10.01.21

Diocese of Fall River, Mass. † Friday, October 1, 2021

Diocesan Office of Hispanic Ministry to host workshop November 13 A banner displaying Bishop Feehan High Schoolʼs Daring to Believe Capital Campaign adorns the Attleboro school.

Bishop Feehan High School announces capital campaign; major campus developments ATTLEBORO — Several hundred Bishop Feehan supporters were in attendance September 22 when Bishop Feehan High School President Tim Sullivan unveiled plans for several major campus projects kicking off this spring.

Completely renovated spaces for the school’s performing arts department, a brand-new 15,000 square-foot Innovation Center, and major upgrades — including a second turf field — to the school’s athletic facilities are included in the comprehensive campus plan.

These next campus improvements, coming right on the heels of the recent locker room, weight room and second gymnasium investments, will all be made possible by Feehan’s $13 million Daring to Believe Capital Campaign, the

largest in the school’s history.

Campaign co-chairs Kevin Cryan and Dennis Kelly announced that the campaign has already secured commitments of $9.1 million towards that $13 million goal, allowing major construction to begin in 2022.

“This is our next moment at Feehan,” reported Sullivan. “For 60 years, those who believe in the mission of our school have always stepped up and moved Feehan forward. This Daring to Believe Campaign continues that legacy.

Alumni from the 60s and 70s, young alums, current parents, future parents,friends from across the country and the world — the entire Feehan Family is making this next stage possible. We dare 8 Turn to page three

By Dave Jolivet Editor

davejolivet@anchornews.org

FALL RIVER — Sister Paulina Hurtado, O.P., coordinator of the diocesan Hispanic Apostolate has extended an invitation to a gathering and workshop, a follow up of the V Encuentro, celebrated in the light of the call to evangelize, as proposed by Pope Francis and the United States Catholic Bishops, at Bishop Connolly High School in Fall River on November 13 beginning at 10 a.m., and ending with a Liturgy celebrated by Father Richard D. Wilson, Vicar General of the diocese and pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church at St. James

Parish and Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish, both in New Bedford.

The main speaker will be Hosffman Ospino, Ph.D., a professor of theology and religious education at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, where he also directs graduate programs in Hispanic ministry. He was the principal researcher of the National Study on Catholic Parishes with Hispanic Ministry (2014) and co-principal investigator of the Catholic Schools Serving Hispanic Families: 2014 National Survey.

Currently advancing a national study on vocations to ministerial 8 Turn to page two

Please note that there will be no Anchor on October 15.

The next edition will be October 29.

The Museum of Family Prayer readies for 2021 October Rosary Festival NORTH EASTON, — The Museum of Family Prayer, dedicated to the work of Venerable Patrick Peyton to help families pray together, announced the 2021 October Rosary Festival, on Friday, October 8, at 6 p.m., at the Museum of Family Prayer at The Father Peyton Center, 518 Washington Street, in North Easton.

The October Rosary Festival will be a celebration of faith and family as Holy Cross priests lead

attendees in the praying of the Holy Rosary. The Rosary Festival will take place outdoors at the Museum of Family Prayer, in accordance with recommended safety precautions.

“Fall in New England brings up beautiful memories of crisp, sunny days and outdoor experiences,”

said Father James Phalan, C.S.C., families to gather early, receive a director of Family Rosary. “We Rosary and candle, and enjoy a new are thrilled to fall family tradition.” welcome anothThe October Rosary Festival er wonderful features a candlelight procession, season by celeand children will be given flower brating the bepedals to spread over the processginning of a new ing Statue of Our Lady. Rosary Catholic autumn prayer will include custom reflecevent. It is our tions from the ministry’s global sincere hope that the whole family campaign honoring St. Joseph, the can attend and enjoy this Rosary protector and guardian of Mary Festival together. We encourage October 1,8 2021 1 Turn† to page 18

Hispanic Apostolate to host workshop continued from page one

service among Hispanic Catholics. He has written and edited 13 books and more than 100 essays, academic and general.

Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V., added his special invitation, “I gladly invite all young adults, parents, and all adult members of the Hispanic Community in the Diocese of Fall River to meet Jesus on this day, as His brothers and sisters, His disciples, and witnesses in the Catholic Church of the United States. Welcome.”

The workshop will be

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themed around, “Living the Culture of Encounter In the Hispanic Community.”

Dr. Ospino said, “American Catholicism in the 21st century began in the midst of a very important demographic and cultural transformation, at the center of which is the Hispanic community.

“Evangelization in the Diocese of Fall River will depend in large part on how Hispanic families and pastoral workers foster a culture of encounter.

In this workshop we will

† October 1, 2021

explore what it means to be Catholic in an increasingly Hispanic Church and the challenges that arise to strengthen our faith communities.”

The day begins at 10 a.m. with a greeting and opening prayer. From 10:15 a.m. to noon, Dr. Ospino will give two presentations.

Lunch follows. Group work sessions are next from 1 to 1:45 p.m., followed by a third presentation by Dr. Ospino at 2 p.m.

Group work conclusions take place at 2:45 p.m. with Mass at 3:15 p.m.

The registration date for

the event is no later than November 1.

The contribution is $15 which includes lunch.

Attendees can be age 15 and up.

For more information, email Sister Hurtado at Sr.Paulina@dioc-fr.org, or call 508-675-1311, ext.

6533 and leave a message.

The V Encuentro is a movement of the Holy Spirit in the Church of the United States and consists

of the Recognition and Affirmation of the Hispanic Presence, the Contributions and Gifts, the wealth that the Latino community brings, and it is an opportunity for us as a Church to assume a leading role in terms of Evangelization and the task of being missionary disciples, the task of proclaiming the Gospel in the Church in every corner, on time and at the wrong time, as St. Paul said.

Feehan announces major campus changes continued from page one

to believe in a future that’s even brighter than our storied past.”

The Daring to Believe Campaign features four main pillars: 1. People. Feehan will significantly increase its financial aid investment and continue its recent focus on recruiting and retaining the talented faculty who have always been the heartbeat of the school.

2. Performing Arts.

Each of Feehan’s three main performing arts programs, theatre, band and vocal music (choir), will see entirely revamped spaces purpose-built to provide the best resources for those departments.

3. Major East Fields Improvements. Virtually every element of McGrath Stadium and Beach Field will be re-imagined. A new all-sport, turf surface will replace the currently-grass, baseball-only Beach Field.

With new dugouts, scoreboards, lights and spectator seating the baseball experience will be second to none, while the sub-varsity fall teams (field hockey and soccer) will have a

turf surface of their own for practice and games.

Additionally, the existing McGrath Stadium turf and track will get on-schedule rebuilds and a new entrance pavilion will bring the entire complex together seamlessly. Every Feehan student will see the benefits of these changes.

4. Innovation and STEM. The crown jewel of the campaign will be a 15,000-square-foot addition to house a brand-new Business & Innovation academic department. Coding labs, engineering, physics and business classrooms, an IdeaLab (creator/innovation space) and the area’s first high school esports facility will place Feehan students clearly on the cutting edge of future technologies and trends.

Each of these campaign priorities follow closely the path laid out by Feehan’s comprehensive 2019 strategic plan. Importantly, Feehan has no plan to add students despite this new space, instead remaining dedicated to “knowing each student well,” and serving the existing student body

more effectively each year.

“We are blessed,” pointed out Sullivan. “Our campus has been taken care of remarkably well for six decades, allowing us to continually add great new spaces on top of the core of our campus which is still in such great shape.”

Added Feehan Principal Sean Kane: “I must say that I’m most excited about our new academic spaces.

Our performing arts programs have been outstanding for years and years, and now they will have the spaces they need and deserve. And of course, adding the Innovation Center will be a game-changer for our students and teachers.

This is where education is going, and I’m so excited for Feehan to take the lead in this area.”

While still under development, current plans call for the performing arts construction to take place in time for back-to-school 2022, the Innovation Center to open in the Fall of 2023 and the athletics construction in 2023 or 2024.

“We dare to believe that

A schematic of the East Field Transformation planned at Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro. excellence and mercy can co-exist at Feehan for generations to come,” concluded Sullivan.

Campaign progress will be updated regularly at BishopFeehan.com/

DaringToBelieve. Anyone looking to learn more or get involved with the campaign can contact Feehan’s director of Advancement, Dave Curtis, at 508-2267411.

Westport parish hosts yard sale, clothing drive

WESTPORT — Our Lady of Grace Parish, Sanford Road, Westport, is holding a Yard Sale and Clothing Drive at the parish

center on October 10-11.

The October 10 hours are from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

On October 11 the hours will be 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

† Diocese of Fall River † OFFICIAL Appointments

His Excellency, the Most Reverend Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V., D.D., Bishop of Fall River, has made the following appointment: Interim Dean Very Reverend John M. Schrader, V.F. – New Bedford Deanery, while remaining Administrator of St. John Neuman Parish in East Freetown, and Associate Director of Vocations and Seminarians Effective: September 20, 2021 October 1, 2021 †

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The family that prays together …

t’s a tagline that writes itself, and which most Catholics can finish without much thought. The family that prays together, stays together.

This simple statement holds an abundance of truth. When was the last time you saw a family who spent time in prayer together each day, and yet was a “house divided”? Perhaps I am writing in generalized platitudes. But, at least on my part, I am yet to encounter a family in such a situation.

Much can be said about the role and place of faith in American culture today, especially within the family. While we as a society may question God’s existence, or even deny it altogether, the honest individual cannot deny that they have a primal longing for purpose and meaning, one not simply solved by an algorithm or theorem. We boldly question faith, even falsely claiming it to be in conflict with reason, but do we just as boldly seek the answers to our questions? We ask God to make Himself known — to send a sign — but do we pray so as to know Him? To this end, I understand that I am the pot calling the kettle black. My prayer life has its ups and downs; from times of fervent devotion, to times of dry desolation, to times of willful negligence. In many ways, this piece of writing is a reminder to myself to practice what I preach. There’s no better way to put one’s own feet to the fire than to proclaim it in the public sphere.

