I have announced this week the creation of the Catholic Media Group, which is wonderful news for the archdiocese. We are committed to do even more in the way we use the media to communicate the Gospel message. We are grateful for Scot Landry’s willingness to head up this excellent new initiative. His ability and commitment to evangelization makes him the right person for this task.

Ace of Clubs

Later that day (May 22) I attended the dedication of a Memorial Stone dedicated to the founders of the Massachusetts Ace of Clubs organization: Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy and Miriam Finnigan at the St. Mary’s Women and Children’s Center in Dorchester. The club is marking its 100th Anniversary this year, and so they wanted to mark it in a special way by this event.

As a young woman Rose Kennedy, along with Miriam Finnigan founded the club for Catholic women to support different charitable institutions. They have done so much to help many worthy causes over the years. We are so grateful for all they do.

For 100 years the club has been very supportive of many different organizations, particularly of what is now called the St. Mary’s Women and Children’s Center. Originally it was called St. Margaret’s Hospital and Rose even delivered Ted Kennedy there.

Judy Beckler is the president at St. Mary’s and she is doing an outstanding job.

Confirmations

That evening, I confirmed close to 200 people from the Brazilian community. This is the second year that we have celebrated the confirmations for the Brazilian community at the cathedral.

It was a very long celebration -- over three hours -- but it was met with great enthusiasm and great energy.

I was sorry that Sister Lissette was not with us this year, but she is in Rome celebrating her silver anniversary. I want to give special congratulations to her. She is a dynamo in the Brazilian apostolate and she was sorely missed this year. We wish her many more beautiful years in her life as a sister.

BC Commencement

On Monday, May 24th Boston College held its commencement.

The commencement speech was given by Jeffrey Immelt, the chairman and CEO of General Electric.

Among the candidates honored was Sister Mary Hart who is a religious and has worked for many years at St. Katharine Drexel Parish in Roxbury.

She is very much an icon in that community. I was so happy that Boston College chose to honor her. I am very pleased that in the last few years Boston College has honored someone working with the poor in the archdiocese, and I think that is a very good thing to hold up for the students to see.

They also gave an honorary degree to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor -- the Archbishop Emeritus of Westminster in England.

It was a beautiful and joyous day.

Por Cristo

On Tuesday I celebrated Mass and attended the Annual Dinner of Por Cristo, a charitable medical services organization working in Ecuador. It was great to be with a number of members of the Por Cristo Board of Trustees, including Gary Kaneb who is the board chair. Gary and his wife, Diane, sponsor the dinner which means that all the money raised goes to the important mission of Por Cristo.

Por Cristo’s work takes place in Ecuador and involves providing health care to some of the poorest of the poor. Por Cristo has been around for over 30 years having started in response to Pope John Paul II’s visit to Boston in 1979.