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Hello, I have a Wedding in September and will need to find a place to attend Mass on Sunday before heading back to MA (or on the way). I know this is Hubbard land so I am a little wary of attending just any Church. Looking for as orthodox as I can find in the area heading East. Appreciated....

Four Japanese bishops have travelled to Rome for a meeting with Pope Benedict to seek Holy See intervention to resolve what they describe as a "serious problem" with the methods of the Neo-Catechumenal Way movement and its seminary in a Japanese diocese. UCA News reports it was the third time Japanese bishops visited and brought up the matter in five months. "We hate to come so often but we had to give the serious nature of the problem that needs to be resolved", Archbishop Okada of Tokyo, president of the bishops' conference, told UCA News in Rome. During their ad...

Kathleen O’Connell of Brighton, Christine Quagan of West Roxbury and Joanne Jauron of Marblehead are all Catholics who love the traditional Latin Mass. But finding one is no small feat. Only one of the Boston archdiocese’s 295 parishes - Mary Immaculate of Lourdes in Newton - offers the “Tridentine Rite,” as the service is known. Although Pope Benedict XVI has done away with a rule requiring any parish that wants a Latin Mass to obtain the permission of the local bishop, parishes aren’t exactly clamoring. “It’s an evolving situation,” said Quagan, 46, one of 300 people who attend the Latin...

The recent statement of the Holy Father amends the previous process, established by Pope John Paul II, whereby a priest had needed permission from the local bishop to celebrate the Tridentine rite according to the 1962 liturgical text (Missal). In other words, Pope Benedict has expanded the permission that had already been given by Pope John Paul to allow for the celebration of the Tridentine Mass. Cardinal Sean O'Malley, in his weekly posting of June 29 ( www.cardinalseansblog.org) shared observations which follow from the Cardinal's participation at a meeting held in Rome prior to the release of the Motu Proprio....

In the late 1970s, a group of Episcopal clergymen with typical American chutzpah wrote to Pope Paul VI. They said they wanted to become Catholics, and wished for their priestly ministry to be fulfilled by being ordained as Catholic priests. The only problem was that they had wives and children. Paul VI received their petition, and they heard nothing. In the autumn of 1978, the pope died; then another pope died, and John Paul II took charge. The little group of Episcopal priests waited with crossed fingers and bated breath while Rome made a decision. In 1980 they finally had...

LAWRENCE - A controversial offshoot of the Catholic religion is planning to hold its worship services in the vacant Sacred Heart Church. The Willing Shepherds of Jesus Christ, whose members adhere to pre-Vatican II teachings and rituals, has signed a 15-year lease for the church at 321 S. Broadway. The order, which lists an address in Tewksbury on its Web site, celebrates Mass in Latin with the priest facing the altar instead of the congregation during services. The order is renting the Gothic-style church and its adjacent rectory from ETC Development Corp. of Boston, which bought the two-acre property last...

Charles James, with the help of his wife, Donna, authored this article. Charles James is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and the Director of the Pre-Theology Program at St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, California. Donna James, RN, worked at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley, California, for five years and specializes in obstetric nursing. My wife fell exhausted into a huge green chair in the lobby of the Red Lion Hotel. We had survived a Christmas dinner with former parishioners whose two boys, mixed with ours, created a chemical reaction that left us shell shocked. Friends of a former parish...

Pope Benedict XVI Grants Cardinal O'Malley's Request for Two New Auxiliary Bishops: Reverend John A. Dooher, Pastor of St. Mary Parish in Dedham And Reverend Robert Hennessey, Pastor of Most Holy Redeemer in East Boston BRIGHTON, MA - Pope Benedict XVI has informed Cardinal Seán O'Malley that Reverend John A. Dooher, Pastor of St. Mary Parish in Dedham and Reverend Robert Hennessey, Pastor of Most Holy Redeemer in East Boston, have been named Auxiliary Bishops for the Archdiocese of Boston. Cardinal Seán received this news with gratitude for the Holy Father's pastoral care of the Archdiocese and has announced that...

HER CAUSE WAS A DIRE NECESSITY Margaret Sanger & 'The New Woman' Anne Barbeau Gardiner is a Contributing Editor of the NOR. She has published on Dryden, Milton, and Swift, as well as on Catholics of the 17th century, and is Professor Emerita of English at John Jay College of the City University of New York. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, saw herself as "The New Woman," one emancipated from traditional religion and morality, empowered to have sex without procreation, and able to compete publicly with men. Yet behind this façade was a soul lost in emptiness and...

The same Newton Catholic church that waged a losing battle last year to save the job of a beloved pastor who had often clashed with the archdiocese has seen turnover in its parish leadership for the third time in 10 months. The Rev. Joseph Keil, who was at Our Lady of Help Christians Parish for about three months, is taking a leave of absence from the priesthood. In a posting on the Our Lady’s Web site Keil wrote: “After several months of intense discernment, prayer and consultation with family and friends, I have decided to take a leave of absence...