Part of prayer’s importance is that through it, God reminds us what truly matters in life.

I can spend countless hours at work, trying to solve what I believe to be priorities and important matters. And indeed, they may be. But it is not until I return home, to the family whom I

actually vowed myself to, and ask my son whom he wishes to bless as we pray at night, that I recognize what truly matters.

Or it is not until I kneel at Mass, and witness the Eucharist elevated at the Consecration, that I am reminded that everything else keeping me from focusing at Mass — from what is going on before or afterwards that day, to what awaits me Monday morning — are not as important as what I see before me at that given moment.

In prayer, I am reminded poignantly and

simply of what matters in life: Not the email. Not the meeting. Not the ongoing project. Not the criticism. Not the praise.

Simply, God. For while the skeptic may question me, the doubter mock me, or the critic point out my flaws (even if well-deserved) I can’t imagine any of them laying down their lives for me as Christ did.

And while you may fail at a project, miss communication, or fail in a relationship, it is still possible to gain Heaven because of what Christ won for us and how we respond to Him. All that we do as a Church and society, if not rooted in prayer and in the Divine, will ultimately prove to be not much more than straw.

After all, as the saying goes, we can’t take it with

us when we die.

Perhaps there is no greater champion of such a message — of the need for prayer — than a formidable figure, who’s buried in our own backyard: Venerable Father Patrick Peyton.

Nestled in a nondescript section of Stonehill College in Easton lies a simple burial ground, surrounded by a brick wall. Within it lies the remains of priests and Brothers from the Congregation of the Holy Cross, among them being Father Peyton.

Known for making famous such lines as “The family that prays together, stays together” and “A world at prayer is a world at peace,” Father Peyton’s own life was dramatically transformed by prayer. Diagnosed with an advanced case of tuberculosis in 1938, while in seminary, the best solution Peyton received from his doctor was: “try prayer.”

A quip meant to depict his terminal situation, Peyton took hold of it. Reminded by his Spiritual director that God and Mary had always been in his life, he was challenged to pray as an act of trust in his relationship with them, even if he had not always given it attention.

The Rosary became his source of consolation and, unexpectedly one night, he experienced a complete healing, which the doctors could not explain.

That’s all it took.

Father Peyton would go on to spend the next several decades proclaiming the power of prayer across the country, vowing to reach one million people with this message. Having begun Family Rosary in Albany, N.Y. so as to share the importance of praying the Rosary, he then moved to California to solicit the aid of Hollywood’s elite to proclaim the power of prayer.

Teaming up with everyone from Bing Crosby, to Harry Truman, to Bobby Driscoll, to Lucile Ball, Father Peyton pioneered Catholic evangelism through radio and television. His “Family Theatre Productions” helped bring the message of a family at prayer across the nation.

As a result, hundreds of thousands joined him at any one of his many Rosary Crusades, where they would gather to hear this compelling Irish priest speak and lead them in praying the Rosary. Soon dubbed “the Rosary Priest,” Father Peyton’s crusades became international sensations, leading him to travel the globe in a worldwide invitation to pray.

Truly, not only did Father Peyton reach one million people, his efforts through Family Rosary and Family Theatre Productions surpassed his goal.

And if you asked for the source of his success, he would be quick to remind you that it was all the work of God and the Blessed Mother.

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† October 1, 2021

O

ver the last few weeks, I’ve had conversations with several Catholics confused, upset, sometimes angry and feeling betrayed and abandoned by the Church for being refused “conscience exemption” forms with regard to new mandatory COVID vaccination policies by municipalities, workplaces, schools, restaurants, entertainment and other venues.

Many of them are aware that the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith last December emphasized that “vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and…, therefore, … must be voluntary.” They therefore don’t grasp why, as government and private entities are overreaching and pressuring them to get vaccinated, when they approach the Church for help, in most locations they leave empty handed. They particularly don’t understand why some bishops would be directing their priests not to sign declarations of conscience exemption, as if the priests who did so, and those who asked them, would be doing something wrong.

These questions are often coming from highly informed Catholics, including clergy, religious, seminarians, lay people with advanced theology degrees, parish leaders and more. It’s an indication of how poorly some Church leaders have explained their rationale for refusing to sign such exemptions. It’s a manifestation of how confused people are in general about the bioethics of many aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s also a sign about how imprecise, and sometimes mistaken, many Catholics’ understanding of conscience is.

I’d like to share a couple of points from the conversations I’ve had with those who have approached me in the hope that they might remedy some misunderstandings.

The first is about what conscience is and isn’t.

Conscience is not a “feeling” or “strong opinion” about

Protecting conscience what we want to do or avoid.

It’s not, as St. John Henry Newman wrote in 1875, “the right of thinking, speaking, writing and acting according to [one’s] judgment or humor, … demand[ing] … to be his own master in all things and to profess what he pleases.”

We see this erroneous understanding of conscience, for example, in those who try to justify, as morally good, aborting unborn children, lying to get ahead, stealing from the rich, marrying those married to others, sleeping around, manufacturing children in fertility clinics, refusing help to the homeless or immigrants, and vindicating immoral actions on the basis of good intentions or moral ends.

This false notion of “conscience” is abused as a justification for people to get out of what they don’t want to do and to provide carte blanche for what they do. So understood, “conscience” is the triumph of subjectivism, in which our thoughts and desires, whether objectively right or wrong, become the moral law.

The true notion of conscience, on the other hand, is an inner organ trained to be sensitive to God’s voice, telling us to do or avoid something. It’s a dialogue with God whose guidance resounds within and witnesses to His presence. In that dialogue, we apply moral truths recognized through what God teaches in revelation or reason to past, present or future acts, leading to a recognition as to whether they are good or evil.

When people come to me to speak about conscience objections to the COVID-19 vaccine, therefore, I ask, “So you believe God is telling you not to get the vaccine?”

For a few, the answer is clearly yes. Since every available approved COVID vaccine is tainted in some way by being developed, manufactured or tested against cell lines derived from abortions

decades ago, they believe that God would never want them to cooperate at all with that evil — even though the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith says that “remote, passive material cooperation” with the evil of those abortions is morally licit “if there is a grave danger, such as the otherwise uncontainable spread of a serious pathological agent — in this case, the pandemic spread of the virus that causes Covid-19.”

This truly conscientious objection understandably has been the case with a few who have dedicated their life to opposing the evil of abortion and to fostering a culture of

life.

For most to whom I ask that question, however, they honestly and humbly admit that they haven’t talked to God about it. Their opposition, they tell me, does not come from any interior Divine illumination but from principled opposition on other grounds: because they don’t trust what is portrayed as “the science” by scientific spokesmen; don’t think the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks, especially at their age; object to the government’s forcing citizens to be vaccinated; haven’t gotten satisfactory answers as to whether there’s a risk for present or future pregnancies; are suspicious as to the changing goal posts in response to COVID since the beginning; and believe that the seriousness of the disease, though real, has been exaggerated and absolutized.

Such justifiable principles and sincere concerns are not, however, the judgment of conscience.

When vaccines mandates recently started getting

proposed and enforced, three possible exemptions were normally considered: religious, conscientious and medical. Religious exemptions are when one’s religious faith prohibits the reception of the vaccine, something for which Catholics are ineligible since the Church teaches that it is possible morally to receive the vaccine — as Pope Francis’ and most bishops’ have illustrated by getting inoculated. Likewise medical exemptions are geared to those with a history of anaphylaxis who are allergic to components of the vaccine. That leaves Catholics who don’t want to receive the vaccine with only one possible avenue, conscientious objection, even if their objection isn’t truly one of conscience.

That dilemma brings us to the second point: the request for Church leaders or institutions to sign a conscience exemption declaration.

Because of what conscience is, there’s no way someone, including a pastor, can know and affirm the contents of another person’s conscience.

No one can examine another’s conscience. We can certainly share the results of our examination with others, but short of the few confessors in Church history with the charism of reading others’ souls, there’s no way that assessment can be verified.

Pastors can of course attest to the general teachings of the Church on conscience and how even an erroneous conscience must be followed as the voice of God. But that is something individual Catholics can likewise affirm. That’s why the Vaccine Exemption Template Letter of the National Catholic Bioethics Center is written in the first person singular, beginning: “I am a baptized Catholic seeking an exemption from an immunization requirement. This letter explains how the Catholic Church’s teachings may lead

individual Catholics, including me, to decline certain vaccines.”

The letter avoids mentioning either “religious” or “conscience” together with “Vaccine Exemption,” because the letter is neither. It nevertheless tries to suggest, somewhat expansively, that the phrases “principled religious basis,” “informed judgments,” “reasons consistent with [Church] teachings,” and the “assessment of therapeutic proportionality,” are individually or collectively the equivalent of the judgment of conscience. They’re clearly not. For those hoping, however, for a letter to submit in the face of a mandate, whether for true conscientious objection or other principled reasons, the letter may suffice.

The situation of vaccine mandates obviously places those with personal opposition to COVID vaccines in a difficult moral position.

While the Church affirms with them the immorality of general vaccine mandates and wants to defend them against growing civil, social and occupational extortion pressuring them to get jabbed, at the same time it cannot give false witness about conscience.

Rather, in an age in which widespread confusion remains and attacks against conscience are increasing — by governments and employers compelling medical personnel to participate in abortions and sterilizations, pharmacists to prescribe abortifacients, bakers to violate what they know is the truth about Marriage, and other violations — the Church must be clear about what conscience is and isn’t and defend the witness to God that authentic conscience gives.

