Happy 20th to the Catechism!!!

 

‘FIVE THINGS CATHOLICS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE CATECHISM’

By Alissa Thorell

Catechism specialist for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Evangelization and Catechesis

To honor the fiftieth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and the twentieth anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI has announced a Year of Faith. It began October 11, ends November 24, 2013, and is meant to strengthen the faith of Catholics and draw the world to faith by their example.

            The pope has encouraged Catholics to study the Catechism for as part of the Year of Faith. Alissa Thorell, catechism specialist for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Evangelization and Catechesis, offers “Five Things Catholics Should Know About the Catechism” to help Catholics better understand this book and its significance in their faith. Thorell explains:

            1. It’s universal in its scope. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is the first book of its kind in 450 years, an effort by the world’s bishops to convey the content of the Catholic faith to the whole Church and the whole world. Following the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), it was important for the Church to present its teachings for Catholics living in the modern world.

            2. It’s universal in its content. The Catechism compiles the living tradition of the Catholic Church and divides it into four sections: what Catholics believe (the Creed), how the faith is transmitted (worship and sacraments), how Catholics are called to live (moral life) and prayer. The contents of these four parts are interwoven, providing an organic presentation of the faith.

3. It’s a resource for education. The main goal of the Catechism is to help bishops, pastors, catechists, parents and all who teach the faith. It provides a foundation that encourages dioceses to draw their own teaching materials from it.

            4. It’s an invitation to prayer. The Catechism draws from the richness of Catholic tradition, including the lives of the saints, the teaching documents of the Church and Scripture. This makes it not only useful for learning about the Catholic faith, but for growing in one’s faith through meditation and prayer.

            5. It’s for Catholics of all ages. Learning and living the faith is an ongoing process throughout a person’s entire life, and the Catechism can help Catholics come to know and love Christ. At almost 700 pages, the Catechism can be intimidating, but it also has helpful summaries of its contents throughout, and another, the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, gives a section-by-section breakdown of the Catechism, making it even more accessible to readers.

More information on how Catholics can live the Year of Faith is available online: www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/new-evangelization/year-of-faith/

Photos courtesy of Catholic News Service.

TEN AMERICAN SAINTS FOR THE YEAR OF FAITH

 

WASHINGTON—To honor the fiftieth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and the twentieth anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI has announced a Year of Faith, starting October 11 and ending November 24, 2013, meant to strengthen the faith of Catholics and draw the world to faith by their example. Pope Benedict has encouraged Catholics to study the lives of the saints as part of the Year of Faith in order to follow their example.

            Jeannine Marino, program specialist for the Secretariat of Evangelization and Catechesis of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) offers “10 American Saints for the Year of Faith” to help Catholics learn about the lives of the saints and to appreciate the history of the Catholic faith in America. Marino is a canon lawyer who has served as a postulator and advisor to several canonization causes. A postulator conducts research into the life of a proposed saint.

            Two saint from the list, Marianne Cope, OSF and Kateri Tekakwitha, will be canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 21. Here is the full list:

            1. St. Isaac Jogues, SJ, a missionary and one of the North American martyrs, traveled from France to the new world shortly after his ordination. In 1641, he and his companions were captured by the Iroquois, who tortured and killed most of them. He was killed with a tomahawk in 1646 and canonized in 1930.

            2. St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, MSC, the first U.S. citizen to be canonized, came to the United States as a missionary from Italy. She founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and, over 35 years, started six institutions for the poor, the abandoned, the uneducated and the sick. She died in 1917 and is the patron saint of immigrants.

            3. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, SC, the first native-born U.S. citizen to be canonized, was left poor and widowed with five children. She converted to Catholicism and founded the first order of religious women in America, the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph. She was cofounder of the first free Catholic school in America and is considered the founder of the Catholic school system in the United States. She died in 1821.

            4. St. John Neumann, CSsR, a Redemptorist priest, was the fourth bishop of Philadelphia from 1852 till his death in 1860. A native of Bohemia, he followed his vocation to New York City and, at the time of his ordination, was one of only 36 priests serving 200,000 Catholics. He founded the first diocesan Catholic school system in the United States, growing the number of schools in his diocese from two to 100.

