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FIRST GRADE CCD STUDENTS AT
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LOUIS PARISH, FALL RIVER, PRESENT CARING AND SHARING PROGRAM AT KlMWELL
NURSING HOME. (Story on page 3)
FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSEns CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
t eanc 0 VOL. 28, NO. 8
FALL RIVER, MASS., FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1984
Consecration
to Mary
natural to pope
Concordat cuts
church rights
ROME (NC)-The Vatican and Italy signed a revised concordat Feb. 18 that reduces some of the church's privileges in Italy and declares church and state to be "independent and sovereign." The new treaty removes Cath olicism as the· state religion, makes Catholic religiQus instruc tion in state schools optional and gives civil auhorities authority to review church marriage an nulments. The new concordat drops ref erence to "the sacred .character of the eternal city" of Rome. >Instead, it· notes the "particular significance of Rome for Cath olicism." . The treaty replaces the con cordat signed by the Vatican and Italian dictator Benito Mus solini i.n 1929. The new, shorter version reflects changes in the way Italy and the church view religious freedom. ,Pope John 'Paul II noted the "historic importance" of the Concordat Feb. 19, the day after , it was signed by Vatican .Secre tary of State Cardinal Agostino Casaroli and Italian Prime Min ister Bettino Craxi. The treaty, said the pope, is a significant legal basis for rela tions with the state. it is "an ideal inspiration for the generous and creative contribution that the church community·is caBed to giv~ toward the moral good' and civic progress of the na tion." ' The treaty will take effect after it is ratified by the Italian Parliament. Little opposition to the accord is expected.
'Before the ratification vote, however, the treaty stipulates that a joint commission of ital ian bishops and civil authorities must agree on the thorny issue of the tax status of church or ganizations in ltaIy. Article 1 of the concordat speaks of the "process of politi cal and social transformatiOli" in Italy since 1929. It adds that the new document will bring church-state relations into con- , formity with the Italian Consti tution and with the Second Vat ican Council's "Declaration on Religious Liberty." The Vatican II declaration stressed the civil rights of all religions, 'as distinct from privi leges enjoyed by a Catholic ma jority. Cardinal Casaroli, at the sign ing ceremony, called the new Concordat "an instrument of agreement, not of privilege." A Vatican source described the treaty as a fair one that stresses mutual respect by church and state and which rec ognizes the growing secular na ture of Italian society. During the negotiations to re vise the treaty, Italian law began reflecting the growing secular nature of society. Itaoly -legalized divorce and abortion despite strong opposition from the Vati can and the Italian bishops. Church-backed referendums' to repeal the divorce and the abor tion laws failed. The tax-exempt status of ex isting church organizations out side the Vatican is not expected Tum to Page Twelve
$8 Per Year
would succeed Pope John ,paul I, "but I did so in a spirit of VATICAN CITY '(NC) - The humility and obedience to our planned consecration of the Lord, and complete trust in his world to the Blessed Virgin most holy mother, the Madonna." Mary in March by Pope John From that first speech of his Paul II is a natural step for the pontificate, there have been few man whose motto is "totus tuus addresses which have not in sum Maria," Latin for "I am voked the intercession of Mary completely yours, Mary." or which have not praised her As a youth, he consecrated his as mother of the church. Not life to her. As pope he entrusted only does he speak of her at his native Poland to her and reo nearly every 'Wednesday general caUed Pope Pius XII's 1954 con audience and Sunday Angelus secration of the world to Mary. message, but he added another Pope John 'Paul's decision to opportunity to praise her when reconsecrate the world to her is he began leading the rosary on another public demonstration of Vatican Radio the first Saturday his' confidence in Mary. of each month. The pope frequently includes In the United States, an nouncement of the consecrati<m stops at Marian shrines on his was released by the U.S. bishops foreign trips. In Ireland, he Feb. 14. They also released a visited Knock; in Mexico, the letter in which Pope John Paul shrine of OUf· Lady of Guada asked the world's bishops to join lupe; in the -United States, the him in consecrating the world to National Shrine of the Immacu Mary on March 24 or March 25. I~te Conception in Washington. The major Marian shrines at March 25 is the feast of the Annunciation. This year it falls 'Fatima, Portugal, and Lourdes, on the third Sunday of Lent and France, have provided the reason ' so maybe celebrated on March for two papal trips. 24. as is the case in the United His visits to shrines did not States. begin with his election to the Pope John Paul has made papacy. They began when Pope clear from the first moment of John Paul was the young boy, his pontificate that Mary is a Karol Wojtyla. Karol, whose main source of strength in his mother died when he was eight life. years old, daily visited the Ma "I was afraid to accept this rian altar in his parish church on the way home from school. choice," he told the 300,000 per As a teen, he visited the sons assembled in St. Peter's Turn to Page Ten Square Oct. 18, 1978, to see who By Sister Mary Ann Walsh
CA~SOCKED p ri est s stand at the entrance to an Orthodox church near Irku tsk, Russia. Such a sight is a rarity in the Soviet Union.
In USSR
No change foreseen on religion By NC News Service The death of Soviet President Yuri V. J\Jldropov Feb. 9 imd the succession to power of Konstan tin U. Chernenko appear to sig nal no significant change in So viet policy toward religion. Andropov, 69, had ruled only 15 months, and nearly half that time he was seriously ill and not seen in public. Yet that short rule by the former head of the KGB, the Soviet secret police. was marked by a noticeable tightening of controls on dissi dents at home and a sharp deTum to Page Six