Partners reaches first $1M

As of March 8 the diocesan Stewardship and Development Office reported it has received $1,148,823 from 2,103 gifts and pledges for this year’s Partners in Charity appeal, which is more than $54,000 ahead of last year at this time.
The appeal’s goal is $5 million to support the agencies, ministries and programs that receive funding.
According to Michael P. Gillespie, diocesan director of development, reaching the $1 million mark so soon can be attributed to advance gifts and early donations made by our regular donors.
“A large percentage of these donors are annual supporters, including many giving society members who are committed to supporting the mission of the Church,” Mr. Gillispie said.
“I will never tire of thanking God for the goodness of our parishioners who support the work of the Church,” said Bishop McManus. “Whether they give to diocesan appeals and campaigns, local parish offertory collections or emergency relief efforts responding to national and international disasters, our people are always willing to put their faith into action and respond with prayers and financial support.”
The brochure for this year’s appeal lists the following recipients of support from this year’s appeal:
CHARITY: Catholic Charities, Pernet Family Health Service, Priests’ Retirement, Retired Priests’ Health Ministry, Diocesan Cemetery System, Utility Assistance Fund.
EDUCATION: Advanced Studies for Clergy and Laity, Catholic Schools Office, Communications Ministry, Grant-in-Aid for Schools, Office of Religious Education, Ongoing Priestly Formation, Seminarian Education, Diocesan Schools grants.
MINISTRY: African Ministry, Catholic Campus Ministry, Hispanic Apostolate, Minister to Priests, Office for Divine Worship, Hispanic & Latino Ministry, Office of Marriage and Family, Diaconate Program, Respect Life Office, St. Paul Cathedral, Vocations Office and House of Studies, and Youth and Young Adult Ministries.
The official appeal kickoff was held on Feb. 16 and is just getting underway in parishes around the diocese. Banners can be seen outside of churches around Worcester County as parishes conduct the appeal through mail, in-pew and online requests. This year’s campaign video, brochure and banner, along with online donation page can be found at www.partners-charity.net.





By John J. Boucher
Special to The Catholic Free Press

Lent is a time when we yearn to be more humble, more Christian, and more like Jesus in our lives. However, we may wonder what concrete steps might help us grow in such humility.
“The great paradox which Scripture reveals to us is that real and total freedom is only found through downward mobility. The Word of God came down to us and lived among us as a slave. The divine way is indeed the downward way.” (Henri Nouwen, The Selfless Way of Christ)
Below are some of many concrete practices we might try in our downward mobility of discipleship with Jesus. They fall under the Lenten calls for prayer, fasting, and good deeds.
1) We can begin by asking God to help us grow in humility. Like other fruits of the Holy Spirit, humility grows in the furnace of daily circumstances where we face our own weaknesses, failings, and sins. We ask Jesus to grant us the grace to recognize and repent of our selfishness and self-centeredness. Constant repentance is one prayer that is always answered, often immediately!

2) Pray for others, especially for the people we don’t like or agree with. Pray for them to be blessed out of the immense goodness of God’s love for them. It is hard to remain angry with someone we have been earnestly praying for each day.

3) Spend more time listening than speaking. We can begin by listening to God twice as long as we speak in our prayer time. We can also grow in this by listening to each person we meet in much the same way. Start by asking, “How are you doing?” Then listen for five minutes without butting in or formulating how we will respond.
 
4) Fast from criticizing and complaining about other people in person, on social media, under our breath, and even in the secret recesses of our heads. When we realize we are criticizing/complaining, stop ourselves. Repent and ask God’s forgiveness.

5) Fast from imagining that we have no broken relationships with others. When we hurt someone, we go to that person, apologize, and ask her/him to forgive us. Also, we might ask them to help us by correcting us when we fall into that same behavior again.

6) Accept the gift of criticism from others. Admit that we don’t know everything or do everything right. At the heart of all criticism, there can be seeds of truth and hints about how we need to treat others in more loving ways.

7) Volunteer time each week to directly serve the poor, the sick, and those who are hurting “face-to-face,” especially those who can never help us back.

8) Fast from pride. If we are in a leadership position at work, at home, in the community, or in church ministry, we can decide to serve others in concrete ways that they need the most. If we are too big to serve others in menial ways, we are too small to lead.

9) Next time we use a shared or public restroom, leave that place in better shape than we find it. Pick up litter, get extra toilet paper, and find out how to get it cleaned up. (If we can, gather equipment and materials together and clean it ourselves!)