            5. St. Katharine Drexel, SBS, a wealthy, educated young woman from Philadelphia with a deep sympathy for the poor, gave up everything to become a missionary to the Indians and African Americans. She founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and started numerous schools and missions for Native and African Americans. She died at the age of 96 in 1955 and was canonized in 2000.

            6. St. Mother Théodore Guérin, SP, founder of the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods, was asked to leave France and lead a small band of missionary sisters to Indiana. When the sisters arrived, there was only a log cabin with a porch that served as a chapel. By the time she died in 1856, she and her community had opened schools in Illinois and throughout Indiana. She was canonized in 2006.

            7. St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, RSCJ, a missionary to Native Americans, traveled to the Louisiana Territory from France in 1818, where she and other members of the Society of the Sacred Heart carried out their missionary work. She opened the first free school for girls west of the Mississippi River, as well as the first Catholic school for Native Americans. She was known among the Pottowami Indians as the “Woman Who Prays Always.”

            8. St. Damien de Veuster of Molokai, SSCC, missionary to the lepers of Molokai, Hawaii, was born in Belgium in 1840 to a poor farmer and his wife. At 19, he entered the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. His older brother, also a priest in the congregation, had offered to minister to the lepers on the island of Molokai but fell ill and couldn’t go. Damien volunteered to take his place and offered to stay in the leper colony permanently, building schools, churches, hospitals and coffins. He contracted leprosy himself but continued to serve the mission until his death in 1889.

            9. St. Marianne Cope, OSF, another missionary to the lepers of Molokai, joined the Sisters of the Third Order of Saint Francis in her teens and served in leadership roles including novice mistress of her congregation and superior of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse. She became a leader in the field of health care, often caring for those considered outcasts, which led her to volunteer in Hawaii. In Hawaii she cared for women and girls suffering from leprosy, providing them with an education. She died in 1918.

            10. St. Kateri Tekakwitha, also known as the Lily of the Mohawks, converted at the age of 19, heedless of the anger of her relatives. Because she refused to work on Sundays, she was denied meals that day in the Mohawk village. Finally, a missionary encouraged her to run away to Montreal, where she practiced her faith freely and lived a life of extreme prayer and penance, taking a vow of virginity. She died in 1680.

            More information on American saints and holy men and women for the Year of Faith is available online: www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/new-evangelization/year-of-faith/saints-for-the-year-of-faith.cfm

Photos courtesy of Catholic News Service.

New Evangelization

 

SEVEN THINGS CATHOLICS SHOULD KNOW…

Editor’s note: To honor the fiftieth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and the twentieth anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI has announced a Year of Faith, starting October 11 and ending November 24, 2013, to strengthen the faith of Catholics and draw the world to faith by their example. The Year of Faith is meant to reflect one of the themes of Pope Benedict’s pontificate, the New Evangelization.

            Peter Murphy, D.Min., executive director of the Secretariat of Evangelization and Catechesis of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), shares “Seven Things Catholics Should Know About the New Evangelization.” Murphy, who is in Rome as an auditor of the October 7-28 Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization, has this to say.

1. It’s not new in content, but new in energy and approach. The New Evangelization re-proposes the faith to a world longing for answers to life’s most profound questions. It’s a call to share Christ and bring the Gospel, with renewed energy and through ever-changing methods, to new and different audiences.

2. It begins with personal conversion. The New Evangelization begins internally and spreads outward. We are called to deepen our own faith in order to better share it with others. Then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger described this in the Jubilee Year 2000 as daring to have faith with the humility of the mustard seed that leaves up to God how and when the tree will grow. Conversion to Christ is the first step.

3. It’s for believers and non-believers alike. Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap., recently observed that the most difficult people to evangelize are the ones who think they’ve already been converted. So whether it’s someone at Mass every Sunday, an inactive Catholic or someone for whom religion is not part of life, the New Evangelization invites all people to discover faith anew.

4. It’s about a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. Before a person can share Christ with others, they must first experience Christ in their own life. The New Evangelization is about promoting a personal encounter with Christ for all people, wherever they are in their lives. Whether that means finding faith for the first time or spreading the Good News, the most authentic and effective efforts are the ones closest to Christ.

