t eanc 0 VOL. 37, NO.9.
Friday, March 5, 1993
F ALL RIVER, MASS.
FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
•
$11 Per Year
"Intolerable" situation
Haiti policy change urged WASHINGTON (CNS) Pressure on the United States to address its policy toward Haiti increased from several directions in recent days. The prospects for President Clinton to respond to those pressures seemed to improve as he scheduled a meeting with ousted President Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court prepared to take on the questionable legality of the U.S. policy of returning boatloads of fleeing Haitians to their homeland before they reach U.S. territoria'i waters and a chance to apply for asylum as political refugees. As two branches of the U.S. government turned attention toward Haiti, the tiny Caribbean nation was still coping with the deaths of hundreds of people that occurred when an overloaded ferry sank in a storm Feb. 17. The ferry, licensed to carry 250 passengers, may have had up to 1,200 on board for a trip from Jeremie to Port-au-Prince Feb. 17. The vessel was traveling in a rainstorm and apparently sank after panicked passengers rushed to one side. Only about 300 people survived. In the United States, New York's Cardinal John J. O'Connor and the head of the U.S. bishops' Office of Migration and Refugee Services spoke up for more than 250
WHAT'S BETTER for children - attendance at conventional public or parochial schools or home-schooling programs supervised by parents? (eNS and Spindel photos)
Catholic home schooling: is it a good idea or does it shortchange kids? By Pat McGowan with Catholic News Service reports A Catholic Home Schooling Conference will be held Saturday, April 24 at S1. Mary's parish center on Powers Street in Norton. Open to all interested in home schooling of children, it is sponsored by Seton Home Study School. To be held from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., the conference will begin with Mass and registration. Father Charles Fiore will speak at 9 a.m. on church teachings on home schooling. He is a theologian and active in the pro-life cause.
He will be followed by Gerry Matatics, whose topic will be the biblical foundations of home schooling. Matatics is founder and director of Biblical Foundations, a ministry that shows the scriptural basis of Catholicism. He will also present an afternoon discussion of the father's role in home schooling. Completing the morning program, Dr. Mary Kay Clark, director of Seton Home Study School, and the mother of seven, will speak on home schooling in large families. In the afternoon she will discuss "Avoiding Burnout." Turn to Page 13
Haitians who have been held at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for more than a year because they or their relatives are
Telling it like it is "We find extremely ironic the ruckus raised by an abortion facility in Brookline over having been listed underneath 'Abattoirs - see Butchering' in the 1993-1994 NYNEX yellow pages directory," said Theresa Hanley, RN, president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life. She was commenting on the fact that despite the fact that the facility is listed under " Abortion Providers," a category which follows" Abattoirs," it claimed in an interview with WCVB-TV, Boston, that its proximity to the slaughter-house listing is upsetting to potential ,clients. "Clearly, that potential patients are upset by the placement of the ad testifies to the fact that they recognize instinctively that abortion dismembers human beings," said Ms. Hanley. "Obviously," she added, "the truth hurts; however, it hurts the over 1.6 million humans dismembered every year much more than it will ever hurt [the facility)."
infected with H IV, the virus that causes AIDS. The situation for Haitian refugees affected by HIV who are held in Guantanamo Bay "is becoming more intolerable by the hour," said Jesuit Father Richard Ryscavage in asking President Clinton to admit them to the United States. "I urge the administration to resolve this matter quickly before it becomes an even greater national embarrassment," said Father Ryscavage, who visited the camp last year. He called the conditions shocking. "As a priest I was moved by the psychological pain of the detainees," he said. Cardinal O'Connor Feb. 28 condemned the "disgraceful treatment" of HIV-affected Haitians, and said it "borders on the grossest kind of injustice" to single them out because of a fear of AIDS. In a homily keyed to Black History Month, the cardinal told the congregati'on" at New York's S1. Patrick's Cathedral that the detained Haitians had credible fears of persecution if they were returned to Haiti. He said the U.S. Catholic Conference had a practical plan for resettlement and offered the help of the Archdiocese of New York. The Supreme Court heard legal Turn to Page 13
Diocesan group for single young adults underway By Marcie Hickey '''Come and see!' So [hey wenr [0 see where he was lodged, and stayed with him that day." (John 1:39) As the diocese began its Lenten journey, Catholic young adults gathered to begin a journey of another kind: to discover their
place in the diocese and in the church. "Come and See," (CAS) a new diocesan program for single Catholics ages 20 to 40, held its initial meeting on the first Sunday of Lent at St. John of God Church, Somerset. Father Robert Oliveira, diocesan director of continuing
formation of laity and clergy, celebrated Mass for the young adults who met afterward to discuss the direction the ministry will take. Organizers Pauline Desrosiers of St. Patrick's parish, Somerset, and Beth Lee of St. Peter's parish. Turn to Page Two
COME AND SEE: Father Robert Oliveira celebrates Mass for young adults involved in a new diocesan ministry for single persons ages 20 to 40. (Hickey photo)