SERVING . . . SOUTHEASTERN MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
t eanc 0 VOL. 24, NO. 8
FALL RIVER, MASS., THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1980
20c, $6 Per Year
Bishops hack registration, oppose peacetime draft WASHINGTON (NC) - As an antidraft coalition announced .plans for a March 22 protest demonstration in Washington, the U.S. bishops expressed their support for President Carter's decision to begin draft registration. In a statement released by the Administrative Board of the U.S. Catholic Conference, the bishops restated their opposition to a peacetime draft and opposed the registration and drafting of women. Meantime, President Carter appealed to an audience of more than 250 student leaders for support of his draft registration proposals. His appeal apparently did not persuade many of them to drop their opposition to registration and the draft. "We acknowledge the right of the state to register citizens for the purpose of military conscription, both in peacetime and in times of national emergency," the bishops said. "Therefore, we find no objection in principle to this action by the government. However, we believe .it necessary to present convincing rea-
And on the draft itself, the sons for this at any particular bishops said they opposed reintime." Stating that allowing but not . stitution of military conscription requiring women to serve in the "except in the case of a national military was a practice that defense emergency." The statement repeated the "has served us well as a society," the bishops said they opposed bishops' past support for the both registration and conscrip- rights of conscientious objectors Turn to Page Nine tion of women.
Bishop invited to Azores His Excellency, the Most Reverend Daniel A. Cronin, Bishop of Fall River has announced that he has accepted the invitation of the Bishop of the Azores, D. Aurelio Granada Escudeiro, to preside at the Santo Christo Feast in May on the island of St. Michael. The invitation to Bishop Cronin arrived before a disastrous New Year's Day earthquake hit the neighboring island of Terceira. Bishop Escudeiro said the feast would be held as usual on St. Michael because it would be of spiritual assistance to participants. The Saftto Christo feast, honoring Christ as Lord and
Savior, is particularly dear to Azorean Catholics. Bishop Cronin in expressing his gratitude to the Bishop of the Azores for the invitation to participate in the celebration, noted that he looked forward to returning to the islands. In 1972 he visted both Terceira and St. Michael, the homelands of many priests and laity now living in the Fall River diocese. He expects to revisit Terceira in May, as well as St. Michael. Acompanying Bishop Cronin to the Azores will be Msgr. Luiz G. Mendonca, diocesan vicargeneral, and Msgr. John J. Oliveira, episcopal secretary.
Hail Mary breaks silence The Hail Mary wy the' prayer that broke 18 years of courtordered silence in at least two public school classrooms in the Fall River diocese, a Fall River second grade and a Somerset third grade. The children who led their路 classmates in prayer were among the first to implement a new Massachusetts law requiring public school teachers to ask each morning for a student prayer leader. If a volunteer is forthcoming, students who do not want to participate may leave the classroom and stand in the hallway during the prayer. The future of the law remains hazy, however, with a hearing as to its constitutionality likely to come next month before the Supreme Judicial Court of the commonwealth.
But in the meantime, four: y.ears after Massachusetts inaugurated a "silent moment" at the beginning of each public school day and 18 years after the U.S. Supreme Court ban on school prayer, spoken prayer is permissible and some CCD teachers are reportedly instructing children in how to lead classroom recitations. Opponents, specifically the Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and the American Jewish Congress, representing families in Framingham and Marblehead, argue that the new law violates the separation of church and state. They also say students would be left standing in hallways unsupervised and that students who do not pray would be stigmatized. The U.S. Supreme Court 18 years ago prohibited public
schools from compelling recitation of an officially prescribed prayer. A year later the court also ruled that recitation of the Lord's Prayer or readings from the Bible as an official part of morning exercises were also unconstitutional. 13ut the Massachusetts minuteof-silence law was up-held in 1976 by a three-judge federal court panel which ruled that such a practice was constitutional because it did not require students to meditate or pray, just to sit silently. Paul Pierce, a Watertown, Mass., student minister who authored the new law, said he hoped the measure would bring values back to the public schools. He also said he hoped a challenge to the law would go all the way to the Supreme Court Turn to Page Six
SISTER THOMAS MORE, O.P.
New assistant By Pat McGowan
facilities and for other programs for the aged. She used to be a games mis"Nursing homes cannot ac路 tress (a gym teacher to us Yank- cept too many Medicaid recipiees) and that background is re- ents or they won't remain solflected in her firm stride and vent," pointed out Lyons. crisp, no-nonsense approach to Both he and Sister Thomas life. More are strong supporters of She is Sister Thomas More, the hospice concept, a program OP, new assistant director at St. providing aid to terminally ill Anne's Hospital, Fall River, who cancer patients in their own left more than a few broken homes. hearts behind her last faU when St. Anne's is active in a task she ended a seven-year stint as force hoping to bring hospice administrator of Madonna Man- care to Fall River and Sister or Nursing Home, North Attle- Thomas More spoke recently at boro. an explanatory meeting for At present, she said, she is health professionals at Bristol still accustoming herself to her Community College. new routine. One of several asShe sai<;l she first became sistant directors at St. Anne's, aware of the hospice concept in she is responsible for nursing England, where it originated service in all departments, in- and where she was brought up cluding in and outpatient, em- and studied physical education. ergency room, physical therapy She first came in contact with and clinics. She is also liaison her community, the Dominicans to the Friends of St. Anne and of the Presentation, as a gym the Volunteers of St. Anne, the teacher at one of their schools hospital's auxiliary groups. in England. The thought of a vocation did She has carried with her ftom Madonna Manor her deep interest not surface at that time, howin care for the elderly and she ever. World War II intervened hbpes to express it in terms of and like everyone in .Britain, an adult day care program under Sister Thomas More was absorbed in the defense effort. hospital sponsorship. By day, she said, she introShe and James Lyons, hospital administrator, concurred in duced "exercise breaks" into Turn to Page Thirteen stressing the great need for such路