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FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
FALL RIVER, MASS.
VOL, 44, NO.7· Friday, February 18, 2000
Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly • $14 Per Year
Parishes to host Jubilee Masses Official diocesan pilgrimage churches The following Churches have been designed by Bishop Sean P. O'Malley, OFM Cap., as pilgrimage sites in the Diocese of Fall River for the Jubilee Year. Bishop O'Malley will be the principal celebrant at Masses at the churches on the following dates and times: - Sunday, March 5, S1. Mary Church, Mansfield, noon; - Sunday, April 2, Saint Anne Church, Fall River, 10 a.m.; - Sunday, May 7, St. Anthony Church, Taunton,
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St. Mary's Mansfield is among 10 pilgrim parish sites chosen for special liturgies.
Editor's Note: This is the first of a to-part series on the pilgrimage churches in the Fall River Diocese. The series will run once a month in The Anchor to assist Catholics in making pilgrimages to these sites. According to guidelines published by the diocese, those who travel to any of the designated churches and fulfill the simple conditions of the indulgences, will receive for themselves, or for a soul in Purgatory, the same indulgence as if they had traveled to Rome or the Holy Land for the Jubilee Year.
By JAMES N.
DUNBAR
3p.m.; Sunday, June 25, Kennedy Park, Fall River, 3 p.m., which is the concluding Mass for the Eucharistic Congress; Sunday, July 2, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, New Bedford, 10 a.m.; - Sunday,. August 6, St. John Neumann Church, East Freetown, 11 a.m.; - Sunday, September 3, St. Pius X Church, South Yarmouth, 11 a.m.; - Sunday, October 1, Holy"Trinity Church, Harwich, 4 p.m.; - Sunday, November 5, Christ the King Church, Mashpee, 11 :30 a.m.; - Sunday, December 3, La Salette Shrine, Attleboro, 4 p.m.
. following the meal would "go out for a smoke." There was a room prepared for confession. In the evening, the ladies would prepare an altar with their finest linens for celebration of Mass the following morning. . By 1969 the burgeoning parish had grown to some 40 families and they began to look for larger accommodations, and on Jan. 19, 1871 property on Church Street was acquired for $225. S1. Mary's Catholic Church was erected that year and the first service held on Christmas Day. Located on Church Street across from Bristol Street, it was originally served by mission priests before the founding of St. Mary's Parish in 1894. Father Hugh Harrold·became pastor of St. Mary's Parish in 1910. A native of Pawtucket, R.I., he oversaw many important projects during his Turn to page 13 - Jubilee
Jubilee Year guidelines Jubilee Year guidelines state that a person on pilgrimage to the churches should do at least one of the following: attend Mass or Vespers, make the Stations of the Cross, say the rosary, or spend time in eucharistic adoration and pious meditation, ending with the "Our Father," the Profess i9n of Faith and a prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Those seeking indulgences (see Page 13 for an expla-
nation) must r~ceive holy. Communion, ideally on the same day that the Jubilee Church or shrine is visited. They must offer prayers for the Holy Father along with other prayers ending with the "Our Father," the Profession of Faith and a prayer to the Blessed Mother. Sacramental confession leading to a genuine conversion of heart, is also a condition for the ir,dulgences. This may be ful-
filled several days before or after the church visitation. Other ways to gain the Jubilee Indulgence includes: the undertaking of charitable works, visits to the sick, imprisoned or elderly, almsgiving, and abstaining for a whole day from unnecessary consumption of cigarettes, alcohol, or fasting and abstinence according to the general norms of the Church.
Study: Expand Catholic schools on Cape Cod
Dioces·an priest topic of George Weigel's column Page five
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Consultants for diocese recommend two new elementary sc/Jools grades kindergarten through eight; and reviewing the feasibility of a high school. . . By JOHN E. KEARNS JR. ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICAnoNS
FALL RIVER - An educational consulting company hired by the Diocese of Fall River to develop a strategic plan for Catholic schools on Cape Cod has recommended opening more schools to serve the
growing number of families there. With waiting lists for entrance into Catholic schools on Cape Cod and Cape students accounting for 19 percent of the student population at Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth, the diocese contracted with Meitler Consultants, Inc., of Wisconsin in the fall of 1998 to conduct the school expansion feasibility study. The firm has conducted hundreds of. studies of Catholic schools, many of which included the potential for expansion and new schools. Meitler has concluded its study and submitted its findings to an Advisory Task Force for Catholic School Planning on Cape Cod. The group, appointed by Bishop
Sean P. O'Malley, OFM Cap., when the study began, is comprised of lay representatives, principals, pastors and diocesan leaders and is evaluating the Meitler report. The findings indicate the need for two new Catholic elementary schools on Cape Cod, both with single sections or classes of grades kindergarten through eight. Recommendations call for locating one new school at St: Pius X Parish in South Yarmouth and the other at a site in the Upper Cape to serve students from the communities of Mashpee, Falmouth and Sandwich. Meitler also recommends that for now, Turn to page 16 - Cape Cod