The Good Catholic Life

Summary of today’s show: The Knights of Columbus provide millions of man-hours of service and millions of dollars in charity to the Church and the needy every year and Massachusetts’ 41,000 Knights are a big part of that work. Scot Landry and Fr. Matt Williams talk with Peter Healy and Richard Guerriero of the Massachusetts State Council Knights of Columbus about the the mission and work of the order and their desire to provide every Catholic parish with a council of men willing to step up and serve. Listen to the show: Subscribe for free in iTunes Watch the show via live video streaming or a recording later: BostonCatholicLive.com Today’s host(s): Scot Landry and Fr. Matt Williams Today’s guest(s): Richard Guerriero and Peter Healy Links from today’s show: Massachusetts State Council of the Knights of Columbus Today’s topics: Massachusetts State Council of the Knights of Columbus 1st segment: Scot Landry welcomed everyone to the show. He talked with Fr. Matt Williams about the snow today and how he almost crashed while entering the parking lot at the Pastoral Center. He missed sliding into two parked cars by just an inch on either side. Scot asked Fr. Matt about his preparations for next week’s pilgrimage to the March for Life in Washington, DC. Fr. Matt said this is a pastoral priority for Cardinal Sean, who’s been to all 40 Marches for Life. The Office for the New Evangelization of Youth and Young Adults has gathered young people for the pilgrimage every year at Cardinal Seán’s request. They have over 500 people going this year in three tracks: middle school, high school, and young adults. Scot said there will be much more coverage of the March next week. Today’s guests for the 450th episode are Knights of Columbus talking about the work of the order throughout the world. Scot said there are 41,000 Knights in Massachusetts and 1.8 million worldwide. He welcomed Dick Guerriero and Peter Healy to the show. Scot asked Peter how he became involved and is now the State Deputy. Peter said it began when his wife’s brother was killed in a traffic accident. He was impressed how his brother-in-law’s fellow Knights cared for the family, including the insurance policy that he had. You don’t have to have insurance to be a Knight, and that’s was one of the original ministries of the Knights, providing insurance for widows and orphans. Scot asked Dick about joining the Knights and rising to become State Deputy. Dick said he is a 40 year member. His wife was active at their parish in South Weymouth and he joined the K of C golf league and she challenged him to join as a member. He noted that wives, especially those of the board members, are an integral part of the Knights of Columbus. Dick said his council did a lot of work for the Cardinal Cushing Training Center in Braintree and Hanover. That was a very moving experience and it drew him as he became more involved. He was a district representative, then got involved in membership and program areas, and then ran for state office. Running for state office brought him throughout the entire state. Fr. Matt asked about the roles in the Knights of Columbus. Peter said there are 270 councils in Massachusetts. Each has a slate of officers: the Grand Knight is in charge after wokring himself. Others are Inside Guard, Outside Gaurd, Warden, Deputy Knight, Financial Secretary collects dues. Members pay $25 to $40 per year to support the costs of the council. The Treasurer pays the bills. At the state level, they have district deputies. It takes 5 to 7 years for a man to work his way up through the chairs at his local council. Then guys who want to step out further in leadership abilities, including going through some training. The district deputies are responsible for five to six councils and they also are responsible for starting new councils. He suggested priests who want new councils to reach out to the state deputies. The district deputies help the councils with their programs, the two primary ones being the Tootsie Roll drive, that raises up to $450,000 per year, that results in grants for needy kids. They provide wheelchair lifts and ramps; hoists in the kids’ houses; special muscle-tone bicycles; and some other things like specialized software. The deputies become committeemen, then chairs, then directors. From that point, they can look toward statewide office, each level requiring more and more commitment. Scot asked Dick about organization at the highest level, nationally. What is the mission of the organization now? Dick said the four princuiples are charity, unity, fraternity, and patriotism. In 1882, Fr. Michael McGivney, a parish priest in Hartford, Connecticut, formed the Knights of Columbus to provide aid to the widows and orphans of the parish. Massachusetts is the third-oldest jurisdiction in the Knights after Connecticut and Rhode Island. Among other things, they provide a military chaplaincy scholarship for seminarians to ensure that there are enough chaplains for our servicemembers. They do a food for families program for Catholic Charities for needy families. They get involved in Special Olympics. Coats for Kids collects coats for needy kids, even buying new ones as well. They also try to provide wheelchairs for veterans. They also go to the VA hospitals to help bring the men and women down to the chapel on Sunday for Mass. Wreaths Across America is the first Saturday of November, providing wreaths for the graves of deceased for veterans across the country. Scot said the Knights of Columbus headquarters reports on the number of service hours provided by year and last year it was more than 70 million hours. Peter said the Mass. Knights also conduct the Basketball Free Throw program. Kids ages 10 to 14 compete at the local, regional, and state levels. They can aspire to international competition. Peter often hears people saying they don’t have time to volunteer, but he points out that families often do many of the programs together and it can be a way for families to be doing something together. And there is such diversity of opportunities to get involved that you can find something that interests you. Fr. Matt asked about the free throw contest’s purpose. Peter said it’s not a fundraiser. It’s a youth program. Dick said they also have a soccer program as well. Scot guessed that many men are giving more than an hour per week and where would the Church be without men making such a commitment. He said his brother, Fr. Roger Landry, have talked often about how important the Knights of Columbus have been to his parish. Dick said the vision is that one parish with one council and the ultimate goal is for every parish to have one. They are there to help the pastor and the parish. Dick pointed out that Fr. Roger has started two councils in his parishes. He said that they also go into the seminaries to talk to the seminarians about how the Knights of Columbus are there to help them once they are in parishes. Dick said on the physician-assisted suicide campaign last year the Knights of Columbus got their members out there to work the polls and spreading the word locally across the state. Scot noted that the margin of the vote was 34,000 votes and the 41,000 Knights made the difference. He said the Knights are always ready to serve when called upon. Fr. Matt asked if there is a junior Knights program. Peter said they have a Squires program in Methuen and Sutton. There used to be dozens of Squires circles. There are also college councils. They also recently started new councils recently at Harvard, Tufts, and Boston University. Holy Cross in Worcester is also very active. Dick said they also have on at Stonehill and they are trying to get more college councils. He said they often have difficulty with colleges refusing single-sex organizations, but they have begun partnering Knights with the Daughters of Isabella group. On the Squires, Dick said 14 to 18-year-old boys are often very busy today. Fr. Matt said a mission-oriented goal would be attractive to young men who are often looking for ways to give of themselves. Peter said men join for all kinds of reason, like softball or golf, but then they get involved in ways they didn’t expect like service or even getting more involved in their faith. It often becomes the stepping stone to become more involved. 2nd segment: This week’s benefactor card raffle winner is Alicia Mann from Hampton, NH She wins the book Praying for Our Priests a Guide to Praying For the Priesthood in Union with Mary, Queen of the Clergy; an audio CD of the Rosary with meditations on the priesthood; and an audio CD of the Stations of the Cross and Divine Mercy chaplet with meditations on the priesthood. If you would like to be eligible to win in an upcoming week, please visit WQOM.org. For a one-time $30 donation, you’ll receive the Station of the Cross benefactor card and key tag, making you eligible for WQOM’s weekly raffle of books, DVDs, CDs and religious items. We’ll be announcing the winner each Wednesday during “The Good Catholic Life” program. 3rd segment: Scot noted that Peter and Dick were at St. John’s Seminary inducting 11 seminarians in as new members to the Knights of Columbus. Peter said this introduces them to the Knights of Columbus in a positive light. The Knights also try to get each seminarian adopted by a local council which provides a small stipend and then brings them in for the council’s functions. This lets them meet the Knights and the Knights get to meet their future priests and form a bond that continues throughout their lifetimes. The priests now realize what the Knights are capable of and are doing. Some councils provides groundskeeping or buy and install Stations of the Cross or Monuments to the Unborn. Scot asked Dick about how the Knights have embraced veterans re-entering civilian society. Dick said the Knights have been active with veterans since World War I. they have the organization to help servicemen. The USO was always funded by the Knights of Columbus. they also did education and re-training programs and blood drives for veterans. They provide awards and recognition to members of the Knights who are in the service as well as military chaplains. Men interested in finding out more about the Knights of Columbus can go to their website or contact their office in Norwood at 781-551-0628. Priests interested in forming new councils or reactivating inactive councils in their parish can contact the state offices. To men who wonder if they should commit to joining the Knights. Peter said every time he’s done something with the Knights, he may be tired, he also stands back and is amazed at what they have accomplished for others. It’s great to feel that you’ve given a part of yourself to someone else, someone you may never meet or may never meet again. In the same vein, they’ve helped you as well. Peter also introduced the names of their state board, including Bishop Robert Hennessey, the state chaplain; Fr. Robert Bruso, associate state chaplain; Russell Steinbach, state secretary; Paul O’Sullivan, state treasurer; Robert Morrison, state advocate; Paul Flanagan, state warden; and Michael Baldner, immediate past state deputy.

