo-soprano Susan Graham who later sang an absolutely striking rendition of Schubert’s “Ave Maria.”  Cellist Yo-Yo Ma graced us with his beautiful solo performance of Bach and later joined Placido Domingo, who sang the “Panis Angelicus.”  Placido has a superb voice.  I told him how much I like the Zarzuela, the Spanish classical musical theater productions.  His family had a troupe that presented Zarzuelas in Mexico and he promised to arrange a performance.

The venue for the funeral Mass was Mission Church, the magnificent Redemptorist Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

Senator Kennedy prayed often in this church when his daughter, Kara, was stricken with cancer.  It is a church where countless faithful have gone to pray and ask for healing, grace and forgiveness.

In light of these themes, I wish to address our Catholic faithful who have voiced both support and disappointment at my having presided at the Senator’s funeral Mass.

Needless to say, the Senator’s wake and Catholic funeral were controversial because of the fact that he did not publically support Catholic teaching and advocacy on behalf of the unborn. ­­­Given the profound effect of Catholic social teaching on so many of the programs and policies espoused by Senator Kennedy and the millions who benefitted from them, there is a tragic sense of lost opportunity in his lack of support for the unborn.  To me and many Catholics it was a great disappointment because, had he placed the issue of life at the centerpiece of the Social Gospel where it belongs, he could have multiplied the immensely valuable work he accomplished.

The thousands of people who lined the roads as the late Senator’s motorcade travelled from Cape Cod to Boston and the throngs that crowded the Kennedy Library for two days during the lying in repose, I believe, were there to pay tribute to these many accomplishments rather than as an endorsement of the Senator’s voting record on abortion.

The crowds also were there to pay tribute to the Kennedy family as a whole.  On the national political landscape, if Barack Obama broke the glass ceiling of the presidency for African Americans, Jack Kennedy broke it for American Catholics.

As a young lad, I saw photographs of both Pope John XXIII and President John Kennedy hanging in the thatched cottages of County Mayo and heard the Gaelic greeting, “God and Mary be with you.” Three of the Kennedy brothers died in service of our country in the prime of life.  And Eunice Shriver, who died just a few weeks ago, was an outspoken defender of the unborn and an apostle of the Gospel of Life.  She taught us all how to love special children and to make room for everyone at the table of life. In 1992, Eunice petitioned her party’s convention to consider “a new understanding” of the issue, “one that does not pit mother against child,” but instead seeks “policies that responsibly protect and advance the interest of mothers and their children, both before and after birth.”

Much of what is noble in the politics and work of the Kennedys had its origins in the bedrock of the faith of Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy.  As a young woman she had a profound experience of God’s love that transformed her life.  She strove to communicate that faith to her large clan.  Since the time of her funeral Mass I have kept her memorial prayer card, inscribed with Rose Kennedy’s own words:

“If God were to take away all His blessings, health, physical fitness, wealth, intelligence, and leave me but one gift, I would ask for faith – for with faith in Him and His goodness, mercy, love for me, and belief in everlasting life, I believe I could suffer the loss of my other gifts and still be happy – trustful, leaving all to His inscrutable Providence.”

There are those who objected, in some cases vociferously, to the Church’s providing a Catholic funeral for the Senator.   In the strongest terms I disagree with that position.   At the Senator’s interment on Saturday evening, with his family’s permission, we learned of details of his recent personal correspondence with Pope Benedict XVI.   It was very moving to hear the Senator acknowledging his failing to always be a faithful Catholic, and his request for prayers as he faced the end of his life.  The Holy Father’s expression of gratitude for the Senator’s pledge of prayer for the Church, his commendation of the Senator and his family to the intercession of the Blessed Mother, and his imparting the Apostolic Blessing, spoke of His Holiness’ role as the Vicar of Christ, the Good Shepherd who leaves none of the flock behind.

As Archbishop of Boston, I considered it appropriate to represent the Church at this liturgy out of respect for the Senator, his family, those who attended the Mass and all those who were praying for the Senator and his family at this difficult time.  We are people of faith and we believe in a loving and forgiving God from whom we seek mercy.

Advocating for the dignity of life is central to my role as a priest and a bishop. One of my greatest satisfactions in my ministry thus far was helping to overturn the abortion laws in Honduras.  The person who answered my call for help with that effort was Dr. Bernard Nathanson, who had been a prominent leader in NARAL and the abortion rights movement.  His own change of heart led Dr. Nathanson from a practice of providing abortions to becoming one of the most eloquent exponents of the pro-life movement.

Helen Alvaré, who is one of the most outstanding pro-life jurists, a former Director of the Bishops´ Pro-life Office and a long standing consultant to the USCCB Committee for Pro-Life Activities, has always said that the pro-life movement is best characterized by what it is for, not against.  We are for the precious gift of life, and our task is to build a civilization of love.  We must show those who do not share our belief about life that we care about them.  We will stop the practice of abortion by changing the law, and we will be successful in changing the law if we change people’s hearts.  We will not change hearts by turning away from people in their time of need and when they are experiencing grief and loss.

At times, even in the Church, zeal can lead people to issue harsh judgments and impute the worst motives to one another.  These attitudes and practices do irreparable damage to the communion of the Church.  If any cause is motivated by judgment, anger or vindictiveness, it will be doomed to marginalization and failure.  Jesus’ words to us were that we must love one another as He loves us.  Jesus loves us while we are still in sin.  He loves each of us first, and He loves us to the end.  Our ability to change people’s hearts and help them to grasp the dignity of each and every life, from the first moment of conception to the last moment of natural death, is directly related to our ability to increase love and unity in the Church, for our proclamation of the Truth is hindered when we are divided and fighting with each other.

President Obama and three former presidents attended Senator Kennedy’s funeral.  I had the opportunity to speak briefly with President Obama, to welcome him to the Basilica and to share with him that the bishops of the Catholic Church are anxious to support a plan for universal health care, but we will not support a plan that will include a provision for abortion or could open the way to abortions in the future.  The President was gracious in the short time we spoke, he listened intently to what I was saying.

Democrats and Republicans sat side by side in the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, praying for Senator Kennedy and his family.  It is my sincere hope that all people who long to promote the cause of life  will pray and work together to change hearts, to bring about an increased respect for life, and to change laws so as to make America a safe place for all, including the unborn.

“Today we mourn the passing of Senator Edward M. Kennedy and we extend our heartfelt prayers and sincere condolences to his wife Victoria and their children, Kara, Edward, Patrick, Curran and Caroline. Senator Kennedy was blessed with a dedicated and loving family who stood by his side, particularly during the past year as he faced his illness with courage, dignity and strength.

We join with his colleagues in Congress and the people of Massachusetts in reflecting on his life and his commitment to public service. For nearly half a century, Senator Kennedy was often a champion for the poor, the less fortunate and those seeking a better life. Across Massachusetts and the nation, his legacy will be carried on through the lives of those he served.

We pray for the repose of his soul and that his family finds comfort and consolation in this difficult time.”

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Last week, I traveled to Cuba with a delegation sent by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Father Andrew Small, the secretary for Latin America who administers the annual collection to help projects in the churches in that part of the world, was in charge of this delegation.

The delegation was made up of Bishop Oscar Cantú, the Auxiliary Bishop of San Antonio; Bishop Thomas Wenski, who is the chairperson of the bishop’s Migration and International Policy Committee; and I as a member of the committee on Latin America. My secretary, Father Jonathan Gaspar also accompanied us as staff.

We were there to give support to the local bishops and to become acquainted first-hand with how the aid we sent after last year’s three hurricanes and two tropical storms is being used. We also sought to better understand what their future needs are.

We had meetings with the bishops, lay leaders and the staff from Caritas Cubana, the Church organization in Cuba which helps the sick and the elderly and also provides emergency relief services.

I want to mention that here in Boston there is an organization, The Friends of Caritas Cubana, that supports their efforts. Each year there is a fundraiser at the home of Consuelo Isaacson, and usually a member of Caritas or one of the Cuban bishops will attend.

While in Havana we also met with the ambassador to the Order of Malta. The order of Malta has diplomatic relations with 60 countries, including Cuba. The Order is involved in programs to help the elderly and to provide medicine and food for people there.

There is a large group of Cuban members of the Order in Miami, but they actually have an ambassador in Cuba itself, a Polish gentleman named Przemyslaw Häuser. He invited us one night for dinner at his embassy, and we had some very interesting discussions. He was a very close friend of Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Stanislaus Dziwisz, Pope John Paul II’s secretary for many, many years. In Poland, he was a filmmaker who made films about the Vatican and about John Paul II.

The last time I visited Cuba was when I was visitator to the seminaries. The present seminary for Havana is in the old archbishop’s palace, which was connected to the cathedral and a very inadequate facility for a seminary. There are 60-70 people camped out in this old episcopal residence that is not in the best shape. I was able to visit the site of the new seminary, which will hopefully be opened next year. That project was begun with donations from a benefactor here in Boston.

Monday night we toured Havana. It was interesting to see how the government has begun to fix up the old city, which is magnificent. Many people, I am sure, have seen the old city in San Juan, Puerto Rico and how beautiful that is. This is something comparable but much larger, with many more plazas and buildings.

One of the buildings that we visited was the Franciscan church that Father Junípero Serra stayed at on his way to found the missions in California. There is also a plaza and a statue of Our Lady of Pilar, Where the first Mass in the island was celebrated. 

Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre, the Patroness of Cuba

In restoring the old city, the government is looking to prepare for a jump in the tourist industry. Right now, the largest group of people visiting Cuba are from Canada. The second largest group are Cuban Americans since the government has opened up somewhat and is allowing Americans to visit their relatives there. It is very difficult for other Americans to visit Cuba, and it requires a special license from the State Department.

We had interesting meetings with representatives of the government. We discussed how relations between our two countries might improve. We talked about people’s attitudes toward the embargo.

We also spoke about the issue of political prisoners. I raised the question of Dr. Oscar Biscet who has been imprisoned and sentenced to many years, ostensibly because of his opposition to abortion in Cuba.

For their part, the Cuban government wanted to make it known they are upset with the fact that some of the wives of five Cubans who were imprisoned in the U.S. in 2001 have not been given visas to visit their husbands.

So, we had substantial discussions about difficult topics but, all in all, I think that there has been some movement.

We visited the head of the U.S. Interests Section, Jonathan Farrar — a very fine Catholic and career diplomat. It was interesting to learn, though, that he cannot leave Havana and travel to the rest of the country in the same way that the Cuban Interests Section cannot leave Washington. We spoke about things like that that could be changed as gestures of good will.

