Dorothy Lopes settles into her armchair, carpeted floor under her feet and framed photos of family members on the surfaces around her. Joaquim “Jack” Livramento sits to her right, slightly hunched forward, with his forearms resting on his legs and glasses perched on his nose.
The two are seated in Lopes’s living room, but this is not their first encounter of the day. That morning, they gathered at a red brick building at 8 a.m., the day before at the same time, and they will both be there again the next day.
The building is Our Lady of the Assumption Church, the first Catholic Cabo Verdean place of worship in the United States. It has been integral to the religious and communal lives of Lopes and Livramento, but also to the entire New Bedford and South Coast Cabo Verdean Catholic community since 1905.
The church has seen marriages, funerals, baptisms and First Communions. It has watched traditions come and go. Loyal parishioners have hosted picnics, organized Memorial Day parades, won basketball tournaments and filled its nave with choral music. From its original home on Water Street to where it stands now on S. Sixth Street, it has served the same purpose.
“That was the focal point of the neighborhood,” said Lopes, now 90 and a life-long parishioner. “You’d hear the bell all around and you’d see people walking to church on Sunday from this way or that way,” she said, referring to the Water Street location.
“Maybe going down the lane, going around Monte’s Park. Coming from the South End or coming from the north part of this neighborhood. Coming down to the church.”
How OLOA got to be where it is today
Our Lady of the Assumption has maintained its current location since 1957, but S. Sixth Street was not always its home.
Because Portugal — the country Cabo Verde was colonized under until it gained its independence in 1975 — was and still is a predominantly Catholic country, many Cabo Verdeans who first immigrated to the United States practiced Catholicism. When they arrived in New Bedford, they attended St. John’s, the first Portuguese Catholic church in the United States, until what some say was an unwelcoming atmosphere led them to establish their own space.
“They weren’t told you’ve got to get out of here,” said Livramento, now 83, leader of the Liturgy Committee at Assumption and another life-long congregant. “They were more like, ‘What are you doing here? Don’t you have your own church?’”
“[Cabo Verdeans] needed to have a place of worship,” Lopes said.
On April 6, 1905, William Stang, the bishop of Fall River, wrote to Father Stanislaus Bernard, Our Lady of the Assumption’s first pastor, that he was entrusting Bernard with “the spiritual care of all Catholics known as Cape Verdeans living in New Bedford.” And that was that.
An old chapel was purchased on Water Street in the bishop’s name on Aug. 15, 1905 — the day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the origin of the parish’s name. The congregation conducted Masses and events there for almost 50 years — the building withstanding extensive flooding and a fire in its neighboring lumber yard – until hurricane damage in 1954 led parishioners to spearhead efforts for a new property.
Members of the parish and the city organized a fundraising campaign to raise $150,000, according to “Seventy Five Years,” a book commemorating Our Lady of the Assumption’s 75th anniversary in 1980. The campaign included dinner events, an annual ball and a “harvest festival bazaar.” Lopes, who was in college at the time, said she and others went door to door throughout the city asking for donations.
“[This] demonstrated the will of the parishioners towards the accomplishment of a goal, and demonstrated the determination of the Cape Verdean people,” the 75th anniversary book writes. “It is the same attitude our ancestors carried over from the Cape Verdean Islands to the United States.”
On Sept. 1, 1957, Our Lady of the Assumption was ready to open its new doors on S. Sixth Street for its dedication ceremony, and those doors have remained open ever since.
Prominence in the community
Our Lady of the Assumption has sustained its central role in the Cabo Verdean community for 120 years despite challenges like urban renewal, a loss of some organizations and dwindling participation.
“When they come to the New World, when they come to the U.S., this is the place where they worship,” said the Rev. David Lupo, the current pastor and a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus — the religious order that serves there.
Bernadette Souza, a member of the choir, current youth minister and former confirmation teacher, described it as “a space for all of us to come together.”
Lopes said Catholic Cabo Verdeans from Fall River, Fairhaven, Freetown and Wareham, choose to attend Assumption church over their other worship options.
“If you think of churches in New Bedford and you ask where do Cape Verdean people worship, they would say OLOA,” Lopes said.
Our Lady of the Assumption not only connects Catholic Cabo Verdeans to each other, it also connects them to the rest of New Bedford.
Lopes recalled a particular instance when the church acted as “a beacon” for peace for the entire city during a string of homicides in New Bedford in the mid-2000s. She said a commemoration service in honor of Bernadette DePina — an Assumption parishioner and homicide victim — was so full that people were lining the streets.
“[The church] became synonymous with a leader,” Lopes said.
The Assumption church still advocates for justice through events like peace walks — the most recent which was held on May 30.
“A lot of folks in our parish take notice of what’s happening outside of the walls,” Father Lupo said.
It also promotes cultural events — like the Claridade: Cape Verdean Identity in Contemporary Art exhibit at the Whaling Museum that opened June 13.
Lasting effect on parishioners
Several church-goers said Our Lady of the Assumption serves as a symbol of Cabo Verdean culture, familiarity and comfort.
Renee Ledbetter is a member of the choir who grew up in the parish and who also serves as the coordinator for youth and confirmation for the parish’s Faith Formation Program. She said she sometimes sits in the parking lot after a long day to think.
“My church has always been my sanctuary,” Ledbetter said.
Darlene Spencer, who was married and had her children baptized at Our Lady of the Assumption, said its diverse makeup of different ethnicities reflects Cabo Verdeans’ welcoming nature.
“As a Catholic and Cape Verdean, that symbolizes who we are,” Spencer said. “That is very symbolic of who we are as people.”
Parishioners who tried attending Mass elsewhere said they returned to Our Lady of the Assumption shortly after, agreeing that other parishes did not have the same effect.
“I would go to these other churches and not really feel a part of them,” Livramento said. “I was just one of the communicants there and not necessarily familiar with the rest of the congregation because I never really joined another church.”
“You feel, and I think most Cape Verdeans throughout the entire city feel, at home. It’s like, when I’m going to Our Lady of the Assumption, I feel like this is where I belong.”
Future of the Church
Lopes said she is worried the next generations won’t “take an active, committed role in the perpetuation of the parish.”
“I’m concerned when I go to church, and I don’t see the generation behind to whom the baton has to pass,” Lopes said.
She said part of the issue is lack of participation from younger generations but also that some people feel alienated from the Catholic Church, not specifically Our Lady of the Assumption, due to its stance on certain issues like gay marriage and divorce.
“We’ve come a long way, but we still have a long way to go on so many levels,” Lopes said. “But people have to be willing to step up. And just walking away from the situation isn’t going to change it.”
Father Lupo said that while the church maintains “traditional church values,” the door remains open to everyone.
The parish plans to celebrate its 120th year anniversary this fall with a spiritual week leading up to the Feast of Our Lady of the Assumption, a festa and an updated picture directory of church members.
As the church looks toward the future, Lopes and Livramento said they hope their legacies and work in the parish continue on.
“[I hope] that I’m a part of that transition, a part of that continued history that was started before me,” Livramento said. “And hopefully the next generation will carry it on from there.”
Crystal Yormick, a journalism student at Boston University, is a summer intern at The New Bedford Light. She can be reached at cyormick@newbedfordlight.org.
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Growing up in New Bedford, my friends said they came from CAPE VERDE not CABO VERDE. When was this changed and why?
I enjoyed this great article of my church Our Lady of Assumption. Many Parishioners & myself also come from Dartmouth, which was not mentioned in the article..