Collegeville:
Vocations Catch - 22
10 ARGUMENTS AGAINST ABORTION: The 10 children of Conrad and Florence Desroches of St. Francis Xavier parish, Acushnet, gather with their parents around pastor Father Paul J. Price, SS.CC., after he baptized the newest family member, Seth, born April 15. The others are Rebecca, 12; Virginia, II; Joshua, iO; Eli, 9; Katie, 7; Samuel, 6; Elizabeth, 4; Rachel, 3; and Noah, 2. Come September, seven Desrocheses will be at St. Francis Xavier School. (Louise Desroches photo)
2 high court路rulings Abortion debate is refueled WASHINGTON (NC) - In two major decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court added new fuel to the national debate over abortion and the related issue ofthe rights of hand icapped newborns. And in Denver, delegates to the convention of the National Right to Life Committee were courted by prospective Republican presidential candidates who decried the court's actions on abortion In the first decision, the Supreme Court June 9 threw out federal regulations by the Reagan administration which had demanded medical treatment for severely handicapped newborns. The regulations were developed after the 1982 death of a Bloomington, Ind., infant boy born with Down's syndrome. The case, which came to be known as Baby Doe, gained national attention because the infant's parents denied permission for surgery to open a blocked esophagus. In its 5-3 ruling, the court said that withholding treatm~nt from a
handicapped newborn does not violate federal antidiscrimination laws because parents, not the hospital, decide what medical care babies receive. Father Edward Bryce, director ofthe U.S. bishops'OfficeforProLife Activities, said the decision never faced the key issue: "whether federal. law protects the child's not the parents' right to be free from discrimination." Two days later the court in a 5-4 vote struck down a Pennsylvania law regulating abortion and reaffirmed its landmark 1973 decision legalizing abortion. The Pennsylvania law required that women be provided information on abortion, its risks, and fetal development. It also required detailed physician reports, use of the abortion method most likely to result in a live birth and the presence of a second doctor to help save the fetus. Justice Harry Blackmun, writing the court's majority opinion,
said that "few decisions are more personal and intimate" than a woman's decision on abortion. "The states are not free, under the guise of protecting maternal health or potential life, to intimidate women into continuing pregnancies," said Blackmun, who also wrote the majority opinion in Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 abortion case. Three justices who dissented, however, urged the court to reconsider Roe vs. Wade. The harshest criticism came from Justice Byron White, who called the court's record on abortion "fundamentally misguided since its inception." Many abortion opponents pointed to the narrow 5-4 vote as evidence that the court may be close to reconsidering or even overturning Roe vs. Wade. Father Thomas L. Rita, diocesan director of the Pro-Life Apostolate, said: "The Supreme Court's June 11 decision striking down Pennsylvania abortion regulations Turn to Page Eleven
MINNEAPOLIS (NC) - The U.s. church is simultaneously experiencing a crisis in vocations to the priesthood and religious life and a "vocation's explosion" in lay ministries, said Bishop James W. Malone of Youngstown, Ohio, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. Bishop Malone spoke at a news conference in Minneapolis followinga June 9-16 meeting of the U.S. bishops at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minn. Among those present was Bishop Daniel A. Cronin. The Collegeville meeting, which focused entirely on vocations, was termed "kind of like an executive retreat" by Archbishop Oscar Lipscomb of Mobile, Ala., who. joined Bishop Malone at the news conference. No press coverage of the meeting was allowed. Archbishop Lipscomb chaired the bishops' committee which organized the meeting, attended by 259 bishops. Bishop Malone said the bishops recognized "that there is a crisis in vocations to the priestly and religious life." . A presentation by Bishop Lawrence Welsh of Spokane, Wash., documented the shortage of priests, Bishop Malone said. Bishop Welsh's presentation, released at the news conference with other presentations made to the bishops in Collegeville, points out the increasing number of U.S. Catholics and the declining number of priests. "On the other hand," his presentation said, "if you believe ... that now the laity are being called to
their rightful baptismal postitions, you may see a vocation explosion happening today." Bishop Malone told reporters that discussion of the priest shortage "does not provide for solutions which are contrary to current church law." "Consideration will not begiven to the ordination of married men, women priests" or a return to active ministry by laicized priests, he said. . Bishop Malone pointed to several "encouraging signs that the (vocation) crisis may be able to be turned around." While priests in the 1970s were not enthusiastic about their lives and work, he said, a more positive attitude is being expressed today that will serve to attract young men to the priesthood. The heart of the eight-day conference; Bishop Malone said, was contained in five major presentations, including the presentation by Bishop Welsh, and a summation given by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago. Archbishop Pio Laghi, apostolic pronuncio to the United States, also addressed the bishops. A presentation by Archbishop Daniel路Pilarczyk of Cincinnati on the ordained ministries "provoked the most hearty response," Bishop Malone said. Other presentations were given by: - Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, on a theology of vocations. - Bishop Raymond A. Lucker of New Ulm, Minn., on lay vocations. Turn to Page Seven
South Africa:
'~How
much more?"
By NC News Service Foreign and domestic church leaders criticized South Africa's declaration of a state of emergency to forestall demonstrations commemorating a black student uprising, and expressed concern for the continuing violence in the country. At least eight blacks were killed in clashes on the June 16 anniversary date. Millions of black workers went on strike to mark, I0 years since the uprising in Soweto, a township outside Johannesburg. In June 12 raids, South African security forces arrested scores of church and human rights activists, including a top official of the South African bishops' conference. The authorities also have severely restricted press coverage ofthe crackdown.
Two members of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate were expelled from South Africa June 17. Thirteen Oblates were arrested June 12, including II seminarians. Pope John Paul II prayed for South Africans injured in the violence; US bishops' president Bishop James Malone urged US pressure on South Africa to release detainees; CardinalJean-Marie Lustiger of Paris called South Africa a "sick" country; and London Cardinal George Basil Hume called on the British government to press the white-ruled nation for reforms. The state of emergency was declared shortly before the anniversary marking the June 16, 1976, uprising in which a black youth Turn to Page Eleven
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