With Jonathan Farrar

Part of the original memorial to the sinking of the USS Maine

Of course, the best way to describe the atmosphere in Cuba is one of uncertainty. People are concerned and anxious and do not know what the future is going to bring.

There have been attempts on the part of the U.S. government to lower the rhetoric in U.S.-Cuba relations. Meanwhile, the very uncomplimentary signs that used to hang in front of the U.S. Interests Section were recently ordered taken down by the Cuban government. These are both good signs of progress.

Obviously, the U.S. bishops and the Holy See have urged the lifting of the embargo many years ago. And we talked about the help that is given to the Cuban Church by the Catholics in the United States and our gratitude for that. The Catholics in Boston are really the most generous in support of these missions, which may have been one of the reasons I was asked to be part of this delegation.

I have been going to Cuba for the last 25 years at different intervals, and each time I have seen progress. Certainly, the watershed moment was the Holy Father’s visit. In fact, when I went back and visited the seminaries, 90 percent of the seminarians were converts, and they attributed their conversion to the Holy Father’s visit. The number of practicing Catholics is very limited. One of the things I raised with the government was the need for the Church to be able to build new churches in areas that have been developed since the time of the revolution where there are no places of worship.

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On Sunday, I had Mass for the Congolese community at St. Mary Parish in Lynn. Msgr. Paul Garrity accompanied us. We were so impressed by the college-aged men who served the Mass and the young women who formed the choir. The Mass was two hours and fifteen minutes in great part because of the singing. The whole service was very celebratory and a joy-filled expression of the Eucharist. I am very grateful to Jackie Kalonji who is the coordinator of that community.

They also had a wonderful meal afterwards and they gave me a beautiful statue of Our Lady made out of green stone from the Congo called malachite.

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This week we had an off-site retreat for our cabinet members to have an opportunity to plan and examine our priorities for the archdiocese. The question of evangelization was very central to our conversations as well. It was a very helpful session. We are so blessed to have such talented people on our cabinet.

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Yesterday we honored Sister Clare Bertero, the director of Religious Education, for her many decades of service that are so deeply appreciated.

We were delighted to see the outpouring of affection and regard for her, not only from the people of our archdiocese but also from DREs from other dioceses throughout New England who came to thank her and to celebrate this milestone in her life.

She will be greatly missed and we wish her well.

Last Saturday, on the Feast of the Assumption, we celebrated a wonderful event: the return of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration to the city of Boston for the first time in almost 40 years. We had a Mass at St. Clement Shrine in the Back Bay to mark the occasion.

As I have mentioned in the past, although we do have several churches in the Archdiocese where there is Perpetual Adoration, this is currently the only site in the city itself.

I have asked Tim Van Damm, one of the key organizers behind bringing Perpetual Adoration back to St. Clement’s, to share with you some of his thoughts on this important work. Tim is a very dedicated layman who has always been very generous with putting his time and talent at the service of the Church particularly with our Boston Catholic Men’s Conference. I thank Tim, the Oblates of the Virgin Mary and all those involved in this effort, which is sure to bring many graces to our Archdiocese!

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What is Eucharistic Adoration? Over the past few months, this question is one that I’ve been asked to explain to people ranging from a congregation of the faithful at a Sunday Mass to my A and P (Ashes and Palms) “Catholic” relatives, to my plaster guy who’s helping me fix up my house. I answer the question differently depending on whom I’m talking to.

When I’m speaking to the faithful, I tell them that Eucharistic Adoration is the moment of the Mass when the priest holds up the Eucharist for all to adore frozen in time. It’s as if the monstrance takes the place of the priest elevating the host and we stare in amazement at Our Lord.

When speaking to my relatives I remind them of the sun-shaped gold thing called a monstrance that they might have seen around Easter time or possibly when they were younger.

When I had the opportunity to speak to my plaster guy “Eddie”, we started with what the Eucharist was. I explained that when the priest prays over the bread and wine at the moment of consecration, that the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ.

Adoration is when we sit in front of the Eucharist and pray in the way we feel most comfortable. In fact, we’re not even required to pray. We can just sit there. Just by the very action of sitting in the presence of Christ, we are changed. Eucharistic Adoration doesn’t even require believing that you’re sitting in the presence of Christ, it just requires being there.

As Eddie and I sat in the dust bowl I call a dining room, I explained to him that even if he didn’t believe that the sun would change his skin if he spent a whole day in it, whether or not he believed was irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that his skin would be changed. The same is true with adoration. We as human beings are physical and spiritual. We can’t help but being changed when we’re in the presence of God.

Many of you know that St. Clement Eucharistic Shrine in the Back Bay recently kicked off Perpetual Adoration for the first time in over forty years. You may have seen the article in the Globe or The Pilot, you may have seen one of the billboards or a poster on the T or you may just have heard about it through word of mouth.

Had I heard about the start of Perpetual Adoration in another parish other than my own years ago, I probably would have said something like, “Oh, that’s nice” and then went about my day without giving it much more thought. However, had I done that I would have missed something huge. I would have missed that my Archdiocese, which had gone through a period of great hurt and tribulation, was now turning to the one and only guaranteed healer, the Lord.

By making the Lord present twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week we are saying that He’s completely in charge and we trust that His grace will bring a far greater good out of the hurt and suffering that we’ve suffered in the Archdiocese of Boston. We so often hear the phrase, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church”. What could be more true?

We need only look back to the persecution that the early Christians experienced to see the truth in this statement. These people were literally running for their lives, yet had they not been persecuted, one might wonder how quickly Christianity would have spread. In an attempt to wipe out the faith, it was as if wind was blowing on a wildfire and the results are evident.

I believe that God is doing the same thing in Boston. Young and old alike are coming together in prayer and faith to adore the Lord. The hurt that we have experienced has only ignited a passion to further spread the truth and bring others to the one true faith. By bringing the Lord twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week it’s as if we’ve just tapped into a nuclear reactor. We can’t possibly fathom the power that will flow out of the reactor of the monstrance holding the Living Lord.

The other day I had lunch with my sister. My sister is someone who grew up in the faith but is searching in her faith journey and isn’t a regular churchgoer. As we talked I gently encouraged her to stop by and just spend a few minutes meditating in the way she felt most comfortable at St. Clement’s. She told me that she was planning on doing so. She mentioned that she liked the fact that she could go and pray or just think and there was no pressure and nobody talking. I nodded, smiled, and internally prayed that she would go.

The truth is that I know the Lord will speak to her in the language that she understands if she sits in His presence. I’ve been inviting people left and right to stop by and just “check it out”. I even invited Gino, the shoe shine guy who sits at the corner of Mass. Ave & Boylston Street. Just like the woman who was hemorrhaging who knew that if she just touched the hem of Jesus’ clothes, she would be healed, I know that if I can just get a person to sit in the presence of the Lord, they will be healed and so will our whole city.

I invite you to do the same. Bring those you love to the spiritual well that now flows twenty-four, seven at St. Clement’s. Many of the people we know and love are spiritually dying and we have the solution. Our Lord and our God waits for them daily. Bring them to Him!

In Christ,

Tim Van Damm

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I’d also like to share my homily from the Mass with you:

Good morning everyone.

It is truly a glorious day when we can come together to celebrate our Blessed Mother’s triumph over death in her Assumption and to initiate once again this beautiful practice of Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament here at St. Clement’s. We are so grateful to Father Bill Brown, to the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, to Tim Van Damm, to the Sisters for having initiated this wonderful practice here at St. Clement’s, and to all of you for your commitment and love of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

Thirty-nine years ago this month, I celebrated my first Mass. It was the most remarkable experience of my life. I celebrated it in the convent of Poor Clares with the nuns that had Eucharistic Adoration night and day for over 100 years.

In the beautiful Basilica of Sacre Coeur in Paris, Perpetual Adoration was begun at the time of the Crimean War, and has been a constant for over a hundred years — during two World Wars, during Nazi occupation. In the midst of one of the most worldly parts of the city of Paris, Catholics are there night and day, worshipping, adoring the Blessed Sacrament.

Many years ago, when I wrote to Mother Teresa and asked her to send her sisters to our diocese in the West Indies, she wrote back announcing that the sisters were coming and she said, “And there will be one more tabernacle where the Lord will be worshipped.”

I’m sure that some of you may have seen the film, “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Indiana Jones is one of the icons of popular kitsch and his films are very entertaining. In that film he is looking for the Ark of the Covenant.

I think that most of us fail to appreciate what a precious treasure the Ark of the Covenant was in the history of salvation. God’s people gathered around the Ark. It was the source of their strength and the way they were assured of God’s presence among them.

I’ve seen in a couple of churches where they have built the tabernacle as a replica of the Ark of the Covenant, and I always think what a beautiful idea that is. Mary, for us, is the Ark of the Covenant — and in today’s Gospel we see her as the living tabernacle.

In the first lesson today, we read in the Apocalypse, “God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the Ark of the Covenant could be seen in the temple.” The Ark of the Covenant contained the tablets of the law, Aaron’s rod and samples of manna — the mysterious bread from heaven.

When Israel was about to enter the Promised Land, they were ordered to march through the Jordan River. When the priests’ feet touched the water — those priests who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant — the river was rolled back and Israel crossed as if on dry land. God’s people carried the Ark into battle. David danced before the Ark. They carried it in their sojourn in the desert. They kept it in the meeting tent, and over the Ark loomed the mysterious presence of Yahweh. When the Israelites were unfaithful they lost the Ark, and the Philistines carried it into their camp and placed it next to their idol, Dagon. The idol was smashed to smithereens in the presence of the Ark.

In the New Testament, Mary is portrayed symbolically as the Ark of the Covenant. She goes to Elizabeth’s house carrying the treasure in her womb — the new manna, the new priesthood, Christ the bread-come-down-from-heaven, our Messiah. Mary is the living tabernacle at the visitation. John the Baptist hears her voice as she says, “Shalom Aleichem”, “Peace be with you”, and he leaps for joy in Elizabeth’s womb like David dancing before the Ark of the Covenant.

In the apocryphal gospels, we read about the flight into Egypt, and they recount how, as Mary passed, the idols fell at her feet and were smashed like Dagon in the Philistines’ camp.

This same Mary accompanies us on our pilgrimage and in life’s battles. And now, the Ark of the Covenant that gave us the manna, the body of Christ, is in God’s temple in heaven. The Feast of the Assumption is a day of joy — God has won, love has won, love is stronger than death. We have a mother in heaven — Mary, full of grace, was taken body and soul into heaven. She is our mother. Jesus made her so when he said to his disciples on Calvary, “Behold your mother.” We have a mother in heaven. Heaven is open. Heaven has a heart.