10) Practice gratitude. Thank others “out loud” for serving us and taking care of our needs. We can never thank others enough.

Humility is a fruit of the Spirit that grows best by acting or practicing our way into a new way of being and thinking.
Prayer, fasting, and good deeds are practices that prepare us to receive more of the person of the Holy Spirit who will light up all our relationships.
“The true goal of our Christian life consists in the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. Fasting, vigils, prayers, almsgiving, and all good deeds done for the sake of Christ are but means for the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God.” (St. Seraphim of Sarov).







BY BILL DOYLE
CFP Correspondent

After retiring as president of the Milford Regional Physician Group, Philip Ciaramicoli became interested in volunteering.
As a graduate of the Jesuit College of the Holy Cross, Mr. Ciaramicoli was familiar with the New England chapter of the Ignatian Volunteer Corps.
IVC provides men and women aged 50 and older the opportunity to volunteer to help those in need and to grow deeper in their faith by reflecting and praying in the Ignatian tradition. St. Ignatius of Loyola, after whom the organization is named, helped found the Jesuits in the 1500s.
Since September, Mr. Ciaramicoli, who lives in Milford, has volunteered on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings for the St. John’s Food for the Poor Program at St. John Parish in downtown Worcester.
The program, in the St. Francis Xavier Center, serves free breakfast from 6:30-9:30 a.m. weekdays and prepares meals for people in need to take home.
“It’s great. I enjoy it,” Mr. Ciaramicoli said. “Getting up at 5 o’clock in the middle of the winter and driving to Worcester from Milford is not exactly fun, but the motivation is helping others. The people I work with are fantastic. Everyone really cares about what we do.”
His task is to prepare breakfast and sandwiches, and to distribute cups of coffee – with the exact amount of milk and sugar each guest requests. Afterward, he helps clean up.
“I wanted to do something  that was more interactive,” he said. “Hands on. Meeting people, talking to people. I love doing the coffee because I get to talk to our guests a little bit.”
Between 12 and 20 people volunteer at St. John’s each day, including students from Holy Cross, WPI, and, occasionally, from UMass Chan Medical School. Mr. Ciaramicoli is the only Ignatian volunteer.
He also enjoys the IVC’s religious component, including the monthly meetings where volunteers discuss their placements and their required religious readings. The Worcester meetings are held at the Hogan Campus Center at Holy Cross.
“I just like the sense of spirituality,” he said. “I’m very surprised how much I like it. It helps you understand what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.”
Volunteering at St. John’s has deepened his faith, said the parishioner of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Milford.
He plans to volunteer at St. John’s again next year and he would highly recommend that others become IVC volunteers.
“There’s a real sense of service as well as spirituality to what we do. It is not simply just service. It is not simply just spiritual. It’s a nice combination of both and you work with some really good people,” he said.
Mr. Ciaramicoli enjoys helping the homeless.
“They’re appreciative,” he said. “They’re respectful. They say, ‘Thank you.’ You can read their faces and kind of see their needs.”
Dave Hinchen was a Jesuit at the time he helped start the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in New England, and served as regional director from 1974-1982.
After leaving the Jesuits, Mr. Hinchen founded IVC New England with his fellow Holy Cross graduate, Bill Waters. The organization was launched in January 2009. New England is one of IVC’s 20 chapters and has a strong Holy Cross connection.
JVC volunteers are usually fresh out of college and work in full-time, live-in positions for a year. In contrast, IVC volunteers must be over age 50, commit to one or two days a week from September through June, and live at home.
Mr. Hinchen, a Boston resident, said IVC New England is seeking more volunteers and pursuing more partnerships with non-profits, who pay a modest partnership fee.
“Our mission,” he said, “is to try to help address some of the social injustices of our time – homelessness, immigration issues, education, senior concerns. We do that by helping non-profits who work directly on some of those issues in the Boston, Worcester, Providence areas.”
IVC New England has 53 volunteers working with 30 non-profits. Five of those volunteers work in Worcester at St. John Parish, St. Peter Parish, Catholic Charities Worcester County, Nativity School and Matthew 25.
Liz Morrisroe, 57, of Barrington, Rhode Island, is in her second year as a volunteer for Matthew 25, which provides affordable rental housing for families in need. She’s a hypnotherapist in Providence, but each Wednesday she drives to Worcester to volunteer. She processes donations, handles thank-you notes to benefactors, helps organize fund-raising campaigns and assists Matthew 25’s founder Father Fred Enman in writing and submitting grants.
“Even though you’re giving of yourself,” she said, “you get so much from the experience, too. It’s like a two-way street. It’s a wonderful way of connecting with people who have the same beliefs that you do and feel strongly about the commitment to the community too.”
Her mother grew up in Worcester and her father, a Holy Cross graduate, grew up in Auburn, so when Mr. Hinchen told her that Matthew 25 needed a volunteer, she became interested. During her interview with Father Enman, she found out that her uncle, who also grew up in Worcester, had donated a house to the Matthew 25 program.
Ms. Morrisroe said she enjoys working with Father Enman, but she also appreciates meeting monthly with other IVC volunteers.
“It’s really beautiful,” she said. “We share about our placements and we can talk about the good things happening there, the frustrating things happening there. We can pray together. So, it’s a wonderful community in addition to my placement.”
Rich Boucher, 67, of Westborough is in his first year assisting with the immigration and citizenship ministry of Catholic Charities Worcester County. In the office of immigration attorney Rhiannon Snide, he volunteers two days a week for a total of eight to 10 hours.
The Holy Cross graduate read about IVC in the college’s magazine and volunteered after he retired as a manager at Dell Technologies.
“I think it’s a good way to continue to grow spiritually and to give back,” he said.
He also believes the monthly meetings with other volunteers add a lot to his experience.
“You get to meet some really extraordinary people from all walks of life,” Mr. Boucher said.
David Allain, 63, of Worcester has volunteered at St. Peter Parish for two years. The retired Eversource executive serves as a liaison between Clark University students and the parish. About 6-10 Clark students attend the 5:15 p.m. Mass at St. Peter each Sunday and they dine together in the church’s meeting room after Mass once a month.
“They just want a safe place to go to talk about God,” Mr. Allain said, “talk to each other about what’s going on on campus, have a meal, go to Mass. They do seem to embrace it and embrace one another.”
Mr. Allain has also overseen a hike with the students at Rutland State Park and a barbecue on the church’s front yard, and he’s planning to take the students to a WooSox game this season.

