Hello and welcome!
Last week we had a birthday gathering here at the cathedral for Father Joe Baggetta, who was celebrating his 75th birthday. We were so delighted that Bishop Hennessey was also able to join us.
We haven’t seen too much of Father Joe over the last several months because of the pandemic. So, it was good to have him back at the cathedral, and we were happy to be able to share the celebration with him.
Saturday, Arlene and Jim McNamee, Deacon Tom and Wendy Palanza, and Msgr. Steve Avila all stopped by the cathedral. Arlene ran the Catholic Social Services program in Fall River for many years, but they are now living in Florida. The Mcnamees came up to visit friends and family, so we were happy they could come by for a visit and lunch.
I gave them a tour of the renovations to the cathedral, which they had not yet seen. Deacon Palanza runs a design firm that specializes in church renovations. Some of their projects have included St. Elizabeth Church in Milton and Immaculate Conception Church in Lowell, as well as several churches in the Diocese of Fall River. So, we were particularly anxious for him to see what has been accomplished here at the cathedral.
I’m happy to say they were all delighted with the renovations.
Sunday, I celebrated the Spanish Mass at the cathedral.
This week I attended three dinners with benefactors of our Redemptoris Mater Seminary from the parishes of St. Joseph in Lynn, Immaculate Conception in Revere and Immaculate Conception in Marlborough, which were held Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Each night, Father Israel Rodriguez not only prepared an extraordinary paella for the gathering but explained to us the Old Testament roots of the dish. 
According to Father Israel’s tale, when the Israelites were crossing through the Red Sea to escape from Pharaoh, Moses told the people to gather up the shellfish, lobsters and shrimp. When they arrived at the other side, they made a paella. I don’t think that quite squares with the biblical account, but it made for a good story!
As always, when we have an event with the Redemptorist Mater Seminary, the seminarians provided a wonderful musical performance. 
This time they had a group with clarinets, saxophones, trumpets and guitars. It seems the number of instruments is always increasing with every gathering!
Monday was the Feast of Our Lady of the Angels, also called the Feast of the Portiuncula. It’s a tradition instituted by St. Francis to be able to extend the indulgences of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to all the people that would visit Our Lady of the Angels, the little chapel that he rebuilt in Assisi. Later, the indulgence was extended to those who visit any Franciscan church or chapel. Today, it is available to those visiting any church or chapel on the feast, as long as they also fulfill the other conditions for a plenary indulgence — having the interior disposition of detachment from all sin, going to confession, receiving the Eucharist and praying for the intentions of the Holy Father.
That is the feast on which I was ordained a bishop 37 years ago in the Diocese of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. And, as a child, every year we would go with my grandmother to the convent of the Poor Clares on Rocky River Drive that I have often mentioned. So, in addition to being a significant day for the entire Franciscan family, it also has a great personal significance for me.
Wednesday, I was visited at the cathedral by Dr. John Dolan, the head of school at St. Mary’s in Lynn, and Dr. Stephen Minnis, the president of Benedictine College in Kansas.
Dr. Dolan and Dr. Minnis are old friends, and Dr. Minnis was in town to give a talk on Catholic education at St. Mary’s. While they were here, they had an opportunity to see the renovations to the cathedral as well as tour Cathedral High School.
We are delighted with the extraordinary Catholic education that is being imparted at St. Mary’s, and we were very happy to be there during the visit of Gov. Baker earlier this year. It was a time when many schools in the state were providing remote instruction, and it was an opportunity to experience the joy and enthusiasm of the students at St. Mary’s who were receiving in-person instruction every day.
Each year, on or around August 4, the Feast of St. John Vianney, the patron saint of priests, we have a tradition of holding a cookout for our priests as a day of fraternity and relaxation. This year, we were able to have a gathering on the feast itself, and we were so pleased that such a large number of priests were able to join us.
There was a great spirit of joy and fraternity among the priests. Of course, we were unable to hold the cookout last year because of the pandemic, and you could tell that they were happy to just be able to gather together as a group, see friends and catch up with one another.
As always, we began our time together with Vespers. We had just received the news of the death of Father Paul Rouse, and so we prayed for him during Vespers.
In my homily, I reflected with the priests on the message of St. John Marie Vianney in the Office of Readings for the feast, in which he challenges us to strive to love and to pray. He talks about how prayer expands our hearts so that we can love more. It’s a wonderful way of seeing the vocation of the priest as being a man of prayer and a man of love whose ministry is to make the pastoral love of the Good Shepherd present to our people.
Everyone enjoyed their evening thoroughly, and we were so glad that we were able to hold our Vianney Cookout once again this year. We are grateful to Father Brian Kiely and the staff at Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary for so graciously hosting us.
Thursday, our new secretary of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, Father Andrew Small, organized a meeting of the commission with representatives from a number of bishops’ conferences of Eastern Europe who are working in the ministry of safeguarding.
It was fascinating to hear what is happening in places like Russia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. Of course, this was part of our preparations for the meeting that we will be holding in September with the bishops of Poland and Eastern Europe.
Until next week,
Cardinal Seán