As I do each year during Holy Week, I am posting my blog a day early so as to leave myself free for the celebrations of the Sacred Triduum.

Last Friday, I was accompanied by Father Bryan Hehir and George Cronin of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference for a meeting with Mayor Wu at Boston City Hall. It was my first sit-down meeting with her since she's taken office and was an opportunity to discuss various initiatives that the archdiocese, Catholic schools, and Catholic Charities are involved in.

It was a very productive meeting, and I was very happy to have this opportunity to speak with the mayor.



Zoom call

Saturday, as part of my work with the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, I participated in a Zoom call with Laureen Lynch-Ryan and Ian Robertson of the group Deaf Catholic Youth Initiatives for the Americas.

They work mostly in Latin America and are very concerned with the very high rate of abuse among deaf children there -- they say that rate is about 50 percent. They also told me that, particularly in Latin America, relatively few parents of deaf children ever learn how to sign. This means, of course, that communication between the children and their parents is very limited.

Their hope is that the Commission can help them set up a conference on safeguarding for their organization serving deaf people in the Americas, particularly Central America.



Visit at the cathedral

Also, that day, I was visited by Father Mattias, the provincial of the Cape Verdean Capuchins who are working here in the archdiocese. He was making his provincial visit and came by to see me accompanied by Father John Currie, the pastor of St. Patrick's in Roxbury.

By chance, this was the same weekend that the president of Cape Verde was visiting the area, and all the news articles were reminding us that Massachusetts has the largest Cape Verdean population in the United States. So, we are so grateful to the Cape Verdean friars who help us to minister to this population in the archdiocese.



Palm Sunday

Sunday was, of course, Palm Sunday, and we had beautiful celebrations at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and were very pleased to welcome so many people to the cathedral.

I celebrated the 11:30 English Mass.

At the 9:30 Spanish Mass, they had a very large procession with hundreds of people participating. Msgr. O'Leary was very disappointed he wasn't able to get a donkey, but it did not prevent the faithful from coming in large numbers!

The youth group from St. Mary's in Waltham likes to come each year to visit the cathedral on Palm Sunday. So, I was happy to greet them and give them a short talk and blessing in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel.



Wake of James Greer, Sr.

Monday, I went to Plymouth to attend the wake of James Greer, Sr., the father of Deacon Jim Greer, who does such wonderful work coordinating all our chaplaincy programs.

I was pleased to be able to lead a small prayer service with the family and friends who were gathered and express my condolences.