Summary of today’s show: For the Year of Faith called by Pope Benedict, the Archdiocese of Boston is offering Catholic Faith Essentials, an innovative new course for adults which is provided primarily through live webcasting to parishes and homes through the archdiocese and anywhere in the world. Scot Landry talks with Bishop Arthur Kennedy and Michael Lavigne about the Year of Faith, Catholic Faith Essentials, and the topics and speakers over 30 sessions for next one year plus. Listen to the show: Subscribe for free in iTunes Watch the show via live video streaming or a recording later: BostonCatholicLive.com Today’s host(s): Scot Landry Today’s guest(s): Bishop Arthur Kennedy, Episcopal Vicar for the New Evangelization, and Michael Lavigne Links from today’s show: Year of Faith, Boston Catholic Faith Essentials BostonCatholicLive.com Today’s topics: Catholic Faith Essentials Show notes: Catholic Faith Essentials uses new technology to help people connect with their faith through a series of reflections and topics related to faith. They will have pre- and post-reading that will help attendees reflect on what they will hear. Participants can participate individually and in groups as they can and if they cannot participate live on Mondays, they will be able to watch the recordings of the speakers later on the Year of Faith, Boston website or at BostonCatholicLive.com. They will also be able to submit questions before and during the talks and some will be answered live or others after the event. It’s a unique offering that is innovative and unlike any offering from other dioceses. Bishop Kennedy said we can take our faith for granted, which leaves us not seeing that action of God in our lives that is a gift. Faith is a response to the inner desire which exists in our heart by virtue of having been created been God. We can sometimes become inattentive to that desire in our hearts. There are two aspects to faith: The content of the faith itself and the act of wanting a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. The Year of Faith is about an intimate relationship with Christ himself. For it to be a true relationship, there has to be a selfless giving of each person to the other. The act of faith is to surrender self completely to God. Faith is trust too. And when we are away from those we genuinely love and trust, we miss them. When we are not with God, we have something missing in our lives, which is the purpose and meaning that only God can give to us.

Summary of today’s show: When the topic of priestly celibacy and married priests comes up, the same set of questions is always trotted out: Isn’t it unnatural? Didn’t priests used to marry? Don’t they get lonely? Fr. Joseph Fessio, SJ, joins Scot Landry and Fr. Chris O’Connor to discuss a new book from Ignatius Press, “Married Priests? 30 Crucial Questions about Celibacy,” that answers the common objections with clear, concise, and convincing language. Listen to the show: [powerpress] Subscribe for free in iTunes Watch the show via live video streaming or a recording later: BostonCatholicLive.com Today’s host(s): Scot Landry and Fr. Chris O’Connor Today’s guest(s): Fr. Joseph Fessio, SJ Links from today’s show: Ignatius Press Married Priests?: 30 Crucial Questions about Celibacy by Dom Arturo Cattaneo Today’s topics: Crucial questions about priestly celibacy 1st segment: Scot Landry welcomed listeners to the show. Today’s topic is priestly celibacy and he noted some of the current objections to celibacy today. The discussion will center around a new book from Ignatius Press called “Married Priests?: 30 Crucial Questions about Celibacy”. Fr. Chris O’Connor had asked Scot before Christmas for a show on priestly celibacy and then this book came in. Fr. Chris said this book has all the most common questions and gives great answers you can give back to people. Scot compared it to the YouCat, the youth catechism that asks questions that everyday people ask and gives plain-language answers, and this book does the same. Scot welcomed Fr. Fessio to the show. Fr. Fessio said two crucial questions are whether the Patriots will meet the 49ers in the Super Bowl and which team will win. Scot asked how this book came about. Fr. Fessio said when he was in Rome last year, Cardinal Raymond Burke had recommended this book to him. Cardinal Burke often reads books written in other languages that Ignatius Press should publish in English. He had said this book would be a real service to the Church. One of the misconceptions some Catholics have about celibacy, Scot said, is confusion with chastity and continence. Fr. Fessio said celibacy is technically priests not getting married. Continence is married people refraining from sex. Chastity is the proper regulation of one’s sexual life, whether single, married, or priests. Chastity depends on the state in life. He added that permanent deacons are members of the clerical state and he said all clerics are bound by continence. And even in the early church, married priests would promise to refrain some sexual relations. Scot said his sense of things is this hasn’t been part of the permanent diaconate. Fr. Chris O’Connor clarified that once ordained priests and deacons cannot marry or if already married can never remarry. This is true in the Orthodox Church, too. Also married clergy are not eligible for the episcopacy. Scot said Catholics hear that married priests are allowed in the Orthodox Church and wonder if that wouldn’t be better in the Roman Catholic Church. Fr. Fessio said we go back to the beginning. Jesus is the Priest. When priests celebrate Mass they are in the person of Christ. Christ is the one who voluntarily did not marry because the Church was his bride and he’s anticipating heaven where there is no marriage. The Eastern Church does it differently. They are a separated Church and they made some mistake in history, particularly in 692. The question of married priests came up at a council in the Eastern Church, the Council of Tertullus. There was a forged document at the council that resulted in the doctrine being changed. Scot asked Fr. Chris the difference between discipline and dogma. Fr. Chris said dogma is something absolutely defined by the Church and can’t be changed. Discipline could be changed, but as far as the gift of celibacy it will not be changed. This is not a whim of the Church. The Church in the West has kept the discipline of celibacy and kept these high standards. Scot said we are called to give our all in our vocations. A married man gives his all to his wife and a priest gives his all to the Church in the same way. Fr. Fessio said it’s not just a practical question, but it also demeans marriage. Marriage is a primary vocation on an equal level with priesthood. Marriage is not a career. We’ve lost the sense of a man as husband and father and not just a wage-earner and career man. On dogma and discipline, Fr. Fessio said we are inheritors of the Enlightenment, which always wants clear distinctions. But there isn’t always a definitive line. How does one say where a bay ends and the ocean begins? It’s similar with dogma and discipline. Celibacy is not “only” a discipline. It is the teaching and practice of the Church for 2,000 years. He said after the Council, a lot of people said if we keep the essentials, we can changed the accidentals. Think of a spaghetti dinner. We have tablecloth, candles, nice dinnerware. What if we take away the tablecloth, the candles, dinnerware? It’s still a spaghetti dinner, but the difference between a nice dinner and sitting on the floor eating with your hands is vast. He asked why people don’t believe in the Eucharist like they used to. People don’t act like there’s anything special there. Fr. Chris said this Saturday, four or five of the seminarians will be ordained to the transitional diaconate and they will make their promise of celibacy to the cardinal and the entire Church. Scot read from the foreword to the book by Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy: Over the centuries—and this dynamic has been evident in recent decades as well—there have been plenty of attacks on ecclesiastical celibacy. It is necessary to recognize that not infrequently they come from contexts and mindsets that are completely foreign to the faith, understood both as doctrine and practice, and, unfortunately, are often orchestrated by interest groups that do not even disguise the fact that their goal is the gradual weakening of one of the elements that makes witness to Christ more effective: virginity for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Celibacy is no more foreign to contemporary culture than marital fidelity or premarital continence might seem to be. We must recognize that we are faced with one of the greatest educational challenges of the modern era; ever since the 1968 revolution, which promised the liberation of man but in reality made him a slave to his own instincts, it is urgently necessary to reeducate the whole emotional sphere, acknowledging its greatness and dignity but at the same time placing it within the framework of objective limitations that theology calls original sin, with the consequences that result from it. The underlying logic of priestly celibacy is the same one we may encounter in Christian matrimony: the total gift of everything forever in love. Behind the dynamic of self-giving on the part of the priest is the primacy of God and, consequently, also the primacy of his will, which freely calls those whom he wants. Scot said he liked the comparison between attacks on celibacy and attacks on marital fidelity and single chastity. Which parent would want their married child to promiscuous? So why do we not want priests to be faithful? Fr. Fessio said we each have a witness to give. Scot witnesses to marital fidelity and FR. Fessio and Fr. Chris witness to apostolic fidelity to Christ. One is not more holy, but they are distinct. Scot said Question 12 in this book asks: “Is not celibacy unnatural and therefore not the cause of existential angst on the part of some priests?” Question 18 asks whether it is the cause of sexual abuse. Fr. Fessio said the answer in both cases is No. The largest number of sexual abuse cases occur in families where the abusers are not celibate or continent. As to whether it is unnatural, Jesus seemed to do quite well with celibacy. Look at all the great saints and other priests through history who weren’t going through existential crises. It’s true that there are sacrifices you make, like not having your own children. It’s also a sacrifice to be alone. But there are crises in everyone’s lives. Priests are going to suffer. Married people suffer too. Suck it up. More questions ask how one discerns a call to celibate life and how celibacy as a charismatic gift can be imposed by Church law. Fr. Chris said when he interviews future seminarians, he asks them if celibacy is a sacrifice or a gift. The answer is both, just like marriage is a sacrifice and a gift, committing oneself to one another and giving oneself totally. Celibacy is a gift of oneself totally to God and through him to the Church. Fr. Chris said celibacy is unnatural in a certain sense, but it is supernatural. God does not want a man to be alone so he gives them the grace to live the life they are called to. Scot said you hear that if we allowed married priests, we would have more priests. Fr. Fessio said once again all the empirical data is against it. It’s not just Catholics who have a decline in vocations. Episcopalians and other Protestants have similar declines. Making it easy doesn’t attract people. Why do the Marines attract men and women. Because it’s a noble and difficult calling. The calling has to be attractive. Why does a man sacrifice all the other woman in the world to marry one? Because this one is The One and all the others aren’t attractive anymore. When you find The One, Jesus, then you sacrifice all others for Him. It is a joy when you are called to follow in the footsteps of the Master. You want priests who are willing to sacrifice all for the vocation, not to settle for easy life. Fr. Fessio said he knows many good priests he would like to be just like. They are solid, human, happy, manly. He said the most well-known Father int he world is the Holy Father. John Paul II’s fatherhood was radiant. Celibacy becomes attractive in the lives of priests whose beautiful vocation is lived out with joy and radiance. He told the story of Sr. Dolores Hart who was a Hollywood starlet in movies alongside Elvis who gave it up for the life of the convent and in pictures you see her absolute joy. Fr. Chris said he remembers a particular priest who has drawn several men to the seminary. they asked the seminarians what it was that attracted them. They said he ate with them, prayed with them, and listened to