You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.' - John 8:32
VOL. 70, NO. 47 NOVEMBER 19, 2021 WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS HOME DELIVERY $39/YEAR
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Basketball picking up again; open to girls teams
BY BILL DOYLE
CFP CORRESPONDENT
CYC boys basketball is bouncing back after taking last season off due to the pandemic and the Diocese of Worces- ter hopes to add girls teams this winter as well. Emily Pegg believes giving girls a chance to play is a slam dunk. Miss Pegg, 30, has coached boys basketball and coed volleyball for St. Mary Parish in Shrewsbury for five years. Unfortunately, when she was a high school parishioner at St. Bernadette Parish in Northborough, the diocese didn't of- fer CYC basketball for girls. She enjoyed playing basketball in middle school at St. Bernadette School and as a freshman at Notre Dame Academy, but then her playing days ended. If there was a girls league I would have been able to con-
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WORLD NEWS 2 NATIONAL NEWS 3 EUCHARIST SERIES 4 CATHOLIC QUIZ 5 COMMENTARY 5 BISHOP'S LETTER 6 TV,RADIO,ONLINE 7 AROUND DIOCESE 8
Local CCHD grants distributed; Bishop notes that annual collection to take place this weekend in parishes. 6 Eucharist series: The invitation to Mass. 4
Bishops approve Eucharist document
BY TANYA CONNOR
THE CATHOLIC FREE PRESS
Delivering the Bishop's Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners is a sort of treasure hunt that ends in smiles on other people's faces and increased enjoyment of his own holidays.
obert Brady paints this picture of why he volunteers to deliver meals each holiday, and other work he does for Catholic Charities Worcester County. Since the 1960s, the bishop of the Diocese of Worcester has been sitting down to a Thanksgiv- ing and Christmas dinner with anyone who needs a holiday meal and someone to share it with. But some people can't get out to the dinner coordinated by Catholic Charities, so the agency arranges for meals to be delivered to their homes. That's where Mr. Brady, of St. Roch Parish in Oxford, comes in. He says he's helped deliver these meals for about 15 years, when he's been able to. (He retired from his veterinary service with the U.S. Department of Agriculture five years ago.) Delivering meals led to another way to volunteer for Catholic Charities - getting food for its food pantry. He started volun- teering to pick up the food after the coronavirus temporarily halted another of his services with the agency, teaching citizen- ship classes. But what got him started with the holiday dinners? "Reading about it in The Catholic Free Press - about the need for volunteers to deliver dinners," he says.
Dinner with the bishop
PHOTO BY DERRICK CASEY
Robert Brady, dressed for the cold, picks up food for Catholic Charities Tuesday from a walk-in freezer at Worcester County Food Bank.
PHOTO BY DERRICK CASEY
People in need of food and fellowship are invited to have Thanksgiving dinner with Bishop McManus again this year, Catholic Charities has announced. As in the past, meals are also to be delivered. Catholic Charities, which coordinates the free meals, is also seeking volunteers. Each year, with volunteers' help "we deliver and serve over 3,000 meals on both Thanks- giving and Christmas" to homebound elders, and those who are disabled, homeless or lacking a holiday meal, says Catholic Chari- ties' website, ccworc.org/bishops-holiday- dinner/. The sit-down dinner is scheduled for noon to 2 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 25, in the lower level of St. Paul Cathedral, 15 Chatham St., Worcester. Guests do not need to register, said Madalyn Sirois, social media and fun- draising coordinator for Catholic Charities Worcester County. They may arrive on their own or take one of the buses Catholic Chari- ties provides. (See bus routes on page 6.) Sit-down dinner volunteers should arrive at the cathedral between 11:30 and 11:45 a.m. on Thanksgiving and can register at this link: https://www.ccworc.org/cathedralregis- tration/. Those needing meals delivered should leave a message at 508-798-0191 by Nov. 21,
Volunteer gives thanks by serving others
Domenic Mattress kisses the trophy after the St. John Parish team won the CYC basketball title in 2019, the last year the diocese had the basketball league.
PHOTO COURTESY OF RAY MATTRESS
SEE VOLUNTEER , 6 SEE DINNER , 6 The Worcester Catholic Men's Conference, the nation's old- est diocesan conference, will be an in-person event in 2022. Co-chairmen Msgr. Thomas J. Sullivan and Angelo Guad- agno have announced the speaking program for the 21st an- nual conference, which is scheduled for Saturday, April 2, at Assumption University. In 2020 we were all disappointed when the conference had to be cancelled two weeks before it was to take place because of the pandemic. This past year we had a virtual conference for the same reason. But now we are so delighted to go forward with an in-person conference again," Msgr. Sullivan said. The speaking program will take place in the Plourde Center at the university. "We are thrilled that officials at As-
Speakers announced for 2022 Men's Conference
SEE MEN'S , 7
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BY CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY AND MARGARET M. RUSSELL
THE CATHOLIC FREE PRESS
BALTIMORE, Maryland (CNA) - The U.S. Catholic bishops overwhelmingly voted Wednesday to approve a new document on the Eucharist that highlights the sacra- ment's indispensable role in the life of the Church. The vote, coming during the annual fall assembly of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, was 222 to 8, with three abstentions. Worcester's Bishop McManus, a mem- ber of the Committee on Doctrine which worked on the docu- ment, said, "This docu- ment is fundamentally important to who we are as Catholics. We are a Eucharistic community." In an interview Wednesday afternoon, Bishop McManus said the overwhelming suc- cess of the vote had a lot to do with the fact that the bishops spent the entire opening day of the fall assembly in prayer together. That sets the whole tone, when you see a group of 250 bishops on their knees in adora- tion of the Blessed Sacra- ment," he said. The reality of a uni- fied episcopate was obvious as we finished our morning of prayer and adoration," Bishop McManus said. Voting was anony- mous and conducted electronically. A two- thirds majority was necessary for the document's adoption. The few bishops who spoke during a brief discussion prior to the vote proposed only minor changes to the wording of certain passages, none of which were approved. The bishops held a closed-door executive session on Monday to allow for more substantive discussion about the document. Bishop McManus said that the commit- tee accepted and acted on amendments up through the night before the vote. "We wanted to produce a document that would bring about the unity of the episcopate, and I think we did," he said. The product of months of debate and revisions, the final text avoids any overt SEE EUCHARIST , 3
'This document is fundamentally important to who we are as Catholics.'
Bishop McManus
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