How to Defend the Faith Without Raising Your Voice: 10 Principles of Civil Communication

Summary of today’s show: Whether it’s in a media interview or at a Memorial Day barbecue, Catholics are often called upon to defend their faith. Scot Landry, Fr. Mark O’Connell, and Dom Bettinelli discuss Austin Ivereigh’s new book “How to Defend the Faith Without Raising Your Voice,” and especially his 10 principles of civil communication, so that all Catholics can give a good witness and avoid winning arguments at the expense of changing hearts and minds.

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Today’s host(s): Scot Landry and Fr. Mark O’Connell

Today’s guest(s): Domenico Bettinelli

Links from today’s show:

• Catholic Voices USA

Today’s topics: How to Defend the Faith Without Raising Your Voice: 10 Principles of Civil Communication

Because Dom Bettinelli was a guest on today’s show, he was unable to provide the usual detailed show transcript. Please listen to the audio recording if possible or pick up the book How to Defend the Faith Without Raising Your Voice: Civil Responses to Catholic Hot Button Issues

1st segment: Scot and Fr. Mark caught up on the last two weeks. Fr, Mark recalled Msgr. Frank Strahan’s story about singing before Pope John Paul II at a moment’s notice. We heard this story when Msgr. Strahan was on the show.

• Program #0182 for Friday, November 18, 2011: Msgr. Francis Strahan

2nd segment: We all at some point represent the Church to our friends or families or coworkers to defend the faith. A new book by Austin Ivereigh covers these principles. Scot spent last weekend at a workshop with the author and others.

Excerpts from Introduction to “How to Defend the Faith Without Raising Your Voice”:

We know how it feels, finding yourself suddenly appointed the spokesman for the Catholic Church while you’re standing at a photocopier, swigging a drink at the bar, or when a group of folks suddenly freezes, and all eyes fix on you.
‘‘You’re a Catholic, aren’t you?’’ someone says.
‘‘Um, yes,’’ you confess, looking up nervously at what now seems to resemble a lynch mob.

What you’ll read in these pages is the result of a group of Catholics getting together to prepare themselves for precisely these high-pressure, get-to-the-heart-of-it-quick, kind of contexts: not just around the water-cooler, but in three-minute interviews on live television. Their experience, distilled here, will help you to ‘‘reframe’’ the hot-button issues which keep coming up in the news and provoke heated discussion.

We call these issues ‘‘neuralgic’’ because they touch on nerve endings, those places in the body which, when pressed, cause people to squeal. In our public conversation, they are the points which lie on the borders where mainstream social thinking inhabits (at least apparently) a different universe from that of Catholics. Touch on them, and people get very annoyed. “How on earth can you believe that?” they ask you.

So while we can’t predict the news story, we can be pretty sure about the neuralgic issues. This book helps you to think through ten of the most common (and the toughest) for yourself; to understand where the criticism is coming from; and to consider how to communicate the Church’s position in ways that do not accept the presuppositions of the criticism. At the end of each of the nine briefing chapters, there are some ‘‘key messages’’ which summarise these positions—and which will hopefully help you next time you’re challenged.

Ten Principles of Civil Communication

Here are the ten principles which helped Catholic Voices develop the mind-set needed for this work:

1. Look for the positive intention behind the criticism.
2. Shed light, not heat.
3. People won’t remember what you said as much as how you made them feel.
4. Show, don’t tell.
5. Think in triangles.
6. Be positive.
7. Be compassionate.
8. Check your facts, but avoid robotics.
9. It’s not about you.
10. Witnessing, not winning.

3rd segment: Now as we do every week at this time, we will consider the Mass readings for this Sunday, specifically the Gospel reading.

• First Reading for Pentecost Sunday, May 27, 2012 (Acts 2:1-11)

When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled,
they were all in one place together.
And suddenly there came from the sky
a noise like a strong driving wind,
and it filled the entire house in which they were.
Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire,
which parted and came to rest on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in different tongues,
as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem.
At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd,
but they were confused
because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
They were astounded, and in amazement they asked,
“Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans?
Then how does each of us hear them in his native language?
We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites,
inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene,
as well as travelers from Rome,
both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs,
yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues
of the mighty acts of God.”

• Second Reading for Pentecost Sunday, May 27, 2012 (1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13)

Brothers and sisters:
No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit;
there are different forms of service but the same Lord;
there are different workings but the same God
who produces all of them in everyone.
To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit
is given for some benefit.

As a body is one though it has many parts,
and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body,
so also Christ.
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons,
and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.

• Gospel for Pentecost Sunday, May 27, 2012 (John 20:19-23)

On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”

The Good Catholic Life

Summary of today’s show: Our usual Thursday panel of Scot Landry, Susan Abbott, Fr. Roger Landry, and Gregory Tracy consider the news headlines of the week, including the lawsuit filed by 43 Catholic organizations against the Department of Health and Human Services universal healthcare mandate; the attack on a parish in Acushnet for the pro-marriage message on its sign; the Vatican’s rejection of appeals related to closed parishes; the death of the dean of Boston historians; and more.

Listen to the show:

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Today’s host(s): Scot Landry and Susan Abbott

Today’s guest(s): Fr. Roger Landry, executive editor of The Anchor, the newspaper of the Fall River diocese; and Gregory Tracy, managing editor of The Pilot, the newspaper of the Boston archdiocese

Links from today’s show:

• The Anchor
• The Pilot
• Some of the stories discussed on this show will be available on The Pilot’s and The Anchor’s websites on Friday morning. Please check those sites for the latest links.

Today’s topics: Catholic HHS mandate lawsuits; Parish threatened by gay activists; Church closing appeals rejected

1st segment: Scot and Susan discussed that there are many offices moving within the Pastoral Center this week, including Susan’s. Scot said the building has been occupied by Central Ministries for 4 years and now some entities related to the Archdiocese moving the Pastoral Center and also moving people who work within the same secretariat so they will be working in close proximity.

Scot also said the graduation ceremony for the Master of Arts in Ministry program at St. John Seminary was last night. It was the 10th graduation and they had one DRE who received a Master’s degree. Bishop Arthur Kennedy gave the commencement address and focused on St. Augustine. Cardinal Seán presented the diplomas and gave his blessing to the 10 graduates.

2nd segment: Scot said this past Monday 43 Catholic dioceses and organizations filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services for the Obamacare mandate. The most prominent dioceses are New York and Washington, DC, as well as St. Louis.

li>“Federal lawsuits by Catholic dioceses, groups seek to stop HHS mandate”, Boston Pilot/CNS, 5/21/12
• “List of 43 plaintiffs in 12 lawsuits against HHS mandate,” Boston Pilot/CNS, 5/22/12

Fr. Roger said the Church has been negotiating with the Obama administration since last year to find an accommodation for religious conscience. Despite many attempts for compromise, the administration gave a phony accommodation. After a year of work, it became obvious that the Administration is obstinate in violating the First Amendment and federal law. Cardinal Timothy Dolan said they had to reluctantly file suit. Fr. Roger said Catholics should step up to support the Church in this matter. This was the last resort of the US bishops. Scot said the expectation is one of these suits will end up before the Supreme Court.

The Pilot has an editorial this week called “Stop the HHS mandate”:

The decision of a wide spectrum of Catholic institutions to join together in a lawsuit against the Obama administration should not come as a surprise. The HHS mandate that would force most Catholic institutions to provide contraception. sterilization services and abortive pills to employees is an unprecedented attack on the freedom of conscience and religious freedom. Furthermore. enacted in an electoral year to. reportedly. mobilize the more liberal segment of the electorate. this decision is an insult to Catholic voters.

The issue at stake is not accessibility to contraception. which is widely available at very low cost. The issue for Catholics. and all people of good will, is that the government feels compelled, for no compelling reason, to force individuals and institutions to act against their conscience. If this mandate becomes effective, those advancing the most secular agendas will have a precedent to claim that, in fact, religion does not belong in the public square, opening the door to other restrictions on religious freedom.

The Obama administration should make no mistake. Catholics of all political persuasions will be united on the need to defend individual freedom of conscience in front of an intrusive and unnecessary government mandate. That is at the core of Christian beliefs and even those currently nor practicing their faith know that freedom of religion is intrinsic to who we are as a people. In our opinion, the apparent political calculation that forcing this issue will benefit the president in November is risky and will backfire.

Mr. President, there is still time to stop the HHS madness.

Scot said the key idea is that the government feels compelled for no good reason to compel the conscience of individuals. Greg said people may not be familiar with how the government passing a law that infringes on freedom of religion will affect them. The government can restrict the practice of religion when there is a compelling public need and must be done in such a way as to have the least possible impact.

Scot said in many ways, this lawsuit is unprecedented. Susan said the implications of this reaching the Supreme Court will be huge. Scot said there has been some media coverage and some prominent Catholics have come out with key reminders of why we’re doing this as a Church. Fr. Roger said one of those points is that the Department of Health and Human Services has come out with an unprecedented definition of religious groups that qualify for exemptions, which is that if we serve those who aren’t Catholic, we don’t qualify. Fr. Roger said the service of those who aren’t Catholic is a key element of our faith. The definition goes against what President Obama himself said at the National Prayer Breakfast in February in which he lauded religious groups serve others. Fr. Roger said either Obama was talking about of both sides f his mouth or HHS Secretary Sebelius violated the president’s own principles.

Fr. Roger also said any exemption being talked about doesn’t protect Catholic business owners. This mandate also fits a larger pattern of the US government forcing Catholics to violate their religious beliefs on many issues, including abortion and same-sex marriage.

• “Franciscan University drops student health insurance plan”, Boston Pilot/CNS, 5/21/12

Scot noted the story this week that Franciscan University of Steubenville dropped its requirement for student health insurance and won’t provide it for those who want it.

Scot said Cardinal Seán will host a live town hall meeting for the Fortnight for Freedom on Monday June 25 at 8pm on CatholicTV and simulcast on WQOM. He asked listeners to make an appointment and spread the word.

• “Poll finds most value religious freedom even when it conflicts with law”, Catholic News Service, 5/23/12

Also in the Pilot this week is a poll commissioned by the Knights of Columbus. It found that 74% of Americans value religious freedom even when it conflicts with laws. Greg said people support this principle even if the religious freedom conflict doesn’t affect them. Whether or not they personally believe, they support the right of people to live their faith as they see it appropriate.

Susan said she thought the questions people could choose from were very clear cut.

“This survey reveals that the American people are fundamentally dedicated to protecting the First Amendment conscience rights of everyone.” said Carl A. Anderson. supreme knight of the New Haven-based Knights of Columbus.

“Allowing people to opt out of these procedures or services – which violate their faith – is the right thing to do.” he added. “It is also key to protecting the First Amendment rights of all Americans and enjoys strong public support as well.”

Fr. Roger said he wants to attribute good intentions to people like Kathleen Sebelius, but it then shows the deeper problem that they believe that we can’t survive if the government doesn’t give us certain things for free. On the other hand, we could presume a cynical political motive designed to ignite a political base that hadn’t been excited about a re-election campaign.

3rd segment: Scot said the Anchor editorial is called “Lessons from Acushnet”:

Prior to last Tuesday, the beautiful town of Acushnet was known mainly to residents of the southcoast of Massachusetts. Most in other parts of the Commonwealth – not to mention outside its boundaries – would have had to use atlases or the Internet to locate this charming place of bogs, farms and a world-famous golfing equipment company. That all changed on May 15 with six words placed on the rectory lawn sign facing the city’s main intersection, “Two men are friends not spouses,” placed there by the parish director of Pastoral Services in response to President Barack Obama’s May 9 newly announced support for the redefinition of marriage to embrace two men or two women. The phrase was meant to express in a succinct way the Church’s teaching that those of the same sex not only can but are called to love each other, but that that love is not meant to take on the form of romantic or spousal love (what the Greeks called eros) but rather the deep love of friendship (philia) consistent with the self-controlled and -sacrificial love (agape) that Christ Himself gave and called us to imitate.

For Jesus and those who follow Him, love and truth are always united. Christ very clearly spoke about the truth of marriage when He said (Mt 19) that in the beginning God made them male and female (not male and male, or female and female) and for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother (not two fathers or two mothers) and cling to his wife (not to whomever he is sexually attracted) and the two shall become one flesh (which refers not merely to the ephemeral physical contact involved in sexual activity but to the fusion of the flesh of a man and a woman in a child, a fruit of which those of the same-sex are obviously incapable). Jesus also said that what God has joined, man must not divide, and this can be interpreted not just with regard to a particular man and a particular woman in a particular marital bond, but also to the marital communion intended in general between man and woman: The union of man and woman in marriage cannot be rent asunder to make marriage a husbandless or wifeless union. To believe in Jesus means to believe in what He taught. To follow Jesus means to seek to imitate the way He showed us how to love. St. Francis Xavier Parish was giving witness to its authentically Christian faith in the public square by reiterating the particular type of love to which those with same-sex attractions are called.

Based on the media attention the six-word message garnered, however, one might have thought that instead of reiterating the Church’s teaching on the meaning of marriage and the love of friendship, St. Francis Xavier had put up a message calling for the condemnation of all those with same-sex attractions. One young woman started a Facebook campaign calling the message “hateful,” as if the six-word message had been, “The Church hates gays and lesbians.” Soon a blast got out to the wider gay community. A few picketers showed up. Others started bringing other posters. Many started calling. And, curiously, within hours all the major television stations in Boston and Providence were coming to Acushnet to do interviews and live reports about the protests to putative Catholic hate-mongering. It’s worth noting – as a commentary on the media’s coverage of the Church as well as the issues concerning gays and lesbians – that five days a week, 240 students attend St. Francis Xavier School to learn the Church’s teaching on truth and love in classrooms and on Sunday more than 800 worshippers come to hear it from the pulpit. These activities garner no media attention at all. Yet when as few as three people come to hold protest placards on the city sidewalk near a parish sign – even after the message had been changed the following day to announce the Ascension Thursday Mass schedule – television from all the major news affiliates of the two closest metropolises somehow show up.

To the media’s credit, however, once journalists had arrived to cover a hyped-up story on homophobia and anti-gay hatred, they recognized, in talking with pastor Msgr. Gerard O’Connor and director of Pastoral Services Steven Guillotte, that not only was that animus totally absent, but another type of hatred – one of the most underreported forms of uncivility and bullying in our culture – was. And they reported it. They were shown various posters that had been left on the property. “Jesus freaks, come to your senses. Jesus freaks, pray for death,” said one. Another went straight after the Blessed Mother in a mockery of the angelic salutation, “Hail Mary, Virgin Whore.” Facebook and verbal messages referred to both pastor and parishioners as pederasts – a facilely-employed and relatively ubiquitous ad hominem used against Catholic ministers and believers today, especially whenever the Church speaks on human sexuality. The message that captured the journalists’ attention most was a voicemail left by an unidentified woman. In the span of 54 seconds, she somehow managed to employ 16 expletives while threatening, “Seriously, your Church should be burned,” insisting “God isn’t real,” and saying that the town of Acushnet, St. Francis Xavier Parish, and the Catholic Church and her teaching should nevertheless all go to hell. Apparently, God doesn’t exist but hell does. It didn’t take advanced degrees from Columbia school of journalism for reporters to figure out that such messages were hardly consistent with a side admonishing the Church to “Spread love, not hate,” as one poster left on the property declared.

What is the larger lesson to be learned from what was really going on in Acushnet? It’s about the verbal nuclear attack that the gay movement regularly employs against the Church for her opposition to the redefinition of marriage. Whenever the Church expresses its principled objection to the redefinition of marriage – not only out of fidelity to Jesus’ teachings but out of concern for the future of our nation, because of the importance of the marriage between one man and one woman for the procreation and education of our nation’s future citizens, teachers, defenders, and leaders – she is accused of “homophobia,” “gay-bashing,” and “hatred.” This is part of a strategy directed against the Church and Christian believers that has been publicly described by various gay leaders. Notice that when President Obama, up until the “evolution” he announced on May 9, stressed his support for marriage as the union of one man and one woman, he was never accused of an irrational fear of those with same-sex attractions or of despising gays. When President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, passed overwhelmingly by Democrats and Republicans in both the House and the Senate, they weren’t accused of collective antipathy toward gay fellow citizens. It’s only when Christian believers defend marriage as the union between one man and one woman that we begin to hear the accusations of hatred and homophobia. Why? The reason, gay strategists have declared in interviews, is because with politicians and citizens in general, the gay movement is trying to persuade them patiently to abandon the wisdom of the centuries about marriage and redefine its meaning as the crowning achievement of the social normalization of same-sex behavior. But since those who truly believe in Jesus and His teachings will never be persuaded of the same-sex ideal of marriage as a husbandless or wifeless institution with no intrinsic connection to children flowing from that privileged bond – and the Catholic Church in particular is seen as a bulwark against this revolution in social and sexual mores – what needs to be done is demonize and marginalize believers’ convictions altogether. Nobody, after all, likes to associate with “bigots,” especially in the politically-correct milieus of education and media that mold public opinion.

