Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York embraces Cardinal John Tong Hon of Hong Kong at the sign of peace during Mass with Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican Feb. 19

The family, friends and pilgrims accompanying the new cardinals arrived at St. Peter’s extra early after many of them missed the consistory Feb. 18 because the basilica was full. While they waited for Mass to begin, they joined in the recitation of the rosary in Latin.
The Mass marked the feast of the Chair of St. Peter, a liturgical solemnity focused on the authority Jesus entrusted to his apostles. The feast usually is celebrated Feb. 22 but was early because Ash Wednesday falls on that date this year.
The basilica’s bronze statue of St. Peter, with its foot worn smooth by centuries of pilgrims’ caresses, was draped with red and gold liturgical vestments for the feast day.
To illustrate his homily, the pope used another artwork, Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s towering sculpture of the Chair of St. Peter, which is topped by the Holy Spirit window in the basilica’s apse.
The Catholic Church is like a window into which the light of truth shines and through which a response of love should radiate, he said.
“The church herself is like a window, the place where God draws near to us, where he comes toward our world,” the pope said.
Bernini’s sculpture features a large throne, which symbolizes the authority Jesus gave to St. Peter, supported by four ancient church theologians — two doctors of the church from the East and two from the West, representing the unity and diversity within the universal church, he said.
The support of the theologians also “teaches us that love rests upon faith. Love collapses if man no longer trusts in God and disobeys him,” the pope said.
“Everything in the church rests upon faith: the sacraments, the liturgy, evangelization, charity,” as well as “the law and the church’s authority,” he said.
Catholics cannot make things up as they go along, he said. They must follow tradition, the sacred Scriptures and the teaching of the apostles, explained and interpreted by the fathers of the church and the popes.
All the church teaches and does in the world must be motivated by love and lead to love, the pope said.
“A selfish faith would be an unreal faith,” Pope Benedict said.
“Whoever believes in Jesus Christ and enters into the dynamic of love that finds its source in the Eucharist discovers true joy and becomes capable, in turn, of living according to the logic of gift,” he said.
Like the basilica’s Holy Spirit window with its radiating golden rays, “God is not isolation, but glorious and joyful love, spreading outward and radiant with light,” the pope told the new cardinals.
Entrusted with God’s love, every Christian — and, particularly, each of the church’s cardinals — has a duty to share it with others, he said.
The altar servers at the Mass were seminarians from the Pontifical North American College, the U.S. seminary in Rome where Cardinals O’Brien and Dolan both had served as rector before being named bishops.
At the beginning of the Mass, Italian Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, thanked the pope on behalf of all the new cardinals.
Acknowledging the different nationalities and ministries of the new cardinals, Cardinal Filoni said, “We are united by one faith in Christ, love for the church, fidelity to the pope and a deep awareness of the real and serious needs of humanity.”
The cardinal also thanked the family members present at the Mass, several of whom brought the offertory gifts to the pope. Cardinal Filoni said every vocation, including the new cardinals’ vocations to the priesthood, is born within a family or other community and nurtured by the faith of others.
Pope Benedict met the new cardinals and their family and friends again Feb. 20 in the more informal setting of an audience.
He asked the family and friends to support the new cardinals with even more prayers, to listen to them more carefully and “be united with them and among yourselves in faith and charity in order to be even more fervid and courageous witnesses of Christ.”
At the end of the audience, each of the new cardinals presented two members of their entourage to the pope. Cardinal Collins introduced his sisters, Catherine and Patricia, to the pope and Cardinal O’Brien presented two longtime friends from New York, Patricia Dillon and Patricia Handal.
After Cardinal Dolan introduced his mother, Shirley Dolan, 83, to the pope, Pope Benedict told her, “You look too young to be a cardinal’s mother,” the cardinal told Catholic News Service. “I told him, ‘I hope that’s an infallible statement.’”
“Let’s face it,” Cardinal Dolan said, “it’s somewhat rare that a cardinal can introduce his mother to the pope.” The average age of the 213 members of the College of Cardinals is over 75.
Cardinal Dolan also presented Vincenza Mustaciuolo to the pope. She is the mother of Msgr. Greg Mustaciuolo, chancellor of the New York Archdiocese. The monsignor is one of the cardinal’s closest aides, and his mother had never met the pope, the cardinal said.