In today’s Gospel, we hear Mary’s prayer, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” Mary just lives to have God praised and worshipped, adored and loved. She places all her trust in God’s loving care for us. She pleads that the hungry be filled with good things. Only the hungry will be filled. If we allow other hungers to overtake us that can extinguish our hunger for God, we will never be filled.

As we inaugurate this Perpetual Adoration of the Eucharist in this shrine, we do so on the great Marian Feast when we celebrate Mary as the Ark of the Covenant, leading us on our pilgrimage to our heavenly home. Mary, the living tabernacle who carried the body of Christ and then gave Christ’s body to us so that that body can become our Eucharist.

One of my favorite paintings of the Blessed Virgin is one that is in St. Mary’s Church, a beautiful Keely church, in Charlestown. On the back wall, the mural depicts John the beloved disciple, the apostle, giving Holy Communion to the Blessed Virgin.

In our Eucharistic devotion, we are like Mary, contemplating and pondering all of these things in our heart. The Eucharist is the magnet that draws us together, the scattered pieces into the one body of Christ.

In our chapel at the Pastoral Center, we call it Bethany. At Bethany, Mary sat at Jesus’ feet while Martha complained, but Jesus reminded her that only one thing is necessary. We too need to step away from the noise and the busyness of our lives and sit at Jesus’ feet and reflect on his words, his deeds, his love. At the time of Lazarus’ resurrection, Martha says to Mary, “The Master is here and is calling you.” Those words in Latin, “Magister adest et vocat te,” we have placed over the tabernacle. Jesus is present and he is calling us to take our burdens to him, to tell him our hurts and our hopes.

Today, as we celebrate this great feast of the Assumption, we recall Mary’s Immaculate Conception which was her mystical baptism that allowed her to be conceived without sin. Her life of grace leads to participation in the resurrection of Christ. In our case, we are conceived in sin, but our baptism becomes for us that moment when we are incorporated into the body of Christ. And if we live our faith like Mary, we will share in the resurrection.

The Eucharist is the food for the journey. The Ark of the Covenant, the meeting tent where we can adore the mysterious presence of our risen Lord. At the Last Supper, Jesus gives us a commandment and a gift. He washes the feet of the disciples and says, “I give you a new commandment: that you love one another as I love you.” And then Jesus gives us Communion: the nourishment to be able to love, especially the little ones, the blind, the lame and the halt.

The social dimension of Eucharist helps us to become the body of Christ, Jesus the risen Lord, serving his brothers and sisters. When Jesus finishes the first Eucharist, he goes to the Mount of Olives and he tells his disciples, “Watch and pray.”

Today we come here to St. Clement’s so that this church can be for us the Cenacle, Bethany and the Mount of Olives — where disciples will come to watch and pray, to be filled with Eucharistic amazement and the strength in their hearts to be able to love and serve each other the way that Jesus loves us. Amen.

On Friday, I met with Rev. Diane Kessler who joined me for lunch at the Pastoral Center.

For many years Rev. Kessler was the head of the Massachusetts Council of Churches. She is now a representative of the World Council of Churches to the Joint Working Group. The group was created after the Second Vatican Council and designed to foster relationships between the World Council of Churches and the Catholic Church.

Rev. Kessler is a leader from the ecumenical community and an old friend. She was visiting the Pastoral Center and discussing the state of ecumenical relations between the Catholic Church and the other Christian churches. An important part of our ministry is to work for the unity among Christians that Christ wants in His Church.  Diane is someone who has devoted her whole life to that quest. I was happy to be able to receive her for the first time at the Pastoral Center.

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Saturday morning we went to Arnold Hall, a retreat center in Pembroke, for a Mass and visit with the members of Opus Dei.

During my visit, I had a chance speak with Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, as well as Msgr. Thomas Bohlin, who is Vicar of Opus Dei for the U.S., and Father Peter Armenio from Chicago.

After that meeting, I celebrated Mass for a group of young men who are taking their summer courses at Arnold Hall. These are men who are numeraries of Opus Dei, laymen who have made commitments to live in a manner that will help them witness their faith to the people they meet in the course of their daily lives. Most of them are college students, graduate students and young professionals. It was very impressive to see how many vocations Opus Dei has.

In Opus Dei, most of the members do not take the private vows of poverty, chastity and obedience but the numeraries are the ones who do. The priests for Opus Dei are chosen out of the numeraries. They do not have a seminary, but all the numeraries receive the appropriate training and certain men are chosen to be ordained.

We stayed for lunch, and then we met with all of the young men. Many of them talked about their experiences and ministries. I was very taken by the apostolic zeal that was demonstrated in the stories that they told and how they are working to share their faith with their peers in the workplace, their schools, etc.

In today’s world where people talk about a vocations crisis, it is very encouraging to see the wonderful response to this way of life that has been approved by the Church and confirmed in the holiness of their founder, St. Josemaría Escrivá.

I think many people heard about the Opus Dei for the first time when the movie “The Da Vinci Code” came out. Although it was a very negative portrayal, it seems to have put Opus Dei on the map, as the say, at least in the United States.  In the end, it does not seem to have hurt the community but rather made them more well known.

John Allen, who writes for the National Catholic Reporter, wrote a very interesting book about Opus Dei, titled “Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church,” which I recommend to people who would like to know more about this way of life.

Of course, the writings of St. Josemaría are also very important, the most important being El Camino, which is a very easy read. It is almost like a book of sayings by the saint, organized according to themes.

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First thing on Sunday morning, I traveled to St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Lawrence where a youth group was returning from a service trip to the Diocese of San Juan de la Maguana in the Dominican Republic. They talked about the missions they visited down there and they sang a song that they had written about it. I asked the parish to send some of the photos of the work they did on the mission trip, and I want share them with you:

A chapel they are helping to build

They made donations of numerous supplies to a local nursing home there including hospital beds and these tables and chairs

Just to give you some sense of the area, this the town where the nursing home is located

All the pilgrims with the bishop of the diocese, Bishop Grullon

At the Mass, I addressed the people, thanking them for their deep faith and congratulating them on being the parish that regularly sends the most catechumens to the Rite of Election every year. I believe that demonstrates their great spirit and wonderful involvement of the laity in the life of the parish, particularly in the area of evangelization.

After the Mass, pastor Father Jorge Reyes, OSA invited me to meet the many different ministerial groups at the parish.

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From there, we went to Corpus Christi Parish at Holy Rosary Church in Lawrence, for Santo Cristo Feast Mass. This is my second Santo Cristo feast this year because we went to St. Anthony Parish in Cambridge earlier in the year. At Holy Rosary, they have a wonderful choir.

With the parents of Father Patrick Armano, Elia and Salvatore Armano, and my priest secretary, Father Jonathan Gaspar

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On Wednesday, I attended the 5th anniversary of the Vianney Priests Gathering. Every year the numbers have increased. This year, the turnout was wonderful. Father George Evans gave a conference on the Cure d’ Ars, which was followed by vespers at which I preached.

Then, we had a cookout and, luckily, the weather cooperated. It was overcast and cool, but very pleasant.

This is the Year for Priests and events like this give us an opportunity to reflect on the importance of our priestly fraternity, renewing our commitment to serve God’s people and being members of his presbyterate. We must also deepen our interior life.

There will be many activities during the course of the year in order to promote priestly identity and spirituality including an international retreat for priests in Ars, France and a seminar here at the seminary on the meaning and importance of celibacy for the Church.

I am very grateful to Father William Kelly for his work on ongoing formation for priests.

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Yesterday I went to Our Lady of Victory Church in Centerville and there presided over the reception of the body of Eunice Kennedy Shriver in an intimate ceremony with the pastor, Father Mark Hession, and the members of the Kennedy and Shriver families.

The parking lot was crowded with media trucks and people. The afternoon viewing afforded the opportunity for thousands of people to file through the church and pay their respects to this great Catholic woman.  I was happy to be able to be a part of this simple prayer service in which her family placed the pall and crucifix on her coffin, prayed and reflected on the Scripture.

I was very pleased to be able to see Sargent Shriver after so many years. With his Alzheimer’s, it was difficult to know exactly how much he understood of the day’s events and I did not know if he would recognize me.  It had been many years since I had last seen him, but I was very moved when he immediately kissed my ring.

I was touched by how solicitous the family was for him, especially Gov. Schwarzenegger, who is obviously a very devoted son-in-law.

Some of the Shriver children remembered the time I celebrated Mass for the Shrivers, Cesar Chavez and about 100 farm workers in their patio back in the 70s. The Shrivers were living in Maryland at the time and I was at the Centro Católico in Washington.  I joked with them, “I think we destroyed your garden!”

That work with the farm workers was just one more indication of the profound commitment of Eunice and Sargent Shriver to the social doctrine of the Church.   She was preeminently prolife, against abortion and there to protect and underscore the dignity of every person. This, of course, manifested itself in her love for children with disabilities.

In that regard, she reminds me very much of Jean Vanier who founded the L’Arche movement in Canada.  That movement was born out of the Church’s teachings on the dignity of every human person as a treasure made in the image and likeness of God and of our obligation to care for each other and to recognize the gift in each person.

Certainly, what Eunice Shriver did made a positive impact in so many ways and was a very strong witness of her Catholic faith.

Her sister, Rosemary, who was mentally retarded, opened up a whole reality that led Eunice to be such a pioneer and allowed her to make such a mark on history with the Special Olympics.  It has been my experience that when a family has a child with a mental disability or Down Syndrome, the siblings often learn more about compassion and understanding than they would have if they did have that exceptional child.

Rosemary was undoubtedly a great blessing in Eunice’s life who allowed her to discover, in faith and in love, the beauty of her sister. It was that relationship with Rosemary that was later extrapolated to all the children who experience similar types of challenges.

While Eunice’s works were remarkable, I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that her Catholic faith and education was a very important part of what motivated her and helped her to interpret reality, particularly the reality of disability and retardation.  I think this article by her son, Timothy Shriver, speaks volumes about the importance of her faith in her life. It was certainly the soil out of which grew her passion and dedication to the less fortunate and those who are challenged by disabilities and mental retardation.

- – -

Next week I will be heading off to Cuba with a delegation from the U.S. bishops to see how the Church in Cuba is recovering in the wake of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike last year.

I look forward to sharing my experiences with you when I return.

Until then, pray for me and know I will be praying for you.

- Cardinal Seán

Hello and welcome back!

Last Saturday, Archbishop Thomas Kwaku Mensah from Kumasi, Ghana visited us at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. He and a number of his priests and people were visiting our immigrant community from Ghana.