In Acushnet, this strategy backfired. The real bigotry at play – against Catholic teaching and faithful Catholics- was exposed. The Church loves and welcomes those with same-sex attractions and defends them against all unjust discrimination. But the Church’s – and society’s – defense of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is not unjust discrimination, because gays do not have the right to change what marriage means and is. The “right to marriage” is not the unlimited right to marry anyone one wants. Laws rightly discriminate against certain types of attempted “marriages” in order to protect what marriage is and thereby serve the common good, and to affirm that those of the same-sex do not have the right to marry each other is not unjust discrimination any more than to say that people do not have the right to marry kids, or siblings, or another person’s spouse. It’s not hateful or homophobic to say this; rather, it’s the common sense and wisdom of the centuries, even from before the Church was founded. The truth about marriage as the union of one man and one woman, however, is also part of what the God of love has revealed. This is a message that all Catholics should confidently, charitably, and courageously proclaim from their rooftops, belltowers and parish lawns.

• “Acushnet parish threatened, harassed over sign opposing ‘gay marriage’”, Catholic News Agency/EWTN News, 5/18/12

Fr. Roger said this is bigger than just one parish, but points to a pattern being faced by Catholics. He said the parish was subjected to a Facebook campaign and received death threats; there were pickets outside that accosted parish employees and parishioners; and vile attacks. Every single major news station and media outlets provided blanket coverage. However, almost all of the media coverage ended up contrasting the parish’s passivity and calmness against the hatred they encountered. Fr. Roger said the only people who are called hateful toward homosexuals are Catholics and Bible-believing Christians. That’s because the activists recognize they aren’t going to change Christians’ minds so they will marginalize and demonize them so no one will want to identify with them. Fr. Roger said this was exposed by one little parish in a little town in Massachusetts.

Scot and Greg discussed how the secular media did a good job and was not biased against the Church in any way. Scot said if you want to see the kind of venom that is spewed against the Church, go on to a newspaper website when any article about the Church is posted and read the comments.

• “Vatican rejects appeal of Scituate church relegation”, The Boston Pilot, 5/18/12\

Scot said another story concerns the Vatican’s rejection of the appeals regarding six churches in closed parishes. The appeals had opposed the relegation to profane use of the buildings. He said there has been predictable responses from the group Council of Parishes that has been riling up people across the country. Greg said in last week’s show we discussed what relegation and profane use mean. He those fighting the Archdiocese in this regard have dropped accusations that the Vatican gave Boston special treatment because of the influence of Cardinal Seán in Rome. Scot said the Archdiocese encourages people to join their fellow parishioners in their new parishes. Greg said Terry Donilon, archdiocesan spokesman, said the protesters are grasping at straws. Scot said Peter Borre of Council of Parishes threw out the rumor about Cardinal Sean throwing his influence around.

“We feel we did it right procedurally, we did it right on the substance, we provided an enormous amount of information with the Vatican to back up the decision that was made, and I think they are grasping at straws and I think they are trying to create a conspiracy theory that does not exist,” [Donilon] said.

Susan said the property of St. James the Great church in Wellesley has an agreement from the town of Wellesley to buy it, but that sale can’t go through until the appeals are finished. Greg said thinks the appeals will be exhausted eventually and thinks if the town does purchase the property they will be less sympathetic and merciful toward those occupying the building. He wonders how the media will cover that.

Also in the Pilot this week is an obituary for Thomas O’Connor, the dean of Boston historians, who died this week at 89. He wrote several books on the history of the archdiocese. Scot said the books helped him understand so much of the background for the current issues in the archdiocese today. Fr. Roger said O’Connor helped people like us understand the roots of the trees that spread throughout this region.

His funeral Mass was earlier today at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Braintree. Susan said she’s read several of his books and he spoke several times to gatherings of directors of religious education. He was really a storyteller. Greg said that as a convert to Catholicism, he found the books to be very accessible. Scot reiterated that O’Connor brought the characters he wrote about alive.

Greg said the Pilot this week also covers the workshops going on around the Archdiocese for the doctor-assisted suicide education campaign.

• SuicideIsAlwaysaTragedy.org

Fr. Roger said the Anchor profiles several priests of the Fall River diocese who have served the Church for many years. Susan highlighted the family retreat going on at the Family Rosary Retreat in Easton next month. More information will be on the Pilot’s website on Friday. We will interview organizers of the retreat on The Good Catholic Life next Wednesday. Scot highlighted a moving testimony from a Catholic chaplain serving with the 101st Airborne as we head into Memorial Day weekend.

The Good Catholic Life

Ralph Martin and the New Evangelization

Summary of today’s show: One of Bl. Pope John Paul II’s major emphases in his pontificate was the New Evangelization and Pope Benedict XVI has continued that work with the establishment of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization. Scot Landry and Fr. Matt Williams talk with Ralph Martin, a lay member of the council and president of Renewal Ministries, about what makes the new evangelization different from the old and then discuss practical tips on how to seek opportunities to share your faith, how you might do so effectively, and why it’s the call of every baptized Catholic to do so.

Listen to the show:

Subscribe for free in iTunes

Today’s host(s): Scot Landry and Fr. Matt Williams

Today’s guest(s): Ralph Martin

Links from today’s show:

• Renewal Ministries
• Sacred Heart Major Seminary

Today’s topics: The New Evangelization

1st segment: Scot Landry and Fr. Matt William caught up on their week and Fr. Matt said he’s been out at all the vicariates in the Archdiocese to meet with priests to talk about youth and young adult ministry, to see how his office, the Office for the New Evangelization of Youth and Young Adults can better serve them. Scot said he’s made the rounds of the meetings four times in his six years at the Archdiocese. They talked about how big the Archdiocese is. Fr. Matt commented on how even after 9 years in the priesthood and he’s still introducing himself to priests he doesn’t know.

Fr. Matt is also planning a retreat this weekend, Friday to Monday, for teen leaders called Witness to Truth about Love, adapting the teachings of Pope John Paul’s Theology of the Body for teens. About 10 of the teens will be going to the Dominican Republic this summer on a youth service trip.

Scot said today’s guest, Ralph Martin, has been appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization and has been on the forefront of Catholic evangelization for decades.

2nd segment: Ralph is the president of Renewal Ministries and also director of graduate studies at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. Scot said Detroit reminds him a lot of the Archdiocese of Boston, including its evolution over the years.

Scot said both Ralph and Curtis Martin were singled out as two lay Americans appointed as consulters to the Council. Ralph said it was a total surprise. He received a call asking him to call them back in Rome. He was told he had been appointed.

Ralph said we had become used to Pope John Paul II speaking about the need for a new evangelization and some wondered what Pope Benedict would do about and it was a surprise when he institutionalized it and made it as prominent as he did. The Pope also chose the new evangelization as theme of the synod of bishops in October. Ralph said the Pope is painfully of the erosion of Catholic life.

Scot asked what the new evangelization is. Ralph said evangelization was traditionally preaching the Gospel to those who have never heard it before. It brings people to relationship with Christ. The new evangelization, according to John Paul II, is directed to baptized Catholics who aren’t living the faith and have drifted away. His encyclical Redemptoris Missio makes three distinctions in Section 33. He called for new fervor in preaching the Gospel and what the different kinds are.

The fact that there is a diversity of activities in the Church’s one mission is not intrinsic to that mission, but arises from the variety of circumstances in which that mission is carried out. 51 Looking at today’s world from the viewppoint of evangelization, we can distinguish three situations.

First, there is the situation which the Church’s missionary activity addresses: peoples, groups, and socio-cultural contexts in which Christ and his Gospel are not known, or which lack Christian communities sufficiently mature to be able to incarnate the faith in their own environment and proclaim it to other groups. This is mission ad gentes in the proper sense of the term.52

Secondly, there are Christian communities with adequate and solid ecclesial structures. They are fervent in their faith and in Christian living. They bear witness to the Gospel in their surroundings and have a sense of commitment to the universal mission. In these communities the Church carries out her activity and pastoral care.

Thirdly, there is an intermediate situation, particularly in countries with ancient Christian roots, and occasionally in the younger Churches as well, where entire groups of the baptized have lost a living sense of the faith, or even no longer consider themselves members of the Church, and live a life far removed from Christ and his Gospel. In this case what is needed is a “new evangelization” or a “re-evangelization.”

Scot said one of the reasons for this falling away is that so many of us haven’t been living our faith publicly as a witness as we should. Ralph said that was one of the emphases of the Second Vatican Council and it’s universal call to holiness in the mission of Christ as part of our baptism.

Fr. Matt said when people experience a conversion they sometimes think they are called to a religious vocation or to work for the Church as a job, but he said we also need people to be on fire in all areas of society. He said as a Church we’re just beginning to help people understand that.

Ralph said there’s a growing understanding is that the purpose of leadership in the Church not to do the whole work of the Church, but to equip all Christians to do the work of the Lord. They need to help laypeople awaken to their participation in the work of the Church.

Ralph said he was just in Rome a few weeks ago meeting with the president of the Council on the beginning of the work and getting organized. They’re having lots of meetings, especially with US bishops in Rome on their ad limina visits. But the council will ultimately take their marching orders from the results of the Synod of Bishops. Ralph expects the document will continue the work begun by Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II.

Ralph said there will be three major events in Rome in October: the Synod, the Year of Faith, and the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Second Vatican Council.

He said each bishops’ conference will send a proportionate number of bishops for a total of about 350 total from around the world. There will also be a number of experts who will give 3-minute presentations like everyone as well as auditors who will be present but won’t speak.

He said he thinks the result will be a recapitulation of the theology of evangelization and an encouragement to use new means. It may recommend diocesan and parish committees and offices of the new evangelization. It probably won’t get very concrete.

Scot asked Ralph what he thinks is working in new evangelization in the US and abroad. Ralph said it isn’t programs that do the work, but people, and some people will feel comfortable with one approach and others with another. The main thing is for everyone to do something they feel equipped for. A diocese can’t just mandate one thing for all parishes, but should make available a whole range of possibilities. Some parishes will do Alpha or Cursillo or Ignatian Retreats or Life in the Spirit or Marriage Encounter or anything else. Let a thousand flowers bloom.

Scot said many people will know a friend or family member who hasn’t practiced their faith in quite a while. What would Ralph recommend for them to propose to others to rejoin the Church actively. Ralph said it depends on the relationship and where the person is. There must be prayer and love for the person at the base. Then be sensitive what would be helpful, like inviting them to a parish mission or a parish talk on faith or coming to church with them. It might be just giving a book or pamphlet to read. Ask them what their reasons for not coming are and find answers. And a lot of times these people aren’t on the timetable to be reached now so we have to be alert for a time when we can have another opportunity to invite.

Ralph said a lot of times you can have a random encounter. He related an encounter he had with a man who said he didn’t believe in God and so they had time to sit down and have a conversation. He knew he couldn’t answer all objections in a short conversation, but he wanted to remove some of the biggest obstacles. He said he challenged the man to ask God every day for one week in prayer to ask Him to reveal himself. Sometimes we plant a seed, sometimes we water a seed that someone else has planted, and sometimes we’re there for the harvest.

Fr. Matt encouraged listeners to pray for the man.

Fr. Matt said his seminary formation spent more time on pastoral care than on evangelization. He asked Ralph how seminary formation has implemented new evangelization over the years. Ralph said in his seminary that it’s been implemented. The motto of the seminary is to prepare heralds for the new evangelization. Cardinal Adam Maida, former archbishop of Detroit, also implemented a pontifical degree in new evangelization. That was originally for laypeople, so Ralph asked to offer required courses for seminarians. They also changed their apostolic experience to include evangelization, in addition to hospital work and serving the poor.

We get so consumed with those who do show up to church, we forgot those who don’t and we don’t have a plan to go after them.

Scot asked how the priests ordained from this program impact their parishes. Ralph said they have been ordained over the past four years and they’re doing things like censuses, Catholics Come Home nights, making liturgies more welcoming (training greeters and readers, etc.).

Scot reiterated parishes often focus on those who are in the pews, but we need to focus beyond them to those who aren’t with us. Some people may saw that they’re not suited to evangelization. What can we say to them?Ralph said the Sacrament of Baptism says it unites us to the living God and Jesus is within us. What He wants to do is awaken us to the Father, to love Him like He does, and to love other people as He does. A lot of Catholics haven’t awakened to the meaning of the indwelling Trinity.

3rd segment: This week’s benefactor card raffle winner is Collette Lavallee in Middleboro, MA.

He wins the CD “The Apostle of the Rosary: Servant of God Fr. Patrick Peyton” and the booklet “Preparation for Total Consecration” by St. Louis de Montfort.

If you would like to be eligible to win in an upcoming week, please visit WQOM.org. For a one-time $30 donation, you’ll receive the Station of the Cross benefactor card and key tag, making you eligible for WQOM’s weekly raffle of books, DVDs, CDs and religious items. We’ll be announcing the winner each Wednesday during “The Good Catholic Life” program.

4th segment: Fr. Matt asked how one goes about evangelizing another person, like a random person you’re sitting next to on an airplane. Ralph said he usually strikes up a purely small-talk conversation, then maybe ask a little about the person. This tells you whether the person is willing or interested in talking. If they are willing, they might ask you what you do or who you are. This is an opportunity to put on the table something about being a Catholic. That opens the door to asking about their faith background. From there just keep talking and find out where they are and maybe give your own testimony, mentioning important books or events in your life. Sometimes conversations in airplanes, he’s ended up praying with someone and promising to send them a copy of a book.

When he prays for God to give him opportunities, he sees them. When he doesn’t pray for them, he doesn’t see the opportunities. Fr. Matt said it has to be the work of the Holy Spirit, who is the animator of evangelization.

Fr. Matt asked about praying with strangers and what that’s like. Ralph recounted the story of encountering a family at a restaurant, talking about being Catholic. The guy later Googled Ralph, find out who he is, and emailed him, asking if they could get together and talk. Ralph and his wife went to their home, talked about their sorrows and prayed with them because they were trying to have another baby. Later, Ralph was back in the city and at a church he sat behind the man’s wife and she turned around and she was pregnant.

Scot said Ralph’s TV show on CatholicTV “The Choices We Face” is one of the oldest Catholic TV shows. They started Renewal Ministries in 1980 and they have several TV programs and radio shows. They also work in 30 countries, including Kazakhstan and Zimbabwe, recently. They help the local Church and sometimes organize huge rallies, as a way of countering pressure from evangelicals and other Protestants. They also do training for catechists and others. They partner with local bishops and others and maintain relationships with those local churches in Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia.

Scot asked how people would join in on their short-term missions to these other places. Ralph said people can get information and sign up at their website, as well as their other resources.

Ralph said they also do parish missions and seminars in the US. They also do a major rally in Toronto every year through their Canadian branch.

Scot asked for practical steps to get prepared for the Solemnity of Pentecost this Sunday. Ralph said since John XXIII the popes have been crying out for a new Pentecost. We need an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We need to encounter the Lord and recognize his magnificence, the fire for evangelization won’t be there. So we should pray for the Holy Spirit to come, to remove obstacles and hesitancies. We should pray to surrender ourselves so we become a more docile instrument in the hands of the Lord.

Ralph said the Cursillo movement brought him back to the Church and then went deeper through the Charismatic renewal. He encouraged people to participate in a Life in the Spirit seminar, if that seems the way for them. Fr. Matt asked him to explain the Life in the Spirit seminar and the Charismatic renewal. Ralph said Cardinal Suenens described its purpose as not being for everybody to join, but to be a witness and living voice to awaken the whole Church to recall what belongs to the Church. He’s not encouraging people to join a movement, per se, but to open themselves to the Holy Spirit. Ralph noted that even the apostles, who had the best teaching from Jesus, didn’t really get it until they received the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Fr. Matt said the Holy Spirit makes a difference for the preacher, teacher, and the one who’s open to the Lord.

