Hello and welcome!
This past weekend, the Secular Discalced Carmelites held their annual National Congress in Wakefield. So, Loretta Gallagher, one of the event’s organizers, invited me to come and celebrate Mass with them on Saturday.
We were joined by about 350 people, including, of course, many Secular Carmelites, as well as many Carmelite friars and sisters. A number of the friars told me that when they were seminarians, they had worked with me at the Centro Católico in Washington, D.C., so that was a nice connection.
Of course, the Carmelites are an important presence here in the Archdiocese of Boston, not only the seculars, but we are very pleased that the Carmelite friars are now studying at St. John’s Seminary. Another branch of the Carmelites is at the chapel in the North Shore Mall, and of course, we have the cloistered Carmelites and the Carmelites of the Aged and Infirm.
In my homily, I spoke about my many connections to the Carmelite order. I told them that I’m an honorary Carmelite because I am the pastor of a Carmelite church in Rome, Santa Maria Della Vittoria. I also mentioned that the Carmelitas de la Caridad de Verdruna worked with me for many years in Washington and made me an honorary member of the order.
It was very encouraging to see the enthusiasm of the laypeople for the third order Carmelites, and I was very happy to be able to celebrate the Eucharist with them.
As we approach Labor Day, our Catholic schools are beginning their new school years. So, on Wednesday, I went to St. Columbkille Partnership School in Brighton with our new superintendent, Eileen McLaughlin, to welcome the students back. St. Columbkille’s has a very interesting and productive partnership with Boston College, and the school is thriving. They have about 375 students.
Head of School Jen Kowieski and the pastor, Father Richard Fitzgerald, gave us a very nice tour of the school, and we visited the first-grade and third-grade classrooms. The children are always so adorable at that age.
Eileen has a lot of connections with that school. She has a sister who teaches there and is a school parent. So, it was very nice to be with her there and see the great affection that they all have for the school.
Several of the teachers I met were alumni of St. Columbkille’s who had returned to teach. So, that just showed the great commitment to Catholic education there.
As many people know, Eileen’s mother, Mary Ann, worked with us for many years at the archdiocese’s Worship and Spiritual Life Office, and Mary Ann made a number of saint dolls that they exhibit in one of the classrooms.
It was a lovely visit, and I was very happy to welcome the children back and give everyone my blessing as they begin the school year.
Just as the school year is beginning at our schools, classes are also resuming at our three seminaries, and it’s a tradition to celebrate a Mass of the Holy Spirit to mark the start of the academic year.
So, from St. Columbkille’s, we traveled only about a mile up the road to St. John’s Seminary for the first of those Masses.
There were many priests who came to concelebrate with us.
This year, we used the Mass as an occasion to express our gratitude that the rector, Father Stephen Salocks, has been named a monsignor by Pope Francis. At the end of the Mass, we presented him with a biretta and the Latin decree naming him a Chaplain of His Holiness with the title of monsignor.
Afterward, there was a nice lunch for seminarians and guests.
While I was at the seminary, I joined Msgr. Salocks for a tour of the ongoing renovations.
We are so pleased that the much-needed restoration of the St. John’s buildings is well underway. We had the opportunity to inspect the work being done up close when Patrick Folan of Folan Construction invited the newly minted monsignor and myself to go up in a cherry picker.
It was quite an experience. I’ve never been in one of those before!
It has been quite a transformation. There’s a lot of work that still needs to be done but they’re working diligently, and it’s very important for the future of the seminary. The building has been there for 150 years, and our intention is that it will be there 150 years from now.
Thursday, I was visited by Father Sean Hurley.
Father Sean has worked as a Franciscan of the Primitive Observance for many years in the archdiocese, particularly at St. Patrick’s in Lawrence with the Hispanic and Cape Verdean populations. Now, he has discerned that he wishes to become a Capuchin and is joining the friars in Cape Verde.
So, in a week or so, he will leave for the island of São Nicolau, where he will live at the Capuchin monastery.
Until next week,
Cardinal Seán