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FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSmS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS VOL. 34, NO.1.
Friday, January 5, 1990
FALL RIVER, MASS.
Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
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$11 Per Year
U.8. nun killed, bishop injured in Nicaragua With eNS reports Ms. Lopez said the American WASHINGTON (CNS) - Two ,nun's body was to be returned to nuns, one of them an American, the Vnited States. were killed and an American bishop The ambush occurred on a road wounded Jan. I when V.S.-backed near Puerto Cabezas, 200 miles rebels ambushed a vehicle they northeast of Managua. Details of were driving in northeast Nicara- the attack were sketchy, but the gua, about 200 miles from the cap- Nicaraguan government blamed contra rebels. There was also a ital city of Managua. The nun was identified as Sister possibility the church workers' car Maureen Courtney, 45, ofthe Con- drove over a mine, said officials. Bishop Schmitz was ordained a gregation of the Sisters of St. Agnes of Fond du Lac, Wis. She. priest in 1970 by the apostolic vicar of Bluefields, Bishop Salvawas a native of Wisconsin. The Nicaraguan nun was identi- tor Schlaefer, also a V.S.-born fied as Sister Teresa Rosales, also Capuchin missionary. a Sister of St. Agnes. The vicariate is located on NicaWisconsin-born Auxiliary Bishop ragua's Atlantic coast, an area Paul Schmitz, 46, of the Apostolic where there has been much tension Vicariate of Bluefields, Nicaragua, between the Miskito Indian popuwas injured in the attack. The lation and the government over its bishop, a Capuchin Franciscan efforts to relocate the Indians. from Fond du Lac, was wounded Some of the Indians have joined in the arm and suffered loss of guerrilla groups fighting the blood but was considered out of government. danger. Bishop Schmitz has been living Cecilia Lopez ofthe Nicaraguan in Nicaragua since 1970. He was Embassy in Washington told Cath- superior of the Capuchins living in olic News Service that the bishop Nicaragua from 1978 to 1982. From was taken to a hospital close to 1982 until 1984 when he was named where the ambush occurred, but auxiliary bishop, he served as vice he was to be transferred to a hospi- provincial of the Capuchin Vice Province of Central America, which tal in Managua. Also injured in the ambush was has its headquarters in Managua. a second Nicaraguan nun, identiFrances Courtney of Wauwafied as Sister Francisca MaJ:ia tosa, Wise., the mother of Sister Estrada, 24. She was expected to Maureen, said her daughter had survive. The two Nicaraguan reli- served in Nicaragua 15 years. She gious had entered religion Jan. 21, was involved in education programs 1989. Both were Sisters of St. for the Miskito Indians. Agnes. Thomas Quigley, a Latin AmerSister Courtney would have ican affairs adviser at the U.S. celebrated her silver jubilee in Catholic Conference, said he had Turn to Page Six December of this year. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _- - - - - - - - - .
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RETIRED PRIESTS enjoy their. annual dinner with Bishop Daniel A. Cronin at the Catholic Memorial Home, Fall River. From left clockwise, beginning at front center, Fathers John G. Carroll, John J. Murphy, Daniel A. Gamache, Msgr. Arthur G. Considine, Father Cornelius J. Keliher. Additional pictures on page 2. (Gaudette photo)
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A YOUNG woman outside the Vatican embassy in Panama City waves U.S. and Panamanian flags. She was among demonstrators urging the Vatican to turn Gen. Noriega over to the United States. (CNSjUPI-Reuters photo)
What to do with Noriega? VATICAN CITY (CNS) - The case of deposed Panamanian dictator Gen. Manuel Noriega, who took refuge in the Panama City nunciature Dec. 24, set off a week of delicate negotiations and diplomatic tensions between the Vatican, theU nited States and Panama. As the new year arrived, Noriega was still enjoying what the Vatican carefully termed "temporary diplomatic asylum" in the nunciature, the Vatican's embassy. Meanwhile, U.S. troops kept watch outside the building, hoping to bring Noriega to the United States for trial on drug charges. As the week ended, no third country had publicly offered political asylum to Noriega. With Panama's new government hesitant to take custody of Noriega and the Vatican unwilling to hand him over directly to the United States, the situation appeared to be at an impasse. On Dec. 29, Panama's bishops told Pope John Paul II in a letter that Noriega must ",be turned over to justice." They did not, however, specify whose justice he should be handed to. The letter said,that the church should extract assurances that
Noriega will be treated humanely by whatever authorities would take him into custody. "Naturally, it is very necessary, and the protective spirit of the church requires it, that first there be established certain guarantees of his physical and personal safety, such as the exclusion of capital punishment, humane tr~atment, a fair and proper trial ... and that he be judged only for specified crimes," the letter said. The bishops were clear on what they think about Noriega's character and conduct. Their letter labeled him as "the author of abominable crimes, destroyer of his people and of his own nation." It said such activities have
NEXT WEEK is National Migration Week. The Fall River diocese is celebrating by helping to resettle 100 Cambodian refugees who will make their homes in the Fall River area. See story and pictures on page 8.
been "properly and constantly documented" by the Panamanian bishops, the Panama Commission on Human Rights and the Organization of American States. It also said recent evidence showed Noriega was involved in drugs, torture, plans for extended guerrilla warfare, a decadent lifestyle and witchcraft. The Vatican sent an experienced diplomatic official, Msgr. Giacinto Berloco, to Panama to "lend a hand" to the nuncio, a spokesman said Jan. 2. Msgr. Berloco is the Vatican's counselor to the Panamanian nunciature and handles other Latin American affairs at the Vatican Secretariat of State. Throughout the week, the Vatican emphasized that Panama nuncio Archbishop Jose Sebastian Laboa, had accepted Noriega temporarily, and only after the ousted leader promised to call off his armed struggle against the Dec. 20 U.S. invasion of Panama. Vatican spokesman Joaquin NavarroValls noted that there had been no deaths in combat since Noriega entered the nunciature. Some Panamanians, however, said that since the invasion Noriega had Turn to Page Six