5. It’s not an isolated moment, but an ongoing practice. Personal conversion and the encounter with Christ is an ongoing experience that lasts a lifetime. Catholics are blessed to encounter their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ in the Sacraments. Catholics are called to live in a way that reflects the love of Christ. God’s love is shared with our neighbors through caring for the poor and welcoming those who feel distant from God.

6. It’s meant to counter secular culture. G.K. Chesterton wrote that “each generation is converted by the saint who contradicts it most.” The New Evangelization responds to Western society’s ongoing move away from religion by urging Catholics to enthusiastically share Christ in word and through the credible witness of their lives. This is why Pope Benedict encourages Catholics to study the lives of the saints during the Year of Faith and learn from their example.

  7. It’s a priority for the Church. Blessed Pope John Paul II made it a major priority of his 26-year pontificate. Continuing this, Pope Benedict launched the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization in 2010 and made it the theme of the 2012 Synod of Bishops. The U.S. bishops issued a document in April, “Disciples Called to Witness: The New Evangelization,” focused on welcoming inactive Catholics back to the faith. The New Evangelization has an urgency about it, an urgency for all Catholics to embrace the grace of their baptismal call and share the Good News of Jesus Christ with their family, friends and neighbors.

           More information on the New Evangelization is available online: www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/new-evangelization/

Photos courtesy of Catholic News Service

A San Damiano Summer Experience

By Peggy Weber

West Hartford, CONN. — More than three dozen teenagers and several dedicated volunteers gathered from Aug. 20-23 for a San Damiano Summer Camp and Retreat at the Holy Family Passionist Retreat Center.

These young people could have been at the beach or hanging out at home or working. Instead they chose to spend four days focused on their faith.

Conventual Franciscan Father Pedro DeOliveira helped guide the group which calls St. Stanislaus Basilica and Martyr Parish in Chicopee its home.

Deacon Joe Peters of St. Stanislaus and his wife, Jan, worked with the teens throughout the week. Jan used her incredible art talents to help the group create stained-glass windows from plastic!

Joe Dziok, who just returned from an internship with the Summer Olympics in London, worked with the teens, especially in the area of technology.

I was asked to speak to the group about the efforts of Catholic Communications and specifically about blogging.

It was a great chance to show our iobserve.org page and the wealth of information there.

I was lucky enough to have the assistance of my daughter, Elizabeth Weber Begley, who helped me click through YouTube, Facebook, and other pages on the diocesan news site.

The youngsters were polite, attentive and really, really nice!!

They created a blog for their parish and engaged in other creative and technical projects. They also interacted with singing evangelist Michael Poirier and his family and focused on The Divine Mercy.

Catholic Communications hopes to hear from the teens as they learn to express their faith in a variety of media.

And Catholic Communications also hopes that these savvy teens will follow Catholic Communications on Twitter and “like” them on Facebook.

Photos by Jeremiah Begley

An Ode to a “Street Priest”

Editor’s note: This essay was written by a diocesan seminarian. He and the subject remain anonymous so that the essay will praise all priests.

This summer I have been assigned to work with a truly unique man who is a wonderful priest and role model.  I would like to describe him for you.  I won’t name him because I expect that whatever town that you live in you will know a priest like him.  The Diocese of Springfield has been blessed with a presbyterate made up of great men who, despite what the press may say, quietly toil in the “vineyard” and accomplish some amazing things every day!  They have devoted their lives to bringing the love of Christ their parishes.

My supervisor this summer is a “street priest”.  While I have always heard that expression I thought that it was an outdated term that referred to the ‘hippie” or “anti-war priests” of the sixties and seventies, the guys who lived on the Boston Common or in the homeless shelters.  It was not always a compliment to be described as a “street priest”.   Today the term is very complimentary.  My boss, the street priest, is a living example of the words of St. Francis of Assisi, “Preach the Gospel always, if you have to, use words.”

This guy lives the beatitudes.  The expectations expressed by Jesus in Matthew’s gospel are not theoretical to him.  Every day he is out “on the street” interacting with “God’s people”.  He can often be found handing out bags of food to the hungry or cold drinks to the thirsty.

He dashes off to the hospitals to comfort the sick and relies on Google maps to guide him to the homebound.  On a regular basis he visits area prisons to make sure “his boys don’t need anything.”