He is a neighbor to Cardinal Peter Turkson, also from Ghana, who is a very good friend of mine and used to help me when I was in the Virgin Islands.

We are very blessed by the African Catholics who have moved to the Bay State. Africa is the continent where the Church is growing the fastest, and the immigration to our country reflects that extraordinary growth in the life of the Catholic Church.

Within the archdiocese, we have communities of Catholics from Ghana, Nigeria, Congo and Uganda as well as the Ethiopian-Eritrean community at the cathedral itself.

There are so many whose arrival on our shores these last years have enriched the Church. So, we are very pleased we occasionally have the opportunity to greet their bishops. We are also very pleased that the bishops from their home countries feel a responsibility and a link to the immigrant communities that are forming here.

During his visit, Archbishop Mensah thanked me for the support his diocese has received through the mission appeals that are done in our parishes. He has had his priests preach at our parishes, and the Catholics of Boston have been very generous to him.

- – -

Sunday Aug. 2 is the Feast of the Portiuncula in Assisi, Italy, and it is also the anniversary of my ordination as a bishop.

This church is considered, in many ways, the mother church of the Franciscan order. It is where St. Francis held the chapters, the meetings of the friars; it is where St. Clare took her vows; it is where St. Francis chose to die.

The Portiuncula is a very tiny chapel and, in order to preserve it, the large Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels has been built on top of it. So it looks a bit funny when you go into the basilica and find another church inside.

The Portiuncula

The basilica

In this photo you can see how the Portiuncula looks almost like a playhouse inside the basilica

The Franciscan friars still pay the rent on the Portiuncula, which actually belongs to the Benedictines. For nearly 800 years, we have been paying one basket of fish a year. I always say that it is the greatest example of rent control in the history of the world!

Those in the Boston area who have never seen the original may be interested to know that Cardinal Richard Cushing built a magnificent replica of the Portiuncula in Hanover at the Cardinal Cushing Centers.  In fact, he chose the chapel as his final resting place.

Cardinal Cushing at the chapel’s original dedication

He was so dedicated to detail that even made sure that all the materials that went into building it came from Assisi

The interior and exterior of the replica Portiuncula in Hanover as it exists today

An interesting fact related to the Portiuncula is the story of the Portiuncula Indulgence.

St. Francis was anxious for people to be able to receive the same indulgences and blessings that they would receive had they been able to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. So he went to the pope and requested that those indulgences and blessings be attached to a visit to the Portiuncula. This was called the Portiuncula Indulgence and the feast became known as the “Perdono d’ Assisi”, the Pardon of Assisi.

That privilege was later extended to all Franciscan chapels and churches. After the Second Vatican Council, it was extended even further to include a visit to any parish church on that day, as long as the usual requirements for a plenary indulgence are fulfilled: going to Confession, receiving Communion, and praying for the intentions of the Holy Father.

The Holy Father made reference to this in his Sunday Angelus address:

… today is the feast of the "Pardon of Assisi," which St. Francis obtained from Pope Honorious III in the year 1216, after having a vision while he was praying in the little church of the Portiuncula. Jesus appeared to him in his glory, with the Virgin Mary on his right and surrounded by many Angels. They asked him to express a wish and Francis implored a "full and generous pardon" for all those who would visit that church who "repented and confessed their sins". Having received papal approval, the Saint did not wait for any written document but hastened to Assisi and when he reached the Portiuncula announced the good news: "Friends, the Lord wants to have us all in Heaven!". Since then, from noon on 1 August to midnight on the second, it has been possible to obtain, on the usual conditions, a Plenary Indulgence, also for the dead, on visiting a parish church or a Franciscan one.

I want to mention something about indulgences, which are often misunderstood.  Indulgences are not forgiveness for sin but forgiveness for temporal punishment due to sin.

I like to explain it to people with the following story:

As a child, once I came home very late for dinner. My mother was very upset, and seeing how upset she was, I felt very repentant and I told her that it would never happen again. She told me she forgave me, but as my punishment I would have to do the dishes.

So there was repentance and forgiveness, but there was still punishment.

But, as I started doing the dishes, my nana came in and said, “I will help you.”

That is an indulgence.

God loves us and he forgives us, but in His justice there is still some punishment for sin. The indulgence is when the merits and the sufferings of Jesus and the saints are applied to that punishment. The Portiuncula Indulgence is a wonderful symbol of that.

Because of the great importance of this feast, I chose August 2 for my ordination when I was appointed a bishop 25 years ago.

I was ordained at the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. It was the first time anyone had been ordained a bishop there. The custom in the past had been that bishops would be ordained in their hometown, and then sent off and installed, particularly in missionary places and places that were farther away. For example Bishop Edward Harper, who ordained me, was a Redemptorist who had been ordained at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Brooklyn and then installed in St. Thomas.

However, Cardinal James Hickey, who was our metropolitan, suggested that it would be a good introduction to have the ordination in the Virgin Islands and I was very pleased that I did.

My co-consecrators were Cardinal Hickey and Bishop Eugene Marino, who at that time was the auxiliary bishop of Washington.

Many of my family, friends and parishioners from Washington joined us with the people of the Virgin Islands. It was a wonderful celebration — a bit warm in the tropical heat of August — but a very happy celebration.

- – -

I marked the 25^th anniversary of my episcopal ordination on Sunday with a public Mass at St. Patrick Parish in Natick. The pastor there, Father Brian Kiely, had been the rector of our cathedral in the Virgin Islands.

I was very happy to go to his parish and celebrate on my anniversary. The parishioners were very gracious, the musical program was outstanding and we had an opportunity to greet the parishioners at the parish hall afterwards.

  Father Kiely

- – -

Then in the evening of this very important Franciscan feast, I went for  vespers and dinner with the Franciscan friars at Arch Street.

They had a lovely cake for me and gave me a nice gift.

- – -

On Monday, we headed off to Phoenix for the Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus. I try to attend that every year.

From Boston, Bishops Allue and Hennessey attended along with many of our knights, their families and some of our priests, including Father Tom Rafferty who is now Associate State Chaplain.

All the Massachusetts bishops with the state officers

With the Boston priests before opening Mass

Bishop Hennessey, Father Bob O’Grady and Father Charles Connolly at Clergy Luncheon following opening  Mass

Receiving an anniversary gift from the Mass State Council

CatholicTV provided full coverage of the convention

The Knights of Columbus is the largest Catholic fraternal organization in the world, founded by the Venerable Father Michael  McGivney, whose cause has been presented for canonization.

Father McGivney

He was a priest in Hartford, Connecticut and founded the Knights to help, particularly immigrant, Catholics by providing aid to the widows and orphans of workers who had difficult and dangerous occupations and often were injured or lost their lives. In those days, there weren’t the kinds of insurance or social safety nets that we have today.

Father McGivney, in a very creative and compassionate plan, came up with an organization to deal with those very real material needs of the immigrants and, at the same time, to deepen their Catholic formation and commitment to the life of the Church.

As Supreme Knight Carl Anderson said in his address, men become Knights of Columbus to become better Catholics, better husbands, better fathers and better citizens.

That is certainly the effect that it has on the membership. We are very, very grateful for all that the Knights of Columbus do supporting their parishes, supporting family life, promoting vocations and defending the gospel of life and the institution of marriage.

I would like to take this opportunity to encourage the men of the archdiocese to become involved in the Knights of Columbus and to promote it in their parishes. I would also like to ask our priests to promote the parish councils, which are such a wonderful source of vitality for the Church.

Carl Anderson gave a magnificent address in his report.

He talked about health care and insisted that the health care plan needs to be abortion free. He invited the knights to be vigilant and support health plans that help the poor and clearly communicate to our government that any health care reform must respect the most very basic right of all — the right to life. He also documented many of the achievements of the Knights of Columbus, particularly the tremendous support they have given to seminarians, novices and postulants, particularly in this Year for Priests, the theme of the convention was standing with the Holy Father in support of our priests and bishops.

At the opening banquet, Bishop Thomas Olmsted, the bishop of Phoenix, read from the letters of Father Eusebio Kino, the great missionary whose statue is in the rotunda of the U.S. Capital.

Bishop Olmsted

Quoting about what he found in Arizona when he arrived there — the insects, the reptiles and the animals as well as the plants with their thorns — were very hostile, but he said there is no where he would rather have been. He commented on the dry heat — and it certainly was hot at 114 degrees — but the people in Arizona love it and the city has grown considerably in the last few years.

As always, there was a wonderful opportunity for the knights and their families to gather and see the tremendous growth in the order, not only in the United States but in the Philippines, Canada, Poland, Cuba and Mexico.

- – -

After nearly seven years of service, the Office of Child Advocacy’s Implementation and Oversight Advisory Committee had its last business meeting in February and I hosted a luncheon meeting on Thursday at the Pastoral Center to convey my gratitude for all their support and hard work.

The advisory committee is a group of volunteer lay professionals who have generously given of their time and talent by meeting monthly since 2003 to assist the archdiocese’s child abuse prevention efforts.

Members of the committee represent a great diversity of professional, clinical, educational, and research backgrounds on the tremendously complex issues of child abuse and its prevention in our society.

Among its many important works, the committee assisted with writing and the review of the archdiocese’s “Policies and Procedures for the Protection of Children” and the “Code of Ministerial Behavior”. They also helped to develop Child Abuse Prevention Teams in every parish and cluster; oversaw an alignment of the children’s safety curricula with the archdiocese’s Religious Education Curriculum Guidelines; assisted in the conversations with the major publishers of religious education texts to produce alignment documents between the child safety program and their curricula; completed and delivered “Children First,” the first two-year assessment of the archdiocese’s policies and procedures; and successfully developed a pilot program for assessing effectiveness of the archdiocese’s programs for child protection and abuse prevention.

These accomplishments have helped the archdiocese to create model education and abuse prevention programs, and served to make the schools and parishes safer environments for our children than ever before.

The members of committee include the chair, Dr. Mary Jane Doherty, special assistant to the President of Regis College; Dr. Craig Latham, a certified forensic psychologist, juvenile court clinician and founder of the Latham Consulting Group, LLC; Rev. Dr. Cynthia Crossen-Tower, an educator, psychotherapist, consultant, and noted author; Robert Gittens, Esq., Vice President for Public Affairs at Northeastern University; Ginny Lucey, RN,  family outreach coordinator for the Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach; and Father Arthur Coyle, Episcopal Vicar for the Merrimack Region.

