Diocese of Fall River, Mass. † Friday, March 10, 2023
Bishop da Cunha blesses new chapel at Taunton schools TAUNTON — On February 10, Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V., celebrated Mass with the students and faculty of Our Lady of Lourdes School in Taunton. The culmination of the day was bishop’s blessing of the new chapel and the transfer of the Blessed Sacrament to the chapel’s tabernacle for adoration. Spearheaded by Father Mat-
thew Gill, school chaplain, the chapel was created from the space previously used for extended care and storage. This past summer, as they prepared for the upcoming school year, Father Gill and Mary Turner, school principal, desired to foster a greater devotion and love for the Eucharist in the school. It was from that desire 8 Turn to page 13
Bishop da Cunha speaks to students and staff of Our Lady of Lourdes School in Taunton when he blessed the school’s new chapel. To the bishop’s right is school chaplain, Father Matt Gill.
Second annual Lumen Christi Cathedral Gala to be celebrated June 7 at White’s of Westport WESTPORT — On June 7 the light will shine once again on an evening celebrating the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption and the restoration work underway to return the Mother Church of the Diocese of Fall River to her original
grandeur. Building from the momentum from the inaugural Lumen Christi Cathedral Gala which drew hundreds of people to White’s of Westport and raised more than 8 Turn to page 10
Pope Francis laughs as he jokingly asks the congregation a question while celebrating Mass with bishops, priests and members of religious orders in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Manila, Philippines, Jan. 16, 2015. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
10 years as pope: Pushing the Church to bring the Gospel to the world By Cindy Wooden with the seeming ease with which Catholic News Service he set aside pomp and protocol. VATICAN CITY (CNS) — For And tensions within the Catholic a decade, even when discussing community grew as he expressed the internal workings of the Vatiopenness to LGBTQ Catholics and can, Pope Francis has insisted the to those living in what the Church Church is not the Church of Christ considers irregular marriage if it does not reach out, sharing the situations and when he said in an “joy of the Gospel” and placing the interview in 2013 that the church poor at the center of its attention. cannot talk only about abortion, Signals that his papacy would gay marriage and contraception. be different started the moment One kind of summary of his he stepped out on the balcony of first 10 years as pope can be found St. Peter’s Basilica the evening of in numbers: He has made 40 trips March 13, 2013: He was not wearabroad, visiting 60 countries; in ing a red, ermine-trimmed cape, eight consistories he created 95 and he bowed as he asked the cardinals under the age of 80 and crowd to pray that God would bless eligible to vote in a conclave and him. paid tribute to 26 churchmen over His decision not to live in the the age of 80; and he has presided Apostolic Palace, his invitations to over the canonizations of 911 new Vatican trash collectors and garsaints, including a group of more deners and other employees to join than 800 martyrs, but also Saints him for his daily morning Mass, his John Paul II, John XXIII and Paul insistence on going to the Italian VI. island of Lampedusa to celebrate In his first major document, Mass and pray for migrants who the apostolic exhortation “The had drowned in the Mediterranean Joy of the Gospel,” he laid out a captivated the attention of the program for his papacy, looking media. inside the church and outside at 2023 1 Turn† to page 15 But not everyone was pleased March 10,8