From the Pastor

Some years ago the popular spiritual writer, Henri Nouwen took a leave from his position at Yale Divinity School and went to Peru for a year. Nouwen worked and lived among the poor in the outskirts of Lima. Upon his return, he wrote a best selling book entitled, GRACIAS. He titled the book “Thank You” for he found the sentiment of gratitude so prevalent among the poor that he was both astonished and edified by them. Fr. Nouwen witnessed the poverty and sufferings of the Peruvian people while, at the same time, their sense of gratitude for everything.

The word “gracias” permeated not only their life style but also their view of life and God. Often the “gracias” was spoken as “Gracias a Dios”. The simplest act was completed with a prayer of thanks to God. Fr. Nouwen laid bare the irony that those who have little are often very grateful while those who have much more are often less grateful. Naturally, one would think the reverse would be true. In fact, the irony is often carried even to the extremes: sometimes those who have abundance want more and feel entitled to more and those with very little are grateful and content.

This week, we North Americans celebrate one of the most cherished of our national holidays, Thanksgiving. Surely we are a blessed people and it has been my experience that most Americans embrace this holiday with a deeply sincere sense of gratitude. Our gratitude is felt at many levels: to family, loved ones, our nation, and most importantly, to God. All of us agree that the day is so important. And, like you, I recall memories of childhood celebrations that I cherish of families coming together and, at a table laden with abundance, pausing in a formal and beautiful way to thank God for all blessings.

Our reality is that the day comes and goes and the busyness of life can so distract us that our sense of gratitude can become dulled. We can fall into the trap of forgetting and not acknowledging God’s blessings in our life. The worries and challenges can draw us away from the truth that we are first and foremost God’s most precious children and blessed beyond measure. When I re-capture this truth, suddenly everything is reordered. I see things in a new light and priorities are re-established. My sense of the rightness of seeing God as the giver of so much is both freeing and humbling.

Next Thursday, we will gather with our loved ones and, even in the midst of the worries and challenges of these times, we know we have so much for which to be grateful. I will spend this beautiful day with the Rostro de Cristo community in Guayaquil, Ecuador. There with 13 North American volunteer missionaries, we will have Mass together and dinner. This year 24 students and 4 faculty from St. John Paul High School in Hyannis will be on retreat with us. Turkey is hard to find in the tropics, so we will likely have chicken! But the sentiments will be as profound as ever, as we echo Gracias – Thanks be to God for all we have and especially for the love that surrounds us and gives us hope.

Fr. Ronan

It seems like this autumn has been intense and stressful for many of the people with whom I have been speaking. Maybe this time of year is always like that – not  certain. Yet I am sure I see and sense the anger, angst and maybe fear of many. Some who work in financial services speak about the uncertainty of the markets. Families share the pressures of children’s schedules, the amount of homework, and range of commitments everyone in the house seems to have. Finding balance seems
harder.
Young adults with whom I speak do not know what a 40-50 hour workweek looks like; it is more like 50-70. And am I imagining it or is the terrible traffic making everyone more edgy and exasperated, consequently causing drivers to be less patient and more careless?  I have not been in a conversation in these past weeks that has not referenced the wrenching case of the confirmation hearings for Judge Kavanaugh. All of social media and print media, as well as radio and television have focused on the issues until America seems exhausted and drained.

Last week, I met with most of the priest pastors in the city, and we spoke about our respective parishes and faith communities. Obviously, this moment in the Church is yet another exposed nerve in this October time. This past weekend I was in Chicago at a reunion retreat for alumni volunteers of Rostro de Cristo. Fifty young men and women who have served for one year in Guayaquil, Ecuador came together to pray and reflect on their experience and their way of life as a consequence of their year of service. For me, these meetings and gatherings are always very powerful and enriching.

Today these individuals, having lived in an intentional Christian Community in one of the most impoverished regions of South America, continue to live their faith and are agents of light and hope in these times. They are examples for me and perhaps for you too, of how one can grow through challenging life experiences by embracing
more completely one’s faith in Jesus Christ.

