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Summary of today\u2019s show: Scot Landry, Susan Abbott, and Gregory Tracy discussed the news headlines of the week, including the final proposal of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Planning Commission to Cardinal Se\xe1n; CatholicTV\u2019s new show \u201cAging Gracefully\u201d; The lack of realization among Catholics that assisted suicide is on the ballot in November; How Marian devotion got downplayed at Vatican II; and the dedication of a Liberty Flagpole at one parish.\nListen to the show:\n\nToday\u2019s host(s): Scot Landry and Susan Abbott\nToday\u2019s guest(s): Gregory Tracy, managing editor of the Pilot, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston\nLinks from today\u2019s show:\n\n\n\nSome of the stories discussed on this show will be available on The Pilot\u2019s and The Anchor\u2019s websites on Friday morning. Please check those sites for the latest links.\n\nToday\u2019s topics: Pastoral Planning proposal; Aging Gracefully; Assisted suicide; Mary at Vatican II; Liberty Flagpole\n1st segment: Scot Landry and Susan Abbott talked about busy everyone at the Pastoral Center is with the end of summer. Susan noted that the start of religious education programs on Catechetical Sunday this Sunday is keeping her office busy. Susan said today at Mass she heard St. John Chrysostom\u2019s phrase \u201cinvincible patience\u201d and that\u2019s been on her mind all day.\nScot asked Gregory Tracy about the front page story in the Pilot which is about the final proposal to Cardinal Sean from the Archdiocesan Pastoral Planning Commission. Scot said it was delivered to Cardinal Sean a couple of weeks ago. Scot said the Cardinal is now reviewing it and consulting with other bodies before making a final decision. So far, he\u2019s met with the Presbyteral Council, which unanimously recommended he accept the proposal. Last week, Scot said the Cardinal\u2019s cabinet also unanimously recommended it as well. The final decision is expected in mid to late December.\n\n\n\nSusan said she was pleased to see in the article in the Pilot that all along that this was emphasized as a proposal. Many people thought this was a rubber stamp process and a done deal. Scot said part of that is because this is the third or fourth attempt by a group to come up with a recommendation. But for this process the participation of everyone was taken. Susan said some of the original elements of this proposal were modified after feedback from the consultations throughout the archdiocese. Scot noted that the consultation over the last 10 months included 40 archdiocesan meetings with 5,000 people as well as 200 independent parish meetings representing 20,000 people. They received more than 8,000 single-spaced pages of feedback. They consulted 16 times with the Presbyteral council and the Commission itself met 31 times. Fr. Paul Soper, the interim pastoral planning director, said this is an historic consultation. Greg concurred that he\u2019d never seen or heard of such an extensive consultation with as much give and take and feedback. He added that it is clear that changes were made based on the feedback, including the biggest item concerning how pastors for the proposed collaboratives would be chosen as well as phasing in the changes versus making a massive change in a short time. He noted that there will be an initial voluntary first phase.\nScot said the proposal is available for anyone to read on the link above. He said it\u2019s a thorough document and anyone who cares about the Church should read it. He noted that it is also written very clearly. Susan said that damage is done when people argue based on what they\u2019ve heard, rather than reading the primary sources first. She encouraged everyone to read it with an open mind. Greg agreed and said he\u2019s heard people talking and sharing information that was incorrect and he attempted to correct them. He said that\u2019s one of the reasons why they wrote a story that was so long.\nScot said tomorrow\u2019s show will be dedicated to looking at the proposal in depth. He provided a summary. The first part of the document is focused on strengthening parishes and the second is on strengthening parishes for the work of the New Evangelization. He listed some of the highlights, including the 288 parishes of the Archdiocese will be grouped in approximately 135 Parish Collaboratives, usually consisting of two or three parishes. They will be phased in over a period of five years. The collaboratives will be assigned one single Pastor. Scot noted that most pastors have said this is where the archdiocese needs to go, but they need training on how to accomplish the goals of the pastoral plan. Each collaborative will be asked to come up with a local pastoral plan within 12 months of implementation of the collaborative. The recommendation also includes pastoral training for priests and lay pastoral staff by the Office of the Episcopal Vicar for the New Evangelization, the Catholic Leadership Institute, and the Office of Pastoral Planning. There are also separate recommendations from the Religious Education Task Force and the Committee to Study Lay Formation Programs which the APPC recommends be implemented in their entirety.\nGreg said this is a monumental undertaking. The focus of the discussions he\u2019s heard so far has focused on administration and organization, but the training is really worth noting. He was taken aback by the massive undertaking of all the training that they plan. If it all comes to fruition, we will have one of the best formed dioceses in the US. He thinks a lot of the controversies we see, it comes from confusion about what the Catholic faith is, and this training plan helps deal with that lack of understanding. Scot said Cardinal Sean is serious that this plan is about the New Evangelization and giving significant training so we can be effective at evangelization. Susan said certification of catechists comes through the Archdiocese and her office, and this planning process has given them the impetus to get everything properly set up and improve how they standardize and certify everyone.\n2nd segment: Scot said \u201cAging Gracefully\u201d is a new series on CatholicTV, and the host is Fr. Michael Sheehan, SJ,the provincial of the local Jesuit province who also happens to be a medical doctor. Greg said while the show never says they\u2019re motivated by the assisted suicide debate, they do say that this is a moment to talk about the elderly and how they can live their life well.