VOL. 36, NO. 18
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Friday, May 1, 1992
F ALL RIVER, MASS.
Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
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$11 Per Year
Penna. abortion case seen political issue
STONEHILL SYMPOSIUM participants included, from left. Msgr. Henry T. Munroe, Administrator of the Fall River diocese; David Mulligan, Massachusetts Commissioner of Public Health; Deborah Prothrow-Stith, M.D., Harvard School of Public Health; Rev. Robert J. Kruse, e.S.e., executive vice president, Stonehill College; Most Rev. Emerson Moore, Auxiliary Bishop of New York; John Ahearn, associate director, Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination; Arthur Lomba, Foreign Language Department, Eastern Nazarene College; Sister Patricia Keaveney, S.N.D., principal, Cathedra] High School, Boston. (Bauman photo)
WASHINGTON (CNS) - Attorneys for two pro-life organizations said oral arguments before the Supreme Court April 22 reflected efforts to make Pennsylvania's abortion case into a political issue. The court heard arguments in Planned Parenthood vs. Casey, which pits the family planning and abortion provider against the state of Pennsylvania in a debate over whether any local regulati'on of abortion is constitutional. Burke Balch, state legislative director for the National Right to ! Life Committee, said he was particularly struck by the "absolutism" of the argument presented by Kathryn Kolbert, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who represented Planned Parenthood. Ms. Kolbert insisted that the court base its ruling on the 1973 Roe decision legalizing abortion. ': "She kept insisting on an all-ornothing position," Balch said. The argument was purely politi,", cal strategy, according to Balch ., .. .. if . : 1\ '.':~
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"DCCW meets in Hyannis By Pat McGowan
Healy A ward to Father Oliveira By Pat McGowan At a 'recent symposium on Racism and the Church. held at Stonehill College. North Easton. Rev. John J. Oliveira became the first recipient of the Bishop James A. Healy Award for distinguished service in promoting a more fraternal society. Father Oliveira. parochial vicar at St. Anthony of Padua parish. Fall River. and a member of the ministry team at Charlton Memorial Hospital. Fall River. has for years worked with the diocesan Portuguese community and has been an advocate of multiculturalism. The Healy Award, 'presented jointly by Stonehill and the Fall River diocese, memorializes the first bishop of Negro blood to be consecrated in the United States. The prelate, son of an Irish immigrant plantation owner and a black slave, was born in Georgia in 1830. In 1875 he was named the second bishop of Portland, Maine. In a diocesan schools contest held in connection with the workshop. $75 bonds for an essay and a poster on the theme "Towards Establishing a More Fraternal Society" went to essayist Jessica Torres of Bishop Stang High School, North Dartmouth, and artist Kelly Boiros. a fifth grader at St. Mary Primary School. Taunton. The Stonehill workshop participants discussed ways of eliminating racism in the church and in
church schools. Speakers included panelists New York Auxiliary Bishop Emerson J. Moore and Deborah Prothrow-Stith. MD. of the Harvard School of Public Health. They agreed that the church offers advantages in combating racism. especially since it can approach the problem from the religious point of view. Small group workshops dealt with employment and affirmative action; health care and racism; racial diversity' in Southeastern Massachusetts; and racism in education. At the latter, black and Cambodian students, both from Cathedral High School, Boston,
discussed racial harassment they had experienced. Both. however. said they feel affirmed in their school community. Father Oliveira Father Oliveira dates his involvement with multiculturalism from his seminary days. Although a grandson of immigrants on both sides of his family, he said he grew up in a climate more interested in assimilation of newcomers into the American mainstream than in preservation of their cultural heritage. As a child. he spoke Portu-
and Helen Alvare, spokeswoman for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities. Balch and Ms. Alvare, both attorneys, attended the Supreme Court session. "More than anything, it was an attempt by the ACLU to put before the American people their political agenda," Ms. Alvare said of Ms. Kolbert's emphasis on Roe. "That strategy was far less a legal one than it was a political one," she added. Balch saw the discussion as an attempt to cast the Pennsylvania case as "all or nothing," making it seem that any reduction of the legal rights drawn from Roe would constitute outlawing every abortion. "If they're pulled into debating the specifics of the [Pennsylvania] law, they will lose," Balch said. Pennsylvania's 1988 and 1989 law mandates a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion may be Turn to Page 13
Last Saturday was grey and chilly but within St. Francis Xavier parish center in Hyannis the mood was sunny and spirits were high as nearly 200 members. guests and chaplains of the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women gathered for their annual convention with Cape and Islands District members as hostesses. Keynote speaker Roberta Par,; adise. coordinator o~ youth mi?is~'I try at O~r Lady of Victory pansh. -: ~entervIlle ..drew on her own exper¥]Iences to Illustrate her theme. I, "Recognizing the Moments of Joy ~! throughout Life."
She told of a little boy who kept singing the Easter alleluia. He was too young to understand its meaning but explained to his parents "I like the way it feels in my mouth." She related thejoy of "laughing again" after her husband had come successfully through life-threatening surgery and emphasized the importance of having family members or longtime friends who can share memories and stories. As a youth minister she also stressed the importance of young people in today's church: and closed with a story affirming the significance of her audience. Turn to Page 13
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guese phonetically. but as a semi-Ili._. narian began formal study of the ~, language. .~ Ordained in 1977. he has always Ii served in Portuguese parishes. ii' affording him the opportunity to I. meet new immigrants and learn I: firsthand of their problems. i Over the years, he has become ' involved in the Portuguese Health I:; Care Committee at St. Anne's Hos- ;~ pitat. Fall River, a group now also reaching out to Cambodians and other ethnic minorities. Additionally. he is a trustee of the Fall River public library. another institution eager to serve all sectors of the community; and is Portuguese Apostolate representative for Massachusetts and Rhode Island to the Office of Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees of the Migrant' and Refugee Services of the U.S. Catholic Conference. In short. he deserves the Bishop Healy Award. ,.;1,
FATHER OLIVEIRA
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THE 1992 winners of the DCCW Margaret Lahey/Our Lady of Good Counsel Award, from left, Mary Ponte, Fall River District I; Mary Vieira, Taunton District III; Mary Pestana, Attleboro District IV; Joanne Baker, Cape and Islands District V. Not present: Anita Turner, New Bedford District II. (Lavoie photo) I
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