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FOR SOUl"Hlt:AST ~\j.ASS:~CHUSFrfS CAPl: COD & l"HIE iSLAJ\JQlS VOL. 42, NO. 13 •
Friday, March 27, 1998
Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
FALL RIVER, MASS.
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$14 Per Year
Pastoral ministry to the sick; A busy business By JAMES N.
DUNBAR
MANSFIELD-For most people, sickness brings loneliness and depression as well as physical anguish. But a team comprised of priests, religious and lay volunteers is reaching out to those in the diocese's hospitals and Catholic nursing homes, making sure that the Church's mission of meeting the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of its members is being fulfilled. Direction of the Fall River Diocese's Office of Pastoral Ministry to the Sick falls squarely on the shoulders of Father George C. Bellenoit, pastor of St. Mary Church in Mansfield.
In an interview this week, Father Bellenoit and priests share in their ministry and that spoke of the busy ministry to the sick, lauded coverage. One of them will be available around the clock. There is the workers, especially Assistant Director Sister of a backup priest always Mercy Shirley Agnew, and available on call for any offered a timely reminder chaplain who calls him." that it is the generosity of The pastoral ministry parishioners to the Annual office oversees services to Catholic Charities Appeal Cape Cod Hospital, Hyaneach year that makes the nis; the Rehabilitation program successful. Hospital of Cape Cod and "Currently there are the Islands, Sandwich; nine fulltime and one partTobey Hospital, Wareham; time priest chaplains, 13 Falmouth Hospital, fulltime and one parttime Falmouth; St. Luke Hospireligious sister chaplains tal, New Bedford, and one fulltjme religious Charlton Memorial Hospibrother chaplain," Father tal and St. Anne Hospital, Bellenoit said. Fall River; Morton Hospi"Pastoral care provides FATHER GEORGE tal, Taunton, and Sturdy 24-hour coverage to staff, BELLENOIT Memorial Hospital, Attlepatients and families," he boro. explained. ''The sisters and brother chaplains It also has chaplaincy service in the
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Catholic Memorial Home, Fall River; Madonna Manor, North Attleboro; Marian Manor, Taunton and Our Lady's Haven, Fairhaven. "There is no 24-hour care structure at the Catholic nursing homes," the director said, "but chapl~ins are available throughout the day and evenings when there is a need." Father Bellenoit, who has directed the program since 1990, reports that the program in this diocese - one of the few dioceses in the United States that supplies fulltime chaplains to all hospitals within its boundaries, is working well. ''The most recent hospital to receive a fulltime chaplain was Falmouth Hospital.That came about last summer. Until then it was covered by one of the local parishes." Although local priests may provide backup to the hospitals, the chaplaincy programs at those facilities come under the Office of Pastoral Ministry. "No matter where the location, we are adTurn to page 13 - Sick
Sisters of Mercy meet tb~ chal1eng~s Local deacon ~
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They heroically faced the needs of struggling mill communities in the late 1800s and continue to minister to people in our changing times.
Final story in a series on the history of the Sisters ofMercy, who will observe the J25th anniversary of their arrival in the Fall River diocese ill April.
By SISTER CATHERINE FELTON, RSM ARCHIVIST FOR THE REGIONAL COMMUNITY OF THE SISTERS OF MERCY
FALL RIVER-While work in the textile and cotton mills was putting bread on the tables of most families here at the tum of the 20th century, the long hours, disease and lack of medical assistance, as well as the lack of child labor laws, were taking their tolls. In 1885, when Fall River was still part of the Providence Diocese, Bishop Thomas Hendricken realized that many small children had been orphaned in this area and purchased land and buildings on the east bank of the Taunton River. He turned to the Sisters of Mercy to take over the direction of what was dedicated as St. Vincent's Home. Sisters M. Magdalen Slattery, Rose Bannigan, Martha McElroy and Michael Mullen opened the home in the largest building of
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the complex. Some of the lumber taken frorn older buildings was used in building a school there. In 1894 a brick building was erected, for the orphanage. While the sisters' work among the children was most successful, the 1920s brought changing views on how children without parents should be raised. Society and the legislature looked at the educational, social and psychological impactoflife in the orphanages. Meeting the new standards, the sisters established smaller groups and high school students were separated from grammar school pupils. Students who could handle a regular curriculum
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W:ere placed in th~ public·s~hhdls. ' The Sisters ofMercy were called tOJl new task when in 1909 the Bethlehem Borne for Infants was opened in Taunton. Sister M. Benedict Nugent and six other sisters organized and ran the home. Their work there ended in 1929 when it was shown that better results could be obtained by boarding the infants with private families. The diocese took a giant step when in 1910 it built Mount St. Mary Conventas the motherhouse for the Sisters ofMercy Of Fall River. It was not until 1946 that the Mount Turn to page 13 - Merc)'
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FUN TIMES-Sister of Mercy M. Rose deLima Clark takes a ride on the merry-goround at St. Vincent Home, Fall River, in this undated photo.
helps adults get confirnted By
MIKE GORDON ANCHOR STAFF
RAYNHAM-Deacon John Welch of St. Anne's Church in Raynham is a person very much involved in his church and community and that involvement has helped many people become confirmed members of the Church through an adult confirmation class which he directs. Welch said that the idea for the class started about 11 years ago shortly after he was ordained a permanent deacon in June of 1987. He heard some priests at a deanery meeting talking about how many adults they had to be confirmed. "I thought maybe the deacons could help out and save them some extra time," he said adding that he and Permanent Deacon Mike Murray of Immaculate Conception in Taunton worked together on the program for some time before Deacon Murray was assigned to the Taunton parish. The program is for adults over the age of 17 who have been baptized and made first communion but for some reason were not confirmed. Welch said that a lot of military people get moved around and he sees some of them but mostly it is people from the Fall River Deanery who are seeking to receive that sacrament. The classes run for eight weeks beginning on the day after Ash Wednesday and run about an hour to an hour and a half. This year Welch has his largest class, 23 people including a local family. The classes are run in lecture form by Welch and involve several video presentations on the sacraments. There is a similar adult confirmation class in Attleboro, run by a team of several deacons who meet with candidates on two Sunday afternoons for two four-hour sessions. Welch said that he gets some help from his wife Carol, with whom Tum to page 13 - Deacoll