\n\n\n\nGreg said it deals with the many aspects of living a full life. There are five episodes that talk about spirituality, how to talk to your physician, thinking about and preparing for death, and more. Scot said it\u2019s all very practical. The elderly need to be able to advocate for themselves with their doctors. Susan said Fr. Sheehan is amazing and heard him speak at a presentation at the Pastoral Center and saw him on Fr. Chris Hickey\u2019s TV show \u201cGoing My Way.\u201d\nAlso in the Pilot this week is a story about St. Augustine Parish in Andover dedicated a Liberty Flagpole in honor of September 11. They dedicated the pole a day earlier so that those they invited would also be able to attend 9/11 celebrations. It was prompted by a parishioner asking why there wasn\u2019t a flagpole in the sanctuary. Greg said there are no regulations concerning the practice, but it began during World War II. Later on the US Bishops recommended that symbols apart from the worship of Christ should be outside the sanctuary. Fr. Peter Gori, the pastor, explained all this in his bulletin, and then said tongue-in-cheek that if anyone wanted to dedicate a flagpole to the church, he would welcome it. One parishioner immediately donated the flagpole and another couple donated the flags. Fr. Gori said it honors every citizen who has strived to be both a good American and a good Catholic.\n\nThe flagpole was dedicated to the men and women of St. Augustine Parish who served in the U.S. Armed Forces throughout the years. \u201cMy greatest passion has always been to serve God and my country,\u201d [Claude] Gallant [the donor of the flags] said.\n\nIn The Anchor this week was a story about the efforts to oppose Question 2 on the ballot in November about the legalization of assisted suicide. There was discussion that an issue like this should be debated in public in the Legislature so that the voters can be informed and heard before a vote. A ballot question avoids all that and many of the people the Anchor talked to were shocked to learn that this is on the ballot. Scot said if people like the listeners of TGCL or who go to church on a regular basis or read The Pilot and The Anchor don\u2019t take up the baton and engage others on Question Two, then we face an uphill battle to oppose it.\n\n\n\n\nGreg said those of us who work in the Church and especially in the media, we can think we\u2019re overdoing coverage of this issue, but he knows that you have to keep hammering it home because you never know which article someone will pick up and get informed. Scot said it\u2019s important to know that arguments put forward by the broad-based coalition opposing the ballot initiative are not faith-based arguments, of which there are plenty. There are also arguments that are very practical and can be apprehended by anyone, whatever their faith background. Susan noted that there will be a series of workshops taking place throughout the Archdiocese that start next week. The list of workshops is .\nScot said yesterday\u2019s show was a great discussion with Dr. Ken Stevens, an oncologist from Oregon where assisted suicide has been the law for more than a decade. He said DR. Stevens brought up a great point that a state can\u2019t on the one hand say assisted suicide is okay, while also saying that other kinds of suicide is bad.\nScot said tonight, Cardinal Se\xe1n will be on EWTN\u2019s The World Over with Raymond Arroyo at 8pm. It can be heard on WQOM or on TV. Also, on October 3 at 8pm, Cardinal Sean will be hosting a live virtual town hall on CatholicTV, simulcast on WQOM, at 8pm. Starting that evening, Cardinal Se\xe1n is asking all Catholic families to pray a daily rosary to defeat this ballot question. The Cardinal has recorded special episodes of the Rosary to air on CatholicTV for this purpose. This will air five or six times per day until November 6.\n3rd segment: This week\u2019s benefactor card raffle winner is Joseph Montuori from Newton Upper Falls, MA\nHe wins A CD from the Envoy Institute: \u201cAn Antidote to Atheism\u201d by Msgr. Stuart Swetland, and the booklet \u201cCatholics in the Public Square\u201d by Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix.\nIf you would like to be eligible to win in an upcoming week, please visit . For a one-time $30 donation, you\u2019ll receive the Station of the Cross benefactor card and key tag, making you eligible for WQOM\u2019s weekly raffle of books, DVDs, CDs and religious items. We\u2019ll be announcing the winner each Wednesday during \u201cThe Good Catholic Life\u201d program.\n4th segment: Scot noted that there was a big conference at the Vatican on Marian devotion. Fr. James Phalan of the Mariological Society told the academic conference that a misreading of Vatican II led to a collapse in Marian devotion. He said people interpreted some of the debates on where to include devotion to Mary in the documents as being a downgrading of devotion. He also said that was connected to a collapse in devotion to the Holy Spirit. He described it as overly rational.\n\n\n\n\nAt the same time, Pope Benedict XVI during an audience remembered that debate over where to include a document on Mary. There wassome talk about having a separate document, but they ultimately decided to include it as part of Lumen Gentium.\n\nThe Pope recalled the vote of Oct. 23, 1963, in which it was decided to include a chapter on Mary in Lumen Gentium. In this chapter, he said, \u201cthe figure of Mary \u2013 reinterpreted and reproposed in the context of the Word of God, the texts of the patristic and liturgical traditions, as well as a broad theological and spiritual reflection \u2013 appears in all of its beauty and singularity, well inserted in the fundamental mysteries of the Christian faith.\u201d\n\nThe Holy Father said there were good reasons to make this part of the Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium). He then reflected on how popular piety is nourished by biblical and patristic references.\n\n\u201cThe singular figure of the Mother of God must be developed and studied from diverse and complimentary perspectives: while the \u2018via veritas\u2019 (way of truth) is always valid, we must not forsake the \u2018via pulchritudinis\u2019 (way of beauty) and the \u2018via amoris\u2019 (way of love) to discover and contemplate still more profoundly Mary\u2019s crystalline and solid faith, her love for God, her indestructible hope.\u201d