Springfield Diocese to hold prayer service for racial healing

By Anne-Gerard Flynn
MASS Live
June 9, 2020

https://www.masslive.com/news/2020/06/springfield-diocese-to-hold-outdoor-prayer-service-for-racial-healing.html

Sister Melinda Pellerin, the first African American Sister of St. Joseph in the Northeast, is among the organizers of a prayer service for racial healing June 12 at St. Michael's Cathedral in downtown Springfield.

The Most Rev. Mitchell Rozanski, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, will hold a prayer service for racial healing Friday, June 12, at 5 p.m. at St. Michael’s Cathedral, 254 State. St.

The May 25 police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed African American man accused of passing a counterfeit $20 bill in Minneapolis, has sparked global protests and violence over the murder that involved four officers and has brought calls for reforms from a variety of sectors to address decades of systemic racism.

Planners for the service who will take part include Sister Melinda Pellerin, who recently took final vows as the first African American Sister of St. Joseph in the Northeast, the Rev. Warren Savage, an African American diocesan priest who leads the Ferst Interfaith Center at Westfield State University, and Marion Johnson, director of the diocesan Office of the Black Catholic Apostolate.

The cathedral’s Gospel Music Ministry is scheduled to perform.

The service is open to all and will be live streamed on the diocesan website.