them. Young men are looking for priests who articulate the Church’s teaching on the priesthood. Scot recalled the story of Joe D’Arrigo on the show before Christmas who told the story of the priest who made himself totally available to Joe’s wife when she was gravely ill. He was available because of the sacrifice of his life. Fr. Fessio told the story of a reporter he’d known, a Catholic reporter who he says was hostile to the teachings of the Church. They had become friends despite their differences. One day, Fr. Fessio received a call that the reporter was dying and wanted to have Fr. Fessio hear his confession. Who did he call when he was dying? He called the old-fashioned, traditional, conservative priest. It’s not because of Fr. Fessio’s personality, but because he wants to be a priest in the tradition of the Church. Fr. Chris said he hears similar stories every time he talks to priests. Another question asks about whether celibacy leads to loneliness. Fr. Chris said he sometimes longs for a day of loneliness. A priest’s life is filled with people. Particularly diocesan priests, they are with people at all the key moments of their lives, being invited into those grace-filled moments. They teach seminarians how to be comfortable with themselves in moments of solitude and how necessary they are, just like Christ who needed time away from the crowds. Fr. Fessio said Jesus promised a hundredfold to those who sacrifice family for him. He said he doesn’t do social media, but recently read an article about a professor who gives students an assignment to be alone for one hour, no phone, no iPod and then write about it. They couldn’t do it. People don’t know what silence and solitude are. We are bombarded by sound and images constantly. One of the blessings of the priesthood is on the one hand, tremendous experiences of families, while on the other hand, having time for prayer. Most parents would love to have just a few minutes of quiet. Time for quiet is necessary not just for sanctity, but for sanity. Spend time on social media as long as you spend as much time on praying. Scot said the next question is most annoying: “Since most laypeople are married, would not a priest understand them better if he is married?” Scot said he’s been married 11 years. He’s probably counseled or given advice to 5 men on marriage. His brother as a priest for 12 years has counseled more than 1,000. Who would have more experience. It’s much better that someone objective, who won’t bring a bias from his own experience. Fr. Fessio said even in marriage, especially when there are difficulties, there are things a spouse won’t tell their husband or wife that they will tell the priest in confession. Fr. Chris said the question is as if priests dropped out of the sky, instead of coming from families themselves. Also, it’s like saying you need a cardiologist who has the same illness in order to treat you. Scot asked Fr. Fessio about what else Ignatius Press has available. He said there’s a YouCat prayer book coming out in a month and while it’s meant for young people, it’s great for everyone. It introduces prayer with traditional prayers, a simplified liturgy of the hours and more. Scot said they also have the new book by James Hitchcock called “History of the Catholic Church”. Fr. Fessio said it’s a thick book but not that long. It’s got a great layout to let you make notes and more. Youcat: Youth Prayer Book The Seven Big Myths about the Catholic Church: Distinguishing Fact from Fiction about Catholicism History of the Catholic Church: From the Apostolic Age to the Third Millennium Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church Scot mentioned “The Seven Big Myths about the Catholic Church” by Dr. Christopher Kaczor, who we’ve had on the show. It’s been very successful. Fr. Fessio said every day Ignatius Press ships out a stack of books that is higher than the Hancock Building in Boston. It’s encouraging to see that people are still reading books. He added that industrywide 25% of sales are electronic, but only about 4-5% of sales are ebooks. He thinks it’s because they have older people who read their books, but also there are certain books you want to have on your shelf as reference. Fr. Chris said this book from today’s show is one of those books. Scot ended by reminding everyone about last night’s lecture by George Weigel on Vatican II and the Birth of Evangelical Catholicism. People can watch the lecture at Boston Catholic Live

Summary of today’s show: Fr. Daniel Moloney was ordained in 2010 for the Archdiocese of Boston, after what was already an impressive intellectual career spanning Yale, Notre Dame, Princeton, and Rome. Scot Landry sits down with Fr. Moloney at his parish in Brighton to see how he came to be a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston as well as the history of St. Columbkille Parish and the remarkable talk to be given later in the evening at the parish by noted Catholic intellectual and author George Weigel. Listen to the show: Subscribe for free in iTunes Watch the show via live video streaming or a recording later: BostonCatholicLive.com Today’s host(s): Scot Landry Today’s guest(s): Fr. Daniel P. Moloney, parochial vicar, St. Columbkille Parish, Brighton Links from today’s show: St. Columbkille Parish, Brighton “Three new priests for Boston”, The Boston Pilot, May 28, 2010 To watch George Weigel’s talk tonight (January 14, 2013) For more about Catholic Faith Essentials Today’s topics: Priest Profile: Fr. Daniel Moloney 1st segment: Scot welcomed everyone to the show, broadcasting live form St. Columbkille in Brighton. He said we are doing our first webcast live on location at St. Columbkille which was established in 1871. It’s a landmark in Brighton and today joining us is Fr. Fr. Daniel Moloney, parochial vicar at the parish. He was ordained in 2010 and has been in the parish since then. In June he will be re-assigned in the normal course of priestly assignments. Scot said he learned today that St. Columbkille had originally purchased land for a cemetery in town, but Bishop Williams told the pastor at the time that he wanted a seminary instead, which became St. John’s Seminary. Fr. Dan said he came to Boston to become a priest. He was born in South Bend, Indiana, when his father was a professor at Notre Dame. He went to college at Yale, studying computers, but after reading Cardinal Newman, he decided to switch majors to religious philosophy. After graduation, he entered the doctoral program at Notre Dame. Scot asked Fr. Dan what in Newman made him change his major. Fr. Dan said one day in the dining hall, a guy he knew from back home came up to Fr. Dan and his friends and told them they should be doing community service. Another guy, a philosophy major, said the community he was serving was Western Civilization. He began to think about the idea of approaching the big problems of the day. Meanwhile, he was reading Newman, who had been writing to both intellectuals and regular people about how to avoid the problems that society was facing. Fr. Dan decided it was much more fun than staying up lately debugging computer programs. Fr. Dan said what grabbed him was Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua, (An Apology for My Life), which was Newman’s autobiography. He said many people were grabbed by Newman’s homilies, particularly those about faith and reason. Fr. Dan said he had had in the back of his mind since his early days at Yale about becoming a priest. He felt Notre Dame would be a better place to explore that idea, whether he was called to the priesthood or becoming a Catholic intellectual, it would be the place to be. Scot said he’s been to Notre Dame once and was very moved to see how many students made it a point during their day to stop for prayer. Fr. Dan said in his time at Notre Dame there was a renaissance in the practice of the faith among students, which was just after Pope John Paul’s visit to the US for World Youth Day. Fr. Dan said one of his professors described Notre Dame as a state school in a Catholic neighborhood. The students are very pious but there’s disagreement often in how to balance Catholicism and student academic life. About 1998, Fr. Dan and some friends got the university to allow perpetual adoration in a chapel and that continues to today. Fr. Dan studied Medieval philosophy. He was particularly interested in St. Anselm of Canterbury, one of the first Scholastics, who died 1109. He was a Benedictine monk who was interested in the interiority of the faith. He developed the common term that theology is faith seeking understanding. A true person of faith uses his intellect as well. Fr. Dan was first interested in Anselm while he was at Yale, and when he got to Notre Dame, he decided to study him for his dissertation. He could have studied Aquinas as the more well-known Medieval philosopher, but he felt that was too common. When he got to Notre Dame, he and others founded a newspaper called Right Reason, which was about calling the university back to its Catholic roots. After about one-and-a-half-years of that, he got an opportunity to go to work at First Things as the associate editor (about 1998). He worked there for about 3-1/2 years under Fr. Richard John Neuhaus. In June 2001, he returned to his doctoral studies at Notre Dame. At age 26, he realized he didn’t think he could be editor of First Things itself, he decided to go back. He thought he might be happy as a university intellectual. He graduated in 2004. He dissertation changed focus a little in the meantime. He’d gotten interested in applications of theology and politics and started contrasting the notion of mercy in St. Anselm and the notion of tolerance in John Rolfe, a contemporary philosopher at Harvard. He was the one of the big architects of the idea that politics must be secular and that religion should be private. Liberal philosophers didn’t contrasts mercy and justice, but instead formulated it as tolerance and justice. Fr. Dan said after graduating, he was able to go teach on a post-doctoral fellowship at Princeton and at the nearby Witherspoon Institute. He was teaching and doing research. Living at Princeton and being a Catholic intellectual reminded him that academia is often not hospitable to Catholic people of faith. A study he read showed that 80 to 90 percent of the top philosophy professors in the country are themselves atheist. So he had an opportunity to study theology in Rome where he could get a doctorate in theology. He decided that he didn’t like being a student in Rome, with the difficulty with his classes in the Italian language and not having the comforts of home. Plus they didn’t accept his theology credits from the US so he had to get another bachelor’s in theology over two years. So he cut his losses and came home, settling in DC. He got a job at the Heritage Foundation. They work to develop position papers on legislation on Capitol Hill. His two big areas of focus were AIDS legislation, in which pro-choice advocates were trying to attach abortion funding to AIDS funding for Africa, and healthcare. At the time, no one in the pro-life side were paying attention to the nitty gritty details about how the federal government was funding contraception and he ended up writing position papers to alert pro-lifers to religious liberty issues related to healthcare reform and contraception. Scot asked Fr. Dan if he was still surprised by the contraception mandate from the Obama administration last year. Fr. Dan said he wasn’t surprised because those talking points had been in place since the early 70s. That they tried to impose it on everybody was a change. Scot asked if he meant that the mandate would exist but that there would be a generous exemption. Scot asked what led him from DC to Boston. He said many priests without natural homebases tend to look where they could serve the Church the best. Fr. Dan said in Rome he was around a lot of guys studying for the diocesan priesthood and heard how excited they were to serve in parishes. Because of his intellectual background, Fr. Dan had always thought about priesthood in a religious order, but this made him think differently about it. Coming back from Rome, he asked God to give him a great job so that if he decided to become a priest, it wouldn’t be settling, but an upgrade. His job at Heritage was great, including meetings at the White House and a bright career future, but the idea of priesthood didn’t go away. He had once met Cardinal Sean when was bishop of Fall River and was impressed by his holiness. Fr. Dan hadn’t lived in Columbus since 1990, where his family lived, so he didn’t feel attached there. He also realized he didn’t have many opportunities to pick his own boss. He wanted to go someplace that needed priests. And because Boston had many universities, he felt like God was calling him to Boston. 