He gives voice to the marginalized and challenges the rest of us to move out of our comfort zones and live the gospel message.  If you’re down on your luck; if you have made some poor choices in life; if you’re confused or desperate he is your man!

He’s not perfect.  My seminary professors would not be impressed by his liturgical style and although his homilies are interesting and often passionate no one will ever describe him as a great preacher.  His singing is downright awful.  He has a quirky personality and an annoying amount of energy…But none of that matters because he has boundless love for his neighbor and his Church.  He is a great evangelist, he just doesn’t use words.   He offers an open mind and a warm heart to everyone that he meets.  He doesn’t judge, he serves!

In return his parishioners love him.  As part of my “internship” this summer he took me to visit his “old parish”, a parish he left almost ten years ago.  You would never know that he had been away.  As we walked down the local streets I was amazed by the number of “passersby” who beeped and stopped to say hello to “their priest”.  The children of his old parish had grown up but still waved and laughed with him.  Old youth group members were now pushing baby carriages down Main Street and were excited to have the opportunity to introduce their children to this great priest.  Two people, who had been gang members and prisoners, stopped to tell us about what “the street priest” had done for them and how they were able to turn their lives around “because of him”.  A five block walk took almost an hour because of this impromptu outpouring of love.  “His people” stood on street corners and sat on stoops and in each place we were greeted with big smiles and incredible stories.

There have been many books written these days that focus on the problems of the Catholic Church and the future of the priesthood.  Some of these tomes raise very good points and make valuable contributions but anyone who has serious doubts about the goodness of priests or the future of the Church should spend a few hours walking through the parish with their “street priest”.  The future of this Diocese is very bright.  The priests of this diocese are incredible.  Please pray for them and maybe consider joining them in bringing the Love of Christ to the streets.  Do you have what it takes to be a “street priest”?

Good Numbers for the Bishops

U.S. Catholics’ Satisfaction with Bishops Up to 70 Percent

By Sister Mary Ann Walsh

Director of Media Relations

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

U.S. Catholics’ satisfaction with bishops leaped from 51 to 70 percent in the last decade, according to the Pew Forum. That’s impressive, though it is hard to imagine a lower point than 2002, when Catholics saw a flood of news on clerical sexual abuse of minors.  To copy Queen Elizabeth’s description of 1992, when one of her sons divorced and Windsor Castle erupted in flames, 2002 was the church’s Annus Horribilis.

Causes of the uptick may be many: steadfastness, action in a crisis, and the bishops’ courage to walk forth when they probably would have preferred to hide in a hole. Steadfastness in troubled times means serious leadership

The Pew Forum measured current satisfaction with bishops against feelings a decade ago when the bishops faced the fact that sexual abuse of minors by clergy was a horrific reality in the church. The news had been simmering but broke out big time in Boston in January 2002. Six months later a few thousand media showed up at the bishops’ June meeting in Dallas to see how the bishops would fix the problem.

To their credit, the bishops acted. They developed theCharter for the Protection of Children and Young People, a 17-article promise to forthrightly confront child sexual abuse. They set up review boards comprised primarily of lay people to evaluate reported cases. They launched a massive educational campaign for professional staff and volunteers who work with minors and educated the minors themselves on appropriate interaction between themselves and adults. They established a compliance audit system for the Charter.

Today as the Boy Scouts, Penn State, and public and private schools address sexual abuse of minors in their ranks, people hear them promise to do what the church has already been doing for ten years. They include enforcing prevention strategies, such as not allowing minors to be alone with adults on outings; conducting background checks to eliminate unsavory characters attracted to youth; and educating children and adults about principles of healthy interaction, including the kindergarten rule: keep your hands to yourself.

With media reports of sexual abuse in youth groups and in public and private schools, Catholics saw that abuse is a tragic human problem, but not one rooted in clerical celibacy or Catholicism. They saw that sexual abuse of minors crosses all levels of society and exists more often in the home than outside it. All of which started to calm their earlier justifiable rage at “the bishops.”

