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McDonough to conclude tenure as chancellor

BRAINTREE -- James P. McDonough, widely credited with bringing financial stability to the archdiocese, has announced that he will be stepping down as chancellor of the Archdiocese of Boston.

McDonough will conclude his tenure as chancellor effective March 2. He will be succeeded by John E. Straub, currently Executive Director of Finance and Operations for Central Ministries, as interim chancellor. Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley made the announcement Jan. 31.

Indy auxiliary pulls for Pats

INDIANAPOLIS -- When the NFL made tickets available to the public for Super Bowl media day Jan. 31, they inadvertently invited the attention of a Catholic bishop and all of his followers on social media site Twitter.

A Boston priest until being named auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis last year, Bishop Christopher J. Coyne attended the event and tweeted the whole experience.

Pastoral service collaboratives unveiled at regional meetings
BRAINTREE -- As part of a three-phase consultation process, the Archdiocesan Pastoral Planning Commission (APPC) began releasing lists of proposed groupings for parish collaboration on their website last month following meetings with priests in each of the five regions of the archdiocese.

As meetings to discuss groupings completed, the APPC posted the proposed Pastoral Service Team (PST) groupings online.

This week on The Good Catholic Life, Wayne Cockfield of National Right to Life sat down with Scot Landry and Fr. Mark O’Connell to talk about the dangerous expansion of the culture of death that a ballot initiative to legalize doctor-prescribed suicide in Massachusetts represents.

On Monday we kicked off Catholic Schools Week by welcoming Fr. Paul O’Brien and Sr. Lucy Veilleux of Lawrence Catholic Academy who spoke of the secret to educating kids in the poorest city in the state where the public schools in the same town have so far failed.

Moving to a very different kind of school, Scot and Fr. Chris O’Connor discussed the Archdiocesan Choir School, the last of its kind in the US, with William McIvor, headmaster; John Robinson, music director; and Fr. Michael Drea. Not only are the boys there trained to a college level of musical ability, they are also helped to excel in academics and faith practice through their singing disciplines.

On Wednesday, Scot and Fr. Matt Williams were joined by Dr. John McEwan and Cathy Demers from Cardinal Spellman High School in Brockton, where the school spirit and fervor for the faith is only matched by the high tech teaching methods used to put students and teachers ahead of nearly every other Catholic high school.

On Thursday, our usual panel discussed the news of the week, including the resignation of the Chancellor for the archdiocese; proposed parish clusters from the pastoral planning initiative; threats to religious freedom from federal health regulations; and the Mass. Citizens for Life annual assembly’s take on the doctor-prescribed suicide question.

Listen to The Good Catholic Life live every weekday from 4-5pm on Boston’s Catholic radio WQOM 1060AM or streaming online at www.WQOM.org. You can download previous episodes to your computer or listen to them online at www.TheGoodCatholicLife.com. You can also subscribe to shows for free for your iPod, iPhone, or iPad at iTunes.

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