What’s needed is to push for other avenues of exemption, while reconsidering the wisdom of general vaccine mandates as a whole.

Anchor columnist Father Roger Landry can be contacted at fatherlandry@ catholicpreaching.com.

October 1, 2021 †

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Editorial World Day of Migrants and Refugees

This past Sunday the Church observed the 107th World Day of Migrants and Refugees.

It used to be observed as a week in between the Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord, so as to coincide with the flight of the Holy Family into exile in Egypt. In 2019 Pope Francis moved it to be the last Sunday in September. St. Pius X had begun this observance in 1914 (in response the great emigration of people out of Italy), and his successor, Pope Benedict XV, made it an annual event. Pope Francis moved the date at the request of several national conferences of bishops.

The Holy Father entitled his message for this year “Towards an ever wider ‘we.’” He began by referencing his encyclical Fratelli Tutti. “Once this health crisis passes, our worst response would be to plunge even more deeply into feverish consumerism and new forms of egotistic self-preservation. God willing, after all this, we will think no longer in terms of ‘them’ and ‘those’ but only ‘us’” (No. 35). He said that this is why he chose the “theme, Towards An Ever Wider ‘We,’ in order to indicate a clear horizon for our common journey in this world.”

The pope wrote that this “horizon is already present in God’s creative plan: ‘God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.’(Gen 1:27-28). God created us male and female, different yet complementary, in order to form a ‘we’ destined to become ever more numerous in the succession of generations. God created us in His image, in the image of His Own Triune being, a communion in diversity.”

After we chose to sin, God “in His mercy wished to offer us a path of reconciliation, not as individuals but as a people, a ‘we,’ meant to embrace the entire human family, without exception: ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be His peoples, and God Himself will be with them’ (Rev 21:3). Salvation history thus has a ‘we’ in its beginning and a ‘we’ at its end, and at its center the mystery of Christ, Who died and rose so ‘that they may all be one’ (Jn 17:21). The present time, however, shows that this ‘we’ willed by God is broken and fragmented, wounded and disfigured. This becomes all the more evident in moments of great crisis, as is the case with the current pandemic. Our ‘we,’ both in the wider world and within the Church, is crumbling and cracking due to myopic and aggressive forms of nationalism (cf. Fratelli Tutti, 11) and radical individualism (cf. ibid., 105). And the highest price is being paid by those who most easily become viewed as others: foreigners, migrants, the marginalized, those living on the existential peripheries.”

The pope doesn’t give up hope in the face of this sad reality. He wrote, “We are all in the same boat and called to work together so that there will be no more walls that separate us, no longer others, but only a single ‘we,’ encompassing all of humanity.” Given that, he first addressed Catholics and then everyone in his message.

In a section entitled, “A Church that is more and more ‘catholic,’” the pope wrote that Christ calls us to “a commitment to becoming ever more faithful to our being ‘catholic,’ as St. Paul reminded the community in Ephesus: ‘There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism’ (Eph 4:4-5).

Indeed the Church’s catholicity, her universality, must be embraced and expressed in every age, according to the will and grace of the Lord Who promised to be with us always (cf. Mt 28:20). The Holy Spirit enables us to embrace everyone, to build communion in diversity, to unify differences without imposing a depersonalized uniformity. In encountering the diversity of foreigners, migrants and refugees, and in the intercultural dialogue that can emerge from this encounter, we have an opportunity to grow as Church and to enrich one OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER Vol. 65, No. 20

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† October 1, 2021

another. All the baptized, wherever they find themselves, are by right members of both their local ecclesial community and the one Church… part of one family.”

Given that reality, all Catholics “are called to work together… to make the Church become ever more inclusive as she carries out the mission entrusted to the Apostles by Jesus Christ: ‘As you go, proclaim the Good News, “The Kingdom of Heaven has come near.”

Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.’ (Mt 10:7-8). In our day, the Church is called to go out into the streets of every existential periphery in order to heal wounds and to seek out the straying, without prejudice or fear, without proselytizing, but ready to widen her tent to embrace everyone. Among those dwelling in those existential peripheries, we find many migrants and refugees, displaced persons and victims of trafficking, to whom the Lord wants His love to be manifested and His Salvation preached.

The current influx of migrants can be seen as a new ‘frontier’ for mission, a privileged opportunity to proclaim Jesus Christ and the Gospel message at home, and to bear concrete witness to the Christian faith in a spirit of charity and profound esteem for other religious communities.”

Then, turning to all of humanity, the pope called for “an ever more inclusive world… ensuring that no one is left behind. Our societies will have a ‘colorful’ future, enriched by diversity and by cultural exchanges. Consequently, we must even now learn to live together in harmony and peace. I am always touched by the scene in the Acts of the Apostles when, on the day of the Church’s ‘baptism’ at Pentecost, immediately after the descent of the Holy Spirit, the people of Jerusalem hear the proclamation of Salvation.” The pope then quoted the list from Acts 2:9-11 of all the nationalities present that day.

“This is the ideal of the new Jerusalem (cf. Is 60; Rev 21:3), where all peoples are united in peace and harmony, celebrating the goodness of God and the wonders of Creation. To achieve this ideal, however, we must make every effort to break down the walls that separate us and, in acknowledging our profound interconnection, build bridges that foster a culture of encounter. Today’s migration movements offer an opportunity for us to overcome our fears and let ourselves be enriched by the diversity of each person’s gifts, [so that] the miracle of an ever wider ‘we’ can come about.

“I invite all men and women in our world to make good use of the gifts that the Lord has entrusted to us to preserve and make His Creation even more beautiful.” The pope then referenced the parable of the talents and wrote, “The Lord will also demand of us an account of our work! Ours must be a personal and collective commitment that cares for all our brothers and sisters who continue to suffer. A commitment that makes no distinction between natives and foreigners, between residents and guests, since it is a matter of a treasure we hold in common, from whose care and benefits no one should be excluded.

“The prophet Joel predicted that the messianic future would be a time of dreams and visions inspired by the Spirit… ‘Your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions’ (Joel 2:28). We are called to dream together, fearlessly, as a single human family.”

The pope closed with a prayer, in which he referenced Jesus’ teaching “that there is great rejoicing in Heaven whenever someone lost is found, whenever someone excluded, rejected or discarded is gathered into our ‘we.’” He then asked God to “Bless each act of welcome and outreach that draws those in exile into the ‘we’ of community and of the Church, so that our earth may truly become what You Yourself created it to be: the common home of all our brothers and sisters. Amen.”

U.N. statue of Our Lady of Fatima to visit diocese NEW BEDFORD — The United Nations International Statue of Our Lady of Fatima will be visiting a few diocesan churches in the coming weeks.

The statue of Our Lady will arrive at St. Anthony’s Church in New Bedford for Friday, October 15, the same day the parish is Exposing the Most Blessed Sacrament as one of the parishes throughout the diocese that has signed on to be part of the 40-Hour Eucharistic Devotion. The Blessed Sacrament will be Exposed from 3 to 6pm, followed by Holy Mass. The Statue will

remain at the parish till Sunday, October 17. For information on the day program call the parish rectory at (508) 993-1691.

Besides the St. Anthony of Padua visit, the Statue will also visit Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Our Lady of Guadalupe Church also in New Bedford (contact Father Richard Wilson at 508-993-4704 for details), and the St. Anne Shrine in Fall River, on Christ the King weekend November 19-21. Contact St. Anne’s Shrine at 508-678-1510 for more information.

The Echo Graduate Service program is a twoyear program through the University of Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life. Post-undergraduate students commit to two years of full-time parish ministry in one of 16 partner dioceses, while earning a master’s in Theology, at reduced cost to the parish to which they are assigned. The Diocese of Fall River recently began such a partnership for the next two years. This article is the first of three, depicting the stories of the Echo apprentices, who recently began working within our diocese.

Hello! My name is Julia Goldschmidt and I am a first year Echo apprentice for the Diocese of Fall River. Thank you to the diocese for their warm welcome as my fellow Echo apprentices and I settle into our new home in Fall River.

I am incredibly excited to be serving the diocese

Echo apprentices share their stories

at St. Joseph, Guardian of the Holy Family Parish in Falmouth. As I will be working here the next two years, I would like to briefly introduce myself and explain what the Echo program is.

I am originally from Wayne, Penn., which is just outside of Philadelphia. I attended Catholic school from Pre-K through high school. Growing up, my favorite activities were playing the violin, singing in choir, and performing in musical theatre. I then attended the University of Notre Dame where I completed majors in the Program of Liberal Studies and Film, Television, and Theatre. I also completed a thesis in the form of a play about the female Christian mystic Julian of Norwich.

When not in class, I was heavily involved in Chorale, Notre Dame’s concert choir, and in Campus Ministry, where I served in

various roles such as Bible study leader and RCIA catechist. Because I loved serving in Campus Ministry, I felt called to the Echo program and began just after my graduation this past May. The Echo program through the McGrath Institute for Church Life is a two-year graduate service program where apprentices earn a master of arts in Theology from the University of Notre Dame while serving in a parish or school for one of Echo’s 16 partner dioceses. During the summer apprentices take graduate classes in Theology on campus at Notre Dame, and during the academic year we work full-time in a Catholic parish while taking additional classes online. All the while, we receive formation in community with others in the program as we live, learn, and pray together.

My experience of Echo

so far has been an absolute joy. Over this past summer, I completed the first 12 credits of my master of arts in Theology at Notre Dame.