Scot said Ralph’s last book The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook for the Journey to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints was a guidebook for people on a spiritual journey. Ralph said 7 of the 33 doctors of the Church had major insights into how we make the spiritual journey and he put all their best insights together. He said people don’t want to just have an emotional experience, but a steady enduring relationship with God. Scot said there’s a study guide for the book so a groups in parishes can go through the book together. Ralph said there’s also a video based on the book from EWTN as well.

Ralph has another book coming out in September that deals with the confusion that can impede the new evangelization. He wrote it while in Rome finishing up doctorate last year.

Fr. Matt said he read Ralph’s book and it’s a wonderful book with words of wisdom from great saints.

The Good Catholic Life

Office of Cultural Diversity and Catholic Family Festival

Summary of today’s show: There are more than 25 different ethnic communities spread across 75 parishes in the Archdiocese of Boston, representing the breadth and diversity of the Catholic Church throughout the world, served by the Office of Cultural Diversity and Outreach. Scot Landry and Fr. Chris O’Connor talk with Fr. Mike Harrington, director of the office, and Natalia Perdomo and Kateri Thekaekara, members of the office’s young adult council about their experiences of their faith as an immigrant or the child of immigrants as well as the upcoming Catholic Family Festival that will showcase the unity and diversity of the Church in the Archdiocese.

Listen to the show:

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Today’s host(s): Scot Landry and Fr. Chris O’Connor

Today’s guest(s): Fr. Michael Harrington, Director of the Office of Cultural Diversity; Natalia Perdomo; and Kateri Thekaekara

Links from today’s show:

• Office of Outreach and Cultural Diversity
• Registration for Catholic Family Festival

Today’s topics: Cultural Diversity and the Catholic Family Festival

1st segment: Scot Landry and Fr. Chris O’Connor discussed the “eschatological barbecue and bocce tournament” to mark the end of the St. John Seminary school year. Fr. Chris said the “evil empire” trio of seminarians who have been winning over and over were defeated in the tournament.

Fr. Chris said the Master of Arts in Ministry commencement and Mass are the next big events for the eight graduating this year. He said Cardinal Sean will be there for the ceremony on Wednesday.

Scot talked about his past weekend in which he took part in a training called Catholic Voices, which prepared laypeople for being in the media. He said it was great to hear professionals teach how to respond to hostile questions.

2nd segment: Fr. Mike Harrington described the Office of Cultural Diversity’s work. They act as liaison to the more than 25 different ethnic communities found in 75 parishes in the Archdiocese of Boston. Scot said many of the people that Fr. Mike’s office serves will be the future lay leaders of the Archdiocese of Boston. Fr. Mike said they serve many immigrants who find their home in the Catholic Church of their faith. They feel a call to help the communities to realize that they are part of the mission of the Archdiocese.

Fr. Mike said as he experienced the communities, he was surprised by the size of the communities, how packed the churches were, and how many young people were present. At one event, more than 100 Korean young adults showed up.

Fr. Chris said Cardinal Sean recently noted during Lent how many converts to the Church were Korean. Fr. Chris added that there were several Korean seminarians as well.

Fr. Chris said they don’t just minister to those who speak other languages, but they also minister to the deaf apostolate and black Catholic ministries. Scot listed all the countries of origin of the various ethnic communities served by the Office of Cultural Diversity. Fr. Mike said they have started a young adult cultural diversity council and an ethnic council. That is made up of two members from each of the ethnic communities. Fr. Mike said many of these people have known priests and others who have been martyred.

Scot asked Kateri about the young adult council. She said mentioned the people she’s got to know on the council. Fr. Chris asked about their work and Kateri said they’re planning a music night to share their talents and helping prepare for the family festival.

Natalia said the council started about two years ago. She’s a member of Sacred Heart Parish in Newton, which is her immediate family, and the young adult council is her extended family. She said she was born in Bogota, Colombia. She’s 20 years old and they moved her 14 years ago. She attended Montrose School in Medfield and is now a junior at Franciscan University of Steubenville. She hopes to counsel young adults struggling with addictions.

Kateri said he father is from India and her mom is from Slovakia. They met at St. Anthony’s Shrine in downtown Boston. Her mom was a refugee and her dad was studying music. They had eight kids. She’s attending College of the Holy Cross and will be a junior next year majoring in music and physics. Her father is Catholic and is from Kerala in southern India. Fr. Chris said a recent issue of National Geographic discussed how the apostles spread throughout the world, including St. Thomas to southern India.

Kateri said the fact her parents are from different continents and yet strong in their faith strengthens her own faith to make it her own. Natalia talked about her family coming from a majority Catholic country and how her mom has a strong devotion to Mary. She grew up praying the Rosary daily with her family. They had a particular devotion to Our Lady of Fatima.

Kateri talked about the Indian Syro-Malabar rite Catholics in the area and while they took part in that for a few years, because of her mom’s Slovakian background, they’ve become more involved in their own parish.

Fr. Mike talked about his different experiences of the ethnic communities, including a Brazilian summer pilgrimage, where he saw so many gifts among the young adults. Fr. Chris asked what expressions of faith Fr. Mike said seen that affects his faith life. Fr/ Mike said it’s the way they worship, how strong their faith is despite challenges and persecutions in their pasts. He noted that African Catholics often worship at Mass for more than 2 hours each Sunday.

Kateri said she majored in music because she knows she will be involved in cantering in church all her life. As a cantor, her singing can reach the hearts of those in the pews. Her favorite song to sing is Matt Maher’s “Jesus is My Everything”. Natalia said her favorite church song is “Lead me to the Cross”.

Scot asked how they would respond to those who don’t sing. Kateri said in ethnic communities people sing with their whole hearts. We sing to praise God with our whole selves.

Kateri described visiting India. the church is packed every Sunday, everyone gets there early, and they are very focused. Indian Masses are very long, she said.

3rd segment: Scot began the segment by talking about Kateri’s unusual name. Fr. Mike told the story of how he first encountered Kateri’s whole name.

The Catholic Family Festival is June 23 at Boston College High School. Fr. Mike said the event’s origins are in a family conference that talked about elements of the faith. Last year, as he got to know the ethnic communities, they wanted to get more involved and it became more of a family festival. He said last year they packed Malden Catholic High with over 1,400 attendees. They hoping to get even more this year. This is for everyone, not just for members of ethnic communities.

Natalia said he was remembers Cardinal Seán’s homily last year on re-kindling the fire of faith through the Eucharist. Kateri said members of the young adult council were cantering for the Mass and they sang “We are One Body.” She was amazed to see how powerful it was for the people attending the Mass. Fr. Mike said everyone at the Mass was given a flag representing their country and during the procession it was like a mini-World Youth Day. Natalia said it was great to see the universality of the Church.

Fr. Mike said Eucharistic adoration will take place all day in the chapel. There will also be a cultural gala of 20 different dance and music groups from ethnic communities, expressing honor for Mary, Queen of Apostles. Fr. Chris noted that there is an international food festival.they discussed their favorite dishes from last year. Fr. Mike said he particularly loves desserts and he recalls some great Middle Eastern desserts.

Fr. Mike said there will be an area for activities and events for young kids of various ages. They will also have some blow-up bouncy games for kids. Of course, the music and dances will be there as well.

They are also constructing shrines from each community that are devoted to a particular shrine to Mary in their home countries. Scot said it recalls for him visiting the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Last year, they honored Pope John Paul II after his beatification. This year, they realized what everyone had in common was devotion to the Blessed Mother. He came across a quote of Pope John Paul II about deepening our bond with Mary who on the pilgrimage of faith goes before the whole people of God. This made Fr. Mike think of Pope Benedict’s Year of Faith which begins in October of this year.

Fr. Mike emphasized that this is a free festival. They didn’t want to make any barrier to people coming. You can register at their website. Fr. Mike gave a list of reasons for people to attend the festival: Experience the universality of the Church; attend Mass with Cardinal Sean and maybe receive an apostolic blessing; come to experience diversity of our faith; come to meet your brothers and sisters; families come together as one family of faith; it’s a free event; experience traditional Mass and devotions; live music; networking; good food; and more. Natalia said Catholic young adults should come as a response to the attack on the family in our culture.

The Good Catholic Life

Physician-assisted suicide

Summary of today’s show: Scot Landry delivered a talk on the push for physician-assisted suicide in Massachusetts, addressing the historical, ethical, and practical considerations as voters in the Commonwealth are confronted by this matter of life and death in the election this fall.

Listen to the show:

Subscribe for free in iTunes

Today’s host(s): Scot Landry

Links from today’s show:

• SuicideIsAlwaysATragedy.org
• USCCB Webpage on assisted suicide

Today’s topics: Physician-assisted suicide

1st segment: Scot Landry mentioned that he recently delivered a talk, co-written by his brother Father Roger Landry, entitled “A Matter of Life and Death: Defeating the Push for Doctor-Prescribed Suicide: Historical, Ethical and Practical Considerations.”

As part of the Archdiocese of Boston’s Suicide is Always A Tragedy educational effort, Scot recorded this talk for use on The Good Catholic Life. Information from materials on SuicideIsAlwaysATragedy.org and from the USCCB webpage on Physician Assisted Suicide is used in the talk.

A matter of life and death: Defeating the Push for Doctor-Prescribed Suicide
Historical, Ethical and Practical Considerations

Suicide is ALWAYS a tragedy. It’s never a dignified way to die. Most in our society readily understand that when someone is contemplating suicide at any age of life, he or she is normally suffering from a depression triggered by very real setbacks and serious disappointments and sees death as the only path to relief. The psychological professions know that people with such temptations need help to be freed not from life but from these suicidal thoughts through counseling, support, and when necessary, medication. The compassionate response to teenagers experiencing a crushing breakup, to unemployed fathers overwhelmed by pressure, to unhappy actresses feeling alone and abandoned, to middle-aged men devastated by scandalous revelations, is never to catalyze their suicide. Heroic police officers and firefighters climb bridges or go out on the ledges of skyscrapers for a reason. Dedicated volunteers staff Samaritan hotlines around the clock for a reason. This same type of care and attention needs to be given by a just and compassionate society to suffering seniors or others with serious illnesses.

We’re now living at a time in which this clear truth isn’t seen by all and where some are advancing that suicide, rather than a tragedy, is actually a good, moral, rational and dignified choice. A year ago, if you were exiting the Callahan Tunnel in East Boston, you would have been confronted with a billboard paid for by the Final Exit Network, with white letters against a black background proclaiming, “Irreversible illness? Unbearable suffering? Die with Dignity.” To die with dignity, the billboard advanced, was to commit suicide with the help of a doctor. We would never tolerate a similar sign in Harvard Square or at any university: “Failing your courses? Unbearable heartbreak? Feel like the “one mistake” the Admissions Office made? End your collegiate career with dignity. Take your life.” We would know that preying on the emotionally down and vulnerable is never an act of compassion but what John Paul II called a perversion of mercy.

Yet, in Massachusetts, we now have a Citizens Initiative Petition called the Death with Dignity Act that seems to be headed to the ballot this November that will legalize suicide for a class of citizens.This would involve the active cooperation of doctors prescribing lethal overdoses of drugs. Such attempts to legalize physician-assisted suicide have been introduced here in Massachusetts and been rebuffed in 1995, 1997, 2009 and 2010, but this year seems to be the best chance for proponents of euthanasia to achieve their objective of making Massachusetts the East Coast Oregon and the North American Netherlands. A recent poll by Public Policy Polling showed that support for the measure is ahead of the opposition 43-37 percent. So there is much work to do and much at stake. It’s literally a matter of life and death. Whether we become active in the fight against doctor prescribed suicide may make the difference between lives being saved or tragically ended.

So in this address, in the brief time we have, I’d like briefly to do several things.First, I’ll describe the cultural background for this push for doctor prescribed death. Next, I’d like to touch on Church teaching, in order to strengthen us in our conviction as believers. Third, I’d like to focus on the Death with Dignity Act, and what the problems with it are even from an agnostic, commonsensical point of view, to equip us with arguments that will meet citizens where they’re at, regardless of their belief in the dignity of every human life and that intrinsic evil of suicide. Lastly, I’d like to describe what we’re being called to do now, as Catholics, as Harvard students and alumni, simply as truly compassionate human beings.

II. The Cultural Context

The push for physician-assisted suicide isn’t coming out of a vacuum. It’s a natural consequence of several factors that we need to be aware of if we are going to be able to persuade those who may unwisely be prone to support it.

1. A great fear of suffering and death and a desire to control it – Pope John Paul II pointed this out in his 1995 encyclical The Gospel of Life (64): “The prevailing tendency is to value life only to the extent that it brings pleasure and well-being; suffering seems like an unbearable setback, something from which one must be freed at all costs. Death is considered “senseless” if it suddenly interrupts a life still open to a future of new and interesting experiences. But it becomes a “rightful liberation” once life is held to be no longer meaningful because it is filled with pain and inexorably doomed to even greater suffering.

USCCB 2011 document “To Live Each Day with Dignity,” said: “Today, however, many people fear the dying process. They are afraid of being kept alive past life’s natural limits by burdensome medical technology. They fear experiencing intolerable pain and suffering, losing control over bodily functions , or lingering with severe dementia. They worry about being abandoned or becoming a burden on others.”

1. An exaggerated notion of personal autonomy or selfish individualism – There is a notion that no one can tell me what is good for me.. EV 64: When he denies or neglects his fundamental relationship to God, man thinks he is his own rule and measure, with the right to demand that society should guarantee him the ways and means of deciding what to do with his life in full and complete autonomy. It is especially people in the developed countries who act in this way.

There’s a distinction to be made between a healthy individualism and an exaggerated one that excludes any real sense of duties owed to family members, to society, to others. Almost all the justifications for legalizing physician assisted suicide focus primarily on the dying person who wants it. Its harmful impact on society and its values and institutions are ignored.

Euthanasia, we have to remember, is not a private act of “self determination,” or a matter of managing one’s personal affairs. AsCardinal O’Malley wrote back in 2000 in a pastoral letter on life as Bishop of the Diocese of Fall River, “It is a social decision: A decision that involves the person to be killed, the doctor doing the killing, and the complicity of a society that condones the killing.”

If personal autonomy is the basis for permitting assisted suicide, why would a person only have personal autonomy when diagnosed (or misdiagnosed) as having a terminal condition? [ Rita Marker]If assisted suicide is proclaimed by force of law to be a good solution to the problem of human suffering, then isn’t it both unreasonable and cruel to limit it to the dying?

1. A legal positivism that believes that there are no universal moral norms, but just the values we impose, either by courts and legislatures or ballot petitions – In yesteryear, the debate over euthanasia would take place within the context of moral and religious coordinates. No longer. There ceases to be common reference to anything higher than the debates that occur in the “secular cathedrals” of courthouses and legislatures. Believers have often abetted this secularization of discourse by allowing secularists to drive religious and moral values from normal discourse so that the public square becomes “naked” and our sacred scripture becomes court opinions and our prophets become the talking heads in the media.

2. Materialism and consumerism – Our society has lost a sense of the sacred, of mystery of the soul. The body is looked at just as a machine and human life as a whole has become two dimensional. This abets the push for euthanasia because ideas that there is meaning in suffering, even in death, seems like outdated ideas and that we should treat these fundamental human realities of suffering and death the way we do cars, or pets, or other things that begin to break down. We dispose of them once their usefulness is no longer apparent.

3. An anthropology based on scientific and mechanistic rationalism – Our scientific and medical progress, among other things in being able to produce life in test tubes and other practices, has led us to believe that if we can “create” life we should be able to manipulate it and end it, because life has lost its sense of mystery and its connection to a creator beyond us. We become what the raw material of human life becomes with time. We no longer are seen to be special in comparison with animals or robots. If we can euthanize our suffering pets, we should, so says Princeton’s Peter Singer, be able to euthanize human beings and allow them to end their own lives.

4. A misunderstanding of human dignity – American political scientist Diana Schaub says “we no longer agree about the content of dignity, because we no longer share … a ‘vision of what it means to be human’.” Intrinsic dignity means one has dignity simply because one is human. This is a status model — dignity comes simply with being a human being. It’s an example of “recognition respect” — respect is contingent on what one is, a human being. Extrinsic dignity means that whether one has dignity depends on the circumstances in which one finds oneself and whether others see one as having dignity. Dignity is conferred and can be taken away. Dignity depends on what one can or cannot do.

