FALL RIVER — A special 3 p.m. Mass on Sunday, October 6, in St. Mary’s Cathedral, Fall River, will observe and honor two significant anniversaries being celebrated in the Diocese of Fall River in 2024.

This year marks both the 120th anniversary of the establishment of the Diocese of Fall River and the 10th anniversary of the installation of Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V., as its Eighth Bishop.

Bishop da Cunha will be the principal celebrant and homilist of the Mass with priests from across the Diocese concelebrating with him.

A reception on the Cathedral grounds will follow the Mass.

All members of the Diocese of Fall River are invited to attend. An RSVP for planning is asked by Friday, September 27. Please email cduggan@catholicfoundationsema.org or call 508-617-5306.

Bishop da Cunha began his ministry as Bishop of Fall River in the context of a Mass in St. Mary’s Cathedral on September 24, 2014. He had been serving as Auxiliary Bishop for the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, for 11 years at the time of his appointment to the diocese by Pope Francis earlier that summer.

A native of Brazil, Bishop da Cunha came to the United States as a seminarian studying for the Society of Divine Vocations, also known as the Vocationist Fathers, for which he was ordained a priest in 1982 in Newark.

In the Diocese of Fall River, Bishop da Cunha shepherds a community of faithful numbering approximately 260,000 who worship in 69 parishes throughout Southeastern Massachusetts, Cape Cod and the Islands.

It was that territory -specifically, Bristol, Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket counties and the towns of Marion, Mattapoisett and Wareham in Plymouth County- that Pope Pius X separated from the Diocese of Providence in March 1904 to establish the Diocese of Fall River. He chose Fall River as the See City with St. Mary’s Church to function as the new cathedral.  Within its territory, the new diocese already had 44 parishes serving some 130,000 Catholics. Father William Stang, a German-born Providence priest, was named First Bishop of Fall River.

You are invited!
Diocese of Fall River
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