MLK Mass to be held Jan. 15 (Updated)

The diocesan African American Commission and the Office of Cultural Diversity will sponsor the annual Martin Luther King Memorial Mass & Scholarship Award on Sunday, Jan. 15 at 9:30 a.m., at St. Martin de Porres Parish in Buffalo.

Bishop Michael W. Fisher will be on hand to celebrate this year’s Mass and help present the Albert Lenhard Scholarship and MLK Scholarship. Father Avery Daniel, parochial vicar of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Athens, Georgia, and St. Catherine Labouré Church in Jefferson, Georgia, will be the guest homilist.

A reception featuring a basket raffle and 50/50 split raffle will be held following the Mass. The proceeds from the raffles support the MLK scholarship fund.

The MLK Scholarship was developed to help eighth grade students in attaining a Catholic high school education. The goal is to support the recipients so they may continue to serve in their parishes, in their communities, and in their world.

To be eligible for the scholarship the candidate must be a member of an ethnic minority group and meet further criteria.

The Albert Lenhard Scholarship was developed to assist applicants who wanted to continue their formal education beyond high school at the undergraduate and graduate levels. To be eligible for the scholarship the candidate will have to be residing in the geographic boundaries of the Catholic Churches of Central Buffalo: (Blessed Trinity, SS. Columba-Brigid, St. Katherine Drexel, St. Lawrence and St. Martin De Porres).

The Lenhard Scholarship fund is administered by the pastor of St. Martin de Porres in collaboration with the African American Commission of the Diocese of Buffalo and the Office of Cultural Diversity.