Hello and welcome!
Saturday, I went to St. Clement’s Shrine in the Back Bay to celebrate Mass for the local participants in the SEEK22 conference. The SEEK conference is an annual national gathering sponsored by FOCUS, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students. Typically, all the participants would gather together in a large venue. This year, however, in light of the pandemic, they held it as numerous smaller gatherings throughout the country with some activities, such as Mass and adoration, taking place on the local level and others, such as keynote addresses, shared through live-streams.
I was very grateful to the Oblates for hosting us for the day. In fact, two of the newly ordained Oblate deacons assisted at the Mass. There were also a number of Harvard students who served, as well.
The efforts of our FOCUS missionaries are bearing fruit, and this local SEEK conference is just one more indication of how many students they are reaching and of the outstanding work that is being done.
Sunday, I celebrated the Spanish Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. Even though the feast of St. Blaise was earlier in the week, Msgr. Kevin O’Leary decided to also have the Blessing of the Throats at the weekend Masses. I was very happy for that, and I know the people were very grateful for the opportunity to have their throats blessed, particularly during this time of the pandemic.
The tradition of holding the Blessing of the Throats dates back many centuries. St. Blaise was born into a noble family and was a physician before becoming a bishop in Armenia in the 4th century. At one point, fleeing persecution by the Romans, he took refuge in a cave in the wilderness. There, tradition says, the wild animals would visit him and bring him food, and he would cure any who were sick or injured.
Eventually, he was discovered by a hunting party, captured and imprisoned. While he was in prison, a mother brought him her son, who was choking on a fishbone. At St. Blaise’s command, the boy was able to expel it, and he was saved. In the centuries afterward, the practice of invoking the intercession of St. Blaise for the Blessing of the Throats became a custom in many countries.
In my parish growing up, the feast of St. Blaise was as popular as Ash Wednesday. There would be huge crowds at Mass that day. I think there were more people for St. Blaise Day than for Candlemas!
On the other hand, the first year that I was ordained, after the Spanish Mass on the feast of St. Blaise, I told the people that we would have the Blessing of the Throats. So I walked down to the Communion rail with the candles, and nobody moved — they had never seen it! So it seems it’s not such a popular tradition in many Central American countries.
Monday, I traveled to Dallas for the annual conference of the National Catholic Bioethics Center. It was very much geared around the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. They haven’t been updated for some time, so many of the speakers discussed how new elements may be added to the ERDs to address current issues such as decisions in triage and principles around referrals. It was very interesting.
It was good to see Dr. John Haas, who, having retired as the president of the NCBC, is still very active in supporting the work of the center. It was also very good to see Father Tad Pacholczyk of the Diocese of Fall River, who is the Director of Education at the NCBC and whom I’ve known for many years.
This conference is sponsored by the Knights of Columbus, and they invite the bishops of the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean to attend. Typically, there would be about 120 bishops present, but only about 70 were able to come this year because many had difficulty obtaining visas.
Many of the bishops who were able to come were from Central America and Mexico. So I was asked to celebrate Mass in Spanish during the conference in recognition of the large number of Hispanic bishops who were there.
It was a wonderful gathering, and we are very grateful to the Knights of Columbus who underwrite these conferences, which are now being held every other year. It was also an opportunity to bring the bishops together from all over this part of the world.
One evening during the NCBC conference, they had a presentation of an upcoming film on the life of St. Francesca Cabrini. 
The producer of the film is Eustace Wolfington of Philadelphia, who was approached a few years ago by one of the Missionary Sisters of Sacred Heart to ask him to help make a film about Mother Cabrini. He eventually agreed, and it is now in production. It is being directed by Antonio Monteverdi, who many will remember as the director of the wonderful film “Bella.” The film also features several well-known actors and actresses, and they have a wonderful Italian woman, Cristiana Dell’Anna, to play the role of Mother Cabrini.
During the preview, they showed us various scenes from the film accompanied by commentary on the different aspects of her life.
Sometimes, religious films can be kind of hokey but, based on what I saw, this film will be of great quality and truly compelling. I think it is going to make a great impact and help people be more aware of the inspiring story of Mother Cabrini, which is not widely known. Although, a couple of years ago, it was reported that New York City took a poll on which women should be honored with statues in the city, and Mother Cabrini was the hands-down winner. So, obviously, there are places where her legacy continues.
I think this is going to be a wonderful film, and I look forward to its release. Hopefully, it will inspire more people to a life of service in the Church and particularly inspire women to religious life.
Thursday, I took part in a meeting of The Papal Foundation. The foundation continues to work hard to support Pope Francis in responding to so many appeals for help with many works of mercy and evangelization throughout the world. 
We are very grateful to the members of The Papal Foundation who give so much time to the process of responding to these requests.
Until next week,
Cardinal Seán