On Sunday, Msgr. Kevin O'Leary and I celebrated our regular weekly television Mass. Of course, this past Sunday was Mother's Day, and so we offered the Mass for all mothers, living and deceased and in a particular way for birthmothers who were courageous enough to entrust their child to an adoptive family and the mothers of those adoptive families.

Marianne Luthin from our Pro-Life Office was kind enough to come and serve as the lector.

Meeting with seminarians

This week, I continued our practice of meeting regularly with groups of seminarians. These are sort of a virtual version of our Vespers, dinner and dialogue gatherings that I would ordinarily be having with them. I met with our transitional deacons on Sunday evening, and I also gathered with our Third Theology men on Thursday.

They have just finished their semester online, and the seminarians are living in different parishes and in small groups. Obviously, this is a very unusual time in which they are living, and these meetings are an opportunity for me to hear firsthand about their experiences in the parishes. Also, for our transitional deacons, this coming weekend would have been their ordination, and we reflected a bit on that in our discussions.

Weekly webinar

On Monday, we had another of our weekly webinars looking at different aspects of the life of the archdiocese during this pandemic. After the great success of our virtual evangelization session last week, we held a follow-up session this week. We, once again, had a very good turnout, with about 400 participants joining us.

This time, we heard from representatives of Holy Family in Duxbury, St. Margaret's in Westwood, and the Catholic Parishes of Arlington.

I think these webinars have been a very effective way of keeping people connected and maintaining a sense of community. The danger at a time like this is one of isolation, and I think these types of events that we are holding so frequently have been very helpful for the archdiocese.

Feast of Our Lady of Fatima

Wednesday was the feast of Our Lady of Fatima and, though the Fatima Shrine was closed this year, it certainly did not stop people from observing the feast. I was talking to friends in Portugal, and one of them sent me a talk that President Reagan gave in Portugal in 1985, in which he spoke about the powerful witness of Fatima to the world. It is a beautiful testimony, and I was very touched by it.

Throughout this time, I have been sending messages of encouragement to different groups ministering in the archdiocese. I began Lent with our seminarians, then our priests and deacons, and this week, on the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, I issued a message to the women religious in the archdiocese, which can be found on my blog.