Hello and welcome!
Last Wednesday I visited Notre Dame Cristo Rey High School in Lawrence for the celebration of their 10th anniversary.
In the last 10 years Notre Dame Cristo Rey High School has graduated something like 360 students who have all gone on to college or another form of higher education. They have been such a positive force in the community of Lawrence.
I still recall being with them 10 years ago to celebrate the Mass for the opening of the new school. It was mainly attended by the students, faculty and staff and was held in the school itself. 
And now, 10 years later, we were in the church and it was filled, there must have been close to 1,000 people there. The Augustinian Friars, who do such a wonderful job at St. Mary of the Assumption, organized the liturgy for us. The Mass was bilingual because many of the students are from Hispanic families.
The Cristo Rey concept of education was initiated several years ago by Father John Foley, a Jesuit from Chicago, and now there are Cristo Rey schools throughout the country. In this form of education, the youngsters work one day a week and the money they earn goes towards offsetting the cost of their education. But it is also preparing them for interaction with the larger community, introducing them to the world of work, preparing them for jobs and also motivating them in their studies. 
We are so grateful to all those who have worked to make the school the success it is, particularly Sister Mary Murphy, the principal there, who has been a moving force there since the school’s inception, the Sisters of Notre Dame, the faculty and their Board of Directors.
We are pleased that we have two very successful Cristo Rey schools in the archdiocese. It is a wonderful concept that is working so well for many low income families, enabling them to have a good education, and more importantly, a good Catholic education.
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Thursday I celebrated Mass to mark the 5th anniversary of our time here at the Pastoral Center.
The Masses were held in our chapel, called Bethany Chapel, which we see as the heart of our Pastoral Center. One of the reasons we chose that name is that, as the Gospels tell us, Jesus had a great predilection for visiting the town of Bethany were his friends Lazarus, Mary and Martha lived. We have a lovely statue of Mary and Martha at the entrance of the Chapel and over the altar is the inscription of the words of Martha to Mary “The Master is here and is calling you”. It is a great reminder that the mission of all who work in the Pastoral Center begins with prayer.
We celebrated two Masses during the day, both of which I celebrated. The first was the regular noontime Mass, which was mainly for the staff and afterwards they served pizza and cake marking the anniversary.
We had a second Mass in the afternoon for friends of the Center and public officials including the Mayor of Braintree, Fire Chief and police chief. 
Bringing all our operations the Pastoral Center from seven different venues has helped our efficiency and the sense of mission in our workers, who are able to more freely interact with people from other departments. And, of course, having the common gathering spaces of the Chapel and the cafeteria are great advantages.
I expressed my thanks to Jim McDonough and Kevin Kiley particularly because they both played a very important part in the relocation from Brighton, which was certainly a great challenge! Of course I also recognized the great contribution of Tom Flatley, who donated the building to the archdiocese and we were very happy that his son, Dan Flatley, was able to be with us for the occasion.
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Thursday I also had the opportunity to meet with the Campaign for Catholic Schools Honor Roll Committee, a group of young professionals working to support our Catholic elementary schools through annual leadership giving. The committee is chaired by Chris Boland, who devotes much time and effort to strengthening our schools. 
I am grateful for the contributions of guidance, advice and financial support given by all committee members. To learn more about the Campaign for Catholic Schools, you can visit their website at www.campaignforcatholicschools.org.
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Saturday, I had the joy of ordaining eight Jesuits and one Redemptorist as transitional deacons at St. Ignatius Church in Chestnut Hill.
The men were from different parts of the country, but they study here in Boston.
It was a great privilege to be able to ordain these young men and to encourage them and their families in their vocations to religious life, which is so important in our Church.
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Sunday we had the admission to candidacy for seminarian Steven Clemence at our Redemptoris Mater Seminary.
Steven is a fine young man who is originally from Brazil. His brother, who is a priest, and his father came from Brazil to be with us for the ceremony. 
Candidacy, of course, can be given any time during the process of seminary formation. Formerly it was the right of tonsure and it was the beginning of the clerical state. Now however it is a sign of the candidate’s intention to prepare himself for ministry in a particular church.
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Saturday, I went to the Back Bay to celebrate the two significant anniversaries of the St. Francis Chapel at the Prudential Center. It was 30 years since the Oblates of the Virgin Mary began their ministry at the Prudential Center and the 20th anniversary of the Chapel in its present location.
The original Chapel was started 50 years ago by Cardinal Cushing and was staffed by the Franciscans from Arch Street, which is why it is named St. Francis Chapel. Then, 30 years ago the oblates of the Virgin Mary came and have staffed it ever since.
We are so grateful to the Oblate Provincial Father Dave Nicgorski and Father John Wykes, the director St. Francis Chapel, for the good work that is done there. It is a wonderful presence of the Church in the midst of a very busy downtown mall where they have Mass, confessions and Eucharistic Adoration as well as a very nice bookstore.
We had a very large crowd. It was standing room only, with people even sitting outside the Chapel for the anniversary celebration.
After the Mass, we went to the gallery where they had a large switch to light up the Prudential Center. They used the color of the Chapel, which is orange, for 30 minutes to represent the Oblate’s 30 years of ministry. Then at 7:30, the Prudential Center was lit up red for the Red Sox.
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Tuesday, Dan and Patricia Briner of Pittsburgh came to visit me. I had not seen them since I was in grade school at Saint Gabriel’s, where we were both confirmed together. My Dad was his Confirmation sponsor, and his father was my Confirmation sponsor. 
It was very good to see him and catch up on old times and see that the Lord has blessed him and his family.
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Wednesday, we had the annual meeting of the Board of Catholic Charities here at the Pastoral Center. 
We began our evening with the Mass together and afterwards we had the meeting. We heard reports on their various projects and activities. I was able to address the board and thank them for all their hard work on behalf of Catholic Charities.
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Finally, yesterday we hosted a breakfast for legislators who are from districts within the Archdiocese of Boston. 
The purpose was to acquaint the legislators with the various activities of the Church, particularly in the areas of education and social services. The meeting was held at the Union Club near the State House to make it convenient for them.
Mary Moran spoke to them about our Catholic schools. She gave a beautiful report on the impressive work that is being done in our 119 Catholic schools, which educate over 40,000 students. This success is borne out by the fact that our Catholic school students outperform their peers by most measures and 96 percent go on to higher education.
She also spoke on the ways that the presence of our Catholic schools benefits the cities and towns by, for example, saving them $500,000,000 in education costs statewide and providing affordable early childhood education for working families.
Also, Debbie Rambo gave a report on the activities of Catholic Charities and the number of people they serve.
Then I spoke about the archdiocese in general and the work that goes on in our parishes, particularly our commitment to social justice and our desire to partner with the government in serving the community. 
We are very grateful to Jim Driscoll and the Massachusetts Catholic conference who did so much work to make this gathering happen.
Until next week,
Cardinal Seán