Wednesday (4/5), we had our annual gathering with the major superiors of women religious orders in the archdiocese for a lunch and a time of dialogue.

This year, the sisters heard a presentation by Father Bryan Hehir on Pope Francis's pontificate, particularly his priorities on immigration issues.

Sister Marian Batho, our Delegate for Religious, does such important work arranging these meetings, keeping all the orders informed, and looking for opportunities to bring religious communities together. We are very grateful to her and all the religious communities that were represented during our meeting together.

Pope St. John board meeting

That evening, we held one of our regular board meetings of Pope St. John XIII National Seminary in Weston.

Father Brian Kiely is celebrating his first anniversary as rector and we heard reports of all the good work going on in the seminary. We were also very pleased to learn that Bishop-elect Roy Campbell, an alumnus of Pope St. John XXIII, had just been named an auxiliary Bishop in Washington, D.C.

Also at this meeting, we had an opportunity to acknowledge Tom Reilly, who is leaving the board after 20 years of service. We are very grateful for all his hard work and support.

Bishops of the Boston province

Thursday (4/6) we had our semi-annual meeting of the bishops of the Boston Province -- which includes the dioceses of Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire -- at which we come together to discuss issues of common interest. It's also a great moment of fraternity for the bishops.

We were so pleased that all the bishops of the region were able to be at the Pastoral Center with us, as well as several retired bishops.

It's always an opportunity to be with the bishops and hear about what's happening in the different dioceses and facilitate our working together more closely in the region.