Annual meeting on the Order of the Holy Sepulchre

Friday (Sept. 19), I was in Providence to celebrate the vigil Mass for the annual meeting of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul.

At the vigil, we awarded the promotions to different members. Among those promoted was Ted Furey, who is so active at the cathedral parish and was promoted to Knight Commander.

Saturday, the Mass was celebrated by the Order’s Grandmaster, Cardinal John Foley, who was visiting from Rome. It was a beautiful celebration. The singing was extraordinary. Under the leadership of Father Anthony Mancini, the choir at the cathedral in Providence is always an inspiration.

Father Kevin O’Leary, Father Jonathan Gaspar and Father Robert Reed were among the priests who entered into the Order.

That evening there was a banquet at the Marriott for all the members. This is Jack Monaghan’s first year as the lieutenant for the region. He honored Dennis Looney for all the hard work Dennis has done for the order and continues to do.

The order goes back to the 12th century and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, where its mission was to defend the pilgrims and the holy places and care for the sick. In our modern times, the order has been very much engaged in supporting the mission of the Church in the Holy Land, where the number of Christians has diminished considerably. Their work has been very significant in support of the works of evangelization and the works of mercy that have been carried on by the Church in the Holy Land.

Brazilian apostolate meeting

We have more than 200,000 Brazilians in the archdiocese, so it is not surprising that this year the national leadership team working in the Brazilian Apostolate would have its annual meeting in our archdiocese. We met at the Franciscan Center in Andover.

Here in the archdiocese the second most common language spoken is Spanish. But, a close third is Portuguese, because of the tremendous numbers of people from Cape Verde, Brazil and Portugal.

Fenway Park

From Andover, we went to Fenway Park to see the Red Sox play the Cleveland Indians. We were invited to use one of the private boxes at the stadium and we were joined by several priests of the archdiocese and some members of the staff at the pastoral center.

I must say, after seeing the game from one of the private boxes, I can now say those seats down by home plate have lost their luster.

Of course, the Red Sox defeated the Indians that night to secure a place in the playoffs. There was great rejoicing at the victory.

The president of the Red Sox, Larry Lucchino, came by to greet me and I told him I was very pleased to be there.

I also told him I was very proud of the fact that since I have been the Archbishop of Boston, the team has won two championships. Only one other archbishop in the history of the diocese can make that claim.  Cardinal O’Connell saw the victories of 1912, 1915, 1916 and 1918 ... but, I have just gotten started!

Also in this week’s blog:

> Northeastern University celebrates the accomplishments and service to the school of Neal Finnegan.

> CatholicTV Telethon.

> Commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the passing of Cardinal Humberto Medeiros.

> Celebrating Mass for sisters’ jubilarians.

> Funeral Mass of Father Frank O’Brien.

> Meeting with Ralph McCloud, the new leader of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.