...I was very happy to attend the annual banquet to support St. Mary's High School in Lynn. The school is celebrating the 20th year of this banquet, which is called the Cardinal Cushing Celebration. The banquet was held at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem which was just a wonderful venue. During the evening we heard from a number of students who performed for us and one student who offered his reflection on his experience at the school.

There was a great turnout for the celebration and we were pleased to learn that the evening raised over $2 million to support the school. During the evening, they presented me with the school's Cushing Award and also announced that they would be establishing a scholarship in my honor. I am a very humbled and gratified to know that a student will be receiving a fine Catholic education in my name.

We are so grateful to Grace Cotter Regan, who is the Head of School at St. Mary's High and to Board Chair William Mosakowski and all those who do so much to continue the excellent tradition of Catholic education at St. Mary's.

USCCB meetings

Friday (11/13), I left for Baltimore to attend the USCCB General Assembly and the administrative sessions leading up to it. ...On Saturday and Sunday, before the plenary session began, I attended meetings of the US Bishops' Pro-Life committee and the subcommittees on the Church in Latin America and in Africa.

... I was involved in two presentations at the conference. One addressed the subject of Project Rachel. Project Rachel is a program that helps people heal in the aftermath of an abortion and we urged the bishops to promote it as an activity of the Jubilee Year of Mercy. ...We are very proud of the work that Project Rachel does to heal to wounds of abortion and are very pleased with the work they do in Boston.

Conference in Rome

On Wednesday (11/18), I travelled to Rome to attend a two-day conference sponsored by the Congregation for the Clergy, "One Vocation, One Formation, One Mission."

...On Thursday (11/19), during a break in the conference, I had an opportunity to meet with a delegation from Serra International, including their president Timothy O'Neill. They gave me a gift to present to the Holy Father, which is a pin with a replica of the U.S. postage stamp commemorating the canonization of St. Junipero Serra.

That day I had lunch with our Boston seminarians and others at the Pontifical North American College. We sat at the "Portuguese table," where once a week during lunch they speak only Portuguese. During my visit I also had a chance to see some of the renovations that have been done to the seminary over the last year, including the new tower building that was dedicated about a year ago, though was my first opportunity to tour it. The new facilities are just stunning.

The North American college is such a valuable resource to the Church. Priests formed there bring back an important sense of the universality of the Church and of the ministry of the Holy Father. Also, the kinds of professional training in post graduate studies that are available are wonderful. Usually, our men who study there spend an extra year to earn a master's degree in some aspect of theology. This helps us to enrich our clergy and give us more resources for the pastoral work of the archdiocese.