BOSTON -- Over $1 million was raised in support for Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Boston during the organization's 12th annual Spring Celebration, held May 10 at the Boston Park Plaza and attended by nearly 400 people.
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[This is the seventh in a series of articles profiling each of the seven men who will be ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Mission Church) on May 19.]
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NORWOOD -- With smiles and handshakes, chatter and laughter, dozens of priests of the Archdiocese of Boston came together May 9 for the spring presbyteral convocation, held at Four Points by Sheraton in Norwood.
Read moreBRAINTREE -- After decades, Tufts will no longer serve as the administrator of the Archdiocese of Boston Lay Health Plan, the archdiocese announced. Effective Oct. 1, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts will take over as administrator of the plan, which covers about 4,200 lay employees in parishes, schools, and organizations of the archdiocese across the archdiocese. The change was announced this month through the Trustees of the RCAB Health Benefit Trust.
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BOSTON -- Emmanuel College honored educator and missionary Sister Mary Alice McCabe, SNDdeN with an honorary doctorate at its 96th Commencement Exercises on May 12 in recognition of her more than four decades of work on behalf of rural farming communities in Latin America.
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METHUEN -- Presentation of Mary Academy (PMA) in Methuen, a co-education Catholic high school, offers students an impressive number of interscholastic and intramural sports. Both a member of the Commonwealth Athletic Conference (CAC) and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA), its teams and athletes have consistently received recognition for high performance on the field. Athletics are certainly an integral part of PMA culture.
Read moreBRAINTREE -- In a letter sent to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, the Massachusetts Catholic Conference (MCC), the public policy arm of the Catholic Church in the Commonwealth, urged support for a House bill that would restrict the access of firearms to individuals deemed "dangerous" or "suicidal."
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BRAINTREE -- The Emmaus Series for Catholic School Leaders, a program of the Roche Center for Catholic Education at Boston College, recently celebrated the commencement of its 2016 Cohort of Catholic school principals and heads of school, marking the close of a 20-month impactful leadership development program. Nineteen school leaders took part in the commencement, which featured keynote speakers Eileen McLaughlin, Head of School at Mount Alvernia High School in Newton and Father Ronald O'Dwyer, S.J., clinical faculty member in the Institute for Catholic Education at St. Louis University and director of the Billiken Teacher Corps (BTC).
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BRAINTREE -- On average, about one in five children and adolescents have a mental illness. In about 50 percent of cases, an illness can be seen and diagnosed in a child before the age of 14. Indicated by statistics, failure to address and seek treatment for youth mental illnesses can have significant negative consequences, including poor performance in school, trouble with the law, unemployment, substance abuse and suicide.
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WORCESTER -- In college Christopher T. Slattery was "personally pro-choice," but after his awakening he opened the first pregnancy center in New York City, blocked and prayed at abortion facilities and befriended and converted a long-time abortionist.
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BRAINTREE -- In a joint statement May 7, the Catholic bishops of Massachusetts added their voice to those calling for raising the minimum hourly wage in the Commonwealth. In the statement, issued through the Massachusetts Catholic Conference (MCC), Boston Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley, Worcester Bishop Robert J. McManus, Springfield Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski and Fall River Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha cited the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which advocates "fair pay" and "a just wage."
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Sister Charlene Favreau, CSJ, a fifth grade teacher at Immaculate Conception School in Lowell, couldn't believe it when, weeks ago, she was told she was one of ten recipients of the first-ever Archdiocese of Boston Excellence in Education Award.
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On Sunday, May 6, the parish of St. Joseph in Quincy came together to bless a new rosary garden on the church's grounds. A newly crowned statue of Mary stands in the center, surrounded by vibrantly colored tulips and hydrangeas. Lining the garden, in the shape of the rosary, are square granite slabs that create a walking path.
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[This is the fifth in a series of articles profiling each of the seven men who will be ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Mission Church) on May 19.]
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[This is the sixth in a series of articles profiling each of the seven men who will be ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Mission Church) on May 19.]
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BRAINTREE -- Citing decades of work and witness advancing the pro-life movement, the University of Notre Dame's Center of Ethics and Culture presented Harvard Law School professor and former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Mary Ann Glendon with its "Evangelium Vitae" Medal during an April 28 Mass and banquet at the Indiana school.
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MARLBOROUGH -- On a second-floor balcony of the Charter Oaks Country Club in Hudson, more than a dozen sisters of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd posed for a photo. The balcony overlooked green fields and pink flowering trees, and the sisters, white haired, joked and laughed as they huddled together for the photo, smiling in the bright sun for cameras busily snapping the moment. They were in high spirits -- 150 years before, in 1867, their order first arrived in the Boston area. On the balcony, April 28, they celebrated that anniversary, pausing for just a minute to capture the culmination of years and years of faith and ministry.
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Meetings for the protection of minors This week, I write to you from Rome, where I have been attending meetings of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and the C9 Council of Cardinals.
Read moreBOSTON (AP) -- Gov. Charlie Baker signed into law April 13 the most extensive overhaul of the state's criminal procedures in decades. The new law makes changes to everything from the state's bail system to the use of solitary confinement in prison and calls for greater use of programs that divert some youthful offenders and people struggling with mental health issues or drug addiction away from involvement with the courts.
Read moreBOSTON (AP) -- Boston officials April 26 approved changing the name of Yawkey Way, the street outside Fenway Park, after allegations that former Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey was a racist who resisted signing black ballplayers in the 1940s and '50s.
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WINCHESTER -- Many of the students at St. Mary's School in Winchester have likely never been to Italy, are likely not of Italian descent, yet, sometimes when they say their prayers, they say them in Italian. For years, the parochial elementary school has offered its students classes on Italian language and culture, giving them a better understanding of life outside of America, and the skills to speak and understand a language other than English.
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[This is the fourth in a series of articles profiling each of the seven men who will be ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Mission Church) on May 19.]
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BOSTON -- Massachusetts House of Representatives voted this week to advance a measure that would repeal a 1990s law that advocates say unfairly harms needy children and their families. During debates on a proposed $41 billion state budget bill, the Massachusetts House voted to adopt an amendment that would repeal a restriction preventing families receiving additional welfare benefits when a child is conceived while the family receives benefits.
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FRAMINGHAM -- The Massachusetts State Council Knights of Columbus presented the organization's 2018 Lantern Award to Bishop Robert Reed during its 118th annual Patriots' Day Dinner, April 16 at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel.
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BRAINTREE -- For up to a dozen hours each week, Barbara Logan visits the sick and the elderly. She visits them in assisted living facilities, in hospitals, in their own homes, going to them because often they cannot come to her. She brings them Communion and holds their hand, speaks to them about their health and their health care, and sometimes just about life and about death. She might check their medications or their blood pressure, and refer them if something seems wrong.
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[This is the third in a series of articles profiling each of the seven men who will be ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Mission Church) on May 19.]
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BOSTON -- St. Anthony Shrine has been awarded a $500,000 grant -- the largest in its history -- from Cummings Foundation's Sustaining Grants program. The funding will allow the shrine to grow its Women's Health Clinic by 35 percent to better serve the complex health care needs of Boston's most vulnerable homeless population.
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Gathering of major superiors Last Thursday (4/12), I met with the major superiors of men's religious orders that have a presence here in the archdiocese. We began our gathering with a Mass in the Pastoral Center chapel, followed by a lunch together.
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