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Hello and welcome back!
The last couple of weeks have been quite something for acts of God. Here in the East, on Tuesday of last week we had the earthquake centered in Virginia, followed by Hurricane Irene, which moved up the coast last weekend.
In some ways, Irene was not as bad as people had feared, particularly in New York City where the mayor went to such lengths to assure the safety of the public. Still, it did terrible damage and cost people their property and even lives. Of course, tens of thousands were also left without electricity.
Having lived through hurricanes in the West Indies, I am very conscious of just how powerful these storms can be and the devastating effect it can have on people's lives.
In our own area, Vermont was the most seriously damaged. I'm always impressed at how people tend to be solicitous and generous in helping their neighbors during a time of crisis like this.
I myself was affected by it because I happened to have a wedding in Washington D.C. on Saturday and was planning to come back on Sunday, but there were no flights or trains that day.
I had wanted to get back as soon as possible because on Monday morning we were having Mass at Holy Name Parish in West Roxbury with the elementary school teachers and administrators of our Catholic schools.
So, Bishop Robert Hennessey very generously agreed to take my place. He told them that he was the substitute teacher coming to say the Mass.
– – –
This week we had the "changing of the guard" of the Vicars General as Father Richard Erikson ended his tenure and we welcomed Msgr. Robert Deeley to take his place.
We had a farewell Mass and reception for Father Rich here at the Pastoral Center on Tuesday.
The Mass was attended by his father, his sister and brother in law, and other friends. There were many priests, auxiliary bishops, staff from the Chancery and a number of people from Holy Name Parish, where Father Erikson has resided with Msgr. George Carlson and the other priests there. It was a very beautiful tribute to Father Erikson.
I think people realize what a fine priest he is and how selfless he has been in serving the Church. We were very happy to see how enthusiastically people turned to out to be with him in this time of transition.
I told him that the big news of the last week was Steve Jobs leaving Apple and Father Rich Erikson leaving the Pastoral Center (although he didn't get quite as much publicity about it!)
He will be leaving shortly for Rome, where he will participate in the Institute for Continuing Theological Education, which is held at the North American College in Rome.
It's a wonderful program that affords priests an opportunity for theological and spiritual renewal. It also affords them an opportunity to spend time in Rome — the center of Christendom — and to appreciate the Holy Father's ministry and the universality of our Church.
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Having said goodbye to Father Erikson, on Thursday we officially welcomed Msgr. Robert Deeley our new Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia.
In 2005, Msgr. Deeley very generously acquiesced to my request that he help out at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Holy See. He did a wonderful job there and was also very good about getting together with our seminarians and Boston priests who are stationed in Rome. The nice feature of this tenure was that for much of the time he was in Rome his brother Kevin, who is a Navy chaplain, was also in Italy. So the Deeley brothers could get together on a regular basis.
Msgr. Deeley also responded very generously when I asked him to return to Boston to assume this very important responsibility of Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia.
I'm very happy that he's back and we also marked his inauguration with a Mass of thanksgiving and a reception at the Pastoral Center.
But before the reception with coffee and other light refreshments, we had the Pastoral Center staff gather in our auditorium.
There, Msgr. Deeley publicly read the profession of faith and the oath of fidelity. Monsignor received a round of applause from our staff and gave some brief remarks.
He said that he was pleased to make these professions in public, in front of the staff. I think it was it a great witness for our staff and a reminder about what our mission is here.
We certainly look forward to his leadership here in the archdiocese.
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This week we saw another changing of the guards, as it were, with the appointment of Archbishop Edwin O'Brien as the next Pro-Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.
The order is one of the oldest organizations in the Church. Dating back to the time of the Crusades, they were originally an order of knights charged with protecting the sacred sites of the Holy Land. In modern times, the Order maintains that ancient mission by supporting the works of the Church in the Holy Land such as schools, clinics, hospitals and churches.
As I have mentioned in the blog before, I was once returning from Lourdes and was able to be part of the veneration of the Crown of Thorns — that very important relic is entrusted to the Order of the Holy Sepulchre at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Cardinal John Foley, who was for so long the head of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, was named Pro-Grand Master of the Order in 2007 and he recently retired, due to his age and health reasons.