2nd segment: Scot asked Fr. Dan about St. Columbkille Parish. He said this has seemed to be one of the more historic parishes, among the first. It was first a mission of St. Mary in Brookline or in Waltham. He thinks it was first a mission of Waltham and then of Brookline. Fr. Dan said there was a significant number if Irish living in Brighton and the first Mass was celebrated in someone’s home. They began to gather money to build this beautiful church. It’s a huge church and could have been a cathedral and some people had wanted it to be the cathedral when the chancery moved out here. All the stained glass windows are based on the Book of Kells. The parish has had few pastors. One was here for 40 years. They built a school and has had many, many alumni. The church now has a shrine to San Donato, an Italian bishop, when Italians began to move here and later one of the first Spanish communities in Boston was Cuban immigrants, who built a shrine to Our Lady of El Cobre. The lower church is as big as the upper church, seating 1,100 people and even has its own pipe organ. Through much of the 20th century, they had packed Masses upstairs and downstairs every Sunday, along with the other two parishes in Brighton. It gave the property that became St. John Seminary and the property for Mt St. Joseph’s School. Brighton has been significant in the history of the Archdiocese. Scot said the church cost $80,000 back when it was built. That would be $1,454,000 today. He noted that the patron saint is St. Columba and Columbkille means Columba of the Churches. Fr. Dan said Columba is a Latin word that means “the dove”. It was probably a religious name and he was one of the three patron saints of Ireland, including St. Patrick and St. Brigid. Fr. Dan said St. Columbkille was responsible for the death of 1,000 soldiers. He copied an illuminated manuscript and the abbott took it from him when he was done and St. Columbkille said it was his own property. His clan fought the abbott’s clan. After the battle, he realizes he was an idiot. He was exiled from Ireland and vowed to convert as many pagans as had died in the battle. So he went to the island of Iona in Scotland to form a monastery. From there, the monks spread out into Europe and converted the continent. Scot said George Weigel is speaking here tonight. He asked Fr. Dan what makes Weigel a great Catholic intellectual. Fr. Dan said Weigel is a wonderful writer. His first biography of Pope John Paul II, Witness to Hope, is one of the great books of the 20th century. It’s almost a history of everything in the last half of the 20th century, but as long as it is it never runs out of steam. Weigel has also written extensively on just war theory and politics. He also has a very engaging speaking style. Scot said his columns in the Pilot are always very engaging. He defends the Church as strongly as any layman in the Church. Fr. Dan said he also strongly believes the Catholic faith is true and not just for Catholics. The Church has something to offer everyone and not just Catholics. Scot said Weigel has a new book coming out in February that connects to tonight’s topic on Evangelical Catholicism. Fr. Dan said Weigel has been developing this theme for a long time, especially from the writings of John Paul II. At the beginning of John Paul’s pontificate people had begun to sour on Vatican II, but JP II has given a new look at Vatican II to bring to the fore the idea that all Catholics are to bring the Gospel to the world in a new and vigorous way. Scot read from the beginning of Weigel’s new book. Weigel says the Catholicism of the 21st century will be a culture-forming counterculture. Fr. Dan said Weigel wrote in First Things in the 1990s on John Paul II and the evangelization of culture. He wrote that you can evangelize people by staying in the Catholic shell. You have to show people that you can be a full-fledged Catholic and be part of the culture. You can talk about what people read and watch on TV and the like, speaking to those things from a Catholic perspective. If the culture doesn’t create inspiring works, then you have to create a counterculture. If it becomes big enough it becomes the culture. You present an attractive way of living your life that isn’t just going to church on Sunday.

Summary of today’s show: Scot Landry and Fr. Mark O’Connell discussed the life and death of Thomas O’Connell, Fr. Mark’s father, this past week, and the elder O’Connell’s contributions as a university librarian, but also as a support to Fr. Mark’s vocation. Later, they discussed some of the headlines of the week, including Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s letter to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on efforts to expand abortion access; the upcoming 40th anniversary March for Life; Project Rachel retreats; the 10th anniversary of the implementation of Ex Corde Ecclessiae; and this Sunday’s Mass readings. Listen to the show: Subscribe for free in iTunes Watch the show via live video streaming or a recording later: BostonCatholicLive.com Today’s host(s): Scot Landry and Fr. Mark O’Connell Links from today’s show: The Anchor The Pilot Some of the stories discussed on this show will be available on The Pilot’s and The Anchor’s websites on Friday morning. Please check those sites for the latest links. Today’s topics: Remembering the Life of Thomas O’Connell and Pro-Life News 1st segment: Scot Landry welcomed everyone to the show. He also welcomed Fr. Mark O’Connell and noted that Fr. Mark’s father died a week okay yesterday and his funeral Mass was this past Wednesday. Fr. Mark said it was quite an experience to celebrate the funeral and have so many priests and religious and laypeople come out for the wake and funeral. He said it’s an amazing brotherhood of the priesthood and you experience it when you go through something like that. Fr. Mark’s father was 91 years old and had suffered from Alzheimer’s. Scot said Fr. Mark had described his father as a man who loved his faith and loved learning. He was a university librarian in his career, working at Harvard, York University in Toronto, and Boston College. He retired in 1986 and remained an educator, but pretty much concentrated on his children. He was constantly feeding them articles, poems, and literature, especially to Fr. Mark to use in homilies. So to write a homily for his father was in some ways an extraordinary task, but it was also easy because of the box of clippings he had saved from his father. Fr. Mark said there’s a weird blessing with Alzheimer’s which is that it’s a long goodbye. So much of his father faded away, but love remained. He also talked about how his father was very supportive of his call to the priesthood. He related how they didn’t want him to feel pressured when he first started thinking about it and how he was extremely supportive throughout his priesthood. Fr. Mark related a story of his childhood attending church. They would all site in the same pew, in the same row. It was his job to put the money in the offertory basket. Eventually, he realized that his father gave different amounts each week and his father said he gave more for good homilies. He gave more if the homily was shorter or if the priest had a good story or smiled. He was Fr. Mark’s first professor of homiletics. Scot said it seems Mr. O’Connell wanted priests to be warm and genial and a good storyteller. He related that children see God in the same way they perceive their own father: as a tough, hard-love guy or a tender, loving dad. So it’s important that priests reflect the love, the kindness, and the warmth of God the Father. Fr. Mark said his father throughout his priesthood always asked him if he’d smiled. Scot said Fr. Mark said in his homily that he had always had his Catholic magazines and periodicals to his parents’ house, where his father would read them first, highlight the articles, and tell Fr. Mark what in them he should read. Mr. O’Connell was also a lifelong reader of the New York Times and he was always cutting out articles and sending them to Fr. Mark. He had very eclectic tastes. Scot said Bishop Walter Edyvean said the Archdiocese is tremendously indebted to Thomas O’Connell for building world-class Catholic libraries in Boston for generations who will benefit from his work. Obit: Former University Librarian Thomas F. O’Connell ’50 2nd segment: Scot said they will now be discussing the rest of the news of the week after yesterday’s discussion of Disciples in Mission. He said much of the news focuses on the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. As chair of the US bishops’ pro-life activities committee, Cardinal Seán will be prominent in most of the events. Also, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York wrote an open letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo regarding a new bill that would expand abortion access. “Cardinal Dolan decries proposal to expand abortion access”, Catholic News Agency Dear Governor Cuomo: Congratulations on your third State of the State message earlier today. There is much to cheer in your report, and my brother bishops and I look forward to working with you to advance much of this agenda. In particular, we share your absolute horror at the many incidents of gun violence that have had such a terrible impact on our society, none more so than the unspeakable massacre of 26 innocent children and women at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14. We commit ourselves to working with you to address this urgent problem as you look toward meaningful reforms of our gun laws, improvements in care for the mentally ill, and safer schools. Allow me also to single out for praise your continued interest in reforming and improving our state’s health care system, as well as your support for a long-overdue increase in the state’s minimum wage. I am hopeful that real progress can be made in these and other areas that enhance the lives of those who are living below or near the poverty level in our state. Yes, there is much to praise. However, I would be remiss if I did not renew my great disappointment regarding your continued support for the radical Reproductive Health Act. I know that you appreciate the fact that millions of New Yorkers of all faiths, or none at all, share a deep respect for all human life from conception to natural death. I also know that you are aware that New York State’s abortion rate is, incredibly, double the national average. Sadly, nearly 4 in 10 pregnancies statewide end in abortion. In some parts of New York City, the rate is higher than 60 percent, mostly in the impoverished Black and Latino communities. As we have discussed in the past, we obviously disagree on the question of the legality of abortion, but surely we are in equally strong agreement that the abortion rate in New York is tragically high. There was a time when abortion supporters claimed they wanted to make abortion “safe, legal, and rare.” Yet this measure is specifically designed to expand access to abortion, and therefore to increase the abortion rate. I am hard pressed to think of a piece of legislation that is less needed or more harmful than this one. I do hope you will reconsider this position. I stand ready and eager to discuss this or any other matter with you at any time. My brother bishops and I would very much like to work closely with you to reduce New York’s scandalous abortion rate and to provide an environment for all women and girls in which they are not made to feel as though their only alternative is to abort, something which goes against all human instinct, and which all too often leads to lifelong feelings of regret, guilt and pain for them, and for the baby’s father as well. I look forward to discussing all of these issues with you further when I visit Albany on March 19 and 20 for the New York State Catholic Conference’s Catholics at the Capitol event. Wishing you and your family every blessing in the New Year, may I remain Faithfully yours, Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan Scot said we face similar issues in other states and nationally as well. The rhetoric is that abortion should be safe, legal, and rare, but they’re always trying to expand access to abortion. Fr. Mark said it’s a critical time for legislation on abortion. He added that Cardinal Seán has said that the tide is turning on abortion among young people, who are increasingly pro-life. It would be tragic to allow greater access to abortion when clearly there are too many abortions as it is. “Poll: Huge Majority of Americans Want Abortion Restrictions”, Zenit A recent major poll finds that 83% of Americans support restrictions on abortion and a large percentage want all abortions banned. Fr. Mark said we have 40 years of abad law that is open-ended and doesn’t