FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS VOL. 43, NO.4¡ Friday, January 22, 1999
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FALL RIVER, MASS.
Sisters of Charity of Quebec to mark 150th jubilee ~
The Sisters have served in the Fall River Diocese for more than 81 years. By JAMES N. DUNBAR
NEW BEDFORD -The community of the Sisters of Charity of Quebec will gather Jan. 31 for the 10 a.m., Mass in Sacred Heart Church here - and later for a brunch with parishioners in the church hall- celebrating the congregation's founding in Quebec City, Canada, in 1849. Bishop Sean P. O'Malley w.ill be the principal celebrant and homilist at the Mass. The festivities are part of the "150 Years of Charity at the Heart of Life" that are being observed by the sisters in their respective missions or parishes across the world - in Quebec, the United States, Japan and South America - until August 1999. The founder, Mother Marcelle MaBet, was born in Montreal, Canada on March 26, 1805. When still very young she became an orphan and received no formal education. She entered the novitiate of the Grey Nuns of Montreal in 1824 and two years later pronounced her first vows. She was assigned to the kitchen in the children's ward and to the frail elderly and handicapped women. However by 1840 she was appointed to the general administration and four years later was assistant to the superior. When in 1849, Bishop Turgeon
of Quebec requested that Sisters of the Grey Nuns of Montreal staff an orphanage and provide services to the poor in Quebec City, Mother Mallet volunteered. She was named superior of the new foundation. By 1870, the congregation was comprised of 116 sisters with seven foundations. Mother Mallet died on Easter morning, April 9, 1871. Her congregation was dedicated to the sick, orphans, and the abandoned elderly, poor children without instruction, immigrants without family or
Mother Marcelle Mallet
home - to all classes-of poverty. In the next hundred years many foundations followed: general hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, orphanages for b.oys and girls, boarding schools for girls and social services for the poor. . Sister Denise Marcoux, superior general of the congregation, which has 800 members, states: "We are sisters capable to intervene, to support the needy where we are needed." In 1981, a new program was organized to perpetuate the spirit and charism of Mother Mallet. They are the "Associates," men and women willing to walk in Mother Mallet's footsteps. Today there are more than 400 members worldwide. The Sisters of Charity of Quebec came to the Fall River Diocese in 1917 at the request of Father Orner Valois, pastor of Sacred Heart Church, New Bedford, with the approval of Bishop Daniel F. Feehan. The sisters were asked to staff a parochial boarding house for young girls who worked in 'area factories. That caused a flap with the Quebec motherhouse, reported Sister Therese Bergeron of New Bedford. "That kind of work was not within the guidelines, which really focused on taking care of the elderly and sick," said Sister Bergeron. "But Father Valois was instrumental in keeping the sisters here and in October 1920, the first elderly facility was build in New Bedford. A few years later a wing was added to what is now the Sacred Heart Tum to page 13 - Quebec
Hundreds from across diocese at pro-life vigil, march in capital ~
The Anchor has staffer Mike Gordon covering the annual respect life events in the nation's capital. By JAMES N. DUNBAR
FALL RJVER - Hundreds of people from the Fall River Diocese, including approximately 60 teens, are among tens of thousands of Catholics converging on Washington, D.C., for the annual National Prayer Vigil for Life last night and the March for Life today. Bishop Sean P. O'Malley is again among the pilgrims he called, "Persons of conscience to mark the anniversary of the United States Supreme Court decisions which legalized abortion-on-demand throughout our country. We gather in a spirit of prayer and peace to show clearly our support for the sacred value and dignity of life." In a letter issued last week, the bishop told the group: "I am so proud of you!" Cardinal William H. Keeler of Baltimore was the principal celebrant and homilist at the opening MaSs of the vigil that began at 8 o'clock last night in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on the campus of The Catholic University of America. Following that there was recitation of the rosary, night prayer and holy hours throughout the night at the shrine. The vigil concluded today with morning prayer at 6 a.m., and a concelebrated Mass with Bishop O'Malley at 7:30 a.m. "In our times of prayer at the basilica and at Our Lady of the Americas Church this Tum to page 13 - March
Powerful spirit keeps Maryknoll priest afloat ~
Fall River native Father John Breen stays in stride at 75.
serving in the region fall. Finally, he suffered his own body's decline, needing emergency heart surgery in 1992. Buoyed by a powerful faith and an ornery spirit, By FATliER JOSEPH FEDORA, MM however, this seasoned missionary from Fall River, MARYKNOLL, N.Y. - While Maryknoll Fa- Mass., manages to keep afloat. It must be the sailor ther John Breen was en route to his first mission in him. "I was 12 years old when I got my first sailassignment in the mountains of Guatemala in 1952, his horse dropped dead. So the newly ordained boat," says Father Breen, who, while growing up, missioner picked up the saddle and journeyed the spent six months a year at his family's summer rest of the way on foot. It was an auspicious begin- home in Portsmouth, R.I. "And I've been in love ning to a dynamic missionary career spanning half with sailing and the sea ever since." So much so, that Father Breen, while a senior in a century, all of it in Central America. Over the decades, Breen, who now lives and high school, decided to apply to the U.S. Naval works in Honduras, witnessed many things falling Academy. "I went to Mass every day praying I'd be by the wayside: like democracy in 1954 when a able to pass the entrance exam," he recalls smiling. CIA-backed military coup overthrew Guatemala's When he told Father Thomas Daley of Holy Name government, and, in subsequent years respect for Parish, Fall River, that he wanted to go to Annapolife: when he saw the bodies of his parishioners lis, the priest told him: "Give God first choice!" So the man did, joining Maryknoll in 1944. caught in the cross fire between government troops' and rebel fighters. As Maryknoll superior in CenTurn to page 13 - Maryknoll tral America, he saw the number of missionaries
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FATHER JOHN Breen, Fall River Maryknoller, shown here piloting a boat to get around his parish in Central America, has spent over half a century ministering to the people there. (Maryknoll photo)