I believe he was the first American to hold that post, and I understand he did such an extraordinary job that the Holy See has decided to have another American to continue that work.
Archbishop O'Brien is a natural fit for the position. He was, of course, rector at the North American College, so he knows his way around Rome very well. He has a military background as well, having been in the service himself, as well as having been the archbishop of our Military Archdiocese.
He is certainly a man the Holy See has given many responsibilities over the years. He was in charge of our visitations of our seminaries in the United States and has done an excellent job as Archbishop of Baltimore. I'm sure that he will continue the wonderful work that Cardinal Foley has done with the Order of the Holy Sepulchre.
Locally, we have an outstanding group, where I serve as Grand Prior. We have a history of wonderful leaders: The Ryans, Denis Looney, and now John Monahan.
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Another event I want to mention was visit last week by Father Pat Byrne, who is the superior of the Society of the Divine Word in Ireland. He was here to consult with Father Rodney Copp, the local director of the Pontifical Mission Societies to speak about the very important work of the Holy Childhood Association.
Father Byrne, of course, is a member of a very large missionary order and has great passion for mission animation educating people about the mission of the Church ad gentes.
The Holy Childhood Association was founded in France in 1843 as a mission society similar to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, but for children. Its founder, French Bishop Charles Forbin de Janson was convinced that children, rich in faith and love, are capable of playing their own part in the Church's mission of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ — and even of stirring adults to show the same missionary spirit.
Today, all around the world, HCA continues to follow the founding vision of "children helping children." After learning about the great needs of the world's poorest children, our young people are invited to pray and offer sacrifices so that children in the missions may know Christ and experience His love and care.
Each year over 3000 programs are funded by the Holy Childhood Association. In Uganda, HIV/AIDS orphans are cared for; in Ecuador, religious educational materials are printed for elementary school students. Children are fed what may be their only meal of the day in Haiti, while in India, children are prepared for their First Holy Communion. In the loving hands of missionaries, our children's sacrifices become like the loaves and fishes in the hands of the Lord: multiplied to serve as many as possible.
HCA is the Church itself teaching children that we are all called to be missionaries by our Baptism. Here in the Archdiocese, Catholic schools, parish religious education programs and even Catholic home school programs have mission education and animation materials available to enhance the faith formation of our young Catholics through our Holy Childhood Association office at the Pastoral Center.
The mission education programs offered by HCA are varied so as to fit into the curriculum of any Catholic formation program, be it in a Catholic school or parish religious education program.
Maureen Heil, in our office of the Pontifical Mission Societies, does such a wonderful job coordinating this program.
While Father Pat was here, she put together this video with on the work of the Holy Childhood Association:
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On Wednesday, we celebrated the Mass of the Holy Spirit at St. John's seminary for the beginning of the academic year there.
I talked on the Holy Father's message to the seminarians at the Santa Maria la Real de la Almudena during World Youth Day. In fact, some of our seminarians were actually in attendance there.
The apse of the chapel at St. John's has been renovated this summer.
This year we have around 70 altogether seminarians studying for the Archdiocese, which makes us one of the larger contingents in the U.S. Of course, St. John's is filled and we have a new diocese, the Archdiocese of Hartford, coming on board beginning to send seminarians to study there. The Redemptorists have been sending some seminarians to study at St. John's, as well.
I wanted to welcome the seminarians from other dioceses and other religious communities who are starting there at St. John's — it's a great spirit in the house.
The rector, Bishop Arthur Kennedy, and the faculty were with us at the Mass, as well. I told them how grateful I am to them for making St. John's certainly one of the premiere seminaries in the country, and that we're very proud of them.
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Later that day, we had our first meeting of the year for the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council here at the Pastoral Center.
It was a very good turnout and we discussed a number of initiatives that the diocese is involved in, particularly pastoral planning and the conference on the Church's teaching on social justice. We talked about the Catholics Come Home program and how to continue those efforts of outreach and evangelization.
