Hello and welcome!
On October 14th, Father Antonio Medeiros invited me to celebrate Mass and have lunch at our Redemptoris Mater Seminary with the priests of the Neocatechumenal Way, who gather there regularly on Wednesdays for their ongoing formation.
I was very pleased to be able to join them, spend some time at seminary, and see the progress being made on their building project.
The following day, October 15th, I attended the funeral Mass for Mr. Francis Barnes at Sacred Heart Church in Quincy. 
Mr. Barnes is the father of Father David Barnes and served as a police officer in Quincy for many years before passing away recently. I was happy to be able to join his family, friends, and many
On October 16th was the installation of the new president of Boston College, Father Jack Butler, S.J. Archbishop Henning celebrated Mass in the morning, and I was asked to speak during the afternoon program in the Conte Forum.
We are all very pleased that they named a Jesuit father as their president. We know that in many other Jesuit universities they no longer have Jesuits in that post, so we are blessed that they were able to continue that tradition of having a Jesuit priest as the president of Boston College.
Father Butler has been at BC for many years and served as chaplain and Vice President in Charge of Mission, and he has always been a very important presence to the young people on campus. Everyone was very pleased when he was named because he is not an unknown quantity—he is someone people know and esteem, so he will hit the ground running, as it were.
We also have to express our gratitude to Father William Leahy, S.J., who served as president for 30 years.
For university presidents, longevity is very important, particularly because it is so necessary for them to do a lot of fundraising and deal with so many alumni. (I believe they said there are 100,000 alumni of Boston College!) Father Leahy certainly did much to increase the influence, prestige and academic standing of Boston College.
It was a long program with many speakers, including myself, and I’d like to share my remarks with you here:
Preparing these remarks, I was reminded of a Forrest Gump experience I had as a young priest working with Hispanic immigrants in Washington, DC. I received a call from Cardinal Baum, our Archbishop, who asked if I would be willing to serve as a priest secretary for the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Quinn. The appointment would be for one week, because the Archbishop was representing the USCCB at the Puebla conference, which featured the first papal visit of John Paul II after his election. Archbishop Quinn did not speak Spanish; hence, they recruited me. For a young friar immersed in inner-city ministry, it was like winning the lottery. I actually got to meet and interact with three saints: Pope St. John Paul II, St. Oscar Romero, and servant of God Father Pedro Arrupe, even then called the second founder of the Jesuits. He was the black Pope who survived the atomic bomb at Hiroshima.
At one point, Father Arrupe asked me to organize a press conference for him. I knew absolutely nothing about organizing press conferences, but I would’ve done anything for Father Arrupe. The first question was concerning the death threats to the Jesuits in El Salvador. Father Arrupe replied: “When I heard of the death threats, I knew exactly what I must do: send more Jesuits to El Salvador.” I thought to myself, I like this Guy.
We are all here today because a Jesuit education is a treasure for the Catholic Church and for all of society. Father Arrupe said: “Today our prime educational objective must be to form men and women for others, men and women who will not live for themselves but for God and his Christ, the God man who lived and died for the whole world, men and women who cannot even conceive of love of God which does not include love for the least of their neighbors, men and women completely convinced that love of God which does not issue forth in justice for others is a farce.”
Today we give heartfelt thanks to Father William Leahy for three decades of tireless service on behalf of Jesuit education here in the archdiocese. Under his leadership, Boston College has grown in stature and importance. Father Leahy has continuously stressed the mission of BC, initiated the Church in the 21st Century program, embraced lay ministry training, and provided resources for the ongoing formation of clergy, and so many other extraordinary initiatives.
At the same time, we wish to say a word of welcome and congratulations to the new president of Boston College, Father Jack Butler, SJ. The Lord, in his providence, has been preparing you for this task. You have the talent and experience that will allow you to be a great president of this leading Catholic University. It will not always be easy. After all, the founding president of Boston College was tarred and feathered by the Know-Nothings, but that did not prevent him from launching this great university.
Know that you have our prayers, admiration and support as you embrace this mission to find God in all things and to set the world on fire. Ad majorem Dei Gloriam.
There were many presidents of other universities present. Among them was Father Rafael Capó, the acting president of St. Thomas University in Miami, who joined Father Leahy and me for a photograph.
I was very interested to see someone walking in the academic process wearing Spanish academic regalia. I thought his doctoral hat was from Salamanca, but he corrected me, “No, Alcalá.”
While my doctoral hat was white for theology, his was blue for Philosophy and Letters (Filosofía y Letras). He was the only one with that distinct blue cap.
On Sunday, October 18th, I celebrated the noon Mass at St. Oscar Romero Parish in Canton for the centennial of World Mission Sunday. Maureen Heil of our Pontifical Mission Societies did an extraordinary job organizing it.
