FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS VOL. 36, NO. 12
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Friday, March 20, 1992
F ALL RIVER, MASS.
Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
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When nun died in Canada, there was grief in Haiti After Sister Bertha Richard, 78, died Feb. 19 in Ville Saint-Laurent, Quebec, Canada, natives in the small village of Le Borgne, Haiti, went into deep mourning, conducting traditional rituals to express their grief at the passing of the Holy Cross Sister who had cared for their health needs for 19 years. Her Mass of Christian Burial, offered Feb. 21 in Ville SaintLaurent, was attended by four' Holy Cross priests and several sisters who served with her in Le Borgne, where she was stationed from 1954 to 1960 and again from 1967 to 1980, and where she operated a dispensary and an infirmary and was professor of anatomy at a nearby school. She was also in Haiti from 1961 to 1964, at that time directing a hospital in Port-au-Prince, the nation's capital city. A native of St. Anthony parish, New Bedford, Sister Richard was the daughter of the late Euclide and Lydia (Pothier) Richard. She was professed as a Holy Cross Sister in 1934, at that time taking the name of Sister Mary Dolorosa, and thereafter pursued adv.anced studies in Springfield and graduated from the nursing school of Hotel Dieu, Montreal, Quebec.
After service at the Holy Cross motherhouse in Mont-Laurier, Quebec, she began her many years of service in Haiti, returning to the United States and Canada from 1960 to 1961 to speak on her missionary work and from 1964 to 1967 to direct community services at the motherhouse. In 1980 she returned from Haiti to the motherhouse to work with infirm members of her community and in 1986 retired. In a 1961 interview with the Anchor, she described her work with infants in Le. Borgne. "It is pitiful," she said, "to behold the emaciated little bodies, the halfopened eyes, the burning brows. To save these little victims oftetanus, tuberculosis, and malignant fever, the sister-nurse must often assume great responsibilities those of the dentist or doctor who is so far away. With God's help, she works wonders." When she first arrived in the village, said Sister Richard, it was commonplace for an .attendant delivering a newborn to snatch up a piece of glass, a stone from the ground or a dirty knife to cut the baby's cord. As a result, the infants Turn to Page II
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Charles Rozak Appeal chairman Charles T. Rozak, a past president of the Diocesan Council of the St. Vincent de Paul Society,
It's hard to be a saintly spouse - and as for coping with teens! With Catholic News Service reports "Dear Pope: You've noticed! . No canonized married couples! Let us tell you, it's a lot tougher to be a saintly spouse than a saintly single and when it comes to being a holy mom or pop, especially during the terrible twos and even more especially during the far more . terrible teens - pu-Ieeze!" It's a note a lot of married couples might have felt like sending Pope John Paul II, who recently complained that he was eager to canonize a husband and wife but couldn't find any candidates;' ~he Vatican's saint-making pipeline. The pope said the Vatican generally deals with lives of nuns, priests and members of religious orders when reviewing sainthood causes, because these candidates have organizational support. "We should review all this," he said. "Let's look for lay couples, because as things stand today, they don't generally find this support in society, in the Christian community, in dioceses or in parishes." The pope's impromptu remarks came during an annual meeting with Roman clergy, during which a pastor asked him to consider a married couple for canonization, saying today's Catholics need con-
crete examples of holiness that are close to their own lives. The pope replied that this was . his own "great desire," but that founders, members of religious orders and to a lesser extent diocesan clergy, have church groups ready to promote their causes. But lay people usually do not come to the Vatican's attention', he said. An American case in point is that of Dorothy Day, a cofounder of the Catholic Worker movement, whose canonization is being pushed by the Claretian Missionaries. Even with their support, however, there seems little progress in her cause. The pope recalled that the Vatican had difficulty finding lay candidates to beatify during the 1987 world .Synod of Bishops on the laity. He said that only "at the last minute" did the congregation forward the causes of two virgin martyrs and a concentration-camp victim, the latter obviously not an average mom or dad. . At one time, the pontiff said, the church was considering the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux, but 'for reasons unstated their cause has not moved ahead quickly. The pope said the Congregation for Sainthood Causes handles current cases well, but that "the system should be considered by the
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"HE'S A REGULAR FELLOW," said Brendan Connelly of Pope John Paul II. Connelly, a Massachusetts Maritime Academy cadet, took this picture at a February papal audience attended by cadets on a training cruise from their Buzzards Bay home port to Italy, Spain and Portugal. They were accompanied by chaplain Msgr. Norman J. Ferris, pastor of St. Anthony of the Desert Maronite Catholic Church, Fall River. (Photo courtesy of Maureen Gonnelly)
people of God" to see whether changes are needed. One obvious difficulty is that it costs lots of money to get canonized. There are possibly hundreds of people to interview, trips to Rome to plead the cause of the potential saint or saints, since we're talking two here, medical inquiries, if miraculous cures enter the picture, and plain old organizational skills needed to get the sainthood ball rolling. Religious communities are well positioned for much of this activity, whereas a mom and pop would probably have to depend on hopelessly disorganized friends and relatives without a clue on how to get, by this time, Grandma and Grandpa past the front door ofthe Congregation for Sainthood Causes. (Yes, it would undoubtedly take that long for those previously terrible teens to become parents and appreciate their own parents' incredible sanctity.) "So, Holy Father," our hypothetical note might conclude, "considering the number of children who survive their teens without having their necks wrung by their pushed-to-the-wall parents, the problem might really be that if every mom and dad deserving sainthood were actually canonized, your Congregation would be working 24 hours a day."
has been named lay chairperson for the 1992 diocesan Catholic Charities Appeal. He is a member of St. Theresa's parish, South Attleboro. Hisappointment was announced by Rev. Daniel L. Freitas, diocesan director of the Appeal. Rozak, a native of Woonsocket, R. \., graduated from Central Falls High School. He holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Rhode Island and is a retired employee of the U.S . Treasury Department.
He is presently treasurer of the northeast region of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. The region includes the New England states and New York state. Rozak is married to the former Annette T. Corriveau, a native of Central Falls, R.t. They are the parents of three children, Charles, a hospital administrator: Steven, a physician: and Kimberly, an attorney practicing in Boston. They also have three grandchil~ren. Turn to Page Two.
CHARLES ROZAK