(~
.!
·f
fAu.,IIVER
DIOCE~~N
NEWSPAPER F.OR':'$'O'U'MEAsf: ·tMSSAcHuS,ETTS cA'SCOD &TH'I$l~NDS I
VOL. 38, NO.8.
Friday, Februar)' 25, ]994
FALL RIVER, MASS.
AT FAMIL Y MINISTRY awards night, Bishop O'Malley presents award for widowed support to Dorothyann Callahan; with Father Horace J. Travassos presents Family Ministry Award to Rosa and. Octavio Canhoto;
Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
•
$]]
Per Year
and blesses the youngest participant in the event, Patrick Howey. Patrick's parents, Maureen and Jon Howey, teach Natural Family Planning classes at St. Mary's parish, Mansfield. (Hickey photos)
Family mfnistry volunteers honored at awards night O'Malley. 'to highlight that the By Marcie Hickey In this United Nations-des- family is "central to the life of the ignated Year of the Family. the church," Five couples and four individustaff and volunteers of the Diocesan Office of Family Ministry are als accepted awardS from the bishop witnesses to the fact that "in the and family ministry director Father Horace Travasso$ for their work church. every year is the year of in marriage preparation. natural the family." said Bishop Sean family planning. parish family minO'Malley. istry. and support for the widowed The family ministers gathered last Saturday at the Hawthorne and .the divorced and separated. An additional award went to a Country Club in Dartmouth for new ministry. Rainbows for All an awards dinner. held every two God's Children. which helps chilyears to recogni71: volun~eers in dren who have lost a parent through t he office's va ri ous progra ms. Bishop O'Malley and priests asso- divorce or death. while the Family Ministry Award was presented to ciated with family ministry celeIHated Mass at St. Mary's Cathed-' Octavio and Rosa Canhoto of Espirito Santo parish. Fall River. ral. Fall River. prior to the dinner. for overall contributions to family Pope John Paul II has declared a corresponding Year of the Fam- ministry. ily observance. said Bishop In all. 569 volunteers assist the
diocesan office. said Scottie Foley. who with' her husband Jerry is family ministry program director. 267 volunteers responded to a recent office survey which revealed that together they have amassed over 2.000 years of service. amounting to about 13.000 hours annually. said Mrs. Foley, Those volunteer hours include 54 diocesan marriage preparation programs a year. programs that are essential to Catholic familv life. said the bishop. . So many "young people today get married without knowing much about marriage," he said. "It's easier to get a marriage license than it· is to get a driver's license. What the church can do to help in this area is so crucial." Acknowledging the contribu-
tions of all the vo'4nteers. Father Travassos commented that "Someone once said that the best way to say thanks is never to forget." Family ministry has a lasting effect on thosc it touches. he said. "and thosc' people will be cternally grateful." The award recipielits and their contributions follow: Natural Family Planning: Dan and Kathy Couet, Dave and Joan Pepin. The Couets and Pepins have been teaching Natural Family Planning in the diocese for more than a decade. Throughout changes required to ensure NFl' instructor certificatioQ. they have remained dedicated to the ministry and continue to participate in the nine annual marriage preparation ses-
sions in the New Bedford area. Thcy are also available to work individually with couples. Parish Family Ministry: Edward and Helena Bobrowiecki. The Bobrowieckis have been the family ministry leadership couple at Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish. New Bedford. since 1980. and in that time have never missed a meeting with diocesan leaders. Over the years they have brought to their parish dozens of ideas for enriching family spirituality and have been involved in implementing many parish events. Marriage Preparation: Gene and Jeannine Sasseville, Bob and Anne Geary, Father John Raposo. The Sassevilles have been working with engaged couples for 17 Turn to Page 13
Mother. Teresa asks U .8. high court to hear fetal rights case WASHINGTON (CNS) - In an unusual plea from a noncitizen to the U.S. courts, Mother Teresa has formally asked the Supreme Court to consider the question of when human life begins. In the case of a New Jersey man who has asked the court to decide whether a developing fetus has individual civil rights, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning founder of the Missionaries of Charity petitioned the Supreme Court as "a true citizen of the world," said her attorney, Robert P. George, a professor at Princeton University. Alexander LOCI~ sued the state of New Jersey after its courts rejected his attempts to prevent his fiancee from having an abortion. He was convicted of trespassing after he and several companions went to the abortion clinic where she had an appointment and at-
tempted to block the entrance to the operating room. His fiancee had the abqrtion. In finding him guilty of trespassing in April 1991, Morristown, N.J.,'Municipal Judge Michael J. Noonan said Loce had presented credible evidence to prove that human life begins at conception. However, Noonan said U.S. law "legalized the execution of a human being" and therefore he had to find Loce's actions legally inexcusable. Subsequent rulings by New Jersey courts upheld the conviction, but did not address questions about the stage at which a fetus has civil rights. The Supreme Court is expected to decide before the end of February whether to hear the case. In a Feb. 15 press conference outside the Supreme Court, George said Mother Teresa's appeal to the
court was carrying on "her life's work of-devotion to the poor, the weak, the despised, the forgotten." Although originally expected to deliver the brief herself on a visit to Washington in early February, Mother Teresa did not do so and it was filed through her attorney. The world-famous nun's ninepage friend-of-the-court brief said her interest in the case stemmed from her own experience in helping those who are treated as outsiders - the starving, the crippled, the impoverished and the diseased - as well as mothers and their children. A native of Albania who has lived most of her life in India, Mother Teresa said that while she is an outsider in the United States, she and· her congregation are "supremely conscious of the common bonds of humanity that unite us
and transcend national boundaries." Quoting from the Declaration of Independence, which sets out unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the brief credits American hi~tory as almost always moving toward assurance of those rights. "And your steps, though they may have paused or faltered now and then, have been pointed in the right direction and have trod the right path," through most of the nation's history, it said. The brief noted that the court's 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision pointedly avoided deciding the question of when life begins. "It was a sad infidelity to America's highest ideals when this court said that it did not matter, or could not be determined, when the inal-
ienable right to life began for a child in its mother's womb." Mother Teresa said she sought to recall the United States to faithfulness to what it once taught the world. "Your nation was founded on the proposition - very old as a moral precept, but startling and innovative as a political insight that human life is a gift of immeasurable worth, and that it deserves, always and everywhere, to be treated with the utmost dignity and respect," she said. Loce's attorney, Patrick J. Mullaney, said whether the justices agree to take this case or not, the court has an obligation to eventually decide the questions it raises. "All we're saying is, 'Please evaluate the values that underscore our law,''' he said.