We are very pleased that Brother Tino, who is now one of our superiors in Rome, is back in Boston for a visit. Brother Tino was, of course, very instrumental in setting up the Teen Center at St. Peter's in Dorchester and did wonderful work with the Cape Verdean community there.

So, on Friday, Msgr. Kevin O'Leary, Father Bob Kickham, and Bishop Paul Schmitz accompanied me to enjoy a meal that Brother Tino prepared at our San Lorenzo Friary in Jamaica Plain. It's always enjoyable to get together with him and the friars.

Communion and Liberation gathering

Saturday, I gathered with the local members of Communion and Liberation at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross for a Mass to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Msgr. Luigi Giussani, the founder of CL.

Of course, here in Boston, we are very blessed to have many members of Communion and Liberation. We also have the Priestly Fraternity of St. Charles Borromeo working in our parishes, as well as the Memores Domini, who are the consecrated laypeople of CL.

Every year, CL holds a weeklong gathering in Italy with over a million people, known as "il Meeting," and here in the United States, they hold a similar gathering called The New York Encounter. In my homily, I spoke about how important CL and these types of events are for the Church's outreach to young people and involving them in the life of faith and discipleship.

After the Mass, we had a gathering with the families, and a wonderful choir performed polyphonic music for us.

The charism of Msgr. Giussani is making a remarkable contribution to the life of the Church in Boston. So, it was a special joy to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth with them, and we look forward to seeing them again soon when they conclude their Good Friday Stations of the Cross at the cathedral.

Incardination Mass

On Sunday, I had the joy of celebrating the incardination Mass of Fathers Cristiano Barbosa and Michael MacInnis at St. John's Seminary. The Mass was held at the seminary because both of these priests have been working on the faculty there.

We have been blessed by their ministry in the archdiocese for several years. They are two wonderful priests who are already contributing much to the life of our Church and our priestly fraternity here in the Archdiocese of Boston. So, it was a joy to make official their participation in our local presbyterate.

St. Andrew Dinner

On Tuesday evening, I went to St. John's Seminary for one of our St. Andrew Dinners. We hold these gatherings for high school-aged young men from our parishes to talk to them about priestly vocations. We had about 55 young men with us this time, and they came for a holy hour, vespers, and dinner. Then, they had small group meetings with the seminarians, and I addressed the whole group on the theme of vocations.

It's always wonderful when seminarians are able to witness to their own vocations to these young men. We are very grateful to the seminary for hosting us and, of course, to the Vocations Office for making all the arrangements.