FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETIS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
t eanc 0 VOL. 26, NO. 5
20c, $6 Per Year
FALL RIVER, MASS., FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1982·
Eyes of faith
By Bishop
N(Jlr~rt
F. Gaughan
Honorary President, Catholic Press Assn.
FATHER HOYE
Bishops elect Father Hoye
Father Daniel F. Hoye, 36, a Taunton native and since 1978 associate general secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops/U.S. Catholic Confer ence, has been chosen the new general secretary of the twin organizations. He is the young est priest ever to hold the post. His five-year appointJDent, ef fective immediately, was an nounced Tuesday by Archbishop John R. Roach of St. Paul-Minne apolis, president of the NCCB/ USCC. Father Hoye, a priest of the Fall River diocese, succeeds Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly, who has been named to head' the archdiocese of Louisville, Ky; The general secretary is chief administrative officer for NCCB/ USCC. NCCB is a strictly ecclesi astical body through which the American bishops act as pastors of the church. It sponsors USCC,
a civil corporation through which the bishops and other church members act on a wider scale on behalf of· both the church and society.
Family elated Hoye rhymes with joy these days for the family of Father Daniel Francis Hoye, newly named general secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops/U.S. Catholic Confer ence. And there are plenty of joyous Hoyes. The new secretary is one of nine children, eight boys and one girl, and at last count had 14 nephews and nieces. Two brothers, Charles and Stephen, practice dentistry in Taunton. David and William do the same in East Douglas and Turn to Page Six
Father Hoye was selected in a mail vote by the 48 bishops on the organizations' steering com mittee. The general secretary's initial term can be extended on a yearly basis. Born in Taunton Jan. 18, 1946, the son of Virginia and the late Dr. Charles E. Hoye, Father Hoye is one of nine children, of whom eight are living. He was educated at St. Mary's Grammar School and Msgr. Coyle High School, both in Taunton. After studying for the priest hood at St. Thomas Seminary, Bloomfield, Conn., and St. John's Seminary, Brighton, he was or· dained May 13, 1972. by Bishop Daniel A. Cronin. He served as associate pastor in St. John the Evangelist parish, Attleboro, and at St. Mary's parish, Norton, be. fore being assigned to studies at the Catholic University of AmTurn to Page Seven
The Catholic press has chosen for its February 1982 observance of Catholic Press Month the theme: "See the world through the eyes of faith." The question immediately comes to mind: Does this mean to see the world as it realIy is, or to see the reality behind the real: God, Jesus, His Son, and their Spirit Who "over the bent world broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings" (as the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins puts it). One thing is certain, it does not mean to see the world through rose-colored glasses. Some, even Catholic leaders, would have the Catholic press do just that: paint lovely pictures, telI warm stories, hide the sins, faults and failings of humans. Nor does it indicate we are to see the world distorted as if by amusement park mirrors. There is a brand of journal ism, mostly secular, sometimes "religious," which believes the function of the press is to show the warts, the mean ness, the nasty contrivances that arise when men pursue private enterprises for power or fiscal gain. In short, they want to depict a world without redemption and man steep ed in sin. What about those over-zealous souls who ask the Catholic press to telI the story of humans as if they were angels, to concentrate on the miraculous to the point of unreality? These want "blind" faith, which is without man's reason, his intelligence, his talents. Even those who want the Catholic press to portray the world in monochromes - blacks and whites with no in-between shadings - demand that we deny the Gospel. They have falIen prey to a very ancient heresy which held that Jesus never became a real man. But Christ did; and when He embraced our creature-state, He gave us reason to believe it. He still invites disciples to utilize human skill to the utmost, to discover all they can about God's world and creation. This is where the Catholic press can truly shine. It speaks the real about the world that God so loved as to send it His Son. It telIs the truth about man, made by God, falIen into sin, redeemed by Christ's passion and death. It speaks hopefulfy of human struggles and tribulations, for they are seen in the light of the Resurrection. Catholic papers, journals, newsletters, magaznes telI the truth about the Church: it is made up of human beings; it is not God but it is the instrument of Christ, its Head. It shows life's great moments transformed by Christ's coming to become our sacraments: birth, growth, nourish ment, marriage, healing, worship; ][t does alI this and more when it invites us to find beneath the appearances of the world the permanent, the lasting. We must be warned: the world "which did not receive Him" is not impressed. It asks us to pay our way, to prove our message. We are calIed to sacrifice, to face hardship in telling that story week after week. The Catholic press always needs the support and encouragement which only Catholics can give. It needs it more than ever.