Diocese Of Fall River

The Diocese of Fall River ( la, Dioecesis Riverormensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church spanning Barnstable County, Bristol County, Dukes County, Nantucket County, and the towns of Marion, Mattapoisett, and Wareham along the south coast of Plymouth County in Massachusetts, in the New England region of the United States. It is led by the prelature of a bishop administering the diocese from the mother church St. Mary's Cathedral in Fall River, Massachusetts. The Diocese of Fall River is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Boston.

Diocesan statistics

Religious include the bishop, 147 priests currently serving in parishes, 90 permanent deacons, 16 religious brothers and 295 religious sisters. There are 96 parishes, 11 missions, a health care center, and 5 nursing homes.

The total Catholic population of the area as of 2013 is approximately 313,115.

History

Pope Pius X canonically erected the Diocese of Fall River, taking its present territory from the Diocese of Providence and making it a suffragan of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Boston, on 12 March 1904. This action conformed the territory of the Diocese of Providence to the state of Rhode Island. He appointed Father William Stang as the first bishop of Fall River on the same date. He died in office. Bishop Stang High School was named in his memory.

On July 2, 1907, Pope Pius X appointed Father Daniel Feehan as the second Bishop of Fall River. Ordained a bishop on September 19, 1907, by Bishop Thomas Daniel Beaven, he served until incapacitation and died on July 19, 1934, in office. Bishop Feehan High School was named in his honor.

Bishop James E. Cassidy, Bishop Feehan's coadjutor and Vicar General for many years, succeeded him. In 1945 Bishop Cassidy also received the assistance of a coadjutor, Bishop James L. Connolly, who would later succeed him. Bishop Cassidy High School, now known as Coyle and Cassidy High School, was named in his honor.

Following the death of Cassidy, Connolly became Bishop of Fall River in May 1951. One key to his tenure as Bishop was a special concern with providing secondary education in the four urban areas of the Diocese. As a result, four Catholic high schools were constructed under his guidance. Bishop Connolly High School was dedicated in his name in 1967. He also founded the diocesan newspaper, ''The Anchor''. Connolly attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council. He served as Bishop of Fall River until 1970 when he retired.

Daniel Anthony Cronin became the fifth Bishop in December 1970 upon the retirement of Bishop Connolly. Cronin continued the work of implementing the decrees of the Second Vatican Council and supported liturgical renewal, continuing education of the clergy and the restoration of the permanent diaconate. He devoted himself to the pastoral care of the sick in hospitals, to the expansion of Catholic Counseling and Social Services, to the Family Life Ministry and other various activities. Late in 1991 Pope John Paul II appointed Bishop Cronin Archbishop of Hartford.

On July 3, 2014, Bishop Edgar Moreira da Cunha, S.D.V., was announced as the eighth bishop of the Diocese of Fall River, and installed September 24. Edgar M. da Cunha was born in Nova Fatima, then part of the municipality of Riachão do Jacuípe, Brazil. He studied at the Universidade Catolica Fatima dos Salvados and was ordained a priest on March 27, 1982, by Bishop Joseph A. Francis, S.V.D. He was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark as well as titular bishop of Ucres on June 27, 2003, by John Paul II. da Cunha was consecrated an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Newark on September 3, 2003, as the only Brazilian-born bishop in the United States.

Sexual abuse

In the early 1990s, revelations surfaced about how the Diocese of Fall River protected former priest James Porter from potential charges of sexual abuse between 1960 and 1964. After being transferred to St. Mary's parochial grammar school in 1960, where he was charged with managing the school's altar boys, Porter gained a reputation there as a child molester, However, no action was taken against him by the Catholic Church until 1963, by which time at least four parents had complained to his superiors about his inappropriate behavior. Rather than contact the police, however, Church officials moved Porter to a parish in Fall River, where further complaints about his behavior surfaced. Despite being arrested as early as 1964 for sex abuse, all of his sex abuse charges only resulted in hospitalizations until he was jailed in Minnesota in 1992, which also happened many years after he left the priesthood to get married and start a family In the early 1960s, Porter abused more than 60 North Attleboro children, and nearly 100 in southeastern Massachusetts. In Massachusetts in 1993, Porter's lawyer struck a plea bargain, and Porter was sentenced to 18–20 years in prison, with the possibility of parole, with counseling, after six years. Parole was consistently denied for several years. He completed his prison sentence in 2004, but was held until his death pending a civil commitment hearing. In December 1993, then-Diocese of Fall River Bishop Sean O'Malley acknowledged the Diocese's protection of Porter and apologized.

