FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER· FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
VOL. 28, NO. 24
FALL RIVER, MASS., FRIDAV, JUNE 15, 1984
Msgr. Hoye defends
$8 Per Year
usee
Papal TV spot causes uproar
By Cindy Liebhart .
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NC News Service Msgr. Daniel Hoye, a Taun ton native on leave from the Fall River diocese as general secre tary of ·the Nationad Conference of Catholic Bishops and the U.S. Catholic Conference, has taken issue with critics of a 60-second TV spot featuring a papal appeal for arms control and a montage of U.S. and Soviet weapons. Also criticizing the critics was Sacred Heart Father Brian Mc Cullough, director of the U.S. bishops' tollow-up oommittee for the 1983 pastoral "The Challenge of Peace." Father McCullough called it "lueJicrous" to say "the Catholic bishops are using or exploiting the pope" in the spot, a public service announcement distribu ted by the U.S. Catholic Confer ence Department of Communica tion to diocesan communication directors in the top 50 U.S'- tele vision markets for placement on local TV stations. Part of it was shown May 22 on the CBS Even ing News. Critics said that the usec has taken the pope's comments out of context, thereby under mining U.S. nuclear deterrence
policy. They also crJticized the political impli<:ations the spot may have in an election year. In the announcement, the pope says "the continual production of ever more numerous, power ful and sophisticated weapons shows that there is a desire to be ready for war. "Being ready means being able to start it, and· also means taking the risk that sometime, some where, somehow, someone can set in motion general destruc tion," the message continues. "It. must be our solemn wish for the children of all the nations on earth to make such catastrophies impossible." Father McCullough said the spot attempts to capture the heart of the pope's message at the United Nations in 1979 and is consistent with his frequent issues. It "is going to draw attention to the church as teacher and messenger of a certain concept of peace," said the priest. "I hope it draws attention to the bishops' pastoral and to what the pope has said." Gary Potter, president of the Washington-based Catholics for ChrJstian Political Action, called
America decides
roots are OI(
TO BE ORDAINED at 11 a.m. tomorrow at St. Mary's Cathedral are, from top, Rev. Mr. James Ferry, Rev. Mr. J~mes Fitzpatrick, Rev. Mr. Mark Hession, Rev. Mr. Thomas McGlynn.
By Pat McGOwan Americans have finally de cided that it's OK to be proud . of one's ethnic roots. That was the message brou~ht to perticipants in the second an· nual Multi-Cultural Awareness Conference held last week at Bristol Community College, Fall River. It came from Sr.alabrini Father Silvano Tomasi, keynote speaker, and director of pastoral care for migrants and refugees for the U,S'. bishops' Committee on Mi gration and Tourism. Speaking to the conference theme, "Understanding One An other," Father Tomasi, president of the Center for Migration Stud ies of Staten Island, N.Y., said that a "fresh picture of Ameri can society" came out of the 1980 census, the first U.S. census that asked respondents for their an cestral identification. The census revealed the U.S.
population to be comprised of over 100 ethnic groups, recall ing, said Father Tomasi, Presi dent John F. Kennedy's defini tion of the country as "a nation of nations." He said that England, Germany and Ireland led among mitions named as places of origin and he noted that only six percent of the population described them selves simply as Americans. Everyone else felt he or she was American-Portuguese, American French, or whatever the nation of origin might have been. Speaking of Portuguese immi grants, the speaker commented that they are most heavily con centrated in California; forming 31.percent of the population. In Massachusetts the fjgure is 26 percent and in Rhode Island nine percent. Discussing the nation's new ethnic awareness, lather Tomasi Turn to Page Six
the spot a "cynical manipulation of the viewer's emotions and the pope's message." He is organiz ing a national -letter-writing campaign to Archbishop Pio Laghi, the Holy See's pronuncio to the United States, to protest :the usec action. . But Msgr. Hoye said he be lieve~ people who say the con ference has misrepresented the pope's position "have never read the pope's-lalk or haven't read it completely." He said the pope has qualified his acceptance of deterrence "quite forcefully" in the U.N.
address and in subsequent talks, a qualijfication which the U.S. bishops incorporated into their pastoral letter. "It 'is a strictly conditioned acceptance," Msgr. lHoye said. "For the present time, deterrence is an acceptable policy but not a long-term solution. "You cannot possibly nuance the position in a 60-second TV spot," Msgr. Hoye said. Robert Reilly, special assistant to President Reagan in the office of public liaison, said he is "upTurn to PSlge Six
The perfect father
By BUda Young The perfect father is 6 feet tall, weighs 187 pounds, can - st~ff a bask~ball in a 10-foot hoop, played football in oollege ~Ith O. J. Simpson, can give piggyback rides to four children simultaneously for eight hours while teaching III 5-year-old how to ride a bicycle. The perfect father is 31, spent six years in the Peace C~r:t>s, five years earning a gradu~te degree, six years of active nuhtary service, six months in :the seminary and four years learning a trade. . . ~e perfect fathe! earns enough to feed an entire family, cove: Its me~bers .Wlth dental insurance and designer jeans, ~rovlde housmg WJoth one bath per family member, save a ·btUe every month, absorb unexpected expenses like an engine overha~l and new compressor for ~ refrigerator, and send the chl1dren to /the movies whenever they want so they "won't have' to use their own money." He never walks through the house cutting up credit cards with pruning shears. . The perfect father never loses his temper, listens patiently whl1e the 13-year-old explains the principal's can about the unplanned fire driill, never dishes out hasty discipline like campusing the 10-year~ld until he's 23 or enters the Navy whichever comes first. ' He smiles understandingly when he finds his $30 crescent wrench rusted and moldy under the stove, his socket set 'being used as moving pieces for monopoly, and his measuring tape :the centerpiece of an ant project. . . The perfect father works 48 hours per week, is president of the parish fathers' club, volunteers 10 hours III week with the St. Vincent de Paul Society, coaches a Little League team and ~pends at least an hour of quality, time with each of his children daiily. He never comes home from work, pours him self a stiff gin and tonic and locks himself in the garage for an hour. The perfect father can fabricate a six-month science project in 12 hours, knows why the product of two negative numbers is a positive, can spell every president's name and recite his years in office, and never says: ."Hey, meatball, who's going to school around here, you or me?" The perfect father ~ets his children make up their own minds about religion, never makes them go' to Mass by suggesting they move elsewhere if they don't, relishes being called the primary religious influence in the faminy and always has everyone in the family at Mass every Sunday on time. The perfect father would be hard to live with.