PHOTO U.S. Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien, grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, attends a reception at the order’s headquarters in Rome Feb. 19. He was one of 22 cardinals the pope created during a consistory the previous day. (CNS photos/Paul Haring)

Cardinal-designate Edwin F. O'Brien, grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, arrives for a meeting of the world's cardinals with Pope Benedict XVI in the synod hall at the Vatican Feb. 17. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

The meeting was attended by 133 prelates, including at least 20 of the 22 who were to receive their red hats from the pope the following morning.
During the morning session, Pope Benedict did not address the assembly and was not one of the seven participants who commented on the presentation by Cardinal-designate Dolan, although the pope did laugh when the New York archbishop made fun of his speaking Italian “like a child.”
The morning session also featured a brief presentation by Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, on plans for the 2012-2013 Year of Faith.
The pope spoke at the end of the evening session, after another 20 cardinals and cardinals-designate had taken the floor to speak.
Pope Benedict told the assembly that the teachings of the Second Vatican Council were important for “rediscovering the relevance of Jesus and of faith” today, and he echoed Cardinal-designate Dolan’s call for a true renewal of catechesis to combat what has been defined as “religious illiteracy.”
In his morning presentation, Cardinal-designate Dolan said that when Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, asked him to be the main presenter, he hinted that he did so because New York “might be the ‘capital of secular culture.’”
“New York — without denying its dramatic evidence of graphic secularism — is also a very religious city,” he said, where even those “who boast of their secularism” exhibit an openness to the divine and have questions about God.
While secularism “is invading every aspect of daily life,” the New York prelate said, it also is true that most people, on some level, still question the ultimate meaning of life and still ponder the idea of God.
“Even a person who brags about being secular and is dismissive of religion has within an undeniable spark of interest in the beyond, and recognizes that humanity and creation is a dismal riddle without the concept of some kind of creator,” he said.
The cardinal-designate said those people don’t want to be considered objects of missionary activity, but Christians have an obligation to help them maintain their search for meaning in life.
Humility, joy and love are key to the success of the evangelization efforts of the church and its members, he said.
“Triumphalism in the church was dead” after the Second Vatican Council, he said, but “so was confidence.”
Catholics recognize that they and their church need conversion, too, he said. And, they must be convinced that what they are sharing with others is not a doctrine, but the person of Jesus.
At the same time, because Jesus is the truth, Catholics must make a commitment “to combat catechetical illiteracy,” he said.
“True enough, the new evangelization is urgent because secularism has often choked the seed of faith, but that choking was sadly made easy because so many believers really had no adequate knowledge or grasp of the wisdom, beauty and coherence of the truth,” he said.
Cardinal-designate Dolan said that on the eve of receiving his red hat from the pope, he also had to speak of the fact that Christians are called to love and serve the church and their neighbors, even to the point of shedding their blood if necessary.
The cardinals, he said, “are but ‘scarlet audiovisual aids’ for all our brothers and sisters,” who also are called “to be ready to suffer and die for Jesus.”
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, did not release the names of the 27 cardinals who intervened in the discussion, but he summarized the points that were made. Several of the cardinals, he said, spoke about the difficulties evangelizing in their specific countries or cultures.
Mention was made of the growing number of Christians in China, “despite the difficulties,” presumably with government control over religion; about interreligious dialogue and the fight against poverty in India; the important role of popular religious devotions for evangelization in Latin America; and about secularism’s attempts to marginalize religion in the West.
Participants insisted on the importance of ecumenism for fostering a common Christian witness to the faith, on the continuing relevance of the Second Vatican Council as a guide for the church today and on the value of Christian joy and holiness for evangelization, he said.

PHOTO: Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan of New York talks with Italian Cardinals Carlo Caffarra of Bologna and Renato Martino, special Vatican envoy to Myanmar, as they arrive for a vespers service with Pope Benedict XVI in the synod hall at the Vatican Feb. 17. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

PHOTO:  Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops, leads a Feb. 7 penitential vigil at St. Ignatius Church in Rome to show contrition for clerical sexual abuse. (CNS photo/Robert Duncan)

PHOTO: Pope Benedict XVI waves as he leaves the major seminary of the Diocese of Rome Feb. 15. At left is Msgr. Concetto Occhipinti, seminary rector. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

