HARTFORD—Politicians in Hartford are again considering assisted suicide legislation. The Public Health Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly is considering legalizing a form of suicide in our state commonly referred to as “aid-in-dying” or “physician-assisted suicide”. The Committee has raised House Bill 6425 “An Act Concerning Aid in Dying for Terminally Ill Patients”.

Modern hospice care and the proper use of pain medications render suicide unnecessary, and we need to be mindful of the threat that a suicide mentality poses to vulnerable people and to people with disabilities

Many people believe that a physician is deeply involved in this process. This not true. The physician orders the mixture of medications, the patient must then consume the deadly cocktail of drugs without assistance. Many times without even a physician or nurse present.

We should never allow legislators to establish suicide as a solution to medical issues. Don’t let the state persuade us that it’s dignified for an ill person to sign their own execution order. Don’t let the state create an environment where ill people will feel they have a “responsibility to die”.

Catholic teaching condemns physician-assisted suicide because it, like murder, involves taking an innocent human life:
Suicide is always as morally objectionable as murder. The Church’s tradition has always rejected it as a gravely evil choice: To concur with the intention of another person to commit suicide and to help in carrying it out through so-called “assisted suicide” means to cooperate in, and at times to be the actual perpetrator of, an injustice which can never be excused, even if it is requested. Saint Augustine writes that “it is never licit to kill another: even if he should wish it.” True “compassion” leads to sharing another’s pain; it does not kill the person whose suffering we cannot bear. (John Paul II, The Gospel of Life, no. 66).

TAKE ACTION:
Go to the website below, read more on the issue and then sign the petition to stop the legalization of assisted suicide in Connecticut:
www.ctstopsuicide.org
Watch the video
Connecticut Catholic Public Affairs Conference

BRIDGEPORT—“Indiana Jones with a pen” is how Joseph McAleer describes the subject of his entertaining new book, a biography of a British adventurer at the turn of the twentieth century.

“Harry Perry Robinson was a journalist who found himself in history’s shadow, taking part in major events but never getting the recognition he deserved,” McAleer says. “Until now.”

Escape Artist: The Nine Lives of Harry Perry Robinson was published last fall by Oxford University Press. It’s McAleer’s fourth book, and reviews have been glowing.

“They don’t make lives like this anymore,” praised the London Times. “Joseph McAleer has performed a valuable service in bringing [Robinson’s] fine work to the fore,” said The Spectator. The Wall Street Journal noted the book is “well researched” with “many virtues.”

Many will recall McAleer as the former Director of Communications for the Diocese of Bridgeport and editor of Fairfield County Catholic. Hired by then-Bishop Edward Egan in 1998 as the first layperson to hold the office, McAleer was at the front lines during the clergy abuse scandal which exploded in 2001.

“Those were dark days,” he recalled. “We lost ten percent of our priests, and trust in the Church was eroded. It was a necessary purging and vital recognition of victims. In many respects we’re still coming to terms with this tragedy.”

During McAleer’s 12-year tenure, which saw Bishop Egan promoted to the Archdiocese of New York and the arrival of Bishop William Lori, the diocese launched its website, produced a short-lived radio show (“Sundays with the Bishop”), and engaged a not-always-friendly press corps.

“My mantra from those days sounds corny but it works: ‘Always tell the truth and you’ll never have to remember what you said,’” McAleer notes.

Since leaving the diocese, McAleer joined his brothers in the family business, a global ship brokerage firm, while remaining active in his parish, the Basilica of St. John the Evangelist in Stamford. But he also stayed true to his real passion as an historian. In fact, his third book, Call of the Atlantic (2016), dealing with the American author Jack London, led to the current project.

“Jack London’s first overseas publisher was a small firm run by Harry Perry Robinson in 1902,” McAleer explains. “In Robinson’s letters he mentioned adventures he had had in America. I was intrigued and followed the trail.”

And what a trail it was, as described with gusto in Escape Artist. Robinson came to America in 1883, age 24, eager to make his name and fortune. He started out as a journalist, covering gold rushes out West, before settling down in Minnesota. Marriage to the daughter of a wealthy tycoon set him up in Chicago, where he became a national voice for the railroad industry. Robinson befriended William McKinley, aiding his presidential victory in 1896.