These two definitions provide very different answers as to what respect for human dignity requires in relation to disabled or dying people, and that matters in relation to euthanasia.Under an inherent dignity approach, dying people are still human beings, therefore they have dignity. Under an extrinsic dignity approach, dying people are no longer human doings — that is, they are seen as having lost their dignity — and eliminating them through euthanasia is perceived as remedying their undignified state. Pro-euthanasia advocates argue that below a certain quality of life a person loses all dignity. They believe that respect for dignity requires the absence of suffering, whether from disability or terminal illness, and, as well, respect for autonomy and self-determination. Consequently, they argue that respect for the dignity of suffering people who request euthanasia requires it to be an option

We need to be aware of these aspects of our culture because we’re really going to be able to change hearts and minds long term, to re-evangelize the culture of death with a culture of life, only when we’re able to get to the roots of the ideas that find euthanasia not only acceptable, not only worthwhile, but in some cases obligatory.

The moral worth of our society hinges on how we respond to these false ideas and fears. As the US Bishops wrote in To Live Each Day with Dignity: “Our society can be judged by how we respond to these fears. A caring community devotes more attention, not less, to members facing the most vulnerable times in their lives. When people are tempted to see their own lives as diminished in value or meaning, they most need the love and assistance of others to assure them of their inherent worth.”

III. The teaching of the Catholic Church

I presume most people listening to this presentation would be aware of the Church’s teaching with regard to euthanasia and doctor prescribed death.We believe that human life is the most basic gift of a loving God, a gift over which we have stewardship not absolute dominion. As responsible stewards of life, we must never directly intend to cause our own death or that of anyone else. Euthanasia and assisted suicide, for that reason , are always gravely wrong. The fifth commandment applies to our actions toward ourselves and to others.

For this reason, Blessed Pope John Paul II said in Evangelium Vitae : To concur with the intention of another person to commit suicide and to help in carrying it out through so-called “assisted suicide” means to cooperate in, and at times to be the actual perpetrator of, an injustice which can never be excused, even if it is requested. In a remarkably relevant passageSaint Augustine writes that “it is never licit to kill another: even if he should wish it, indeed if he request it because, hanging between life and death, he begs for help in freeing the soul struggling against the bonds of the body and longing to be released; nor is it licit even when a sick person is no longer able to live”. Even when not motivated by a selfish refusal to be burdened with the life of someone who is suffering, euthanasia must be called a , and indeed a disturbing “perversion” of mercy. True “compassion” leads to sharing another’s pain; it does not kill the person whose suffering we cannot bear.Moreover, the act of euthanasia appears all the more perverse if it is carried out by those, like relatives, who are supposed to treat a family member with patience and love, or by those, such as doctors, who by virtue of their specific profession are supposed to care for the sick person even in the most painful terminal stages” (66).

The CatholicChurch regularly teaches about importance of palliative care and emphasizes that we don’t teach that we have to preserve life by all means no matter what the circumstances.Palliative care is a holistic approach to terminal illness and the dying process. It seeks to address the whole spectrum of issues that confront a person with a terminal diagnosis through information, high quality care and pain relief, dealing with the emotions, dispelling fear, offering spiritual support if required and including the family in every aspect of the patient’s care. In Evangelium Vitae, John Paul II wrote that “Euthanasia must be distinguished from the decision to forego so-called “aggressive medical treatment”, in other words, medical procedures which no longer correspond to the real situation of the patient, either because they are by now disproportionate to any expected results or because they impose an excessive burden on the patient and his family. In such situations, when death is clearly imminent and inevitable, one can in conscience “refuse forms of treatment that would only secure a precarious and burdensome prolongation of life, so long as the normal care due to the sick person in similar cases is not interrupted”

The US Bishops in To Live Each Day with Dignity stated that “Respect for life does not demand that we attempt to prolong life by using medical treatments that are ineffective or unduly burdensome. Nor does it mean we should deprive suffering patients of needed pain medications out of a misplaced or exaggerated fear that they might have the side effect of shortening life. The risk of such an effect is extremely low when pain medication is adjusted to a patient’s level of pain, with the laudable purpose of simply addressing that pain (CCC, no. 2279). In fact, severe pain can shorten life, while effective palliative care can enhance the length as well as the quality of a person’s life. It can even alleviate the fears and problems that lead some patients to the desperation of considering suicide. Effective palliative care also allows patients to devote their attention to the unfinished business of their lives, to arrive at a sense of peace with God, with loved ones, and with themselves.”

This is the “infinitely better way” to care for the needs of people with serious illnesses,” what Blessed John Paul II called “the way of love and mercy.”

These considerations are very important in terms of forming ourselves as Catholics, and they help all of us see more clearly and with greater confidence, thanks the help of Revelation, that doctor prescribed death is always wrong. These arguments won’t necessarily work ad extra, in terms of the persuasion of the public as a whole, but they will be far more direct and persuasive to those who believe that they believe that God exists, that he speaks to us through Sacred Scripture and the Church he founded, to guide us to the truth in faith and morals.

IV. National and International Survey of Doctor Prescribed Death

Before we look at the situation in Massachusetts, I’d like to do a quick survey of the situation in our country and across the globe. I do this because euthanasia proponents sometimes give the impression that the advent of physician assisted suicide is inevitable. It’s not. There is, in fact, the total reverse and negation of a “domino effect.”

The state of Oregon made assisted suicide a medical treatment in 1994 and three years later legalized it outright. In 2008, Washington did the same. That same year courts in Montana said that patients have the right to self-administer a lethal dose of medication as prescribed by a physician and determined that the doctor would not face legal punishment for doing so.

But in the time since 1994 in Oregon, there have been 124 proposals in 25 states. All that are not currently pending were either defeated, tabled for the session, withdrawn by sponsors, or languished with no action taken. Michigan defeated a Kevorkian led referendum in 1998. Maine defeated a referendum for physician assisted suicide in 2000 (51-49). California defeated the Compassionate Choices Acts in 2005. New Hampshire defeated an assisted suicide bill 242-113 in January 2010. Later that year, Hawaii’s health committee unanimously rebuffed it. Earlier this month, the State of Vermont defeated it 18-11 in the Senate. The vast majority of times it has come up in states across the nation, it has been defeated. Doctor physician suicide remains an explicit crime in 44 states.

The same thing has happened internationally. After the Netherlands legalized it, The Scottish Parliament overwhelming defeated an attempt to give “end of life Assistance” 85-16 in 2010. In the same year, the Canadian parliament defeated a bill that would have legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide by a vote of 228 to 59. In Western Australia, a major effort was launched to pass a euthanasia bill, and it was struck down 24-11 in September 2010.Since the beginning of 2010 five countries have defeated efforts to pass more radical laws enabling not just assisted suicide but Netherlands-style euthanasia, which allows medical professionals to kill very ill or depressed patients.

The bottom line is that we should have hope. If euthanasia can be defeated in California, in Vermont, in Britain, in Canada, it can be defeated here. The reason is because fundamentally those fighting against euthanasia are not primarily conservatives or, even more restricted, religious conservatives. Most current opposition coalitions include many persons and organizations whose opposition is based on progressive politics, especially disability rights groups and medical associations .

V. The Massachusetts Death with Dignity Act

Let’s turn now to the Death with Dignity Act that Attorney General Martha Coakley certified as a citizens initiative petition on September 7, 2011.Presently assisting suicide currently is a common law crime in MassachusettsThis petition allows a Massachusetts adult resident, who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness that will likely result in death within six months, to request and receive a prescription for a lethal drug to end his or her life. If passed, the petition would legalize physician-assisted suicide. Two physicians will need to determine the terminal diagnosis, the mental state of the patient, and that the patient is acting voluntarily. The patient must make two oral requests within no fewer than fifteen days of one another. A written request is also required with a minimum of forty-eight hours between the written request and the writing of a prescription for the lethal drug.

Let’s begin parsing what this is all about.First I’ll describe technical issues with the actual petition and then discuss some of the larger issues involved.

There are at least 5 technical issues with the actual petition.

First, we see first the use of euphemisms to mask what’s really involved. The US Bishops have stated that proponents … avoid terms such as “assisting suicide” and instead use euphemisms such as “aid in dying.” They note that The Hemlock Society has changed its name to “Compassion and Choices.” They state, “Plain speaking is needed to strip away this veneer and uncover what is at stake, for this agenda promotes neither free choice nor compassion.”

Proponents scrupulously avoid the term suicide, instead opting for “compassion,” “dying with dignity” “humane” and “end-of-life care.” It’s important for us to keep the term suicide in the forefront, because people, especially in our culture, recognize that suicide is wrong. A vote for doctor prescribed suicide is a vote for suicide. Cardinal O’Malley said in a powerful homily, “We hope that the citizens of the commonwealth will not be seduced by the language: dignity, mercy and compassion which are used to disguise the sheer brutality of helping some kill themselves.… We are our brother’s keeper and our sister’s helper. Cain who forgot he was his brother’s keeper ended up becoming his executioner. “Thou shall not kill” is God’s law and it is written in our hearts by our Creator.”

Second, the petition uses a vague definition of terminally ill. There are many definitions for the word “terminal.” For example, when he spoke to the National Press Club in 1992, Jack Kevorkian said that a terminal illness was “any disease that curtails life even for a day.” The co-founder of the Hemlock Society often refers to “terminal old age.” Some laws define “terminal” condition as one from which death will occur in a “relatively short time.” Others state that “terminal” means that death is expected within six months or less, WITHOUT MEDICAL CARE. Even where a specific life expectancy (like six months) is referred to, medical experts acknowledge that it is virtually impossible to predict the life expectancy of a particular patient. Some people diagnosed as terminally ill don’t die for years, if at all, from the diagnosed condition. Increasingly, however, euthanasia activists have dropped references to terminal illness, replacing them with such phrases as “hopelessly ill,” “desperately ill,” “incurably ill,” “hopeless condition,” and “meaningless life.”

But it is extremely common for medical prognoses of a short life expectancy to be wrong. Studies indicate that only cancer patients show a predictable decline, and even then, it is only in the last few weeks of life. With every disease other than cancer, prediction is unreliable. Prognoses are based on statistical averages, which are nearly useless in determining what will happen to an individual patient. Thus, the potential reach of assisted suicide is extremely broad and could include many people who may be mistakenly diagnosed as terminal but who have many meaningful years of life ahead

The third technical issue with the petition is that there is no mandatory psychiatric evaluation to determine the level of depression or a plan to handle depression. The petition only requires a determination that the person does not have impaired judgment (Section 6). In To Live Each Day with Dignity, the US Bishops remarked, “Medical professionals recognize that people who take their own lives commonly suffer from a mental illness, such as clinical depression. Suicidal desires may be triggered by very real setbacks and serious disappointments in life. However, suicidal persons become increasingly incapable of appreciating options for dealing with these problems, suffering from a kind of tunnel vision that sees relief only in death.” It is never rational to choose suicide.

In 2010, the Oregon Public Health Division found that the leading reasons people gave for asking for death were loss of autonomy (94%), decreasing ability to participate in activities that make life enjoyable (94%), and loss of dignity (79%). It is not pain but fear that drives people to suicide. Fear of dependence. Fear of “being a burden.”

Depression is one of the main factors that drives one to suicide. it’s not pain. The latest figures from Oregon show that while 95% of patients requested euthanasia or assisted suicide for “loss of autonomy” and 92% for “loss of dignity” only 5% (3 people) requested it for “inadequate pain control.” It should be noted here that hospice care is not as well developed in Oregon as in other US states.

The two professional associations representing oncologists in California wrote: It is critical to recognize that, contrary to belief, most patients requesting physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia do not do so because of physical symptoms such as pain or nausea. Rather, depression, psychological distress, and fear of loss of control are identified as the key end of life issues. This has been borne out in numerous studies and reports. For example, … a survey of 100 terminally ill cancer patients in a palliative care program in Edmonton, Canada,. .. showed no correlation between physical symptoms of pain, nausea, or loss of appetite and the patient’s expressed desire or support for euthanasia or PAS. Moreover, in the same study, patients demonstrating suicidal thoughts were much more likely to be suffering from depression or anxiety, but not bodily symptoms such as pain.

Fourth – there are multiple problems with criteria for witnesses and reporting structures. Witnesses can be strangers or those who seek to benefit from the death. Can be friends of the heirs. Under this Initiative [11-12], someone who would benefit financially from the patient’s death could serve as a witness and claim that the patient is mentally fit and eligible to request assisted suicide. The Initiative [11-12] requires that there be two witnesses to the patient’s written request for doctor-prescribed suicide. One of those witnesses shall not be a relative or entitled to any portion of the person’s estate upon death. However,this provides little protection since it permits one witness to be a relative or someone who IS entitled to the patient’s estate. The second witness could be the best friend of the first witness and no one would know. Victims of elder abuse and domestic abuse are unlikely to share their fears with outsiders or to reveal that they are being pressured by family members to “choose” assisted suicide.

The US Bishops stated last year that “in fact, such laws have generally taken great care to AVOID real scrutiny of the process for doctor-prescribed death—or any inquiry into WHOSE choice is served. In Oregon and Washington, for example, all reporting is done solely by the physician who prescribes lethal drugs. Once they are prescribed, the law requires no assessment of whether patients are acting freely, whether they are influenced by those who have financial or other motives for ensuring their death, or even whether others actually administer the drugs. Here the line between assisted suicide and homicide becomes blurred.”In Oregon, in only 28 percent of the patient deaths has the prescribing physician been present at the time of patient ingestion of the lethal dose, and in 19 percent of the cases, no health care provider has been in attendance.

The fifth technical problem is that the initiative doesn’t do enough limit the possibility of elder abuse or a lack of consent. Criminologist Jeremy Prichard doubts that many people in the community will be able to give full and voluntary consent to ending their lives. He contends that the growing prevalence of elder abuse suggests that aged people could easily be manipulated.Most elder abuse is at the hand of a relative. We must recognize that the prospect of euthanasia and assisted suicide becoming law in this country could effectively be aiding and abetting elder abuse with extremely grave consequences.It’s not hard to imagine that a relative who has been systematically abusing an elder emotionally and financially could see euthanasia as the final (and most profitable) card to play for personal gain.It’s not hard to imagine someone who has been emotionally abused over time succumbing to the suggestion that they ‘do the right thing’ once their frailty and ailments reach a certain point.

VI. Larger issues involved

Now I’d like to discuss 8 larger issues that are involved .There’s a false compassion involved in this initiative.It’s an explicit promotion of suicide. It will lead to a weakening of palliative care. It creates tremendous pressure on those who are ill and on their caregivers. It provides financial incentives toward euthanasia. It begins a slippery slope to many other possible abuses and evils. It creates legitimate fears in the disabled community. And It introduces a change in the nature of medical care.

First, it’s a false compassion – The US Bishops state that “the idea that assisting a suicide shows compassion and eliminates suffering is equally misguided. It eliminates the person, and results in suffering for those left behind—grieving families and friends, and other vulnerable people who may be influenced by this event to see death as an escape. The sufferings caused by chronic or terminal illness are often severe. They cry out for our compassion, a word whose root meaning is to “suffer with” another person. True compassion alleviates suffering while maintaining solidarity with those who suffer. It does not put lethal drugs in their hands and abandon them to their suicidal impulses, or to the self-serving motives of others who may want them dead. It helps vulnerable people with their problems instead of treating them as the problem.” Blessed Pope John Paul II wrote, “True ‘compassion’ leads to sharing another’s pain; it does not kill the person whose suffering we cannot bear.”

Second – it’s an explicit governmental promotion of suicide – Once government begins to say under certain circumstances suicide is not only permitted, but a public good, then others in situations — that are by no means severe — start to take their own lives.We’ve seen this in Oregon. In the first decade after Oregon legalized physician assisted suicide, the suicide rate – which had been declining – rose to 35 percent above the national average.And That 35 percent does NOT include doctor-assisted deaths in Oregon. By rescinding legal protection for the lives of one group of people, the government implicitly communicates the message—before anyone signs a form to accept this alleged benefit—that they may be better off dead. If these persons say they want to die, others may be tempted to regard this not as a call for help but as the reasonable response to what they agree is a meaningless life. Those who choose to live may then be seen as selfish or irrational, as a needless burden on others, and even be encouraged to view themselves that way

Third – it will lead to a weakening of palliative care – The push for doctor prescribed death is a movement to kill not the pain a person suffers but the person with the pain. Euthanasia advocates have pushed to confuse everyone on the palliative care issue: They have conflated or fused palliative care — the medical alleviation of pain and other distressing symptoms of serious illness — with intentionally ending the life of the patient.The pro-euthanasia lobby has deliberately confused pain relief treatment and euthanasia in order to promote their cause. Their argument is that necessary pain relief treatment that could shorten life is euthanasia; we are already giving such treatment and the vast majority of people agree we should do so; therefore, we are practicing euthanasia with the approval of the majority so we should come out of the medical closet and legalize euthanasia. Indeed, they argue, doing so is just a small incremental step along a path we have already taken.

