Welcome back! I am sure you enjoyed last week’s guest blog by newly ordained Father Gabriel Hanley. This week, on Monday, I traveled to St. Joseph Cathedral in Burlington, Vermont, for the ordination of Bishop John Joseph McDermott. He is replacing Archbishop Chris Coyne, who has been recently named the Archbishop of Hartford, Connecticut. Bishop Coyne was a Boston priest. He was in Rome for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, June 29, to receive the pallium from Pope Francis. He was one of the two co-consecrator bishops along with Bishop Sal Matano who had been the bishop of Burlington before ..read more

Hello and welcome! As I concluded my post last week, I was still in Rome, and while I was there, I had the opportunity to go up to the cupola of St. Peter’s Basilica. The view is just fantastic. I also took some photos of the novena for the Feast of St. Peter I talked about last week.   As I have said previously, of late, they are trying to use the basilica for prayer experiences and devotional practices in the evenings.  During the day, it is so packed with people who are just coming in to see the basilica, but at night, they’re doing things that allow people to come and pray, suc ..read more

Hello and welcome, I want to begin this week by saying how saddened we were by the passing of Father Dan Mahoney. Father Mahoney was beloved by his parishioners and the wider community, where he served the people of the archdiocese for nearly 70 years as a priest.  For over 60 of those years, he was a trusted friend and chaplain to the brave men and women of the Boston Fire Department, including 31 years as Chief Chaplain. He was a steady and reassuring presence in the lives of countless numbers of people who sought refuge with him during times of tragedy, uncertainty, and ..read more

Hello and welcome! Last Saturday, I had the ordination of one of the friars of my province, Father Michael Herlihey.   This is one of four Capuchin ordinations I have this year. It was held at St. Augustine Church in Pittsburgh, where I was ordained 54 years ago and where we have many of our professions and ordinations. So, it was a great joy to be there with so many friars from our province.     It’s always a great joy to celebrate the ordination of one of our new priests, so I was very pleased to be there to ordain Father Michael.     Tuesday, we hosted an organ ..read more

Hello and welcome! Last Thursday, we were very happy to celebrate a Mass for our 25th Jubilarian priests at the Pastoral Center. Sister Germana is always very good about including those in consecrated life from throughout the archdiocese in our different events.  So, we were very happy to have a religious brother who was celebrating 60 years of religious life join ranks with our priests who were celebrating significant anniversaries. It’s always important for us to recognize and celebrate our priests on important ordination anniversaries and our religious on the anniversary of their pro ..read more

Hello and welcome! I hope you all had a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day holiday!  Of course, this is the time of year when we celebrate many significant milestones in our families, and we had some important events in our archdiocesan family this week, as well. Last Thursday, we had our Mass and commencement for graduates of the Theological Institute at St. John’s Seminary.  The Theological Institute is a program for theological and pastoral formation for laypeople, deacons and religious.  When the program began, it offered a Master of Arts in Ministry degree, but in recent years ..read more

Hello and welcome! As I mentioned in my last post, I spent several days last week in Rome and Assisi.  I was visiting Assisi because the bishop there, Bishop Domenico Sorrentino, has been inviting me for some time to participate in their local social justice conference and to celebrate a Pentecost Mass at the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, which is a Capuchin parish and the place where Blessed Carlo Acutis is buried. I arrived in Rome on Thursday afternoon and met with the new officials of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors: Secretary Bishop Luis Manuel Ali Herrera an ..read more

Hello and welcome! Last Friday evening, we concluded a week of prayer vigils for Haiti in different communities across the archdiocese with a special Mass celebrated at The Cathedral of the Holy Cross. Several hundred people were in attendance, and about ten priests from the Haitian community joined us.  It was very moving to see many people bring Haitian flags to the Mass.   For my homily, I chose the theme “Being with Mary at the foot of the cross,” and the Gospel reading was from John 19, where Christ tells the Apostle, “Behold thy mother.” I think everyone is aware of how dire ..read more

Hello and welcome! Last Friday, I visited New Horizons Assisted Living in Marlborough. The site was originally a home for troubled girls run by the Good Shepherd Sisters.  However, several years ago, it was converted into a long-term care facility, and many of our religious orders are sending their retired sisters there, particularly the Sisters of St. Anne, who are there in large numbers.  They are very happy to have community amongst themselves, share their charisms and spirituality with each other, and be present to the other residents. With all the sisters who represent the women ..read more

Hello and welcome! Last week, I spoke about my trip to Spain to receive an honorary degree from the Pontifical University of Salamanca.  Well, the actual ceremony was last Friday. Everyone at the university was very welcoming and gracious.  The Grand Chancellor is Bishop of Salamanca José Luis Retana Gozalo and now there is a priest as the Rector Magnifico, Father Santiago García-Jalón de la Lama. The conferral ceremony is very ancient, so everything was in Latin, as was typical of medieval universities.  There were many heads of other universities there, along with a number ..read more