Life took a dramatic turn, and Robinson returned to England and journalism. He was the oldest correspondent at the Western Front in World War I and was knighted for his efforts. “Sir Harry” capped his career by covering the opening of King Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1923, then the “scoop” of the century.

In his “spare” time, Robinson wrote books of his own, best-selling novels and collections of short stories. His non-fiction work promoted the “Special Relationship” between the United States and the United Kingdom, with Robinson convinced that global peace depended upon the two countries working together.

“Robinson had a fascinating but exhausting life,” McAleer says with understatement. “He worked non-stop until a month before his death in 1930.”

What’s next for McAleer? He’s hopeful that Escape Artist will be dramatized by a streaming service like Netflix. In the meantime, he’s embarked on his next book, another biography, but is mum about the details.

“A woman this time, and another grand adventure,” he teases, offering three tantalizing clues: espionage, Hollywood, and condiments.

Escape Artist: The Nine Lives of Harry Perry Robinson is available on Amazon.com in hardback and Kindle editions as well as an audiobook.

VATICAN CITY—Pope Francis said that unless there is a serious new wave of COVID-19 infections in Iraq, he has every intention of visiting the country in early March.

Even if social distancing requirements mean most Iraqis will see the papal events only on television, he said, “they will see that the pope is there in their country.”

“I am the pastor of people who are suffering,” Pope Francis told Catholic News Service February 1. He also said that if he had to, he would consider taking a regular commercial flight to get there.

The pope is scheduled to travel to Iraq March 5-8. St. John Paul II had hoped and planned to go to Iraq in 2000, particularly to visit the city of Ur, birthplace of Abraham, recognized as the patriarch of faith in one God by Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Tensions in the region made the trip impossible, and St. John Paul “wept” that he could not go, Pope Francis said, adding that he does not want to disappoint the people a second time.

The meeting with Catholic News Service marked the 100th anniversary of the news agency of the U.S. bishops’ conference.

Asked about the role of U.S. Catholic journalists today, Pope Francis said, it is to promote unity and to “try to get people to talk to each other, reason together and seek the path of fraternity.”

“A divided church is not the church,” he said.

“The church in the United States is a church that has been courageous—the history it has and the saints—and has done so much,” the pope said. “But if the communications media throw gas on the fire on one side or another, it doesn’t help.”

“The path of division leads nowhere,” he said. “Remember the prayer of Jesus, ‘That they may all be one’—unity that is not uniformity, no. Unity with differences, but one heart. ‘I think this way, you think that. We can discuss it,’ but with the same heart.”

“There are perhaps traditionalist groups in the United States, but there are here in the Vatican, too,” he said.

Pope Francis said that when he met with a newspaper association in Buenos Aires, Argentina, years ago, he told them to beware of four sins and that those sins are still a threat to news media today: “disinformation” or giving only part of the story, because the nuances of the whole story are essential for discovering truth; “calumny, which is a grave sin, ruining the reputation of another” with a lie; “defamation,” which is similar, but often involves publishing something from someone’s past, “even though changed their lives”; and “coprophilia,” which he described as “a love of dirt,” because “scandal sells.”

“Don’t fall into these sins,” he said.

After missing several big liturgies and appointments over the new year and again in late January because of a flare-up of sciatica, a painful nerve condition, Pope Francis said he can tell when an attack is coming on, and he tells his doctor. The physician’s advice, he said, is to cancel or postpone events where he would be standing for long periods, because the pressure would make the condition much worse the next day.

But, he said, the doctor told him, “But do the Angelus or people will say you are dead.”

Asked his opinion of the church in the United States, Pope Francis said it is “a church that is alive, vivacious.” He pointed in particular to the vast network of Catholic schools and to the church’s efforts to assist and help integrate immigrants; he specifically mentioned the leadership of Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles and Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas.

