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VOL. 35, NO.1.
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fAUIl'lEI DIOCE$ANNEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSlnS ,~PE.eOD ' . I'HEIStAND$
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Friday, January 4, 1991
F ALL RIVER, MASS. I
Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
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$11 Per Year
Attleboro parish exemplifies spirit of Migration Week
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PATTY BOUCHER, RN, presents cake toJoseph Saulino on his birthday last January 17 as Nancy Cooper, RN, looks on. .
Room, fund recall valiant spiri~ The memory of valiant-spirited Fall River teacher Joseph C. Saulino will live at St. Anne's Hospital, Fall River. Last month the hospital where he was born dedicated in his honor the room in which he had often been a patient until his death last May at age 34 of a rare form of cancer. Hospital officials also announced establishment of an endowed memorial fund in further tribute to the former fourth grade teacher at Holy Name School, Fall River. A city native and lifelong resident, Saulino was a member of Holy Rosary parish, where he was religious education coordinator,
taught a religion class and was a eucharistic minister. His funeral Mass at Holy Rosary last May 19 was offered before a standing-room-only congregation that recalled his leadership in many parish activities in addition to the religious education program. During his three-year battle with canCer, Saulino developed close ties with the staff on South I ward at SI. Anne's Hospital. the ward where he was frequently a patient and where he eventually died. "Although this was all very difficult for Joseph, particularly the last several months in terms of treatment, he was comforted by the outpouring of care and interest
of [all hospital] emPloyees," said .his brother, Fall River attorney John E. Saulino, who recalled that when Joseph was admitted to the hospital on his birthday last Jan. 17, staff members held nn impromptu birthday party for him.
National Migration Week will be celebrated Jan. 7 through 12 by Catholics across the United States, but possibly nowhere more unselfconsciously than in Holy Ghost parish, Attleboro. Founded in 1921 at the request of parishioners tired of walking some six miles to S1. Mary's Church, Seekonk, to which they officially belonged, Holy Ghost has always had many Portuguese members, although it is a territorial rather than national church. For some years, however, few newly-arrived Portuguese settled in the parish, but a quarter century ago, with immigration restrictions eased, many "Miguelenses" from the Azorean island of Sao Miguel made their new homes in Holy Ghost. There they were welcomed first by pastor Father Bento R. Fraga, then by the present pastor, Father Thomas C. Lopes, and were warmly received by their fellow parishioners. Some one-third of the parish, said Father Lopes, is comp.osed of
either long-settled or newly-arrived Portuguese, and many traditional Azorean customs, such as celebration of Pentecost, the feast of the Holy Ghost, an October procession honoring Our Lady of Fatima, and the growing of Christmas wheat to surround family and church creches, are observed. There is also a weekly Portuguese Mass. The national traditions blend with activities common to most parishes in a happy marriage that sees all members enjoying church life together. The parish, said Father John J. Oliveira, parochial vicar at St. Michael's Church, Fall River, is an outstanding example of the theme of this year's National Migration Week: "Aliens and Strangers No Longer," a theme taken from St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians.
National Observance On the national scene, MigraTurn to Page 16
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"It was a great relieflfor our family, knowing' that he was never alone and had so many good fri'ends so close," he added. i Atty. Saulino said Joseph had asked that in lieu of Oowers at his funeral, contribution~ be made to St. Anne's in his name. The response was overwhelming and the hospital approached, the family Turn to Page II
Vatican stresses openness to' life VATICAN CITY (CNS) - The church has a pastoral obligation to promote the use of natural family planning in order to make its moral teaching credible, an Italian archbishop wrote. Archbishop Dionigi Tettamanzi of Ancona and Osimo said natural family planning allows couples to exercise responsibility while preserving the true nature of Christian marriage. The archbishop's article on natural family planning was pu blished in the, Dec. 16 issue of L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper. It appeared two days after Pope John Paul II, in a speech attracting great attention in the Italian media, said if couples who practice natural family planning are not open to the possibility of having children, their actions are "substantially analogous" to using artificial birth control. Teaching couples how to practice natural family planning cannot be "a simple 'instruction' dis-
connected from the moral values proper to an education to love," he told people in training to teach the Billings method of natural family planning.
Parish Life Center ST. PIUS X PARISH South Yarmouth Pages 7¡10
In teaching couples to use natural methods, the pope ~aid, it must be made clear that s~ch methods are not morally permissible ways to get around church teaching that every act of sexual i intercourse must be open to the p'ossibility of conception. "Only if there is a fundamental acceptanceoffatherhoodand motherhood, understood as collaboration with the Creator, ,\,ill1recourse to natural methods become an integrating part of the responsib:.lity to love and to life," the pope said. Potential parenthoQd carrit:s a responsibility that co:uples must take seriously, the pope said. They may use natural method.s to plan, space or delay the bihh of their 'children after "discerning the will of God for their familY," taking into account "physicalt economic, psychological and so~ial conditions." The pope said that 'the chu rch teaching on the regulation of birth Turn to Page 11
FATHER THOMAS C. LOPES, pastor of Holy Ghost' parish, Attleboro, with Holy Ghost crown and flag kept on permanent display in the church and used at annual celebrations of the feast of Pentecost (top picture); at bottom, parishioners prepare to deliver "pensoes," traditional feastday delicacies, to homes of church members.