FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
VOL. 29, NO. 12
fALL RIVER, MASS., FRIDAY i MARet:' 22, 1985
$8 Per Year
Bishops wage
anti-MX war
WASHINGTON (NC) - Des pite Senate approval on March 19 of construction of 21 more MX missiles, the U.S. Catholic bishops will continue their cam paign against -the long-range, nUcleaNll'lllcd weapons. Last Sunday, in a triple attack on the Reagan-backed MX sys tem, Bishop James W. Malone, president of the U.S. Catholic Conference, asked all members of Congress to vote against it. Simultaneously, IChicago Car dinal Joseph L. Bernardin and New York Archbishop John J. O'Connor called for "nay" votes on the MX. Over the past two years the USCC has raised sharp questions. about the MX, :but the new ac tions marked the first time that the bishops' national organiza tion came out in direct, complete opposition to any further fund ing of the multi-billion-dollar system. "The USCC's opposition," Bishop Malone wrote,. "is based on two cOMiderations: the po
tentially destabilizing impact of this weapons system on the nu clear arms race ·and its cost, viewed in light of pressing hu man needs here and elsewhere in the world." Bishop Malone said the funds that would go to the MX should be used instead for food, shelter and health care at home and to meet the "still more desperate" needs of those suffering starva tion and "grinding poverty" abroad. Bishop Malone reminded mem bers of Congress that concerns about the MX were raised in the U.S. bishops' 1983 pastoral letter on war and peace and again last June in joint congres sional testimony on defense is sues by Archbishop O'Connor and Cardinal Bernardin, speJ\king for the USCC. "Our concerns about the MX have intensified since the pas toral letter was written," Bishop Malone wrote. Citing the joint congressional testimony of last Turn to Page Seven
In Iran-Iraq war
Negotiated peace
urged by pope
By Agostino Bono VATICAN CITY ~NC) - Pope John Paul II has asked for a negotiated solution to the Iran Iraq war and has criticized both sides for attacking civHian centers. He also asked for an end to the "internal divisions and dis cords" in Lebanon which have caused civili'an casualties. The papal appeal came at a time when the Arab League has been trying to muster interna tional support for its effort to get both countries to negotiate peace, putting an end to the fourJand-a-half-year-old war. A key issue in the fighting be tween the neighboring countries is rival territorial claims in the Shatt a! Arab waterway, Iraq's only outlet to the Persian Gulf. A 1975 agreement between the two countries established their
. 'border at midstream. Iraq wants a revision granting it sover eignty over the entire waterway. The population in both coun tries is predominantly ShHte Mos lem, but the nations are split by traditional rivalries between Iraq's Arab culture and Iran's Persian culture. The pope spoke at'a time when militia of the Lebanese Forces, a Christian-led political coalition, were fighting Lebanese troops to show opposition to what organ ization leaders say is the pro Syrian policy of Lebanese Presi dent Amin Gemayel. Syrian troops occupy portions of northern and eastern leban on. The papal speech also came during the Israeli troop with drawal from soU'thern Lebanon which has sparked fighting be tween Israeli soldiers and armed Lebanese groups.
NC Photo
YOUNG CATHOUCS are marrying later, having fewer children.
Catholics IDurrying later
NOTR£ DAME, Ind. (NC) - Catholics form "a dispro portionate number of the young singles in America," says a new report by the Notre Dame Study of Catholic Par ish Life. In a reversal of traditional images, young adult Cath olics are now marrying later and having fewer children than their Protestant counter parts, the report added. The report, issued in Feb ruary, was the second in a bimonthly series aimed at giv ing 'an in-depth picture of Catholic parish Ufe. "While 41 percent of Pro testants under aEe 30 have not yet married, 57 percent of
Catholics under age 30 have not yet married," it said. Among all Catholic adults, it said, legally single persons are "somewhere between 31 percent and 44 percent, de pending on whether divorced persons have remarried." The report called effective ministry for singles one of '!the most crucial problems American parishes face in the 1980s." Looking at patterns of fam ily size, it said that if. His panics are excluded, the rest of Catholics who have ever married 'average 2.44 child .ren, compared with 2.40 children 'for the average Pro
testant who has ever mar ried. Within thosc general num bers there are cycles, how ever. The report sa'id that Catholics who are now in .their 70s or 80s had more children than their Protestant counterparts, while "Protes tants in their 60s had some what more children than Catholics." Among people now in their 50s or 40s, Catholics "had considerably larger families than Protestants," the study said, but among people now in their 20s and 30s, Catholics have fE!wer children than Pro testants. Turn to Page Six