“It is a church that is ‘catholic’ in the sense of universal because of immigration. What the church has done for immigrants is great. And, also, it is very generous in helping others and it is humble because of how much it suffered from the crisis of sexual abuse,” he said. “And it’s a church that prays.”

“You know its defects better than I do,” he said, but “I look at the U.S. church with hope.”

By Cindy Wooden   I   Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY—The world must begin to realize its shared humanity in order to live peacefully, otherwise it risks falling apart in endless conflicts, Pope Francis said.

“Today, there is no time for indifference,” the pope said February 4 at a virtual event commemorating the first International Day of Human Fraternity.

“We cannot wash our hands of it, with distance, with disregard, with contempt. Either we are brothers and sisters or everything falls apart. It is the frontier, the frontier on which we have to build; it is the challenge of our century, it is the challenge of our time,” he said.

The pope was among several world and religious leaders who took part in the February 4 virtual event, which was hosted in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince.

Among those taking part in the online global meeting were Sheikh Ahmad el-Tayeb, grand imam of al-Azhar University, and António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations.

The date chosen for the event marks the day in 2019 that Pope Francis and Sheikh el-Tayeb signed a document on promoting dialogue and “human fraternity” during his apostolic visit to the United Arab Emirates.

The Higher Committee of Human Fraternity was established after the pope’s visit to implement concrete proposals toward fraternity, solidarity and mutual understanding proposed in the document.

The event also included a presentation of the committee’s Zayed Award for Human Fraternity to Guterres and to Moroccan-born Latifa Ibn Ziaten.

Accepting the award, Guterres thanked Sheikh el-Tayeb and Pope Francis for “pushing humankind to come together in unity, in dialogue to promote peace, to promote fraternity, to promote the unity that is necessary to address all the challenges to defeat hate and to make sure that human solidarity wins the battles we are facing.”

Ziaten was honored for her work in France in promoting peace and dialogue to young people who often fall prey to extremist ideology. Ziaten established the Imad Association for Youth and Peace, which she founded after her son, a French soldier, was murdered in 2012 by a Muslim extremist in Toulouse.

Congratulating her for the award, the pope said that despite the pain of losing a child, Ziaten risked her life to “dare to say, ‘We are brothers and sisters’ and to sow words of love.”

“Thank you being the mother of your son, of so many boys and girls; for being a mother of this humanity that is listening to you, learning from you the path of fraternity,” he said.

Thanking the pope and Sheikh el-Tayeb for the award, Ziaten said the recognition “will really help me in my fight, my work today.

“I lost a son, but today I reach out to many children. Today I’m a second mother to many children I saved in detention centers, in homes, in schools so they don’t fall into hatred,” she said.

In his address, the pope began by greeting participants as “sisters and brothers” and affectionately greeted Sheikh el-Tayeb as “my brother, my friend, my companion in challenges and risks in the struggle for fraternity.”

The pope thanked the grand imam “for his company on the path of reflection and the drafting” of the document on human fraternity.

“Your testimony helped me a lot because it was a courageous testimony. I know it was not an easy task. But with you we could do it together and help each other. The most beautiful thing of all is that first desire of fraternity turned into true fraternity. Thank you, brother; thank you,” he said.

The pope also thanked Judge Mohamed Mahmoud Abdel Salam, secretary-general of the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity, calling him “l’enfant terrible” of the project, a French expression meaning a successful person who uses unorthodox or innovative methods to achieve their goals.

The pope thanked Salam for his efforts and lauded him as “hard-working, full of ideas” and one “who helped us to move forward.”

Fraternity, he continued, not only means respecting and listening to others “with an open heart,” it also means remaining firm in one’s own convictions; otherwise “there is no true fraternity if one’s own convictions are negotiated.”

“We are brothers and sisters, born of the same father; with different cultures and traditions, but all brothers and sisters. And while respecting our different cultures and traditions, our different citizenships, we must build this fraternity, not negotiate it,” the pope said.

Pope Francis said the International Day of Human Fraternity was a moment of listening, of sincere acceptance and “of certainty that a world without brothers and sisters is a world of enemies.”

