Sacred Heart Parish
MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK
Tuesday, June 2
7:00 AM H. Joseph Myette and Andrea Myette
Friday, June 5
12:05 PM Socorro Jimenez
Saturday, June 6
4:00 PM The Arthur English Family
Sunday, June 7
9:00 AM Living and Deceased Members of the
Guild of St. Francis
11:45 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
CONFESSIONS
Saturday, May 30 – 2:00 to 3:30 PM – Fr. Connelly
READINGS FOR THE FEAST OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY
First Reading: Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40
Second Reading: Romans 8:14-17
Gospel Reading: Matthew 28:16-20
GUILD OF ST. FRANCIS MASS, COMMUNION BREAKFAST AND GENERAL MEETING
The Mass for the living and deceased members of the Guild of Saint Francis will be celebrated at 9 AM on Sunday, June 7, followed by a Communion Breakfast and Annual Meeting at the parish center. The guest speaker at the Breakfast will be Jayne Colino, Director of the Newton Senior Center. The cost is $15 per person and reservations must be in by June 2nd. We will not be able to accept guests at the door without a reservation. Please call Sally Daly at 617-527-4468 or Mary English at 617-332-8656 for questions or reservations. All family members are invited. Please send checks made payable to Guild of St. Francis to Sally Daly at 138 Lincoln Street, Newton Highlands, MA 02461.
ST. FRANCIS HOUSE
Thank you for your continued donations to St. Francis House. The item needed during the month of June is vegetable oil. Leave your donations at Church entrances.
ATTENTION GARDENERS
We all enjoy the lovely plants and flowers in full bloom around our property. Barbara Hatem is our wonderful gardener and keeps the flowers watered and nourished. However, Barbara is asking for help with the watering. If you have the time to help her with this task, will you please call her at 617-969-2567?
OFFERTORY INCOME
Weekend of May 23/24 $4,294
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION NEWS
CCD for the Tuesday program came to an end this week with Mass, cake and parents visiting the classrooms. Our Sunday program will continue to meet today, May 31 and the final class will meet next week on June 7th. Please come to the open house next week to see what your children have learned about Jesus and the Church and to show your appreciation for the Coordinator, Grace Alexander’s prayerful and loving guidance of our Sunday CCD program. She made all things work together for good this year! Please come also to thank our corps of teachers that faithfully shared their love of Christ with your children. All parents are invited to come and enjoy some refreshments.
Anyone interested in offering their time and faith with our students for the upcoming 2009-10 please contact me as soon as possible by phone: 617-969-4031 or email: religious.education@sacredheart.ws. Our Lord may be calling you!
Michelle Solomon, Director of RE
TO ALL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
The LaSalette Missionaries are sponsoring the 13th annual Steubenville East High School Youth Conference at the University of Rhode Island on July 31st-August 2nd. It is so popular with our Catholic Youth that the Conference on the weekend prior is closed! Our parish would like to form our own youth contingent to go to this exciting weekend of music, youth speakers and a chance to meet so many other young people excited about their faith. The cost of the weekend conference is $210 which includes housing in the dorms and meals. Fr. St. Martin will be attending this event along with the youth. American Sign Language for the Deaf is available. Anyone wishing more information and/or wishing to chaperone (over 21) this event, please contact Michelle Solomon, Director: 617-969-4031 or email: religious.education@sacredheart.ws as soon as possible!
CALENDAR NOTES
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION:
Sunday, May 31 – 10:30 AM – Lower Church
EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, May 31 – 10 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center
BOY SCOUTS
Monday, June 1 – 7:30 PM Parish Center
PRAYER GROUP:
Wednesday, June 3 – 7:30 PM – Convent Chapel
PANCAKE BREAKFAST
Friday, June 5 – Following 9 AM Mass – Parish Center
LITURGY, ADORATION AND THE ROSARY:
Saturday, June 6 – 9 AM to 12:30 PM – Lower Church
GUILD OF ST. FRANCIS COMMUNION BREAKFAST
Sunday, June 7 – 10 AM – Parish Center
UPDATE ON STEM CELL RESEARCH
Our April 26 bulletin gave us a good scientific insight into the stem cell question. Since then, President Obama issued an Executive Order with regard to the federal funding for stem cell research. Two columns printed together in the Boston Pilot and printed all over the country in Catholic publications were authored by Cardinal Rigali and Professor Douglas Kmiec. I asked Dr. Jacob Joseph to comment.
