Tag: 2011-2012

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial December 23, 2011 Today is the last day of the traditional posadas. Celebrated in various Hispanic communities in the Diocese of Fall River, but particularly popular among Latino Catholics in the American...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial December 16, 2011 Secularism, as Pope Benedict has defined it, is living si Deus non daretur, “as if God were not a given.” For militant secularists, however, it’s not enough for them to live as if God does...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial December 09, 2011 The bishops of the United States of America are now in the midst of their ad liminavisits to the Vatican. Normally done every five years, these visits not only give the bishops of the world...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial December 02, 2011 The principle focus of Advent is to prepare us to meet Christ in history, mystery and majesty, to focus on God’s eternal desire for a loving communion with us. We ponder Christ’s first...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial November 25, 2011 Since the celebration of the Eucharist is not only the “source and summit of the Christian life,” as the Second Vatican Council taught, but also the main point of weekly contact for most...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial November 18, 2011 Last month Pope Benedict announced a “Year of Faith” to begin next October in order to strengthen the faith of Catholics across the globe in the midst of an increasing secularization. Last...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial November 11, 2011 At the end of October, Pope Benedict convened religious leaders from most of the world’s religions in Assisi for a day of reflection, dialogue and prayer for peace and justice in the world...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial November 04, 2011 Death is the great contemporary phobia. Every November the Church seeks to help the faithful confront and overcome this fear. We begin the month by focusing on Heaven and the saints, which...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial October 28, 2011 In recent years, the popes have been trying to focus the attention of Catholics throughout the world on certain aspects of the Christian life that on occasion can be taken for granted. Prior...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial October 21, 2011 Several of the cardinals who elected Pope Benedict said that they had turned to him because he would be the most capable leader to guide the Church in the reevangelization of the supercilious...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial October,14, 2011   The United States bishops have long spoken up in defense of religious freedom abroad when Communists, Islamicists, fundamentalist Hindus or militant secularists either in the...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial October 7, 2011 In February, President Obama instructed the Justice Department to stop defending in federal court the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). This act specifies that under federal law marriage is...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial September 30, 2011 On September 7, Attorney General Martha Coakley certified an initiative petition aimed at legalizing physician-assisted suicide in our state. Dubbed by euthanasia supporters the...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial September 23, 2011 Last week we focused on the Solomonic balance the Church needs to find between caring for those who have suffered child sexual abuse by ministers of the Church, defending other children...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial September 16, 2011 At the end of August, there was a sad story from Niagara Falls, Canada, that highlighted the vulnerability many priests feel about being falsely accused of sexual abuse. Robert Sammut, 46...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial September 9, 2011 The events of September 11, 2001 reawakened most Americans — and with us, so many others in the world — to some of the fundamental realities of human existence that in day-to-day life can be...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial September 2, 2011 Those attending Masses at many of the parishes in the Fall River Diocese this weekend will hear something different: the new and improved English translation of various sung parts of the...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial August 26, 2011 Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles is quickly becoming one of the most persistently prophetic voices in the Church of the United States. He is as cheerful, amiable and accessible as any...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial August 19, 2011 This weekend in Madrid, Pope Benedict will be joined by a million young Catholics and their chaperones to celebrate the 26th World Youth Day. This encounter of the successor of St. Peter and...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial August 12, 2011 On August 1, Kathleen Sebelius, appointed by President Obama to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced that beginning a year from now all new private insurance...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial August 5, 2011 At their June meeting, the bishops of the United States approved and published a superb statement against Physician-Assisted Suicide entitled, “To Live Each Day with Dignity.” It was a response...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial July 15, 2011 For the last two weeks, we’ve been examining some of the larger issues that have been raised by the controversy over a Mass at St. Cecilia’s in Boston to welcome those who celebrate gay pride...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial July 8, 2011 Last week we began a look at the controversy at St. Cecilia’s Church in Boston over the scheduling of a Mass originally advertised to celebrate “gay pride” and then after criticism postponed and...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial July 1, 2011 The ongoing controversy at St. Cecilia’s Church in Boston over the scheduling, postponing and re-theming of a Mass originally planned to celebrate Boston’s gay “pride month” has brought to the...