Pro-Life youth movement planning future
By Dave Jolivet, Editor FALL RIVER, Mass. —
Twenty-year-old Jocelyn Trindade, and Cassandra Borges, 16, have just finished
boot camp. They aren’t soldiers in the war on terrorism, but they’re preparing
to face a foe just as deadly — the fight against the destruction of millions of
human lives each year — abortion. Both young women have
been very active in the Pro-Life movement for some time now, each recipients of
the Diocese of Fall River’s Cardinal John O’Connor Youth Pro-Life Award. It’s
their passion for protecting the unborn and for the respect of womanhood that
prompted Marian Desrosiers, diocesan director of the Pro-Life Apostolate to ask
Bishop George W. Coleman for his blessings to send the pair to the eighth
annual Pro-Life Boot Camp, held earlier this month on the campus of the
University of Dallas in Irving, Tex. “Having known Jocelyn
and Cassandra for a while, I’m so inspired with their faith,” Desrosiers told The Anchor. “It’s a faith that comes
from the heart. Bishop Coleman was delighted to send them to boot camp. We know
they have the ability to come back and enliven us with information on how to
reach our youth with the Pro-Life message. I’m thrilled with their ideas and
their fresh response. It’s a wonderful blessing to be associated with them.” Diocese continues to support mission work
By Kenneth J. Souza, Anchor Staff NEW BEDFORD, Mass. —
Nestled within a bank of rooms that once housed the upper grades of the former
parochial school at St. Mary’s Parish is the diocesan Propagation of the Faith
Office — a small but busy operation that handles everything from scheduling
annual missionary visits to parishes to the oversight of an entire parish in
Honduras that serves a population roughly the size of the City of New Bedford. For the past 33
years, Msgr. John J. Oliveira, pastor at St. Mary’s, has served as the office’s
director, having taken over the reins from his immediate predecessor, the late
Msgr. Raymond T. Considine, upon his retirement. “It’s all about
making Christ known,” Msgr. Oliveira said. “We do that work sometimes by
providing shelter and clean water, by providing care for those with AIDS, or by
providing for agricultural stimulus, along with the sacraments. As it’s been
said, you can’t hear God’s word if your stomach is empty.” According to Msgr.
Oliveira, the essential purpose of the Propagation of the Faith Office is to
profess the Catholic faith to others, domestically and abroad, and to
evangelize people. By Christine M. Williams, Anchor Correspondent WORCESTER, Mass. — A
recently approved drug, billed as an emergency contraceptive, has Pro-Lifers up
in arms because it can cause abortions. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
cleared the use of ellaOne on August 13. The drug is meant to
prevent pregnancy when taken within five days of intercourse. Advocates say
ellaOne is an improvement over current emergency contraceptives, such as the
morning after pill. Because the window in which it can be taken is longer than
for medications like Plan B, it has been termed the “week after pill.” Critics say ellaOne
is much more closely related to the abortion drug RU486 than to Plan B. They
add that women will be misled by the FDA’s mislabeling of the drug as an
emergency contraceptive. In an article, Susan
E. Wills, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop’s assistant director
for education and outreach, said ellaOne can end the life of an embryo already
implanted in the womb. By Kenneth J. Souza, Anchor Staff BARNSTABLE, Mass. — In
what is becoming a growing trend in the diocese, three Cape Cod-based parishes
— Our Lady of the Assumption in Osterville; Our Lady of Victory in Centerville;
and St. Francis Xavier in Hyannis — have recently joined forces to create the
Barnstable Catholic Collaborative for Ministry, a joint effort to provide more
streamlined services for their collective parishioners. According to the
group’s mission statement, while the work of the three parishes will remain
mostly separate, the combined BCC aspires to concentrate on providing select
services to the wider group of Cape Cod Catholics according to the core
elements of the Church: evangelization, worship, community and service. “We first met a
little more than a year ago and we’ve met about three times to date with
representatives and the pastors of the three parishes,” said Father Daniel W.
Lacroix, pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Hyannis. “We’re just beginning
the process of coming together and the idea was to bring the three parishes in the
greater township of Barnstable together.”
strategies to promote a ‘culture of life’
through Propagation of the Faith Office