The Mass was standing room only, with choirs from the Cape Verdean, Korean, and Haitian parishes, among others.
It was really a wonderful celebration of the Church’s commitment to the missions “ad gentes.”
Both Maureen and I were able to speak with the congregation about the recent beatification of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen.
Maureen had the World Mission Rosary passed out to everybody in the church, which I blessed. Actually, at the canonization, they distributed 100,000 mission rosaries—a rosary created by Bishop Sheen to encourage people to pray for the mission of the Church and the Universal Church. It was a beautiful celebration, and the pastor, Father Tom Rafferty, and the whole parish were very, very hospitable.
On October 20th, Jerry Sheehan was presented with the Jack and Eileen Connors Award for his support of Catholic schools at a luncheon and program at Granite Links Golf Club in Quincy. Jerry is one of our largest benefactors of Catholic schools in the archdiocese.
They did many things to honor him, and since his business is the distribution of beer, they even created a special beer in his honor with his image on the label!
Jerry has been a very important supporter of Catholic schools and has done very creative things, too. Through the Campaign for Catholic Schools, he helped establish a fund at Trinity Catholic Academy in Brockton so that all the Catholic school teachers would be given a $10,000 raise. Their salaries had been so low that nobody could afford to work there for more than a couple of years before having to find a better job in the public schools, which were paying twice as much.
Although his wife Maureen was unable to attend, a number of his family members accompanied him, along with many people involved in the Campaign for Catholic Schools, and we were very happy to be able to
From October 27th to October 30th, I visited my home diocese of Cleveland, where I stayed at St. Paul’s with the Capuchin community there.
I think I have told the story before that many decades ago this church was the Episcopal Church of St. Paul on Euclid Avenue. At one point in the history of Cleveland, that was a very high-class neighborhood. Right across from the church was the mansion of John D. Rockefeller, and the church had many very important citizens as parishioners. But as the neighborhood changed and people began to move to the suburbs, the Episcopal Diocese decided to sell the church, and the Diocese of Cleveland bought it and renamed it the Conversion of St. Paul. That would never happen today!
But it is a beautiful church, and now it is the convent of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, the community that Mother Angelica belonged to and where she was stationed for a time. So, on October 27th, I gave a conference to the sisters and celebrated Mass for them.
The next day, October 28th, I celebrated Mass for the Colettine Poor Clares on Rocky River Drive, which is the chapel where I celebrated my first Mass as a priest.
Then, on October 29th, I went out to dinner with my cousin Annette O’Malley and her family at a restaurant that the friars started called The Friars’ Table, where they hire people coming out of prison and refugees and train them.
It is a very nice restaurant located in Cleveland’s theater district. Right over the street in front of the restaurant, there is a huge chandelier mimicking those in the historic theaters.
On October 30th, I celebrated the Cleveland Diocese’s Red Mass for lawyers and judges.
Bishop Edward Malesic invited me to celebrate the Mass and preach. The cathedral is undergoing renovations, so the Mass was held in St. Patrick’s Church—the church where my grandparents were married over a hundred years ago, so it was wonderful to return there.
During my homily, I quoted from David McCullough’s book about the Wright brothers, who were from Ohio. When Orville Wright was interviewed and asked the secret of his success, he said, “Well, to be successful in life, you need two things: First, you have to choose good parents. And the second thing is spend the first few years of your life in Ohio.” They all liked that!
There were a lot of lawyers there, including my nephew, Patrick, and there must have been at least 20 judges in their robes.
The Red Mass goes back to the Middle Ages to open the judicial court season, with judges in red judicial robes and priests in red vestments for the Mass of the Holy Spirit. I told them that there are so many lawyers in my family, we could have a Red Mass just with our own relatives—there must be over a dozen lawyers in the family still!
I came home that afternoon, and the following day, which happened to be Halloween, I celebrated the Investiture Mass of new members of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem at the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul in Providence.
A number of bishops were with me, including Archbishop Henning, Bishop Libasci, Bishop McManus, and Bishop Deeley.
Marianne Luthin of Boston is the new Lieutenant, and with the investitures that we conducted, she shared with me that there are now about a thousand members in our Lieutenancy.
While we were having the investiture in Providence, another wonderful event was taking place in Savannah, Georgia, where about 9,000 people gathered for another beatification on American soil—that of the Georgia Martyrs. Cardinal Frank Leo of Toronto was sent by the Holy Father as his papal legate to officiate at the beatification of five Franciscan missionaries who ministered to the indigenous people there and were martyred.
It is truly remarkable to have had two beatifications on American soil within a single month!
Until next time,
Cardinal Seán