The four classes I took were called Ecclesiology, Liturgical Theology of the Eucharist, the Art of Catechesis, and Christian Doctrine for Catechists. My favorite class was Liturgical Theology of the Eucharist. In this class I not only learned the history of the Eucharistic celebration, but also the mystical reality of the eternal Liturgy. I also enjoyed my Ecclesiology class. Before taking this class, I never gave much thought to the history or the structure of our

Church. Now I find I have a much greater appreciation for the gift that Christ gave us in the form of His bride, the Church.

As I mentioned, my placement is at St. Joseph, Guardian of the Holy Family Parish. Since beginning my ministerial work at St. Joseph’s, I have had the opportunity to serve in several different roles. This year the parish is beginning a new Faith Formation program for grades one to eight, and I am so excited to be assisting with this wonderful, innovative project. Our program is centered around attend8 Turn to page 15

Daily Readings † October 9 - November 5

Sat. Oct. 9, Jl 4:12-21; Ps 97:1-2,5-6,11-12; Lk 11:27-28. Sun. Oct. 10, Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Wis 7:7-11; Ps 90:12-17; Heb 4:12-13; Mk 10:17-30 or Mk 10:17-27. Mon. Oct. 11, Rom 1:1-7; Ps 98:1bcde,2-4; Lk 11:29-32.

Tue. Oct. 12, Rom 1:16-25; Ps 19:2-5; Lk 11:37-41. Wed. Oct. 14, Rom 2:1-11; Ps 62:2-3,6-7,9; Lk 11:42-46. Thu. Oct. 14, Rom 3:21-30; Ps 130:1-6b; Lk 11:47-54. Fri. Oct. 15, Rom 4:1-8; Ps 32:1b-2,5,11; Lk 12:1-7.

Sat. Oct. 16, Rom 4:13,16-18; Ps 105:6-9,42-43; Lk 12:8-12. Sun. Oct. 17, Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Is 53:10-11; Ps 33:4-5,18-20,22; Heb 4:14-16; Mk 10:35-45 or Mk 10:42-45. Mon. Oct. 18, 2 Tm 4:10-17b; Ps 145:10-13,17-18; Lk 10:1-9. Tue. Oct. 19, Rom 5:12,15b,17-19,20b-21; Ps 40:7-10,17; Lk 12:35-38. Wed. Oct. 20, Rom 6:12-18; Ps 124:1b-8; Lk 12:39-48. Thu. Oct. 21, Rom 6:19-23; Ps 1:14,6; Lk 12:49-53. Fri. Oct. 22, Rom 7:18-25a; Ps 119:66,68,76-77,93-94; Lk 12:54-59.

Sat. Oct. 23, Rom 8:1-11; Ps 24:1b-4b,5-6; Lk 13:1-9. Sun. Oct. 24, Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jer 31:7-9; Ps 126:1-6; Heb 5:1-6; Mk 10:46-52. Mon. Oct. 25, Rom 8:12-17; Ps 68:2,4,6-7b,20-21; Lk 13:10-17. Tue. Oct. 26, Rom 8:18-25; Ps 126:1b-6; Lk 13:18-21. Wed. Oct. 27, Rom 8:26-30; Ps 13:4-6; Lk 13:22-30. Thu. Oct. 28, Eph 2:19-22; Ps 19:2-5; Lk 6:12-16. Fri. Oct. 29, Rom 9:1-5; Ps 147:1215,19-20; Lk 14:1-6.

Sat. Oct. 30, Rom 11:1-2a,11-12,25-29; Ps 94:12-13a,14-15,17-18; Lk 14:1,7-11. Sun. Oct. 31, Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time, Dt 6:2-6; Ps 18:2-4,47,51; Heb 7:2328; Mk 12:28b-34. Mon. Nov. 1, All Saints Day, Rv 7:2-4,9-14; Ps 24:1bc-4b,5-6; 1 Jn 3:1-3; Mt 5:1-12a. Tue. Nov. 2, All Souls Day, Wis 3:1-9; Ps 23:1-6; Rom 5:5-11 or Rom 6:3-9; Jn 6:37-40. Wed. Nov. 3, Rom 13:8-10; Ps 112:1b-2,4-5,9; Lk 14:25-33.

Thu. Nov. 4, Rom 14:7-12; Ps 27:1bcde,4,13-14; Lk 15:1-10. Fri. Nov. 5, Rom 15:1421; Ps 98:1-4; Lk 16:1-8.

October 1, 2021 †

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PART 1 - ENGAGING THE PAST Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, In 2017, I issued a pastoral letter calling us to rebuild in faith and hope. In it, I focused on parishes, schools, and leadership formation to address challenges present in our Diocese.

As a result, in February of 2019, nearly 400 people gathered with me and launched an intense six-month planning process focused on these initiatives — Governance (which included Finance and Administration, Human Resources, Communications, Facilities, and Real Estate); Youth and Young Adults; and Catholic Social Services. The Pastoral Strategic plan which emerged 8

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with over 60 recommendations was a result of the diligent work of these committees and the input of several listening sessions surrounding these specific priority areas.

A Strategic Planning website — fallriverplanning.org — documents the progress of these recommendations. Some of the work that emerged from the Strategic plan was the creation of 10 parish “collaboratives,” the publishing of a comprehensive Diocese transparency report in 2020, reconstituting a diocesan pastoral council, and hiring a Senior Director of Youth, Young Adult, and Family Life Ministries. While our work to rebuild in faith and hope is ongoing, and we have learned various lessons

in the process, I believe we have made great strides as a Diocese.

Similar to the rest of society, we as a Church are greatly affected by the pandemic and experienced loss in different ways.

Yet, the pandemic reminded us that despite the challenges we may face, God does not abandon us. Rather, He calls us to courageously bring Strategic Planning Mass at the Cathedral to completion the of St. Mary of the Assumption, Fall River good work He began in us. Now, more than ever, God is calling us to move forward and not stand still. My hope in this pastoral letter is to offer you a vision for how we can do this and how you can join us in moving forward into the future as a diocese.

show in our deeds. Our decisions, actions, and words need to reflect what we believe and help others to recognize God in us.

Considering this, I ask you: have you allowed the Holy Spirit to take residence in your heart, home, and life? When the Holy Spirit comes, things change! Think of the disciples after Pentecost and how everything in their lives and their worlds was never the same again.

It is time to pray and discern how you will make an impact and a difference through your life in the Church. What roles will you assume to better serve and participate in the faith first given to you at Baptism and which you professed at Confirmation?

If we are to leave a legacy of authentic and lived faith, we must embrace our Baptism and courageously bear witness to the Good News of Jesus Christ through the way we live our lives.

BE OPEN TO GOD’S CALL

Regardless of where you may be in your journey of faith, I ask you to come forward and allow the Lord to use you as His instrument. Say yes to God’s call to bear witness to Him! If you think that what you have to offer is not enough, remember these words from St. Paul, which I chose as my episcopal motto: “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Cor 12:9). God is calling each one of us to build His Church, to live as His disciples, promising to provide us with the grace we need to overcome every challenge. If we live as Jesus’ disciples — as those who intentionally seek to follow Him and the way of life He called us to — then we can in turn inspire others to do the same by the witness of our lives.

Considering this, in the months ahead I hope to engage in more conversations about how we can provide meaningful opportunities for families and individuals to become involved WHAT CHURCH WILL WE LEAVE BEHIND? and strengthen their faith as disciples. For if we are to see revitalization in As we look to the future, we must ask ourselves: what Church will we leave behind to future generations? Due to many our Church, we must first revifactors, our local Church is seeing declines in Mass attendance, participation in Faith Formation, and celebration of Sacraments. talize our own Specifically, in the Fall River Diocese since 1990 we have 100,000 faith in God and fewer Catholics, participation in Faith Formation has dropped be transformed ourselves. We 67 percent, and Sacraments of Initiation have declined by 65 percent. How do we change these declines? First, we must work need to turn to God every day toward helping individuals experience metanoia — personal “as God’s chosen conversion and change in one’s way of life. This was a key aspect of Jesus’ teachings and ministry, and it must also be a key ones, holy and beloved,” as St. aspect of our work as we move into the future.

Paul said, and As I celebrate Confirmations around the Diocese, I have the clothe ourselves opportunity to speak with the Confirmandi and ask them the in “heartfelt comfollowing questions: Will anything about you change when this passion, kindLiturgical celebration is over, and you walk out those church doors and return to your life? Will anyone know you are Chrisness, humility, Pictured: Cathedral of St. Mary of the gentleness, and tian, or that you believe? When you are away from the church, Assumption, Fall River patience” (Col is there anything about you that indicates that you are Catholic to those who meet you? Have you truly committed to living in a 3:12).

In this Year of St Joseph, I invite you to take St Joseph as a way that when people encounter you, they will also encounter Christ? Since we do not carry a sign to announce these beliefs, model of how to allow yourself to be transformed and trust in God. Pope Francis, in his letter Patris Corde, speaks of how St. WE MUST BE THE SIGN. What we profess in faith, we must

PART 2 - PRESENTING THE FUTURE

My hope is this pastoral letter is to offer you a vision for how we can do this and how you can join us in moving forward into the future as a Diocese.

October 1, 2021 †

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Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, speaks to the necessity each member of the Body of Christ has in fulfilling the mission of the Church. Considering this, we need to work together as a Diocese, including priests, deacons, religious, catechists, ministry leaders, educators, laity and anyone eager to embrace and share their faith, so that we may actualize revitalization.

