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FALl. RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOA SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSE1TS CAPECOD &THE ISLANDS FALL RIVER, MASS.
VOL. 45, NO. 10 • Friday, March 9, 2001
Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly • $14 Per Year
~ATECHUMENS AND those Christians advancing to the fullness of the Church gather with Bishop Sean P. O'Malley, OFM Cap., at ceremonies marking th~ Rite af Election and the Call 'to Continuing Conversion Sunday aftEm100n in St. Mary's Cathedral, Fall River. At left is Father Henry J. Dahl, director of the Rite of Christian ,inidi;ilion of Adults, and Deacon Paul Macedo. .
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Father Hession electedpresident ofnatiOnalorganizuUon By
DAVE JOLIVET ANCHOR STAFF
CHURCH OF the-Holy SepulGnre 'hJerusalem was' one of the sites of Masses said by Bishop O'Malley.
A journey to . the Holy Land By FATHER EDWARD J. HEALEY RECTOR, ST. MARY'S CATHEDRAL Editor's Note: This is part two ofFather Edward J. Healey's , travelog of a retreat in the Holy Land, attended by several diocesan priests and led by Bishop Sean P. O'Malley, OFM Cap: Following our lunch at an Arab restaurant in East Jerusalem our bus ascended the side of Mt. Scopus and brought us to the top of the Mount of Olives from which, we had a
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Fall River appointed Father Hession director of the diocese's Office for Priestly Life and Ministry in 1996, CENTERVILLE - Since Christ first established at which time, Father Hession became a member of His Church with the Apostles two millennia ago, men NOCERCC. In 1997, NOCERCC Region I (the diohave continuously answered the call to the priesthood. ceses of New England) elected Father Hession a board The role of priest may have remained the same during member, and in 1998, he was elected national vice the last two thousand years, but how that role is per- president. "A group of priests got together roughly 30 years formed changes from age to age.. With that in mind, The National Organization for ago and realized with all ~he shifting paradigms at the Continuing Education of Roman Catholic Clergy work in the post-conciliar Church, that there had to (NOCERCC) was establisheeJ:?8 years ago through be due attention paid to the life and ministry, the onthe efforts ofthe National federation of Priests' Coun- going nature of the education and formation of priests cil, with the 'approval of the Nat(opafCouncil of Catho- after ordination," said Father Hession. He added that NOCERCC is an extension of , lic Bishops. , , ' ~------, that realization, with its primary At their annual convention ~ '- . focus on education. "In 1992, ,1).elcJ last month in San Antol)id,: : Pope John Palll II's pastoral letTexas, NOCERCC Board mein- ' ter Pastores Dabo Vobis ("I bers from throughout the counWill Give You Shepherds") .try, elected Father Mark R. suggested that we have to be Hession, pastor of Our Lady of concerned not only with a Victory Parish in Centerville, priest's ongoing education, but national president of -the orgamaybe even more so their onnization. going formation; their life, the, "This opportunity is a great concerns of their ministry, bechallenge for me," said Father ing supportive and nurturing Hession in an interview with The during, the key elements in the Anchor. "NOCERCC is a very life of every priest." important organization and I Father Hession pointed out look forward to working with that at the Bishop's Conference the members channeling crelast June, the bishops unaniative contributions to our commously voted in a new national :mon good." Msgr. George W. Coleman, Turn to page J3 vicar general of the Diocese of FATHER MARK R. HESSION Father Hession