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Lent, Holy Year Ask
The ANCHOR An Anchor 01 the Soul, Sure and Firm-St. Paul
Fall River, Mass., Thursday, Feb. 21, 1974 ....1 8 © 1974 The Anchor PRICE 1Dc Vo I. 18,1"'l1lI0. $5.00 per year
Mrs. Noonan Heads
74 Charities Appeal Most Rev. Daniel A. Cronin, S.T.D., Ordinary of the Dioeese of Fall River, announced today the appointment of Mrs. Gilbert J. Noonan, well-known Falmouth businesswoman, as the diocesan lay chairlady of the 1974 Catholic Charities Appeal of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River. This marks the first time that a woman has headed the Appeal in the thirty·three years' history of the Appeal. The diocese extends from Provincetown to Attleboro and the campaign will cover the five big areas of the <liocese, namely, greater Fall River, New Bedford, Taunton, the Attleboros, and Cape Co<! and the Islands of Martha's Vineyar<l and Nantucket. Mrs. Noonan, a native of Brockton and of St. Edward's
MRS. GILBERT J. NOONAN has been for many years, a paparish in that city, is now, and Turn to Page Two
Good Diocesan Response To The Anchor Drive The bad weather over last weekend notwithstanding, people of the Diocese gave a goo<! ini· tial response to the annual subscription and renewal dl"ive of The Anchor, the Fall Rivel' diocesan weekly newspaper about to begin its eighteenth year of publication. Since the beginning of the Second ,Vatican Council, people are realizing that they cannot depend for religious education upon talk shows and secular newspapers, however well-meaning these may be. There needs to be a clear-cut distinction between what is opinion in matters religious and what is faith and morals. Too often this distinction is blurred when discussing religion and here is where the diocesan press enters the religious education apostolate. There has also been goo<! reaction from many areas of the Diocese in appreciation of what is going on elsewhere. Parishes and individuals have taken example and programs from what they read in The Anchor. What has been found to be helpful in one parish has become a pattern for others. The next t,wo weeks will find more renewals and subscriptions to The Anchor and priests in charge of the drive in the 114
True Reconciliation "Repent and Believe the Good News," the optional formula for the imposition of ashes to inaugurate the Lenten Season, is a perfect summary of the Church's plans for Lent, 1974. To the traditional acts of penance for Lent, this year's Fall River diocesan thrust is toward Pope Paul's great hopes for renewal and reconciliation for the Holy Year. Diocesan-wide adult education programs increase the personal efforts of many to renew themselves, deepen their Faith and in· volve themselves in a more' Christian endeavor in the world about them. The announced program for diocesan-wide participation in the 1974 phase of the Holy Year cannot but bring to mind the many hopeful steps of reconcil• iation that will bring each Christian closer to God and to his fellow man. The personal acts of sacrifice and penance will purify and vivify the individual Christian to strive to 'better himself and herself so as to better reflect the Light of Christ through the individual's endeavor, the family, the parish, the diocese. The Lenten fasts and Friday abstinence touch upon all. The acts of deprivation make sacrifice real. The services to the abandoned, the sick, the homeless redouble the. zeal of a Christian's stewardship. The increased devotions warm the worship of God and the fellowship of man. It is not activity for activity's sake that is asked. It is a scripturally inspired effort, demanded of all Christians, adaptable to the individual, that seeks to purify, intensify and make alive one's religion.
parishes of the Diocese are asked to return the subscription addresses to The Anchor Off.ice so that corrections may be made and new subscriptions processed quickly.