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial June 24, 2011 One of Pope Benedict’s greatest priorities has been to respond to the worsening secularism in western culture that is attempting to rebuild society on atheistic foundations. He has been...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial June 17, 2011 On Sunday, Catholic Americans will mark two celebrations: Holy Trinity Sunday and Father’s Day. The feast of the Holy Trinity is an occasion on which not only Catholics seek to deepen their...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial June 10, 2011 The tradition of papal general audiences goes back 140 years to Blessed Pope Pius IX. Up until then, the Popes would regularly grant “private audiences” to individual bishops, priests and...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial June 3, 2011 Last week we began an analysis of “The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010” (see pages 14-15), the 152-page report by a research team...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial May 27, 2011 Last week we focused on a Circular Letter by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith giving guidance and a one-year deadline to bishops’ conferences around the world to formulate...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial May 20, 2011 In March 2010, when Pope Benedict penned a pastoral letter to the Church in Ireland in response to the clergy sexual abuse crisis there, he candidly confessed, “No one imagines that this painful...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial May 13, 2011 The Fourth Sunday of Easter is traditionally called Good Shepherd Sunday because on this day the Church always listens to a passage from St. John’s Gospel in which Jesus identifies himself as the...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial May 6, 2011 “What kind of person pays for a Web site that makes abortion seem cool?,” Boston Herald columnist Michael Graham asked in an April 21 article. “Who would use the Internet to target teen girls with...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial April 29, 2011 On Sunday, the Catholic world will rejoice as Pope Benedict XVI beatifies his predecessor Pope John Paul II. Six years ago, at John Paul II’s funeral Mass, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial April 22, 2011 “Are you the king of the Jews?” Pontius Pilate’s question about Jesus’ identity, and Jesus’ response, bring us to the heart of the ongoing drama of Good Friday and the whole Christian life. The...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial April 15, 2011 The theme of Lent is encapsulated on Ash Wednesday when the words of Christ with which he began his public ministry echo throughout the world as ashes are imposed: “Turn away from sin and be...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial April 8, 2011 In Paris on March 24 and 25, a remarkable new Church initiative began. Born from the pastoral zeal, Biblical expertise and the university experience of Pope Benedict XVI, it is an attempt to...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial April 1, 2011 Last November, Bishop Sal Cordileone, the youthful and talented bishop of Oakland, California, was appointed to head the U.S. Bishops efforts to defend marriage. While an auxiliary bishop in San...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial March 25, 2011 On Sunday night, 60 Minutes featured an interview with Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, It was a hard-hitting, but engaging, fair and largely positive portrayal. While certain aspects of...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial March 18, 2011 On Sunday, Pope Benedict reminded all Christians that Lent “is a matter of following Jesus who turns decisively toward the Cross, the culmination of this mission of salvation. If we ask: Why...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial March 11, 2011 Nearly six years after Pope Benedict’s election, most of us have become accustomed to how rich, clear and evangelically fresh his writings are. He writes with such a depth, scope and...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial March 4, 2011 When President Barack Obama took his oath of office on the Lincoln Bible, he swore to “faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States” and to “preserve, protect and defend the...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial February 25, 2011 February has been a momentous month in Washington with respect to defending innocent human life from abortion. On the negative side, last Friday President Barack Obama rescinded a 2008...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial February 18, 2011 On January 9, after baptizing 21 infants in the Sistine Chapel on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Pope Benedict captured international headlines for reminding Catholic parents...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial February 11, 2011 The celebration of World Marriage Day on Sunday and St. Valentine’s Day on Monday are obvious, fitting occasions to think about the blessings of romantic love and marriage. They’re also...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial February 4, 2011 The celebration of Catholic Schools Week in the United States is an annual opportunity to reflect on the privilege and purpose of Catholic education. Education is at the heart of the Church’s...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial January 28, 2011 The 38th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s shameful Roe v. Wade decision last weekend did not pass unnoticed. On the positive side, hundreds of thousands descended upon Washington to pray...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial January 21, 2011 Each year on January 24, the feast of the St. Francis de Sales, the patron saint of journalists and communication, Pope Benedict publishes his routinely compelling annual message for the...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial January 14, 2011 Last week, in the editorial “When Catholic Hospitals Lose Their Identity and Way,” we focused on Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmsted’s stripping St. Joseph’s hospital of its Catholic status, after...

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Editorial January 7, 2011 Before Christmas, as the Christian world was preparing to celebrate the birth of the child Jesus, Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix had to deal with a Catholic hospital that carried out a...