BRAINTREE -- The faithful throughout the Archdiocese of Boston, both clergy and laity, were praying for the health of Pope Francis as he continued his stay at Rome's Gemelli Hospital Feb. 26. Those The Pilot spoke to after Mass at the Archdiocese of Boston Pastoral Center's Bethany Chapel in Braintree on Feb. 25 said they have been avidly following the ongoing media coverage of the 88-year-old pope's health.
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CHESTNUT HILL -- One is covered with autographs, the others are not, but the footballs all have the same words on them: "Father Jack." The game-used footballs take up plenty of space on a table in Jesuit Father John Butler's office, located in Boston College's Bourneuf House. Along with being BC's Haub vice president for University Mission and Ministry, Father Butler has been chaplain for the Eagles football team since 2010. Most people on campus, including the football players who gifted him with the balls, simply call him "Father Jack."
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BOSTON -- The jazz was hot, and the joint was jumping. On the night of Feb. 18, a standing-room-only audience crowded into a dark basement on a narrow side street of Boston's North End to hear what was promoted as "the best clerical jazz fusion quartet west of the Tiber."
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DORCHESTER -- St. Katharine Drexel Parish in Dorchester, hub of the Archdiocese of Boston's Black Catholic community, hosted a Mass in honor of Black History Month on Feb. 23. The Mass was celebrated by the parish pastor, Father Oscar Pratt who filled in for Jesuit Father Gregory Chisholm who could not attend due to illness.
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Abstinence -- Catholics over 14 years of age are bound to the obligation of abstinence. Abstinence is to be observed on Ash Wednesday (March 5) and on all Fridays of Lent. On days of abstinence, meat may not be used at all.
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(OSV News) -- Catholic bishops throughout the U.S. are calling on faithful to pray for Pope Francis, now in critical condition in Rome's Gemelli hospital amid a week-long battle with respiratory illness.
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BOSTON -- As he watched a chapel ceiling be painted, Father Jeremy Paulin saw the glory of God. Father Paulin, an Oblate of the Virgin Mary, has been the director of the St. Francis Chapel in Boston's Prudential Center since June 2024. The chapel has recently undergone a series of renovations, which are now mostly complete, including the repainting of the walls and ceiling. Father Paulin was brought to tears from seeing the ceiling be painted -- not with elaborate frescos or gold inlays, but simple, pure white (it helps make the chapel look bigger).
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LOWELL -- When he was a parishioner at St. Rose of Lima in Chelsea, there was one thing Bernard Ba wanted to know from his pastor: The meaning of the phrase "I'll kick your ass." Ba was a newcomer to Massachusetts. A native of Cambodia, he had spent three years on the brink of starvation in a Khmer Rouge concentration camp. Both of his grandfathers, four of his 12 siblings, and his two-week-old son were killed. After a stay in the Khao-I-Dang refugee camp, he was brought to Massachusetts with the help of Sister of St. Joseph Eustace Caggiano, known as "the saint of the South End" for her work with immigrants and refugees.
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BRAINTREE -- Ryan McLean likes to say that Malta Camp USA is "everything that the world is not." McLean, a native of Hingham, has cerebral palsy and cannot walk long distances. Climbing steep hills and staircases is also difficult for him. Since 2017, he has attended Malta Camps, weeklong summer camps sponsored by the Order of Malta that provide outdoor adventures free of charge to young adults with disabilities. Attending the annual Malta Camps took McLean to Austria in 2017, England in 2018, and Germany in 2019.
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BRAINTREE -- Father Paul Soper, director of clergy personnel for the Archdiocese of Boston, was honored with the Avery Cardinal Dulles Ad Intra Award at the Priests for an Apostolic Age Conference in San Antonio, Texas, on Jan. 23.
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BOSTON -- Fifteen married couples fully entered the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony by having their marriages convalidated in a ceremony at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Feb. 8, the second day of World Marriage Week and the vigil of World Marriage Sunday.
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BRAINTREE -- Sean Hurley, director of marketing and communications for Boston Catholic Development Services, says that there's no "silver bullet" for getting parishioners' attention on social media.
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MEDFORD -- Andrea Sullivan, principal of St. Joseph School in Medford, is the first to admit that her school is "different." And she likes it that way. "It would be super boring if we weren't," she told The Pilot during a visit to the school on Jan. 16. "I always say I'm super weird, and that's okay, because everyone here loves everyone, and I mean that. And we're kind to everyone because that's what we do. That's what God told us to do. So, if we don't do that, we're not doing our job."
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LEXINGTON -- Representatives of parishes throughout the Archdiocese of Boston gathered with Archbishop Richard G. Henning at St. Brigid Parish in Lexington on Feb. 1 to kick off the 2025 Catholic Appeal. Each year, the Catholic Appeal raises funds for programs that support the archdiocese's parishes, schools, and ministries.
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BOSTON -- It was quite the command performance. Three Technicolor lions, their massive glittery heads covered in fur and festooned in lavish decorative patterns, gilded through the parish hall of St. James the Greater Parish in Boston's Chinatown like flying dragons as cymbals crashed and drums echoed.
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NEWTON — On the night of Feb. 2, the Boston Marriott Newton was graced by an unusual visitor. In the hallway outside of the main ballroom, surrounded by well-dressed guests, none other than G.K. Chesterton, the British Catholic author and philosopher who died in 1936, was holding court. He was the man of the evening, regaling guests with anecdotes from his life, such as the time he was approached by a “constable” who told him to stop writing poetry in the street while “traffic was whizzing about.”
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BRAINTREE -- Archbishop Richard G. Henning welcomed nearly 100 leaders of men and women religious congregations present in the Archdiocese of Boston for Mass and fellowship at the archdiocese's Pastoral Center in Braintree on Feb. 3, in celebration of the World Day for Consecrated Life, which was observed the previous day.
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CAMBRIDGE -- Students of St. Peter School in Cambridge donated 150 articles of clothing to homeless people in the Harvard Square neighborhood on Jan. 30 as part of Catholic Schools Week. The 195 students from pre-K to eighth grade donated socks, jackets, backpacks, and sweatpants, then packed them up for delivery to Christ Church in Cambridge. The ministry is part of the Harvard Square Churches Meal Program, a collaboration of churches in Harvard Square that provides food and clothing for homeless people in the area.
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BRAINTREE -- The Boston Catholic Directory is moving its annual publication date from February to June. The archdiocese recently moved to make most clergy appointments effective on June 1 each year. So, the decision has been made to change the publication date to coincide with that updated information. The 2025 Boston Catholic Directory is expected to be delivered in mid to late June. This will be the new publication time frame for the coming years.
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