Until next week,
Cardinal Seán


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This session looks at some of the common scenarios when query plans can go wrong leading to your performnce suddenly hitting the wall.
We will talk through
SQL Bits was started by a group of individuals that are passionate about the SQL Server product suite.
There is a breadth of knowledge in the SQL Community that will benefit everyone in the community.
We want to spread that knowledge.
We all work with the SQL community, some of us for many years. We have a range of skills and experiences from being given the MVP award by Microsoft, organising user groups and speaking at events around the world.
Copyright © 2019 SQLBits Limited. All Rights Reserved.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Eagles finished the season undefeated, beating the Redskins Friday, Jan. 30 in the Super Bowl.
All the games were played at Bay Oaks Tuesday and Friday nights.
The Super Bowl game came down to the last two minutes. All children showed great sportsmenship not only in the games but also the practices.
Many thanks to the staff at Bay Oaks as well as the coaches, families and enthusiastic crowds.
A very special thanks to Joe Jamieson, the Eagles coach, and his coaching staff.


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By Bill Press
Tribune Media Services
It's amazing what we can do with our iPhones: make calls, return emails, schedule meetings, file notes, take photos, keep grocery lists, get wake-up calls, time a five-minute egg, check the weather, listen to music, watch a movie, get directions, play games, invest in stock.
But you ain't seen nothin' yet. Now, with the iPhone, you can even save your soul! Yes, the Catholic Church is out with a new iPhone app to help you confess your sins.
For Catholics, confession has always been a scary ordeal. You rack your brain, trying to remember how many times you did how many things wrong. You go into this small, dark box, with somebody you don't know and can't see on the other side of a screen, and tell him your worst secrets. Only to walk out and remember all the things you forgot to tell him. Should I go back? Will I burn in hell? It's humiliating. It's torture.
But no longer. For just $1.99, Confession: A Roman Catholic App will take the guesswork out of it and simplify the penitential experience. The app will first help you prepare for the sacrament of confession by reminding you of the Ten Commandments and, depending on your age or station in life, by offering you a list of what sins you might have committed.
Under the Fourth Commandment, for example, children might be asked: "Did I keep my room clean and pick up my socks?" Or, as Maureen Dowd reports in the New York Times, a 15-year-old girl might look up the Sixth Commandment and face the question: "Do I not treat my body or other people's bodies with purity and respect?"
Grown-ups under the Sixth Commandment get more serious treatment. Men and women both, as might be expected by the Catholic Church, are asked: "Have I been guilty of any homosexual activity?" While a 33-year-old married man is asked to check the box: "Have I been guilty of masturbation?" (What? Masturbation's a sin?)
Unfortunately, the iPhone alone can't wipe out your sins. The church insists you still have to see a priest for absolution (after all, can't put too many priests out of work). But you can take your iPhone with you into the confessional, read off the list of sins you've prepared, type in the number of Hail Marys or Our Fathers the priest tells you to say for penance — and then, just in case you forgot the words, read the prayers right off the text conveniently provided in your iPhone app. Praise the Lord!
And, don't worry. You're not committing a sacrilege by making a high-tech confession. The Confession App, developed by three young Catholic men from South Bend, Ind., has been given an imprimatur (the first ever for a mobile app) by Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. And it's even received the official blessing of Pope Benedict XVI, who last spring encouraged Catholics to find new ways to connect their faith with today's new technology.
This is just the first step, of course. Watch. It won't be long before the need to visit the confessional itself disappears. As fast as Apple releases its next version of iPhone, you'll be able simply to punch in your sins, send the priest an email, and get an email back with your penance. You can store your sins in your iPhone and compare your progress, or lack thereof, from month to month. You can even tweet them to your friends.
In fact, you can bet Pope Benedict's cute little red shoes, somebody out there is working on another app right now to take the place of going to church at all. Why bother getting dressed up and leaving the house on Sunday morning when you can download the liturgy, sing along with the hymns, and even put money in the collection basket — at www.thesundaymass.org?