What are the folks at Komen thinking? Perhaps the better question is: Are they thinking at all, or are they allowing themselves to be swayed by political pressures?
For years, Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation (now known as Susan G. Komen for the Cure) has raised awareness and funds to fight breast cancer. Those ubiquitous pink ribbons that you see weren’t Komen’s idea, but were spurred on to popularity by distribution of pink ribbons to every participant in Komen’s 1991 Race for the Cure. Pink ribbons, hats, visors, shirts and what-not have helped bring needed attention to the cause.
I lost my mom to breast cancer in 2005. She fought it off once; it came back. I have six sisters, a wife, a daughter and now, two granddaughters. I hope and pray for the day when breast cancer is eradicated so that all the women I know and love will no longer be threatened by this disease. In 2006, my daughter and I walked 60 miles in three days as a tribute to my mother. I used to think that Komen, with the strength of its massive organization, could change things for the better. Now I’ve lost that confidence.
I had seen the concerns that noted that Komen gave some grants to Planned Parenthood affiliates in some states for mammogram screening programs for low-income women, especially Hispanic women whose needs were underserved in this arena, and I did my research. While I realize that in many ways, a restricted grant – for example, for a mammogram program – allows a nonprofit organization to use its unrestricted funds to be used for whatever purposes it deems fit, it seemed that the amount of the grants were minimal compared to the amount Komen was raising across the country over the years. If, indeed, women were being screened for breast cancer, that was a good outcome.
And Komen claimed that it was not fully endorsing Planned Parenthood, even though it also dismissed on its website any link between abortion and increased risk of breast cancer. It would seem that an organization seriously concerned about any and all aspects of breast cancer research would want to look at the recent studies that indicated a possible link between abortion and breast cancer, and perhaps fund more studies, before dismissing such a link out of hand.
Then came the news that Komen had chosen to stop giving grants to Planned Parenthood while it was under investigation by Congress. Reports noted that Komen was enforcing two key components of its grant guidelines: not to fund organizations under investigation and to fund only programs that provide direct services – apparently Planned Parenthood did not actually provide some of the mammogram services, but farmed those out to another provider.
However, the immediate backlash from pro-choice advocates allowed Komen’s leadership to show their true colors. They followed the politics of the day and the dollar signs, and they reversed their decision so fast, heads spun. They failed to consider how many more dollars a wise, life-affirming choice might have brought them from pro-life donors who have held off their involvement. Instead, they’ve made their choice clear: Where before, the connection to Planned Parenthood was peripheral, now it is conscious, definite and deliberate. They have sided with Planned Parenthood. The decision was extremely loud and their relationship is now incredibly close.
There are few, if any, other organizations making similar efforts to support cancer research, education and treatment that are acceptable to those who have moral reservations about abortion and other life issues that also have the reach and scope of Komen. The Breast Cancer Prevention Institute (bcpinstitute.org) has some research and fact sheets, especially on the abortion-breast cancer link, but no major activities. The largest other organization to hold awareness and fundraising walks appears to be the Avon Foundation, which will hold the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in nine cities in 2012. Its website notes that the Avon Walk is not affiliated with Komen and that in the last five years, of the 3,000 grant applications received, only one was from a Planned Parenthood affiliate, and it did not receive funding. At press time, a call to Avon Foundation requesting additional comment had not been returned.
Breast cancer is a serious issue for so many women, and so many families. We do well to support research and education to find prevention and a cure. But we also need to do that in ways that uphold human life and dignity. The folks at Komen made a choice. You can make a choice, too.

