This week, on Monday, I traveled to St. Joseph Cathedral in Burlington, Vermont, for the ordination of Bishop John Joseph McDermott.

He is replacing Archbishop Chris Coyne, who has been recently named the Archbishop of Hartford, Connecticut. Bishop Coyne was a Boston priest. He was in Rome for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, June 29, to receive the pallium from Pope Francis. He was one of the two co-consecrator bishops along with Bishop Sal Matano who had been the bishop of Burlington before him. It was a beautiful ceremony.

Bishop McDermott is a Burlington priest who has served in various assignments in the diocese since his ordination in 1989. Since 2012, he has been the diocese's vicar general and moderator of the Curia.



Funeral Mass

Tuesday, I celebrated the funeral Mass for Father James Rafferty at St. Paul's in Hingham, where he had been the pastor for 18 years and was so beloved.

Many members of his family and parishioners gathered for his funeral Mass.



Daughters of Mary of Nazareth

That night, I had Mass with the Daughters of Mary of Nazareth and their founder, Mother Olga. They had just received the document from the Holy See making them a Public Association of the Faithful, so we had a Mass and dinner at the cathedral to mark that event.

It was the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, a very auspicious day. It was also the 15th anniversary of their founding the first House of Discernment, as I asked her to set up the community. She started Nazareth House at BU in 2009 and the foundation of the order took place in 2011. If you want to learn more about them, Mother Olga prepared a history of their origins, which makes for very interesting reading.



National Eucharistic Congress

The next day, we came to Indianapolis to participate in the Eucharistic Congress. Many people on the plane were also coming to the Eucharistic Congress, including Bishop Robert Reed, who was with us.

On Wednesday night, there was an opening procession and talks by the nuncio and Bishop Andrew Cozzens, who has been so involved in organizing this wonderful event.

Thursday morning, I had the Spanish Mass. I was joined by the nuncio, many priests, and bishops, and a huge contingent of Hispanic participants in the Eucharistic Congress.

At noon, we had a luncheon sponsored by the Papal Foundation, of which I'm the chairman. The Papal Foundation has helped with some of the expenses of the Eucharistic Congress. It was a way of thanking people and acquainting more people with the work of the Papal Foundation.

It's been a very successful 10th Eucharistic Congress. They're already talking about when this should be done again.