Prelate comments on social justice
MSGR. GOMES
Msgr. Gomes marks 50
y ~ars':~~ :.p.rie~:t )'p~~,;'14, ~-,',~' '. The golden career of Msgr. Anthony M. Gomes will be celebrated by his friends and former parishioners at 4 p.m. Mass Sunday, June 14, at Our Lady of Angels Church, Fall River. Following the Mass, at which Very Rev. Francis L. Mahoney will be homilist, there will be an informal' reception in Our Lady of Angeis parish hall. Among expected Mass concelebrants are Rev. John A. Gomes, pastor of Our Lady of Angels, and retired Msgr. Maurice Souza. The golden jubilarian retired in June, 1990, after 29 years as pastor of Our Lady of Angels Church. BorninTauntonDec.16,1914,he attended the University of Notre Dame after graduating from Taunton High School. His relationship with the university, from which he graduated in 1938, has never ceased. A longtime chaplain to the football team, he has probably attended more games than any other Domer, and when he was pastor of Our Lady of Angels, he set up a Fighting Irish room in the rectory. Some university souvenirs also found their way to his longtime "home away from home," the Catholic Charities and Bishop's Ball office on Fall River's Highland Avenue. His devotion was recognized in 1982, when he was named Man of the Year by area Notre Dame alumni. Msgr. Gomes prepared for the priesthood at the Seminary of Angra, Terceira, Azores, and at St. Bernard's Seminary, Rochester, N.Y., and was ordained June 4, 1942, by the late Bishop James E. Cassidy. From 1942 to 1953, he was parochial vicar at St. John the Baptist parish, New Bedford, then
was briefly at St. Anthony of Padua parish, Fall River, before serving at Santo Christo, Fall River, until 1961, when he was named pastor of Our Lady of Angels. In September, 1967, while remaining pastor of his active parish, he was appointed moderator ,or -Fall River' District I of the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women, coordinator of the Bishop's Ball and assistant director of the Catholic Charities Appeal. In 1969 he assumed directorship of the Appeal; and in 1983 became diocesan moderator for the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women, a position he held, together with that of Ball coordinator, untii he retired. On Nov. 29,1987, Msgr. Gomes, who had been named a Domestic Prelate with the title of monsignor on April21, 1964, was raised to the rank of Pronotary Apostolic, the highest honorary designation for a monsignor. As such, he is entitled to use the letters P A after his name (although he has been heard to say that actually they stand for"Portuguese-American"). Other positions Msgr. Gomes has held over the years include service on the Diocesan Board of Consultors and with the Family Life Bu'reau. precursor of the present Diocesan Office of Family Ministry. He also worked with pre-Cana and Cana Conference programs for engaged and married couples. In the Fail Rivercommunity, he was chairman of the city Council on Aging, a director of the United Way and a member of the Community Service advisory board. In retirement, he resides at the Priests' Hostel in Fall River.
ATLANTA (CNS) - Archbishop James P. Lyke of Atlanta, commenting on the Rodney King case, said the tragedy of social injustice is that it "claims the innocent as well as the guilty." "In a climate of injustice it is always easier to strike out, to terrorize and 'to resort to violent means to attain our ends. This is the tragedy of social injustice - it confuses our moral sense, it clouds the lines between right and wrong," said the, nation's only active black archbishop in a letter to the people of his archdiocese. Archbishop Lyke said the easiest response to the Rodney King affair would be to "decry the vio'Ience against persons and property" that followed the acquittal of the four officers involved in the beating. "There is no justification for violence - for the willful harming of human beings, or the looting and destruction of private property," he said. ' , People who participated in peaceful marches and protests, he said, "acted responsibly both in a legal and a moral sense." Archbishop Lyke said that while some blame the incident on a justice system that res'ponds to wealth and influence and others blame it on "an ~biaing racism in our c'ountry" that occasionally erupts, the problem is bigger than that. At the heart of the problem, he said, is "our lack of concern for complete human dignity." , "The anger that welled up out of the black community was a reaction to injustice, certainly, but an injustice that manifests itself ~-~ all levels'and'top'e'op1~s Mall color,'" h~ s~{id. ,_:.,: .. ,.~ .: ;'.:',,', .. ';",', Among social injustices that cross color lines, he cited: - Exorbitant health, home and car insurance costs. - Unemployment aggravated by the exporting ofjobs to cheaper labor markets abroad. - Substance abuse "tearing at the fabric of famny fife." " " -----, Elderly people "pushed to the margins of a decent life." - Husband and wife "both working hard and still finding it hard to make it." - The "seeming expulsion of God and religion from the public education system." Archbishop Lyke, recently released from the hospital after being diagnosed with recurrent cancer which had spread to the lining of his right lung, said in the letter that he would soon undergo his first cancer treatment. He underwent surgery in January 1991 to remove his right kidney after a malignant tumor was discovered. In this case, his physician has said 'surgery is not an option because of the location of the cancer'cells. "Like any of you would, I am wondering how it will go, and what the course of my future will turn out to be," he said in his letter. ,The archbishop said that upon his release from the hospital he placed a "treasured relic" - a braid from Sister Thea Bowman's hair - on his right lung and "simply asked her to help me face my illness with the same spirit of trust in God that ennobled her own struggle." Sister Bowman, a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration who was a well-known African-American educator, evangelist and gospel singer, died in 1990 of cancer.
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