“It not only takes a war to make enemies,” the pope said. “It is enough with that technique—it has become a technique—that attitude of looking the other way, of getting rid of the other as if he or she didn’t exist.”

By Junno Arocho Esteves   I   Catholic News Service

BRIDGEPORT—When Alex Soucy and his friend Travis Moran got on the bus for Philadelphia to attend Mass celebrated by Pope Francis in 2015, they never realized it would be the start of a journey that would lead to the creation of an apostolate for young Catholics … at a time when they were leaving the Church.

“We had an unforgettable experience of encountering Christ in one another through our Holy Father’s message and through the grace of that pilgrimage,” Soucy says. “Each of us felt compelled by the Holy Spirit to respond to Pope Francis’ encouragement to be the missionary disciples that all Christians are called to be.”

Soucy is executive director of the Connecticut-based Crossroads 4 Christ, which focuses on developing communities of young adult disciples through weekly meetings that offer fellowship, faith formation, prayer and Eucharistic adoration.

Today, there are chapters around the state, including two in the Diocese of Bridgeport, at St. Pius X Parish in Fairfield and Church of the Holy Spirit in Stamford.

“I’m really happy to have Crossroads for Christ in the area because there is a definite need for young adults to come together, form community, and know they are not alone in their desire to live out the Catholic faith,” said Father Sam Kachuba, pastor of St. Pius X. “We’re fortunate at St. Pius to have space to offer, so C4C can have a home in the Fairfield area. We’re also benefitting because each gathering ends with a holy hour in Eucharistic adoration, and after the first few weeks, the group asked if they could invite the parish to join them. So now we have members of the parish coming for adoration on Tuesday evenings at 8 pm.”

Paola Pena, director of Student Ministries of St. Pius X, said starting a chapter of Crossroads in October was “a response to God’s call to create community out of a personal ache I had for a Christ-centered community.”

“Made painfully aware of this ache during quarantine, I finally responded to the call of the Lord to start a Crossroads chapter after three years of saying no,” she said. “The Lord will always have his way, and he has shown me his plan to give me life through this ministry and not leave me more exhausted. Those who have been attending also carry that ache within, and we’re watching how God is satisfying that ache by bringing us together in fellowship and adoration.”

The chapter recently completed two four-part series on the Eucharist and on prayer and will begin exploring Christ-centered friendship.

“Young adults just want the truth of Jesus Christ,” Paola said. “They don’t want the watered-down version of the faith. Crossroads helps us to learn how to live our lives with Jesus.”

C4C Fairfield meets at St. Pius X on Tuesday at the Faith Center Community Room with fellowship from 7 to 8 pm and with adoration in church sanctuary from 8 to 9 pm. For more information, contact ppena@st-pius.org.

The Church of the Holy Spirit chapter in Stamford meets Wednesdays with fellowship from 7:30 to 8:30 pm followed by adoration from 8:30 to 9:30 pm. For more information, contact c4cstamford@gmail.com.

The chapter was begun three years about by co-leaders Maria and John Midy.

“C4C has enriched our faith in many beautiful ways and has helped to define our vocation to love and to discern our mission as a young married couple,” Maria said. “We live in a busy city with young professionals and career opportunities, but no Catholic young adult groups that meet regularly….We have built a great community of Christ-centered friendships who share struggles and success in life in a hostile environment.”

She said their Crossroads friendships are a gift from God and are especially important when families are far away or not supportive of faith.

“Our model is rooted in Christ’s example of discipleship, so besides our weekly meetings for fellowship, adoration and prayer, we encourage collaboration with other groups or activities that will expand our horizons,” John said. “The Holy Spirit continues to spread the fire of the Gospel through our testimony of life. We trust that God has chosen us to be an instrument of his love for many who don’t know him yet or many who are lonely and have forgotten how great is our Lord.”

Soucy, who has been spreading the C4C message to parishes, left his job as manager of the state director’s office of the Nature Conservancy to work full-time with Crossroads. He attended Corpus Christi elementary and middle school in Wethersfield and then East Catholic High School in Manchester before entering Quinnipiac University, where he studied economics and finance and got a graduate degree in business administration. He is currently enrolled at Holy Apostles College and Seminary, pursuing a master’s in pastoral studies with a concentration in youth and young adult ministry.