As a result, conversations and efforts regarding revitalization must include all those who comprise the People of God in a parTAKE UP THE WORK OF EVANGELIZATION ticular place. Yet, this also requires that the People of God step forward to be a part of these efforts. How good it would be to In a similar way, we need to confront the challenges of our see all the faithcurrent times by learning, with excitement and enthusiasm, the Good News of Jesus Christ and willingly sharing the Gospel with ful take a more active role in the others. God chose the Apostles to bear witness to the Gospel, to what they had seen and heard. As St. Peter stated in the Acts transmission of of the Apostles, after Jesus’ Resurrection, “It is impossible for us faith — ready to bring our children not to speak about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 2:20). up in the practice Like the Apostles, who did not keep the Good News to themof faith, beginselves, we must accept the responsibility to proclaim the Gosning with their pel, bring people to faith, and share the truth.

As a result, we should be considering how we will extend an Baptism. May we invitation to welcome people to our parishes, either those away work together now, so that fuduring the pandemic, ture generations those who have been — our children away a long time, or and our children’s those who have never children — will entered our doors. To know, underbetter aid parishes in Pictured: Cathedral of St. Mary of the stand, and live this work, I have made Assumption, Fall River changes to several Dioc- the beauty of the Catholic faith. esan offices. As of July 1, 2021, I have restructured the Diocesan Offices of Faith Formation, Campus Ministry, and With all of this in mind, how may we move forward as a the Pro-Life Apostolate.

St. John the Evangelist in Attleboro All the services provided Diocese? In short, the way forward will be multifaceted. It will by these offices are now require us to continue the work of Pastoral Strategic planning consolidated into a newly-established department: the Secretar- first begun four years ago. We will need to unify parishes to be better stewards of God’s blessings and our resources. Doing iat for the New Evangelization. so means that we can better allot time, talent, and treasure Under the leadership of the Secretary for the New Evangelization, this department will continue the work previous- within our local Church communities to the essential work of evangelization and forming missionary disciples. ly done in these three areas while exploring continual revival in To these latter ends, I urge all of us to move forward in a evangelization, as well as the work needed on the Diocesan levway that mirrors Jesus’ method of evangelization in Scripture: el for the Church’s upcoming worldwide Synod and the USCCB inviting individuals to first come and see; next, calling individuEucharistic Revival Project. We recognize that each parish is als to follow Him; and then sending them out to go and make unique in so many ways and that it is crucial to come together, disciples. As you will see in each of these three sections below, working at the local level, figuring out where we’re going to I have outlined “Mission Steps,” which are action items I ask go from here. My hope is that this structural shift will aid in this individuals, parishes, and the Diocese to focus on over the next ongoing process of revitalization. four years.

At this critical time in our Church, I ask you to recognize and BEING A SYNODAL CHURCH embrace your universal call to holiness; to remember you are created by God for sainthood and to seek His wisdom on how A word you may begin to hear a great deal of in the coming to act upon this call. years is synodality. In its 2018 document, Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church, the International Theological ComINVITATIONAL WITNESS - COME & SEE mission explained that “Although synodality is not explicitly found as a term or as a concept in the teaching of Vatican II, it is The Gospels reveal Jesus’ powerful yet simple example of fair to say that synodality is at the heart of the work of renewal the Council was encouraging.... The concept of synodality refers being an invitational witness, of how to extend invitations to those people around Him seeking truth, hope, and in someone to the involvement and participation of the whole People of to believe. Gently welcoming, and lovingly inviting people to God in the life and mission of the Church...” (n.6-7). Indeed, the Joseph had creative courage in confronting the challenges that came with being the foster-father of Jesus. Despite his initial uncertainty, he trusted in God, modeling prudence, patience, faithfulness, obedience, justice, chastity, and hard work. The humble witness of his life has inspired the faith of countless generations. This was made possible because St. Joseph was willing to accept God’s call.

PART 3 - THE WAY FORWARD

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come and see so they may discover for themselves all the grace, blessings, and promises God has for them.

John’s Gospel illustrates Jesus’ extending such an invitation, ”The next day again John [the Baptist] was standing with two of his disciples; and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God!’ The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned, and saw them following, and said to them, ‘What do you seek?’ And they said to Him, ‘Rabbi’ (which means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’ He said to them, ‘Come and see.’ They came and saw where He was staying; and they stayed with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour” (Jn 1:35-39).

Just like Jesus, we need to be aware of those around us, to extend an invitation, and be a welcoming community. This is necessary if we are to move our churches from maintenance to mission.

Now is the time for courageous, creative outreach.

To this end, I’ve created an ad hoc Revitalization Committee to work with me to define best practices and methods for being ”Invitational Witnesses.” This committee’s primary role will be to assist the diocesan movement post-pandemic and work with the Secretariat Bishop da Cunha greets attendees for the New Evangelization at St. Thomas Chapel Rededication, on the upcoming USCCB and Vatican Synodal initiaFalmouth tives.

MISSION STEPS • Take a deeper look at your personal gifts and talents to engage in our faith communities.

• Continue to learn about the faith by participating in ongoing catechesis and Spiritual formation.

• Partake in person-to-person engagement, inviting those in your life to encounter Christ and the Church community • Focus parish efforts on greater hospitality, invitational awareness, and create opportunities to invite others to come to church. Imperative to this is the role of the laity in inviting others to Mass, as well as offering newcomers opportunities to connect with the parish community.

• Evaluate parish Faith Formation and Sacramental preparation for all ages. To this end, parishes are asked to give special attention to the family, exploring ways to engage in intentional parent and family formation. As a resource, I recommend the new Directory for Catechesis (cf n. 232) The Secretariat for the New Evangelization is also a helpful resource for this evaluation.

• Improve outreach: parishes are asked to ensure they have functioning communications to the parishioners, social media, and a web presence, leveraging these items for evangelization and to help unify members of the parish.

• Consider making use of the votive Masses for the evangelization of peoples or for the Church during this year so that we may better approach the work of evangelization through a spirit of prayer and reliance on

Divine providence.

SACRAMENTAL LIVING - FOLLOW ME As Jesus called His first disciples, He said, ”Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Mt 4:19). Jesus calls each of us in this same way, to not only follow His teachings but also to help bring others to know Him as well. There is no more extraordinary way to encounter Jesus than in the Eucharist, where we believe Him to be truly present — Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.

We need look no further than the Bread of Life discourse (Jn 6) to see the reality of this teaching. There, Jesus makes abundantly clear that unless we “eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in me and I in him” (Jn 6:53-56).

However, despite Christ’s teaching, a national survey published by the Pew Research Center in 2019, uncovered the following about Catholics and their understanding of the Eucharist: ”Half of Catholics in the United States (50 percent) correctly answer a question about official Church teachings on transubstantiation — that during Consecration, the bread and wine actually become the Body and Blood of Christ. The other half of Catholics incorrectly say the Church teaches that the bread and wine used in Communion are just symbols of the Body and Blood of Christ (45 percent) or say they are not sure (4 percent)” (US Religious Knowledge Survey | Pew Research Center).

Without us Pictured: Cathedral of St. Mary of the helping individAssumption, Fall River uals experience metanoia in regards to the Eucharist and the celebration of Mass, we risk future generations not embracing the amazing reality that in the Mass, Christ’s saving sacrifice on the Cross is re-presented — made present once again for us — giving us the Sanctifying grace we need. For this reason, the Church calls the Eucharist the source and summit of the Christian life.

By first receiving the Eucharist — the true presence of Christ in real and substantial matter — we are transformed into the Body of Christ, the Church. Without it, we cannot be the individuals, the Catholics, nor the Church God calls us to be. In a phrase, the Eucharist is essential to discipleship, and therefore to evangelization. Therefore, we must make a priority the evangelization of Christ’s Eucharistic presence, which we encounter at Mass and then live out as Church in society by being “commissioned” to go out at the end of Mass.

To this end, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released a three-year Eucharistic Renewal Project for our October 1, 2021 †

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country beginning in June 2022 and featuring three implementation steps on the diocesan, parish, and national levels. As a Diocese, we’ll be participating, and I invite all people to take part in this Eucharistic Renewal for our Church.

MISSION STEPS • Regularly attend Mass.

• Share with the others, especially those away from Mass, the importance the Eucharist holds in your life.

• Set a time for regular Eucharistic Adoration daily or weekly to increase Eucharistic devotion. Each parish should offer expressed devotion to the Eucharist, especially with its great tie to fostering and birthing priestly and religious vocations.

• Intentionally reach out to the faithful to help them recognize the importance of attending Mass. It is not about full pews or collection baskets, but of experiencing the mystical Body of Christ — the Eucharist.

• Help young people in our parishes and Catholic schools encounter the Real Presence by ensuring that they have ready access to the Eucharist and through evangelizing with the examples of saints, such as Blessed Carlo Acutis, and through Eucharistic miracles.

• Help individuals refocus on the Real Presence by initiating specific study, preaching and devotional practices, with special attention to inviting those who have been away from the Eucharist. Each parish should look for opportunities that will work best in their community.

• Plan for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Eucharistic Revival Project, which our Diocese will be participating in. The diocesan phase will begin June 2022, with the parish phase set to begin June 2023.

In his 2003 Encyclical Letter, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Pope John Paul II explained the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist: ”The Sacramental re-presentation of Christ’s sacrifice, crowned by the Resurrection, in the Mass involves a most special presence which — in the words of Paul VI — ‘is called ”real” not as a way of excluding all other types of presence as if they were ”not real,” but because it is a presence in the fullest sense: a substantial presence whereby Christ, the God-Man, is wholly and entirely present’” (15).

