Hello and welcome!

Recently, I attended a reception at the UMass Club in Boston given in honor of my good friend, Jim Karam. It was held in recognition of Jim’s years of service to the University of Massachusetts’ board, including two terms as chairman.

With Jim Karam

I have known Jim and his family for more than 20 years, dating back to my time as Bishop of Fall River. In particular, Jim provided great assistance to St. Ann Hospital, the Caritas Christi Health Care System and now he assists with the management of our Catholic hospitals within Steward Health Care System.

Many of Jim’s family, friends and colleagues gathered to show their appreciation for his dedication to advancing quality higher education.

Jim with Dr. Ralph de la Torre and Senate president Therese Murray

UMass president Robert Caret

Jim with his brothers, Skip and Bob

At the event, the UMass announced the establishment of the Jim Karam Scholarship Fund, to benefit college bound students from South Eastern Massachusetts. The university also announced that Jim has made a very generous contribution to the fund.

Through the years Jim has always made himself available to assist the Church and the wider community, we are deeply appreciative for his always being willing to help others.

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Friday I traveled to Washington D.C. to attend the American Cardinals Dinner, which is held to raise funds for scholarships to the Catholic University of America. Each year, the dinner is held in a different city, and this year was hosted by Cardinal Wuerl.

We began with Mass at St. Matthew Cathedral and followed by the dinner itself at the Washington Hilton.

There is always a great presence of the students at the dinner.

I am always happy to support this event, which does so much to allow more students to experience the superior Catholic education provided by CUA. This year, I am pleased to say, we raised almost $1.7 million to support scholarships.

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The following day, Saturday, I was back in Boston to speak at the commencement at Regis College.

At the commencement, they presented me with an honorary doctorate in law. I have received many honorary degrees, but this is my first degree in law — so now I’m ready to hang out my shingle!

After experiencing some challenges, the school is doing very well. This was their largest graduating class to date.

The school is sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph. What strikes me is how the sisters and the board there have gone to great lengths to remain very faithful to the mission of providing an excellent education to working-class people, many of them minorities. They give many scholarships and I would not be surprised if many of the graduating class where the first in their family to finish college.

You can read my address to the graduates here.

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That evening, I attended the Boston Press Photographers Association’s annual dinner at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge. I was one of three people honored during the evening.

Each year, the BPPA honors a Person of the Year and a Sports Personality of the Year. I was Man of the Year and two local Olympic gold medalists, Aly Raisman and Kayla Harrison, were co-winners of the Sports Personality award.

Aly, who was a member of the 2012 Women’s gymnastics team, couldn’t be with us because she is in California for “Dancing with the Stars.”

Kayla is a 2012 gold medalist in judo. It turns out that she is Catholic and was there with her boyfriend, who is also Catholic. It was nice to meet them both.

Many of the members of the Association work for local media outlets and I recognized several of them from different events where they have been covering me, such as visiting the shelters around Christmastime. It was nice to see them in a more casual setting.

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On Sunday, I joined St. Patrick’s Parish in Roxbury for their Mass and procession honoring Our Lady of Fatima.

This is a very important feast for the Cape Verdean community at St. Patrick’s. They do such a wonderful job decorating the Church and the streets and the houses where the procession passes.

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Monday, I returned to St. Patrick’s to take part in the archdiocese’s Parish Service Week.

Over the last couple years the staff at the Pastoral Center have been participating in a service week, wherein staff members volunteer to help out at a local inner-city parish for one or more days, doing things such as landscaping, painting, maintenance and general beautification. I always like to take an opportunity to join them.

I understand people like the picture of me mowing the lawn.

As part of my visit, I also stopped by the parish school.

I particularly wanted to visit the classmates of Barry Brinson, a seventh grader at the school who was killed in a traffic accident just last week.

I spoke to them about what God tries to show us through events such as this and then gave them my blessing.

I am so grateful to Father Walter Waldron, the principal and the staff there for this great atmosphere that the school has.

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Tuesday, I returned to Washington for the baccalaureate Mass of the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at the Catholic University of America. This is an institute that was originally established by Pope John Paul II in Rome and a number of satellite institutions have grown up around the world.

The president and faculty, including the former head of the Institute, Professor David Schindler, were all there for the Mass, which was held in the crypt of the National Shrine.

Father Antonio Lopez, who formerly worked here in Boston, is now the head of the institution. The vice president is Supreme Knight Carl Anderson.

The Knights of Columbus have been wonderful supporters of the Institute, which is such a wonderful resource for Catholic schools, dioceses and family life offices.

I have been involved with the John Paul II Institute since its earliest days so it is nice to come back years later to see how they have developed and progressed. They originally started at the Dominican house of studies and now they have become a part of the Catholic University of America. The founding president was Carl Anderson and Father Lorenzo Albacete was very involved with the institute in the beginning, along with Monsignor Caffarra, who is now Cardinal Caffarra, the Archbishop of Bologna.