The bishops’ facing the problem led to Catholics’ increased confidence. People  find reassurance in results too, and, though any instance of abuse is reprehensible, there is hope in the fact that in the last audit period (2011) there were only seven accusations of minors molested by clerics deemed credible by law enforcement – that in a church of 77.7 million U.S. Catholics. That’s enough reason to make the satisfaction rate soar.

Other factors fed the uptick. Though shamed by the scandal, bishops remained bishops. They faced financial crises squarely, confirmed youth in parishes, led dioceses in prayer and held the line on church teaching in the public square. They now maintain the high satisfaction rate despite seeming to be the sole voice for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the nation.

The bishops have other positions that seem to please no one. For example, they still want universal health care – they’ve sought it for decades – with particular concern for the plight of the poor and protection of innocent and fragile lives. Ironically, though their quite broad positions would protect so many, their positions right now please so few.

The bishops may take some satisfaction in an approval rating of 70 percent, but raising poll numbers was never their goal. The year 2012 still presents challenges, especially in the area of sexual abuse, which demands constant vigilance and transparency. Pew numbers show, however, that people are with the bishops, which ought to be a measure of comfort in still trying times.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

Catholics and Social Media

By Sister Mary Ann Walsh

Director of Media Relations for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

A recent sign of technology in church was a man watching the Olympics on his Smartphone. He may be among those very few Catholics who, the Public Religion Research Institute says, “incorporate technology into their practice of worship.”

Public Religion’s July 2012 report finds that few Americans use social technology for religion and that Catholics especially lag in this area: while 19 percent of Evangelical Christians reported having posted something about being in church on Facebook, only six percent of mainline Protestants and two percent of Catholics have done so. It added that while a quarter of Evangelicals have downloaded or listened to a sermon on line, just six percent of mainline Protestants and Catholics have done so.

However, there is much proof that Catholics are present in the new media world via blogs, Facebook, Twitter, web pages and other forms of social media.

The U.S. bishops’ website, www.usccb.org attracts almost 100,000 visitors each day to its site for liturgical readings of the day, www.usccb.org/bible/readings. These visitors see and hear a brief reflection on the readings atwww.usccb.org/bible/reflections.

            The bishops’ Facebook page, www.facebook.com/usccb,boasts about 40,000 followers and is growing. Posts on USCCBlog, found at http://usccbmedia.blogspot.com find their way into other corners of the blogosphere, both through church blogs, such as America Magazine’s “In all things…” and blogs in the secular arena, including Huffington Post, Politico, Washington’sPost’s “On Faith” and USA Today’s “Faith & Reason.”

A recent social media foray is the church’s religious liberty texting campaign. The bishops urge people to text “Freedom” or Libertad” to 377377. Texters can sign up for brief messages about religious freedom, a key issue now.

            Church blogs abound. Gossip blogs offer “inside” information, such as who might become a bishop next. Several blogs feed a liberal or conservative base, and, I fear, stoke church polarization in this election year.

Some bishops blog. Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson, Arizona, files a “Monday Memo” at www.tucsondiocese.org. Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York often makes news athttp://blog.archny.org. Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston lets people know what he’s doing on his travels withwww.cardinalseansblog.org. Others, such as Bishop Christopher Coyne, apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, and Bishop Anthony Taylor of Little Rock, Arkansas, post homilies, or at least 140 characters from their homilies, on Facebook or Twitter.

            Catholics who use the Web for spiritual development can go to many sites, including not only the USCCB site but also sites geared to meditation, such as the Irish Jesuits’ http://www.sacred space.ie and Franciscan Father Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, www.cac.org.

 The church has a long history of wise use of media technology. Once Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type in the mid-15th century, the first book off his printing press was the Bible. Radio became popular in the United States in the early 20^thcentury, and one of its first shows was “The Catholic Hour,” which ran from 1930-1950, and featured the priest/preacher Fulton Sheen.

Television surged into popularity in the fifties and Sheen became an Emmy-Award-winning TV star for his program “Life Is Worth Living,” 1951-1957. The syndicated “Fulton Sheen Program” followed, 1961-1968. Given this history, despite the Public Religion Research Institute data, the Catholic Church won’t lag for long in use of the newest technological means of communication, social media.

Stand up for the Eucharist

By Peggy Weber

Recently, I was at a small grocery store and picked up a copy of a Valley Advocate newspaper. It had a cover photo about an historical cemetery and I was intrigued.

