'.'
8
;rHE ANCHOR -
Diocese of Fall River -
Wanted: More lay saints
Fri., May 5, 1995
Priests plan how to serve Polonia in United States NEW YORK (CNS) - A national group of some 100 PolishAmerican priests meeting last week in New York, adopted a pastoral plan for Polonia in the United States to address ministering to a flock that has become increasingly scattered. Polonia refers to those of Polish ancestry living outside Poland. The plan OK'd by the Polish American Priests Association (P A PA), group that has 17 local and regional chapters, responds to the trend of Polish-Americans to move from Polish national parishes or territorial parishes of predominantly Polish membership, and of other groups to move路in., "In view of this changed situation, new pastoral structures or methods have to be developed," it says. The plan proposes ways of meeting the needs of those, including new immigrants from Poland, who speak' Polish, as well as of later generations of Polish-Americans in danger of losing their religious and cultural heritage. Polonia constitutes about 20 percent of American Catholics, but over 4,000 Polish priests now serving them are projected to de~line to 3,400 in 10 years. "I nterparochial cooperation will be necessary to serve the spiritual needs of such a scattered flock," says the PAPA plan. "If the number of Catholic Poles. in each parish of a region is small, thert services should be provided on 3' regiolJal,leyel, e,g.a mission church for Catholics, a center for the Polish apostolate, an occasional service in one of the parishes oft-he region." For new immigrants, ministry in the Polish language is "indispensable for the preservation of faith," the plan says. But for later generations, the faith can be expressed in a new language, it says. The plan forecasts that a future shortage of bilingual priests will become even more acute than a general shortage. To deal with this
problem, it proposes support of study of Polish by U.S. seminarians and recruitment of seminarians from Poland. The latter involves continuing support for SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Orchard Lake, Mich., where many of them are trained. The plan also includes a call for ecumenical work, with particular reference to dialogue with the Polish National Catholic Church and with Jews. The plan was presented in English, but will be translated into Polish, with printed versions to be distributed. The plan was the subject of an address by Philadelphia Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, who told PA PA members that developing a pastoral plan "for" Polonia was not sufficient, and they should also plan "with" their people. "If the people themselves are not intimately involved in the evaluation, the envisioning and the planning for the future, they will not be invested in the successful outcome of the venture," he said. He noted that the difficulty of min- ' istry among alf groups, including Polish-Americans, has increased because a 路'smo.rgasbord" culture has developed where people go "shopping for a religion." At a banquet, an award from Polish President Lech Walesa went to Auxiliary Bishop JohnW. Yanta of San Antonio, founder of the national PAPA in 1990. Msgr.'Edw'ard A. Fus, a retired Brooklyn priest, received PAPA's Father Leopold Moczygemba Award, named for the priest who in I854 established the first U.S. PolishAmerican parish, in the United States, Immaculate Conception in. Panna Maria, Texas. Bishop Yanta's great-grandparents were in that parish, and when he was consecrated as a bishop, he was given a crozier that includes wood from the Panna Maria tree under which the first parish Mass was celebrated on Christmas Day, 1854.
A SATURN FOR EARTH: Father Ed Eschweiler checks the batteries used to power his,l993 Saturn, converted into an electric car; The retired priest unveiled his environrnentfrie'ndly vehicle during an Earth Day observance in the Milwaukee.archdiocese. (eNS photo)
eNS photo
MEV PULEO
Photojournalist gets U.S. Catholic award CHICAGO (CNS) - Photojournalist Mev Puleo has been named winner of the 1995 U.S. Catholic Award for her work to "further the cause of women in the church." . Established in 1978, the award from editors of the national U.S. Catholic magazine honors individuals who confront problems in the church. Ms. Puleo has earned worldwide praise f~r what has been called groundbreaking photojournalism. Her images of and interviews with the world's. poor and . oppressed "vividly portray the life and faith of a people," according to an announcement of the award from U.S. Catholic, which is published by the Claretian Fathers and Brothers. She has brought her message to the pope, shaking hands with him at the 1993 World Youth Day and appealing to him"to "Iisten,to the .poor oCHaiti;' near 'the -cry' of women." Women deserve to be heard, says Ms. Puleo, because such recognition is the foundation of Catholicism. "If we really believe in the Incarnation, then Christ is alive in every human being." Her photos and interviews with a diverse spectrum ofBraziI's poor and those who work with them appear in her book, "The Struggle is One: Voices and Visions of liberation," published in 1994 by State University of New York Press. Her portraits of the poor also accompany text by Jesuit Father John Kavanaugh. in a 1991 Orbis book called "Faces of Poverty, Faces of Christ." "I have long wrestled with the invasive nature of photographing people '" and violating the people I seek to serve," said Ms. Puleo in a statement. "These images are the vehicles to help amplify the muted voices of the marginalized." She is also a writer and doctoral student in theology and the arts at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif. People need not look as far away as Brazil to see division and strife, she contends, warning North Americans that oppression "may wear .the mask of alcoholism, cutthroat competition or an inner emptiness in the midst of material' abundance." She says all society must fight against the racism "that reaches from the streets of Washington, D.C., to the slums of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. .: "We start at different points, but we arrive together. And we are sure to arrive sooner if we walk in solidarity - rich and poor, woman and man, indigenous and white and black, Brazilian and North.' American." .
VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Notwithstanding the beatification of II religious in a six-week period last fall, Pope John Paul II and Vatican officials remain committed to seeking out married and other lay saints. In his apostolic letter on preparing for the year 2000, the pope said the church would be updating and adding to its list of saints and martyrs in time for the jubilee. . Not that Pope John Paul wasn't doing so already. As of November, he had beatified 606 people during his 16-year pontificate and proclaimed 268 new saints. But something's missing, he'said in his letter on the coming third millennium. "There is a need to foster the recognition of the heroic virtues of men and women who have lived their Christian vocation in marriage," he wrote. Celebrating the 1994 International Year of the Family,' the pope did beatify two women who were wives and mothers, along with an unmarried lay catechist martyred for his faith. The two women beatified last April included a pediatrician who died rather than have an operation which would have caused the death of the child she was carrying. The other was an Italian woman cited for keeping her family together despite being abandoned by her husband. The other II beatifications in 1994 all involved priests or religious, who have well-organized groups documenting their lives and promoting their causes at the Vatican. In his "Letter to Families" a year ago, Pope John Paul wrote about the heroic holiness of many married couples, "even'if they are not well known or have not been proclaimed saints by the church." In the letter for the International Year of the Family' and throughout 1994 the pope spoke about the family as the "seed bed" of holiness, the place where people learn about God, about prayer and about self-giving in service to others. During beatification and canonization ceremonies, he rarely fails to cite the early family life of the religious men and women he,raises to the honors of the altar.
children, who are now in their 80s, are active in promoting their par-" ents' cause. Cardinal Angelo Felici, pTi~fect of the Congregation for Sainthood Causes, asked the world Synod of Bishops in October to think about how married couples live virtues which correspond to the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience taken by religious. Once that is clear, he said, everyone in the church would recognize more married couples as potential saints and more :local churches would promote their causes. The cardinal told members of the synod, which was discu:ising consecrated life, that, of 194 position papers for beatification and canonization causes ready for examination at the Vatican, almost 70 percent involve members of religious orders and institutes. Many of the others are the C~Luses of diocesan priests and bishops. , Cardinal Felici conceded that part of the reason so many religious move so quickly through the process is that they have communities promoting their causes. But, he said, one must also remember that "religious orders are institutes for perfection. It is natural that perfection is achieved more easily in them than in other states of life." Pope John Paul, who had directed the congregation to devote more attention to lay and married potential saints, did not seem completely swayed by Cardinal FeIici's argument when he wrote his letter on preparing for the third millennium. "Precisely because we are convinced of the abundant fruits of holiness in the married state, we need to find the most appropriate means for discerning them and proposing them to the whole church as a model and encouragemen.t for other Christian spouses," the pope wrote.
Influencing China HONG KONG (CNS) - The top Vatican official for Catholic education said the church can influence universities in mainland China, even if Catholic universities cannot be established there. Cardinal Pio Laghi, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, was speaking on the ro:,e of Catholic universities in the church and in society at Fu Jen Catholic University in Hsinchuang, near Taipei, during a four-day visit to Taiwan. The cardinal made the statement in feply to a priest who asked if the Vatican would establish Catholic universities in rnainhind China.
"God can raise up saints even in the most difficult circumstances," he said, "but experience shows that the family is ordinarily the nursery of holiness." One sainthood cause, still in the early stages, involves Louis and Marie Azelie ,Guerin Martin, the parents of St. Therese of the Child Jesus. Another couple, Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi, were recognized in February 1994 as serCHICAGO (CNS) - The end vants of God, the first step in the of a to-day sit-in by DePaul Unilong process leading to beatifica- versity students protesting what tion and canonization. they considered to be racist coverThe husband was an Italian civil age in the student newspaper will servant, a church activist and pro- not end the dialogue on racial and moter of social welfare, who even- multicultural issues at the Vintually became the country's assist- centian-run university, according ant attorney general. He died in to its president. "We will con6nue 1951. , to address them at another It:vel, When Mrs. Beltame Quattroc- one that promotes' the free, exchi was pregnant with their fourth, change of ideas," Vincentian. Fachild, doctors told her that she ther John P. Minogue said in a would die unless she abort~d the statement. The protest erupted baby. The couple decided they over a front-page article in the couldn't do that; a daughter was school newspaper, the DePaulia, born in 1914 and Mrs. Beltrame about a fight ,at a campus dance Quattrocchi lived another 5 ~ years. sponsored by. a predominantly All four children became priests . African-American student organior religious. The three surviving zation.
Dialogue to contin.ue