Several others served on the committee over its long tenure including Suzin Bartley, executive director of the Children’s Trust Fund and Member of the Commission for the Protection of Children; Jack Miller, the director of programs at Massachusetts Children’s Trust Fund; and Susan Getman, the former deputy commissioner of the Mass. Department of Social Services and former regional administrator of the Mass. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

Our staff liaisons to the committee were Deacon Anthony Rizzuto, the director of the Office of Child Advocacy, Implementation and Oversight; and Robert Kelley the special assistant to the director and former regional director of the Mass. Department of Social Services.

I thank them all for their dedication to this very important work.

- – -

Finally, I want to invite everyone join us on Aug. 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption, for the 11 a.m. Mass at St. Clement Eucharistic Shrine to mark the start of perpetual adoration in Boston for the first time in 40 years.

One of the posters used to promote the launch of the adoration

We are very grateful to the Oblates of the Virgin Mary for sponsoring this and to all the young adults and others who have been involved in promoting the effort.

While there are other places in the archdiocese that have perpetual adoration, such as St. Patrick’s in Natick where we had Mass this past week, this will actually be the only site within the city of Boston.

This is a wonderful service and witness to the entire faith community, and we urge everyone to be conscious of it, promote it and when they are in the area, visit the shrine.

Until next week, blessings to you all!

- Cardinal Seán

I’d like to share with you a reflection I prepared for our diocesan newspaper, The Pilot, for their special issue on my anniversary.

It was a very moving experience for me to be called to this service in the Church. It has been 25 years of a great adventure, for which I am very grateful. I ask the Lord’s forgiveness for my shortcomings and for help so that I may be a better shepherd in the future.

Since this is a significant anniversary, I have been asked to talk about the ministry of a bishop. Although I have been a bishop for 25 years, I do not consider myself an expert. I am still learning in the saddle. Had I known I was going to be a bishop, I would have studied much harder in the seminary.

At 19 I joined the Capuchin Order and was eventually ordained a priest in 1970. As a deacon I had been told I was to be a missionary in Easter Island, but before my priestly ordination, Cardinal O’Boyle asked my Provincial to leave me in Washington to work with the Hispanic immigrants. I began the week that I was ordained and did not say Mass in English, except very rarely, until I became a bishop in the West Indies.

At 39 years of age, I was not a canon lawyer, not Roman trained, not a chancery worker, the last thing I expected was to be named a bishop. After I received the news from Archbishop Hickey there was a total eclipse of the sun, which I was at a loss as how to interpret. The friars said — he was never a guardian, never a provincial — the stone rejected by the builders has been made the cornerstone. When I was informed that I was to be bishop, I was not permitted to tell anyone but I had to go to the Father Guardian and ask permission to go to the Virgin Islands to be there for the announcement. I was a wreck. I thought, what will I say if the Superior asks me why I want to travel to the Virgin Islands? Strangely enough, he gave me permission immediately. (Later I told him, “I would never give you permission had I been your superior.”)

When I arrived on St. Thomas I was 30 years younger than the youngest priest and the only Capuchin. One old Redemptorist told me — “we don’t go crazy, we just get colorful” — and he was colorful.

Preaching at the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul

Bishop Harper welcoming me as bishop upon his retirement

We traveled between the islands by seaplane and it was terrifying. The first week on the job I went down to the port and stood in line nervously waiting to get on the seaplane. Suddenly the pilot appeared with a chart and asked the large West Indian women in front of me — “Miss how much do you weigh?” She said, “90 lbs.” He then asked me, “Bishop how much do you weigh? I replied, “300 lbs.”

The diocese had a total budget of $30,000 per annum. It was money sent from the ABCM — American Board of Catholic Missions. It gives you an insight into the importance of our second collections.

This was my chancery. The building is now used by Catholic Charities

I was there almost nine years and came to love the people very much. The singing and joy of the liturgies was something I have never experienced anywhere else. During my time there I participated in the Antilles Bishops Conference — that was part of CELAM and consisted of 17 different countries — the French, Dutch and English-speaking islands and the mainland nations of Belize in Central America and Cayenne (known for Devil’s Island), Surinam and Guyana (famous for Jonestown) in South America.

During my tenure in the islands, the biggest challenge was Hurricane Hugo that destroyed much of the diocese. We were six months without water, electricity and phones. For days we survived on coconut milk. There was no TV for a year. Public schools were closed for two years. We opened the Catholic schools in tents in about three weeks.

The bishop’s residence that was destroyed by Hurricane Hugo

During that time I began to do seminary visitations in Latin America. I eventually visited about 20 seminaries. I received an inquiry from the Vatican asking me if I would be willing to become the Bishop of Machiques in Venezuela — an Apostolic Vicariate of the Capuchins near the Amazon region. I said that I would be glad to go. Shortly thereafter I received a letter from the Holy See naming me Bishop of Fall River, Massachusetts. I felt like “wrong way Corrigan.” This was in 1992 and the Porter case had just broken during the interregnum and the diocese was in havoc because of this terrible pedophile predator who had abused hundreds of small children. I was in Fall River 10 years speaking Portuguese and it was a good fit.

The installation in Fall River

A few photos from my time in Fall River

In 2002, I was sent to Palm Beach to replace two bishops who had been removed, one after another, for sexual abuse of minors. My first week there I was finger printed and at the press conference one of the reporters asked me if I was a pedophile.

My installation in Palm Beach

The 2003 March for Life in Washington

After 10 months the diocese began to calm down. My family took me out to dinner on my birthday, June 29. The phone rang. It was Archbishop Montalvo telling me that the pope wanted me to be Archbishop of Boston. I dropped the cell phone on the ground. I thought I really need to get caller ID on this thing. I was told that I was to be installed as soon as possible. I was numb.

Arriving in Boston for the first time

Facing the Boston media

The climate in Boston could not have been more negative. One newspaper reported, O’Malley gets a fixer upper.” At that point I doubted that all the king’s horses and all the king’s men would be able to pick up the pieces. For starters there was a shocked and angry flock that was horrified and profoundly disappointed with the Church. The priests were very hurt and embarrassed. The victims and their families were indignant and devastated.

The archdiocese was in economic free fall. There was an annual operating deficit of $15 million, the archdiocese owed the Knights of Columbus $35 million, the Catholic hospitals were losing $30 million a year, many parishes and schools could not pay their bills, the lay pension fund was failing, the priest pension fund was failing and there were 1,000 law suits against us. I told the priests that I used to think that a vow of poverty meant that you did not own anything but that was before I owed hundreds of millions of dollars to impatient creditors.

I have often been scandalized by the thought that a bishop might be angling to get a larger or more prestigious diocese. Small is good. We need to bloom where we are planted. It has been my fate to be transplanted to four dioceses — I am certainly one of the few bishops to have four dioceses. Before coming to Boston, my Provincial commenting on my ministry in vacation spot dioceses like the Virgin Islands, Cape Cod, and Palm Beach asked me when I was going to get a real job. At my installation as Archbishop of Boston, I asked him, “Does this count?”

Serving in four very different dioceses has been a very special grace, an opportunity to experience the catholicity of the Church. I have grown to love each of the four dioceses where I have been privileged to serve. The great thing about being in so many different places, is to be able to experience the beauty of our Catholic faith lived out generously by devoted priests, deacons, religious and laity in very different settings.

It is the same Eucharist that draws us together, the same love for the Lord, His Blessed Mother and His Saints and His Church. It is the same mission that Christ has entrusted to us to make His Kingdom more visible, to build a civilization of love.

In every diocese where I have served, I have seen beautiful Catholic families devoted to the ideals of the Gospel. I have seen our people caring for the sick and the poor, living the works of mercy, bearing the cross of suffering with courage and hope. Everywhere I have seen how our people love our Church and our traditions. I am edified by the pastoral zeal of our clergy and religious and extraordinary lay leadership.

In each of my dioceses I have looked forward to spending the rest of my life among the people of that diocese. I would never have imagined that I would be called to serve in so many different places. I have been enriched by each local Church where I have served. I thank God for the call and ask for His Grace to be able to serve His people better.

As I look back at 25 years as a bishop, I am filled with awe and gratitude to be given such a responsibility, despite my shortcomings. There have been many challenges, but also many graces, so many joys. Confirming our young Catholics, ordaining priests and deacons, gathering for diocesan celebrations like the Chrism Mass, experiencing the vibrancy of our parishes, diocesan organizations, apostolic moments, the seminaries, the dedicated religious, deacons, diocesan and parish staff is a source of joyful hope. The help I receive from the auxiliary bishops, vicar general, secretaries, cabinet members, staff, lay leaders and volunteers is such a great assistance and allows me to minister to the vast Catholic community of the archdiocese. Without you, I could do nothing.

In this year for the priest, I ask for the prayers of our Catholic community. Know that you are in my prayers each day. Together let us continue to announce the Good News of God’s love and invite others to be a part of Christ’s Family. Let us strive to be what the Lord is calling us to be and to live our Catholic Faith in love and joy. “For all that has been, Thank you Lord, for all that will be, Yes Lord, Yes.”

- – -

Earlier this week I was in Dallas with Bishop Bob Hennessey attending a workshop for bishops based on the Good Leaders, Good Shepherds program.

Celebrating Mass with the bishops participating in the conference

Good Leaders, Good Shepherds is a two-year program developed by the Catholic Leadership Institute which helps priests take leadership principles from the business world and apply them to their ministry.

CLI was founded by Tim Flanagan, whose brother, Father Brian Flanagan, was one of my priests in Palm Beach. This is how I first heard of this program. Father Bill Dickinson, from the Diocese of Cleveland, is CLI’s national director and Matthew Manion is president and CEO.

For priests and bishops, ongoing formation is a very important part of our lives in ministry. We cannot depend on what we learned in the seminary, but we must constantly be updating ourselves and trying to learn new and better ways to serve God’s people.

Good Leaders, Good Shepherds is one of the most outstanding instruments of the ongoing formation for priests I have seen. Over 50 priests in our archdiocese have been involved in the program and it has been very well received.

Now, they are beginning a program for lay leadership among parish staffs in the archdiocese as well as the workshop for bishops.

The workshop itself was held in something of an unusual place — not a place I otherwise would have seen — called The Cooper Institute.

It is sort of a health center founded by a physician, Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper, whose whole thrust has been preventive medicine – the idea of treating people while they are healthy people to prevent them from getting sick. He said that our health care here in the United States is too much health care, too late. I must say, being here has helped remind me that I need to constantly stress, to all priests, the importance of taking care of their health!

The workshop has been a very enlightening and interesting experience having the opportunity of being with other bishops from around the country and to have a greater understanding of ourselves and how we can relate with others. It has helped me to appreciate why our priests in Boston are so enthused about the Good Leaders, Good Shepherds program.

Until next week, blessing to you all!

