EASTON -- As the sun set on a warm autumn evening, dozens of people participated in Family Rosary's first-ever "rosary festival," held on the grounds of the Museum of Family Prayer on Oct. 8, the day after the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.
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CAMBRIDGE -- The Cambridge Matignon School prides itself on offering an experiential, project-based curriculum that connects students with the world outside the school. Now, they are taking that approach a step further by establishing a new program: the Cambridge Arts Academy.
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LYNN -- Knights of Columbus Valladolid Council 70 in Lynn hosted its first annual Rosary Ride on Oct. 2, raising over $2,000 to support the Special Olympics. The council led 12 bike riders from their council hall to each of the five Catholic Churches in Lynn, where they stopped to pray a decade of the rosary. Four other members provided logistical support by driving snacks, water, Gatorade, and a small statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary to each stop.
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Last Friday, the feast of St. Therese, I went to Austin Prep in Reading to celebrate their annual Convocation Mass. Austin Prep is an Augustinian school, so in addition to the school's chaplain, Father Patrick Armano, we were joined at the Mass by Father Peter Gori, Father Jorge Reyes, and a number of Augustinian Friars from Merrimack College. The headmaster, Jim Hickey, is a member of the Order of Malta, so several of his fellow Knights and Dames were with us, as well.
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BOSTON -- Over 130 people, among them doctors, nurses, caretakers, and disabilities advocates, testified before Massachusetts lawmakers about controversial bills that would legalize "medical aid in dying," known to opponents as physician-assisted suicide.
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BOSTON -- Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley ordained seven men to the permanent diaconate on Oct. 2, during a multilingual Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. The deacon, derived from the Greek word "diakonos," meaning servant, is the first of three ranks of ordained ministry in the Church. Among their many functions in parishes, deacons may aid the priest at Mass, proclaim the Gospel, deliver homilies, and preside at baptisms, weddings, and rites of Christian burial. Each deacon is assigned to a parish as well as a ministry of the archdiocese.
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WESTON -- "It's nothing short of a miracle that we're able to have this wonderful event tonight," Father Corey Bassett-Tirrell, an alumnus of Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary, said at the start of the speaking program at the seminary's 40th annual Lawn Party on Sept. 29.
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BOSTON -- In a message to the Emmanuel College community, Sister Janet Eisner, SNDdeN, announced Oct. 4 that she will leave office in a year's time, following over four decades as president. The nation's longest-serving woman college president, Sister Janet has been described as Emmanuel's "second founder" in view of her transformative leadership of the Catholic liberal arts and sciences college opened by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in Boston's Fenway neighborhood in 1919.
Read moreCardinal Seán P. O'Malley released the following statement regarding the Oct. 5 report on sexual abuse in the French Catholic Church, in his capacity as President of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. -- Editor.
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Each year, Massachusetts State Court of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas holds their "Pennies for the Unborn" campaign, around the Jan. 22 Roe v. Wade anniversary, to support the archdiocese's Fund for the Unborn. The fund provides material assistance to clients served by the Pregnancy Help ministry of our Pro-Life Office.
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BOSTON -- "What is the unborn?" That is the question that "The Matter of Life," a new documentary by Tracy Robinson, keeps returning to, emphasizing its centrality while also examining different aspects of the controversy surrounding abortion.
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BRAINTREE -- As a young altar server, Dave Kane wanted to become a priest when he grew up. Today, he is a husband and father, but he gets to inhabit the role of a priest in his one-man play, "Misgivings," a humorous tribute to Catholic clergy.
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I spent much of this week in Poland, where we were holding a conference on safeguarding organized by the Polish Bishops' Conference and the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. However, on Saturday, before I left Rome, I had an opportunity to celebrate a Mass for the Missionaries of Charity, who run the Dono Di Maria ("Gift of Mary") shelter for women and children within the Vatican.
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BRAINTREE -- The Massachusetts Catholic Conference and its allies are preparing to oppose the latest attempt to legalize physician-assisted suicide in the Commonwealth. The Massachusetts legislature is considering two bills, House 2381 and Senate 1384, titled "An Act relative to end of life options." If passed, they would allow doctors to prescribe a mixture of lethal drugs to individuals diagnosed as having less than six months to live.
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BOSTON -- The 13th annual Celebration of the Priesthood took place in a virtual format on Sept. 21, with the theme of "Opening Doors to Stronger Communities." The Celebration of the Priesthood is the biggest single fundraiser for Clergy Trust, which supports the health and well-being of the archdiocese's active and senior priests in good standing. Organizers say the event has so far raised $1.5 million.
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BRAINTREE -- Despite a setback that took away a week from an already narrow window of opportunity, a signature campaign is now underway for an initiative petition for a law protecting infants born alive during abortion procedures.
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DEDHAM -- Several communities in the archdiocese held memorial services on Sept. 18, the National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children, to humanize the unborn and give women who have had abortions an opportunity for healing.
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TYNGSBORO -- The Academy of Notre Dame announced Sept. 13 that the school has successfully met its "We Are NDA: The Million Dollar Challenge." The school community had committed to raising $1 million by Aug. 31, the end of the school's fiscal year. The Million Dollar Challenge was the academy's most ambitious fundraising goal to date.
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As I shared with you last week, after my visit to Cuba, I returned to Santo Domingo, where the archbishop asked me to preach at the dedication of their new Santuario del Cristo de los Milagros (Sanctuary of Christ of the Miracles) in Monte Plata.
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