On December 11, 2020, a secret grand jury at Barnstable Superior Court indicted Father Mark R. Hession, also known as “Father Mark,” on two counts of Rape, one count of Indecent Assault and Battery on a Child Under Age 14, and one count of Intimidation of a Witness. Hession was known to many locals because of his past work at Our Lady of Victory Church. Hession also worked closely with the Kennedy family and even delivered the homily at Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy's funeral in August 2009.

Bishops

Bishops of Fall River

# William Stang (1904–1907)
# Daniel Francis Feehan (1907–1934)
#James Edwin Cassidy (1934–1951; coadjutor bishop 1934)
# James Louis Connolly (1951–1970; coadjutor bishop 1945–1951)
# Daniel Anthony Cronin (1970–1992), appointed Archbishop of Hartford
#Seán Patrick O'Malley (1992–2002), appointed Bishop of Palm Beach and later Archbishop of Boston (created Cardinal in 2006)
# George William Coleman (2003–2014)
#Edgar Moreira da Cunha (2014–present)

Auxiliary Bishops of Fall River

*James Edwin Cassidy (1930-1934), appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Fall River (see above)
*James Joseph Gerrard (1959-1976)

Other priests of this diocese who became bishops

* John Edward Morris (priest here, 1914–1921), appointed Prefect of Peng-Yang in 1930
* William Otterwell Brady, appointed Bishop of Sioux Falls in 1939
* Humberto Sousa Medeiros, appointed Bishop of Brownsville in 1966 and Archbishop of Boston in 1970; future Cardinal
* Joseph Patrick Delaney (priest here, 1960–1971), appointed Bishop of Fort Worth in 1981

Education

Schools

*Bishop Connolly High School in Fall River
* Bishop Stang High School in Dartmouth
* Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro
* Saint John Paul II High School in Hyannis

Closed

*Coyle and Cassidy School in Taunton

Colleges

* Stonehill

Superintendents

The current Superintendent of Schools is Stephen Perla.
The following is a list of superintendents:
* George A. Milot, PhD (2001–2011)
* Michael S. Griffin (2011–2016)
*Stephen Perla (2016 – present)

Landmarks

In addition to St. Mary's Cathedral, two other major churches in the diocese are St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford, Santo Christo Church and Shrine, and St. Anne's both in Fall River.

The Diocese of Fall River is also home to th
National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette
owned and operated by the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette. The shrine, perhaps most famous for its "Festival of Light" that spans over ten acres, now accompanied by a display of over a hundred creches from countries where the Missionaries of La Salette are active, during the Advent and Christmas seasons, offers spiritual retreats, liturgical services, sacramental confession, concerts of Christian music, and other religious programming throughout the year.

Suppressed parishes

Province of Boston

See also

* Catholic Church by country
* Catholic Church in the United States
* Ecclesiastical Province of Boston
* Global organisation of the Catholic Church
* List of Roman Catholic archdioceses (by country and continent)
* List of Roman Catholic dioceses (alphabetical) (including archdioceses)
* List of Roman Catholic dioceses (structured view) (including archdioceses)
* List of the Catholic dioceses of the United States
* Plenary Councils of Baltimore

References

External links

Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River Official SiteCathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption (Fall River)TheCatholicDirectory.com – Helping People Find Mass Worldwide

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roman Catholic Diocese Of Fall River

Fall River, Massachusetts
Catholic Church in Massachusetts
Christian organizations established in 1904
Fall River
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