He goes on to teach in the same encyclical that what needs to be at the heart of all seeking to believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is an acceptance of faith that cannot be explained, one that goes beyond our human comprehension: ”Truly the Eucharist is a mysterium fidei,” St. John Paul II states, ”a mystery which surpasses our understanding and can only be received in faith, as is often brought out in the catechesis of the Church Fathers regarding this Divine Sacrament: ”Do not see — St. Cyril of Jerusalem exhorts — in the bread and wine merely natural elements, because the Lord has expressly said that they are His Body and His Blood: faith assures you of this, though your senses suggest otherwise.” ”The Catechism of the Catholic Church,” which was approved by Pope John Paul II on June 25, 1992 underscores the teaching of this truth within our Catholic faith. In Section 1333 of the ”Catechism,” one finds this about the Eucharist: ”At the heart of the Eucharistic celebration are the bread and wine that, by the words of Christ and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, become Christ’s Body and Blood.”

We can be assured of the validity of this important teach12

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ing, given to us by Jesus and upheld for over 2,000 years by word and tradition. Again, turning for verification in the ”Catechism”: ”By the Consecration, the transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ is brought about.

Under the consecrated species of bread and wine Christ Himself, living and glorious, is present in a true, real, and substantial manner: His Body and His Blood, with His Soul and His Divinity (cf. Council of Trent: DS 1640; 1651)” (”Catechism of the Catholic Church” — The sacrament of the Eucharist, 1413).

VOCATIONAL PATHWAYS GO OUT & MAKE DISCIPLES Before ascending into Heaven, Jesus famously commissioned the Apostles to “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20).

In many ways, this can be considered the vocation, or call, of the Church in the world.

As faithful Catholics, we can answer this call by embracing our baptismal mission to mirror the Baptisms at Our Lady of Grace in Westport priestly, prophetic, and kingly holiness of Christ by how we live our lives. When we live our baptismal mission with purpose, we become a mission-driven Church that can inspire others to want to join us on mission. We become a Church of equipped disciples that go out and make more disciples, as Jesus commanded us. This takes, as I previously shared, all of God’s people working together, ordained clergy and the lay faithful, all embracing both their universal and specific vocations.

To this end, Pope Francis has announced the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops: “For a synodal Church: communion, participation and mission.” The Holy Father will open this three-year synodal journey of consultations and discernment this October. It will include three phases (diocesan, national and continental) and will culminate in an October 2023 assembly in Rome. “Communion, participation, and mission” is a powerful call to the entire Church — not only the clergy but the faithful to come together and make Jesus known, particularly in the Eucharist.

In this synodal process, Pope Francis is bringing to fruition what he has preached throughout his papacy: the lay faithful have an important role to play in the mission and life of the Church. “The fullness of the synodal process can only truly exist if the local churches are involved in that process,” the synod document states. This is an invitation to everyone — parishes small and large, all groups, ministries, apostolates, movements, and individuals — to be heard. Considering this, I ask for your participation and support throughout the diocesan phase of this synodal process.

MISSION STEPS • Regularly pray for the gift of discernment and that individuals may hear and respond to God’s call.

• Champion a renewed sense of lay service by re-engaging Catholics in parish ministries. Grow parish ministry opportunities that allow for various individuals to participate in their faith more actively, through service to their parish and community at large.

• Foster a culture of vocations, with parishes and Catholic schools planning ways to pray, discuss, and help individuals discern the topic of vocations at all ages. To this end, parishes should consider the development of a vocations ministry.

• Nominate “parish ambassadors” in each parish to aid in ongoing evangelization and revitalization efforts at the parish level. These can be parishioners already working on revitalization efforts or individuals interested in getting more involved. Parish ambassadors will be supported by our Diocesan pastoral teams.

• Improve support for our clergy. As a Diocese, we recently hired a Director of Clergy Support to provide more assistance for the health and wellness of our priests. To this same end, as a Diocese, we are introducing Chancery Workshops for the recently ordained.

• Support parish revitalization efforts. As a Diocese, we formed the Secretariat for the New Evangelization to offer expertise, services and evangelizing opportunities to aid parishes.

• Create diocesan resources and trainings for parishes to support and equip parish staff, leadership, and parish ambassadors to accomplish these pursuits.

OUR CALL As we move forward with a renewed focus on evangelization and partnering as brothers and sisters in Christ, let us not forget that Jesus frees us from sin, death, darkness, and hopelessness

Websites: fallriverdiocese.org | fallriverplanning.org Facebook: FallRiverDiocese Instagram: fallriverdiocese Twitter: @frdiocese

through His death and Resurrection. For the first disciples, Easter changed everything around them. We are an “Easter People” and, by our very Baptism, we are called to live in that truth — to live in the light of Christ.

Many thought when Jesus was dying upon the Cross and uttered the words, “It is finished,” maybe it was indeed the end.

The world would be descending into chaos, and yet quite the opposite happened. It was a new beginning, a birth of a new creation — from the old order of sin and death — to new life.

The attempts to destroy Jesus failed, and instead, He rose again and conquered death itself.

Jesus is not dead, He is alive, and that makes all the difference in the world. How much hope and courage can we draw from this truth? Jesus is the living Messiah, Son of God, and our Savior. The Apostles went forth witnessing what they had heard and seen, sharing all God had done for them, which He also did for us. What a relief — how liberating and reassuring it is to know Jesus conquered sin and death, not only in His life but in ours as well! We know and believe He is alive, and so we, too, become witnesses to that truth.

As I have shared throughout this letter, our faith needs to be shared through our daily lives and manifested in the way we live each day. Let us move forward as an “Easter People,” ever hopeful that God is at work in the world, and ever aware of our responsibility to proclaim the Gospel and build the Church as the People of God. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and discern how you can more actively share your faith and get more involved in our Church. May God bless us all as we continue this journey together.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

The Most Reverend Edgar da Cunha, S.D.V., D.D. Bishop of Fall River

St. Thomas Chapel Rededication, Falmouth

October 1, 2021 †

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Which way Religious Life?

An interview with Brother William Gural, SS.CC., Part II

By Father David Lupo, SS.CC. Pastor, St. Mary’s Parish, Fairhaven

Editor’s note: This is part II of a two-part interview with Brother Bill Gural, SS.CC. Q6: Now you grew up in a non-Catholic family. Are your siblings and relatives supportive in your journey, or do you find some misunderstanding?

A. My dad was baptized by a Ukrainian Catholic priest though he was raised Ukrainian Orthodox.

Though we were raised Protestant, some Catholicism was there simply because my dad received Baptism in and through the Catholic Church.

My family was mostly not so supportive of my becoming a Catholic and choosing religious life. It was hard to wrap their minds around my conversion and vocation.

However, as they saw me maturing and becoming more content and at peace, they accepted my journey more. They love me. Maybe they can see God’s grace working inside out. Perhaps they are experiencing some blessings too. Still change, conversion, is not easy, and we can resist the movement of the Holy Spirit. Once you put your hands to the plow, don’t look back.

Q7. Who in religious life influenced you, helped you put your hand to the plow?

A. A religious Sister giving me Spiritual direction once told me just that. My SS.CC. formators, Father Stan, Father Pat, Father Rich, Father Johnathan, Father Marisi and Father Ste14

phen, have both challenged and nurtured me. The vow of obedience has helped me face myself and to continue to make the decision to pick up my cross and follow Him. My formators a few times repeated this message of persevering, and following God’s will. I had a diocesan priest, Father Warren, as a Spiritual director; he encouraged me to “stay in the God zone.” I knew Passionists who also inspired me to persist in pursuing religious life by their example of joyful, loving lives. As one of our SS.CC. priests from Chile, Esteban Gumucio said, “Fix your eyes on Jesus.” The Holy Spirit draws me deeper into the life of Jesus. His humble, merciful heart coaxes me onward.

Q8. You grew into Catholicism without a child’s appreciation of Mary, Mother of God. Have you found her in your journey?

A. Yes. Early after I entered the Church, when I was going to daily Mass, I found people praying the Rosary and joined them.

The people at the Bible study I attended also had a strong devotion to Mary, so I was being introduced to Mary through them, in the Eucharist, and in devotional readings. I also got to know the La Salettes and went to the Attleboro shrine. I am trying to have a childlike trust in Mary. I am finding that praying to Mary,

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especially in the Rosary, and having a relationship with her helps me in my relationship with God, the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit. I am grateful that Mary is prominent in our religious order and that we carry her name.

Q9. It is quite difficult today to try and create an invitation (by way of an ad) that seeks vocations. How do

we talk about religious life as a possibility today in a world of “nones,” a world where there is no interest showing on the gauge?

A. Perhaps, we can preach always, and when necessary, use words. We need to be profoundly and radically rooted in Christ through prayer and sacrificial love, and then reveal a joyful, dynamic, love-filled life that attracts others to a deeper relationship in Christ. Once they have this deeper, trusting relationship with Jesus, He can draw them and speak with them as He wants — for some this will be the amazing adventure of religious

life and/or priesthood.

Surely Jesus wants us to be full of joy, love and vitality.

Our culture so often issues empty promises, tempting us to be shallow, and self-serving. However, Jesus calls us to a deeper, lasting life. “I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly.”

Q10. OK, so there is a need for us to reveal in ourselves what we show on vocation literature. Renewal in Religious Life is a notable topic today. As you saw it in Fiji, as you see it now, should we start with community life, or mission, or — where?

A. Again, I would say start with prayer. All vocations come from God. With apostolic orders, we do live prayer in action.

We could attract people through mission, preaching the love of Christ found in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Prayer is expressed in community life, in fraternal love or in the family spirit.

You can’t give what you don’t have. Our love has to stem from the love of God, and it seems we have to spend time with God — as Mary did at the feet of Jesus. Our order was founded in Adoration. We need to adore Christ in the Eucharist, spend time listening to Him, and being filled

by His love. If we are not discerning Christ’s will each day, and are not being replenished by Him, how can

we effectively contradict the distractions and illusions of the world? Mother Teresa had her Sisters begin each day with an hour of Adoration and then Mass because she knew that they need Christ’s love to do this challenging outreach to the poorest of the poor.

