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VOL. 43, NO. 16 • Friday, April 16, 1999
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FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COO & THE ISLANDS
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FALL RIVER, MASS.
Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly • $14 Per Year
Social justice speakers urge Catholics to take the lead ~
That parishioners are key to wonderful theological basis for social justice teaching of the Church. We are a community serving all the people in need in traditions of jubilee years such as the one of faith, called to preach the Gospel, chose earmarked for the upcoming new millennium. life, to serve the least of among us and to around them is the He said the release of slaves and prisoners, build the Kingdom of God." message of The message is not centered in any ena return of ancestral lands and a spirit of recent conference. changing unjust structures in society cyclical or bishop's document but is in Jesus' By JAMES N. DUNBAR
NEW BEDFORD- Hoping to spark renewed efforts in the social justice ministry, a daylong conference, "Lighting A Holy Fire," drew nearly 150 people to hear nationally renowned speakers at a conference on service and social justice and participate in workshops last Saturday. The
JOHN
L. CARR
event was co-sponsored by Catholic Social Services and Saint Anne's Hospital. Bishop Sean P. O'Malley, who greeted the gathering at Days Inn, said there is a
have always been part of such celebrations. "They are strong reminders that we are stewards of creation." Keynote speakers were John L. Carr, secretary of the Department of Social Development and World Peace of the United States Catholic Conference, and Auxiliary Bishop Joseph M. Sullivan of the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y., who is vicar for Human Services. Bishop Sul1ivan is a former professional baseball player in the Philadelphia Phillies farm system. Carr made it clear that the social justice mission is not just for the bishops or set at the level of the hierarchy of the Church. "It is not just for a few, but is at the roots of the parish and is the responsibility of everyone. What brings us together is not some political program or ideological agenda, but the Word of God in the
in need and parish is the key because it is where the Church and its mission lives, and where the people of God reach out to those in need." also issued the reminder He ~"'" that we are stewards of t. \ creation, of everyone I"~ " - , around us and that the , world is ever changing. "Most of our world problems cannot be solved by politics or technology... bu.t by the
own words when commenting on the prophet Isaiah in St. Luke's Gospel: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me ... to bring good news to the poor, liberty to captives, new sight to the blind and to set the downtrodden free." Those words hit us hard when we realize that a quarter of America's preschoolers are growing up poor, said Carr, and in a world where 35,000 children each day die of hunger and its consequences. "And how about communities where so many sisters and brothers are enslaved by discrimination, dependency or addiction; where materialism and the thirst for power and pressure can blind us to the dignity of the people around us? And how can we set them free when joblessness and self-destructive behavior rule whole neighborhoods?" "These questions are for every parishioner, and it is time we recommit to this old mission," Carr asserted. "Our social AUXILIARY BISHOP JOSEPH M. SULLIVAN justice heritage is integral to our faith as Catholics. These social parish and by our life at home, creating a dimensions of our faith are not optional. They greater sense of justice." Bishop Sullivan urged Catholics to take are an essential part of what it is to be CathoTum to page 13 - Justice lic. We have to be Jesus reaching out to those
Brazda: Dante's 'Inferno' with angels of mercy By JOHNTHAVIS CATHOUC NEWS SERVICE
BRAZDA, Macedonia - On the edge of a sprawling refugee camp in northern Macedonia, things were coming unraveled. A man suffering from Down syndrome was trying to figure out how to put on a disposable diaper before it was too late. Beside him, an emotionally disturbed boy rolled in the dirt. In the tent next door, six elderly men and women lay on mattresses and called out in faint voices for help. In front of them, a schizophrenic man suddenly moved into a performance of strange poses and gestures.
Pro-Life Reminder The Fall River Diocese's Pro-Life Convention set for Saturday, April 24 at Bishop Connolly High School, Fall River, will host Helen M. Alvare, a director in the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities at the National Council of Catholic Bishops, as keynote speaker. The theme of the convocation, which opens at 8:30 a.m., is: ''To Reverence and Honor the Dignity of Human Life," For more information call the Pro-Life Apostolate in Dartmouth at 9972290.
Then a four-year-old boy appeared, crying and bedraggled, separated from his family. Nearby, a woman wandered aimlessly, asking about her missing daughters. This single small patch of the Brazda refugee camp, where some 20,000 Kosovars landed in early April, looked like something out of Dante's "Inferno," Except that there were angels of mercy, too. Within minutes, the Down syndrome man, diaper in place, and the disturbed boy were sitting calmly, being spoon-fed by a young Kosovar volunteer, Albjona Blakaj. Another volunteer, Ilir Latifi, spoke to the bedridden elderly, one by one, and made sure someone brought a carton of milk or carried them to the bathroom. And thanks to a "lost-child" messenger, an excited woman from Kosovo soon approached the area and was reunited with her lost little boy. She smiled and cried and hugged him; he burst into tears. These emotional payoffs are few and far between in Brazda, a tent city that sprang up overnight after more than 100,000 ethnic Albanian refugees poured down the valley from Pristina, capital of Kosovo, and crossed over into Macedonia, a country that has its own ethnic tensions and is leery of gaining more. NATO set up the Brazda camp to help absorb a massive refugee population trapped near the border without food,
water or proper hygiene. The camp has functioned well, but in mid-April, NATO troops will leave Brazda, turning over security to Macedonian police and management of the facility to Catholic Relief Services. As CRS coordinated macro-issues like food distribution, Tum to page 13 - Brazda
WHITE TENTS dot the landscape over the Brazda refugee camp in Macedonia. (CNS photo from Reuters)