- Cardinal Seán

The Governor and the Legislature in the commonwealth face excruciatingly difficult choices this week. Final decisions about the budget bring together the fact of an economy in deep recession, declining state revenues and multiple human needs among the citizens of the commonwealth. Those human needs — for nutrition, housing and health care — must be a high priority for the Church and its ministry.

Our agencies — Catholic Charities, the Caritas Health Care System and the Office of Planning and Urban Affairs — are stretched to the limit these days, but that is the work we should be doing.

A particular issue of concern to me is the possibility that funding for health coverage for 28,000 legal immigrants may be cut in whole or in part. The Church, through Catholic Charities and through our parishes, is in direct and regular service of the immigrant community.

My hope and my request is that a way can be found to sustain health coverage for these legal members of our community. Their resources are few and their support system is always stretched thin. The commonwealth has done a very commendable job of providing health care to the citizens of Massachusetts. It would be a tragic mistake to let these 28,000 members of our community lose access to the precious good of health care.

- – -

Each year Communion and Liberation organizes a symposium on education, which is one very important theme in the teachings and writings of CL’s founder, Father Luigi Giussani, who was himself a great educator.

Father Giussani began the movement in the late 1960s, seeking to mend the erosion of faith in Italy. He reached out to young people, inspiring them to develop personal relationships with Jesus Christ through three pillars: culture, charity and mission. The Vatican recognized Communion and Liberation as a lay association in 1982, and it can now be found in nearly 80 countries around the world.

On Sunday, I was able to have Mass for the group. The keynote address was delivered by Christopher Bacich, the leader of Communion and Liberation in the U.S.

The Boston community was founded 20 years ago. We are very blessed to have the presence of the Communion and Liberation movement in the archdiocese — both priests who belong to the fraternity of St. Charles Borromeo, as well as consecrated laymen in the Memores Domini.

- – -

Later that day, I had a visit from the Paraguayan ambassador and his wife, Eladio and Elizabeth Loizaga. They were finishing their term of eight years at the United Nations.

As they prepared to return to Paraguay, they asked to come visit me in Boston. They had been parishioners of mine when they were first married and worked in the embassy in Washington, D.C. I baptized their children and they were involved in marriage preparation there. I understand their children are still very active in the parish.

I was very pleased to hear that he is still playing soccer with the diplomats from the United Nations, including Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations!

- – -

On Monday, I had a meeting at the cathedral with the presidents of the Catholic colleges and universities in the area to discuss ways of working together to strengthen Catholic education in the archdiocese. I wanted to thank them for the help they are giving to Catholic schools and to talk about the kind of support we are looking for going forward.

With us were Sister Janet Eisner of Emmanuel College, Father William Leahy of Boston College, Dr. Mary Jane England of Regis College, Father Mark Cregan of Stonehill College and Dr. Ronald Champagne of Merrimack College as well as our secretary of education, Mary Grassa O’Neill, and several members of her office.

We talked about forming a “Catholic Education Strategic Alliance” which would allow our 135 Catholic schools to benefit from the expertise of the faculty at our local Catholic colleges. Meanwhile, the colleges will be able to deepen their commitment to ensuring the future of high quality Catholic education from pre-K through graduate school.

Our goal is to have the alliance formed and active within the next six months.

- – -

That same day, I met with the consul general of Portugal, Paulo Cunha Alves. He has just arrived at this new post, and it is certainly a very important consular position for Portugal because of the large number of immigrants in New England, particularly from the Azores. He brought me a lovely book about Portuguese culture.

- – -

On Tuesday evening, I attended a men’s group Holy Hour at St. Therese Carmelite Chapel in the North Shore Mall in Peabody.

There was a wonderful turnout. The men participated in adoration, confession, conferences and we ended with benediction.

As I told the men, it is my ardent desire that the Boston Catholic Men’s Conference will help us to form men’s prayer groups like this — where they can come together and learn about the faith as well as support each other in a life of prayer and in their vocations as husbands and fathers.

Father Herb Jones is the superior of the Carmelites, and the Carmelite friars have been running that chapel for 50 years. It is one of the chapels that Cardinal Cushing started.

That’s Father Herb on the left

- – -

The following day, I attended a luncheon to honor Msgr. Jim Tierney who, for 19 years, has headed up Regina Cleri. It was a chance to publicly acknowledge his fine work and thank him.

The staff presented him with a lovely clock as a gift.

Regina Cleri is a wonderful community for our retired priests, and Msgr. Tierney served them with such dedication and a real sense of fraternity, which has truly made it a home for the residents who are there. He will continue to live there in his own retirement.

We are very grateful for the good work of Stephen Gust, who is serving as interim director, and also Covenant Health Care, run by the Grey Nuns, which is helping us to administer Regina Cleri.

- – -

Thursday, I was honored to receive the Seven Seals Award from the Massachusetts Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve.

The Seven Seals Award is the highest state award given from the group, which is a component of the Department of Defense. The award is given in recognition of significant and enduring support of the Guard and Reserve.

The Archdiocese of Boston has a rich tradition of support for our armed services and continues to provide chaplains to minister and provide the sacraments to those who serve our country.

I am grateful to, and proud of, all of the chaplains who have served in this capacity, both past and present.

Joining us for this event were representatives from the ESGR and several Boston priests who have served as chaplains for our troops: Msgr. John McDonough, Father Dan Hickey, Father Ed Condon and Father Richard Erikson. They are representatives of the many priests who provide spiritual care for those in the armed forces. I pray that God continues to bless all of our troops and the military chaplains who care for them.

Members of the ESRG show Msgr. McDonough the Seven Seals Award

Father Dan Hickey, who served as a chaplain to troops in Vietnam

Until my next post.

In Christ

Cardinal Seán

But before I leave you with Father Campo’s account of his first experiences as a priest in Franklin, I want to share with you the following photos I just received from the Regina Cleri’s 4^th of July picninc.

I was told it was a great success under the direction of Stephen Gust, the newly named Interim Director of Regina Cleri and Father James McCune, recently named chaplain for the retired priests of the Archdiocese and the priests living at Regina Cleri. 

Looking at the cake below and the community spirit that was evident among the residents and guests, I regret not having been there, but unfortunately I was out of town at the time.

  
Cook David Oliva made a homemade cake
in the design of the American flag. 

Now, as promised, I leave you with Father Campos’s remarks:

The day of Father Campo’s ordination to the priesthood

- – -

Since I arrived at St. Mary’s in Franklin a little over a month ago as the new parochial vicar and indeed as a new priest, the church and town have captivated me.

The late Giaconda “Jackie” Cataldo used to say there is no better place to live than Franklin and there is no better church anywhere than St. Mary’s, save for St. Peter’s in Rome. Originally a native of Italy, Jackie became one of the matriarchs of Franklin.  She was certainly a very convincing lady.

Any new priest has a certain amount of anxiety about his first assignment. On Memorial Day, as I drove down Main Street which forms a promenade to St. Mary’s, a calmness overcame me as I was struck by the commanding view of the church.

At the same moment, I noticed a prominent shrine to St. Therese of Lisieux on the left front lawn of the church. St. Therese, the Little Flower, has long been my patron saint. She is also the patron of my 2009 class from Blessed John XXIII Seminary in Weston. Thus, I knew instantly Therese was taking charge.

A few moments later, I sat with Father Brian Manning, the new St. Mary’s pastor, yet a seasoned pastor of considerable wit, compatibility, and experience. After that, my new priest anxiety was mostly gone.

Giving God’s Blessing after the ordination

It disappeared entirely when I met the St. Mary’s parishioners and staff, who form a true parish family: active, committed, faithful to the Church’s liturgy, welcoming, emanating Christian graciousness and joy at its finest. Whether it be a delicious dish of trippa (tripe) or ricotta pie arriving at the parish, or an array of other kind gestures, Jackie Caltado’s observation that Franklin is a gem of a town and St. Mary’s a jewel of a Church becomes more and more convincing.

Father Brian Manning, Pastor, with parishioners Donald and Betty Ranieri

St. Mary’s, one of the busiest parishes in the Archdiocese, has the full and undivided attention of Father Brian and myself. We regret not having been able to meet long-time parishioners such as Jackie Cataldo before they were called home by the Lord. However, we have been able to preach at their funerals and have to come to know them in a special way, through the light of eternity.

Speaking with Ed and Joan Cannon, parents of two other Boston priests, Fathers Richard and Ken Cannon

The joy of administering the sacraments — especially as a new priest — creates a sort of unreality which is, in actuality, the greatest of realities. Baptisms, weddings, reconciliation, anointing, as well as funerals, visiting hospitals, nursing homes, private homes, attending civic events and ecumenical gatherings are Father Brian’s and my overall service to the parish of St. Mary’s. Above all, of course, is the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which leaves one in wordless wonderment. As a new priest, I feel that the Lord is truly spoiling me by giving me the gift of the priesthood.

Celebrating my first Mass at St. Bridget in Framingham

One of the questions that parishioners ask me is what seminary course, in particular, has had the most influence in me. I respond that all the courses at Blessed John XXIII are influential; however, liturgical singing is particularly striking to me and immediately relevant. As 4^th year seminarians we were taught how to sing various parts of the Mass in an impeccable liturgical manner. Msgr. Francis Strahan, a consummate pastor and musician of St. Bridget’s in Framingham, teaches the course. It is putting into practice St. Augustine’s famous saying, “Those who sing, pray twice.” The parishioners have kindly voiced their approval of my humble attempts to sing the sacred melody, the various acclamations, prefaces and the like of the Mass, even the highest prayer of praise and sacrifice, the words of the consecration.

Meanwhile, the 31^th anniversary of St Rocco’s “festa” is fast approaching! Franklin is all aglow from August 13-16, the high-water mark of the festival. The opening Mass is on the 9^th. It is well-known that any trip to Italy should be postponed for those days, for Italy comes to Franklin during the festival.

St. Rocco, the 13^th century saint and miracle worker who spared Italy from the worst ravages of the plague then rampant throughout Europe, is given due honor sacramentally and in festive celebrations. The Italian food, cooked to a degree of perfection during the St. Rocco’s Festival, is famous not only in the Archdiocese of Boston, but also in the adjoining dioceses of Worcester and Fall River.

Msgr. Strahan delivered the homily at my First Mass

The festivities are held on the grounds of the old convent of Bernadine nuns, and later the St. Joseph nuns, who served Franklin for so long, so lovingly, and so well. It all takes place a very short distance from the great St. Mary’s itself in the great town of Franklin. 

Jackie Cataldo, the best publicist of church and town, was indeed a very convincing lady.

An aerial view of
“the great St. Mary’s in the great town of Franklin”

- – -

Next week we will resume our regular postings, so stay tuned.