EL PASO, Texas (CNS) — Necessity often results in unexpected relationships, and that’s one way to describe the connection between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Annunciation House in El Paso, a shelter for undocumented immigrants.
Ruben Garcia, the shelter’s director, said that as the federal government’s El Paso-area detention center swells with immigrants, particularly those seeking asylum, there is a desperate need to house those whom officials have decided not to detain but who still must navigate what can be a daunting bureaucracy until their plight is determined.
For 34 years, the Catholic-run center has been a respite for immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, a scant 10 blocks away. Garcia said the unlikely relationship between Annunciation House and ICE — and its precursor, the Immigration and Naturalization Service — has been going on for more than 25 years.
ICE is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; INS was folded into the department several years ago.
“They (federal agents) used to drop immigrants off a few blocks away and point in our direction for them to walk to,” Garcia said. “Our doors are always open and they know it.”
He said on one particularly cold El Paso night, a U.S. Border Patrol agent tapped on the house window and motioned to a van of immigrants who were just picked up and had no place to go.
“Of course we took them in,” Garcia said. “Annunciation House has been privileged to bear witness to the evolution of immigration.”
Through the years, the relationship with ICE has evolved from covert to more overt referrals.
Garcia points to those who initially immigrated to the United States for economic opportunities but are now fleeing violence in Mexico and are seeking asylum. With the explosion of requests for asylum by Mexican immigrants fleeing the violence spurred by President Felipe Calderon’s war on drugs, under way since he took office in 2006.
That year, there were 2,811 requests from Mexicans for asylum protection. The number jumped to 3,231 requests, paralleling the growth of violence in Mexico. ICE has been unable to keep up with the demand for bed space in its detention center, so the agency turns to Annunciation House.
Garcia estimates that 50 percent of the shelter’s residents, which are split between three houses, are direct referrals from ICE. Stays run from one night as a hospitality stopover to months for those who are enduring the asylum process and have no place else to go, which Garcia said is an increasing trend.
As the U.S. under the Obama administration increased its border security and exponential deportations, the problem of housing immigrants during the process became a huge challenge.
“As the Department of Homeland Security goes down this path of increased immigration enforcement, it also has to deal with the logistics of beds,” Garcia said.
Among other immigrants ICE refers to Annunciation House are pregnant women, widows and individuals with medical issues.
“If ICE has someone in detention, they have to take care of their medical needs but have limited resources so they send them to us,” Garcia said.
But the immigration process for the growing number of people fleeing Mexico’s drug wars is arduous, and the court system is so backlogged that any asylum seeker who has arrived recently cannot get an initial hearing until 2015.
But according to the law, that asylum seeker only has one year to present his or her claim or forfeit the right to claim asylum and he or she must file a petition to withhold deportation.
“It’s a crazy process because the system puts the asylum seeker almost immediately at a disadvantage,” Garcia said.
For the most part, there has been a hands-off attitude by Border Patrol and ICE for places such as Annunciation House where they know residents are undocumented.
“It’s kind of a schizophrenic relationship, but it has worked well so far,” Garcia said.
Garcia said the name of the center was actually inspired by a visit by Blessed Teresa of Kolkata in 1976, when the concept for the shelter was being explored and its organizers were preparing to accommodate the poor and marginalized from Mexico and South America.
“After we got approval and the donation of the building by (El Paso) Bishop (Sidney) Metzger,” Garcia said, “Mother Teresa wrote me a letter which said, ‘Now you will be able to announce the good news and bring the people home to Jesus.’”
He said it was because of Mother Teresa’s inspiration to “announce” the good news that the center became Annunciation House.

PHOTO: Ruben Garcia, director of Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, speaks April 24 on the subject of asylum for those fleeing the violence directly across the border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The couple, heads covered, had four family members murdered in Ci udad Juarez and fled to El Paso, where they seek asylum. (CNS photo/David Agren) (April 29, 2010)

PHOTO: Archbishop Charles Brown, the new apostolic nuncio to Ireland, inspects the honor guard after presenting his credentials to Irish President Michael Higgins in Dublin Feb. 16. In brief remarks to Higgins, Archbishop Brown, a native of New York, said Pope Benedict XVI had asked him to “solidify and strengthen” the relations between Ireland and the Holy See. (CNS photo/John Mc Elroy)

They were distributing more than 227 Valentines about 45 parishioners made Saturday for residents of Webster Manor and neighboring Lanessa Extended Care.
Another Valentine recipient raced up and down a hall in his wheelchair to thank all the children who came to deliver the cards, Ms. Brink said. A woman was seen trying to read hers with a magnifying glass.
“They were very happy,” Marsha Hendriks, activity assistant at Lanessa Extended Care, said of the residents’ response. “A lot of people don’t get company. They don’t see kids all the time. Especially on the Alzheimer’s unit, they really lit up.”
“The residents from Webster Manor were very happy to see the children, and they were even more touched when they received the Valentine cards,” said Loretta Chapdelaine, activity director there. “It means a lot to the residents when they are remembered by the younger generation. It always puts a big smile on their faces.”
Ms. Brink said she’s been doing this project for at least 15 years. It started as a Gathering Day, a followup to the summer Loreto religious education program. Over time, it expanded to include adults.
“Parents were making them side-by-side with the kids and loving it,” she said of the Valentines.
Saturday Alec Fournier, 9, explained that the cards were for “the old people.” When his mother, Tammy Fournier, encouraged him to use more polite wording, his brother Logan, 7, came to the rescue: “the elderly people.”
Mrs. Fournier said last year her sons enjoyed helping distribute the Valentines at the facilities.
“We knew several people that were there last year,” she said. That, and the fact that the boys knew fellow-parishioners helping with the distribution, seemed to make their first visit to such a place less scary, she said.
“They love it,” Paula Mayville said of her children’s reaction to creating the cards.
Virginia, 8, said she liked “the coloring.” Hunter, 7, said he liked “cutting.”
It’s an easy way “to do a nice thing,” said their mother. “It gets them in the spirit of Valentine’s Day.”

