Monday, August 31, 2009

THE CHURCH AND THE HEALTH CARE DEBATE


Everyone is concerned with the current health care debate, and well we should be. Which is why I was perplexed to hear a T.V. Commentator recently ask “What right has the Catholic Church have to get involved in the health care debate?”


The Church has an extraordinary experience to bring to the health care debate.


With six-hundred-and-twenty-four Catholic hospitals, four-hundred-and-ninety-nine Catholic Long-Term Care Nursing Facilities, one-hundred-and-forty-four Home Health Agencies, and forty-one Hospice Organizations, the Church is intimately involved in the health care debate.


With her commitment to the divinely revealed truth about sickness and health, compassion and service, the Church is intimately involved in the health care debate.


As the first to bring health care to so many in our country, including the immigrant, the poor, and the disenfranchised; the Church is intimately involved in the healthcare debate.


The health care question is too important to be treated as but the latest sectarian political crisis. There are real people who are too poor to get good quality medical care who live within the boundaries of our parish. There are doctors and other medical professionals who worship with us everyday who tell me stories of the gross inequities and inefficiencies of the present system. Everyone agrees that there is much to be done.


Everyone should also agree that the Church has much to contribute to the debate. That is why I’d like to recommend a new website developed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops at http://www.usccb.org/healthcare/facts.shtml.


There you can read commentaries on Health Care Reform and a Dispute About Dying, Getting Health Care Reform Morally Right, and Walking the Walk Amidst the Health Care Talk. There are also a collection of letters from Bishops, facts and statistics, news releases, action alerts, and a video produced by the USCCB to explain the Church’s position on health care reform.


The Church is neither Republican nor Democrat, but she is an important voice to be heard in the healthcare debate. As you carefully consider all the issues, I recommend this important resource on Health care Reform.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

CHILDREN'S CHOIR FROM PARIS

Here's a short clip of a wonderful choir which graced our favorite
Cathedral Church earlier this summer.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

REMEMBERING THOSE WHO NEED US


Summertime provides us with a break from the routine of the rest of the year. The warmth of summer’s rays and the cool late summer evenings are God’s own invitation to rest in the Lord!

At the same time, the need for support of our many Cathedral ministries goes on. As so many of our parishioners go on vacation, weekly collections lessen and contributions to our special ministries become more sparse. While many of you have generously responded to my appeals to help keep our weekly collections up to date, we have been experiencing a fall-off in contributions to our Outreach ministries in the past few months.

Through our Elderly Outreach Ministry, our Cathedral Food Pantry (one of the largest in the State of Massachusetts!), and emerging new ministries, the neediest among us are cared for in the name of Christ.

Under the gentle and dedicated guidance of Rosemarie Highlands, so wonderfully assisted by Coralie Nideur and Gladys Wood, our Elderly Outreach Ministries assist seniors in accessing social services in order to address these and other problems. Through the Saint Paul’s Elder Outreach Program elders in our community have received assistance in applying for Massachusetts health benefits, fuel assistance and tax abatements. In addition, elders are helped with their medical concerns by having a staff member arrange for transportation and accompany them to medical and rehabilitation appointments.

Also, volunteers have delivered much needed medications and groceries. Through a simple home visit the Senior Support Team is able to identify elders’ needs and address them as required. Depending on the willingness of the elder to accept assistance from the Saint Paul’s Elder Outreach Program, it can be a rather simple process.

But even if the elder is unwilling to accept help, there is possibly much that the Senior Support Team can do to help. It is important for the elder to know that there are people available who are concerned and care about them.

Exciting new Social Service ministries are being planned for this fall, including an association of volunteer social workers to help the homeless, the hungry and the many folks who come to us in need. In addition, medical ministries are becoming an increasing concern, including a series of workshops on the H1N1 influenza virus and panels to provide basic educational on medical issues for our many constituencies at the Cathedral Church!

While donations are always needed, I thank you most of all for your prayers for this good work. May God teach us how to love those who need us the most!

FIRST POSTING FROM THE SHADOW OF THE DOME

I write this very first posting as we complete the seventeenth meeting of the Vox Clara Committee here at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. In addition to my work as Rector of the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul in Worcester and my teaching at Saint John’s Seminary in Brighton, I have been working with Vox Clara since its inception. Now that the completion of the Roman Missal is in sight there is a great sense of satisfaction on the part of all who have been privileged to have a part in this great work.

In any case, I thought you, dear reader, might enjoy having a look at what we did at our recently completed meeting.


VOX CLARA COMMITTEE

PRESS RELEASE
August 27, 2009

The Vox Clara Committee met for the seventeenth time from August 25-27, 2009 at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. This Committee of senior Bishops from Episcopal Conferences throughout the English-speaking world was formed by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments on July 19, 2001 in order to provide advice to the Holy See concerning English-language liturgical books and to strengthen effective cooperation with the Conferences of Bishops in this regard.

The Vox Clara Committee is chaired by Cardinal George Pell, Sydney (Australia). The participants in the meeting were Archbishop Oscar Lipscomb, Emeritus Mobile (USA), who serves as First Vice-Chairman; Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Emeritus Westminster (England), who serves as Secretary; Cardinal Justin Rigali, Philadelphia (USA), who serves as Treasurer; Cardinal Francis George, O.M.I., Chicago (USA); Archbishop Alfred Hughes, Emeritus New Orleans (USA); Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, S.J., Ottawa (Canada); Archbishop Peter Kwasi Sarpong, Emeritus Kumasi (Ghana); Archbishop Kelvin Felix, Emeritus Castries (Saint Lucia), and Bishop Philip Boyce, O.C.D., Raphoe (Ireland). Also a member of the Committee, though not present at this meeting, is Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Bombay (India), who serves as Second Vice-Chairman.

The members were assisted in their work by the following advisors: Reverend Jeremy Driscoll, O.S.B. (USA), Reverend Dennis McManus (USA), and Monsignor James P. Moroney (USA), Executive Secretary. Monsignor Robert K. Johnson (USA), provided technical support. Two other advisors, Monsignor Gerard McKay, and Abbot Cuthbert Johnson, O.S.B. (England), were unable to attend. The customary assistance of officials of the Congregation, led by Reverend Anthony Ward, S.M., Undersecretary, was also appreciated.

The Committee began by exploring means by which it might provide effective support to the Congregation as it seeks to achieve an expeditious confirmation of the Roman Missal. Certain technical and editorial processes were developed by which amendments submitted by the Conferences of Bishops, the counsel of the Vox Clara Committee and the internal deliberations of the Congregation might be effectively utilized by the Congregation in its final editing of the final text of the Roman Missal.

The greater part of the time was spent in a final review of four White Book translations of Missale Romanum, editio typica tertia, as produced by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy and recently approved by several Conferences of Bishops. Following their discussion of the ICEL renderings of Masses for Various Needs and Intentions, Ritual Masses, Votive Masses, Masses for the Dead, and the Order of Mass II, the Committee submitted its recommendations to the Congregation concerning the definitive confirmation of these texts.

Archbishop J. Augustine Di Noia O.P., recently appointed Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, was welcomed and briefed by the Committee on the last day of its work. Archbishop Di Noia thanked the Committee for its working in applying “the critical distinction between translating a text and translating a sacred text in the vernacular.” He also expressed his thanks for the proposal for additional assistance to the Congregation, noting, in particular, the need for assuring the technical quality and internal consistency of the new Missal.
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Well, that’s my first blog! Thanks for visiting with me. I look forward to chatting every few days. Back to the Cathedral on Sunday night, where each day we get along with the help of Saint Paul!