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VOL. 43, NO. 11 • Friday, March 12, 1999
FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
FALL RIVER, MASS.
Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly • $14 Per Year
St. Joseph's marks 125th anniversary ~
One of the oldest church communities in Fall River looks back, then to the future. By JAMES N. DUNBAR
the church's brickwork. The last major overhaul of the church was in the late 1970s, when the interior of the church was repainted.and a new altar installed to meet the liturgical standards of Vatican Council II. The current fundfraisers have included selling attractive "sun catchers" that decorate windows; and a year of dinners, cookouts, a parish
retreat and a tree planting, said Eileen Garant, parish secretary since 1984. There is also an upcoming Lenten parish mission. But they are more than money makers, said Father Perry. 'They aim at building and strengthening the parish community." Attendance slumped after 1992 as families moved away from the inner city, only to revive dramatically as new families found new housing in the city's North End. Currently approximately 1,200 people, representing 610 families attend weekend Masses. Focus on a family Mass, rebuilding of the religious education program and parish events have played a major role in invigorating the parish, Garant said. "This parish started with the immigrant ~ ", Irish mill "" ", .'-:-.. work-
FALL RIVER - When hundreds of parishioners gather Sunday at St. Joseph's Church on North Main Street, they will observe a belated 125th anniversary of one of the city's oldest parishes, dating back to 1873. They will join for Mass at 10 a.m. and afterwards gather at White's Restaurant for a noon banquet. Normand Menard and Rosemary Gasperini are co- ~., chairs ~or the celebr~tio.ns. .Whlle today's panshlOners under the fI~·. :~l'i gUidance of Pastor Father John 1. Perry (';'*,,:, " are in a $225,000 capital campaign to :.... "~" ~ I,. address repairs and improvements over " :~~~~~ L."~\ a two-y~ar pe:io?, they fit a parish t,,;~ l~: mold. Like panshlOners of yesteryear, ",. , ,: J 'hi,nc~ they are ready to make the loving sac- ~ ).... f: ,:-t,:I,!J ri fice to ensure the bright future of their i : ' , i...,·C;,1r parish communi~y and remain debt- !~,. I:,. oj i ....;.)'. L~'. : free the pastor said. .. , ~~.; "We had to l~ok at the old facility ~'ri"l;):, and say what did we need to do," - , ' Father Perry said. "What we really -: c_; ' . ,~-~ .. needed to do was create a parish ";"'~' i . 'j ~: . with a sense of identity. People j ' ; 1 {; came to Mass every Sunday but . they didn't know the people who. ";. sat next to them." The pastor pointed out the refurbished lead and exterior glass of the chur'ch's magnificent stained glass windows, which, along with . , . other repairs and installation of a ~'., .. bathroom in the vintaged church, .... __":"":"~~"':::__.,...,....:.. .-: are among future projects. Ahead ST. JOSEPH'S CHURCH, NORTH MAIN STREET, FALL RIVER lies costly pointing of the exterior mortar of
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Bishop names Father Tosti director of Pastoral Planning FALL RIVER -Bishop Sean P. O'Malley announced today that he has appointed Father Ronald A. Tosti as director of Pastoral Planning. His statement reads: Dearly beloved In Christ: As we prepare for the new millennium, the Diocese of Fall River needs to plan for the challenge of Evangelization in the 21st century. For this reason, last year I established the Pastoral
Planning Office to begin the process. Mr. Douglas M. Rodrigues was hired as Assistant Director and a series of meetings and discussions have taken place in the Priests' Council, Diocesan Pastoral Council, Deaneries, etc. People have been asked to reflect on the mission of the Church in our specific circumstances. We have also asked pastors to prepare their parish councils so that our laity will have an active role
Father Ronald A. Tosti
Turn to page three - Tosti
ers, later embraced other ethnic groups and if you ask me, I'd say that right now it is an American parish," Father Perry said. "This is actually our 126th year," Father Perry explained. "But planning for the anniversary had been put off after the pastor, Father Paul F. McCarrick became ill." Father McCarrick died on Dec. 12, 1996 after serving the parish for 12 years. At White's, parishioners and friends will viewan exhibit that recalls the parish's long history. It was in the spring of 1873 when St. Joseph's was set off from old St. Mary's, the mother church and now the cathedral of the diocese, by order of Bishop Thomas F. Hendricken, bishop of the Diocese of Providence, R.I. The area that eventually was known as Fall River was missionary territory under the Boston diocese until 1872 when it was put under the jurisdiction of Providence. The tide of immigration from Ireland and Canada towards the last third of the 19th century stimulated great growth in Bristol County and required an increase in churches. The first pastor and founder of the parish was Father William H. Bric, who came from a pastorate in Harrisville,
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" \ ..... R.I. Leland House, on residence North Main 'I',. Father Briclocated took up in • Street just north of what is now Presit. .. dent Avenue. The first parish Mass was , .... said there on Sunday, April 20, 1873. . : A temporary church was erected near - i what is now Vestal Street and here is where Catholics in the north end of the city worshipped for nearly four years. Father Bric purchased a tract ofland at the corner of North Main and Weetarnoe Streets. The small building Turn to page J3 - Anniversary
St. Patrick revisited; his legend is ongoing By JAMES N. DUNBAR
teach the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is part of the best tradition. According to historians, Patrick, allegedly the son of a well-to-do lower official, was born along the seacoast of what was Roman Britain about the year 389. Kidnapped by raiding Irish bands, he was taken as a slave and bound over to an Irish king in a northern district. Pressed into service as a herder and I ST. JOSEPH'S STORY PAGE 13 1 much like the Prodigal Son treated no different from the animals, he later wrote: ''I' was chastened exceedingly and humbled every extraordinary one. For most people, the legend that St. day in hunger and nakedness." The hard life changedthe young man who Patrick rid Ireland of snakes is better known than his being a devoted missionary who formerly had taken his Christian faith for established the Catholic Church there. That granted. His days were frequently laced with Turn to page /3 - St. Patrick Patrick used the three-leafed shamrock to FALL RIVER - Heralding March 17 as the "feast day of the Irish and those who long to be" is usually received with mixed feelings. But whatever the greeting offered today, the tale of St. Patrick, told wherever the Irish gather to celebrate the feast day, is an
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