make distinctions. It’s time for the end. “40 years after Roe v. Wade, pro-life movement strengthens its resolve”, Catholic News Service Scot encouraged listeners to consider attending the March for Life on Friday, January 25, if at all possible for this historic anniversary. Hundreds of thousands and up to one million people march from the Capitol to the Supreme Court each year. Fr. Mark said Cardinal Seán loves that the March is like-minded people who aren’t afraid to speak up to this issue. Scot said he’s been to the March once about 15 years ago. Fr. Mark noted that there are similar marches elsewhere in the country including the West Coast Walk for Life on the same weekend. Scot added that Project Rachel retreat opportunities are coming up this spring. Project Rachel is a confidential Catholic outreach ministry offering hope and healing to women and men hurting from past abortions. The dates are Saturday, February 2, 2013; Saturday, March 16, 2013; Saturday, April 6, 2013; 9:00AM – 5:00 PM. Project Rachel Boston; or call 508-651-3100 Testimonies Stories Fr. Mark said he is a trained Project Rachel confessor. He said both men and women can receive tremendous healing from this wound in their life. Also in the news, we are approaching the ten year anniversary of Ex Corde Ecclessiae. Fr. Mark O’Connell explained that the Vatican document addressed the relationship of Catholic universities and theologians with their local bishop and diocese. The 1983 Code of Canon Law said Catholic theology professors need to get a mandate from their local bishops in order to teach the faith. Ex corde Ecclessiae in 1993 put that mandate into effect. It also addressed the importance of universities in general. Ten years, the US bishops implemented that document. It was a tense situation where theologians didn’t want to lose their academic freedom and bishops wanted to ensure the integrity of the teaching of the faith. Now ten years later, the bishops are looking back at how the implementation has gone. “Bishops find progress in relationship with Catholic colleges”, CNA/EWTN News Scot said his sense is that things got kind of crazy in the 1970s, where some professors teaching at Catholic universities got tenure and were teaching clearly heretical things. Fr. Mark said theologians don’t have the right to publish their opinions as if it were valid Catholic teaching. They can be on the cutting edge of theology, but they have to remain respectful of the Church’s teaching. Fr. Mark said there’s a special responsibility when using the word “Catholic” that you are handing on what is authentically Catholic 3rd segment: Now as we do every week at this time, we will consider the Mass readings for this Sunday, specifically the Gospel reading. 1st Reading for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Sunday, January 13, 2013 (Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7) Thus says the LORD: Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased, upon whom I have put my spirit; he shall bring forth justice to the nations, not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street. a bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench, until he establishes justice on the earth; the coastlands will wait for his teaching. I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice, I have grasped you by the hand; I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness. Gospel for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Sunday, January 13, 2013 (Luke 3:15-16, 21-22) The people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ. John answered them all, saying, “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Scot said many people wonder why Jesus had to be baptized. When we are baptized, we have Original Sin washed away and we become part of God’s family. Fr. Mark said it’s not the same baptism we go through. Jesus was baptized in the water by John and the blood of his crucifixion. Jesus was baptized symbolically to mark the beginning of his ministry. Scot said how much it should mean to all of us to hear from God to say to us at the end of our lives, “You are my beloved Son with you I am well pleased.” Fr. Mark said what he takes from this every year is how we can all use a bit more fire in our life, to burn with the Holy Spirit. Scot said this Sunday marks the end of the Christmas season.

Summary of today’s show: The Archdiocese of Boston unveiled Phase 1 of the Disciples in Mission pastoral plan, including 12 collaboratives of 28 parishes that will be the first to band together in a new arrangement in order to pool resources and work together to bring about the New Evangelization. Scot Landry and Susan Abbott were joined by Fr. Paul Soper, director of Pastoral Planning for the Archdiocese, to discuss the reasons for the initiative, the names and groupings of the first phase, the expected timeline from this point, and makeup of some of these newly announced collaboratives. Listen to the show: Subscribe for free in iTunes Watch the show via live video streaming or a recording later: BostonCatholicLive.com Today’s host(s): Scot Landry and Susan Abbott Today’s guest(s): Fr. Paul Soper, Director of Pastoral Planning for the Archdiocese of Boston Links from today’s show: Disciples in Mission Today’s topics: Phase 1 of Disciples in Mission 1st segment: Scot Landry said it’s an exciting day in the Archdiocese of Boston, following up an exciting week with the ordination of Bishop Deeley last Friday and the launch of Catholic Faith Essentials. Today, Phase 1 of the Disciples in Mission pastoral plan was launched and it is so significant that we are focusing on that topic instead of our usual news headlines for Thursday. Scot and Susan discussed how long this has been in process. Scot welcomed Fr. Soper to the show. He said Fr. Soper has been busy today being interviewed by the media and then meeting with the Presbyteral Council. A group of people including two pastors from the collaboratives, parishioners, and members of the archdiocesan pastoral planning commission were interviewed by National Public Radio and the Salem News and other news outlets. “Boston Archdiocese Announces 1st Group Of Parish Collaboratives”, WBUR “Archdiocese of Boston unveils details of first wave of parish reorganization”, boston.com Fr. Soper said today we announced the list of the Phase 1 collaboratives. He said the first phase is a learning phase. They took 10 percent of the total parishes and took the opportunity to learn from it. There will be 135 collaboratives when they’re done, so they have 12 collaboratives including 28 parishes. Saint Luke and Saint Joseph, Belmont Saint Mary, Saint Margaret, Saint John, Beverly Saint Mary, Saint Theresa, Saint Andrew, Billerica Saint Mary, Brookline (a one-parish collaborative) Saint Mary of the Angels, Roxbury and Saint Thomas and Our Lady of Lourdes, Jamaica Plain Saint Mary and Sacred Heart, Lynn Our Lady of the Assumption and Saint Maria Goretti, Lynnfield Saint Lucy and Saint Monica, Methuen Sacred Heart, Middleboro and Saints Martha and Mary, Lakeville Sacred Heart and Our Lady Help of Christians, Newton Saint James, Saint John, Immaculate Conception, and Sainte Anne, Salem Saint Jerome and Immaculate Conception, Weymouth Fr. Paul said they needed a good sample of parishes to represent the whole archdiocese. In these 12, there are 2 in each region of the archdiocese with 4 in the north region. There’s one single-parish collaborative, one-four parish collaborative, one urban, one rural, six with schools, six without, and of those who do, one has two schools. Several collaboratives are bilingual and two are trilingual. Scot said it’s a diverse mix of big, small, urban, rural, suburban and so on. Fr. Paul said they also didn’t have to reach into the pot of parishes not ready for this mix. They had a significant number of parishes volunteer for phase one. Fr. Paul said he’s pleased with the list because they are places that can embrace the mission of evangelization and because they can embrace the challenges they will face. He doesn’t think they will all have it easy, but he hopes to glean lessons from the future from the challenges they face and he’s confident they will all be successful. Scot said a lot of things need to happen now. He said the current pastors know that being part of Phase 1 is that they will all submit their resignations so Cardinal Seán can select the best pastor for each collaborative. The current pastors can re-apply. Fr. Paul said it’s very hard for the 23 pastors to submit their resignations, even though all of them knew the process. They love the parishes they serve and aren’t eager to leave. At the same time, they put themselves at the service of the Lord. He said the resignations are important because Cardinal Seán needs the freedom to look at each collaborative to decide the priest best fitted to that collaborative to advance the mission of evangelization. Fr. Paul said the priests of the Archdiocese are shining through this process. He hasn’t met a single case of hostility or resentment as he called each of the pastors this past weekend. Scot said the number 12 is significant for Catholics as it is the number of apostles and tribes of Israel. Fr. Paul said they chose 12 intentionally. He said when Jesus called the 12 apostles, he was reconstituting Israel and re-establishing the ancient order of grace. Twelve is putting the people back together. That’s what Disciples in Mission is about. Scot asked when the collaboratives become official. Fr. Paul said they will be formally inaugurated on July 1. Before that they hope the pastors will be assigned by early April. Until then, his office will go out and talk to pastors, parish staffs, parish councils, and the like to begin discussions. The new pastors will be trained in May and June in leadership and evangelization and administrative matters. Catholic Leadership institute will be providing the leadership training. Fr. Paul said most pastors will take their formal duties on June 4, which is called the Spring transfer date. This is usually 10 days after ordination and it’s when most priest re-assignments take place anyway. Susan asked if the parish council dissolves when the pastor resigns. Fr. Paul said the pastors’ resignation becomes effective when the Cardinal accepts the resignation, which could be in June when the new pastor starts. Shortly after June, when the collaborative is formally inaugurated, the responsibility of the pastoral council and finance council will be restructured to be a single council of each type for the whole collaborative. They then discussed where the people on those councils will come from, whether from existing councils or people who are not yet involved. Fr. Paul said the new councils will have to have members from all the parishes in the collaboratives. Scot asked about the parish staff in the new collaboratives. Fr. Paul said nobody is going to go in and just start firing people. There will be hard decisions to make. In most cases, where someone’s job is redundant, there might be space for horizontal movement. So if they only want one religious education director, one of them could become a youth minister or adult faith formation director or something like that. Scot said most pastors don’t have as much staff as they need, but the phase 1 collaboratives have adequate offertory to properly staff the needs of all the parishes, especially where there are economies of scale. Scot said his sense is that we will need more people working in our parishes in the future, especially with lay ecclesial ministers and pastoral associates and directors of religious education. Fr. Paul said in some cases we have been more modularized and maybe the model is to become more generalized in their functions, which is what many are already doing in practice. Susan said she’s heard from parish secretaries and business managers that they’re concerned about their positions. She asked what happens after July 1? Fr. Paul said for most pastors, from the day they’re appointed they will being the process of gathering the staff and the councils. Susan clarified that current staff keep their positions indefinitely until and unless the pastor re-allocates the roles in a pastoral team. Fr. Paul said when Phase 1 is done, they want it to be a case study for the collaboratives in later phases. He said they plan to give the pastors the best support they can. He plans to have a team of people who can go out and provide support. For example, there will be an IT person who can help a pastor bring together all their computer systems or phone systems in the various parishes, providing recommendations for the pastor. If the pastor is okay with the recommendation, then the IT person will take care of everything. Another support person is a human resources person. The offices of the Central Ministries will be providing similar support to the parishes. Scot asked what Fr. Paul says to someone worried about closing parishes. Fr. Paul said Disciples in Mission is about establishing parishes as advancing the goals of evangelization. Closing parishes would be counter-productive as you want a place for people to come to. That said, no one can say no parish will ever close again. If a collaborative determines in its pastoral plan that it does advance evangelization, then that would be considered. It could be that the local collaborative would be the one to say that they think a parish should close in order to use those resources otherwise. Fr. Paul said it would only happen after every other possibility had been tried. 