DUXBURY - She doesn’t always wear the robe and the cloak, but the Rev. Kendra Vaughan Hovey is never without her priest’s collar. As the elder high priestess of the First Church of Wicca in Duxbury, the white collar is more than a symbol of her beliefs. She says it provides an opportunity to educate others about those beliefs. Sitting in her home office, where she prepares sermons, answers e-mail and prays at the altar neatly set in the corner beneath a window, Hovey recalls a recent interaction at her daughter’s dance recital. ‘‘One of the other mothers said she’d...

New Secretary for Institutional Advancement/Chief Development Officer & Secretary for Regional Services Named BRIGHTON, MA -- Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley announced today the appointment of two Cabinet-level positions within the Archdiocese of Boston. The Cardinal announced the appointment of Scot Landry to Secretary for Institutional Advancement/Chief Development Officer and Sr. Marian Batho, CSJ, to the newly created Cabinet position of Secretary for Regional Services. Scot Landry, Secretary for Institutional Advancement/Chief Development Officer, has previously served as a chief operating officer in the computer software and services industry. He has also overseen national brand marketing programs. Landry co-founded the successful Boston...

She has lived and worked and loved the neighborhood for 38 years. But now she has to go. The worst of it is, she needs to also say goodbye to Lori, her 6-year-old adopted dog and her constant companion. With the St. Benedict’s Little Flower School closed last year and all her fellow nuns sick or in retirement homes, it’s time for the long-time Somerville resident Sister Stephen Marie to say goodbye to the apartment she’s called home for more than 20 years. "I’m sorry it’s ending," she said, looking around her neat kitchen on the second floor of the...

The Jewish Holocaust of World War II is a story of human tragedy, with real victims, real villains, and real heroes. Important questions often relate to how individuals are to be categorized. In recent years, much attention has been given to Pope Pius XII and other leaders of the Catholic Church. Rabbi David Dalin, however, recently wrote that while Pope Pius XII “was saving thousands of Jews...the grand Mufti was using German radio to call for European Jewry’s death and destruction.” The mufti (an expert who is empowered to give rulings on Islamic law) of whom Dalin writes is Haj...

BOSTON -- Church on Sundays was a habit for Frank Gaul growing up Roman Catholic in the coastal Massachusetts town of Hingham in the 1980s. Now, it's Mass on holidays, at most. The distractions of college life first interrupted Gaul's regular Mass attendance. Then came uncertainty about why he was going in the first place, a marriage to a non-Catholic and leeriness about trusting his young children to a church in which so many youths have been hurt. "Having to go some place to pay homage to God every Sunday doesn't mean you're a good Catholic, or a bad Catholic,...

Back in 2000 the Vatican issued the document Dominus Iesus. In it was a statement about itself as the Catholic Church, then a statement about "true particluar churches" and then about something called "ecclesial communities" which do not have a valid Apostolic Succession or Eucharistic Theology. In those days the Archbishop of Canterbury was one Dr. George Carey, the Jimmy Carter of ABCs, known in my circles as "Doc Carey." Instead of keeping quiet, or saying something like, "we have both a valid Apostolic Succession and Eucharistic Theology"- that is, something that an Anglican ought to say, he said this:...

The Rev. Charles J. Murphy is returning to St. Francis Xavier Church in Weymouth now that the archdiocese has cleared him of sexual abuse charges. ‘‘It was a nightmare for him,’’ Boston attorney Timothy O’Neill, who represented the Rev. Murphy in a lawsuit, said yesterday. ‘‘He has had tremendous support from the community. There was no credibility (in the charges) whatsoever. He’s a good man.’’ In August 2004, the Rev. Murphy, then 70, was placed on administrative leave following allegations that he molested a young girl years ago while serving as director of counseling at the former Boston School for...

The white dress from Sears is hanging in her closet, near the long veil and the matching purse. She has practiced cupping her hands together to receive the wafer from the priest. And she chatters with excitement about the party to be held in her honor afterward. But as Victoria Coyne, 7, prepares for her first Holy Communion, there has been a major snag: As a child suffering from both celiac disease and diabetes, she can neither eat the wheat wafer that represents the body of Christ nor drink the wine that signifies his blood. ''I already got the stuff...

IF YOU have ever driven through the 'Rust Belt' in the northeastern and north-central United States, that territory dominated by steel mills and coal mines, you are likely to notice, especially near urban areas, the gold or silver domes topped by equally unusual three-barred crosses. These onion-domed churches that punctuate several cityscapes belong to the so-called Eastern Churches still functioning and even thriving as places of worship. You may have seen inside one, even if only through the wedding scene in the film The Deerhunter. What you are seeing in these churches is a reflection of the long tradition of...

Brighton, MA……..Cardinal Seán O'Malley today announced that Rev. Richard Erikson, Chaplain, Lieutenant Colonel, United States Air Force has been name as a Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia for the Archdiocese. Cardinal Seán commented, "I am most grateful for Fr. Erikson's willingness to assume this important responsibility, particularly at a time when the Archdiocese is preparing to undertake a series of new initiatives in Catholic education, institutional development and other areas. His leadership qualities, cultivated through military experience and received of the highest evaluations, combined with a keen intellect and a breadth of pastoral experience in the Church and...