As a Catholic, and a former altar boy and seminarian, I must say it makes me proud to see the Catholic Church be the first to embrace the iPhone. But what still puzzles me is: How can the same church be so forward-thinking in one area — and yet so backward when it comes to celibacy and the ordination of women priests? If only the Catholic Church were as open about sexuality as it is about technology.
© 2011 Tribune Media Services, Inc.


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The human rights group Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) is hosting a rally at Ground Zero to protest the construction of a mosque at the site of the Islamic terror attack that brought down the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. Victims of 9/11 – those who lost family or friends, or who were injured on that day – are especially invited to attend.
The SIOA No 9/11 Mosque Rally will be at Ground Zero on June 6 at 12 noon. Supporting groups (partial list): ACT for America, Manhattan; Z Street; Freedom Defense Initiative; Faith Freedom International, Stuart Kaufman, VAST, No Mosque at Ground Zero.
The rally was scheduled after the Community Board for New York City's financial district unanimously approved the construction of a 13-story mosque and Islamic cultural center right across from Ground Zero.
SIOA executive director Pamela Geller commented: "What could be more insulting and humiliating than a monster mosque in the shadow of the World Trade Center buildings that were brought down by an Islamic jihad attack? Any decent American, Muslim or otherwise, wouldn't dream of such an insult. It's a stab in eye of America."
"We chose June 6 as the rally date," Geller explained, "because it's D-Day. In 1944, Americans acted against the evil of Nazism. Now it is time for Americans to stand up against the evil of Islamic jihad terrorism and Islamic supremacism."
Speakers at the No 9/11 Mosque will include Nonie Darwish, ex-Muslim and author of Now They Call Me Infidel; Simon Deng, the Sudanese ex-slave and campaigner for human rights for Sudanese Christians; James Lafferty of the Virginia Anti-Shariah Task Force; and Anders Gravers of Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE). Hosting the event are Geller, the popular blogger and columnist who publishes the acclaimed AtlasShrugs.com blog, and SIOA associate director Robert Spencer, the bestselling author and director of JihadWatch.org. Geller is the author (with Spencer) of The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America (Foreword by Ambassador John Bolton), coming July 27 from Simon & Schuster.
As a manifestation of Islamic domination and expansionism, mosques have frequently been placed on the sites of the holy places of other religions. The Al-Aqsa Mosque, built on top of the Temple of the Jews in Jerusalem, is the most famous example. Many famous churches have been turned into mosques, including the Aya Sofya Mosque in Istanbul, which until the Islamic conquest of Constantinople of 1453 was the grandest church in Christendom. The Umayyad Mosque in Damascus was, before the Islamic conquest, the Church of St. John the Baptist. Historian Sita Ram Goel has estimated that over two thousand mosques in India were built on the sites of Hindu temples.
Said Geller: "The only Muslim center that should be built in the shadow of the World Trade Center is one that is devoted to expunging the Koran and all Islamic teachings of the violent jihad that they prescribe, as well as all hateful texts and incitement to violence."
Rally speakers and participants will stand with those lost loved ones on 9/11, and call for an end to plans for this mosque that insults the memory of those who died on that day.
SIOA is one of America's foremost organizations defending human rights, religious liberty, and the freedom of speech against Islamic supremacist intimidation and attempts to bring elements of Sharia to the United States.


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SKY REPORTER: August 2012
by Steve Beyer on
Sky Data
Wednesday August first, sunrise is at 5:53 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. That evening the Sun, located in the constellation of the Crab, sets at 8:11 p.m.
Wednesday August 15 sunrise is at 6:06 a.m. and sunset occurs that day at 7:53 p.m.
The last day of this month, Friday the 31st the Sun is in Leo rising at 6:22 a.m. and setting at 7:29 that evening. During August the length of time the Sun is above the horizon each day decreases by one hour and 11 minutes. The altitude of the Sun at solar noon, its maximum daily elevation, descends during August from 67 degrees of arc on the first to 57 1/2 degrees on the 31st. Lower solar altitudes provide less concentrated Sunlight and shorter daily durations of daylight.
This month average overnight temperatures recorded in Central Park drop from 69 degrees Fahrenheit on the first to 66 degrees on the last day of August.