2nd segment: This week’s benefactor card raffle winner is Arlene Motta from Lynnfield She wins the book Daily Reflection by Diane L. Allen. If you would like to be eligible to win in an upcoming week, please visit WQOM.org. For a one-time $30 donation, you’ll receive the Station of the Cross benefactor card and key tag, making you eligible for WQOM’s weekly raffle of books, DVDs, CDs and religious items. We’ll be announcing the winner each Wednesday during “The Good Catholic Life” program. 3rd segment: Scot said what stands out from the list of collaboratives are the one-parish and the four-parishes. Fr. Paul said they have about a dozen single-parish collaboratives on their list, either because the parish is really large, is alone in a town and standalone, or a has a distinct mission, like St. Ignatius in Chestnut Hill. In some cases, because they’re on the geographic borders of the archdiocese and their neighboring parishes are in other collaboratives. But they will still undergo all the training, form their local pastoral plan, and show how they will re-tool themselves for the mission of the New Evangelization. On the four parish collaborative, Scot said the complexity seems a tougher challenge. Fr. Paul said it emerged from their local experience. He said the parishes had already been meeting collaboratively for several years. About a month ago, the collaborative was struggling with whether to be in Phase 1. At the request of the pastors, Fr. Paul attended an open meeting attended by about 150 people. They talked at length and depth and grappled with the questions. At the end, they took a straw poll and two-thirds said they wanted to be in Phase 1. Scot said there’s a lot of data that the archdiocese captures now and much of that is shared on the Disciples in Mission website. Looking at the data for the Salem collaborative, it looks like it will be busy. They have 14 Masses at the four parishes, five priests assigned, with 2,200 plus attending Mass. They have 460 students in religious education. On the website, there’s also a map of the territories, plus financial information, listing of the buildings, and statistical data. They have 23 years of sacramental data. Fr. Paul said the historical data shows us what growth can look like in these places. It should be possible to get back to the levels we had in 1989. Fr. Paul said these statistics are supportive of the broader national statistics. He said it’s pointed out very well in the book by Sherry Weddell, Forming Intentional Disciples, that it’s adult religious experiences that form religious adults and so it’s adult faith formation that we should be focusing on. Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus Scot and Fr. Paul discussed the listing of buildings in the collaborative and how the collaborative could use those buildings for ministry or to use them for rental income. Fr. Paul said the empty buildings could have great potential to effect the New Evangelization. Fr. Paul encouraged people to go to DisciplesinMission.com to look at the data and remember that we are doing this because Parish Evangelization works, but to do so we need strong parishes. Scot encouraged people to read Fr. Paul’s blog on the website which updates nearly every day.

Summary of today’s show:The Fellowship of Catholic University Students sends post-college volunteer missionaries out to college campuses around the country to meet young people where they’re at, to make friends and form relationships, and to lead them in discipleship for a lifelong mature faith in Christ. Scot Landry and Fr. Matt Williams are joined by Levi Rash and Emily Cook to talk about their ministry at Boston University, their journeys from their midwestern homes to Boston, and the extensive training they receive from FOCUS to become missionaries of the New Evangelization. Listen to the show: Subscribe for free in iTunes Watch the show via live video streaming or a recording later: BostonCatholicLive.com Today’s host(s): Scot Landry and Fr. Matt Williams Today’s guest(s): Levi Rash, Emily Cook Links from today’s show: Fellowship of Catholic University Students FOCUS at Boston University FOCUSequip Today’s topics: Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) 1st segment: Scot Landry welcomed everyone to the show and welcomed Fr. Matt Williams to the show. Fr. Matt talked about his Christmas and New Year. On New Year’s Eve they were at St. Leonard’s in the North End for Adoration and Mass with Cardinal Seán. On this past Sunday night, he was at St. John’s in Canton for a gathering with Confirmation students. Scot noted that earlier today Fr. Mark O’Connell celebrated a funeral Mass for his father who died last week. He said Mr. Thomas O’Connell was a university librarian and was a wonderful Catholic family man. Scot added that funeral liturgies are among the most beautiful liturgies, especially when the congregation prays for the deceased. 2nd segment: Scot and Fr. Matt welcome Levi Rash and Emily Cook. Levi grew up in Missouri. He went to St. Shelbina in northeast Missouri. Shelbina is a very small farming community of about 1,700. He attended University of Missouri in Kansas City and he faced some of the biggest decisions and challenges in his life. He was fortunate to have FOCUS on campus there. Mass was important to him, but he didn’t know why. And so when he got to campus, one of the FOCUS missionaries spotted him and connected him to the group. In his freshman year he got an invitation to a Bible study and that was the one thing he could do and that was all it took. He later attended a FOCUS conference in Orlando and was challenged to go deeper as a disciple of Christ. Scot explained that FOCUS is an abbreviation for Fellowship of Catholic University Students. Emily grew up in Nebraska and when she got to college, she was looking forward to all that freedom. Luckily, she was immediately surrounded by a Catholic community. For the first few years she attended Mass and lived a surface-level faith, but in her junior year she began to question what she wanted after college. She had been pre-med, but she found it felt empty and so she devoted time to think about why God created her. After that, she met a new FOCUS missionary on campus and that brought her deeper in discipleship. LEvi and Emily talked about creating friendships with FOCUS missionaries who were near them in age. Fr. Matt asked if the strategy of FOCUS is to create relationships with everyone. How do they maintain that many relationships? Levi said they strive to meet students where they are at. They know they can’t stretch themselves thin, despite being available. They follow the plan of working in large group settings and small group settings, but also try to find a handful of four to five young men and women in an intentional discipleship relationship, which is the model of Christ and his apostles. Emily said everyone knows who they are as FOCUS missionaries, but at the same time they are low-key in their approach. It’s about having a relationship, not selling a product to them. Scot said he’s been moved by how much emphasis that FOCUS puts on relationship skill-building. He noted that not only is it the job of missionaries to do that difficult task of evangelizing one-on-one, they have to do their own fundraising to pay their way. Levi said as well as being one of the most challenging things he’s done, it’s also been the most rewarding. By the having conversations with so many people in his life asking for their support, he’s built the relationships he’s had throughout his life into a deeper and greater relationship. Emily talked about the people who were difficult to approach to ask for their support. She had approached a Lutheran family she knew and they grilled her on the Catholic faith. Then a couple days later they called back and told her they would support her in her mission. They told her that they’d never met a Catholic alive in their faith like her. 3rd segment: Scot said he wishes every Catholic could go through the training FOCUS missionaries receive on how to share their faith and answer common objections. Emily said they spent five weeks this past summer at the University of Illinois in Champaign. First and second year missionaries attend and their 3rd and 4th year missionaries come to visit. Emily said she enjoyed Jeff Cavins’ course on the Bible, which basically taught them them Bible in a week. It helped them to synthesize the same stories they heard growing up. Levi said he took a class with Dr. Edward Sri on Scripture and it was quite phenomenal. Scot and Fr. Matt recommended his books very highly. Fr. Matt asked about the importance of Scripture in their work as FOCUS missionaries. Levi said reading Scripture every day is what will bring about the new springtime of faith. To recognize our role in salvation history, we have to recognize it. Emily said anytime we approach the Bible we want to know what God wants to say to me, so they share with college students how to pray with the Bible and to hear God through the Scripture. Scot said there are good videos on FOCUS’s website at FOCUSequip. He asked what they experience as missionaries that help them deal with rejection. Levi said you have to turn to God first and allow yourself to be humbled. They learn it a lot at summer training. The teams also come up with particular strategies for their campus. Praying for and with students becomes very individual as well. Emily said the idea is to continue to build relationships with someone, continue to make your faith attractive, and be available for their questions. When the person is won over to Christ, you’ve extended the message of Christ and they accepted it, then you build it with them in their life. Levi said they look for students who are faithful, available, contagious, and teachable. They are people who can be influencers. Of course, you can’t rule out anyone that the Holy Spirit might call. FOCUS discipleship is a committed relationship. It’s not just hanging out, but diving into the resources of the faith so they can start making changes in their lives. Emily said one of the challenges is finding the balance between being stretched to reach students and keeping themselves grounded, developing themselves and friendships outside of FOCUS. Emily said FOCUS works best in a relational standpoint, so they put themselves in students’ lives by joining clubs, intramural teams, craft nights, book clubs, so that you are human and you are enjoying what they are enjoying and win them over slowly. For others who don’t have their training, he recommends people look at the relationships around them now and ask how to go deeper. Look at your family and your co-workers. Look at your parish. FOCUS is starting to see the effects of missionaries and disciples in their parishes. Emily said the BU Catholic Center is a warm and welcoming place to invite students to and to invite them to be part of a community. She said FOCUS often has a connection to Catholic centers on the campuses they serve at. Levi talked about the difference between his year last year at MIT and this year BU and how they have to be adaptable. Emily said as a missionary they have some input on where they go, it’s mainly up to the FOCUS organization and they leave it all in God’s hands. Levi said they just came back from Orlando, Florida, where they spent the past week with 6,000 students from all over the US at a conference. Emily added that if there aren’t FOCUS missionaries on your campus, they have just launched the Digital Campus, which allows students to be led as disciples remotely. 4th segment: This week’s benefactor card raffle winner is Arlene Motta from Lynnfield She wins the book Daily Reflection by Diane L. Allen. If you would like to be eligible to win in an upcoming week, please visit WQOM.org. For a one-time $30 donation, you’ll receive the Station of the Cross benefactor card and key tag, making you eligible for WQOM’s weekly raffle of books, DVDs, CDs and religious items. We’ll be announcing the winner each Wednesday during “The Good Catholic Life” program.

