SERVING . .. SOUTHEASTERN MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
t eanc 0 VOL. 25, No. 8
FALL RIVER, MASS., THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1981
2Oc, $6 Per Year
Salvador ai(l condemned
Diocese aids Indochinese
WASHINGTON (NC) - Two Maryknoll sisters have criticized the Reagan administration's announcement that it will no longer demand an investigation into the murders of four women missionaries in EI Salvador as a condition for U.S. military and I~con足 omic aid. But members of the Maryknoll order also said that the State Department's new policy comes as no surprise. Aid to th,e violence-ridden nation was resumed in mid January by the Carter administration, after a State Department review found no direct evidence of Salvadoran government involvement in the December murders. The Carter administration had nonetheless said it wanted the investigation continued as a criterion for sending aid. The Reagan administration has called instead for a quiet investigation 'through private diplomatic channels,' according to State Department spokesman William Dyess. "I don't see it (the Reagan administration de~ision) as an essential change," said Maryknoll Sister Annette Mulry of the Maryknoll Sisters Office of Social Concerns. "The whole policy of our government giving aid to El Salvador is one of death," she said. "It brings death, whereas the sisters were giving and sharing life. Maryknoll Sister Blaise JLupo, co-director of the human riightsoriented Clergy and Laity Concerned, also wasn't surprised by the Reagan administration's decision. "It's just more of the :same. There's nothing that's going to stand in their way," he said. The U.S. government policy-makers "sold themselves out" in r,egard to any promises to the victims' families, Sister Lupo said. "I really think they've been dishonest in this whole thing." Like Sister Mulry, she blamed both the Carter and Reagan adminstrations for assisting. the Salvadoran regime, cited by church groups in EI Salvador as being an indirect if not direct accomplice in the four women's murders and other deaths in the Central American country. Turn to Page Six
<A contract to provide case management services, family and individual life counseling, and interpreter/translator services to the Indochinese population of Southeastern Massachusetts has been announced by Rev. Peter N. Graziano, diocesan director of Catholic Social Services. This contract, entered into with the Massachusetts Department of Social Services, was effective Jan. of this year. All Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian refugees who live within Region V of the Commonwealth and who are eligible for cash assistance or whose family income is not more than 90% of the state's median income can receive these servies. Region V includes the 48 communities of the diocese of Fall River as well as 20 other communities served by Brockton Catholic Charities. The Fall River diocese has a long history of aiding resettlement programs, primarily as the local agency for the U.S. Catholic Conference's Migration ana Refugee Service. Refugee families were resettled following World War II and commencing in 1975 with the first flight of the Vietnamese from their homeland, the diocese has resettled about 100 Indochinese refugees throughout Southeastern Massachusetts. This has been done with the assistance of sponsoring groups and relatives throughout the diocese. Implementation of the new state contract will enable social workers to work with refugees on a full time basis. Counseling and interpreter/translator programs will facilitate the transition of the newly arrived to the culture of Southeastern Massachusetts. The grant is the result of an ecumenical venture between the Fall River Refugee Resettlement Committee and the Fall River office of Catholic Social Services. Rev. James Hornsby and Rev. Donald Jaikes, both Episcopalian priests, are the leaders of the former group. Rev. Mr. Hornsby of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Fall River, and Mary-Lou Mancini, director of the Fall River CathTurn to Page Seven
POPE JOHN PAUL II will see many cycle-taxis adorned with religious art during his . six days in the Philippines. (NC Photo)
Pope in Philippines, Japan to come MANILA, Philippines (NC) One third of the way through his 12-day trip to East Asia, Pope John Paul II was schedu'led to offer a Mass of peace early this morning at Quezon Memorial Circle in Manila. He was then to meet with priests and missionaries at Sacred Heart auditorium in Cebu City. Tomorrow he visits Davao, Bacolod City and Iloilo City. On Saturday he will visit Bataan of
World War II fame and returning to Manila will address all the people of Asia via Radio Veritas. On Sunday the pontiff departs from the Philippines for Guam, where as many non-Catholic as Catholic families will open their homes to provide housing for the many people expected in the Pacific U.S. trust territory for " the occasion. The golf-cart "popemobile" to
be used by Pope John Paul to ride around the island for one hour before his Monday morning Mass has been painted yellow and brown. Paintings of Our Lady of Camarin, patroness of the island, grace its front and rear. Handwoven baskets to hold the thousands of communion wafers for the Mass have been Turn to Page Six
Canon lawyers defend U.S. practice WASHINGTON" (NC) - U.S. canon lawyers commenting on the speech by Pope John Paul II to the Roman Rota on Jan. 24 defended the way marriage cases are handled in church courts in this country and said that the pope's speech was not a criticism of U.S. tribunals. The pope told the judges of the Rota, the church's central court of appeals for marriage cases, that if declarations of nullity - court pronouncement that a man and woman were never really married - were to be
given easily and hastily, young people would be more likely to enter marriage without due consideration. Vatican sources had said that the pope was critical of U.S. church" courts, which in recent years have been responsible for more than three-fourths of the yearly total of nullity decrees in the church. Bishop Cletus F. O'Donnell of Madison, Wis., a member of the U.S. bishops' Canonical Affairs Committee, noted that the pope had phrased his comments hypo-
thetically, in "if" clauses. The pope said that "the preparation for matrimony itself would turn out to be negatively influenced by pronouncements or sentences of matrimonial nullity if" these were obtained too easily" and that annulments, "if they were to multiply as easy and hasty pronouncements" would contribute to a growth of the mentality that does not take marriage seriously. "I could not agree more with that," Bishop O'Donnell said, Turn to Page Six