Cardinal O'Malley attended Central Catholic High School in Lawrence for a Mass with the school community. Pilot photo/CardinalSeansBlog.org
On Saturday, I went to the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Brookline to celebrate the rite of candidacy of two seminarians.
We celebrated the vigil Mass of Christ the King, in which Eric Gonzalez and Fernando Vivas were admitted to candidacy.
At the conclusion of the Mass, we carried the Blessed Sacrament to the new sanctuary of the word, which we then blessed. It is a beautiful chapel with the Sacrament in reserve, but also a place where the seminarians spend time in prayer and reflection on the Scriptures. The seminarians themselves made the pews for the chapel.
I was pleased to see how the chapel turned out. It is truly stunning.
Mass at Central Catholic High School
On Monday, I went to Central Catholic High School in Lawrence for a Mass with the school community.
The high school is flourishing. We are grateful to the Marist Brothers for the wonderful job they have done there -- and their Marist charism is still very much part of the school. We are also grateful for Central Catholic's president, Christopher Sullivan, and their principal, Doreen Keller, for their leadership.
We celebrated Mass in the gymnasium. It was a Mass of the Holy Spirit, which we celebrate to open the school year, but there was also the theme of Thanksgiving for the gift of Catholic education.
At the end of Mass, they presented me with some lovely gifts.
St. Andrew Dinner
On Tuesday, we had our St. Andrew Dinner for young men considering a vocation to the priesthood. It was held at Sacred Heart Church in Watertown, where Father Kevin Sepe is the pastor and Father Matt Conley the vicar.
This time, we had a group of about 50 young men join us. As we typically do, we began our gathering with evening prayer and dinner, followed by a time of conversation.
Three of our seminarians -- David Campo, Paul Born and Peter Schirripa -- gave witness talks about their vocations. Afterward, I addressed the group.
Reception honoring William Evans
On Wednesday, I attended a reception sponsored by St. Mary's Center for Women and Children to honor recently retired Boston Police Commissioner William Evans. It was an occasion to express their gratitude for his service as police commissioner and his support to St. Mary's Center. He has always been a strong supporter of St. Mary's Center and has recently been named to the board.
The event was co-chaired by Mayor Walsh and Lorrie Higgins and was held to benefit St. Mary's new Community Resource Center.
There were many officials from the state legislature as well as the city of Boston and the Boston Police Department with us to honor the former commissioner.
A number of people spoke about his work on behalf of the people of the city of Boston as police commissioner, including Mark Scott of the Azusa Christian community. They noted that he always tried to be present in our communities and promote good relationships between law enforcement and the local community. They also spoke about how he was always there for people in times of crisis.
There is great admiration for his integrity and spirit of service, and everyone wished him well in his new position at Boston College. Mayor Walsh quipped that he was going to "that crime-ridden university" -- but I am sure that it will be a much less demanding task for him and I know that he is happy to be working at Boston College.