2020 August: The Current

School Liturgies resume in September. The School is soon to open in person with students returning at the end of August to resume residential life for the Fall Term. As Headmaster Dan McDonough notes in a letter to the school, "We have all keenly missed our shared experience of community life here on campus and are eager to resume it." This resumption entails a need to provide liturgies for a student population too numerous to fit in a socially-distanced church. The state of Rhode Island currently limits attendance to 25% of capacity, which is approximately one-third of the student body, or half of the boarding students. With students gradually returning to undergo testing and quarantines prior to preseason sports and the beginning of the Fall Term, the liturgies will be repopulated with accommodations in place to handle the numbers. With the School's COVID policies dependent on state regulations pegged to ongoing infection statistics, further details will be worked out over the next weeks and will be available on the School and monastery websites.

Addressing "The Sin of Racism." Following the death of George Floyd and the eruption of racial activism this summer, Pope Francis has spoken explicitly of the "sin of racism," stating in the General Audience of June 3: "My friends, we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life." Headmaster Dan McDonough echoed this language in his message to the extended school constituency on how the school hopes to address its own failures in this regard: "Portsmouth Abbey School acknowledges the times when its community has failed to live as Christ taught – to love our brothers and sisters. We apologize for those instances when we have not done enough to respond to and educate about injustices here in our community and in the world. With deep sorrow and regret, we ask for forgiveness from all who have been harmed by these sins committed in the past or in the present." Fr. Michael Brunner finds this concern to reflect our relationship with Jesus Himself, noting in his June "Open Letter to the Portsmouth Abbey Community": "Jesus said that whatever you do or don't do to or for the least human being, you are doing or not doing to or for Him. Jesus was patient, but not that day in the Temple when he overturned tables and drove out merchants with a whip. There is righteous anger to be expressed when human beings, images of the One God, are being systematically abused. The truth will set you free, but the truth is not always convenient, and freedom brings with it responsibility. It is not for us to rail against any irresponsibility of others. We need to live up to our beliefs and ideals and abandon the baggage of racism once and for all. We need the protest and we need prayer." (Fr. Michael also addresses this issue in his homily, "A Parable and a Pandemic" of July 12.) 

To address such injustice, the Board of Regents, Monastery, and School have worked together to create a "Committee on Cultural Diversity at Portsmouth Abbey School." The Headmaster summarizes its action points: to listen, to learn, to engage, to be clear, to collaborate. This committee, headed by Dr. Marc Lavallee, has already been meeting over the summer, producing a plan to enhance communication,  curriculum, and community support on these action points.

A Virtual Pilgrimage to Lourdes.  While the monastery and school could not join the Ampleforth Pilgrimage to Lourdes this summer, for the first time since the partnership was forged at the end of the 1970's, a virtual program was successfully held from July 17-24. The pilgrimage included live-streamed Masses from Ampleforth, Walsingham, and Edinburgh, and a recorded Mass from our own grotto. Fr. Michael celebrated that Mass, for which Headmaster Dan McDonough served as lector, Mrs. Susan McCarthy read the prayer of the faithful, and Dr. Blake Billings '77 provided an introduction and music for the Responsorial Psalm, with Br. Sixtus serving as Master of Ceremonies and Br. Benedict supplying the technological expertise to make the broadcast possible. The pilgrimage program included several Zoom rosaries, social gatherings, and daily talks offered by the monks of Ampleforth and other priests affiliated with the pilgrimage. The Manquehue Apostolic Movement community currently based at Downside Abbey led several Lectio Divina sessions over Zoom. This Grotto Mass, and other events that were part of this pilgrimage, remains accessible on the Ampleforth Lourdes YouTube channel. (Abbey Grotto Mass). Many participants expressed gratitude that the virtual program was available, while noting they longed to return next summer to the grotto at Massabielle.