the8nc VOL. 50, NO.2· Friday, January 13,2006
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FALL RIVER, MASS.
Ex-gang leader challenges students to be street-wise and live virtuously By MIKE GORDON
school. We have too many kids today making too many adult deFALL RIVER - Students at cisions. I encourage you kids to S1. Anne's School received a visit be kids." from an old friend recently when Jennings' talk focused on the motivational speaker Joseph dangers of smoking, alcohol, Jennings returned to Fall River to drugs, profanity, gangs and not give them advice about important respecting one's body. His visit life choices. was organized by Catholic Social Jennings,afonnergangleade~ Services' Abstinence Challenging instantly had the students in the Teens in Our Neighborhoods Propalm of his hand and it's easy to gram. see why. At a little oversix-feettall Jennings travels the country and 260 pounds, Jennings is a big visiting schools to bring his exman and his booming voice rever- perience to students in hopes that berated through the auditorium. he can change lives by making ''Take advantage of your time them realize they have a choice here," he told students. "Come when it comes to sex, drugs and here and learn and appreciate that violence. He has appeared on nayour parents put you in this Turn to page 13 - Message ANCHOR STAFF
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BISHOP GEORGE W. Coleman greets students of S1. Stanislaus SChool during a Mass celebrating the Fall River school's 100th anniversary. (Anchor/Gordon photo) Ii
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Stanislaus School celebrates 100 years of Catholic education By MIKE GORDON ANCHOR STAFF
JOSEPH JENNINGS, a former gang leader, spoke recently to students at S1. Anne's School, Fall River, about the dangers of drugs, gangs and not respecting one's self. (Anchor/ Gordon photo)
FALL RIVER - An overflow crowd of parishioners, parents, teachers and students marked the 100th anniversary of S1. Stanislaus SchOol January 8 at a to a.m. Mass celebrated by Bishop GeOIge W Coleman with pastor Father Bruce M. Neylon. It was a time to reflect on a century of Catholic education and what that has meant to the community through the years. FatherNeylon called the centennial celebration, 'Tremendous. It says a lot about the commitment ofthe parishioners, the Sisters who first came here and the teachers today. All have made a great commitment to the school and community." Father Neylon added that it was special for him because his mother attended the school. ''It's ajoyous occasion and I'm glad to be part of this celebration and a parish that values Catholic education."
According, to its history, the school opened its doors for the fIrst time on Jan. 6, 1906. It was established by thecomumnityofSt Stanislaus Parish under FatherPeter Basinski:' to educate fIrst-and second-generation Polish immigrants. Felician Sisters from the congregation of the Sisters of S1. Felix of Cantalice staffed the schoolhouse and instruction was in English and Polish. A new school eventually replaced that four-room classroom in 1967 and the Felician Sisters continued to educate students until 1985 when they were forced to discontinue due to a lack of vocations. Curreht Principal Jean Willis said they have been doing a lot of work to prepare for the centennial, but it was worth the effort. "I'm very happy with everything," said Willis. ''We've been doing a lot of things during the school year to celebrate and we have an alumni weekend planned for May. Many of the Felician Sisters will be Turn to page 16 - Centennial ..
Legal challenge filed to citizens' constitutional marriage amendment lay
DEACON JAMES N. DUNBAR AND eNS REPORTS
BOSTON - Even as the Elections Division of the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth certifIed 123,356 signatures given last fall on a citizens petition to amend the state's constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman, a legal block is looming. Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, GLAD, fonnally filed a lawsuit Januaiy 3 challenging Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly's authority to allow the citizens' initiative as it promised in a Nov. 26, 2005 statement, reported Daniel Avila, director of Public Policy for the Massachusetts Catholic Council, the
public policy voice of the Catholic bishops of Massachusetts. "The attorney general simply got it wrong," said Gary Buseck, GLAD's legal director. "Our state constitution says there can be no citizen-initiated constitutional anlendment that 'relates to the reversal of a judicial decision. ", GLAD has continually maintained that a citizen-initiated petition cannot reverse the ruling on same-sex marriage that came Nov. 18, 2003 from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in its decision in Goodwin v. Department of Public Health. It involved a lawsuit by seven same-sex couples demanding marriage licenses. The high court ruled that same-sex marriage is
required in Massachusetts. In a I5-page letter sent to the group last September, Assistant Attorney General Peter Sacks rejected that argument, stating: "Amending the words ofthe constitution does not require the people to say that a court's decision was wrong and should be ignored. Instead, it changes the rules to be applied by the court so that future cases will tum out differently." Responding to the lawsuit January 6, Reilly's communications director, David Guarino, said the attorney general still sup. ports that reasoning. However GLAD did not file a suit by the Friday, January 6 deadline challenging the petition process or the certification
ofthe signatures by the Secretary of State," reported Larry Cirignano, executive director of the campaign VoteOnMarriage.org. the citizen's initiative petition. . ''We have enough legislators" who are willing to support the bill, said Cirignano, e~ecutive director of Catholic Citizenship, a nonpartisan organization that coordinated the signature-gathering process in the state's Catholic dioceses. ''The big thing is that we have to get the vote," Cirignano added. Senate President Robert E. Travaglini and House Speaker Salvatore F. DeMasi "have to allow a vote," he said. The goal of the initiative is to allow Turn to page 13 - Marriage