The Annual White Mass for the Guild of St. Luke of the Archdiocese of Boston will celebrate the opening of the organization's centennial year celebration.

The Guild of St. Luke of the Archdiocese of Boston is the oldest Catholic physician's guild in America. In 1910, Cardinal O'Connell met with leading Catholic physicians in his residence and proposed a Guild of Catholic Physicians to learn and teach the medico-moral principles he felt were in danger of becoming less relevant or even ignored in those "modern times.''

Cardinal Seán O'Malley will celebrate the Mass on Friday Oct. 22 at 6:30 p.m. in the Chapel at St. John's Seminary.

A dinner will follow in the refectory featuring speaker Alessandro de Franciscis, M.D., ScM, Director of the Medical Bureau at the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in Lourdes, France. Dr. de Franciscis was trained as a pediatrician. He has served as a neonatologist and medical ethicist and has lectured at medical schools in Italy, most notably the University of Naples. Additionally he served in the Italian navy and was Governor of the Province of Caserta. He is the first non-Frenchman to be appointed to this post, better known as "The Bureau," or Lourdes Office of Medical Observations.

Plans are underway for a series of lectures and panel discussions throughout the year, contrasting the state of the medical profession and the mission of the Guild in 1910 and the modern day.

Reservations for the Mass and dinner can be made by calling the office of Dr. Helen Jackson at 617-277-7583 or by email at info@guildofstluke.org.