Catholic Charities total at $1,318,294.56 The Appeal books will close on Friday, May 23 at I p.m. This coming weekend, said Msgr: Anthony M. Gomes, CCA director, every parish and special gift solicitor should make a last effort to canvass every potential donor. These reports should be made to special gift and parish headquarters on Monday.
Latest reports of Special Gift donations and parish contributions have brought the 1986 Catholic Charities Appeal total to $1,318, 294.56. Contributions from parishes, priests and special gift donors 'should be made in person to Appeal Headquarters from Wednesday, May 21 through Friday, May 23.
VOL. 30, NO. 20
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Friday, May 16, 1986
23 parishes have surpassed their 1985 final totals since last week's edition of The Anchor. These honor roll parishes are: St. Margaret, Buzzards Bay; St. Elizabeth Seton, No. Falmouth; O.L. Assumption, Osterville; St. John the Evangelist, Pocasset; St. Augustine, Vineyard Haven; . Our Lady of Lourdes, Wellfleet.
F ALL RIVER, MASS.
Espirito Santo, Our Lady of Angels, Our Lady of Health; St. Anthony of Padua, St. Louis, St. Patrick, Fall River. . St. John of God, Somerset; Our Lady of Fatima, Swansea; St. John the Baptist, Westport. St. Anne, St. Boniface, St. Hedwig, New Bedford; St. Francis Xavier, Acushnet; St. Mary, So. .partmouth..
Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
By Pat McGowan
Should you ever be called on to organize a convention, run, don't walk, for advice to the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women. After 33 years of experience, members are experts at fielding glitch-free meetings. Saturday's gathering at St. John of God parish center, Som~rset, was no exception. There 461 members, speakers, priests and guests moved smoothly through a day that began, after opening formalities, with a keynote address by National Counc"il of Catholic Women president Toni Bischoff, and an awards ceremony. Mass, with Bishop Daniel A. Cronin as principal' celebrant, closed the morning session and luncheon was followed by a brief program from the Bell Ringers' Choir of Fall River's First Baptist Church. The afternoon program featured six concurrent workshops: The Role of Woman as Church, presented by Kathy Barboza; Effects of Alcoholism on the Alcoholic's Family, Thomas Croke; Reasons for and Ways To Cope with Suicide-Compassionate Friends, Sandra and Michael Sousa; Bread for the World, Sheena Pappaladro, Sister Rosellen Gallogly, RS M, Mrs. Hilda Dagenais, Mrs. Gilbert Noonan. Also Organizational Development, Mary E. Sullivan; A ProLife Constitutional Amendment, Jeffrey Dongvillo. Toni Bischoff Speaking to the convention theme, "The Affiliate Woman: Love Gathers Us Together," Mrs. Bischoff, of Columbus, 0., mother of four and grandmother of eight,
AT DCCW CONVENTION, from left, Mrs. Aubrey Armstrong, DCCW president; Bishop Daniel A. Cronin; Mrs. D: Bruce Bischoff, NCCW president; Mrs. Michael J. McMahon, convention chairman. (Gaudette photo)
"You have so much power"
DCCW grassroots vital I
said that the grassroots members of DCCW are the ones "who will really make a difference to our church today." She cited as an example of positive influence the fact that after NCCW delegates complained that room televisions at a convention hotel carried a pornographic channel, the channel was removed from sets in the hotel chain nationwide. "You have so much power if you only realized it," Mrs. Bischoff told the audience.
She asked her hearer~ to "let the bishops know how you" feel about the forthcoming pastoral on women." A hearing on the pastoral, to be issued by the U.S. bishops and to deal with women's concerns, will be held next month in the Fall River diocese. Urging DCCW members to increase their ranks, the national president challenged them to "make this group three times bigger by the next time you meet." She told of a man seeking the Catholic church in a strange town.
Immaculate Conception, Taunton; St. Peter, Dighton; Holy Cross, So. Easton.. Page 2 of this issue of The Anchor lists leading parishes and parish totals. Beginning on page 13, a listing of Special Gifts and parish donations may be found. Listings will continue in future issues until all have been published.
Several people couldn't help l\im, but one finally said, "I know where it is, it's where they play bingo!" "If only the reply had been 'I know where it is, it's where they help the poor!'" said Mrs. Bischoff. In an interview preceding the convention, Mrs. Bischoff listed among NCCW goals outreach to young women, including the widowed, the separated and divorced. "We can't say that we older women know what's good for the younger ones," she said. "We must bring them in and See what they
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58 Per Year
want; and it may involve changing traditional ways of doing things." Mrs. Bischoff said that NCCW is offering a program for potential diocesan and parish leaders and ,that regional workshops will prepare women to return to their councils as trainers. Claudette Armstrong, Fall River DCCW president, said that women from this area will attend a July session in New Jersey and in turn will hold a diocesan training day in September. As national president, Mrs. Bischoff said she spends an average of one week a month at NCCW's Washington headquarters, where she noted that among parttime workers is Ruth Boardman, an alumna of the former Sacred Hearts Academy'in Fall River. The president has on several 'occasions represented the eightmillion member NCGW at White House briefings. She also travels to many diocesan conventions such as last Saturday's. "They're such an inspiration, I hardly need a plane to fly me home," she declared. Blonde and tanned, Mrs. Bischoff is involved with her husband Bruce in operation of a swimming pool facility. The couple also do much electronic timing of swim meets and are very proud of a daughter who at age 16 broke a man's record for swimming the English Channel that had stood for 13 years. Award Winners Following the keynote address, Bishop Cronin presented the Margaret M. Lahey Our Lady of Good Counsel Award to an outstanding DCCW member from each of the five council districts. This year's recipients were Lauretta Messier, Fall River District I; Turn to Page Twelve
Abortion suit seeks thousands of documents WASHINGTON (NC) - Thousands and potentially millions of church documents are at stake in . the subpoenas which led the nationalagenciesofthe U.S. Catholic bishops to be declared in contempt of a federal court May 8. "Every sermon, bulletin announcement, newspaper listing, meeting notice, etc., may be relevant ifit deals with 'abortion,"said the bishops'chieflegalcounsel, Wilfred R. Caron, in an affidavit to the court.
The subpoenas, originally drawn up in 1983, include a six-page listing of the kinds of documents that Abortion Rights Mobilization wants released to it in its six-year effort to force the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and U.S. Catholic Conference to lose their tax-exempt status as religious organizations. The two conferences received separate but identically worded subpoenas ordering them to let the abortion rights group review, among
other things, extensive internal documentation, including memorandums and any records of conversations or meetings relating to their pro-life activities since 1973. U.S. District Judge Robert Carter of New York ordered the NCCB and USCC in February to comply with the subpoenas by March 7. The organizations refused, and on May 8 the judge cited them for contempt. Caron's affidavit, filed -April 4
to protest the district court's order, In addition to thousands of pages called the subpoenas "invasive" of documents in the files of the and "intrusive." NCCB and USCC, the subpoenas The bishops' agencies feel "exseek names and current addresses treme discomfort at the prospect of present or former Catholic offiof allowing (Abortion Rights Mocials since 1974 in 16 state Catholic bilization) access to the internal conferences and 18 archdioceses deliberations of the principal poli- . or dioceses. cymakers of the church," Caron Caron said in his April 4 affiand other NCCB-USCC attorneys davit that the list would consist of added in a May 12 appeal to the at least 160 present or former 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Catholic officials, each a potential seeking a ~tay of the lower court's Turn to Page Six $1 OO,OOO-a-day fines for contempt.