t eanc 0 VOL. 39, NO.5
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Friday, February 3, 1995
FALL RIVER, MASS.
FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
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S11 Per Year
For kids'sake, do something! By Rev. Joseph M. Costa, MSW
Father Costa, 'executive director of St. Vincent's Home, Fall River, a facility offering residential treatment and special education servicesfor children, discusses the needs of children in crisis and the current public debate on the usefulness of orphanages: For a long time children have been an endangered species in this country, victims of neglect and abuse. In an ironic twist, some of them are viewed as the problem
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Catholic press seen among God's best instruments WASHINGTON (CNS) - One of God's best instruments in bringing together the diversity of the church has been an "aggressive. competent Catholic press," according to the president ofthe Catholic Press Association. In a message for Catholic Press Month celebrated in February, Anthony J. Spence said. "Nowhere else does the richness and diversity of Catholic life come together in such compelling ways as in Catholic magazines, newspapers, books and newsletters." The Catholic press not only provides the place where "Catholic voices meet, debate and challenge," but it also enables those voices to "find consensus. ultima~ely celebrating the one faith that binds us all," according to Spence, editor of the Tennessf:e Register, newspaper of the Nashville diocese. Spence's column appears in a booklet issued by the CPA to mark the 1995 Catholic Press Month with the theme, "One Faith,' Many Voices: Sharing the Voices of Inspirati.on, Witness, Hope, Faith and Truth." The booklet also includes statements by Arch••bishop John P. Foley, president of
the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, and Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Costello of Syracuse, N. Y .. chairman of the U.S. bishops' Communications Committee. In Archbishop Foley's column, he said the Catholic press helps to "articulate, strengthen and reaffirm" people's faith while refIecting the diversity which makes the church "one of the most catholic - or truly universal - in the world." ' The archbishop said the Catholic press offers society inspiration. values and role models by profiles of Catholics "in love with Christ" and the "cducated work of people with sound moral principles and a sensitive social conscience." Bishop Costello urged members of the Catholic press to be constantly mindful of their readers. "Communication happens when the reader is informed and. with us, is transformed," he said. "We need readers to achieve our purpose." he said. 'Tm not thinking about circulation; my concern is involvement. Selling the publication isn't enough. Success resides in the experience of the subscriber." _
ordination. .' Father McCurry offered a slide presentation on the life of St. Maximilian and led recitation of the rosary before Gajowniczek spoke about the brutalities at To commemorate the beatificaAuschwitz, where he was a prisoner for five ye~rs, five months tion of their foundress, Blessed Marie Poussepin, the Dominican and nine days. Prisoners were beaten-some- Sisters of the Presentation invite times to death; many fell victim to the public to join them for a Mass disease or resorted to suicide. GajowofThanksgivingat 2 p.m. Sunday, niczek survivcd typhus; his skull Feb. 5, at St. Annes's Church, FaII and several ribs were fractured; he River. FolIowing the liturgy, rehad several teeth knocked out and freshments wiII be served at Saint two of his vertebrae were destroyed Anne's Hospital, across the street by tuberculosis bacilli. from the church. Still bearing his tattooed priBishop Sean P. O'MalIey wiII soner number 5659. he recalled officiate at the Mass, which wiII be the diocesan celebration of the Turn to Page II
proclamation of Marie Poussepin's holiness made by Pope John Paul II last Nov. 20. At that time representatives of the Dominican Sisters of the Presentation from 33 countries gathered in Rome for the ceremony at which the pope recognized Marie Potlssepin as a "social apostle of charity." Her beatification entitles her to public veneration and makes her a candidate for canonization as a saint. Last Sunday the foundress was Turn to Page 12
AUSCHWITZ SURVIVOR Franciszek Gajowniczek, visiting with Apostolate Alliance ofthe Two Hearts coordinator Maggie Sweeney in Hyannis, owes his life to St. Maximilian Kolbe.
50 years after A uschwitz liberation:
Man saved by saint visits the diocese Fifty years after the liberation of Auschwitz, Franciszek Gajowniczek is still telling the story of how he survived that place of death. While ceremonies in his native Poland marked the Jan. 27 anniversary of the concentration camp's liberation, hundreds turned out in Hyannis Jan. 15 and in New Bedford Jan. 16 to hear the story of the man whose life was saved by "the saint of Auschwitz," St. Maximilian Kolbe. Now 93, Gajowniczek was a Polish soldier interned at the concentration camp when in 1941 he was chosen at random to die in a starvation bunker with nine others in retaliation for the escape of another prisoner. Father Kolbe, a Conventual Franciscan priest, stepped forward, offering his life for that of Gajownic:wk, -a husband and father. Father Kolbe was canonized in 1982. "My feelings about Father Kolbe's act of heroic charity are indescribable," Gajowniczek told 500 gathered at St. Francis Xavier Church, Hyannis" in a visit sponsored by the Apostolate Alliance
and the reason for our fears. How should we address needy children and their families? Much recent debate has focused on the resurrection of orphanages as a solu-
of the Two Hearts, a nationwide organization of Catholic Marian and Sacred Hearts groups for which Bishop Sean O'Malley is episcopal advisor. Gajowniczek was accompanied by his wife Janina, interpreter Peter Lewandowski and Father James McCurry, OFM Conv., national director of the Militia of Mary Immaculate, Father Kolbe in 1917,formed the yearby before his
tion to the problem. If only it were that simple! The problem, of course, is not rooted in the children but in the disintegration of their families. These are families that are often impacted by addiction, characterized by violence, where parenting is absent. Needy children are symptoms of all this. It is not necessarily helpful to judge these families but rather to provide them with an opportunity to address some very difficult issues. Historically these families have turned to the community, both public and private sectors, to assist them on the road to recovery and family reunification. Without question many attempts of the past have not produced thc desired results. Surely there must bc a more effective way to address the needs of the most vulnerable children and their families. As solutions are explored, some principles should guide the process. First of all, childrcn must be seen within the context of the family. No matter how dysfunctional, a child will always look to the family relationship as significant. Secondly, all attempts must be made to keep families intact. Families at risk of disintegration should be the focus of early intervention. In the long run these supportive services are not only less traumatic but indeed less expensive. Thirdly, residential treatment should be seen Turn to Page II
Fall River Mass to honor Dominican foundress
FA THER JOSEPH COSTA
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FEBRUARY 4 & 5: the
WEEKEND
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