t eanc 0 VOL. 44, NO. 40 • Friday, October 20, 2000
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World Mission Sunday is this weekend Reflections on Mission Sunday
Pope: Proclamation of Gospel is great service to humanity By JOHN NORTON CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE VATICAN CITY - When Christians proclaim the Gospel, they do a service to all humanity, Pope John Paul II said. "We must be profoundly convinced of the fact that evangelization is also an excellent service rendered to humanity, in that it disposes (humanity) to fulfill God's plan," the pope said in his message for this year's celebration of World Mission Sunday. Dedicated to reflection on the Christian obligation to spread the Gospel and to support the Church's missionary activities, World Mission Sunday will be marked this weekend in most dioceses. God wants all people to unite with him, the pope said, "to make them a people of brothers, free from injustice and animated by feelings of authentic solidarity." By proclaiming Christ, the Church opens to each person the possibility of "becoming 'divinized' and in this way becoming more human," the pope said. "This is the only way by which the world can discover the high vocation to which it is called and to realize (its vocation) in the salvation wrought by God," he said. For believers, the desire to proclaim the Gospel should
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By MSGR. JOHN J. OLIVEIRA This annual celebration of World Mission Sunday is a consistent reminder to look beyond ourselves to the universal Church. We can become so myopic concentrating on our own parish or diocese that we lose perspective. Each year the Holy Father asks us to be conscious of our sisters and brothers throughout the world and their need to know Jesus. This challenge is not only to remind us of our need to be missionaries, but to ask our prayerful and sacrificial support of those in mission areas of the world. This year in the Great Jubilee of Salvation we commemorate the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Christ. That is when the mission of the Church began. As the pope has stated in his Mission Sunday message this year: "To recall the 2,000 years since the birth of Jesus means to celebrate also the birth of mission." Over the years the Diocese of Fall River has sent missionaries from its members to foreign lands. Over 140 missionaries have served whose home is the Diocese of Fall River. While most of these belonged to religious communities with a missionary charism, all were tied to their home. Among the many missionaries were two bishops - both from the Maryknoll Society, Bishop Joseph Regan and Bishop Frederick Donaghy. Missionaries are a special group of people. They are given special gifts and talents to proclaim the Good News UNVOICED CALL for the Gospel arising from across of the Gospel away from home. While each of us is chal-
the world must be answered, Pope John Paull! said in his message for World Mission Sunday on Oct. 22.
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Attleboro parish celebrates 125 years of service ~
Founded in 1885, Sf. Stephen's is one of the oldest parishes in the Fall River diocese.
ATTLEBORO - Completing a year of events marking the 125th annivers"ary of the founding of S1. Stephen's Parish, parishioners joined in a jubilee Mass on Oct. 1 at which Bishop Sean P. O'Malley, OFM Cap., was the principal celebrant and then held a reception at the Knights of Columbus Hall in South Attleboro. Concelebrants included pastor Father William L. Boffa and former pastors Father Roland Bousquet and Father Richard Gendreau, and Father Bruce Neylon of St. Mary's Parish in Seekonk. Parishioners attended a Mass and enjoyed an evening of memories last March that featured a look at parish
history, with French music and cuisine; and later held a dinner-dance on the Bay Queen that also keyed on the history of the Dodgeville-Hebron area; and a family picnic in August in the fields across the street from the church. At the Mass kicking off the celebrations last March, parisl1ioners heard from Father Roland Bousquet, pastor at St. Stephen's from 1976 to 1983, who recalled some of the parish history. St. Stephen's is steeped in the history of two dioceses. The Attleboro area was initially part of the Diocese of Providence, R.I. and its priests from St. Mary's in Pawtucket, R.I. ministered to the mission churches serving the French-Canadian immigrants from the French-speaking Province of Quebec, Canada, who had come to work Turn to page 12 - Attleboro
MAKING HISTORY - Surrounding Bishop Sean P. O'Malley, OFM Cap., following the 125th anniversary Mass at St. Stephen's are, from left, Bob White, Eric White, Jessica Desmond, Father Roland Bousquet, Emily Parenteau, pastor Father William Boffa, Father Richard Gendreau, Father Bruce Neylon, James Charron, Secretary to the Bishop Father Richard Wilson and Michelle Drummey.