For my brother priests and ministers in the city and beyond, for the young veterans of Rostro de Cristo, and for all of us in our parishes and communities in Charlestown, these stressful days can bring us clarity about what truly matters. For there is a platform on which I stand, as do many others, which is uncontaminated
by the stresses and worries of these days, yet at the same time, inspires how we live in the midst of all of it. The platform is our faith. God is bigger than anyone can ever imagine; more merciful; more compassionate; more loving; more accepting and resourceful.
Take a deep breath; enjoy the beauty of autumn in New England, and be assured, deep down, God is Good.

Fr. Ronan

That means a peace that is not simply the absence of war – but so much more, the absence of violence in all of its forms. Now this sounds like so much abstract theory – and in a sense it is. At the same time, it is very close to each and every one of us, for the cornerstone of all peace is in the realization of the worth and dignity of every human person and of the sacredness of all human life. Men and women of faith believe that life is a gift from God, the Creator of all. No one person has more value than another and indeed, in our great nation, “All are created equal”.

Yet there is so much that pushes back against this simple tenet about human value and equality. Inevitably, it is our own self-interest devoid of a greater vision of life and God’s plan for us all. So powerful is this self-directed interest that I believe we can only get beyond it by a very conscious choice to ask for God’s Grace to enlighten us about God’s view for all of humankind. The longing for peace, among socio-economic classes, ethnic groups, races, languages, religions, cultures and all the rest is useless unless it leads us to prayer.

That sounds pretty stern – yet I think peace, true and authentic peace, in homes, cities, borders and between nations and all peoples is ultimately a gift. Humankind can only reach the capacity for peace as we reach for God and see the value of all life, and recognize the justice needed to bring peace. I think we need to pray.

Our prayer needs to be very intentional and genuine – we need to implore our God for the gift of Peace. There are no armies, social programs, developmental agencies or economic policies that will bring us peace in themselves. The energy for peace will flow from the hearts of all people as we look at one another and see the miracle and beauty that are our lives as God’s creation. Recognizing that, each of us needs to accept that these lives are simply too precious to ever experience and/or receive violence. Arriving there, by God’s Grace, peace is possible.

October is Respect for Life Month and Domestic Violence Month. On Sunday, October 7, at 4PM in St. Catherine of Siena Chapel, we will pray the rosary for the dawning of a true and lasting peace; respect for all of life from conception to natural death, and for an end to violence in all of its forms so that all may live in harmony as God created us to be. Please join us on Sunday, October 7, and please consider praying for these intentions each and every day.

Fr. Ronan

Once I heard it said that if it were possible for one to bundle into a package all of one’s problems and struggles and place it in a bucket and everyone else did the same, and then each could select the bundle one preferred to carry, one would choose one’s own. Of course, I question how valid such a theory might be. Rather it seems that, objectively speaking at least, some struggles are more difficult to carry than others.

The privilege of being a parish priest invites me into numerous realities of people’s lives. For example, I just hung up the phone with a man who explained he has been diagnosed with ALS. Earlier in the day, I spoke with a family whose precious son lives with autism. Walking across town on my way to Mass, a parishioner stopped and asked if I would bless the three little children he had with him who had been in an abusive home and now live with him and his wife.

Not all struggles appear huge and often one’s problems and suffering are not obvious. At other times, our challenges are very public and the pain is, too. We work at convincing ourselves that we should be able to manage things on our own. Perhaps we feel too ashamed and fear being judged negatively so much so that we cannot imagine the benefits that can come from sharing our situations with others. And so we deny ourselves the opportunity to receive support from those who are ready and willing to listen and walk with us.

Suffering is a part of life and no life seems to escape it. Depending on one’s support systems, which often times include reliance on God’s grace and a faith community to support them, there are individuals and families who are gifted with the courage and perseverance to forge ahead in the midst of life’s struggles, pains and losses. As a priest, I have witnessed that faith, prayer, and community are always invaluable resources for us, but especially when we are in pain. The recognition that “I am not alone in my struggle” is crucial.

Our Charlestown community is equipped with professionals who are eager and competent to help, but also there are persons in our community ready to be a source of friendship and support.   Truth is, no one is truly independent and no one can make it on his or her own – we all need one another. And even more so, we need God, Who is waiting for us and Who knows us so well and loves us so deeply and unconditionally. Perhaps this realization is one of the gifts that come from suffering.