Principal Phases of the Moon are:
|Full Moon
|August 1
|Last Quarter
|August 9
|New Moon
|August 17
|First Quarter
|August 24
|Full Moon ("Blue Moon")
|August 31
Sky Cast
At the end of civil twilight Wednesday August 1 Mars and Saturn are both above the southwestern horizon in the constellation Virgo. Mars sets at 10:52 p.m. and Saturn sets that evening at 11:22. Other planets in our sky at the start of this month are Neptune in Aquarius, rising at 9:06 p.m.; Uranus rising at 10:31 in Cetus; Jupiter in Taurus rises at 1:25 a.m., on morning of August 2 followed by Venus, also in Taurus at 2:38; and Mercury in the Crab rising in bright twilight at 5:31 a.m.
The Full Moon of August first is located in the constellation Aquarius, near the border with Capricornus. On the last night of the month, we have our second Full Moon of August, a so-called "Blue Moon". This provides several options, as traditional names for August's Full Moon include Full Sturgeon Moon, Full Red Moon, and Full Grain Moon. With two Full Moons this month, two of these names might be used.
Mars is a center of attention due to Martian Rover Curiosity's arrival at Gale Crater Monday August 6 at 1:31 a.m. ET. That morning the spacecraft containing its Mars Science Laboratory is scheduled to set down on the Red Planet via a sophisticated "Sky Crane" procedure.
NASA offers several ways to share the experience.
At New York City, Mars sets at 10:42 p.m. the evening before Curiosity's arrival. I encourage you to look low in the west-southwest soon after 9 p.m. to view that remarkable planet in anticipation of events at its surface several hours later.
During two weeks from August 6 through August 20, Mars' rapid position changes may be traced as it moves eastward in Virgo relative to Saturn. The planets appear closest to each other on the night of the 14th when they have less than three angular degrees of separation. Currently Mars has visual magnitude 1.14, while Saturn shines slightly brighter, at magnitude 0.79. The Red Planet is now 156 million miles from Earth, while Saturn with a range of 930 million miles, is six times further from us.
On August 9, the Last Quarter Moon rises at shortly before midnight.
As the Moon progresses along its orbit it passes the apparent vicinity of several bright planets, thereby serving as a marker for their identification.
During early mornings of Saturday August 11 and Sunday the 12th, the waning crescent Moon is in the early morning eastern sky near Jupiter.
The notable Perseid meteor shower may be seen at its annual peak from late on the evening of August 12 until morning twilight intervenes. During these times about one hundred "shooting stars" per hour are expected. Of course meteors are not actual stars, but bits of rock heated to incandescence by friction with air as they fall at speeds of dozens of miles per second through upper parts of our atmosphere. The Perseid meteor shower is well known due to its relatively high and consistent meteor count as well as occurrence at a time of year when vacationers in northern latitudes are often at sites with darker skies than those typical of suburban and urban locations. Only the brightest meteors can usually be seen from high population areas.
Perseid meteors derive their name from the constellation Perseus the direction from which these meteors appear to radiate. Fragments of rock that constitute Perseid meteors originated in the comet known as 109P/Swift-Tuttle.
Meteor watching is more comfortable and enjoyable if viewers recline in a chair while facing the direction of the radiant constellation. And, if you are planning a Perseid Watching Party, the radiant rises in the northeast around 10 p.m. then reaches the zenith about 4 a.m. Also, don't forget mosquito repellent!
From about 4 a.m. until dawn on the mornings of the 13th and 14th of August the waning crescent Moon appears near the direction of Venus.
Before dawn on the 15th, a narrow lunar crescent might be seen adjacent to Mercury. By the middle of August Venus rapidly moves into the Gemini and, as always, is a vivid sight.
The evening of Tuesday the 21st the waxing crescent Moon forms an attractive triangular pattern in Virgo with rusty Mars and yellowish, slightly brighter Saturn.
When the Moon has helped provide conclusive identification of various planets during the month keep watching and reviewing planet locations. You can then use these objects as references for identifying stars in their vicinity.