The US Bishops in To Leave Each Day with Dignity wrote, “Even health care providers’ ability and willingness to provide palliative care such as effective pain management can be undermined by authorizing assisted suicide. Studies indicate that untreated pain among terminally ill patients may increase and development of hospice care can stagnate after assisted suicide is legalized. Government programs and private insurers may even limit support for care that could extend life, while emphasizing the “cost-effective” solution of a doctor-prescribed death. The reason for such trends is easy to understand. Why would medical professionals spend a lifetime developing the empathy and skills needed for the difficult but important task of providing optimum care, once society has authorized a “solution” for suffering patients that requires no skill at all? Once some people have become candidates for the inexpensive treatment of assisted suicide, public and private payers for health coverage also find it easy to direct life-affirming resources elsewhere.”

Fourth – it creates tremendous pressure on those who are ill and on their care givers – If voluntary euthanasia is introduced, every dying person capable of doing so would have to decide not just whether or not his own pain had become too much to bear, but whether or not the emotional, physical and financial burden was becoming too much for relatives and friends to bear. What are the dying to do when their children and grandchildren have to travel long distances, endure enormous emotional strain and go through wearing physical fatigue to be with them during an awkwardly long and unpredictable “dying period”? What are the poor, vulnerable dying to do when they are made to feel that their continued existence is an intolerable public burden?

In cases where the dying elderly are not in a position to give formal consent to their own death, those legally vested with the right to make this decision on their behalf can never be sure that they acted out of the right motives. (In the worst case, one can wonder whether they were motivated by their dying relative’s emotional strain or by THEIR OWN, by the interests of the patient or by the prospect of securing an inheritance sooner rather than later?, and so on). The legalization of euthanasia would put almost “humanly impossible” demands on the dying and their relatives, especially if they are poor. Where voluntary euthanasia is illegal, the timing and extent of medical intervention in the lives of dying patients is more a matter of “professional judgment” than of “personal choice” and this means that the health professions are able to protect the poor and vulnerable from pressures of this kind.

Fifth – it creates financial incentives for euthanasia – In an era of cost control and managed care, patients with lingering illnesses may be branded an economic liability, and decisions to encourage physician assisted suicide may be driven by cost.I ask you, is it reasonable to assume that some government bureaucrats or some bottom-line-driven managed care decision makers would be motivated to encourage less costly assisted suicide pill prescriptions over more expensive longer-term treatments?The cost of the lethal medication generally used for assisted suicide is about $300, far cheaper than the cost of treatment for most long-term medical conditions. Many common-sense adults have already concluded that assisted suicide is a deadly mix with our challenged health care system, in which financial pressures already play far too great a role in many health care decisions. The U.S. Solicitor General in the Clinton Administration, Walter Dellinger, warned in urging the Supreme Court to uphold laws against assisted suicide: “The least costly treatment for any illness is lethal medication.”

Patients in Oregon have already encountered that reality. In May 2008, 64-year-old retired school bus driver Barbara Wagner received bad news from her doctor. Her cancer had returned. Then she got some good news. Her doctor gave her a prescription for medication that he said would likely slow the cancer’s growth and extend her life. It didn’t take long for her hopes to be dashed.She was notified by letter that the Oregon Health Plan wouldn’t cover the prescribed cancer drug. It also informed her that, although it wouldn’t cover the prescription, it would cover all costs for her assisted suicide. Wagner said she told the OHP, “Who do you guys think you are? You know, to say that you’ll pay for my dying, but you won’t pay to help me possibly live longer?”Wagner’s case was not isolated. Other patients received similar letters.

Sixth – clearly this initiative would launch the Commonwealth down the slippery slope to involuntary euthanasia and other evils. The “slippery slope” argument, a complex legal and philosophical concept, generally asserts that one exception to a law is followed by more exceptions until a point is reached that would initially have been unacceptable

We’ve seen the path the slippery slope has taken in Belgium and the Netherlands. In 30 years, the Netherlands has moved from euthanasia of people who are terminally ill, to euthanasia of those who are chronically ill; from euthanasia for physical illness, to euthanasia for mental illness; from euthanasia for mental illness, to euthanasia for psychological distress or mental suffering—and now to euthanasia simply if a person is over the age of 70 and “tired of living.” Dutch euthanasia protocols have also moved from conscious patients providing explicit consent, to unconscious patients unable to provide consent. Denying euthanasia or PAS in the Netherlands is now considered a form of discrimination against people with chronic illness, whether the illness be physical or psychological, because those people will be forced to “suffer”longer than those who are terminally ill. Non-voluntary euthanasia is now being justified by appealing to the social duty of citizens and the ethical pillar of caring for others [beneficence]. In the Netherlands, euthanasia has moved from being a measure of last resort to being one of early intervention. Belgium has followed suit, and troubling evidence is emerging from Oregon specifically with respect to the protection of people with depression and the objectivity of the process

For many years Dutch courts have allowed physicians to practice euthanasia and assisted suicide with impunity, supposedly only in cases where desperately ill patients have unbearable suffering. However, Dutch policy and practice have expanded to allow the killing of people with disabilities or even physically healthy people with psychological distress; thousands of patients, including newborn children with disabilities, have been killed by their doctors without their request.

The Dutch example teaches us that the “slippery slope” is very real.A recent study found that in the Flemish part of Belgium, 66 of 208 cases of “euthanasia” (32%) occurred in the absence of request or consent. The reasons for not discussing the decision to end the person’s life and not obtaining consent were that patients were comatose (70% of cases) or had dementia (21% of cases). In 17% of cases, the physicians proceeded without consent because they felt that euthanasia was “clearly in the patient’s best interest” and, in 8% of cases, that discussing it with the patient would have been harmful to that patient. Those findings accord with the results of a previous study in which 25 of 1644 non-sudden deaths had been the result of euthanasia without explicit consent

The US Bishops Conference speaks about this: “Taking life in the name of compassion also invites a slippery slope toward ending the lives of people with non-terminal conditions. Dutch doctors, who once limited euthanasia to terminally ill patients, now provide lethal drugs to people with chronic illnesses and disabilities, mental illness, and even melancholy. Once they convinced themselves that ending a short life can be an act of compassion, it was morbidly logical to conclude that ending a longer life may show even more compassion. Psychologically, as well, the physician who has begun to offer death as a solution for some illnesses is tempted to view it as the answer for an ever-broader range of problems. This agenda actually risks adding to the suffering of seriously ill people. Their worst suffering is often not physical pain, which can be alleviated with competent medical care, but feelings of isolation and hopelessness. The realization that others—or society as a whole—may see their death as an acceptable or even desirable solution to their problems can only magnify this kind of suffering.”

There is a moral trickle-down effect. First, suicide is promoted as a virtue. Then follows mercy killing of the terminally ill. From there, it’s a hop, skip and a jump to killing people who aren’t perceived to have a good “quality” of life, perhaps with the prospect of organ harvesting thrown in as a plum to society.

Seventh – the disabled community is rightly concerned about this initiative – A Once concerns about the perception of one’s quality of life come to the forefront, disabled advocates anticipate that the disabled will be among the first to be targeted under an anthropology focused on doing rather than being.

These advocates tell us that many people with disabilities have long experience of prejudicial attitudes on the part of able-bodied people, including physicians, who assume they would “rather be dead than disabled.” Such prejudices could easily lead families, physicians and society to encourage death for people who are depressed and emotionally vulnerable as they adjust to life with a serious illness or disability.

Although the debate about assisted suicide is often portrayed as part of the culture war—with typical left-right, pro-con politics—the largest number of witnesses at the most recent hearing on Beacon Hill were 10 disability-rights advocates who oppose the initiative.

According to the National Council on Disability: “As the experience in the Netherlands demonstrates there is little doubt that legalizing assisted suicide generates strong pressures upon individuals and families to utilize the option, and leads very quickly to coercion and involuntary euthanasia.”This is a fear that many people living with a disability and their families express over the idea of euthanasia.They fear that misunderstandings and false compassion could result in them being considered ‘better off dead’; devalued and perhaps even killed. They also fear being treated as second class citizens in respect to their medical care.

A policy of euthanasia will inevitably lead to establishing social standards of acceptable life. When “quality life” is more important than life itself, the mentally ill, the disabled, the depressed, and those who cannot defend themselves will be at risk of being eliminated.

The prohibitions against both euthanasia and assisted suicide treat all citizens equally. Making exceptions for the hard cases while advantaging the very few, risks placing far more people at a decided risk of disadvantage. We would be implicitly suggesting that the lives of the sick or disabled are less worthy of the protection of the law than others. Will these ‘vulnerable groups’ be heard

In Massachusetts, the disability advocates call their opposition group “Second Thoughts.” They say that assisted suicide may sound like a good idea at first, but on second thought the risks of mistake, coercion and abuse are too great.

Cardinal Seán O’Malley summed up this thought in a homily he delivered in September of 2011.“By rescinding the legal protection for the lives of a category of people, the government sends a message that some persons are better off dead. This biased judgment about the diminished value of life for someone with a serious illness or disability is fueled by the excessively high premium our culture places on productivity and autonomy which tends to discount the lives of those who have a disability or who are suffering or dependent on others. If these people claim they want to die, others might be tempted to regard this not as a call for help, but as a reasonable response to what they agree is a meaningless life. Those who choose to live may then be viewed as selfish or irrational, as a needless burden on others, and might even be encouraged to see themselves in that way. Many people with a disability who struggle for their genuine rights to adequate health care, housing and so forth, are understandably suspicious when the freedom society most eagerly offers them is the freedom to take their lives.”

The eighth large issue is that this initiative if passed would bring about a massive change in the nature of medical care – The American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Nurses Association and the Massachusetts Medical Society all oppose doctor-prescribed suicide and for good reason, because it changes the nature of medical care and corrupts the medical profession.The Hippocratic oath states: “I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan.”The American Medical Association holds that “physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer.”

Once we allow doctors to start to kill patients with terminal illnesses, the meaning of the medical profession changes, from one that seeks always to save lives, to one in which it is possible to end them. Once that occurs, then it’s a small step to allowing them to assist non-terminal patients in taking their lives and another to putting pressure on those who are in terminal illnesses to do family members and society a “favor” by ending their lives so that medical resources can be spent elsewhere.

We’ve seen the consequences in terms of the doctor-patient relationship. In Holland, reports have been published documenting the sad fact that elderly patients, out of fear of euthanasia, refuse hospitalization and even avoid consulting doctors, because doctors and nurses become potential destroyers of life, rather than defenders. They become executioners.

There would also be a fundamental change in the way doctors are formed. A fundamental value and attitude that we want to reinforce in medical students, interns and residents, and in nurses, is an absolute repugnance to killing patients. It would be very difficult to communicate to future physicians and nurses such a repugnance in the context of legalized doctor prescribed death.

VII. Our mission in response to this challenge

With regard to the citizens initiative petition, we need to know some facts. It’s still in the “second quarter of the game,” but we are slightly behind and therefore we must work harder and better, both on offense and defense.

The recent poll by Public Policy Polling showing that 43 percent are in favor of the petition at the present, and 37 percent are against. But we saw some breakdowns that will teach us particular areas that we can emphasize:

There is a gender difference. Men were in favor of 48-34 percent.Women were opposed 41-38.Therefore we particularly need to work on men to become real protectors of the vulnerable and to accentuate woman’s nature compassion.

There are also generational differences. 65 and older were opposed with 44 percent against it. Those 46-65 were the most in favor, with 49 percent supporting the bill. It’s clear that our seniors will be opposed if the specter of people making the decision for them is brought to them.We need to help the care giver generation to recognize there’s a better way, a way of returning love for the love received, of the availability of good palliative care in hospices.

The larger issue of how we should be getting involved was brought out by the US Bishops in To Live Each Day with Dignity. “Catholics should be leaders in the effort to defend and uphold the principle that each of us has a right to live with dignity through every day of our lives. As disciples of one who is Lord of the living, we need to be messengers of the Gospel of Life. We should join with other concerned Americans, including disability rights advocates, charitable organizations, and members of the healing professions, to stand for the dignity of people with serious illnesses and disabilities and promote life-affirming solutions for their problems and hardships. We should ensure that the families of people with chronic or terminal illness will advocate for the rights of their loved ones, and will never feel they have been left alone in caring for their needs. The claim that the “quick fix” of an overdose of drugs can substitute for these efforts is an affront to patients, caregivers and the ideals of medicine. When we grow old or sick and we are tempted to lose heart, we should be surrounded by people who ask “How can we help?” We deserve to grow old in a society that views our cares and needs with a compassion grounded in respect, offering genuine support in our final days. The choices we make together now will decide whether this is the kind of caring society we will leave to future generations. We can help build a world in which love is stronger than death.”

This initiative petition is a time in which all citizens of the Commonwealth have the chance to choose the path of Cain and Kevorkian or the path of the Good Samaritan. It’s the path of the executioner or of the truly compassionate care-giver, the life-affirming hospice nurse, the 24-hour operator at suicide prevention hotlines, and the heroic firefighter or police officer who climbs bridges, risking his life to save those who are contemplating ending their own. The path of the true brother’s keeper will also be shown in the educational work of those who begin anew to educate others about the dignity of every human life and persuade legislators and fellow citizens to rise up to defeat soundly this evil initiative. It’s a matter of life or death.

The Good Catholic Life

Pastoral Center Service Week

Summary of today’s show: Employees at the Archdiocesan Pastoral Center have a new tradition of getting out each spring to give some hands-on assistance at inner-city parishes and making a connection between the work they do at their desks and the people in the parishes they serve. Scot Landry and The Good Catholic Life team made their way to St. Matthew Parish in Dorchester today to get their hands dirty and to sit down with Denise McKinnon-Biernat, one of the organizers of the Week; Rich Durham, business manager for a number of inner-city parishes; and Gaspard Lafalaise, a parishioner and volunteer at St. Angela’s and St. Matthew’s parishes.

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Today’s host(s): Scot Landry

Today’s guest(s): Rich Durham, Denise McKinnon-Biernat, Gaspard Lafalaise

Links from today’s show:

• Parish Service Week in photos
• St. Angela Parish, Mattapan
• St. Matthew Parish, Dorchester

Today’s topics: Pastoral Center Service Week

1st segment: Scot Landry said we’re at St. Matthew Parish in Dorchester. He welcomed Rich Durham, business manager at many of inner-city parishes; Gerard Lafalaise, a volunteer at the parish; and Denise McKinnon-Biernat of Parish Financial Services. Denise said the objective of Parish Service Week is the give people who work in the pastoral center the flavor of working in the parishes and also providing some manual labor for parishes that need some help. A lot of the volunteers find they get more from doing this than what they give.

Denise said they’re promoting a culture of service. The Pastoral Center serves parishes, but often its from behind a desk, but the service week gets employees out into the parishes and face to face. Last year they were at St. Katharine Drexel Parish in Roxbury with about 35 people and this year at St. Matthew’s and St. Angela’s in Mattapan, they had more than twice as many.

Rich said these two parishes were picked this year because they are inner-city parishes that need significant help. St. Katharine was chosen last year because they needed a lot of landscaping and exterior painting, which are very visible signs of change for the parish.

Scot said many of the parishes Rich serves receive subsidies from the Central Ministries, which are supported by the Catholic Appeal. Scot asked how many parishes need that support. Rich said it costs about the same to run any parish. So a suburban parish can support a general budget, but an inner-city parish’s parishioners have less they can afford to give, although they are still giving a lot as a percentage. Rich wants to ensure they have websites and Facebook pages so they have all the tools that any other parish has to make sure they feel part of the archdiocese.

An example of the work being done is St. Angela’s in Mattapan where they had a contractor fix a railing. That required skilled labor. But the volunteers painted the front doors of the church to give a welcoming façade. They power washed the statues in front of the church, so now there’s a bright white statue of the Blessed Mother as people pull up. Scot said the exterior of the church tells people whether we take pride in our church, whether there’s a lively community. We all have lists of things to do and we can help parishes with that list.