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While in Washington I also met with Tom Grenchik, Executive Director of the USCCB Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities. Tom has been dedicated to the work of the Pro Life Office for more many years and is a great help to me in my role as Chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities. Among the many initiatives he is currently working on is a national expansion of the Project Rachel Program, with the assistance of Marianne Luthin of the Archdiocesan Respect Life Office, who is recognized as a leader in this important ministry.

In these days, there have been a number of important developments relating to life issues. I would like to share with you the statements I issued on two of these matters.

First, in reaction to the announcement of human cloning:

The news that researchers have developed a technique for human cloning is deeply troubling on many levels. Over 120 human embryos were created and destroyed, to produce six embryonic stem cell lines. Creating the embryos involved subjecting healthy women to procedures that put their health and fertility at risk. And the researchers’ alleged goal, producing genetically matched stem cells for research and possible therapies, is already being addressed by scientific advances that do not pose these grave moral wrongs.

Creating new human lives in the laboratory solely to destroy them is an abuse denounced even by many who do not share the Catholic Church’s convictions on human life. Also, this means of making embryos for research will be taken up by those who want to produce cloned children as “copies” of other people. Whether used for one purpose or the other, human cloning treats human beings as products, manufactured to order to suit other people’s wishes. It is inconsistent with our moral responsibility to treat each member of the human family as a unique gift of God, as a person with his or her own inherent dignity. A technical advance in human cloning is not progress for humanity but its opposite.

And, of course, this week we also saw the verdict in the Gosnell trial:

Dr. Gosnell’s trial brought much-needed attention to the tragedy of abortion. His murder convictions of newly delivered infants have caused many people to reexamine their positions on abortion.

In addition to the violence against defenseless unborn and newborn children, women’s lives were endangered by his unethical practices. I hope and pray that Dr. Gosnell will come to regret and repent for his many crimes. Our nation needs great healing from the culture of death, of which this sad story is only one example. Let us pray for the children who have been lost and the many mothers and families who silently grieve their loss. Our Lord longs to heal every person affected by the tragedy of abortion and other violence.

I was pleased, and even relieved, that the court found this man guilty of these very heinous crimes. What I find difficult to understand is how some people who are horrified by these crimes somehow think that if he would have killed these babies a few minutes earlier, it would have been all right. But, thank God, at least these acts of direct infanticide are being condemned by a court of law.

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Tuesday, I met with Karen Clifton, Executive Director of the Catholic Mobilizing Network (CMN), a group formed several years ago in support of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops campaign to end the death penalty.

Among CMN’s many activities are diocesan and parish programs designed to educate the lay community about the Church’s teachings on the death penalty and facilitating respectful and informed discourse within the Catholic community and the community at large. CMN works closely with the USCCB Pro-Life Committee and provides an important service for the Church in sharing the message that the death penalty is a Respect Life issue.

Karen’s personal dedication and commitment to this mission are inspiring and a great help to the Church’s work of promoting a culture of life.

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On Wednesday evening we joined the Catholic Charities Spring Celebration. During the evening, we honored Marshall and Barbara Sloane, a couple who have been involved with Catholic Charities for almost 40 years, both on the board and through supporting different programs.

The Sloanes are Jewish and Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner shared the invocation with Father Hehir. He gave a very beautiful prayer and spoke very movingly about the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jewish community.

The Sloane’s have a very beautiful family and many of them offered remarks during the evening. One of their grandsons greeted me in Latin; I understand he is a student at Milton Academy.

Another of the family members who spoke, I believe Linda was her name, told a wonderful story. She said that she was having her nails done in Newton, and she told the woman doing them that she wanted them to look nice because she was going to big event. When the woman who was doing her nails asked what the big event was, Linda said she was going to a fundraiser for Catholic Charities. When the woman heard that, she told Linda her story: She said she was 19 years old, pregnant and a refugee from Vietnam when she went to Catholic Charities for help. She said they helped her find a program to learn English, got her clothing, and helped her apply for a scholarship to become a beautician. Now, the woman said, she has her own business and has been able to send her children to college.

Also, during the evening we heard from a young Brazilian woman, Maria Navarro. She told us her immigrant parents were helped by Catholic Charities, and now she is going to be a student at West Point in the fall.

Maria Navarro with Barbara and Marshall Sloane

Stories such as these help us to understand the vital, life-changing work that goes on at Catholic Charities. We’re so proud of the work Debbie Rambo and her staff are doing at Catholic Charities, especially in these days in the aftermath of the economic crisis that have placed such great demands on all charities.

Until next week,

Cardinal Seán