“I was fortunate to have a Catholic education, and looking back I see that so many seeds were planted during those years,” he says.

In high school he recalls having a profound encounter with Jesus while on retreat, where he was forced to ask himself the question: “If Jesus is really God, what does that mean for my life?”

He and Travis were friends since high school and were involved in Catholic ministry in college. They went to Mass and adoration and had evening prayer with their faith community on campus and looked for similar opportunities after graduation.

“In Philadelphia, we were inspired by a group from Boston and being with a million other pilgrims,” he recalls. “The experience led us to recognize the true missionary aspect in daily life and the realization that we are being sent out to evangelize and spread the Good News and live lives of sacrificial love in the midst of our families and friends and day-to-day life.”

Travis along with Alex’s wife Jessica and other members came up with the name Crossroads 4 Christ while on a bus ride to the March for Life in January 2016.

“All of us at every moment in our lives are at a crossroads, whether to choose Christ or follow the ways of the world,” he said. “Young adults find themselves at a crossroads in their 20s and 30s, discerning their vocations when they find themselves living on their own for the first time, trying to build friendships and asking the big questions about faith and God and Jesus. So many young people have this hunger in their hearts that there is more and they are just waiting—they’re at the crossroads.”

The “4” represents the four pillars of formation, which are based on Scripture—intellectual, spiritual, relational and human. Each week, chapters explore a different pillar.

In the spring of 2019, several members, including Alex, felt called to leave their jobs and spread the mission. Last May, they held a week-long virtual conference and had 1100 attendees from 46 states and 28 countries. Father Joseph Gill of the Basilica of St. John the Evangelist and Father Sam Kachuba were among the presenters.

“Our mission is to develop communities of young adult missionary disciples,” he said. “Our goal is to lead people to Christ in his Church and to friendship with other faithful Catholics and to help them go out into the world to spread the Good News…There are many things that we hope to achieve, including culture change, an increase in friendship and an increase in formation, but the first thing, and the most important thing, is leading young people into a relationship with Jesus Christ, and the pinnacle of that relationship is found in the most holy Eucharist.”

Given the influence of an aggressively secular culture in America, it is more important than ever to give young adults an opportunity to encounter Christ, he says.

“If we could do just one thing in our ministry, it would be to lead young adults to the most Blessed Sacrament.”

Parishes that have C4C chapters can enjoy an additional hour of Eucharistic adoration each week because the group’s holy hour is open to all parishioners.

Alex says his faith was strengthened by his family, which revealed God’s love to him in a very real way.

“When I was growing up, faith was just one of many things,” he recalls. “I was active in sports, played baseball through college and played alto sax in high school. Going to church on Sunday was one of the many things I did, but there were many people who led me to the faith and their witness influenced me.”

Many members of his family had an impact on him, most notably his parents and grandparents, including his “meme,” a French Canadian woman who had been in the convent and later married and had 11 children, three with special needs.

“I saw her throughout her life, caring for 11 children, and into her 80s until she died, she still cared for those with special needs,” he said. “She was living a life of radical love. When I went to Mass with her on Sunday, I could tell that was the highlight of her week. That was the source of the way she lived her life, and it influenced me.”

(Parishes interested in forming a Crossroads 4 Christ chapter can reach out to Soucy at info@crossroadsforchrist.org.)

BRIDGEPORT—As St. John Paul II said of young people, “The Church needs your energies, your enthusiasm, your youthful ideals, in order to make the Gospel of Life penetrate the fabric of society.”

How then will your Parish re-engage our children and teens in programs this fall? Imagine the possibilities of an Autumn 2021 after the vaccine. Finally, a return to some semblance of normalcy; a ‘new norm’ that we, especially our youth desperately seek and need.

Foundations in Faith recognizes that Parishes in the Diocese are currently poised to begin making plans now for Fall Religious Education and Youth Ministry programs.

