BRAINTREE -- Thomas William remembers exactly where he was when Notre Dame de Paris burned. On April 15, 2019, William, now an altar server at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, was a high school student in his native France. He came home from classes to find his dad glued to the television, seeing the 800-year-old cathedral in flames.
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NORWOOD -- In their 60 years of volunteering, Nicholas and Barbara Campagna have gotten involved in many philanthropic organizations. At their longtime parish, St. Timothy in Norwood, Nicholas served on the parish council, and his wife, Barbara, was on the liturgy committee. Barbara keeps track of donations to the parish Christian Service Fund, and she and Nicholas collect donations to the Norwood Food Pantry every week. Nicholas has walked in the food pantry's annual Walk for Hunger for 40 years, fundraising with the parish and even asking the priest to bless his feet the night before. He and Barbara have taught confirmation classes, served as ministers of Communion, visited nursing homes, and have been involved in music ministry for over four decades.
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BRIDGEWATER -- "There's nothing wrong with that." That was the response Edward DiCenso received when the people of Valdese, North Carolina, learned he was Catholic. The overwhelmingly Protestant town of less than 5,000 people in the Piedmont region of North Carolina was relatively unscathed by Hurricane Helene, but those living in the mountains that overlook the town were devastated. DiCenso, a maintenance associate at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Bridgewater, drove with a friend to Valdese to help build temporary homes for those without shelter on Nov. 2 and 3. He worked alongside people of all Christian denominations.
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BRAINTREE -- Usually, when Msgr. Bryan Hehir celebrates a memorial Mass, he takes some time in his homily to reflect on the life of the deceased. On the night of Nov. 20, however, this was not possible. That night, Msgr. Hehir, secretary of health and social services for the Archdiocese of Boston, celebrated a Mass of Remembrance and Healing for Pregnancy and Infant Loss in the Bethany Chapel of the archdiocese's Pastoral Center in Braintree. He was assisted by two seminarians from Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary in Weston.
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DORCHESTER -- "Good morning! Yes, sir! Have a good day!" "Good morning! Have a good day, my man!" "Good morning! Have a good day, sir!" The endless refrain never loses its passion as it is repeated over and over. The constant smack of hands echoes as security guard John Sergile daps up roughly 1,000 of the 1,400 seventh-12th grade boys walking into Boston College High School in Dorchester each morning, from the early birds to the last stragglers rushing in before classes start at 8:30 a.m. Sergile gets to the school at 7:30 a.m. and leaves at 4:30 p.m., unless there's an after-school sporting event. Even as the rain picked up outside on the morning of Nov. 21, and the steady drip of students ebbed and flowed, Sergile stood outside and greeted every last one, like he does every morning in rain, snow, heat, or cold. It never gets dull for him.
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DORCHESTER -- With the help of Archbishop Richard Henning, dozens of volunteers working with Catholic Charities Boston gave hundreds of families something to be thankful for on Nov. 23. At the Catholic Charities Yawkey Center in Dorchester, volunteers braved the cold, wind, and rain to pass out 1,000 Thanksgiving meal bags containing carrots, sweet potatoes, stuffing, onions, and all the fixings for a traditional holiday meal. Families could also choose whether to receive a frozen turkey or a $20 Stop and Shop Gift Card. The archbishop used his Spanish language skills to communicate with families receiving the meals and directed the volunteers to give each family the necessary amount of food.
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BOSTON -- "Do you know him?" Archbishop Richard Henning asked Bishop Cristiano Barbosa as they observed the room at the 140th anniversary gala for St. John's Seminary on Nov. 14. "I think he teaches at Providence College," the archbishop joked.
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DORCHESTER -- Robert Credle likes to say that before Roxbury was ghettoized, and before it was gentrified, he was there. The Credles were the third Black family to move into Roxbury. They settled at 39 Quincy Street, the heart of an Italian and Jewish enclave. Robert Credle was born in the welfare ward of Boston City Hospital and raised with his four siblings by a single mother. He grew up surrounded by gang activity but got in a fight and "decided the gang life was not for him," according to his biography. His high school girlfriend brought him to St. Hugh's Church in Dorchester and introduced him to Msgr. James Haddad, who served as Credle's mentor. Msgr. Haddad bought Credle a suit and drove him to the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester to meet the college president, Father Raymond Swords. Credle received a full scholarship and was the only African American in his graduating class.
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BOSTON -- Archbishop Richard Henning celebrated his first Catholic Appeal Mass of Appreciation at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Nov. 18. The annual Mass is celebrated for the Caritas Society, which is for those who make an annual gift of $1,000 or more to the Appeal. The donors were eager to meet the new archbishop, and the line to greet him after Mass stretched from one end of the cathedral to the other. Donors waited for up to 30 minutes to shake Archbishop Henning's hand and wish him well. One woman gave the archbishop a Ziploc bag containing Divine Mercy prayer cards. Another showed him her purse, which had the Virgin Mary on it. A third asked him whether she should refer to him as "Your Eminence" or "Your Excellency."
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BRAINTREE -- After two arson attacks targeted Catholic churches in southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island four days apart, the Archdiocese of Boston and federal authorities are warning parishes to stay on alert and upgrade their security systems.
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READVILLE -- Matt O'Neil has often heard that God gives his hardest battles to his toughest soldiers. He wasn't sure he was strong enough for this. In 2021, Matt's father Arthur died of cancer at age 57. Arthur's death shook Matt's faith and made him wonder what he did to deserve such hardship. To cope, he turned to his parish, St. Anne in Readville, and his pastor, Father Joe Mazzone.
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WALTHAM -- "JESUS is like a computer," explains a series of posters in the computer lab of Our Lady's Academy in Waltham. "He ENTERs your life, SCANs your problems, EDITs your tension, SHIFTs your burden, INSERTs happiness, CTRLs your anxiety, ENDs your sorrow, ESCAPEs you from danger, DOWNLOADs solutions, SAVEs you always . . . And brings you HOME."
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