WORCESTER – A cardinal was once urged to close Catholic schools in his diocese because most of the students were not Catholic.
“We do it not because our students are Catholic, but because we are Catholic,” he replied.
Bishop McManus applied that story to the annual Partners in Charity Appeal at the fund’s kickoff Monday at Our Lady of Loreto Parish.
“We do it because we’re Catholics,” he said. There is no asking for baptismal certificates to prove that those served are Catholics.
More than 150 clergy, laity and religious from parishes throughout the diocese, and from diocesan offices and agencies, attended the gathering, said Michael P. Gillespie, director of the diocesan Office of Stewardship and Development. They socialized over hors d’oeuvres before listening to brief talks, watching this year’s campaign video and picking up their appeal materials.
The evening was sponsored and paid for by Community Counseling Service Co., which orchestrated the recent increased offertory initiative Sharing Our Blessings, Mr. Gillespie said.
This year’s Partners goal is $5 million, the same as last year, and all parish goals will remain the same, he said. Online giving was up significantly last year, which saves money on mailings, he said. He also said this year parishes ordered 20,000 more pledge envelopes than last year.
Mr. Gillespie asked for prayers for the appeal’s success. Blessed John Paul II is its patron. The theme is taken from the message he gave when he became pope: “Open wide the doors to Christ.”
“This extraordinary shepherd of the Church” has great influence even in death, Bishop McManus said. He said when he was in Rome for the bishops’ ad limina visit, he saw people lined up all the way around the piazza at St. Peter’s Basilica waiting to visit the late pope’s tomb.
At the sign of peace at Pope John Paul II’s funeral, where representatives of nations at war with each other were seated side by side, there was an experience of fraternity the United Nations could not have pulled off, Bishop McManus said.
The bishop also spoke of the relationship between parishes and the diocese, and said the pastor is “the gateway to the generosity his parishioners express.” The reconfiguration process has not been without pain, he said, but he would be upset if parishioners made no response to the closing of their parishes.
“The brilliance of Catholi–cism in the United States has been our parish structure,” he said, speaking of a time when Catholics were not welcomed much, and of people who embrace expanded parishes today.
Bishop McManus and Mr. Gillespie expressed gratitude for campaign chair-couple Fred and Patty Eppinger, and their children, and for campaign supporters, including Bishop Reilly and pastors. The bishop and Mr. Gillespie expressed confidence that the appeal will be successful this year, despite growing needs.
The criteria in the Gospel of Matthew for those who will share Christ’s kingdom is that they helped the hungry and imprisoned, and thus served Christ himself, the bishop said.         “The faithful throughout the diocese in the coming weeks will be asked ‘to do’ as Jesus did: to serve those in need, to help spread the Gospel, to care for our priests and to encourage vocations, to ensure vibrant parish communities and to pass on the faith to future generations,” said Mr. Gillespie. “We are mindful that each of us is responsible not only for his or her parish, but also for the well-being of the Church throughout our diocese and throughout the world.”
Mr. Eppinger, president and chief executive officer of Hanover Insurance Group in Worcester, said that, as a child, he entered a contest for the diocesan annual campaign. Although he did not win, his parents taught him about its importance. Now he and his wife, who are parishioners at St. Philip Parish in Grafton, try to communicate that to their own children, he said.
The video, which Mr. Gillespie said will be broadcast on all local cable access channels and the website www.partners-charity.net, showed Bishop McManus and appeal supporters and beneficiaries. It included a segment in Spanish, with English subtitles.
Mr. Gillespie said later that Bishop McManus is asking all pastors to conduct a diocesan-wide in-pew collection March 17 and 18.
The annual Partners in Charity Appeal helps to support charitable, educational and ministerial organizations in the diocese. They include:
Charity – Catholic Charities, Clergy Retirement, Retired Priests Health Ministry, Haitian Apostolate, McAuley Nazareth Home for Boys, Pernet Family Health Service, Seminarian Health Insurance, St. John’s Diocesan Cemetery System, Diocesan Development, Stewardship.
Education – Catholic Campus Ministry, Catholic Schools Department, The Office of Religious Education, Ongoing Priestly Formation, Diocesan Youth Ministry, Grants-in-Aid for Catholic School Students, Seminarian Education, Central Catholic Schools Subsidy, Advanced Studies for Clergy and Laity.
Ministry – African Ministry, Hispanic Ministry, Office of Marriage and Family, Ministry to Priests, Office of the Diaconate, Respect Life Office, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Vocations Office, Office for Divine Worship.

PHOTO:By Tanya Connor
Father Ernest P. Allega, pastor of St. Thomas-a-Becket Parish in South Barre, talks with parishioners Barbara Nordstrom and Vickie King as they pick up their Partners in Charity Appeal materials after the fund’s kickoff Monday at Our Lady of Loreto Parish in Worcester.