LOWELL ? The Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi held a celebration on April 28 to mark the retirement of two sisters and the end of 19 years of ministry through the San Damiano House of Prayer in Lowell.
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CHESTNUT HILL -- What happens when a small group of strangers gather to talk about faith? The Church in the 21st Century Center (C21 Center) has been learning the answer over the past year and is now launching an initiative to enable parishioners to find out for themselves.
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BOSTON -- The Red Sox will hold their annual Catholic Night at Fenway Park on June 24. The Red Sox are to play against the Chicago White Sox that night. The game will be preceded by a social on the Sam Adams Deck. There will be a pregame ceremony honoring clergy and members of the local Catholic community before the first pitch.
Read moreCardinal Seán P. O'Malley released the following statement May 9 on Vos estis lux mundi -- Editor. Following the international summit in Rome this past February, Pope Francis pledged "concrete measures" to respond to the clergy sexual abuse crisis in the Church. Vos estis lux mundi is one means of fulfilling that pledge, establishing specific mandatory protocols and reporting systems for matters concerning such abuse.
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We were very sad to learn this week of the death of Jean Vanier after a long battle with cancer. His spirituality and his service to the developmentally disabled made such an impact, not just in our Church, but throughout the world through the L'Arche movement he began. It was my privilege to have met him on a number of different occasions -- he was someone whom I admired very, very much.
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REVERE -- The 245 students of Immaculate Conception School, ranging from preschool to grade eight, were all present in the schoolyard to welcome almost 70 supporters of the Inner City Scholarship Fund during its annual Bus Tour on May 7.
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CAMBRIDGE -- About 130 people came to St. Anthony Parish on May 1 for "Feminine Genius," an evening to hear two speakers talk about a Catholic understanding of femininity and feminism. Liz Cotrupi, director of the Office of Family Life and Ecclesial Movements, which sponsored the event, said it was in honor of the 50th anniversary of "Humanae Vitae."
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BRAINTREE -- Students from the seventh grade at Austin Preparatory School in Reading recently visited the Pastoral Center in Braintree to explore the concept of vocation: who students are being called to become and how they are being invited to share their gifts and interests in the service of the Church.
Read moreBOSTON -- Attorney Mitchell Garabedian and his client Nadine Tifft held a press conference on May 7 in a conference room of the Hilton Hotel, during which Garabedian released the names of seven archdiocesan priests who he said had been credibly accused of sexually abuse of minors and yet were not listed on the Archdiocese of Boston website.
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[This is the thirteenth in a series of articles profiling each of the 13 men who will be ordained to the priesthood on May 18.] WESTON -- Deacon Corey Bassett-Tirrell got to know the Catholic Church through his work as an organist. He had grown up in a Protestant family on Cape Cod and moved to Boston in 1995. He worked in the funeral business on and off for a decade while also working as a musician.
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ROME -- When Deacon Christopher Boyle was a student at Boston College High School, his friends nicknamed him "Father Boyle" because he was so active in his parish and open about his faith. He grew up in Hingham, the fourth of 13 children. His father, Artie Boyle, is the author of "Six Months to Live." In an interview with the Pilot on May 1, Deacon Boyle said that his mother made sure faith was the center of his family's lives.
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Last Friday, I celebrated the funeral Mass of Father John Sassani, who most recently had been the pastor of Sacred Heart and Our Lady Help of Christian parishes in Newton. He had, of course, also worked for a long time with the Office for Spiritual Development as a spiritual director.
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BOSTON -- The relic of the incorrupt heart of St. John Vianney began its four-stop journey through the archdiocese on April 30, as part of its U.S. tour sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. Brian Caulfield, a Knight of Columbus from the fraternity's supreme headquarters, is one of the five knights traveling with the relic.
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EVERETT -- Students, their parents, and alumni of Pope John XXIII High School rallied April 29 at the school to learn more details about the school's potential closure and to try to prevent that from happening.
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BOSTON -- Cathedral High School Principal Robert McGurrin died suddenly at the school after school hours on April 29. Oscar Santos, headmaster of Cathedral High School, announced McGurrin's passing in a statement on the school website.
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SALEM -- The community at St. John Paul II Shrine of Divine Mercy held several consecutive events and activities on April 29 to celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday. These included Eucharistic Adoration, a special Mass, a reception, Stations of the Cross through the streets of Salem, and veneration of a relic of the shrine's namesake.
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[This is the eleventh in a series of articles profiling each of the 13 men who will be ordained to the priesthood on May 18.] CHESTNUT HILL -- When Deacon Victor Vitug was growing up in the Philippines, his mother took him to a church named for Our Lady of Lourdes every Saturday. Eventually, she told him the reason for her devotion. When she was pregnant with him, she had cancer of the uterus. No one thought that she or her child would live.
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It was such a great joy to celebrate the Easter Triduum in our newly renovated cathedral. At all the liturgies, there were great crowds, anxious to see the new look of the cathedral. Our celebrations began Holy Thursday with the Mass of the Lord's Supper. On Holy Thursday, we have a bilingual liturgy because we want all the communities to gather to express the unity of the Church.
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BRAINTREE -- The relic of the incorrupt heart of St. John Vianney will be brought to four locations in the archdiocese during the week following Divine Mercy Sunday, as part of its U.S. tour sponsored by the Knights of Columbus.
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With the renovations of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross complete, Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley once again led services for the Easter Triduum in the upper church of the cathedral. The Triduum consists of Holy Thursday, when Christ washed the feet of his Apostles and instituted the Eucharist; Good Friday, the day of Jesus' crucifixion and death for the sins of the world; and Easter, which begins with the Easter Vigil on the night of Holy Saturday and in which the Church celebrates Christ's Resurrection from the dead.
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NEWTON -- For a quarter of a century, an annual symposium has served as a rite of passage for students of Mt. Alvernia High School. "It kind of feels like a huge stepping stone. In the Mt. Alvernia culture, symposium is a very big deal. So they like exaggerating how hard it is, scaring the underclassmen. But they all feel pretty great when it's over. They're pretty proud of their work," said English teacher Rebecca Brown, who took over the symposium program in 2010.
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The Archdiocese of Boston Catholic Schools Office, with support from the Catholic Schools Foundation, announced the recipients of Archdiocese of Boston Excellence in Education Award April 23. Administrators, staff, pastors, parents and students were encouraged to nominate excellent teachers in their schools. The Excellence in Education Award's selection committee, composed of past recipients of the award and members of the Catholic Schools Office, read all nominations and interviewed the finalists to identify 10 exemplary educators. The committee received more than 120 nominations.
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[This is the tenth in a series of articles profiling each of the 13 men who will be ordained to the priesthood on May 18.] CHESTNUT HILL -- Deacon Przemyslaw Kasprzak's decision to discern a vocation to the priesthood came as a surprise to his family in Poland who, though Catholic, were not practicing.
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BRIGHTON -- The Kids Healthy Minds Initiative began in late 2017 as a partnership between the archdiocese and Franciscan Children's Hospital. Since its inception, the Initiative has brought about 60 presentations to parishes and schools in the archdiocese, educating communities on how to address mental illness and prevent suicide among youth.
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As I do each year for Holy Week, I am posting my blog a bit earlier than usual to leave myself free to participate in the events and liturgies of the Paschal Triduum. I want to begin this week by noting, even as we were celebrating the dedication of our newly renovated Cathedral of the Holy Cross, how saddened we were to learn about the devastating fire at the Cathedral of Notre Dame of Paris -- one of the most important churches of Christendom.
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