SERVING . . . SOUTHEASTERN MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
t eanc 0 VOL. 25, No.6
FALL RIVER, MASS., THURSDAY" FEBRUARY 5, 1981
20c, $6 Per Year
Bishop points out value of Anchor Saturday and Sunday will be Anchor Weekend in diocesan parishes, the traditional time at which subscriptions to the diocesan newspaper are renewed. As The Anchor enters its 25,th year of serving the Catholic community of southeastern Massachusetts, over 25 percent of :its more than 27,000 readers are charter subscribers, noted Miss Rosemary Dussault, business manager. Such a loyal readership helps fulfill one of the newspaper's primary goals, that of uniting members of the 1,194 square mile diocese of Fall River. That aim is referred to in a letter sent this week !by Bishop Daniel A. Cronin to all pastor's. It follows: "Reverend and dear Father, "Since the very beginning of Our Lord's public mlnistry, an essential element of the Cburcl1 bas been the proclamation of the good news, the Gospel, in an apostolate of evangelization. "The apostolate of evangelization is carried on In a great variety of ways. Our recent program, We Carel We Share, conducted throughout the Diocese dUring Advent, was an imp0rtant endeavor in this area.
Today, I write with specific reference to another, vitally Important, ongoing tool of this apostolate here in the Diocese of Fall River, The Anchor, our weekly Catholic newspaper. "For more than 20 years, The Anchor has been ininstnnnentaI in bringing authentic Gospel teachings and values to' thousands of homes throughout the Diocese. The Anchor does not simply announce the good news of Christ; it explains it and applies it in a practical manner to the daily lives of our people. . ·'In addition, The Anchor, with local diocesan news arid features, helps to stre~en the bonds which unite the residents of all 113 of our parishes. Teaching, forming, instructing and uniting God's good people, The Anchor serves the vital apostolate of evangelization here in the Diocese of Fall River very well indeed. "As you know, the month of February is set aside each year as "Catholic Press Month" throughout the Unioed StateS. In conjunction
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Annulment caution llrged VATICAN CITY (NC) - Pop,e John Paul II said Jan. 24 that there has been an "alarming increase" in marriage cases in church courts and warned against "easy and hasty" annulments. In a speech opening the judi· cial year for the Roman Rota, the church's central court of ap,· peals for marriage cases, thE! pontiff said that concern ex·· pressed at the recent World Sy·· nod of Bishops "over the alarm·· ing increase of marriage cases: in church courts will certainl~' be valued" in the current process: of revising church law. He called for greater pastoral efforts in marriage preparation and warned that "the preparation for matrimony itself would
be negatively influenced by decrees or sentences of matrimonial nullity if these should be obtained too easily." Vatican sources said the pa· pal criticisms seemed directed chiefly at U.S. church courts, which under special procedural rules in recent years have been responsible for more than threefourth of the yearly decrees of nullity in the church. In 1978, the latest year for which complete statistics are available, U.S. decisions accounted for more than 43,000 of the 55,OOO-plus annulments in the church. Some Vatican officials sharply disagree with the American church view that the Itf,rge numTum to Page Six
WHEN POPE JOHN PAUL II lands in Tokyo he will be the first pope ever to visit Japan and he will be in a country of 100 million people where Catholics, such as these little girls, make up less than one percent of the population. (NC Photo)
Japan awaits papal trip VATICAN CITY (NC) About a month before Pope John Paul II was to leave for his 12day visit to the Far East, a group of Japanese journalists asked him about the popular assessment of the Japanese as "economic beings." "Economic development is a sign of the possibility that Japan could become just as strong spiritually," the pope replied. "I hope that Japan will be able to move from being an economic giant to also being a spiritual giant." . In Tokyo, the world's largest city with about 15 million people, and in Hiroshima and Nagasaki the P9lish-born pope will confront "cultural and spirituai traditions which have grown up outside the Christian traditions," according to Hiroshi Miyahira, a Japanese Catholic journalist based in Rome. It will be .e first time the pope will have visited a, highly industrialized nation which is predominantly non..christian. "The pope could be a pioneer
in helping Christianity learn about the Japanses culture," said Miyahira, who expects the pontiff to emphasize the importance of interconfessional dialogue with non-Christians and moral questions such as abortion and divorce in a highly developed society. Pope John Paul demonstrated his personal interest in understanding Japan by taking on the difficult task of learning the Japanese language. He hopes to make enough progress to deliver his talks in Japanese. "He'd like to say something about the divisions among men and about what we have in common," said Father Robert T. Rush, Jesuit regional assistant. for East Asia, who will be one. of Vatican Radio's commentators during the Japan visit. Pope John Paul's Feb. 24 talk to Japanese youths in Tokyo will be a key commentary on the topic, in which the pope will emphasize his view of young people as the hope of the world. Among the pope's other sched-
uled events in Tokyo are Masses for clergymen and Religious and for the general population; meetings with the Japanese Catholic bishops, Christian and non..christian leaders, and Catholic laymen; courtesy caUs on Prime Minister Suzuki Zenko and Emperor Hirohito; and a reception for the diplomatic corps. The next stop will be Hiroshima, site of the first atomic bomb attack, Aug. 6. 1945, where the pope will speak at city hall on "Technology, Society and Peace." Speaking of the visit when he announced the Asian trip, Pope John Paul said he would stand on "the site on which the terrible destructive force of the atomic bomb was first manifested" in order to "beg the merciful God that this will never again be repeated in the history of humanity." Nagasaki, the final stop on the itinerary, also bears scars of atomic warfare from the world's atomic bombing, Aug. 9, 1945. Tum to Page Seven