“When Fr. Connelly asked me to comment on the recent columns by Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the US Bishops’ Committee on Pro-life Activities, titled “New stem cell guidelines not ‘ethically sensitive,’” and a converse column to which Cardinal Rigali was responding, which was written by Prof. Douglas Kmiec, a Catholic legal scholar and Obama apologist, titled “New ethically sensitive stem cell guidance from the Obama administration,” I thought to myself, is the controversy over stem cell research an issue of sensitivity to diverse opinions, or is it something deeper?
On March 9, 2009, President Obama signed Executive Order 13505 and revoked the Presidential statement of August 9, 2001, which had limited Federal funding for research involving human embryonic stem cells. In his remarks at the signing ceremony, the President stated that he supports human embryonic stem cell research with proper guidelines and strict oversight to make up for “lost ground”. Subsequently, the National Institutes of Health, which is the Federal agency which will fund such research, put forth draft guidelines, and welcomed public comment on these guidelines. It might be helpful to read my column on stem cell research published in the April 26 Bulletin if you have not already done so to better understand the draft guidelines.
The NIH draft guidelines allow funding for research using human embryonic stem cells that are obtained from embryos created by in vitro fertilization for reproductive purposes, after proper informed consent is given by the donor(s). Detailed informed consent procedures for prospective donors are given in the guidelines. Funding will not be given for research utilizing embryos created for research purposes or by somatic cell nuclear transfer (cloning). The draft also states that funding will continue for adult and induced pluripotent stem cell research.
Now to the point-counterpoint columns by Prof. Kmiec and Cardinal Rigali. The overall gist of Prof. Kmiec’s piece is that the Obama administration has imposed limitations on embryonic stem cell research instead of giving carte blanche approval.
The guidelines uphold the Dickey-Wicker amendment (signed by President Clinton), which prohibits the use of Federal funds to create stem cells from embryos. This means that researchers will have to use non-Federal funds to obtain new embryonic stem cell lines (thereby destroying embryos in the process), and then use Federal funds to conduct research on these embryonic stem cells. This fits into the Orwellian term “ethical mitigation” that Prof. Kmiec uses in his column, in terms of not using tax payer dollars to fund a procedure that destroys embryos. But for all practical purposes, this would lead to destruction of embryos to create new stem cell lines, as opposed to President Bush’s policy issued on August 9, 2001, which allowed federal funding for research only on embryonic stem cells already in existence, and did not allow any funding for new stem cell lines created from embryos after August 9, 2001. Hence Prof. Kmiec’s statement that “This (i.e., these new regulations) is a salutary limitation… .if it sounds familiar, it is, because former President George W. Bush did something similar”, is not correct, as Cardinal Rigali points out.
President Obama’s statement and the guidelines prohibit reproductive cloning, therapeutic cloning, and the creation of embryos solely for research purposes. This certainly is a strong application of ethical concerns to stem cell research, as opposed to the President’s Executive order, which has the fairly broad statement that “The Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary), through the Director of NIH, may support and conduct responsible, scientifically worthy human stem cell research, including human embryonic stem cell research, to the extent permitted by law”. (Of course, the guidelines could be broadened in future to include therapeutic cloning.) The guidelines also state that funding will continue for adult and induced pluripotent stem cell research. The ideal policy would probably be to markedly increase funding for adult and induced pluripotent stem cell research, which everyone agrees would pose no ethical concerns.
So in summary, the President’s order and the NIH draft guidelines remove restrictions on funding for human embryonic stem cell research. The strict informed consent procedures required are “salutary”, but do not truly mitigate the ethical concerns about embryonic stem cell research. However, the guidelines in the present form do prevent funding for stem cells created by cloning, which portrays a cautious “one step at a time” approach by the President. I wish the President would substantially increase funding for adult and induced pluripotent stem cell research, which would allow us to move further away from ethical issues.
