t ea VOL. 40, NO. 29' •
FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SountEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISlANDS
Friday, August 2, 1996
F ALL RIVER, MASS.
Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
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MOTHER ASCENSION, left, former provincial superior of the Dominicans of the Presentation, and Sister Joanna Fernandes, present superior, stand beside a portrait of their foundress, Blessed Marie Poussepin, at Sunday"s tricentennial celebration; at rnght, Father Francis Brocato, OP, conducts an asperges ceremony at the beginning of the anniversary Mass. (McGowan photos)
Presentation Dominicans celebrate 300 years By Pllt McGowlln
Anchor Staff Last Sunday was an. unforgettable day for the Dominican Sisters of Charity of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin. Three hundred years ago their congregation
was founded in France and last Sunday the tricentennial was celebrated at the community'S beautiful United States provincial house in Dighton. Under picture-postcard skies, joyous Sisters received hundreds
18tns~
of
Oraitulrg tr~
Index Daily Readings
5
Editorial
4
Father Dietzen
7
Necrology
7
Obituary
2
Saluting Seniors .. 10 Steering Points
16
Youth News
14
lJishop-elect Francis W. Irwin
Bishop-elect Emilio S. AHue, SDB
Boston archdiocesE~ gets two more auxiliaries WASHINGTON (CNS)- Pope John Paul II has named two new auxiliary bishops for the Boston Archdiocese. They are Msgr. Francis Xavier Irwin, 62, a Boston archdiocesan priest with extensive experience in social work, and Salesian Father Emilio Allut, 61, whQ w:as born
and raised in Sp:ain but joined the U.S. Salesians when he came to America in 1956. Archbishop Agostino CacciavilIan. papal pro-nuncio to the United States, announced the appointments in Washington. Turn to Page 13
of guests who gathered in the community chapel for a standingroom-only Mass and later for an afternoon prayer service. The gatherings bookended a day that included strolls on the provincial house grounds, tours of the house itself and a luncheon served under white canvas canopies erected on the spacious property. At the Mass, at which Dominican Father Francis Brocato of Providence College was principal celebrant and Father Roger McMullen of Somerset and Montfort Father Raymond Graham of Eastport, NY, were concelebrants, Father Brocato recalled turbulent years before, during and after the French Revolution. In those years, the Presentation community, founded in 1696 by Blessed Marie Poussepin, came near to dissolution as its members were scattered and harassed by the revolutionaries. By 1809, however, the Sisters had managed to regroup, increasing their numbers to the extent that Mother St. Pierre, known as the "second foundress" of the community, who was its superior from 1843 to 1858, was able to open 75 convents and initiate several new ministries. Today, 3,300 Dominicans of the Presentation are serving in 34 nations, coming to the Fall River diocese in 1905. Blessed Marie was beatified Nov. 20, 1994, by Pope John Paul II. She, said Father Brocato, shared the vision of discipleship held by St. Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers, and S1. Catherine of
Siena, a member of the Third Order of S1. Dominic and a mystic, who was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1970. The only other woman Doctor is St. Teresa of Avila, also named in 1970. Father Brocato added that the philosophy of the Presentation Dominicans is characterized by its recognition that the collective wisdom of both past and present is needed to guide plans for the future. He challenged the Sisters to "cast nets into the world and seek every opportunity to bring the kingdom of God into that world." Among those present at Sunday's Mass were representatives of many other communities of Sisters in the Fall River diocese. Also there was John Srygley, the Baltimore architect who designed the beautiful provincial house chapel that replaces one destroyed Oct. II, 1983, in a catastrophic gas explosion that took the life of Sister Marie Therese Pelletier, a 76year-old Fall River native, and seriously injured Sister Vimala Vadakumpadan, then 28, a native of India. Sister Vimala hovered near death for weeks but, now recovered, she left last Monday for India, where she will head a newly formed viceprovince of the Presentation Dominicans. As of last December, when the vice-province was established, it 'had 60 professed Sisters and nine novices working in eight communities in four Indian states. In the United States province Tum to Page 13