Summary of today’s show: The Church needs faithful lay Catholic voices to present the Catholic viewpoint in the media. Catholic Voices USA trains lay Catholics, who are not official spokesmen for the Church, to be media friendly, studio friendly, and ego-free interview subjects and guests on television and radio and in print for journalists covering the neuralgic issues that involve the Church. Whether you aim to stand up for your faith on your local news or at the neighborhood cookout, Catholic Voices USA will be coming to Braintree in March for a weekend of training and Scot Landry talks to Kim Daniels of Catholic Voices USA about the group an its approach. Listen to the show: Subscribe for free in iTunes Watch the show via live video streaming or a recording later: BostonCatholicLive.com Today’s host(s): Scot Landry Today’s guest(s): Kim Daniels Links from today’s show: Catholic Voices USA “Catholic Voices USA to offer media training for New England Catholics”, The Pilot, 12/21/12 How to Defend the Faith Without Raising Your Voice: Civil Responses to Catholic Hot Button Issues Today’s topics: Catholic Voices USA 1st segment: Scot Landry welcomed everyone to the show. He asked listeners if they feel called to defend the Church in secular media, at the neighborhood cookout, or even around the dinner table. Catholic Voices USA provides training to Catholics in all walks of life to publicly give witness to the faith. Catholic Voices will be providing training in New England on March 8-10. Kim Daniels is a director of Catholic Voices joining us from Washington DC. She has previously joined us on The Good Catholic Life and was part of the Town Hall for Religious Freedom back in June on WQOM and CatholicTV. Kim said this is an important time for more laity to stand up for the Church. The group began in London ahead of Pope Benedict’s visit to the UK. There had been great hostility to the visit in the media so a group of lay Catholics organized other laity with media training to make a difference in changing popular opinion through interviews on radio, TV, and print. They have taken that model to other countries and they have been in the US since May. Scot said he knows there was some presence in Mexico by CV last spring as well. Scot said CV trains people to be media friendly, studio friendly and ego-free. Kim said first they do not approach journalists as they enemy. Media friendly means to know what will happen in an interview and how to work in a studio. Ego free means that they are flexible and willing to adapt to to the journalists’ needs of the moment. Kim said they see controversy as an opportunity to present the faith. The worse problem is indifference to the Church. Controversy is an opportunity to reframe issues and explain the truth and reality of millions of Catholics who live their faith every day. Scot said many people think the secular media is opposed to the Church more often than not, but it’s usually not the journalist who anti-Church, but that they buy a very secular frame about the Church. It’s our job to understand that secular frame and help change it. Kim said for example the existing secular frame regarding women in the Church and Catholic Voices re-frames the issue that the Church is concerned about women’s equality as well. Another common frame in the area is the vigils in closed parishes and local reporters find it a compelling story to tell the story of the heroic little guy standing up to the Church closing their parish. Scot said he learned that the better way to re-frame is to find the stories of other individuals who bravely and strongly saw the need for what happened and moved to set roots down in a new parish and in a new community. Kim said it’s good to put a human face on the story and in this case to tell the stories of people who have moved on. Scot said to effectively defend the Church you need good tools and techniques, especially with neuralgic issues, i.e. the ones most painful to talk about. Kim said some of the tools are basic debate skills, like thinking in triangles, having three basic issues you keep coming back to. But it’s more important to talk about how you make people feel. Don’t just try to win on the debating points, but capture people’s feelings. 2nd segment: Scot noted that people trained by Catholic Voices don’t speak for the Church, but for their faith. He said sometimes the reason the Church gets bad media coverage is that the Catholics willing to come on are often those with their own agenda they’re trying to push. Kim said CV is a group of Catholics who know and love their faith and stand with the Holy Father and the bishops. She added that they are non-partisan. They’re trying to put their faith in ground-level terms accessible to everyone. Media coverage of issues today often take place in the form of debates, often looking for a heated discussion. Scot said it’s often not the best place for a bishop or priest or religious to be put in that position, but a layperson might be a very effective advocate in that sort of media forum. Kim said it’s about witnessing, not winning. Turn the confrontation into something positive. Answer each point, but remain positive. Scot said he learned from CV that if you want to witness well, find the positive intention the person on the other side has. It can be a tough discipline to go through that process, but if you can relate to the good the other person thinks they’re trying to do, you can begin a conversation that might lead them to understanding what the Church is saying. Kim said they just finished a training in New York City for people who’ve been involved in pro-life work. Abortion is a neuralgic issue. They found that when you look for the positive intentions you find that people are concerned with women in difficult situations and that women have as many choices as men do. Of course, we know that the unborn life is paramount. So when you talk about abortion, you always talk about the mother and baby and the support provide for the mom. That shifts the conversation to women and their needs and the real choices they face and the options they can get from the Church that they don’t get from an abortion clinic. 3rd segment: This is the third time, CV will be offering training. They offered it in DC and NYC last year. Kim said they teach the Catholic Voiced approach and go through practice sessions for radio and television. It’s also wonderful to come together with people who love their faith. They start on a Friday night with an opening prayer time and an opportunity to meet everyone. They start with an emphasis that this is about our faith. On Saturday, they talk about the CV approach and the art of the radio interview and TV interview and how to get your point across in three minutes. They include time for prayer and for fellowship. On Sunday, they give substance on the primary issues, moving people from general knowledge to specifics. Scot asked what newly trained Catholic Voices do to articulate the Church’s teaching. Kim said last May the HHS mandate was very big in the news and it was a big focus of their training. It’s a complicated issue so they equipped them to talk about it. After, CV trainees spoke at rallies around the country, wrote in newspapers and on blogs, and were interviewed on TV and radio. Scot said those who are trained in March will be available to talk about national issues or local issues. If the training occurred last year, the trainees could have been vital in the physician-assisted suicide debate. Kim said they become a resource for Catholic groups looking for people to talk about these issues. CV can also help people get connected with media organizations looking for Catholic voices. Scot said there are 16 open spots in March. He asked what characteristics they’re looking for. Kim said they get many, many applications. They look for someone on fire for their faith who’s looking for a little bit of help to make that last step. There’s often a tendency that they have to look like a Fox News anchor, but she said it’s about being authentic. The single most important factor for being an effective communicator was their authenticity. They do hope that people will have a certain level of understanding of their faith, but not to be subject matter experts. Scot said the participants don’t have to have had any media experience before, and in fact some of the most persuasive in the practice interviews were people who had never done this. Scot said the application deadline is January 31, but they have rolling applications so it’s helpful to get it in early. The applications are on their website, along with their blog in which they write about issues in the media every day. 4th segment: Scot said now they will go through one issue to illustrate the Catholic Voices approach. He asked her the most common secular frame to the Affordable Care Act/HHS mandate issue. She said the secular frame is that the government is trying to increase women’s access to contraception, which is sen as good, by having employers pay for it and anyone opposed is against women. They say the Church is trying to impose its views on the American public. But the case is that the government is trying to impose its voices on the Church. The government is trying to violate Catholics’ most deeply held religious beliefs. Scot said if this is a pro-woman law, and we counter this frame, then the Church is saying it’s bigger than being pro-woman, but is about the issue of the Church being able to define what is religious activity and what it means to live our faith. We have to avoid getting pulled into the debate whether we’re pro- or anti-woman. Kim said women are some of the most valuable voices for the Church. They also frame this as hurting the poor because they will be the ones hurt by the lost jobs and wages from business being forced to pay these increased costs. The positive intention of the other side is that they want to help women in need. That’s why we respond that we want to help those in need because this mandate hurts the poor and those who serve them the most. We also point to how this mandate affects conscientious objection and religious belief. Scot said CV also emphasizes the need to limit yourself to the top three points of rebuttal. The first is hurting the poor. The second is that this isn’t a political issue. The third is that the government is imposing its views on people of faith. Scot said the group most persuasive at shifting opinion have been laypeople like Kim who are easy to relate to. Catholic Voices has a set of principles they work by. Look for the positive intention behind the criticism. Shed light, not heat. People won’t remember what you said as much as how you made them feel. Show, don’t tell. Think in triangles. Be positive. Be compassionate. Check your facts, but avoid robotics. It’s not about you. Witnessing, not winning. The second is to shed more light than heat. Don’t come in like an invasion, but to provide a convincing and attractive alternative to the secular frame. The third is that people will longer remember how you feel than what you said. The fourth is to show, don’t tell. For example, to give solid examples of how crisis pregnancy centers work with compassion compared to the cold abortion clinics. The sixth is being positive. We have to be talk about what the Church is for, not just what she is against. The seventh is being compassionate; by engaging people in a loving way even in a vociferous debate. Kim said you have to recognize when talking with people that what’s most important is being a good listener. The ninth is that it’s not about you. Kim said anytime we are out of our comfort zone, we need to remember that people are not focused on us, but on the message that we’re bringing and so to be prepared. The final is witnessing, not winning. Kim said this is the one that is most important. We need to remember that it’s about showing people what it is to be a faithful Catholic, remembering we’re talking to another person.