In Fiji, Church and society is a bit more like the Western world in the 1950s, meaning religion is an important part of people’s daily life and becoming a religious or priest is very honorable and high status. A very welcoming and accepting religious house and living out our charism of expressing the love of God further helps attract vocations. We need humility, courage, and trust to allow God’s love to shine through us.

Q11. Are you reading anything interesting at present?

A. I am reading the newspapers. It is troubling to hear what is happening: evacuations in Afghanistan, earthquake and suffering in Haiti, the ongoing debate about vaccines and masks in the face of another round of the COVID pandemic.

I have been reading “Blessings of the Daily: A Monastic Book of Days”

by Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourrette. I am enjoying these reflections on Benedictine life, including prayer, gardening, Liturgy, and hospitality.

I have been reading the Roman Missal, including the General Instructions, preparing for my priestly ordination, God willing Thank you for your time, Brother Bill, and blessings in ministry, as you move towards priesthood.

The family that prays together ... continued from page four

Having the opportunity to visit his grave this past spring, I stood before his simple tombstone, laden with Rosary beads, and could not fathom the fact that I was standing next to the remains of a simple man, once written off, but who accomplished more than I could ever imagine doing in my lifetime and whom held no doubts in regards to the answers he sought.

All because he prioritized the right thing: prayer.

While Father Peyton eventually passed in 1992, his work of Family Rosary and Family Theatre Productions still continue to this day, a part of Holy Cross Family Ministries located in Easton. The Father Peyton Center, home to the Family Museum of Prayer, is a testament to his life and legacy, and continues to be a source of Sacrament and prayer for all those who seek it. Declared venerable

by Pope Francis in 2017, Father Peyton could become the first blessed, and saint, buried within the Diocese of Fall River.

And if he were here today, he would most likely downplay these titles and offer us a simple reminder to turn to the Lord, to trust Mary, and to be a people of prayer.

Why? Because all that we may long for — healing, answers, truth, hope, peace, stability, certainty, reassurance, meaning and purpose — can all be found in the same place: pray with God. As much as we may look for it elsewhere, these things will ultimately not exist for long separate from God. Trust me, I’ve looked.

And if you don’t trust me, then spend time in prayer with your spouse and children and put Father Peyton’s axiom to the test.

For more information on Venerable Father Patrick

Peyton, visit Holy Cross Family Ministries and watch the film on his life entitled “PRAY the Film.”

Anchor columnist David Carvalho is the senior director for Faith Formation, Youth, Young Adult and Family Life Ministries for the Diocese of Fall River. Contact: dcarvalho@ dioc-fr.org.

Echo apprentices share their stories continued from page seven

ing Mass each Sunday as a family. After Mass, students complete Mass journals, which ask questions about the Liturgical season, Scripture readings, Sacraments, and other aspects of our faith. Finally, once a month, students attend in-person teaching sessions where they learn more in depth about some aspect of the faith, and then com-

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass on WLNE Channel 6 Sunday, October 3 at 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Steven Booth, Parochial Vicar at St. Julie Billiart Parish, North Dartmouth

Sunday, October 10 at 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Kevin A. Cook, Pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Seekonk.

Sunday, October 17 at 11:00 a.m.

Celebrant is Father Edward J. Healey, Pastor of Christ the King Parish in Mashpee

plete activities and engage in small group discussion related to the topic. Our first few sessions of Faith Formation have been going very well and our students seem to be getting a lot out of the program.

I am incredibly excited for what this year holds for the young people at the parish. Additionally, I have been able to serve as a small group mentor for the Confirmation candidates at the parish. I very much enjoy challenging these young people to go deeper in their faith, and I am looking forward to walking

with these students as they prepare for this beautiful Sacrament. As I begin my second month of ministry at St. Joseph’s Parish, I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to serve this incredible community of Catholics. I have already learned so much about how a parish runs, and how to be the best catechetical leader I can be, and I am excited to learn more.

Thank you again for your warm welcome to the diocese. I would greatly appreciate your prayers for my ministry, and know of my prayers for our diocese!

Diocese of Fall River TV Mass

on the Portuguese Channel Sunday, October 3 at 7 p.m.

Broadcast from Immaculate Conception Church in New Bedford Sunday, October 10 at 7 p.m.

Broadcast from Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church in Providence Sunday, October 17 at 7 p.m.

Broadcast from Espirito Santo Church in Fall River Sunday, October 24 at 7 p.m.

Broadcast from Santo Christo Church in Fall River

Sunday, Sunday, October October 24 24 at at 11:00 11:00 a.m. a.m.

World Mission Sunday

Celebrant is Father Celebrant is Msgr. John J. Oliveira, Diocesan Director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith

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T he C hurch

L

Y outh & Y oung A dults

Feed the good wolf

ast week at the UMass Dartmouth campus, we dedicated the Peace Pole. This annual event is held on the International Day of Peace.

This pole is to symbolize the oneness of humanity and our common wish for a world at peace. It is to remind us to think, speak and act in a spirit of peace and harmony. And it is to stand as a silent visual for peace to prevail on earth. The pole has the saying, “May Peace Prevail Throughout the World” in many different languages.

For the opening prayer of this dedication, I read the prayer widely attributed to St. Francis that is very much known to most of us. It begins, “Make me a channel of your peace.”

In preparing remarks for the dedication, I came across a story that I had read that captures the essence of the International Day of Peace and I would like to share it with you as, what I hope, will bring to the front of your minds,

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and

something that we all desire: peace.

This story is a Cherokee legend, and it is about an old Cherokee who is teaching his grandson about life.

“A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil — he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good — he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.

The same fight is going on inside you — and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you

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feed.”

When we think of peace we generally think about stopping war. However, as the wise Cherokee grandfather identified, it is not only about that but

also about our very selves.

We need to first identify the inner conflict of our own lives. We need to decide which wolf we will feed and then, and only then, can we take the first steps towards dialogue with each other and ultimately reconciliation leading to peace.

It seems to me, that this is an opportune time for us all to reflect on peace and peacemakers.

The second reading from St. James a few weeks back read, “Is it not from your

passions that make war?

“You covet but do not possess.

“You kill and envy, but you cannot obtain.”

You see, there is this disordered part in all of us that wants what we want, when we want it. We can be envious and selfish.

We can be angry and arrogant. There is conflict on the outside because there is a war in the inside between these two wolves.

Sometimes it is difficult to think we can have any influence over the world picture. What can you or I do about a particular war or global situation such as those happening in Afghanistan or on our southern border and elsewhere?

It is so much bigger than any one of us. But we can start to make a personal decision to feed the good wolf. To make the conscience decision to align ourselves with the good.

Then and only then can we reach out toward peaceful

dialogue with others in our personal relationships, within our families, our community and ultimately, we can even inspire others, our communities, and perhaps even our nation toward good.

Let’s recognize our need to feed the good wolf.

Let’s identify relationships that are in conflict to explore ways of making peace, peace within ourselves, within each other in this community, peace with our friends and members of our family, peace within our hometowns, our state, and our nation.

And so, we pray: May we be led from death to life, from falsehood to truth.

May we be lead from despair to hope, from fear to trust.

May we be led from hate to love, from war to peace.

And may peace fill our heart, our world, our universe. Now and forever.

Amen.

Anchor columnist Frank Lucca is a deacon in the Diocese of Fall River assigned to St. Mary’s Parish in Dartmouth and a campus minister at UMass Dartmouth. He is married to his wife of 43 years, Kristine, and the father of two daughters and their husbands, and five grandsons! So blessed! Thanks to Sister Madeleine for sharing the Cherokee story.

Messages of His Holiness Pope Francis for World Mission Sunday 2021 WE CANNOT KEEP THE LORD TO OURSELVES Once we experience the power of God’s love, and recognize His fatherly presence in our personal and community life, we cannot help but proclaim and share what we have seen and heard. “Go therefore to the highways and byways, and invite everyone you find” (Mt 22:9). No one is excluded, no one need feel distant or removed from this compassionate love. As Christians, we cannot keep the Lord to ourselves: the Church’s evangelizing mission finds outward fulfillment in the transformation of our world and in the care of creation. The theme of this year’s World Mission Sunday — “We cannot but speak about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20), is a summons to each of us to “own” and to bring to others what we bear in our hearts.

THE EXPERIENCE OF THE APOSTLES The first Christians began the life of faith amid hostility and hardship — those experiences impelled them to turn problems, conflicts and difficulties into opportunities for mission. Nothing and no one was to be excluded from the message of liberation.

Like the Apostles and the first Christians, we too can say with complete conviction: “We cannot but speak about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). Everything we have received from the Lord is meant to be put to good use and freely shared with others....The first Christians, far from yielding to the temptation to become an elite group, were inspired by the Lord and His offer of new life to go out among the nations and to bear witness to what they had seen and heard: the Good News that the Kingdom of God is at hand.

THE PANDEMIC NECESSITATES MISSION OF COMPASSION The pandemic has brought to the fore and amplified the pain, the solitude, the poverty, and the injustices experienced by so many people. In these days of pandemic there is urgent need for the mission of compassion, which can make that necessary (social) distancing an opportunity for encounter, care and promotion.

“What we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20), the mercy we have

experienced, can thus become a point of reference and a source of credibility enabling us to recover a shared passion for building “a community of belonging and solidarity worthy of our time, our energy and our resources” (Fratelli Tutti, 36).

AN INVITATION TO EACH OF US On World Mission Sunday, which we celebrate on the penultimate Sunday of October, we recall with gratitude all those men and women who by their testimony of

life help us to renew our baptismal commitment to be generous and joyful apostles of the Gospel. Let us remember especially all those who resolutely set out, leaving home and family behind, to bring the Gospel to all those places and people athirst for its saving message.

