06.01.07

Page 1

Generosity ofparishioners is backbone of Charities Appeal "As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another" (l Peter 4:9-10). By DEACON JAMES N. DUNBAR FALL RIVER - Like any successful field general, Director of Development Mike Donly knows the strengths and weaknesses in the Catholic Charities Appeal's annual battle to successfully respond to the real needs of so many hurting people and families across the Fall River Diocese. Last year, in what might be called heeding the advice from Galatians 5:13 "Let love make you serve one another," nearly 40,000 parishioners made possible the ministering to as many as 100,000 friends ~nd neighbors who turned to the Church in their time of need. The awesome ministry and service

assisted social service and child care, education, and pastoral endeavors that included family life, campus, hospital and prison ministry, communications, youth ministry, the permanent diaconate, Scouts, Pro-Life, pastoral planning, the RCIA, stewardship, citizenship preparation, assistance to the developmentally disabled, the widowed, separated and divorced. It seems no one is overlooked. The weekly television Mass offered for the past 43 years by the Fall River Diocese to all areas of southeast( em Massachusetts and Cape Cod and the Islands is also . finding many homebound and hospitalized in the nearby Providence,

provided by the :.(F~i(Ji(J7(~'<.r\. ~.I. Diocese watchagencies and I . . . . . /••• '.2';, mg. apostolates of the -------------~ Local calculadiocese funded by the annual Ap- tions point to the Mass being seen peal are many and diverse. by at least 15,000 in approximately The Office of Catholic Social 6,000 homes, who are unable to get Services, the largest agency funded out and attend Mass, but manage to by Catholic Charities, in 2006 pro- keep Christ in their lives by the vided shelter assistance to 358 fami- broadcast and prayer, and coupled lies consisting of more than 600 with holy Communion brought children; provided more than them by extraordinary ministers 300,000 pounds ofemergency food from the parishes. to more than 17,200 people includAs the Catholic Charities Appeal ing more than 10,100 children and entered its fourth week, parishes 1,300 elderly; assisted 70 families around the diocese are in the prowith rental payments as well as cess of sending out their second ''rehelping 171 families with utility minder" mailings to those parishbills; and provided personal coun- ioners who had not sent in their seling to more than 280 individu- donation to this 66th annualAppeal. als, 22 couples, and 28 families, the ''This is the normal plan of acmajority of whom were uninsured. tion," Donly explained. 'The work The $3.9 million raised by so done in the parishes in soliciting any many ordinary people in 2006 and and all interested parishioners and spread out over more than three friends of the needy in southeastdozen agencies, has reached out to em Massachusetts, Cape Cod, and Tum to page 13 - Generosity the sick and those with AIDS, and

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FUTURE ~F THE CHURCH - Forty-nine young adults from across the diocese recently receIved the 81. PIUS X Youth Award at a ceremony at which Bishop George W. Coleman presided. The recipients gathered with the bishop for a group photo following the sixth annual ceremony at 81. Mary's Cathedral in Fall River. (Photo by Eric Rodrigues)

Retirement of four pastors announced By

DEACON JAMES

N.

DUNBAR

FALL RIVER - The retirement of four pastors in the Fall River Diocese were announced today by Bishop George W. Coleman. Requests to retire, effective June 27, were accepted from Father John C. Martins, pastor of St. Anthony

Parish in Fall River; Father Terence F. Keenan, pastor of St. Mary Parish in South Dartmouth; Father James R. McLellan, pastor of St. Joseph Parish in North Dighton; and Father Paul T. Lamb, pastor of St. Rita Parish in Marion. In brief chats with The Anchor,

FATHER TERENCE F. KEENAN

FATHER PAUL T. LAMB

FATHER JOHN

C.

MARTINS

FATHER JAMES

R.

MCLELLAN

the retirees talked about retirement ahead and what they'd like to do.

Father Martins Father Martins, 75, was born in S. Sebastiao, Terceira, Azores. Following studies at the seminary of Angra in Terceira, he was ordained for the Fall River Diocese on April 10, 1955 in the Cathedral of Jesus the Saviour in Angra. He was a parochial vicar at St. Anthony of Padua in Fall River, St. Anthony in East Falmouth, St. Elizabeth's and Santo Christo in Fall River, and St. Anthony's in Taunton; and was pastor of St. Peter's in Provincetown, Our Lady of Health and Santo Christo in Fall River, and since September 1995 as pastor of St. Anthony's in Fall River. He marked his golden jubilee in the priesthood in 2005. Other diocesan appointments include director of communications for Portuguese Ministry, and as chaplain to the Knights of Columbus "I'll be joining the retired priests at the Cardinal Medeiros Residence in Fall River, and I know some of them very well, and I'm pleased to be going there," Father Martins said. "I've served the diocese as a priest for 52 years, and being a diabetic for more than 20 years and after recent open heart surgery, I'm looking forward to taking it easy and recuperating for a while, and Tum to page three - Retirements


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