SERVING . . . SOUTHEASTERN MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
t eanc 0 FALL RIVER, MASS., THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 1980
VOL. 24, NO. 4
20c, $6 Per Year
St. Anne's begins appeal for funds
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BISHOP CRONIN vi.sits Elizabeth Audino, 9, in traction in the pediatric unit of St. Anne's Hospital. The unit will be a major beneficiary of the hospital's fundraising campaign. (Torchia Photo)
Hospital staffers on chanJnel two William Tietjen, director of social work at St. Anne's Ho!;pital, Fall River, Sister Marie William Lapointe, D.P. of the hospital's pastoral care team, ~md Cynthia Arruda, RN, continuing care coordinator for St. Anne's social work department, will be seen on WGBH Channel 2 on Saturday. The trio will discuss "Joan Robinson: One Woman's Story," a documentary detailing Mrs. Robinson's fight against cancer, to be shown at 8 p.m. Their discussion will immediately follow the film. Also participating in the conversation will be personnel from Massachusetts General Hospital, the American Cancer Society and the Sidney Farber Cancer Institute, as well as journalists from the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe. Tietjen said the documentary has "enormous impact" and that it raises many provocative medical and sociological issues. The St. Anne's personnel were invited to participate in the program because the hospital houses a comprehensive cancer care clinic and workers have developed outstanding profi.ci-
ency in counselling cancer patients and their families. The clinic works in conjunction with the regional oncology program of University Hospital of the Boston University Medical Center, where Joan Robinson was treated. She was diagnosed as having terminal cancer in 1973, program officials said. An outspoken woman and a professional writer, she determined to have her story told in an "unblinking" context. Mary Feldhaus-Weber, a friend and veteran filmmaker, accepted the project. Her film crews captured Joan Robinson on film during numerous admissions to University Hospital, discussing her prognosis with her physician, and at her home in Jamaica Plains with her supportive husband. The result, say previewers, is a poignant and painful story presenting human feelings and reactions, crisis and despair, and the unrelenting pursuit of answers about medical procedures and human relationships. The documentary is expected to spark widespread discussion and debate within the U.S. medical community.
Sparked by Bishop Daniel A. Cronin's pledge of $300,000, payable over a three year period from funds realized in the annual Catholic Charities Appeal, St. Anne's Hospital, Fall River, has kicked off a $1.8 million "Caring with Excellence" public fund appeal. The money will aid in funding an $11 million building program designed to provide Greater Fall River with modernized medical facilities under Catholic auspices. St. Anne's is the only such acute care facility in the Fall River diocese. Over the past 75 years, said Bishop Cronin, the hospital has been "a focal point for the exercise of the healing ministry. The Dominican Sisters of the Presentation and devoted lay people,
physicians, nurses, technicans . . have most admirably witnessed to the kingdom of God in our midst by their competent and loving care for God's beloved sick." The bishop spoke Monday at a kick-off luncheon at which a model of proposed hospital alterations was displayed. It was explained at a press briefing preceding the luncheon that the original hospital building, constructed in 1906, will be demolished. Four new units will house offices, dietary and other services, a one-day surgery unit and expanded pediatric, radiology and emergency departments. 'Parking facilities will be expanded and landscaping will enhance the Middle Street hospital Turn to Page Six
Pregnancy discrimination act challenge WASHINGTON (NC)-A suit filed by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops challenging the abortion provisions of the one-year-old Pregnancy Discrimination Act has been dismissed by a federal judge in Washington. U.S. District Judge John H. Pratt said that while the bishops' suit raised "matters of serious importance," the suit had to be dismissed because there was no proof that the act's abortion provisions actually had violated an employer's right to freedom of religion. Bishop Thomas Kelly, NCCB general secretary, called the dismissal "lamentable" because the judge did not recognize "that the 'chilling effect' of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act could unconstitutionally burden impor-
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tant First Amendment rights." The bishops filed the suit last June charging that while the Pregnancy Discrimination Act requires employers to pay only for abortions in cases where the life of the mother is endangered, that provision is tantamount to abortion on demand because of the way doctors can abuse the life-of-the-mother category. The bishops' suit also contended that the act forces employers to provide paid time off for all employees seeking abortions no matter whether the abortion is elective or medically necessary. Pratt cited legal precedents requiring that an actual "case or controversy" must be present before federal COUl'ts can rule on allegations that an individual's rights have b,een denied. "The mere existence of a statute or regulation that a plaintiff reasonably believes should be applied to and be enforced against him does not ordinarily create a justiciable case or cbntroversy," Pratt said. Pratt added that he lacked sufficient facts y,rith which to judge the impact of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act on the bishops' conference. He also noted that the Equal Employment Oppor-
tunity Commission is in "disarray" on how the act will be enforced. And he rejected the "chilling effect" argument of the bishops, saying that the bishops "were able to maintain their' religious praotices by convincing their insurers to omit the (pregnancy) coverages to which they object." He said if the EEOC were to begin enforcing the abortion provisions of the act, the bishops then would have "ample opportunity" to raise the constitutional issues of concern to them. Bishop Kelly said the bishops' conference regrets Pratt's decision. "Surely those with religious, moral and ethical reservations to the practice of abortion cannot be expected to subsidize it through either sick leave or medical insurance," Bishop Kelly said. He said an injunction preventing the abortion provisions of the act from being enforced and a declaration that the abortion provisions were unconstitutional would be the only way First Amendment rights could be protected. Turn to Page Six