Hello and welcome!

Last Thursday, we gathered with the consecrated virgins of the archdiocese for our annual Mass and luncheon. It is an opportunity for me and Sister Marian Batho, our Delegate for Religious, to meet with them.

In the early church, the consecrated virgins were a very extensive vocation and it has been restored in recent times as a new form of consecration. We are very blessed to have several women in the diocese who are living the spirituality of prayer and service to the community of faith.

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Friday, I attended part of the day-long retreat of the board of iCatholic Media, the corporate entity that includes CatholicTV and Pilot Media.

I was able to share with them some of my hopes for the organization in the future and to express my gratitude for all that is being done for the new evangelization with the use of media to communicate the Gospel to our people. I do not know any other diocese that has the kinds of communications resources that we have in the Archdiocese of Boston. It is such a blessing for us.

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Later that day, I met with Bishop Camillo Emilio Ballin. He is a Combonian and the Apostolic Vicar of Northern Arabia. He is in the States visiting various dioceses seeking support in building a new Cathedral for his diocese.

with Bishop Ballin and his vicar general, who is a Franciscan

I am somewhat acquainted with his mission, because there are number of Capuchin missionaries in that part of the world. It is a very challenging place to work. Despite what some may think, there are many Catholics there, most of them workers from the Philippines, Sri Lanka and India. Archbishop Ballin has about 2 million Catholics in his diocese, which is a similar in size to Boston. However, he has only a handful of priests and churches.

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The following day, I celebrated the ordinations for the Capuchin province of St. Mary, which covers New England and New York.

We ordained one deacon and two priests: Deacon Matthew Janeczko and Fathers Richard Mattox and Michael Ramos.

Because Brother Matthew and Brother Michael had been working in Boston parishes, there were a number of people from Boston present for the ordination, including Father Paul Rouse, Father Bob Casey and several parishioners from St. Brigid’s in South Boston.

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On Sunday, we held our annual Golden and Silver Wedding Anniversary Celebration at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. It is always a very important moment to stress the vocation of marriage in the Church today.

60th Anniversary couples:

50th Anniversary couples:

25th Anniversary couples:

In today’s world, where so many people are delaying marriage – or not getting married at all – it is important for us to celebrate those couples who have faithfully lived the sacrament in their lives. It is a way to encourage and inspire our young people to embrace this vocation, which is so important for God’s plan and for society.

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That evening, I traveled to Washington D.C. to participate in the board meeting of the Catholic University of America.

This is the altar in Caldwell Hall, the original building of Catholic University. I celebrated Mass there for the board before meeting. I wanted to share this photo with you because I think the altar there is just spectacular.

To the left it depicts the people of Israel gathering the mana; on the right is  Melchizedek offering the bread and wine; and down below is the Last Supper.

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On Wednesday, we celebrated Mass at the Pastoral Center for religious brothers celebrating their jubilees. We were so happy that brother Philip White was able to join us, along with several of his family and friends.

He is celebrating 70 years of religious life this year, and 20 of those 70 years he spent teaching at Malden Catholic High School.

In my homily, I spoke about how consecrated life can be such a powerful witness. I told them that in ancient times people believed that you needed to have children so that you could, in a sense, “live on” after your death. I said that celibate consecrated life was a sign to the people that we Christians had an even greater source of eternal life.

During the Mass he renewed his religious vows.

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That afternoon, I stopped by the send-off gathering for Karla Goncalves, who has been working in the Catholic Media Secretariat and will soon be entering religious life with the Trappistine Sisters in Wrentham.

She is a wonderful young woman and we are very happy that this vocation was nurtured here at the Pastoral Center.

We told her we expected a lot more chocolate now!

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That evening, I attended the anniversary celebration of the Campaign for Catholic schools, held at Pope John Paul II Catholic Academy in Dorchester.

It was an opportunity to thank them for all that group has done. They have now raised over $70 million for Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Boston.

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Thursday, we held our annual Priests Convocation at the Lantana in Randolph.In keeping with our Year of Faith observances, we decided to focus the meeting on the new evangelization.

We were very blessed to have Archbishop Rino Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization as our keynote speaker. He spoke during the morning and afternoon sessions.

In the middle of the day, we had a panel discussion with priests who are taking part in the first phase of the implementation of our new parish collaboratives.

There was a great sense of enthusiasm and wonderful turnout among the priests.

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And finally I want to note that this morning we celebrated the funeral Mass for Father Brian Smith in his home parish of Sacred Heart in Weymouth. Father Smith passed away from cancer earlier this week. He was only 45 years old.

He was a good friend to many of his brother priests and very beloved in the parishes where he served. He will be sorely missed.

Until next week,

Cardinal Seán