Scouts receive awards

 By Tanya Connor  | The Catholic Free Press
The Catholic Scouting Ministry’s annual awards ceremony, held Saturday at St. Paul Cathedral, included a first, leaders said. For the first time in the Worcester Diocese a female – Abigail McDaniel – received the Ad Altare Dei emblem, a Boy Scouts of America Award. She was one of many youth receiving religious awards at the Mass. Adults connected with scouting received awards at a luncheon after Mass in the cathedral’s cenacle. Abigail, a 14-year-old from St. Aloysius/St. Jude Parish in Rochdale, is a member of Venturing BSA, a high-adventure program for boys and girls ages 14-21, said her father, Kenneth McDaniel, associate advisor for Venturing Crew 1735 in Grafton. As of Feb. 1 this year, the Boy Scout program nationally broadened to include girls and was renamed Scouts BSA, said John Atlas, chairman of the Diocesan Catholic Committee on Scouting. But, as a member of the Venturing program, Abigail began studying for the Ad Altare Dei award before then, he said. “The Diocese of Worcester is continuing to welcome youth to all its Catholic Scouting programs,” Mr. Atlas said. “We need more young people – Scouts of Catholic faith – to…participate, because it deepens their faith and strengthens their understanding of the connection between their scouting and their Catholicism.” Preaching at the Mass, Deacon William H. White, episcopal liaison for the DCCS, congratulated awardees, saying the dedication they put into earning the emblems “is a good testament to your willingness to be open to the word of God.” “We’re here to try to build that relationship with our God,” he said. “He’s wanting you to be happy…fulfilled. The way to true happiness is through him.”

Following is a list of awards, awardees, and their parishes and towns, from the Girl Scouts USA, American Heritage Girls and Boy Scouts of America.

God is Love
Rebecca Maki Morales – St. Edward the Confessor, Westminster, GSUSA

Family of God
Margaret Anne Clark – St. Edward the Confessor, Ashburnham, GSUSA
Ana Comeau – St. Denis, Ashburnham, GSUSA
Julia Comeau – St. Denis, Ashburnham, GSUSA
Eva Maria Pakaluk – St. Ann, North Oxford, AHG
Ruth Ann Seton Pakaluk – St. Ann, North Oxford, AHG
Luciana Therese Paulin Vlieg – St. Paul Cathedral, Worcester, AHG
Sophia Marie Penny – Christ the King, Worcester, GSUSA
Juliette Rousseau – St. Denis, Ashburnham, GSUSA

I live My Faith
Allison Clark – St. Edward the Confessor, Westminster, GSUSA
Grace Comeau – St. Denis, Ashburnham, GSUSA
Isabelle Comeau – St. Denis, Ashburnham, GSUSA
Eva Kelly – St. Denis, Westminster, GSUSA
Cecilia Rose Maki Morales - St. Edward the Confessor, Westminster, GSUSA Olivia Puczynski – St. Edward the Confessor, Westminster, GSUSA

Light of Christ
Cole Anderson – St. Luke the Evangelist, North Grafton, BSA
Aiden Graziano – Our Lady Immaculate, Athol, BSA
Gunnar Donald – St. Bernard, Ashby, BSA
Luke D’Souza – St. Anne, Southborough, BSA
Tristan McKeever – Immaculate Heart of Mary, Harvard, BSA
Jeffrey Thayer Jr. – St. Anthony of Padua, Dudley, BSA
Oliver Wilgress Pipe – Holy Trinity, Bolton, BSA

Parvuli Dei
William Cudmore – St. Gabriel the Archangel, Northbridge, BSA Patrick Finan – St. Patrick, Auburn, BSA
Matthew Fornari – North American Martyrs, Auburn, BSA
Zachary Graziano – Our Lady Immaculate, Athol, BSA
Raeben Rain Lacap – St. Mary, Ayer, BSA
Alex Lavigne – Our Lady Immaculate, Athol, BSA
Henry Penny – Christ the King, Worcester, BSA

Ad Altare Dei
Alfonso Huaman – Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Worcester, BSA
Abigail McDaniel – St. Aloysius/St. Jude, Rochdale, BSA

Pope Pius XII
Berin Bukow – St. Rose of Lima, Shrewsbury, BSA
Thomas Ryan – St. Mary, Shrewsbury, BSA

Pillars of Faith
Ryan Berthiaume, BSA Thomas Ryan, BSA

ADULT AWARDS
Bronze Pelican
Bishop Robert J. McManus - Diocese of Worcester
Fr. Stanley Krutcik - St. Christopher, Worcester
James Sweetwood - St. Mary, Shrewsbury St.
George Stephen Lavoie – St. Rose of Lima, Northborough
Scouting is organized by the youth ministry office which gets financial support from Partners in Charity.

For more information see
https://www.neworcester.org/scouting.

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