Faith Formation teams are invited to imagine what the youth programs will look like post pandemic. It will be exciting to see how Parish teams leverage the new technologies that they used during the pandemic and enhance those tools with in-person community fellowship to draw the youth back in.

According to Kelly Weldon, Director of Foundations in Faith, “We have an historical and unique opportunity as we re-emerge and hit the reset button on how we approach our youth. How do we best empower them in their life long journey of encountering Jesus? It is imperative that we take time to ask the youth what they need and how they envision programs that will help them heal as they re-enter into community and actively participate in our Catholic Faith. As St. John Paul II taught us “The Church needs your energies, your enthusiasm, your youthful ideals”.

Foundations in Faith through the St. John Paul II Fund has funding available for Parishes in the Diocese of Bridgeport for Fall Religious Education, Youth Ministry and Faith Formation programs. Applications go LIVE on February 10 and are due April 2. Creativity, youth engagement in planning and innovation are encouraged.

Sign up to receive grant announcements and updates by visiting www.foundationsinfaith.org—Follow us on Instagram—foundationsinfaithbpt. Contact Kelly Weldon at kelly.weldon@foundationsinfaith.org with questions or interest in supporting or volunteering.

VATICAN CITY—In preparation for the Sunday of the Word of God January 24, the Vatican issued recommendations for the day as well as reminders on respecting the sacred Scriptures.

For example, liturgical books should be high-quality texts and not photocopies, and the ambo is reserved for specific moments in the liturgy and prayer, and should not be used for making commentaries or announcements, said a note from the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

The note, released December 19, was signed by Cardinal Robert Sarah, congregation prefect, and Archbishop Arthur Roche, secretary.

The note was a reminder that the Sunday of the Word of God, instituted by Pope Francis in 2019, is meant to reawaken in the clergy and the faithful “the importance and value of sacred Scripture for the Christian life, as well as the relationship between the word of God and the liturgy,” it said.

Though it is to be held every year on the third Sunday of Ordinary Time, which for 2021 is January 24, “a day devoted to the Bible should not be seen as a yearly event but rather a year-long event, for we urgently need to grow in our knowledge and love of the Scriptures and of the risen Lord,” it said.

God continues to speak his word “and to break bread in the community of believers,” which is why Catholics need to “develop a closer relationship with sacred Scripture; otherwise, our hearts will remain cold and our eyes shut, inflicted as we are by so many forms of blindness.”

The note offered a few recommendations for the day, such as having the entrance procession with the Book of the Gospels, placing the Book of the Gospels on the altar and promoting the community celebration of Lauds and Vespers.

Much of the note, however, emphasized the importance of rereading and respecting the theological, ritual and pastoral principles surrounding the word of God proclaimed at Mass and other liturgical celebrations.

One should understand that “the books containing the readings from sacred Scripture stir up in those who hear a veneration for the mystery of God speaking to his people. For this reason, we ask that care be taken to ensure that these books are of a high quality and used properly.”

As such, “It is never appropriate to resort to leaflets, photocopies and other pastoral aids as a substitute for liturgical books.”

Because of the importance of the word of God, “the church invites us to pay special attention to the ambo from which it is proclaimed,” the note said.

The ambo is not “a functional piece of furniture, but a place that is in keeping with the dignity of the word of God, in correspondence with the altar,” which is why the ambo is reserved for the readings, the singing of the Responsorial Psalm and the Easter Proclamation.

“The homily and the intentions of the universal prayer can be delivered from it, while it is less appropriate to use it for commentaries, announcements or for directing singing,” it said.

The note also underlined the need to respect the arrangement of the biblical readings indicated in the Lectionary, “without replacing or removing them, and using only versions of the Bible approved for liturgical use.”

The homily should be used to help explain sacred Scripture and particular importance should be given to a period of silence for appropriately meditating on the word, it added.

Those who proclaim the word of God in the assembly, such as priests, deacons and readers, must be sufficiently prepared and familiar with the text to be proclaimed clearly and must avoid “all improvisation. It is possible to preface the readings with appropriate and short introductions,” however.

By Carol Glatz   I   Catholic News Service