– Anyone interested in volunteering or any non-profit in need of a volunteer should contact Mr. Hinchen at dhinchen@ivcusa.org. Jesuit Father James Martin will host a free IVC information session via Zoom from 4-5 p.m. on Thursday, March 21.  The registration link is http://ivcusa.org/info. Father Martin, who lives in Manhattan, is a New York Times best-selling author.




Jeff Joaquin, owner of JMJ Site Development Inc., will speak at the Worcester Diocesan Catholic Men’s Conference, scheduled for March 25, at the Plourde Center at Assumption University. His talk is titled, “The Journey Away from God and the Journey back.”
JMJ Site Development is a philanthropic construction company supporting ministries all over the world including in the Philippines, Central African Republic, Guatemala, Jerusalem and across the United States.
Mr. Joaquin is on the board of directors of Paradisus Dei which is the ministry that has provided the That Man Is You! program to more than 700 parishes across the United States. The program addresses the pressures and temptations that men face in our modern culture.
Mr. Joaquin is one of the founding members of the Tampa Bay Catholic Men’s Conference which had its 12th Annual Conference last year.  The conference has consistently provided national speakers and ministry opportunities to thousands men in attendance the last decade. Men encourage others to a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.
Other speakers at the event include Tulsa residents and radio co-hosts, Adam Minihan and David Niles, (“Friendship, Family and Future Saints”); surfing champ, “Bear” Woznick (“12 Rules of Manliness”); Msgr. James P. Moroney, the pastor of St. Cecilia Parish in Leominster (“Readiness for Reconciliation”); and Father Chris Alar, a member of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception (“Being a Eucharistic Man”).    Diocesan and religious priests will hear confessions at mid-day. Bishop McManus will be the principal concelebrant and homilist for the Conference Mass at 4 p.m.


Tickets, which include lunch, are $30 for students. Tickets for adults are $50 through March 13, and increase to $65 on March 14.
Tickets can be purchased online on the conference website at
catholicmenworc.com;
by sending a check to Catholic Men’s Conference, c/o Holy Family Parish,
 750 Union St., Leominster, MA 01453; by contacting your parish representatives; or by calling Corinn Dahm
at 508-835-8551.