The Proud2bCatholic concert in Framingham was this past Saturday and as usual it was a good time. The weather was amazing and about 2,000 folks showed up from all over New England and beyond. The music included Sarah Bauer, the rapper Righteous B, Bob Rice, Sean Forrest, Ayla Brown (she was an American Idol semi-finalist, is the daughter of a state senator, and is going to Boston College this year on a basketball scholarhship), Fr. Stan Fortuna, and Martin Doman, among others.
I ran into Joe Soucy, who’s getting me reactivated as a Knight of Columbus, and he introduced me to Fr. Goodyear of Bring It, a network for young Catholic men, especially college students, from colleges around New England mostly. Their motto is from Proverbs 27: 17: “As iron sharpens iron, one man sharpens another.” This isn’t primarily about priestly vocations, but more about helping young Catholic men become better Catholics and eventually better husbands and fathers. They have a blog and a podcast, they organize gathering weekends, pilgrimage, and a spring break service trip, they develop prayer and accountability. It sounds pretty good.
The rest of the concert was typically very good. They had adoration in a Marian grotto on the grounds of the Marist Fathers house where it was held, and confessions. Both had large crowds all day.
Mass was celebrated by Bishop Richard Malone of Portland, a former auxiliary in Boston. His homily was good. Too often bishops get sidetracked into talking about the special events they’re at, but Bishop Malone stayed focused on the readings, which was good.
We couldn’t stay until the very end because the day went long and by 9:30 we had to get Isabella in the car and on the way home. Amazingly, she ended up sleeping 7 straight hours that night. Yes!
