Last Thursday, I was very happy to participate in the virtual Adopt-a-Student celebration held for Cathedral High School. We are happy that they were so successful in raising scholarships for the students at Cathedral High, which is doing a spectacular job of forming inner-city children. For the last 15 years now, they have had a 100 percent graduation rate, and 85 percent go on to graduate from four-year colleges.

We are grateful to the Board of Trustees and the very faithful alumni who raise so much money to keep the schools thriving.

Filipino community

On Saturday, I went to Holy Name Parish in West Roxbury for a Mass with the archdiocese's Filipino community to mark the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Catholicism in the Philippines. It was a lovely celebration, and I was delighted to see how many people came out for it. The terrible weather that day did not seem to dampen people's spirits.

They had the statue of Nuestra Senora de Paz y del Buen Viaje, who is one of the patronesses of the Philippines, along with images of other popular Filipino devotions.

The Philippines is one of the largest Catholic countries in the world, and about 10 percent of their people are working abroad in the diaspora because of the economic situation there. And wherever they go, they take their faith with them. Pope Francis made a beautiful statement about the 500th anniversary, in which he spoke of Filipino workers "smuggling the faith throughout the world." I thought it was a great expression.

Feast of All Saints

Monday was the Feast of All Saints, and I celebrated the 6 p.m. Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.

On Tuesday was, of course, the Feast of All Souls. And while priests can always celebrate extra Masses in the case of pastoral need, the Church provides that, on Christmas and All Souls Day, every priest may celebrate three Masses. Through this, the Church is emphasizing the importance of praying for the faithful departed. So, I always look forward to celebrating the three Masses on that day.

It's a time when I pray in a very special way for my parents and the many relatives, friends, coworkers, priests, fellow Capuchins, and religious who have passed into eternity but were such a big part of my life. It's a beautiful feast day, and I am very grateful that we have it in the Church's calendar.

Social Justice Convocation

Wednesday afternoon, Father Phong Pham and some of his parishioners from Blessed Andrew Phu-Yen Parish joined me at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross for the recording of the Mass that will be included as part of our virtual Social Justice Convocation, which will be held on Nov. 13.

I hope all of you will be able to join us for this very important event, which will feature talks by papal biographer Austen Ivereigh and our own chief healthcare ethicist, MC Sullivan.

Finance Council

Thursday morning, we had a meeting of our Archdiocesan Finance Council.

This was our first gathering since the death of John Kaneb. So, during our meeting, we noted the great contributions that John made over the years as an outstanding layman in the archdiocese. He gave so many hours of service to numerous projects, including, of course, his work with the Clergy Trust, which was just extraordinary. He will be sorely missed but fondly remembered for his great love of the Church, manifested in so many ways.