This past Friday brought a special and joyous occasion to the Archdiocese of Boston - the ordination of a new auxiliary bishop, Bishop Robert Deeley. The Good Catholic Life provided live coverage of the ordination and hosted the show live from the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. Below is the full audio of the ordination, as well as links to more information about Bishop Deeley and a full video stream provided by our friends at CatholicTV. We all thank God for the blessing of Bishop Deeley to our Archdiocese! Watch the Ordination via CatholicTV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-Dqmyt2fx4 More information on Bishop Deeley: Biographical Summary Press Release The Appointment of Bishops Bishop Deeley's Remarks at the Ordination Forty years ago, on the day I was ordained to the priesthood, July 14, 1973, it was a very hot day, about 95˚. At the end of the ceremony, done in my home parish, Sacred Heart in Watertown, and, of course, without air conditioning, Cardinal Medeiros, our kindly and saintly Archbishop at the time, told me that he had never done a ceremony in such heat. I guess I get the extremes! We go from one ordination on a hot July day to a wintry blast of air on a cold January day. My heart is full today. There is so much to take in. I have tried as I was told to listen and to participate in the ceremony. And now, in these brief words, I want to offer a word of thanks. I offer thanks to Almighty God, who has blessed me in life with abundant gifts and called me, by faith, to baptism, and to the sacred priesthood, an honor and grace I have treasured for these forty years. Today I am grateful for this call to the episcopate, to the fullness of the sacrament of priesthood, and to greater service to God’s people. I am grateful that I have been able to live out my priesthood within the Church, our Mother and Guide in teaching and a way of life. I thank you, Archbishop Vigano, for your presence here today. You represent for us our holy and dedicated servant, Pope Benedict XVI, the principal of unity who gathers us in the Lord as Church, and shepherds us with a heart which proclaims the love of Jesus Christ with great joy. I thank as well all the bishops who have come to share this day with us. Cardinal William Levada, I am honored you have come to be with us. You and all the bishops represent something valuable which we know well. The communion of the Church begins with the communion of the bishops in support of one another in fidelity to the Holy Father. I thank you all for your presence. Archbishop John Nienstedt and Bishop Robert Evans have been my co-consecrators with Cardinal Seán. We journeyed to priesthood together in seminary and have celebrated with our other classmates the beginning of this 40th year anniversary. I might single out one other, Bishop Charles Scicluna, Auxiliary of Malta. He is the newest ordained, November 24, 2012, and has come the farthest. Thank you all for your presence. It is in this great Archdiocese of Boston that I have been privileged to serve as a priest. I thank you, Cardinal Seán, certainly for ordaining me today, and for the meaningful words of your homily, but also for the leadership you give us, as we move forward in the beautiful work of evangelization. I am grateful for the priests of Boston who join us today, and to all our priests who daily bring the person of Jesus to the people they serve. I am grateful for the presence of all the other priests, my classmates and friends from different places and different ministries. It is a great ministry we are privileged to share. Please God, there will be young men among us who will come and join us in this joyful work of the Lord. Our readings today were proclaimed by two religious women, Sr. Zita Fleming, one of my teachers “a few years ago”. She is of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, whose sisters and schools educated me for life, and Sr. Ella Christian of the Grey Nuns of Montreal, where I was chaplain for 11 wonderful years. Thank you for what you have done for me, for your participation, and the participation of all the religious here today. Your witness of life is a constant reminder to us of our common call to holiness. Throughout my life my family has been, for me, a tremendous gift and a valued source of companionship. With my beloved parents, who are present with us in spirit, my brothers and I were blessed with a faith-filled home. Though Fr. Kevin and I rejoice in the gift we share as brother priests, our family has expanded with the marriages of my other brothers, and the birth of my niece and nephews, and now a whole new generation of grand nieces and nephews. I am grateful as well today for the extended family which joins us today, cousins from Ireland, California, and many places in between. It would be hard to imagine my life without my family. It continues to be a source of great mutual blessing for all of us. Thank you for your support and your presence. Thank you to all today who are here, my friends and co-workers, parishioners from the places where I have ministered, and people with whom I have served on committees, boards and organizations, too numerous to mention. Thank you to all who have organized these events, and guided me through this beautiful ceremony. Fr. Jonathan Gaspar has chaired the Committee which did all the work, and Fr. Kevin O’Leary and the Staff of the Cathedral have arranged a beautiful Church for us to celebrate in. Leo Abbot has gathered a beautiful choir to lead us in song. I am grateful to all for the tremendous work that was involved in doing all this in a short time. Thank you! A few days ago I found on my desk a package of letters from some school children at one of our schools, South Boston Catholic Academy. They were sent to wish me a Merry Christmas and congratulate me on my new job. A number of those letters contained a similar message to that of Maxwell who wrote, “We are praying for you. Please pray for us.” I think that sums it up. That is what we are called to do for one another as Church. Pray for each other. Another unsigned note stated “Working for Jesus must be a plesher”. Well, truth to tell, it is. What you and I must do, in addition to praying for each other is share that pleasure, which we see as the joy we find in Jesus Christ. Pray, then for me, as I do for you, that we might be counted among those “living the truth in love”, helping others, through our lives to come to know Jesus, whose coming among us as a sign of God’s love we celebrate in these days of Christmas. God bless you all. And thank you.

Our show notes today are briefer than usual because our usual transcriptionist, Dom Bettinelli, and his wife Melanie were blessed with a newborn baby girl, Lucia Rose this afternoon! We all thank God for this beautiful new addition to our radio family. May He bless her with His grace and with good health for years to come. Listen to the show: Subscribe for free in iTunes Watch the show via live video streaming or a recording later: BostonCatholicLive.com Today’s host(s): Scot Landry and Susan Abbott Today’s guest(s): Gregory Tracy, Fr Roger Landry 1st segment:Pope names Boston priest to be Vatican's abuse investigator Fr Robert Oliver was appointed by the Holy Father at the end of last month to a new post as the Promoter of Justice in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This new post is similar to a prosecuting attorney in a civil court, and oversees monitoring and investigating cases of priests accused of sex abuse among other cases. Fr Oliver is a member of the Brotherhood of Hope and succeeds Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna of Malta. Pope Benedict XVI Names Very Reverend Arthur M. Coyle, V. E. a Prelate of Honor Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley announced Dec. 28 that Pope Benedict XVI has conferred the Title of Prelate of Honor on the Very Reverend Arthur M. Coyle, V. E. This honor, the second of three ranks of monsignor within the Church, recognizes Monsignor Coyle's achievements during the course of thirty-five years of ordained ministry. 2nd segment: This week’s benefactor card raffle winner is John Perna from Waltham. He wins Daily Reflection selected and edited by Diane Allen. If you would like to be eligible to win in an upcoming week, please visit WQOM.org. For a one-time $30 donation, you’ll receive the Station of the Cross benefactor card and key tag, making you eligible for WQOM’s weekly raffle of books, DVDs, CDs and religious items. We’ll be announcing the winner each Wednesday during “The Good Catholic Life” program. 3rd segment: The Pilot: Pope Benedict XVI names Msgr. Deeley as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston Program #0414 - Appointment of Bishop-elect Robert Deeley and how bishops are appointed Program for tomorrow's Ordination (PDF) Scot, Susan, Greg and Fr Roger discussed the upcoming ordination to the Episcopate of Bishop-Elect Robert Deeley. The ordination will take place tomorrow, January 4th, at 2pm at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. Tune in to WQOM, 1060AM or online or CatholicTV for live broadcasts of the ordination.