Bishop Names Holy Year Committee His Excellency, Most Rev.. Daniel A. Cronin, S.T.D., Bishop of Fall River, has announced the formation of a Diocesan Central Committee for the Holy Year. Chairman of the Gentral Committee is Very Rev. Luiz G. Men· donca, V.G., pastor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish, New Bedford. Members of the committee and their responsibilities are: Liaison with the Cathedral and Liturgy: Rev. Barry W. Wall, St. Mary's Cathedral, Fall River. Priests: Rev. Peter Graziano of St. Thomas More Parish, Somerset, and President of the Priests' Senate. Publicity: Rev. John R. Foister of St. Louis Parish, Fall River and Assistant Director of The Anchor; Mrs. Charles Landry of Seekonk. Tum to Page Four
The efforts at adult education, available to all, can be the penitential putting aside of leisure and the undertaking of serious and prayerful stady for one's own 'benefit and the eventual benefit of the entire Church. The realization that we are but dust and that we shall return to dust is a reality that each Christian must face and accept. But what did the God of Gen· esis do with that dust! What possibilities Christ made available to man in joining his poor but sincere efforts to His! What riches and vitality can come
from that dust if man is the willing tool of the Holy Spirit! Liturgy, programs and self penance are the Lenten possibilities that can bring each Christian to a full living of the glorious facts of his child relationship to the Father, his and her living of the fact of his brotherhood and sisterhood with Christ, the individual's value as a co-worker with the Spirit. Lent 1974 is a rich invitation to partnership with God come Wednesday. It is a great opportunity to see the needs in this civilization and make a unique Tum to Page Four
Lent Programs Focus·
On Adult Education The Lenten season is traditionally a period of renewalpersonal and parochial. Many parishes take the opportunity of the "Teachable season" to encourage religious education for the adults of the parish and the wider community. The Diocese of Fall River, under Most Reverend Daniel A. Cronin, Bishop of Fall River, in establishing an office of Adult Education, is responding to the crucial need for the continuing religious education of all Catholics, of all ages. The Bishops of the United States, in their pastoral letter, "To Teach as Jesus Did," emphasize that learning is a lifelong experience and that "the continuing education of adults is situated not at the periphery of the Church's educational mission but at its center. (No. 43). Many parishes of the Diocese, individually or in cooperation
with neighboring parishes, will sponsor Lenten programs of adult religious education. A number of programs have already 'been finalized, using various formats. Several parishes will use "Focus on Hope," a popular series, one of an increasihg number of packaged diS\!ussion programs especially designed for adults. Our Lady of the Cape, Brewster, Mass. will conduct the Focus program for parishioners on seven Wednesday evenings beginning Feb. 20. In Falmouth, St. Pat· rick's will center their discussion on' the Scripture and Family Life articles of the series on Wednes· day evenings. -beginning Ash Wednesday, from 8-9:30 in the School of Religion Hall. St. Francis Xavier, in Hyannis, will continue their Monday evening Gatholic Adult Information Turn to Page Two
Current Lenten Discipline In United States In 1966 Pope Paul VI issued an apostolic constitution on penance in the Church. Although this wa.s to relax in some degree the Church discipline of abstinence and fast, his primary intention was entirely different and more significant. It was to· call upon the Catholic people to become aware of the call to deeper conversion of soul and to do greater penance. In particular, he stressed individual and community responsibility to perform not only the traditional acts of physical penance but above all prayer and charity. At the same time Pope Paul enumerated the penitential times in Church discipline: the season of Lent as a whole and, as individual days of penance, Ash Wednesday and all the Fridays of the year. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday were to be days of abstinence from meat and of fast; all the other Fridays' were to be days of abstinence from meat. It was left to the episcopal conferences to transfer these days, if necessary, or to . substitute other kinds of penitential discipline. In the United States, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops did not transfer the penitential days-which remain as Ash Wednesday and all the Fridays of the year. The conference, however, did alter the canonical discipline on the Fridays outside Lent. While commending abstinence on these days, the bishops left to individual Catholics the. choice of other acts of prayer and charity to express the spirit of penance, making every Friday "a day of self-denial and mortification in prayerful remembrance of the passion of Jesus Christ" in preparation for "that weekly Easter that comes with each Sunday." Tum to Page Two