FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR' SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSEnS CAPE COD & THE mSLANDS
t eanc 0 VOL. 26, NO.' 13
FALL RIVER, MASS.., FRIDAV, APRIL 2, 1982
20c, $6 Per Year
Christ is in agony till the end of the world.
Bishops join spring peace push
By Jerry Filteau NC News Service
Religious leaders are launching .new efforts to control or stop the nuclear race. Catholic bishops played a large role in a springtime peace of fensive aimed at changing minds and hearts - and eventually, the lea4ers hope, public policy on nuclear- weapons. - Cllrdinal John Krol of Philadelphia ~eynoted a mass rally afainst the arms race at Independence Mall in his city March 27, calling the nuclear buildup "an irrational and sui
cidal way" to maintain peace. The rally was one of dozens of interfaith meetings aro~nd the country at the end of March and beginning of April that featured 10 European religious leaders touring the United States to build up public opinion against nuclear weapons. - In New Jersey the state's 12 bishops issued a joint state ment March 24 saying the nu clear arms race is immoral both because it robs the poor and because it heightens the proba bility of nuclear holocaust. - In Maryland Auxiliary Bish
op P. Francis Murphy of Balti more, speaking on behalf of all the bishops serving the state, on March 25 urged the Maryland House of Delegates to pass a resolution calling for an im mediate U.S.-Soviet nuclear weapons freeze. - In the nation's capital Bish op Roger Mahony of Stockton, Calif., urged a congressional for um to back the nuclear weapons freeze, saying that U.S. and So viet arms buildups have long since "exceeded .the moral limits of deterrence." Cardinal Krol challenged the
view that disarmament rallies not a moral justification for un are "a fringe action of bright leashing massive destruction eyed visionaries who ignore against innocent non-combat ants." harsh current realities." He cited a list of Soviet mili The Philadelphia prelate con tary adventures since World War demned the use of nuclear weap II and characterized former So ons and the threat to use them viet Prime Minister Nikita and said that even their possess Khrushchev's remark, "We will . ion "cannot be justified in prin bury you," as still operative in ciple, but can be tolerated only Soviet policy. if the deterrent framework is used to make progress on arms But he also cited the destruc tion that would follow even a limitation, reduction and event medium-sized nuclear blast and ual elimination." "As religious leaders, we must said that in a realistic Judeo Christian moral view "the right resist the conquest of the world of legitimate self-defense ... is Turn to Page Ten