I encourage you to read the draft guidelines at http://stemcells.nih.gov/policy/2009draft.htm
and to submit your comments at http://nihoerextra.nih.gov/stem_cells/add.htm
Jacob Joseph, MD
COME HOLY SPIRIT
The faith-issue at stake in the Old Testament is the question of God. Is God with us his people or not? The faith-issue at stake in the New Testament is the question of Jesus. Is God with us in Christ Jesus? Is Jesus “God with us” in the flesh? The post-New Testament faith-issue concretely is the question of the Church. In theological terms it is the question of the Church. More deeply, however, it is the question of the Holy Spirit. Some people will say today that they believe in God and pray to him when in need, but they do not go to Church. Some also say that they maintain some sort of faith in the Lord Jesus, although they are quite vague as to what this really means. I would suggest in this little meditation that while it is possible psychologically to separate out God and Jesus and Church; theologically it makes no sense. The faith-issue for men and women of today is how do we encounter the mystery of God? While He was on earth Christ the Lord was sacrament, the visible outward sign of our invisible God. Now that Jesus has been taken up in glory, He too is beyond our sign. The Church now becomes the sacrament, the outward visible sign of our encounter with God. The Nicene Creed said of the Catholic faith – “And we believe in the Holy Spirit”. The Nicene Constantinople Creed of 381 expanded this formula to call the Holy Spirit – “Lord, giver of life, who spoke through the prophets, who is worshipped and glorified along with the Father and Son”. It is helpful for us in these matters of faith to speak about the divine missions. The Father sent his Son, missioned his Son, and so Christmas and Easter represent the historical nature of that mission. True to this promise the Risen Christ sent the Holy Spirit from the Father, that is, missioned the Holy Spirit “as His first gift to us the fullness of grace.” As one early writer in the Church noted – Jesus and the Spirit are two hands of the Father bringing the Church into existence and thus bringing about salvation and sanctification of the world.
There is an interesting scene in the Acts of the Apostles when Paul’s missionary disciples ask the Ephesians if they have received the Holy Spirit. They responded that they did not even know there was a Holy Spirit. Sometimes we take the presence of the Spirit for granted. At other times we think of the Holy Spirit only in terms of extraordinary, exciting, so called charismatic events. The Spirit is the quiet but powerful presence that enables us to follow Christ, to do God’s will, to maintain our unity. Suppose there were no Holy Spirit in our lives. No one could profess that Jesus is Lord – because Scriptures say that this can be done only in the Spirit. With out the Holy Spirit no one could pray the “Our Father” – because St. Paul tells us that we are God’s children and He has given us His Holy Spirit who calls out in hearts – “Abba, Father”. Without the Holy Spirit there would be no forgiveness of sin – because the Holy Spirit is the forgiveness of sin. Without the Holy Spirit there would be no Eucharist, no proclaiming of the Gospel, no administration of the sacraments. Our bodily eyes see what everybody sees, the Church, its ministers, its worship, its assemblies, its works, its undertakings. All of this makes sense only because we believe that the profound life of that great body which is the Church, is the fruit of the very life of God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Without the Church we would have no Christ, no Gospel, no sacraments. Without the Spirit we would have no Church.
Father Connelly
SIGNINGS
Good People,
Today we remember the Holy Spirit; the gift of God’s love. How did the Holy Spirit transform us? By improving communication. Communication is important; without it we are alone. Communication, the sharing of truth, is central for our salvation and joy.
We can see the power of the Spirit is alive and working in the Church today. God's spirit helps us to cherish conversation. He helps the deaf community to help others to see that the Holy Spirit can break through any barrier by accepting that barrier. He lives in the Church and we have seen that God's love is not only for people who speak this language or that language. God's love is for all and we are all one family. All languages arise from love. They come from our desire for life and our desire to be loved and to love others.
A child tries to communicate needs showing desire for life. A child tries to communicate love and seeks to learn to name the parents that love; trying to express the concepts "Mother" and "Father." Communication is central.
The Church is there for every language. We all experience the same gift of communication that the Apostles received when others understand what we try to share with them about Jesus. It does not take away our diversity of languages. It changes the people who are there to take in our message of hope that we share in our way. The people who were present when the Apostles first received the gift of the Spirit did not suddenly come to know new languages. The Gospel tells us that the people were given the gift to understand the message even though they all spoke different languages. The Spirit was like an interpreter for them!
God sends interpreters and He is with us in the Spirit now to stand as the interpreter for others of our message - hope in Jesus. Also the Spirit speaks the prayers that we can't find words for. In this case the Holy Spirit becomes our voice interpreter to the Father.
The Holy Spirit is our Divine Interpreter helping us to have the joy of communication. We express the truth and others will understand. We cry out to the Father and He gets the message too - thanks to our friend, the Holy Spirit.
In Christ, Fr. St. Martin