SERVING ••• SOUTHEASTERN MASSACHUSETTS
CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
VOL. 25, No. 12
FALL RIVER, MASS., THURSDAY; MARCH 19; 1981
20c, $6 Per Yeor
Budget cuts are target • of major usee campaIgn WASHINGTON (NC) - Calling President Reagan's budget proposals "unfair" and "harmful to the poor," the U.S. Catholic Conference has launched a major campaign to oppose the proposed federal spending cuts. In a letter to each member of the House and Senate, the US CC's general secretary. Bishop Thomas Kelly, said the cuts would endanger the basic right of the poor to "full human dignity." At the same time USCC officials sent diocesan social justice directors across the -country a nine-page letter opposing the cuts, along with a series of "fact sheets" on Reagan's budget proI posals and other materials on , the federal budget. Congressional testimony on several budget issues also was being planned. "If these budget cuts are enacted, elderly men and women will go unfed, women and children will go without necessary health care and social services, some of the working poor will be YOU NEEDN'T BE: AN ITALIAN to enjoy the Sicilian forced onto welfare and families tradition of St. Joseph'!l Table. The saint, patron of peace, across this nation will go witha happy home and charity -to the poor, is honored on his out adequate housing," Bishop feastd'ay by extending hospitality to all. The custom is Kelly said in the letter to Congress. The usce is the public carried out at Mt. St. Joseph School, Fall River, by, from policy arm of the U.S. bishops. left James Sullivan, Ronald St. Pierre, Anna Aguiar and titing what it called the "morPa~la Morgado. The festivities were preceded by a' special al dimensions of th~ current tieMass. (Torchia Photo) bate over the president's economic proposals," the letter said an essential element of Catholic tradition is the belief that the dignity of all persons is protected by basic rights to such things as food, housing, employment, health care, education and necessary social services. ''These basic necessities are matter of right, not of privilege VATICAN CITY (NC) -- The son is the basis on which society or choice," said Bishop Kelly unabortion of deformed fetuses or at every level ought to approach derlining the word right. "Therekilling of newborn handicapped the rights and needs of the handi- fore, the government has the ulbabies is "pseudohumanism," ac- capped. timate responsibility, a moral recording to a Vatican statlement The Vatican statement attack- sponsibility, to see that these on the United Nations Interna- ed euthanasia {mercy-killing) for needs are met." tional Year of the Disabled Per- ·disabled newborn infants. Bishop Kelly noted that under son. "The deliberate failure to pro- Reagan's economic recovery proAbortion of deformed fletuses vide assistance or any act which gram, the impact of the budget "compromises the ethical order leads to the suppression of the cuts on middle-income families of objective values and must be newborn disabled person repre- would be partially offset by the rejected by upright consciences," sents a breach not only of medi- proposed tax cuts and that the the Vatican statement said. "It cal ethics but also of the funda- net effect of the budget propois a form of behavior which, if mental and inalienable right to sals would be "a large financial it were applied at a different life. One cannot at whim dis- gain" for the wealthy." age, would be considered jgrave- pose of human life by claiming The letter urged House and ly anti-human." an arbitrary power over it . . . Senate members to oppose largeThe Holy See's statement The respect, the dedication, the scale budget cuts in six areas: urged a comprehensive approach time and means required for the - Food stamps. The letter to inte~rating the handicapped care of handicapped persons, maintained the program already into family, social, civil. and even of those whose mental fac- is targeted to the needy and said ulties are gravely affected, is the a $1.8 billion cut would force work life. It stressed that the "<llignity price that a. society should genthousands of families to go hungry. and worth" of every human perTum to Page Six
Statement raps 'pseudohumanism'
- Jobs. The letter called "unwise" the dismantling of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) program. It said early problems with CETA were largely corrected by a set of amendments passed in 1978. - Aid to Families with Dependent Children -(AFDC). Bene-
fit levels should be improved, not cut back, because they are already far too low in most states, the letter saId. It also warned that many families cut from AFDC also would be cut from Medicaid benefits. - Housing. Saying the supply Turn to Page Six
Bishops oppose 'living will' hill Speaking last Monday on behalf of the Catholic bishops of Massachusetts before the Joint Committee on the Judiciary, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas V. Daily of ·Boston strongly opposed a "living will" bill now before' the legislature of the commonwealth. "Let me make it clear," said the bishop, "that, in our stated opposition we do not qeustion the sense of compassion and concern which are present in the hearts of the proponents of this bill. We share with them their
distress over the excessive technologizing the dying process. We, too, recognize its all too frequent control by' professionals, rather than by the patient and his/her family. We also appreciate the fear of malpractice suits, which is of so much concern to physicians and hospital administrators. However, we are firmly convinced that these difficulties will not be solved by legislation which gives civil recTum to Page' Six
Mrs. Paul's 'miracle'
Fishes are multiplied . for hungry of Poland NiILADELPHIA (NC) --:- Hungry Poles will soon experience a modern miracle of benefaction - a multiplication of fishes - in the form of 40 million frozen fishcakes, 5 million more than the population of the country. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia is sending the fish, valued at approximately $9 million, to assist the needy of Poland, where floods .last summer curtailed the potato and wheat crops, including grain for livestock. The fishcakes, estimated at 9 million pounds, are part of a gift to the archdiocese from Mrs. Paul's Kitchens, a food processing company. Since May 1980 the company has continuously supplied the archdiocese wiith breaded and fried fjshcake pattie for distribution to the poor. In announcing the gift, Cardinal John Krol of Philadelphia said ·that the Polish government will transport" the food in refrigerated containers for distribution to the aged, the ill and children. The cardinal noted that the Catholic Church in Poland lacks transportation and distribution facilities. Cardinal Krol said a similar offer had ibeen made to Catholic Relief SerVices for victims of the fall 1980 Italilln earthquake. However, the fish could not be used in the quake IJrea, due to lack of refrigeration. . In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus fed 5,000 people miraculously by multiplying five loaves and two fishes.