Scot asked Gaspard about helping out at St. Angela’s and St. Matthew’s. He said he’s helped out at St. Angela’s for 16 years with Fr. William Joy, the pastor, and at St. Matthew’s for the last few years. Gaspard is a native of Haiti. Both parishes are diverse communities. The majority are Haitian or of Haitian descent, but they also have groups from other Caribbean islands and Latin America. He said it’s a fragile community too because there are many cultural concerns. The Haitian community in the Archdiocese is the largest in the country. Gaspard said both parishes gather the majority of the Haitian Catholic community in Boston. People come to the parishes from as far away as Maine for cultural devotional events. Even when people move to other communities, they come back because this is the hub of Haitian immigration.

Fr. Joy is the pastor and couldn’t be here because of a funeral. Gaspard said he loves Fr. Joy because he is a humble leader. He lets people express themselves and trusts people to make good decisions. He works with Fr. Joy closely and is very comfortable with him and that’s why he is happy to volunteer.

Scot said being a pastor in an inner-city parish is one of the most challenging but also fulfilling ministries. Rich said Fr. Joy has a difficult task. Of the two parishes, St. Angela’s is much larger, but he never favors on parish over the other and ensures that he gives equal attention to all groups. There is no favoritism. He’s amazed at how he’s able to accommodate all the needs, whether it’s culture or facilities management or language. The reason we’re at both parishes this week is because Fr. Joy insisted on coming to both. They hired more professionals for St. Matthew’s because the needs are greater here, while St. Angela’s got more of the volunteers yet both got equal amounts of service.

2nd segment: Scot asked Denise about the many vendors who serve the Archdiocese who have donated products and services. The mulch, flowers, and some of the labor was donated by Dokurno Landscaping in Bridgewater. Hardie-Trott from Weymouth donated new drywall and prep work to allow volunteers to paint seven rooms at St. Angela’s. Ridgemont Construction in Quincy donated new railings in St. Angela’s. Folan Waterproofing power washed the statues at the parishes.

Scot said the hedges at St. Angela’s were trimmed by Cardinal Sean and showed up in a photo in the Globe. Rich said it took six people two hours to weed the flower beds at St. Angela’s, including removing fencing. Also the front of the rectory there doesn’t get a lot of sun and so there were a lot of dead plants and trash. Even though it was general landscaping it took a lot of time. He noted that landscaping work can be tough when you work behind a desk most of the time. Thankfully, there have been no major injuries among the volunteers.

Scot said there’s been a broad group from the pastoral center. They came from most departments, including BCDS, Catholic Media (including Scot’s flower bed planting, which he credited to Dom Bettinelli), legal services, Catholic Schools, Parish Financial Services, Facilities, Real Estate, Faith Formation, Finance. People of all ages and sizes too.

Scot asked how Cardinal Sean got assigned to hedge trimming. Rich said they had to find a photo opportunity and in front of the Blessed Mother was a good idea. George Martell the photographer had a good idea to give him hedge trimmers. Scot asked what Msgr. Deeley is going to do and Rich said they’re going to give the vicar general a bow saw and a ladder to trim trees.

Scot noticed a sense of joy among those working. He said it’s nice to get to know the other people who work in the Pastoral Center that he might not have gotten to know before. Denise said it is a community building exercise. She said last year people kept saying they couldn’t wait to do it next year and happy to work beside people they didn’t know before. Denise said she’s sure that will happen again next year.

Scot asked Gaspard his opinion on the quality of work. Gaspard said he was happy to see all that’s been accomplished. He’s looking forward to the impact on the parishes in terms of recognizing the support they have from outside. It will make a huge long-term impact. He said the front doors at St. Angela’s look great as well. It makes a big difference from what there was before. What has been done is wonderful and he doesn’t have words to express his gratitude.

Rich said the biggest thing he hopes people take away from this is having seen the people who work in the parishes and seeing the facilities, they can appreciate the impact their work has on the people in the parishes. It’s good to see how the parishes can struggle with limited resources and it bridges the gap. Many people see their home parish as the Catholic Church, but seeing a different parish helps people to understand the breadth of the Church.

Scot asked Denise what she would ay to those who give to the Catholic Appeal and the impact their donations have for the immigrant Catholics who in many ways are the future leaders of the Archdiocese. Denise said they provide funding for the mission of these community. The Church needs to be in these neighborhoods and provide for the ministry to those who don’t have the wherewithal to provide for themselves now.

Gaspard said he invites long-term parishioners, those whose families have roots in those parishioners, who have moved out of state or out of town and into other parishes to come back and visit St. Angela’s and St. Matthew’s. The current parishioners are grateful for what they have left for this generation, which is doing its best to keep up the gift that has been handed on to them. There are a lot of challenges they are facing and former parishioners may be able to support the parishes with prayers or financial gifts.

Scot said St. Matthew’s probably started as serving the Irish immigrants. Gaspard said both parishes have highly mobile populations, in and out of the parish. So if someone comes from Haiti, they seek out St. Angela’s to worship in Creole French. As they become more stable and learn English and get married, for example, they move somewhere else. Scot asked what communities Haitian Catholics are moving to? Gaspard said it depends on income or education. Many move to Malden, Chelsea, Brockton, Randolph or Avon. Some go to Hyde Park and Milton. A large percentage go to New York or Florida, which is a challenge to the church both financially and spiritually. People form bonds but then one person moves away, often just when they are making a little more money and could support the church with gifts a little more.

Rich said both parishes have strong youth and young adults groups. That provides for a strong future. St. Matthew’s has a very vibrant food pantry, in which the food is provided by a parish in the western suburbs. They serve very many families in the area. The parishes do share the sacraments, doing First Communions and Confirmations together, which is mainly for financial reasons. The business operations are run out of St. Matthew’s, but the parishioners would appreciate having two offices.

Scot said he prepared for today by looking at the parish websites and he was impressed by them and how they have many photos showing parish life. Gaspard is the creator and maintainer of those sites. He doesn’t take the credit for the sites for himself. He said the Archdiocesan highlighted the parish’s site as one of the top six parish websites, but he said the parish ministries take credit for providing the good content. The choir ministry and youth and young adult ministries are the backbone and strength of the parishes and all he does is take pictures of what they do. One of the goals of the websites was to create an online giving program and so they needed a good website for them. But it was also a good opportunity to show the good news from inside the parishes to the outside world.

Scot asked Denise what else she hopes will be accomplished today. This is the largest day with over 21 volunteers today. They hope to do flower beds, trim trees and bushes, and paint the front doors to bring them back to life and make them more welcoming. They’re going to work around the parking lot and clean up some areas.

Rich said the front of both churches came out spectacular and people will feel very welcome with the new doors, the power washed statues, and new flower beds. He pointed out that on rainy Wednesday, volunteers painted 7 rooms in the rectory which benefits the parish staff especially. Denise said even when it rains there’s a lot of work to do inside.

3rd segment: Now as we do every week at this time, we will consider the Mass readings for this Sunday, specifically the Gospel reading.

• First Reading for the Seventh Week of Easter (Acts 1:15-17, 20a, 20c-26)

Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers
—there was a group of about one hundred and twenty persons
in the one place —.
He said, “My brothers,
the Scripture had to be fulfilled
which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand
through the mouth of David, concerning Judas,
who was the guide for those who arrested Jesus.
He was numbered among us
and was allotted a share in this ministry.

“For it is written in the Book of Psalms:
May another take his office.

“Therefore, it is necessary that one of the men
who accompanied us the whole time
the Lord Jesus came and went among us,
beginning from the baptism of John
until the day on which he was taken up from us,
become with us a witness to his resurrection.”
So they proposed two, Judas called Barsabbas,
who was also known as Justus, and Matthias.
Then they prayed,
“You, Lord, who know the hearts of all,
show which one of these two you have chosen
to take the place in this apostolic ministry
from which Judas turned away to go to his own place.”
Then they gave lots to them, and the lot fell upon Matthias,
and he was counted with the eleven apostles.

The Good Catholic Life

Summary of today’s show: On our regular Thursday show, Scot Landry, Susan Abbott, Fr. Roger Landry, and Gregory Tracy consider the news headlines of the week, including President Obama’s same-sex marriage “evolution”; rejection of a parish closing appeal by the Vatican; new priest assignments; and the 40th anniversary of monthly all-night Eucharistic adoration in the Archdiocese of Boston.

Listen to the show:

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Today’s host(s): Scot Landry and Susan Abbott

Today’s guest(s): Fr. Roger Landry, executive editor of The Anchor, the newspaper of the Fall River diocese; and Gregory Tracy, managing editor of The Pilot, the newspaper of the Boston archdiocese

Links from today’s show:

• The Anchor
• The Pilot
• Some of the stories discussed on this show will be available on The Pilot’s and The Anchor’s websites on Friday morning. Please check those sites for the latest links.

Today’s topics: Obama’s same-sex marriage “evolution”; Parish closing appeal rejected; 40 years of all-night Adoration

1st segment: Scot and Susan talked about how she came to show from a very important meeting with Cardinal Sean and parish catechetical leaders. The bishop of a diocese is the primary catechist and they discussed how the timing of the meeting after winding down of the faith formation year helped them to listen to new initiatives coming up.

Scot said today is the Feast of the Ascension and a Holy Day of Obligation in the Archdiocese. Find a church near you on your way home at Pilot Parish Finder. This week has also been Parish Service Week, where employees at the Pastoral Center have been volunteering at parishes in Mattapan and Dorchester.

2nd segment: Scot and Susan welcomed Gregory Tracy and Fr. Roger Landry back to the show. One of the big stories of the week has been the change by President Obama to support same-sex marriage. Fr. Roger wrote an editorial in the Anchor this week on the topic. Fr. Roger said no one was surprised by the change because his words and actions have been different over the past eight years. His Justice Department had opposed the Defense of Marriage Act as bigotry and the State Department has stopped defending the right to religious freedom in order to promote the invented right to normalized same-sex marriage and activity. Fr. Roger then focused on Obama’s claim to have had his stand on marriage “evolve”.

[T]he term evolution – which he has been using for two years to describe the interior ethical flux he said he was in – is clearly a loaded one. Not only does it imply a progression from Neanderthal to enlightened ideas, but it also suggests that the only people opposed to such positive development would be the same fundamentalist primitives who believe the world was created in six 24-hour periods.

But Obama tried mainly to base the change on Christian faith.

Most striking of all, however, is that the particular type of evolution the president said he had gone through was above all theological. “I’ve been going through an evolution on this issue,” the president said to Roberts, describing how politically he has gone from supporting civil unions to same-sex marriages. “I was sensitive to the fact that for a lot of people, the word Marriage was something that evokes very powerful traditions, religious beliefs and so forth, but … at a certain point, I’ve just concluded that for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.

… In the end the values that I care most deeply about and [the first lady] cares most deeply about is how we treat other people … . We are both practicing Christians and obviously this position may be considered to put us at odds with the views of others but, you know, when we think about our faith, the thing at root that we think about is, not only Christ sacrificing Himself on our behalf, but it’s also the Golden Rule, you know, treat others the way you would want to be treated. And I think that’s what we try to impart to our kids and that’s what motivates me as president and I figure the most consistent I can be in being true to those precepts, the better I’ll be as a dad and a husband and hopefully the better I’ll be as president.”

Obama thought he had to give in on same-sex marriage because he thought that’s what Christ would want him to do.

It’s clear, however, in terms of the consistent application of this lapidary moral principle, that the president still has much evolving to do. If he applied it to the victims of abortion, he would be hard pressed to desire that physicians do to him what abortion doctors do to our younger, smaller, more vulnerable fellow human beings. If he applied it to the situation of conscientious Catholics in America, he would not be trying to compel Catholic institutions, business owners and individuals through their insurance plans to fund practices they believe are immoral.

He also needs to evolve toward a correct interpretation of the Golden Rule. The Golden Rule does not mean to do for others whatever they’d like, but to do for them what is for their true good, just as we’d always want others to act in promotion of our true good. The Golden Rule for parents with regard to their kids’ appetites is not to feed them all the cotton-candy, chocolate and ice cream they’d like, but to make them eat their vegetables. The Golden Rule for teachers who care for their stUdents is not to give them little or no homework and easy A’s, but to exercise their developing minds and even to flunk them if they fail to perform. The Golden Rule for friends of those who are addicted is not to enable or ignore their problems but to intervene forcibly to get them help, even if it be against their desires. The Golden Rule is not about others’ wants, but their genuine needs. It’s always linked to the truth about the good.

The Golden Rule pertains to all society as well.

• “Catholic leaders reject Obama’s support for same-sex marriage”, Catholic News Service, 5/10/12

Scot said “evolution” is a loaded term and he was offended by the implication that those who disagree with the President are not as evolved as him. Susan said if this were a different topic and a different candidate, would we say he evolved or would we say he flip-flopped. Evolution carries the implicit meaning of moving to something at a higher level and offers an unfortunate implication.

Greg said it seems convenient that now when Obama’s in the middle of campaign for re-election he is switching. Before he was more guarded in his positions, perhaps because it wouldn’t have played very well to most people. This announcement seems to be a political inoculation for the campaign.

Scot said Republicans used to be the party accused of making social issues a key part of the election, but this year it seems it’s the Democrats doing it. Fr. Roger said we’re seeing a little bit of desperation like with the health care bill. Certain segments in the Democrat Party are worried about losing in November and so they’re trying to force the social issues forward. Fr. Roger said we have to approach these issues being confident and strong in our faith. Fr. Roger said Jesus spoke emphatically about marriage in his ministry. The roots of the meaning of marriage are found in the Book of Genesis.

Scot quoted Cardinal Dolan’s remarks.

“President Obama’s words today are not surprising since they follow upon various actions already taken by his administration that erode or ignore the unique meaning of marriage. We cannot be silent in the face of words or actions that would undermine the institution of marriage, the very cornerstone of our society,” Cardinal Dolan added. “The people of this country, especially our children, deserve better.”

“I pray for the president every day, and will continue to pray that he and his administration act justly to uphold and protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman,” Cardinal Dolan said. “May we all work to promote and protect marriage and by so doing serve the true good of all persons.”

3rd segment: Scot said two new assignments for priests were announced in the Pilot this week. Fr. Michael J. Doyle will become pastor at St. Mary of the Annunciation in Danvers, effective June 5. He had been serving as a military chaplain. Fr. Paul Aveni has been named pastor at Sacred Heart parish in Middleborough and Sts. Martha and Mary in Lakeville, effective June 5. Scot said Fr. Aveni’s territory might be the largest area for any one priest to cover in the archdiocese. Fr. Roger talked about the beauty of the area around the Lakeville parish.

Also in the Pilot is a profile of Fr. Kevin Deeley, the new pastor of St. Michael’s in North Andover, the largest in the Archdiocese. Greg said Fr. Deeley was a Navy chaplain for many years and just returned to the Archdiocese. He seems very happy to be there. He is the younger brother of the vicar general, Msgr. Robert Deeley. He was also a high school chaplain at Matignon back in the 1980s. Susan commented on the great rewards he found as a chaplain.

“[The chaplaincy] was very rewarding, in the sense that the Catholic priest is there for the sailors who are Catholic. It’s like bringing the Church to them,” explained Father Deeley. “As a chaplain, we make their home parish visible to the sailors,” he said, adding that in his 16 years in military service he has realized that “we are in good hands” with our service men and women.

Another story in the Pilot is the rejection of the appeal of the closing of St. Francis Cabrini in Scituate by the Vatican. Greg said this story starts in 2004 when the parish was closed as part of the Archdiocesan reconfiguration. It had a full-time 24-hour vigil of those who were trying to keep the parish open. Greg said there are two aspects to a closing. First is the suppression of the parish and second is the disposition of the building.

Greg said the parish was suppressed in 2004. Parish in canon law is an entity like a corporation, but it doesn’t necessarily have a building. It’s typically a territorial area. It can have more than one church as well. The first appeal was to reverse the decision to suppress the parish. Then the second step was the church building itself being relegated to profane use, which means it’s deconsecrated and can be used for other uses. Profane here is the opposite of the sacred. So it can have a profane or secular use, but it must be sordid. The Vatican has reversed relegation of property in other parts of the US, but in this case the appeal was rejected.