The month of September is designated as National Recovery month.  Every year the Charlestown Coalition collaborates with other groups in our town to offer various events which increase awareness of substance use, prevention, and recovery, and to remember those who, sadly, have lost their lives as a result of substance use.  Our Parish often remembers these intentions in our Prayers of the Faithful at our Masses.

On this Sunday evening, September 9^th, we will gather at the 6PM Mass, as we have done in Septembers past, to especially pray for those in recovery, those who struggle with substance use, and for their families. At 5:45, there will be lighting of candles for those for whom you wish to pray. After Mass, you may inscribe the names of those you want included in our Parish Book of Intentions and they will be lifted up in prayer at every Mass.  All are warmly welcomed to join us in this time of prayer and always.

Fr. Ronan

The Vatican announced on Thursday, August 2, that Pope Francis approved changes to the compendium of Catholic teaching published under Pope John Paul II. “The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,” reads the Catechism of the Catholic Church now on the death penalty, with the addition that the Church “works with determination for its abolition worldwide.” This is a departure from what the document, approved under Pope John Paul II in 1992, says on the matter: “Assuming that the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.” The former formula does stipulate that if nonlethal means are sufficient to protect people’s safety from the aggressor, then authority must limit itself to it, as these “are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.”

In 1997, the Catechism was changed to reflect John Paul’s 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae.

The addition said that the cases in which the execution of the offender is
an absolute necessity “are very rare, if not practically nonexistent.” As it’s been re-written, the Catechism now also says that “Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good.” Yet today, “there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state.” “Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption,” reads the Catechism now, as it was approved by Francis.

It’s for this reason, and “in light of the Gospel,” that the Church teaches that the practice is now inadmissible.

Together with the revised number 2267 of the Catechism, the Vatican released a letter by Ladaria addressed to the bishops. In it, he explains the decision, saying it was Francis who on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the promulgation of the Catechism, had asked for the teaching on the death penalty to be reformulated to “better reflect the development of the doctrine on this point.” The pope’s words came on Oct. 11, when Francis said that capital punishment “heavily wounds human dignity” and is an “inhuman measure.” “It is, in itself, contrary to the Gospel, because a decision is voluntarily made to suppress a human life, which is always sacred in the eyes of the Creator and of whom, in the last analysis, only God can be the true judge and guarantor,” he said. According to Ladaria, the new formulation of the Catechism expresses “an authentic development of doctrine that is not in contradiction with the prior teachings of the Magisterium.” He then explains that previous Church teaching with regards to the death penalty can be explained in a social context in which the penal sanctions were understood differently, and “had developed in an environment in which it was more difficult to guarantee that the criminal could not repeat his crime.”

Marking down the development, Ladaria quotes from Francis’s two immediate predecessors, first saying that John Paul II’s document Evangelium vitae is key in this development of the doctrine. In it, the Polish pope enumerated the signs of hope for a new culture of life, including “a growing public opposition to the death penalty, even when such a penalty is seen as a kind of ‘legitimate
defense’ on the part of society.” Criminals, the late pontiff wrote, shouldn’t be “definitively” denied the chance to reform. It was this document, as Ladaria points out in his letter that led to the first change in the Catechism on this issue, saying the cases in which the death penalty is justified are, in reality, “practically non-existent.”

Ladaria then goes on to say that John Paul’s commitment to the abolition of the death penalty was then continued by Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, who recalled “the attention of society’s leaders to the need to make every effort to eliminate the death penalty.” He closes the 10 -point letter saying that the new formulation wants to infuse energy towards a “decisive commitment to favor a mentality that recognizes the dignity of every human life and, in respectful dialogue with civil authorities, to encourage the creation of conditions that allow for the elimination of the death penalty where it is still in effect.”

Excerpts from CRUX Inés San Martín Aug 2, 2018 ROME BUREAU CHIEF https://cruxnow.com/ vatican/2018/08/02/pope-francischanges-teaching-on-death-penalty-its-inadmissible