Protecting Life, Honoring Veterans and Praying for Bishops

Protecting Human Life and Families in Massachusetts

As you may know, over the weekend, I joined my brother bishops of Massachusetts in issuing a statement expressing our deep concern regarding Gov. Maura Healey’s efforts to override the Repeal188 efforts. Every human life has inherent dignity and deserves protection. Our statement also calls for greater support for mothers, children, and families in crisis. I invite you to read an abridged version in the image below or the statement in full here, and please pray for the conversion of hearts and minds in Massachusetts.

Honoring Veterans for Their Service

As we observe Veterans Day today, I invited Father Peter Scheffer to offer a reflection informed by his military service and priestly ministry. A 1983 graduate of West Point and U.S. Army Ranger School, he is a retired Army infantry lieutenant colonel and a combat Veteran of the Global War on Terror. Father Scheffer serves as pastor of St. Joan of Arc Parish in Orleans and parochial administrator of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Wellfleet and St. Peter the Apostle Parish in Provincetown.

Veteran’s Day & the Memorial of St. Martin of Tours

One hundred and eight years ago in 1918, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, a cessation of hostilities was signed between the Allies of the Western front and the nation of Germany; thus, ending World War I. WWI at the time, was known as the War to end All Wars because it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history. In fact, it was so bad, that the citizens of the world exclaimed at the time that the war was such an atrocity, and that it should never be allowed to happen again.

Perhaps coincidentally, November 11th is also the day when we celebrate the Memorial of St. Martin of Tours.   Born in the early part of the 4th century, his father was a Roman soldier, and he named his son after Mars, the Roman God of War. Martin (like his father) eventually became a soldier in the Roman Cavalry as well, but then early in life he had a conversion experience in which he maintains that he encountered Christ in the appearance of a beggar while out on a military mission.  Soon after this experience, he determined that his faith prohibited him from fighting, saying, “I am a soldier of Christ before all else.”

One of the reasons that we remember St. Martin of Tours on November 11th is because his life represents a transition from a condition of war to a condition of peace.  And after WWI ended, President Woodrow Wilson established November 11th as a national holiday to honor a day in which a similar transition from a condition of war to a condition of peace was made; it was called Armistice Day. 

Eventually, this day in America would eventually become known, of course, as Veterans Day in order to honor and thank all of those men and women who have served our country in the Armed Forces, and to remember all of those who put themselves in harm’s way so as to preserve our safety and our freedom. 

The freedom and the safety that we have received from these men and women, as well as their families, is a tremendous gift, so we gather across America every November 11 th in order to commemorate and to celebrate those people who have sacrificed so much for us.  But in doing so, we might want to ask God for guidance on what ways we ourselves—both as individual people and as a collective Nation—can move from a condition of war, of conflict, and of division

(particularly here in the United States) to a condition of peace.  As St. Martin of Tours has shown us through his own conversion, there is no better way to use the gifts of freedom and safety which we have received than to work for that transition from war to peace; both as American Christians and as citizens of God’s Kingdom here on earth.

Pro Deo et Patria! ~Fr. Peter

Source/Reference: Catholic Encyclopedia.org

May the Holy Spirit Guide the Bishop’s Fall Meeting

Please keep my brother bishops and me in your prayers as we gather in Baltimore Nov. 16 to 19 for our annual Fall Plenary Assembly, with committee meetings beginning this weekend. Our time together offers an opportunity for prayer, fellowship, and fraternity as we consider matters affecting the Church, including immigration, respect for human life and dignity, and signs of renewed interest in the faith. May the Holy Spirit guide our discussions and decisions. (You can follow the public sessions on the USCCB website.)

Sincerely, 

+Bishop da Cunha