FAll RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
t eanc 0 fAll RIVER, MASS., FRIDAY, MAY 25, 1984
VOl. 28, NO. 21
$8 Per Yeo'r
Appeal total now at $1,380,584.20
The Catholic Charities Appeal total now stands at $1,380,584.20, with many parish returns, priests' donations and special gifts yet to be reported. Msgr. Anthony M. Gomes, dio cesan appeal director, said that such donations must 'reach Ap peal headquarters in Fall River by today for inclusion in this year's total. "These reports should be made in person to insure credit," he
said. "The final total of the 1984 St. Mary, M~nsfield; Mt. Carmel, Appeal will be published in next Seekonk; St. Mary, Seekonk; St. week's Anchor. I hope that every Mary, No. A'ttIeboro. one of our 113 parishes will be St. Margaret, Buzzards Bay; 'over the top' today." .Our Lady of Victory, CenterviHe; Holy Redeemer, Chatham. Honor Roll St. Elizabeth, Edgartown; Sa 75 parishes have thus far sur passed their 1983 final tota'1s. cred Heart, Oak Bluffs; Assump tion, Osterville; St. John, Po The following parishes were add ed to the Honor Roll since last casset. St. Peter, ,Provincetown; St. week's Anchor report. Pius X,' So. Yarmouth; Holy Holy Ghost, St. John, Attle boro; St. Mark, Attleboro Fans; Trinity, West Harwich; St. Jo
seph, Woods Hole. Espirito Santo, Holy Name, Our Lady of Health, Immaculate Conception, Sacred Heart, St. Anne, St. Peter & Paul, St. Stan islaus, Fall River. St. Bernard, Assonet; Our Lady of Grace, Westport; St. John of God, St. Thomas More, Somerset. Our Lady of Fatima, S1. Louis de France, St. Michael, Swan sea.
New bishop "
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Bishop Kaniecki prepares to leave foil' work.
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bush pilot
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (NC) to fly into the bush to supple Wings and propellers have been ment his food supplies with fish more a part of Michael J. Kan and game. iecki's life than miters and cro In ,the fall he hunts moose to ziers, but that will change now fHl his freezer for the winter. , that the priest-pilot is Alaska's But it's a lot of work, he says. newest bishop. "You find yourself with any Ordained as the new coadjutor where from 1,000 to 1,600 bishop of Fairbanks May.1, the pounds of animal to dress, skin, day befor~ Pope John Paul II's quarter and pack out." stopover there on his way to Once on a caribou hunt the Asia, Bishop Kaniecki, 48, is one hunter almost became the vic of four U.S. bishops licensed to tim when the priest tried to fly his own plane. "prop start" his plane on a Bush pilots in Alaska are a frozen lake. As he pulled down notoriously hearty breed, and on the propeller, the engine back the new bishop is no exception. fired and the plane began mov Tall and rugged, with mutton- <c ing. Bishop Kaniecki dove out chop sideburns, he is most como, of the propeller's way and grab fortable in, jeans, flannel shirts bed a cable on the plane's skis. His dragging body kept the and boots. Standard bush pilot survival plane going in circles, but he gear includes a fishing pole and couldn't stop it or pull himself rifle along with extra food, aboard. "Finally I could hold on no longer and dropped off." clothing, first-aid supplies, sleep The plane made another circle ing bag and mukluks (Eskimo snow boots). The new bishop has and hit a snow drift that turned had occasion to use most of that it back toward him. Miles from gear, especially the fishing pole any hope of help, his parka and rifle. shredded an pants torn, Bishop ,Particularly during eight years Kaniecki, said he had no choice as pastor in Kotzebue, Alaska, but to jump on the heel of the and nearby missions around the ski as the plane went past. As Arctic Circle, he used days off it careened across the frozen
304,000. more NEW YORK (NC)-The num ber of U.S. Catholics rose more than 304,000 in the past year but there were only 21 addition al priests to serve them, accord ing to the 1984 Official Cath olic Directory. Figures from the directory, published annually by P. J. Ken edy and Sons, were released in New York May 23•. The 1984 figures showed 52,392,934 U.S. Catholics, up 304, 190 from 1983, and repre
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senting 22.31 percent of the total U.S. population. The total number of priests in the country rose for, the first time since 1980, but only by 21, from 57,870 to 57,891. There were 193 fewer diocesan priests but 214 more priests in'religious orders. The new data showed signifi cant increases in the number of U.S. bishops, up 22 (nearly 6 percent) to 392, and permanent deacons, 'up 636 (10.5 percent)
. Holy Name, Assumption, Im maculate Conception, M1. Car mel, St. Anthony of Padua, S1. Casimir, S1. Hedwng, St. Mary, New Bedford. St. Francis Xavier, Acushnet; St. Anthony, Mattapoisett; St. Mary, So. Dartmouth. Holy Family, Immaculate Con ception, Our Lady of Lourdes, St Anthony, Taunton. St. Peter, Dighton; Immacu ,late Conception, North Easton.
')!lke, it took him several min utes to get to the cockpit and cut back the throttle. By the time he stopped the plane, "I felt as though a Sher man tank had roBed over me a couple of times. Both ears were frostbitten, my arm and Jeft side felt like jelly, but I was alive," he said. The Detroit native first dream ed of being a missionary in Alaska when he was in high school. In 1960, as a Jesuit scholastic, he taught at Copper Valley School in Glenallen, Alaska and in 1965 was ordained a priest of the Jesuits' Oregon province, which administers the' Alaskan missions. From 1967 to 1975 he was pastor of St. Francis Xavier Church . in Kotzebue, near the ATCtiC Circle, flying out to serve 10 other native villages in the region. In 1982 he was ,named su perior of all Jesuits in Alaska. Piloting his own Cessna 180, he flew -to villages throughout northern and central Alaska and often. transported Bishop Robert Turn to Page Two
mo,re priests to' 6,702. But they also showed 232 from 1ast year. The com
a continuing drop in the number bined total of 11,262 represents
of sisters, down 2,672 to 118,027, , a drop of more than 8,000 in the
past decade. and a slight decline in the num While 279 more parishes were ber of brothers, down 62 to recorded, bringing the 1984 total 7,596. The new data showed further to 19,118, t~ere was a continuing drops in seminarians. The figures, trend towards parishes without representing those in novitiates resident priests - up 7 percent, or. in the 1ast six years of study from 919 last year to 983 this for the priesthood, showed 7,486 year. For the first time in recent diocesan cand'idates, 560 fewer decades, more than one parish in 20 in the, l,Jnited States is than last year, and 8,776 reli gious order candidates, down without a resident priest.
The number of nuns teaching fulltime in Catholic schools drop ped by 1,789, to 31,521. This is 69.8 percent fewer than there were 20 years ago when the number of teaching sisters peak ed at 104,441. There were also slightly fewer priests, brothers and scholastics teaching in Cath olic schools. The total number of teachers in Catholic schools increased by 2,332, however, as the number Turn to Page Six