Scot said it’s been a controversial eight years. Most parishioners in the Archdiocese affected by closings moved on and accepted the change. About eight or nine parishes had some parishioners hold on and Cardinal Sean was committed to allowing the vigils to continue while appeals were ongoing. Scot said many Catholics in the archdiocese are calling people to move on, especially with the cost to maintain these vigil sites. Scot noted that the leaders of the Scituate vigil are the neighbors next door to the parish and so a person could reasonably conclude that they have self-interested reasons for holding out.

Susan sought clarification on whether there is one more appeal, and Greg said they are appealing to the Apostolic Signatura on whether the Archdiocese followed the requirements of canon law. They can appeal twice, first to a panel of the court and then to the full body of the court. The court’s decision will be based on whether lower courts acted correctly, not on the merits of the case.

Scot said no one wants to close a church. We’d rather keep opening parishes, but there are greater issues and Cardinal Sean has a responsibility to maximize resources for the entire Archdiocese of Boston.

Fr. Roger added that with regard to suppression of a parish, it’s fundamentally whether the followed canon law to the letter. With regard to relegation, the Archdiocese has to have a grave reason for doing that and the Congregation for the Clergy has recently overturned those decisions in other dioceses because the bishops didn’t give a sufficiently grave reason. We’re closing a place where God has been worshipped and we have to look closely at that.

In Europe, churches are maintained by the government. In Italy, every church but five are owned and maintained by the government. So you can understand why the Roman Curia might not recognize the burden on dioceses that have to pay to maintain empty churches. Fr. Roger said there’s been a lot of conversation between US bishops and the Roman Curia during the ad limina visits this year.

Scot said Cardinal Sean has respected the appeal process. Greg followed up on what Fr. Roger said to clarify that even in the cases where the Vatican has said the buildings can’t be relegated, it doesn’t mean they have to be parishes again. Scot said it’s tough to make the case that there aren’t enough other parishes in the area given Mass attendance now. We can hope that changes in the future, but we know you need to have a critical mass of people, priest, staff, and ministry in parish to make it feel alive and bring people back to the Church.

Moving on, Scot said on June 1, the All-night Eucharistic Vigil marks its 40th anniversary at St. Mary’s Chapel at Boston College with a Mass at 9pm celebrated by Fr. Ron Tacelli, SJ, and a talk by Fr. Ed Riley on the message of Fatima. Barbara Keville was interviewed for the Pilot article and she has been the force behind the 40 year tradition.

“I am no theologian but I am so grateful that God uses a person like me, just a simple housewife and a mother,” Keville said.

“No words can fully express the deep gratitude and joy that this apostolate has been for the past forty years. God is so good to allow this to happen.
If God and our beloved Cardinal permit, we will continue these vigils for as long as possible,” Keville said. Keville also called for others to stan
vigils, and offered to assist the cause in any way she can – just as she has done for 40 years.

“Anybody can start a Eucharistic vigil,” she said, “If anybody wants any help in any way, I would be glad to,” Keville said.

Scot said the idea of continuing one ministry for 40 years is astonishing. Susan said Barbara is amazing person and a force of nature. Fr. Roger offered public thanks to Barbara for everything she’s done for the Lord and our faith.

Scot said Cardinal Sean has also asked all new ecclesial movements and ethnic apostolates to join him at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on May 26, 6pm for a special vigil Mass for Pentecost. Scot also pointed out a rosary retreat by Holy Cross Family Ministries at Cardinal Spellman High School in Brockton.

The Good Catholic Life

Michael Coren

Summary of today’s show: Canadian author Michael Coren rejoins us for our 300th show to discuss his new book “Heresy” in which he tackles the ten big myths and lies told about Christians and Christianity. Scot Landry and Fr. Matt Williams talk with Michael about debating atheists on the existence of Jesus; why Christians care about whether gays can marry; the lie that Hitler was a Christian supported by Christians; why abortion isn’t about conservative politics, but about life; and that assisted suicide really is a slippery slope.

Listen to the show:

Subscribe for free in iTunes

Today’s host(s): Scot Landry and Fr. Matt Williams

Today’s guest(s): Michael Coren

Links from today’s show:

• Michael Coren’s website
• Program #0061 for Thursday, June 2, 2011: Michael Coren
• Heresy: Ten Lies They Spread About Christianity

Today’s topics: Michael Coren’s new book “Heresy”

1st segment: Scot announced that this is the 300th episode of the show. Fr. Matt said he just came back from Rio for World Youth Day preparations. He just got back on Sunday. They went to prepare for World Youth Day in 2013. Fr. Matt said it’s a very beautiful city. They are well on the way to preparing for the Olympics and World Cup as well. He said this isn’t the Rio of the 80s that was plagued by gangs and drugs and fear. They are one of the fastest rising economies in the world.

2nd segment: Scot read from Michael’s book: If a lie is told enough it takes on the veneer of truth. He then listed several of the lies about Christianity that Coren addresses in his book.

Scot asked Michael about the success of his previous book, “Why Catholics are Right?” He said he was stunned by the success. He had been called by the head of his publisher who told him the book had been selling well and wanted him to do another one. It occurred to Michael to apply the same sort of popular and sometimes funny arguments to the greater Christian world. The first book was mainly a defense of the Catholic Church while the second is a direct response to the general lies faced by any Christian on a daily basis. He said people often don’t think there is anti-Christianity, but anyone who is a Christian feels the constant barrage of anti-Christian comments. It’s not necessarily a bad thing to face such persecution because we have to stand up for truth. The Christian response is with respect and firmness that something is not true.

Scot said many of these lies are not necessarily new arguments, but in this generation we often haven’t been given the tools to respond. The first chapter is dedicated to the responding to the lie that Jesus wasn’t a real person, but is like Santa or the Tooth Fairy. Whether Jesus is the Messiah or not is a matter of faith, but that he actually lived is beyond intelligent dispute. Yet, many intellectuals spread that lie. Michael’s proof in the book comes from non-Christian sources among Romans for instance.

Michael said he deals with the intellectual argument for the claims of Jesus as Messiah. But at the basic level, he always meets people who are otherwise clever who think Jesus didn’t exist. There is abundant an client writing attesting to the fact of Jesus existing, like Pliny and Josephus. There is much more evidence for the existence of Jesus than for any other ancient figure, like Aristotle or Socrates. In the 19th century, lots of the rationalists were shocked at new scholarship proving the existence of Christ.

Michael said he debates atheists a lot because he finds it fun and easy. He often cuts off atheists who equate Santa and Jesus and tells them he won’t debate if they’re going to insult him with holding on to a childish fantasy, like Santa. Jesus is a mature belief system that requires an adult attitude. Scot said many atheists make a sport of mocking Christians, but nobody calls them on it for not similarly criticizing other religions. Michael said Jon Stewart recently made an extremely offensive joke about Christianity but would never similarly attack Islam. If you attack Christians, no one’s going to try to cut your head off. But standing up as a Christian can get you prosecuted. In Canada there have been almost 300 prosecutions of people who said that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. These comedians are not cutting-edge, but they’re in a very comfortable area.

Michael said the idea that I shouldn’t care about gay people marrying is like saying I shouldn’t care about apartheid because it doesn’t affect me. But marriage is about children and gay marriage is a giant social experiment with the lives of the most vulnerable and we’ll be paying for it in 20 to 30 years. Michael said what he just said, if he said it in Canada, would lead him to civil prosecution under hate speech laws.

Scot said Michael deals in his book with the lie that Hitler was Christian and that Christianity is complicit in the Holocaust. Michael said the National Socialists wanted to replace Church with party, Messiah with Fuhrer. The Nazis hated Jews and Christianity for giving the world Jesus. This is throughout their writings. Hitler sometimes lied to Christians to make them think they were safe, but Hitler’s goons attacked and killed monasteries full of innocent monks. While many Nazis were baptized Catholics, it doesn’t mean they were actually Catholic in practice. We belittle the horror of Nazism by claiming they were Christians.

3rd segment: This week’s benefactor card raffle winner is Daniel O’Shae from Melrose, MA

He wins 15 Days of Prayer With Saint Louis de Montfort

If you would like to be eligible to win in an upcoming week, please visit WQOM.org. For a one-time $30 donation, you’ll receive the Station of the Cross benefactor card and key tag, making you eligible for WQOM’s weekly raffle of books, DVDs, CDs and religious items. We’ll be announcing the winner each Wednesday during “The Good Catholic Life” program.

4th segment: Scot said Michael talks about in his book the lie that Christians are obsessed in an unhealthy way with abortion, being simple-minded. But in many ways, science is on the side of pro-lifers. Michael said there’s nothing wrong with having a simple mind and an open mind as opposed to empty headed. Abortion is not just a faith issue. If someone’s spouse died, it would be a terrible thing objectively. It would hurt the most for the surviving spouse. Christians feel the horror of abortion more because we are part of an institution given by God and we are part and parcel of it. The unborn child is absolutely unique from the moment of conception. There is no other definition for the beginning of human life. It’s not a potential life; it’s a life. We don’t look like an unborn child, but we also don’t look like a 3-year-old. It’s not part of the mother. No woman has to raise a child, but no woman has a right to kill a child. It’s not just a woman’s issue, because every child has a father. But the aborted children are predominantly female, handicapped, and black. These are the most needy and least powerful.

Scot quotes Michael as writing that choice is a good thing for freedom. Choice is good. Of course, the culture says being against choice makes you a bad person, but all sorts of choices are negative or harmful and we would never use the word choice in those instances. We wouldn’t speak of the choice to kill or to lie. Scot says this a great way to respond to those who put all choices forward as an unalloyed good. Michael said sometimes No is the right answer. We certainly don’t give choices to everyone for every circumstance. Scot said we’ve dehumanized the unborn over the years, calling it a fetus. One way to respond is putting a face on the victims of abortion.

Michael shared a story of Rose who lived in Eastern Europe at the turn of the 19th century. She was just married and her village decided they had to move because they were Jewish and the Russians were persecuting them. She found out she was pregnant and told her village she was expecting. The leader of the clan who had worldly experience told her that she wouldn’t make the trip, would slow them down, and perhaps kill them all. He wanted her to abort the child. She couldn’t accept it. A very old woman told her to do what she thought was right. So she carried on and as they traveled she was able to make it well. When they reached the sea, the captain of a ship they tried to hire said the sailors wouldn’t allow her onboard out of superstition. But when he saw her, she was hidden on board and they made their way to England. They settled in London and she gave birth to Michael’s great-grandfather.

Abortion is not about rights or conservatism. It’s about giving children life.

Scot said in Massachusetts we’re dealing with physician-assisted suicide. He asked Michael how we should respond. Michael said this is an issue we can still win. He said it’s not about someone who’s in terrible agony, saying please let me go. When Michael’s dad had a stroke, the doctors also found the return of a cancer. They advised that they should not take steps. This is not euthanasia. Euthanasia is taking an active part in ending life. He said the victim of euthanasia is, for example, a 70-year-old women whose husband died, who has arthritis, lives in a nursing home, is somewhat lonely, and the kids are paying lots of money to keep her. She doesn’t enjoy life, she misses her husband, and knows her grandkids don’t like visiting her. Culture tells her that she’s worthless. Eventually she thinks it’s time to go. Are we claiming that this is unbiased choice? Is someone wanting to die because she’s in pain really thinking clearly?

We should put all the money we spend on abortion and put it into palliative care. So much can be done, but instead of dealing with the issues, we try to kill the issues. We’re not putting people out of their misery, but we’re putting them out of our misery. Michael recalled a Canadian girl with cerebral palsy whose father killed her. Who are we to judge the quality of life of others? Perhaps many of the disabled are doing less harm to others because they’re abusing or hurting others.

Scot said Michael argues that the financial consequences of living longer and requiring more health care at the end of life, but the idea that financial concerns aren’t involved is naïve in the extreme. In addition some slopes are indeed slippery, which we’ve seen in places like the Netherlands where assisted suicide has become “mercy” killing of the mentally ill and others without terminal illnesses. Michael said the assisted suicide review boards are made up of people who are pro-suicide. They often cover up what happens. In the Netherlands, there was a devout Catholic nun who they claimed wanted to die, when in fact she had no desire to kill herself. In another case, a doctor checked a patient into the hospital and came back the next day to find out that other doctors euthanized her. The first rule of being a doctor is “Do no harm”. Now we are training doctors to kill whether unborn babies or the old and ill. Scot said in the Netherlands, we find elderly people refusing to go to the hospital out of fear.

In response to those who say were are hysterical, Michael said it is not hysterical to defend beliefs that are unchanged from history. He’s not doing this out of personal interest. He’s doing it all out of love.

Scot said in the US, the topic of legalizing assisted suicide has come up 127 times and it’s only been passed 3 times. Michael said even if the other side starts to win, we still need to fight it. He said there are no lost causes. Good always wins eventually.

Michael encouraged people to let him know what they think of his books by writing to him from his website.

The Good Catholic Life

Summary of today’s show: Scot and Father Chris talk about the Society of St James the Apostle with Fr David Costello, the newly elected Director of the Society. Fr David discusses his early formation for the Diocese of Limerick, Ireland, his work starting a brand new parish in the diocese of Lima, Peru, and what he looks forward to accomplishing over his upcoming three year tenure as Director.

Listen to the show:

Subscribe for free in iTunes

Today’s host(s): Scot Landry and Father Chris O’Connor

Today’s guest(s): Father David Costello, Director of the Society of St James the Apostle

Links from today’s show:

• Society of St James the Apostle website
• “Friends” newsletter homepage
• Father Derek Leonard’s Peru Mission blog

Today’s topics: Fr David Costello and his formation, the work of Fr David and the Society of St James in Peru, the Society itself, the future and mission of the Society.

1st segment: Scot welcomed Fr Chris back to the show, and asked about what he did to celebrate Mother’s Day this past weekend. Fr Chris said he visited with his sister and family and did lots of grilling, and connected not only to his biological mother but Mary, our spiritual mother. Scot commented he liked St Agnes in Arlington’s way of celebrating Mother’s Day – by crowning Mary right after the morning Mass. Scot also mentioned that the Pastoral Center crowned the statue of Mary today in a celebration after the noon-time Mass. Fr Chris said most prayers now are directed towards doing well on exams before heading out to their summer assignments – men will be working 6 to 8 weeks in a parish, shadowing priests and learning how to live a holy life. It also gives the seminarians a chance to put the pastoral skills they are learning into practice. Some of the men go to the Institute for Priestly Formation, Fr Chris said, a program in Omaha that teaches the Igantian Spirituality to men preparing for the priesthood. Lastly, Fr Chris said there are several men traveling to Portugal this summer for an immersion in the language – this will better prepare the men to serve the Portuguese-speaking communities here in the Archdiocese of Boston. Scot also gave a “shout out” to Paul Blanchette, who ministered to the listeners at Norfolk State Prison this past weekend with the Cursillo program. Fr Chris added that he sees the fruit of Cursillo in the lives of all the men there, and thanked them all for listening and for their prayers.

2nd segment: Scot welcomed Father David Costello to the show. Fr David said he is from the south of Ireland, a town named Limerick. Scot asked when Fr David got the idea that God might be calling him to serve as a priest – Fr David replied that from a very early age he always knew he wanted to be a priest. Growing up, Fr David said he was very involved in his parish as an altar server, with family events, and more. The priests, people in his parish, and the community influenced him in a positive way, and when he was 16 he made the decision to enter the seminary after high school. He was ordained for the Diocese of Limerick in 1995, and spent his first 8 years as a priest in a parish in County Limerick. Fr David said at that point, he heard a vocation call within a vocation call – to not just be a priest but to be a missionary priest. Fr David said he was lucky that there was a St James priest from Limerick he knew well – he spoke with his fellow priest about the St James Society and visited him in Peru. Scot noted that the whole country of Ireland has been very active in the missions throughout the world, and that activity has been part of the foundation of the Irish population here. Fr David agreed and said that it was difficult to get a place in the diocese in Ireland when he was younger, so Irish priests were sent abroad. Every diocese would also have its own mission outreach in those days as well, Fr David added.

