Hello and welcome!
On Friday, I went to St. Patrick’s Manor in Framingham to celebrate a Mass for the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, who are marking the 95th anniversary of the founding of their community by Servant of God Mother Angeline, who founded them in New York. She was actually an Irish sister who belonged to the Little Sisters of the Poor but founded another order under the auspices of Cardinal Hayes.
They have a beautiful altar that was brought from their very first home in the States.
We have been very blessed to have the sisters here in the archdiocese. As I told them in my homily, in three of my four dioceses — Fall River, Palm Beach and here in Boston — I have been very fortunate to have homes that are run by Carmelite Sisters of the Aged and Infirm. They have such a beautiful charism of taking care of the elderly.
We were sorry that they needed to close Marian Manor, but the building was too old and continuing to operate it was just untenable. But we are so happy that they are with us at St. Patrick’s, where they do extraordinary work and have a number of priests and religious living there in their care.
On Sunday, I went to St. Theresa’s in North Reading to celebrate a Mass for our religious jubilarians in the archdiocese. Traditionally, every September, we celebrate a Mass for women religious jubilarians. This year, however, we decided to celebrate with all the religious jubilarians together — religious women, brothers and religious priests. It was a wonderful celebration, and we even had one sister who was celebrating 80 years of religious life.
We had a very large group join us, and the Daughters of St. Paul provided wonderful music.
At the end of Mass, Sister Germana gave a lovely reflection.
After the Mass, the parishioners prepared a lovely repast for our religious.
We are so grateful to Sister Germana for all she did to organize it and to Father Brian McHugh and Father Agustín Anda for hosting us.
On Tuesday, I went to Newton Country Day School for a Mass at which we installed their new Head of School, Jessica Hooper.
The Mass was celebrated in the chapel of their former college (which is now part of Boston College Law School) because it is much larger than the school chapel.
There were many special guests with us there for the celebration, including Chair of the Board of Trustees Maura Murphy, former Head of School Sister Barbara Rogers and the Provincial, Sister Suzanne Cooke. Sister Suzanne had formerly been at Carrollton, the school of the Religious of the Sacred Heart in Miami, where my family was very involved. My cousin was the principal, and my sister, aunt and cousins all taught there.
Wednesday, I was asked by my cabinet to gather with them in the formal dining room of the Pastoral Center. I was taken by surprise when they announced their very magnanimous gesture of renaming the formal dining of the Pastoral Center in my honor.
It’s a place where we’ve had many joyful celebrations, so I am gratified to be associated with that place.
I am also grateful for the thoughtfulness of the cabinet, who have collaborated with me in the governance of the archdiocese for so many years.
Immediately afterward, we had our daily Mass in Bethany Chapel, where we honored Msgr. Bryan Hehir for recently having been named a monsignor by the Holy Father.
Many members of Msgr. Bryan’s family were there, as well as colleagues who have worked with him at Catholic Charities, the Planning Office for Urban Affairs and the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, among others. We were also happy to be joined by many of our auxiliary bishops and Archbishop Luiz Fernando Lisboa of Brazil, who is visiting the Brazilian communities in the States.
Honoring Father Hehir was a wonderful opportunity to express our gratitude for his many decades of dedicated, selfless service to the Church, and particularly to the Church in Boston. He came to us at a very difficult time but was ready, at the drop of a hat, to change all of his life plans and come back to help here. It was a time of great crisis, and he brought a lot of wisdom and healing.
He is a man of great intellectual prowess and has been a presence of the Catholic community in centers of learning. He has taught at Georgetown University, Harvard University and, of course, for so many years at our own St. John’s Seminary. He has always been an advocate for the Social Gospel of the Church. His work at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is so appreciated, especially the work that he did on the social pastorals and other important teaching documents of the bishops’ conference.
At the same time, he is a priest who would never pass up the opportunity to celebrate a parish Mass, hear confessions, give a retreat, give spiritual guidance or visit the sick. His priestly ministry has always been his top priority. Both within and outside the Church, people respect his professionalism and dedication and the coherence of his priestly life.
I am so pleased that Pope Francis has seen fit to bestow this honor on him.
Thursday, we had a virtual meeting of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
We discussed some of the issues that came up during the Holy Father’s recent visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and East Timor, as well as taking the opportunity to continue to prepare for our Plenary Session, which will be next month in Rome.
On Thursday, we had one of our regular meetings of the board of St. John’s Seminary.
The reports were very positive. There is a great spirit in the seminary, enrollment is good, and the implementation of the new propaedeutic year is going very well. It was also wonderful to see how much progress is being made with the repairs to the buildings, which are moving ahead very quickly.
We are very grateful to Msgr. Salocks, who was also recently honored by the Holy Father with the title of monsignor for his many years of service at St. John’s Seminary, which is celebrating the 140th anniversary of its founding this year.
Finally, that evening, I went to St. Ceclia’s in the Back Bay for the annual Fall Mass and Dinner of the Boston Area Order of Malta.
We were so pleased to have so many members of the Order with us for the Mass.
In my homily, I spoke about the importance of mercy in our lives as Christians and how the Order of Malta, with their support of so many vital works of mercy, exemplifies that.
During the Mass, we gave a blessing to new members of the Order who will be inducted this year.
At the end of the Mass, the President of the American Association of the Order of Malta, Ken Craig, and Area Chair Ed Delaney presented me with a miniature replica of the sculpture “Angels Unawares,” which Pope Francis had installed in St. Peter’s Square.
I have always been very moved by the message that sculpture conveys of welcoming the stranger and the immigrant. So, I thought it was a very thoughtful gift.
We concluded the Mass with Ken leading us in the Daily Prayer of the Order of Malta.
It was a wonderful evening, and always a great joy to be together with my fellow Knights and Dames of the Order of Malta.
Until next week
Cardinal Seán