eanco VOL. 44, NO.3· Friday, January 21, 2000
FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly • $14 Per Year
FALL RIVER, MASS.
Liturgy strikes at racism ~
Dr. King remembered; Bishop - O'Malley calls for ending racial discrimination in this new millennium. By MIKE GORDON ANCHOR STAFF (ALSO CONTRIBUTlNG WAS PAT MCGOWAN)
BISHOP SEAN P. O'Malley, OFM Cap., lays hands on Rev. Mr. Ramon Dominguez'during his ordination last weekend. Dominguez was made a transitional deacon and will be ordained as a priest in June. (AnchodGordon photo)
FALL RIVER - Hundreds of people gathered at St. Mary's Cathedral on Sunday for a service of prayer, penitence and witness commemorating the late civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The service, which featured numerous speakers, brought a message of hope that racism can be eliminated in the new millennium. Themed "If you want peace, work for justice!" it called for the end of racism in all its
forms. "Dr. King is a great hero and a great Christian hero," said Bishop Sean P. O'Malley who presided. "Today we are here to say we are ashamed of racism and we want to eradicate it in the new millennium," said the bishop as he welcomed people from many different faiths to the Cathedral for the ecumenical service. "The purpose of today is twofold: To repent the great crimes of the past and to move us a little closer to solidarity as one human family," the bishop added. The service opened with a rousing rendi~ion of the song "This Little Light of Mine," featuring the music ministry of Our Lady of the Assumption Church, New Bedford under Turn to page 13 - Racism
New deacon ordained; vowed to Youth Apostles ~ Holy Orders imposed on Rev.
Mr. Dominguez during liturgy in Spanish. By MIKE GORDON ANCHOR STAFF
FALL RIVER - Rev. Mr. Ramon Dominguez was ordained a transitional deacon by Bishop Sean P. O'Malley OFM, Cap., in a moving ceremony at St. Mary's Cathedral last Sunday and now joins five other seminarians who recently advanced towards the priesthood and will be ordained priests this June for the diocese. Bishop O'Malley was principal celebrant at the Mass of ordi'nation and concelebrants included Msgr. George W. Coleman and Father Martin P. Connor. Also concelebrating were Fathers Hernando Herrera, Michael F.
Kuhn, Peter Nassetta, John Peterson and David M. Sharland, all of whom are Youth Apostles and to which deacon Dominguez also dedicates himself. Ordination ceremonies were conducted in both Spanish and English and music was provided by the Fall River Diocesan Choir and Hispanic choirs from across the diocese. The group was directed by Madeleine Grace and Sister Aida Sansor of the Missionaries of Guadalupe of the Holy Spirit sang several songs and prqvided a rousing guitar accompaniment. In his homily, Bishop O'Malley said that the diaconate is created in the Acts of the Apostles and deacons were appointed so the Apostles could focus on prayer. "We have a duty to be men of prayer and doers of the Word," he told the deacon. Turn to page 16 - Deacon
THE CHOIR of Our Lady of the Assumption Church, New Bedford, sings during a prayer service at St. Mary's Cathedral, Fall River, commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Anchor/Gordon photo)
March for Life: Tide is turning against abortion ~
Many more young people are joining Bishop O'Malley and laity on the annual Washington pilgrimage to seek overturn of abortion legislation. By JAMES N. DUNBAR
FALL RIVER - When the deadly, Roe vs. Wade decision of the U.S. Supreme Court came 27 years ago this month, the 1960s cultural revolutionaries for legalized abortion were those in their teens, 20s and 30s. This weekend, as five busloads of Fall River Diocese parishioners led by Bishop
Sean P. O'Malley, OFM Cap., travel to the nation's capital for the 27th annual March for Life to again press legislators to overturn the abortion decision, hundreds of young people will be among them. It is a sign, says Pro-Life and respect life leaders nationwide, that the young people have not only taken up respect life tenets, but seriously want to do something more about them. In a recent interview, Father Stephen A. Fernandes, director of the diocese's Pro-Life Office, and Marian Desrosiers, assistant director, talked about the annual demonstrations and who is going. "My hope is that this year everyone prays
along with us that this March 2000 will be culture of death.'" Desrosiers said that of the five buses leavthe last year; that we can get a human life amendment passed, and we won't have to go ing this city for the Jan. 23 through 25 pilgrimage, three of them will be filled with to Washington again," said Desrosiers. "At the same time, it is dreadful that we young people. "We're very excited because we tripled • have to make this trip at all," said Father Fernandes. "But here we are, for the 27th year, the number of youth who are coming with going to Washington to manifest solidarity us," she said. "We went from one bus with with all those who opposed any aspect of the . youth to three buses. We adults will be joinculture of death which was truly ushered in ing the youth at every Mass and the March itself. The total number going is approxiby the Roe vs. Wade decision." The ramifications of that decision over mately 300, and this year the youth far outthe years since are manifold, he said. "It is number the adults." Father Fernandes said that "happily, there the abortion decision which so radically cheapens human life allowing for all these more young people' from the parishes and Turn to page /3 - March manifestations that the pope has called 'The
2000 Bishop's Charity Ball pictures -
pag~s
8-9 .
~I