In Christ,

Cardinal Seán

Hello to you all!

I hope you had a wonderful Fourth of July holiday. It is always such a great opportunity to spend time with family and friends.

As I do every summer, I have asked two of our newly ordained priests to share their experiences with you.

This week we have a post by Father Huy Nguyen who came to Boston from Vietnam as a young boy and found his calling early on. Since his ordination Father Nguyen is serving at Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Holy Family and St. Peter Parishes in Dorchester.

Next week, we will hear from Father Frank Campo who serves at St. Mary Parish in Franklin. Father Campo’s journey to the priesthood began with his wife’s death nearly 20 years ago.

Let us pray for these men, all our newly ordained and all priests, particularly as we begin this Year for Priests. May God inspire more men to listen to the call of the Lord and, perhaps more importantly, have the courage to follow it.

- – -

“How can I repay the Lord for his goodness to me? The cup of salvation I will raise; I will call on the Lord’s name” (Psalm 116: 11-12).

“Father, can you please pray for my family?”

“Father, can you please offer a Mass for my parents?”

“Father, can you please hear my confession?”

Hearing these questions from the faithful Catholic Christians in just little over a month of being a priest is a great joy to me.

When I was studying to become a priest in the past six years, I was trained in celebrating these sacred sacraments piously. I was taught by many great priests and professors how to celebrate and explain these sacred sacraments to the faithful Christians in both theological and philosophical ways. I always thought that God was going to use me as an instrument to expedite His grace and blessing to His flock. However, I never imagined I would be on the other end as the priest celebrating the sacred sacraments. Being a recipient of God’s love and grace when I am celebrating the Holy Mass, hearing confessions, anointing the sick, and performing other sacred sacraments opened my eyes to my faith.

When I was a small boy, I immigrated to America with my whole family. With God’s grace, we settled in Massachusetts and lived right in front of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta Parish in Dorchester.

With the Cardinal and my parents

At age ten, I became an altar boy, serving daily Mass at St. Peter Church in Dorchester. Being close to the Eucharist when I was serving Mass and experiencing the feeling of being an immigrant, God truly showed and shaped my faith and life into a way that I could not think of or predict. It took many prayers and quiet times to realize what God wanted me to do in my life.

With family and friends after my ordination

I started to discern to become a priest when I was in high school. During these times, I was afraid and nervous. I wanted to become a priest, but the thought of becoming a priest and the big commitment made me feel unsure and not worthy. How could a little man like me, literally, with many weaknesses become a Priest of Jesus Christ forever? How could a poor sinner like me have the privilege to touch the Lord’s True Body and Blood?

The First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians declares: “God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God.” Reading many Sacred Scriptures passages like this gave me comfort and hope to join the priesthood. Moreover, talking to priests, hanging out with good and devout friends, and increasing my daily prayers had strongly and deeply nourished my vocation to priesthood.

My six years studying to become a priest at St. John’s Seminary was truly one of the greatest blessings from God I received. I had the chance to pray more, to study the teaching of the Catholic Church, and make many good friends sharing a common goal with me. I also had the opportunity to witness and greet many faithful Catholic Christians during my pastoral assignment. The elderly, the young, the homebound, the sick, and others showed me that God’s love for his people is boundless.

With all the studying, training, and preparations for my priesthood, I still cannot describe how powerful and overwhelming God’s grace and blessing are. When Cardinal Seán O’Malley, laid his hands on me on May 23, 2009, my life ontologically changed.

I have the faculty to celebrate Mass. I can hear confessions and celebrate other sacred sacraments. Seeing many faithful parishioners going to Mass daily and endlessly reaching out to help the Church makes me strive to become a more holy priest. Hearing Catholic Christians confessing their sins with true sorrow makes me realize that my own call to holiness is still a long way to perfection. More amazingly, assigned by the Cardinal to come back home to serve two of the three parishes where I first grew up over 20 years ago really strikes my heart and is a dream come true.

Celebrating my first Mass

“How can I repay the Lord for his goodness to me?”

If God has overwhelmingly shown His grace, goodness, and love for me right now and in the past month of my priesthood, I certainly cannot imagine what He will have for me if I stay faithful, raise the cup of Salvation, and call on the Lord’s name in all the days of my life.

On Thursday, there was a dinner at the Boston College Club to honor our senior priests, with special recognition to Msgr. James Tierney for all his service as the head of Regina Cleri.

The dinner is an annual event sponsored by the BC Club and the Order of Malta. This year, there were about 70 senior priests who were able to attend. We are so grateful to Jack Joyce and Jim O’Connor who are the moving forces behind this very beautiful event.

It turned out we actually had lovely weather for this event (an anomaly in Boston these days) so the view was spectacular as you can see in the background of some of the photos.

Bob Crane and the Treasury Notes provided entertainment, along with a wonderful group of bagpipers.

We even had a guest appearance by Boston’s own Irish Tenor: Billy Bulger.

The Treasury Notes gave me a gift of a washboard (the type they play with thimbles). Well, we had a visiting bishop from Uganda with us, Bishop Paul Ssemwogere, and he didn’t seem to know what to make of this gift!

As we were leaving the party, we were able to greet Father Tom Regan who was dining with the new Jesuit provincial, Father Miles Sheehan, in another part of the club. It is always good to see them.

- – -

On Friday, there was a Mass at St. John’s Seminary and a dinner to charter a new Serra Club for Boston.

For those who may not be familiar with the organization, its purpose is a very simple but important one: to support priests and promote vocations to the priesthood.

We are hoping that promotion of priestly vocations and vocation recruitment will be a very important part of the Year for Priests.

Serra Club takes its name from Blessed Junipero Serra, a Franciscan priest who founded a number of California missions in the 18th century.

I have always had a special spot in my heart for them. My dad joined Serra in 1960 and was a very active member his whole life.

The first president of the Boston club is Loretta Gallagher, who worked very closely with our Director of Vocations, Father Dan Hennessey on establishing the new chapter.

Loretta Gallagher

The officers of the Serra Club for the United States and even the president of Serra International, Cesare Gambardella from Italy, were there to attend the ceremony.

I was very pleased to see Father Arthur Kennedy, the rector of St. John’s Seminary, and Father Peter Uglietto, rector of Blessed John XXIII Seminary,­ were there.

At the dinner the Serrans gave me the gift of some very special photos.

They had written to the Serra Club that my father belonged to, looking for photos of him back then. I wish I could post more of them here, but they are packed away because I am going to show them to my family when I see them this coming week.

There was also a little entertainment. They sang a song to the tune of “Take me Out to the Ball Game,” in which they poked a little fun at Father Hennessey.

Here are the words to the song:

We are glad we joined Serra,

We agree it’s the best!

Father Dan Hennessey: he is great

Though, at times, for Mass he is late!

So we’ll pray, pray, pray for vocations

With the Cardinal leading the way

For it’s priests, nuns, brothers we need

In the world today!!

I joked with them afterwards saying, “See Dan, that’s what happens when you show up late for Mass once and they write a song about you.”

They all protested that it’s been more than once!

- – -

The next day we had the Mass for those religious brothers celebrating their jubilees.

One, Brother Bede Benn, a Xaverian Brother, was celebrating his 70^th anniversary. He is still very active in his ministry and he even proclaimed one of the readings at the Mass.

With Brothers Bede and Leonard

The other brother, Brother Leonard Haley, was “only” celebrating his 50^th. I told him he has just 20 years to catch up with Brother Bede!

I was interested to learn that both of them happen to be originally from the same parish – St. Catherine’s in Somerville.

They have had long, beautiful ministries serving the Church in a variety of ways. May the Lord continue to bless them!

- – -

On Saturday night, Craig and Nancy Gibson hosted a birthday party for me at their home. As some of you may know, I turned 65 on Monday. (I don’t get to retire, though!)

They gave me a gift of this beautiful Madonna which comes from Lourdes.

On our recent trip there with the Order of Malta, they saw me admiring the statue in one of the shops. Apparently, when I wasn’t looking, they doubled back and bought it for me. It was wonderfully thoughtful of them.

- – -

On Sunday morning, I attended the annual St. Peter’s Fiesta in Gloucester.

There was a big outdoor Mass at St. Peter’s Square followed by a procession.

Greeting Frank Previte after the Mass

Fathers Timothy Harrison and Ronald Gariboldi, co-pastors at Holy Family Parish, were there, along with Father Dan Hennessey, whose family is from Gloucester.

It was such a wonderful multi-ethnic celebration. During the procession, there were a great many floats and different statues from the Portuguese, Italian and Brazilian communities such as Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Annunciata, and Our Lady of Aprecida. At the church, I addressed the people in Italian and Portuguese at the end of the procession.

The weather was overcast, but we got through the Mass and procession without any rain. We offered the Mass for Matteo Russo and John Orlando, two fishermen who were lost at sea on the fishing vessel Patriot this past January. They are related and both their families were there.

Dan Guerra, who heads our MIS department here at the archdiocese, is also from Gloucester. Coming back from the Mass we visited his family’s restaurant, Ristorante La Trattoria and Pizzeria of the West End, and blessed it for them.

That’s Dan and Graziella Guerra standing next to me along with members of the Cusenza family, who own the restaurant

I was happy to see that it is an authentic Italian restaurant — it has a statue of Padre Pio in it!

Then I asked Dan to take a picture of this big cappuccino sign. I joked with him that I always tell people that the Jesuits have 36 craters on the moon named after them and my order only has a cup of coffee!

- – -

In the afternoon, I went to the Northeast Catholic Family Conference at St. Mary’s in Waltham. It was a great success thanks to the hard work of Father Mike Harrington who is one of the principal organizers.

During the day, they had talks, adoration and activities for all the different members of the family.

I went there to say the closing Mass. Afterwards, there was a barbeque where I was given another birthday cake and the Spanish community sang “Las Mañanitas” to me — even though it was more like “Las Nochesitas” because it was rather late!

Members of the Spanish Community who sang for me

These two families make up the band, “Next Level” which played at the conference.  They also treated me to a rousing “Happy Birthday” in English

- – -

I’ve spent much of the rest of the week with my family getting a little rest. I will be praying for everybody and I hope that everyone has great picnics, nice weather and that summer will come before the Fourth of July!

- Cardinal Seán

New Agreement Allows Caritas To Serve the Poor As a Provider in the Connector Program

Braintree, MA – Based on the decision of the Caritas Christi Executive Committee of the Board of Governor’s to relinquish its membership and equity interest in the previously established joint venture, CeltiCare Health Plan Holdings, LLC (formerly known as Commonwealth Family Health Plan Holdings, LLC) but maintain its important role as a provider of health care to many enrolled in the state’s Connector Program, the Archdiocese of Boston today expressed support for the new arrangement.

Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley said, “I am pleased that Caritas Christi was able to achieve this outcome. Throughout this process, our singular goal has been to provide for the needs of the poor and underserved in a manner that is fully and completely in accord with Catholic moral teaching. By withdrawing from the joint venture and serving the poor as a provider in the Connector, upholding Catholic moral teaching at all times, they are able to carry forward the critical mission of Catholic health care.”

Caritas Christi CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre said, “The opportunity for Caritas Christi to participate in the Connector program will allow Caritas to serve the low income and underserved population’s desperate need for quality health care. We are committed to fulfilling our mission, as we always have, rooted in the principles established by Catholic teaching, of providing the highest quality healthcare to patients across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”

Expansion of Caritas’ care for the poor and the uninsured was the original motivating force in entering the agreement with Celtic Group, Inc. (a subsidiary of Centene Corporation). Catholic health care in the United States has two principal goals: providing health care for all, a basic requirement of social justice; and protecting the sacredness of human life from conception until natural death. The protection of human life and dignity demands that Catholic institutions never contribute to procedures which are inconsistent with Catholic moral teaching, such as abortion and sterilization. These procedures and others are prohibited by the Ethical and Religious Directives of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Having withdrawn from the original joint venture, the provider agreement will allow Caritas Christi to fulfill its mission of serving the poor without participation or cooperation in procedures forbidden by the moral teaching of the Catholic Church.

The decision to withdraw from the joint venture follows several weeks of discussions between Caritas and Centene and an extensive analysis by the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) which was undertaken at the request of the Cardinal. Over that time, subsequent discussions involving Caritas Christi, the NCBC and the Archdiocese were held and the Cardinal made his final determination. The Cardinal’s role in reviewing and seeking additional guidance on this proposal is rooted in his responsibility to ensure the Catholic identity and moral character of institutions affiliated with the Archdiocese of Boston, including Caritas Christi.

“The goal of this review was to ensure that Caritas Christi could serve the poor through a plan for participation in the Connector that is in complete accordance with Catholic moral teaching,” said Cardinal O’Malley. “I want to thank Dr. Ralph de la Torre and his team at Caritas Christi and the NCBC for their thoughtful collaboration. I also want to extend my sincere gratitude to Dr. John Haas and the staff at the National Catholic Bioethics Center for their diligent and comprehensive review of the proposal. I am pleased that they were able to provide a recommendation whereby Caritas can go forward in fulfilling its mission of Catholic healthcare.”

- – -

I spent most of last week in San Antonio, Texas, at the Spring Meeting of the Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The meeting officially started on Wednesday, but I arrived earlier in the week to participate at committee meetings.  I was involved in meetings on Latin America, Africa, pro-life and immigration.

The general meeting began with a Mass at the Cathedral of San Antonio.

This one I took with my cell phone as we were processing in

At the plenary sessions on Wednesday and Thursday, there were presentations on a variety of subjects that were being voted on, for instance a new Mass in Thanksgiving for the Gift of Human Life and a Spanish Language Lectionary. Also, there were a number of votes taken on the different translations for the liturgy. We are still working on translations for the Mass.

During the executive session, there was a discussion on the situation that erupted at Notre Dame this year. It was a show of support for Bishop John D’Arcy. After the session we published the following statement that I want to share with you:

“The bishops of the United States express our appreciation and support for our brother bishop, the Most Reverend John D’Arcy. We affirm his pastoral concern for Notre Dame University, his solicitude for its Catholic identity, and his loving care for all those the Lord has given him to sanctify, to teach and to shepherd.”

You can read more on the meetings in this article published in this week’s Pilot.

- – -

When I first arrived in San Antonio, I had dinner with Father Jim Fischler, a Missionhurst priest, who as a seminarian many years ago used to work for me at the Centro Catolico in Washington, D.C. Now he is pastor at Sacred Heart Parish in Del Rio, a border town 150 miles west of San Antonio.

When he heard I was going to the bishops’ conference, he called me and invited me to dinner. He asked me if there was anything I would like to see, and I told him I would like to see the cathedral. So he called the rector who graciously invited us to tour the cathedral that evening, which allowed me to take some photos with my cell phone for you to see.

Father Fischler (right) with Fr. Steven Anthony Gamez, parochial vicar of the cathedral, pose under a statue of San Fernando, who is the patron of the cathedral

The Church of San Fernando was founded in 1738 by the first Spanish settlers, a group of 15 families who came from the Canary Islands and who founded “La Villa de San Fernando.”

In the late 19^th century, the current cathedral was built over the older Church of San Fernando as the city became the See of the new Diocese of San Antonio. Some of the walls of the original church are still there as part of the Sanctuary.

The Canarian settlers planned the layout of the town around the church which was to be at the center. On the floor, in the center of the church, there is a marker which was placed right below the dome of the original church. This marker is the point used to determine mileage from San Antonio, so it is officially the center of the city.

The “retablo” behind the main altar was recently completed in Mexico. I was impressed by the spectacular gold leafing.

There are two side altars honoring the patronesses of the church, Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria (Our Lady of Candlemas) — a patroness of the Canary Islands — and Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe.)

Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria

Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe

The baptistery

Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James,
and Salome at the empty tomb.

This is the tomb of the first bishop of San Antonio, Bishop Pellicer

Below is a close-up of one of the altars that shows the early Franciscan missionaries.

Texas was first evangelized by the Franciscans from Mexico. There are several mission churches that are still run by the Franciscans in the area of San Antonio. The famous Alamo Mission, which is just a few blocks away from the cathedral, was turned into a museum a long time ago.

The Alamo

As you may know, the Battle of the Alamo took place here after the Texans had declared independence from Mexico. Mexican President Santa Anna arrived to San Fernando and placed his headquarters around the Church of San Fernando, attacking and defeating the Texan forces stationed at the Alamo Mission.

The Texans then defeated President Santa Anna at the battle of San Jacinto, with the battle cry of “Remember the Alamo!” which obtained them formal independence from Mexico.

- – -

That weekend I gave a retreat to a group of Hispanic leaders gathered from all over the country who are part of CALL, The Catholic Association of Latino Leaders. CALL was established three years ago by Archbishop Jose Gomez of San Antonio to provide a forum for Hispanic professionals and entrepreneurs.

With Archbishop Gomez and a group of seminarians

At the retreat, 30 professionals from all over the United States actively participated in a series of reflections and attended lectures on Catholic life.

The organization is expanding its presence around the country and currently has established organizations in Denver, Miami and San Antonio. In the not too distant future Chapters of Catholic Latino professionals are expected to be created in Boston, New York, Chicago and Washington D.C. 

The retreat took place at the seminary, which is part of the chancery compound in San Antonio. Next to this is the old MAC, which used to be the Mexican American Cultural Institute, which is now a bilingual Catholic College.

If the 104 degree weather did not convince me I was in Texas, when I saw this sign telling me I could not take a gun into the chancery, I knew that I was in the Lone Star State.

- – -

Tuesday, on my way back to Boston, I stopped in New Jersey where I gave talks at the International Institute for Clergy Formation at Seton Hall University.

Each year, Seton Hall has a number of seminars  for ongoing priestly formation. During the summer they are held in New Jersey and during the winter they are held in Florida.

There were a couple of Boston priests there — Fathers Bill Dunn and John O’Donnell.

The sessions are held at San Alfonso Retreat House in Long Branch, a beautiful retreat facility that belongs to the Redemptorist Fathers.

I was there during the day and that night I came back to Boston in time for the Holy Hour and to give a conference to our Boston seminarians who are on retreat in Dover.

Fathers Harrington and Hennessey of our Vocation Office
organized the retreat

- – -

Vigilant blog readers have noticed that the dove tabernacle that was at the Pastoral Center Chapel suddenly disappeared from the photos of the events there, until it showed up again a few weeks ago.

It did not fly off! What happened was that one of the wings fell off last summer. We welded it back together, but were afraid it was not going to hold. So, we sent it back to the manufacturers in Spain to be repaired.

Our beautiful dove tabernacle has recently been restored to its place of honor, and we are very pleased that it is back.

Until my next post.

In Christ

Cardinal Seán

On Thursday, the Feast Day of St. Barnabas the Apostle, we had a Mass at the Pastoral Center with something of a missionary theme.

St. Barnabas, like St. Paul, was a great missionary to the Gentiles and, at the Mass on his feast day, we honored two men for their missionary service. It was a wonderful celebration of the commitment to the Mission Ad Gentes of the Catholics of the Archdiocese of Boston.

First, we presented the mission cross to Father Mark De Angelis who will soon be serving in South America with the St. James Society. He will be studying Spanish first and then assigned to a ministry with the society, which works in  Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. In the last 50 years, we have sent over 300 priests to work with the St. James Society in those areas.

Father Mark’s family and friends were there to honor him, including a group from the parish school of St. Patrick’s in Stoneham, where he currently ministers.

The students  and teachers from St. Patrick’s with Father Mark and their pastor, Father Bill Schmidt

Also, in attendance was the new head of the St. James Society, Father Kevin Hays.

Father Hayes and Father Mark

We also recognized Msgr. Andrew F. Connell for his decades of service as the director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the archdiocese, which most people know as the Propagation of the Faith office. We presented him with the official document naming him Apostolic Protonotary, which is the  highest rank of monsignor in the Church.

Also in attendance was Msgr. William Glynn who has been in the Propagation Office for many years and began serving there even before Msgr. Connell. The service of these two men, Msgrs. Connell  and Glynn — along with many others — has led the archdiocese’s Propagation office to be one of the most successful in the world.

Father Thomas Kopp is carrying on that tradition as the current director.

- – -

The following day, I attended the grand opening of Bruyere Gardens, a new affordable housing development for the elderly in Lowell. The facility is run by the Sisters of Charity of Ottawa and it was developed with the help of our Planning Office for Urban Affairs.

Many involved in bringing the development to fruition attended the dedication ceremony including: Planning Office director Lisa Alberghini, Lowell mayor Bud Caulfield, State Senator Steven Panagiotakos and State Representative Thomas Golden.

Lisa Alberghini

The sisters are already doing an extraordinary job in their ministry there. The provincial of the Sisters of Charity of Ottawa, Sister Prescille Malo, was also there of course, and we were able to visit one of the sisters, Sister Gertrude, who had a fall and had to have brain surgery. I was pleased to see she is doing well.

- – -

On Saturday morning, I had the privilege of ordaining a new Jesuit priest, Father Todd Kenny