I was with my daughter, Elizabeth, and she started to flip through the paper as we drove home.

After just a short time, she closed the paper and told me there was  a cartoon in there that made fun of the Eucharist.

I could not believe it and looked when I got home.

A part of me wants to post the cartoon so you can see just how awful it is. However, I do not want to show this and give it more publicity.

I will quote some lines from it.

The cartoon is titled, “And Also With You” and has a picture priest handing Communion to a boy who is wearing a backwards baseball cap. The cartoon figure has one hand out for Communion. The other is holding an Ipod and he is wearing “ear buds”.

There are several responses made by this young man in the cartoon. I hesitate to write them. One of the mildest is “I always wondered where recycled styrofoam went.”

Another is — “You gonna finish that pimp cup o’wine, playa?”

Others have sexual innuendos and mock transubstantiation.

I was so outraged by this cartoon and thought that I had to speak out.

I called Tom Vannah, the editor of the Advocate three times and never got a return call.

I -emailed him and asked for a public apology. There was no response.

Can you imagine if any other religion had been mocked that way in a local cartoon? Can you sense the outrage that would take place?

I decided I could not be quiet or do nothing. I ask you to  contact The Advocate and let them know that they should not mock the Eucharist in this fashion.

I intend to go to my little market and ask them to think about not accepting the Advocate for distribution in their store.

I have a sense of humor and believe in freedom of the press but this cartoon crossed the line.

Please join me in speaking out.

Advocate contact info:

 Tom Vannah, editor

tvannah@valleyadvocate.com

Valley Advocate
115 Conz St.
P.O. Box 477
Northampton, MA 01061
(413) 529-2840, ext. 218
(413) 529-2844 fax

More from the Olympics and London

By Joe Dziok

Currently, I am working in the field shop at the olympics preparing to begin work on building the cameras for the olympics.  It is incredible how much work goes into putting this event together.  It is an incredible experience to work with NBC Olympic engineers.  These people are literally putting together every piece of equipment for the airing of the Olympic games on their own.  They have vast knowledge of electronics and audio/visual integration, as well as networking.  I am so blessed to be a part of this experience.  Combining my current education (Music Production Technology) with this internship experience (learning more of the video aspect) I hope to enter a career in communications and live television.  My goal one day is to work in Catholic communications.

During my free time this past Sunday, I met up with my friend Andy, who was an exchange student in my class last semester, from London.  He took me to some of the great tourist sites of London, including the House of Parliament, West Minster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace.  But my most favorite place we went to was Westminster Cathedral (the Catholic cathedral of England) where many British saints are buried.

P.S. my favorite part about the tour was when we went to the Cathedral and my friend Andy (who is not Catholic) realized my desire to go and pray at some of the altars in the Westminster Cathedral.  He was actually very moved by the time I spent in prayer and joined me.  Later on, I found out that he is Anglican but he has family members who are Catholic.  It was nice to see him join me in praying at the Cathedral.

Editor’s note: Joe wanted to be sure the readers understood that this was not Westminster Abbey, rather he went to the Catholic cathedral in London!

A tribute to Officer Kevin Ambrose

                                                           Kevin Ambrose

                                                            Rest in Peace

 When tears are not enough -

Transparent falling tears

that flood our very breath.

They wash but cannot

Clean away the pain.

Sorrow, senseless in its cause,

Overwhelms the heart

holding steady to the beat,

That steady beat of sadness.

Silence speaks today.

Silence speaks through tears,

Through pain, through sorrow,

Through our beating hearts.

Kevin’s life must live on in us,

unceasing in honor,

selfless in serving,

Still giving in dying.

This stillness so loud in its speaking.

This message profound in its prayer.

Our resolve begs for strength

To bring sense to our sorrow –

That his dying may prove

a reason for being

more true in believing

that one man’s dying can change

the way of our living.

 Editor’s note: This poem was written by Mary E. Franz of St. Michael Parish in East Longmeadow. She penned it on June 8, 2012 after watching the funeral of Springfield police officer Kevin Ambrose. Officer Ambrose was killed while protecting the life of a woman and child who called the police regarding a domestic violence complaint.