To be on mission is to be willing to think as Christ does, to believe with Him that those around us are also my brothers and sisters.

May His compassionate love touch our hearts and make us all true missionary disciples.

To read the full message of Pope Francis, visit vatican.va

The Massachusetts State Council of the Knights of Columbus held an Installation of Officers ceremony on September 12 at St. Augustine’s Church in Millville. State Deputy Michael Lesperance is shown with State Chaplain Matthew Wescott and the State Officers and their wives.

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Sister Faith Harding, RSM

ATTLEBORO— Sister Mary Faith, RSM, (formerly Barbara Ann), 88, a Sister of Mercy for 71 years, died on September 11 at Sturdy Memorial Hospital. She was the daughter of the late William F. and Deborah (Gorton) Harding and sister of the late Dorothy Harding Cassidy. She is survived by her brother William and nieces and nephews.

Sister Faith’s motto was “I have come to serve, not to reign,” and this was evident in her many years of service. She began her teaching ministry working in schools in the Providence Diocese, including a position as librarian at St. Mary’s, Bay View. In 1964, Sister Faith transferred to Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro. Thus began a long-standing, loving relationship with the Feehan community, first as teacher and librarian, then as Feehan’s principal. She served in that capacity for 18 years.

Sister Faith will be remembered as a woman of deep faith with an abiding love for her students and

those with whom she ministered.

She had a gift for quiet, consistent and strong leadership at Feehan.

She then exhibited these same gifts at St. Mary’s, Bay View from 1992 -2006 as vice-principal.

Her sense of humor, the twinkle in her eyes, her courage in adversity, her love of life — these are the memories her friends and companions in Mercy will cherish in their hearts.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated September 18 at St. John the Evangelist Church, Attleboro. Interment was at Resurrection Cemetery, Cumberland, R.I. In lieu of flowers, donations in Sister’s memory to the Sisters of Mercy, www.sistersofmercy.org/ donate, would be appreciated. Information and condolences, please visit: www.galloglyfuneralhome. com.

Museum of Family Prayer hosts Rosary Festival continued from page one

and Jesus. The event will conclude with cider and donuts for families and all guests.

“With October being Rosary Month, we want to give thanks to God and mark the occasion of this truly special month, for love of Our Lady. It is a calling for us now, to carry on the Rosary for future generations, at a time when we renew our appreciation of the Rosary and our commitment to pray it regularly,” said Father Phalan. “As families grow closer to Jesus, with Mary, through her prayer — everyday miracles will occur and families will grow stronger and more unified, and see in new ways the power of God’s love.”

Throughout the entire month of October, the ministry celebrates the Rosary with a “Go To Joseph” global family prayer campaign. With 27 ministry centers around the world, families will participate in the campaign and experience the Rosary through the eyes of St. Joseph. For complete prayer materials that update weekly, families can go to www.

FamilyRosary.org and participate.

All prayer efforts of the global min18

istry are developed to help families pray together to live out the founder Venerable Patrick Peyton’s vision that “The family that prays together stays together.”

The Museum of Family prayer invites local families and all visitors to participate in this unique Fall prayer event on October 8, with a Candlelight Procession, the Rosary Prayer, and refreshments.

The October Rosary Festival 2021 is brought to you by The Museum of Family Prayer, which offers a unique, interactive environment and utilizes digital media to help families pray together. Families and visitors are treated to a new, different, fun, faith-filled experiences. The Museum is a member ministry of Holy Cross Family Ministries (HCFM), a family of Catholic ministries that inspires, promotes, and fosters the prayer life and Spiritual well-being of families throughout the world.

“The family that prays together stays together.” — Venerable Patrick Peyton www.MuseumOfFamilyPrayer. org.

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In Your Prayers

Please pray for these priests and deacons during the coming weeks:

Oct. 9 Rev. Paul J. Dalbec, M.S., La Salette Shrine, Attleboro, 2000 Oct. 10 Rev. James C.J. Ryan, Assistant, Immaculate Conception, North Easton, 1918 Rev. Boniface Jones, SS.CC., Chaplain, Sacred Heart Home, New Bedford, 1987 Rev. Joseph A. Martineau, Retired Pastor, St. Theresa, New Bedford, 1990 Oct. 11 Rev. James A. Downey, Pastor, Holy Ghost, Attleboro, 1952 Permanent Deacon Chester O. Cook, 2016 Oct. 12 Rev. Felician Plichta, OFM Conv., Parochial Vicar, Corpus Christi, East Sandwich, Former Pastor Holy Cross, Fall River, 1999 Rev. David I. Walsh. MM, Maryknoll Missioner, 1999 Oct. 13 Rev. David I. Walsh, M.M., Maryknoll Missioner, 1999 Rev. James J. Doyle, C.S.C., Holy Cross Residence, North Dartmouth, 2002 Rev. J. Marc Herbert, C.S.C., 2006 Oct. 14 Rev. Dennis M. Lowney, Assistant, Sacred Heart, Taunton, 1918 Rev. Msgr. Edward B. Booth, Retired Pastor, St. Mary, North Attleboro, 1972 Rev. Frederick G. Furey, SS.CC. Former Pastor, Our lady of Assumption, New Bedford, 1999 Rev. Andre P. Jussaume, Pastor, St. Louis de France, Swansea, 2003 Oct. 15 Rev. Msgr. Raymond T. Considine, PA, Retired Pastor, St. William, Fall River, 1996 Oct. 16 Rev. Raymond M. Drouin, O.P., Former Pastor, St. Anne, Fall River, 1987 Oct. 17 Rev. Gerald E. Lachance, M.Afr., 1984 Oct. 19 Rev. Manuel A. Silvia, Pastor, Santo Christo, Fall River, 1928 Oct. 21 Rt. Rev. Msgr. Edward J. Carr, P.R., Pastor, Sacred Heart, Fall River; Chancellor 1907-21, 1937 Rev. Francis E. Gagne, Pastor, St. Stephen, Attleboro, 1942 Rev. Walter J. Buckley, Retired Pastor, St. Kilian, New Bedford, 1979 Oct. 22 Rev. John E. Connors, Pastor, St. Peter, Dighton, 1940 Rev. Jerome F. O’Donnell, OFM, Our Lady’s Chapel, New Bedford, 1983 Oct. 23 Chorbishop Joseph Eid, Pastor, St. Anthony of the Desert, Fall River, 1970 Oct. 24 Rev. Marc Maurice Dagenais, O.P., Retired Assistant, St. Anne, Fall River, 1982 Most Rev. Joseph W. Regan, M.M, Retired Prelate of Tagum, Philippines, 1994 Oct. 25 Rev. Reginald Chene, O.P., Dominican Priory, Fall River, 1935 Rev. Raymond B. Bourgoin, Pastor, St. Paul, Taunton, 1950 Rev. James W. Connerton, CSC, Founder, Stonehill College, North Easton, 1988 Rev. Msgr. John J. Steakem, Pastor, St. Thomas More, Somerset, 1999 Rev. Henry J. Dauphinais, M.S., 2018 Oct. 27 Rev. Francisco L. Jorge, Assistant, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, New Bedford, 1918 Rev. Edmond L. Dickinson, Assistant, St. Mathieu, Fall River, 1967 Rev. Joseph F. O’Donnell, Retired Pastor, Immaculate Conception, North Easton, 1990 Oct. 28 Rev. Alfred E. Coulombe, Pastor, St. George, Westport, 1923 Rev. Stanislaus Kozikowski, OFM Conv., Pastor, St. Hedwig, New Bedford, 1956 Oct. 30 Msgr. Robert L. Stanton, Retired Pastor, St. Paul, Taunton, 1992 Rev. Denis Sughrue, CSC, Director of Postulancy, Holy Cross Novitiate, North Dartmouth, 2002 Nov. 1 Rev. William H. McNamara, Retired Pastor, St. Mary, Mansfield, 1924 Rev. Louis N. Blanchet, Assistant, St. Jean Baptiste, Fall River, 1927 Rt. Rev. Msgr. John F. Ferraz, Pastor, St. Michael, Fall River, 1944 Rt. Rev. Msgr. George F. Cain, Pastor, St. Mathieu, Fall River, 1953 Rev. William E. Farland, Pastor, St. Joseph, Taunton, 1987 Rev. William F. Gartland, C.S.C. Stonehill College, North Easton, 1988 Rev. John F. Sullivan, SS.CC., Retired Pastor Holy Trinity, West Harwich, 1994 Rev. Manuel T. Faria, 1999 Nov. 2 A memento for the repose of the souls of our bishops, priests and permanent deacons not on this list Rev. Joseph S. Fortin, Founder, St. Jean Baptiste, Fall River, 1923 Rev. Michael V. McDonough, Chaplain, St. Mary’s Home, New Bedford, 1933 Nov. 3 Rev. Jose M. Bettencourt e Avila, Retired Pastor, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, New Bedford, 1988 Nov. 4 Rev. Edmond Tremblay, 1985 Rev. Willibrord Willemen, SS.CC., 1987 Permanent Deacon James M. O’Gara, 1990 Nov. 5 Rev. Daniel A. Gamache, Retired Pastor, St. Joseph, New Bedford, 1998

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WORLD MISSION SUNDAY OCTOBER 24, 2021 The Society for THE PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH ... a Pontifical Mission Society

Complete the coupon and submit it with a donation in the basket the next two weekends at church, or send to: Rev. Msgr. John J. Oliveira, P.A. 106 Illinois Street, New Bedford, MA 02745 Enclosed is my World Mission Sunday gift for the Missions October 24, 2021

NAME: ADDRESS: CITY: STATE: ZIP:

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