Fr Chris said that we’re very proud of the Society here in Boston because it was at the idea of Richard Cardinal Cushing that the Society started. Fr David explained that the membership being made of diocesan priests is the most unique part of the Society – being able to live out a mission call while still being incardinated to their home diocese. Priests generally remain members for about 5 years, Fr David said, and are then sent back to their home dioceses after service. Fr David said most of the pioneers were from Boston – the ones who went to the furthest parts of Bolivia and Peru and did the hardest work to start the mission of the Society. Fr Chris said he thinks the other great benefit to the diocese is that the priests come back home with a new language skill and cultural knowledge to minister to South American Catholics who have migrated. Fr David agreed, and said it’s interesting to him to meet people from parishes as he does appeals and parish missions who remember past priests in their lives who have served with the Society. Scot noted that priests who come back have a deeper cultural connection to their people, not just a new language. He asked Fr David how that worked in his case – Fr David said he didn’t even speak Spanish when he first went to Peru! Fr David said that it was an exciting time for him to go to Peru – it was like being ordained again, and learning everything again for the first time, even without the support structures or physical structures that we may be used to in Boston or Limerick. Saying Mass on the street wouldn’t be unheard of – it’s a very different way of becoming a priest, Fr David said. There was a young population where he worked, Fr David continued, which kept both him and his Masses very active and lively.

Fr Chris asked what the most difficult transition was for Fr David – Fr David replied that the biggest fear of his was the language gap, but he realized that the biggest gap is cultural. He said a Peruvian culture of “manana” (tomorrow) is a bit different – time doesn’t mean much to the people there, and it can be difficult to adjust to that. Fr David gave the example that a Bishop came to confirm some Catholics and he told the people the Mass was at 8:30am so that 90% of them would be there by the actual start time of 11am!

Scot asked Fr David how the Mass is the same or different down in Peru. Fr David said first that the Mass has a different sense of liveliness – there is always music, whether there are musicians or good singers or not. One thing Fr David said he noticed was that Mass would start when the priest showed up – he would start the Mass with only a few people, but by the time you get to the Gospel, many people will be attending. Fr Chris asked Fr David to describe the processions that are in Peruvian culture. Part of the culture is to express their faith publicly, Fr David said – blessing with water and proclaiming their faith in the street aren’t at all unusual – to say, “We are the Catholics here, and we’re proud to be Catholic!” Scot asked why countries like Peru, who we may hear are very Catholic places, are not producing as many vocations. Fr David said that historically he would imagine that it is due to a lower level of education – not many people would have the knowledge that being a priest requires. Now, Fr David, many of the dioceses are starting to produce native and local priests from seminaries based in the diocese. There are many signs of hope of fruitful vocations Fr David said, unlike 40 to 50 years ago – much of that may be due to Cardinal Cushing’s decision to send priests to Peru long ago.

Fr David said that the mission is to “get in, get on, and get out” – to set the parish up, put the infrastructure in place, and then hand the founded parish to a native priest – essentially, to “put themselves out of work!” Fr David said he was very proud when he attended an ordination and both of the new priests spoke highly of how the St James priests had encouraged and fostered their vocations throughout the years. Currently, Fr David said, the Society is in Peru and Ecuador, with about 21 priests total serving abroad and two in the United States. Several of the parishes in Peru are very new – the parish that Fr David just left is only 6 years old. Scot asked how the parish structure is in the missions – one pastor typically takes care of one church here in Boston, but Fr David said his parish covered about 12 chapel areas he managed by himself for about 2 years – now there are two priests. The mountain parishes, though, can sometimes cover an area as big as Ireland with only one priest, covering various outstations sometimes only once per month.

Fr Chris asked Fr David to talk about what the average day in his old diocese was. Fr David said the daily Mass was always in the evening – nothing really happened before 3pm. Not for laziness – but because the people are up at dawn working. Fr David said he was involved with many of the social outreach programs, feeding school children meals Monday through Friday or working with a social worker. After 3pm, people would come in for catechetical programs or evangelization programs, followed by Mass at a different chapel each evening. Sometimes meetings would even go to 10pm – much different than a morning weekday Mass and early dinner. Apart from the social worker, Fr David said, all the parish workers are volunteers – almost 80 catechists come for preparations each week and then in turn prepare their individual groups for sacraments. In one case, Fr David described, one boy about 15 years old was a catechist for a group of his peers – it was encouraging for Fr David to see a young boy express his faith so publicly. Schooling in Peru is provided by the state, but sacramental preparation happens on the parish level. The social worker Fr David employed helped him figure out who was needy or who wasn’t, and would also visit them in their home to get a sense of what the home was like. The role of the priest was not to hand out money, though – Fr David said he helped with food or navigating red tape. The social worker was invaluable here, Fr David said, helping him get discounts for parishioners or even free medical care.

Fr Chris noted that Lima isn’t what people might think of with the missions – not a jungle with dense vegetation but rather a desert. Fr David said there isn’t much rain where his parish was on the coast because of geography, and no trees because watering trees costs a lot of money. Going into the mountains, however, Fr David said it becomes much more of a tropical climate instead. Fr David said he enjoyed experiencing the different rhythms of life in the parishes all over Peru. Scot asked what the level of poverty is – Fr David answered that 80% of the citizens of Peru live in dire or extreme poverty. A typical home in his parish was a one room straw shack – the lucky ones would have a bed. The social progarams the Society runs cover nutrition programs, inexpensive but healthy food, meals for school children, even just teaching the value of eating a salad is something the people need to be taught.

3rd segment: Scot asked Fr David to talk about “Rescusitado”, “The Resurrected One” – Fr David’s parish in Peru. Fr David said that 6 years ago he was asked to move to Lima to form a new parish. When he went there, there was no rectory, parish center, or central place at all – the first month was spent looking for somewhere to live. The first few months, Fr David said he spent time just introducing himself – spending his time wasting time, in a way, saying hello to everyone he could find. The parish next door might have been accessible by a bus, but it’s very hilly and not easy for them to make it down to the local village. This is the reason for the twelve different chapel sites – each area is at a different level of development but the key is to get people involved and signed up for sacramental preparation and adult education. Fr Chris asked Fr David what an invasion was – Fr David said that people usually come from the mountains into the coast by Lima, the capital, and just invade the land – claim their spot of land on the side of a hill and build a house. Over time, they eventually get a title or deed and paperwork to prove they own the land. Sometimes whole villages do this, Fr David said – even forming their own elected governments to coordinate. Scot asked how a church gets built – Fr David said if you’re there at the beginning of an invasion, the priest just lays claim to a piece of land for the Church, a right the government has recognized. Fr David said this is important because the people get the sense that this is their parish and take a sense of ownership in the church.

Fr Chris asked what Fr David’s role as the “head honcho” of the Society of St James entails – even though he was left the missions, he is still doing mission work. Fr David laughed and said he finds out more about what the work is every day! Fr David continued and said that all the financing comes through the Boston office, so he is responsible for that fiscal work. He’s also responsible for the personnel, taking him out of Boston to Peru and Ecuador to visit the parishes and ensure the priests in his care are doing well. Fr David said another primary mission is to recruit new members – many priests are nearing the end of their 5 year commitment, so he hopes to bolster their numbers. Fr Chris asked what Fr David talks about when he does a mission appeal – Fr David said he speaks a bit of the St James Society, but always shares a story from the missions, and asks for prayerful and fiscal generosity. Obviously Fr David said he has to ask for financial help, but it’s also about sharing the information about what the Society does in Latin America. Scot asked Fr David to describe the ways that local Catholics could come and hear more about the Society – Fr David said their main means of fundraising is the Missionary Cooperative program through the Pontifical Mission Societies here in Boston, which allows them to speak in parishes all over the Archdiocese. Fr David said that they have two dinners and a golf tournament for fundraising, and distribute a monthly newsletter called “Friends” that is available on their website. Fr David said people can also visit Fr Derek Leonard’s blog, who he worked with in Peru. The blog has great pictures of the parish and life as a Catholic in Peru. Scot asked Fr Chris what he and the seminarians have taken away during their visits to Peru – Fr Chris answered that the importance of giving with your resources is always made clear when they visit – that they see the dedication of the priests in Peru to spread the Word of Jesus. The people in Peru are filled with joy and love for the Lord, Fr Chris said, and is a great way to experience the world-wide nature of the Church – as one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. Fr David said even $30 is salary for 3 days for a hard laborer who works all day – feeding a family with small donations or supporting a parish is very easy. Fr David concluded by asking for prayers for new priests to send down to Peru and Ecuador, and for all the priest members and their parishioners.

The Good Catholic Life

Lourdes and the Order of Malta

Summary of today’s show: Every year, the Order of Malta, a 950-year-old organization with roots in Catholic knighthood, brings the sick and ailing from around the world to Lourdes, France, to pray and to bathe in the miraculous healing waters promised by our Blessed Mother to St. Bernadette in the 19th century. Scot Landry is joined by Craig Gibson and Joe & Sheila Feitleberg, local members of the Order, as well as 10-year-old Luke Dillon and his mom, Dawn, who made the pilgrimage earlier this month. Luke shares his experience of the pilgrimage as he suffers from muscular dystrophy, while Craig, Joe, and Sheila talk about the work of the Order and why this ministry to the “malades” is so important and fulfilling to them.

Listen to the show:

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Today’s host(s): Scot Landry

Today’s guest(s): Craig Gibson, Dawn Dillon, Luke Dillon, Joe & Sheila Feitleberg

Links from today’s show:

• Order of Malta
• Order of Malta, American Association
• Order of Malta, Boston
• History of the Knights of Malta

Today’s topics: Lourdes and the Order of Malta

1st segment: Scot said today we’re profiling the Order of Malta’s pilgrimage to Lourdes with the sick and ailing. one of our guests is Luke Dillon, 10, who experienced the pilgrimage two weeks ago. Scot also welcomed Joe & Sheila Feitleberg in the studio along with Craig Gibson on the phone.

Luke said he goes to St. Catherine’s parish in Westford. His mom, Dawn, said Luke had been excited to go and was able to go because her in-laws, Jim and Sue Dillon, who are a Knight and Dame, sponsored I’m because of his muscular dystrophy. Luke said it was his first trip outside the country.

Scot asked Joe and Sheila an overview of the Order of Malta. It’s an actual order in the Church with both a military history but also a religious history. Joe said it is 950 years old and began with Blessed Fra Girard in Jerusalem and it was intended to care for pilgrims who were sick. It was at the time of the Crusades. What distinguished Girard was that it didn’t matter hither the injured and ill were Christians or Muslims, which continues today in Bethlehem. Sheila said one of the major initiatives of the Order is a big hospital in Haiti, Sacre Couer, as well as a national prison ministry to visit prisoners, but also Bibles and a newsletter for inmates. They also have a Haitian health foundation, a ministry for housing the homeless, plus local causes in New England to help the sick and the poor, like Cathedral Care at Holy Cross Cathedral; soup kitchens; inner-city schools.

Craig said he and his wife Nancy joined the Order back in 2008, in which they took an oath to uphold all the elements of the Order. The Boston chapter numbers about 230 members. What attracted them was that Nancy’s parents have long been involved as were a number of siblings and spouses. What was most appealing to them that it was an invitation to respond to the universal call to holiness. This was a different call than the parish or diocesan activities. It was a call to live a deeper spiritual life.

Joe said the spiritual element is particularly strong. There are more than 12,000 members worldwide and 3,000 in the US, but the underlying idea is not just to get people to do more, but to couple their works with the spiritual reasons. Joe and Sheila said they came into the order in 1984 and there’s nothing secret about the organization. They’re with people who have a value system that they share.

Scot said his experience with the order is that they are anything but elitist. They roll up their sleeves and get the work done. Sheila said the Church is the people and that’s what they’re about. She said being involved strengthens not just the individual, but the couple together. It’s thrilling to share the pilgrimage of Lourdes with other and with hundreds of other people who come along. By the time they come home, no one is a stranger and they are very committed to one another. The services they attend in Lourdes are beautiful and uplifting. They have Masses and Rosary processions and healing services.

Scot asked why the Order chose to do the annual pilgrimage to Lourdes. Joe said it’s the 27th year for the pilgrimage run by the 1,800 members of the American Association part of the Order in the US. They had 50 “malades” (the sick), 50 family accompanying them, plus about another 100 health care workers, and then the Knights and Dames themselves for about a total of 350. Joe talked about the people who said the feeling of the presence of Our Lady was very strong there. Our Lady had specifically asked people to drink and bathe in the water of the spring that St. Bernadette Soubirous dug with her bare hands.

Sheila said it was her eighth trip to Lourdes two weeks ago. She finds it to be grace-filled and uplifting. She tries to nurture that feeling throughout the year, and eventually finds herself wanting to go back. She said it’s very strenuous and the accommodations are simple. THis is not a vacation by any means. The people she met at the airport coming home spoke about how they couldn’t possibly explain what happened to those back home.

Craig works at Holy Family Hospital in Methuen in pastoral services for patients. He said when any of us are dealing with difficult health situations, we would normally look upon a pilgrimage to Lourdes as opportunity for healing of body, mind, and spirit. He said there now 68 documented miracles, documented by the Vatican. There are 2,000 more miracles that have been proposed for those who have visited Lourdes. In most cases, however, people are drawn closer to God permanently, even if there isn’t obvious physical healing.

2nd segment: Luke said he wanted to go to Lourdes because he thought his legs would get better in the baths. He talked about the airplane travel and arriving in France. In Lourdes they went to the Rosary Basilica and then the St. Pius X Basilica which is underground. They talked about going to the Grotto. He said he waited a long time to bathe in the grotto. He said the water was very, very cold. He was in the water for just a second or too. He recalled praying. Luke said he felt different in his heart after. He remembered listening to people praying in all different languages.

Joe said people may not understand how big it all is. There were more than 25,000 people at Mass on Sunday morning in the Pius X Basilica. There people from all over the world. Sheila said it made you realize how universal the Catholic Church is. Luke recalls seeing kids who were younger even than him.

Scot asked Luke what he told his friends about the trip after he got home. Luke said he hasn’t told them a lot yet, but he would tell them about all the people who were there and the miraculous baths. He remembers the story of St. Bernadette and how she was ill and poor. But she continued to be faithful to God. He recalls a movie about her life in which her body remained incorrupt after her death.

Luke’s mom, Dawn, said everyone was incredibly kind. She said she didn’t have to do a single thing, everything was taken care of them. She didn’t have to carry luggage and Luke was carted around by others everywhere. She said there was a truly wonderful spirit, even in the midst of three-hour airplane delays. She said in Lourdes they are surrounded by miracles every day. After she stopped anticipating the big miracle, she realized those miracles. She said they came home better because they had been surrounded by Godly people. She said the trip was as much for Dawn and her husband Tim as it was for Luke. She said few are cured but all are healed.

Scot said he was last at Lourdes about 10 years ago and recalls the display of the thousands of crutches left by those who are healed. Luke said an autistic boy came out of the baths and was able to speak to his mom for the first time.

Scot asked what it’s like to know so many people love you who didn’t even know and Luke said it was great. Scot asked what kinds of things did Mrs. Gibson, Craig’s wife Nancy, do for him in Lourdes. Luke said she gave him all kinds of goodies.

Joe said anybody who godson the pilgrimage and gives of themselves gets much more than they give. He said anyone who knows someone with an illness can come forward and ask to be considered as malades. About 50 to 55 have thje opportunity to go again next year. People looking for this kind of opportunity are encouraged to step forward. Sheila said they schedule it for the beginning of May because it’s the beginning of the month dedicated to Our Lady. All of the Order in Europe are able to bring many more on special trains set up for the especially sick.

Craig said of Nancy’s experience on the trip that when she came home she had arthroscopic surgery on her knee. She had a wonderful time with Luke and others. They had a larger number of children on this particular trip. They had a three-year-old from Florida who couldn’t move very much at all.

Nancy said her brother went on the trip for the first time. He is the father of eight children. About 12 years ago, their seventh child at the time drowned in a pool accident. When he went on the pilgrimage, he opened up about the memory of his son that Nancy couldn’t begin to comprehend. He realized we all come to Lourdes with broken pieces in our journey and he was able to touch the brokenness of having lose his 2-1/2 year old son.

Scot asked Luke what other kids his age at 10 years old should know about the Blessed Mother. He said she can help you and she does a lot of miracles. They should pray a lot and have fun doing it. Luke said he prays in his room without anyone bugging him. Sometimes he tells jokes to Jesus and Mary and gave a sample. He thinks other kids who need healing should go. Other kids would especially love seeing the Basilica of St. Pius X.

3rd segment: Sheila said it’s important that members of the Order on the pilgrimage remembers that we are all malades. We have to seek out those who are not obviously ill to shore them up and encourage them. She added that an important element of the Order is defense of the faith and Cardinal Seán has been encouraging the Order to stand and be counted. It’s important in today’s political climate to be very aware of what is eroding our freedom of religion.

The Good Catholic Life