Last Thursday, I was visited by Consuelo Isaacson of Friends of Caritas Cubana, who came accompanied by Carmen Maria Nodal Martinez, the new national director of Caritas Cubana. Carmen was in the States for a fundraising event that Consuelo had organized in New York.

Friends of Caritas Cubana was started here in Boston but raises money nationwide and is probably the largest private source of funding for works of mercy in Cuba, particularly around food assistance and care for the elderly.

Things are very challenging in Cuba, particularly in light of the recent storms and the fire that destroyed so much of the infrastructure for fuel on the island. So, there are great challenges because of the lack of electricity, food, and medicine, and Caritas Cubana is working very hard to address these shortages.



Vocation event

On Friday evening, I joined a vocation event for young men at St. John's Seminary. This year, we are structuring the vocation retreats a bit differently. There will be a couple of these retreats, and this one was initiated at the seminary but also involved taking the young men to different parishes.

They heard witness talks by many of the seminarians, and I was so pleased to see the enthusiasm of the men who joined us.



Dr. Lorenzo Berra

On Saturday, I was visited by Dr. Lorenzo Berra, a member of the Memores Domini, a group of consecrated laymen of the Communion and Liberation movement.

Lorenzo had just returned from their meeting with the Holy Father and was anxious to share with me how well that went. He also told me that they will have new members coming to their residence in Cambridge. I was very pleased to hear that because many of the members who had been there in the past have been reassigned.



Mass at the Cathedral of St. Joseph

That afternoon, I went to the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Manchester, New Hampshire, for the Mass of Investiture for the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. We had the Rite of Induction followed by the Mass for the Exultation of the Holy Cross.

Of course, this was our first post-pandemic induction, and there were many new inductees, including John and Cathy White from the cathedral. It was a grand celebration.

Like Boston, Manchester has also recently renovated their cathedral. It is very beautiful, and I congratulated Bishop Libasci and the rector for the fine job that they have done.



Annual Fall Presbyteral Convocation

Wednesday, we were joined by about 200 priests for our annual Fall Presbyteral Convocation at St. Camillus in Arlington. It was an opportunity for us to discuss our pastoral plan, Disciples in Mission.

There were talks by Father Michael Rora and Father Carlos Suarez. Then, there was a time of table discussion and shared reports on people's experience of the pastoral planning process and also recommendations for next steps. I concluded our gathering with a conference on prayer in the life of the priest.