First Quarter Moon is Friday August 24, when it rises in the narrow span of Scorpius containing part of the ecliptic. By the time the Moon sets just before midnight, it will have moved on into Ophiuchus, sometimes called the "thirteenth constellation of the zodiac".
Sky Lore
During August evenings we continue to savor rich stellar fields in and around the summer Milky Way. With a good guide to stars and constellations in hand, a red filtered flashlight to read by, under dark skies distant from city lights, clear warm nights provide extensive celestial sights and memories that may last a lifetime.
After tracing more obvious star patterns of the Summer Triangle and regions of Scorpius and Sagittarius near the center of the Milky Way Band, subtle groupings of fainter stars such as those in Delphinus, Sagitta, and Capricornus are lovely when seen under dark skies. If you have use of a telescope, summer evenings certainly provide many fine opportunities for enjoyment. Perhaps you have such an instrument packed away and seldom used. August is a fine time to take it out and start exploring the heavens. If it has been a while since your telescope has been out at night, try practicing with it during daylight lining up and looking at objects in your immediate neighborhood. In that way complications of setting up and aiming the telescope may be practiced with considerably more ease and success than trying to do so under dark skies. Even if you don't have access to a telescope, binoculars and unaided eyes provide glorious visions of stars in dark skies.
If summer activities keep you up very late or you rise very early, by the middle of August the constellations Taurus, Orion, Auriga and Gemini, familiar sights during winter evenings, become increasingly apparent in the eastern pre-dawn sky. Their arrival provides celestial reminders that the next change of seasons is not too far off.


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Seattle 'Misfits' fit enough to win Super Bowl
George E. Curry, NNPA Columnist | 2/7/2014, 10:46 a.m.
Prior to Sunday's Super Bowl, I told anyone who would listen that I like both the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks, so I wouldn't be terribly disappointed regardless of who won the game. But…I was hoping Seattle would emerge the victor and I will tell you why.
First— because as a former high school and college quarterback, I am partial to teams with a black starting quarterback. In Seattle's case, their first and second team quarterbacks are African American. To understand the significance of this breakthrough, for years, blacks were not allowed to play quarterback or middle linebacker at major universities or in the pros. Quarterback in particular was the glamour position and any African American coming up through the ranks as a quarterback was usually converted to a defensive back or a wide receiver, if they made it to the NFL.
Regardless of how great a black quarterback was at an HBCU, for example, he didn't get a chance to showcase his skills as a quarterback at the pro level. It was as if the scouts thought black teams played football with 10 men instead of 11. Even a, shall we say, passing look at history would have dispelled that notion.
"Fritz" Pollard was professional football's first black quarterback in 1920, leading the Akron Pros to victory in the NFL's first championship game. In the modern era, James Harris, the Grambling great, became the first regular starter for the Buffalo Bills in 1969.
Nearly 20 years later, in 1988, another ex-Grambling QB, Doug Williams, became the first Black to start and win a Super Bowl. This season was hailed as the "Year of the black Quarterback" in the NFL, with nine starting on the third weekend of the season.
The second reason I was pulling for Seattle was their coach, Pete Carroll. I always enjoyed his brand of football when he was head coach of the University of Southern California (USC). But my respect for him deepened when I learned he regularly made midnight trips to the 'hood in an effort to curb gang violence.
LA Times columnist Kurt Streeter would later write: "Few know that about twice a month Carroll leaves his comfy digs at USC, hops in the back of a beaten Camry driven by a former gang member and heads to South L.A. neighborhoods where the snap of gunfire and the anguish of death occur with the steady regularity of a metronome.
"These are not recruiting visits. He's trying to save lives.
"Most often, he arrives near midnight and walks shadowy streets with that familiar, electric strut, surrounded by little boys, grandparents, crack heads and gang toughs. He empathizes, listens, encourages and laughs. He talks about jobs and kids and marriage, about perspective and courage, about how difficult it must be to be caught in the madness of the streets.
"He realizes that some might think he's a fool, that some might say he should pay no mind to gang members. Naysayers do not stop him."