t eanc 0 VOL. 32, NO. 1ge
Friday, May 6, 1988
FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
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In Mary's month, she is honored at the Holy Union provincialate, St. Mary's Cathedral and Dominican Academy, all in Fall River.
Pope asks "Gospel of work" in native Poland
Mother combines Scripture study, child-raising HATTIESBURG, Miss. (NC) - On Sunday, Patricia Sanchez, mother of 6-year-old Paul, 5-yearold Rafael, 3-year-old Madalena and l-year-old Patrick, will be celebrating Mother's Day. But she may also find time to work on her Scripture commentaries and homily suggestions for Celebration magazine. On other days of the year she squeezes them in between dinner preparations, chasing kids and changing diapers. ' Mrs. Sanchez, who has taught Scripture as far away as Uganda, said writing at home allows her to be with her children. When she does take time away, it is often to deliver keynote addresses at major liturgical conferences across the country. In an interview with the Gulf Pine Catholic, newspaper of the diocese of Biloxi, where Hattiesburg is located, Mrs. Sanchez said she has written homily suggestions since 1979 and commentaries since 1983. Celebration, issued.monthly by the National Catholic Reporter Publishing Co., has an estimated 100,000 readers who use its homily, Scripture and music resources to enhance Sunday liturgies. "Scripture really speaks to us today because it is the living word of a living, personal and caring God," said Mrs. Sanchez. But she also offered a caution about the approach of Catholics whose interest in the Bible may be relatively new. "Even though Scripture speaks to us today, it is -necessary to approach that work intelligently, with faith, yes, but also with the benefits of biblical scholarship," she said. Her own interest in biblical studies, she said, came in 1969 after
she received bachelor's degrees in philosophy and science from Old Dominion University in Norfolk. ' VATICAN CITY (NC) - Pope VA, and while she was teaching John Paul II has expressed concern about the spreading labor science in the New York borough of Queens. unrest in his native Poland, saying The daughter of an Air Force ! workers and the communist aucareer family, she was always active,:, thorities should seek a Gospelas a child in parish life wherever based resolution to their differthey lived, she said, but an intense ences. "Labor in Poland should be for interest in Scripture was inspired by lectures given by a Dutch priest. man and should help him advance In 1973, she earned ajoint mas-! in every sense. Looking at the ter's degree in divinity and literasituation of the 1l1st few days, I ture and in Scripture from New I' recall thoughts about work and York's Columbia V niversity and the responsibility of work, a 'rethe Vnion Theological Seminary. I sponsibility that belongs to the "Understanding the Bible's beauwhole nation and to its authority and meaning and the authors': ties," the pope told a group of Pointentions opened up a whole new, lish pilgrims May I. world for me," she said. "I pray with the whole church that the Gospel of work may be At Union, she said, she was also influenced by Scripture scholar understood and put into practice, because this is the way of salvaSUlpician Father Raymond Brown. She worked in adult catechesis tion" and "the way to resolve social problems," he said. The remarks, in the diocese of Rockville Centre, N. Y., until 1975, when she went to, made during a Mass in the pope's V ganda as a professor of Old Tesprivate chapel, were reported by tament at a national college. Vatican Radio May 2. There she met her husband, Raf- J It was the pope's first direct ael Sanchez, now a professor of; comment on strikes that began in foreign languages at the Univer- '~ Polish steel mills and later spread sity of Southern Mississippi. In the Biloxi diocese, Mrs. San- 1 chez has been a parish director Of'I,
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religious education president of a diocesan forum and of such direc- " ,'.",' tors. She is director of adult catechesis for her parish, Sacred Heart, and at another Hattiesburg parish which serves the city's college community. "There's nothing I'd rather do than teach Scripture," she said. "It's my way of helping people. It's my job, but also my way of serving. And there's a great deal of personal satisfaction in teaching others to truly understand God's word."
to Baltic shipyards. The unrest represented the most serious challenge to the government's labor policies since the independent trade union Solidarity was outlawed in 1981. More than 12,000 steel workers in Nowa Huta, just outside the pope's former archdiocesan See of Krakow, went on strike in late April, seeking pay increases. The thousands of striking northern shipyard workers asked for higher pay, the legalization of Solidarity and the return of fired union activists. The government was attempting to head off other strikes around the country by promising higher wages. It has said it will not consider legalizing Solidarity. Some ofthe striking steel workers said they had written to the pope, explaining that their struggle "for an honest salary" was based on papal teachings of the dignity of man and work. Archbishop Bronislaw Dabrowski, an official of the Polish bishops' conference, sai,d May 1 that the
strike was a matter of "the cost of living." The steelworkers were asking for a 50 percent pay raise on average monthly salaries of about $105. An informed Vatican source said the pope's words on May I, the feast ofSt. Joseph the Worker, left it up to Poland's bishops to make a more specific appraisal of the current strikes. The source said the pope's view on Poland's labor situation was well known, and that there was no need for him to speak more directly about the issues at this moment. Lech Walesa, founder of Solidarity, who has in the past had many contacts with the pope, told workers at the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk, where he took charge of the 1980 workers' revolt and where he is stilI employed as an electrician, that he would not playa leading role in the current strikes. "I'm tired," said Walesa, 44. University students in several Polish cities have struck in sympathy with the workers.
CCA at $822,546
First returns from parishes and Special Gift solicitors show a total of $822,546. 16 al ready collected in the 1988 Catholic Charities Appeal. Special Gift solicitors are asked to make final returns by tomorrow. Parish volunteers will continue to call on parishioners not contacted last Sunday. The parish phase of the Appeal will
close May II but Appeal books will remain open until I p.m. May 20 for final donations. Parishes surpassing 1987 final Appeal totals will be enrolled on the 1988 parish honor roll. Last year 102 parishes were listed and Msgr. Anthony M. Gomes, diocesan Appeal director, said of this year's campaign: "We are anticipating that every parish - 112 - will be on this
year's honor roll. We must have substantial increases in every parish to surpass last year's total of $ I,859,900.21." Leading parishes, parish totals, special gift listings and names of parish donors appear on pages 2 and 12 of this issue of The Anchor. Listings will continue to appear weekly in the order received by the printer until ~ll have been recorded.