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diocese of 'fall river
t eanc 0 VOL. 23, NO. 28
FALL RIVER, MASS., THURSDAY, JULY 12, 1979
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20c, $6 Per Year
,'Obsession with Abortion' Hit by NCCB President By Jim Lackey
VIETNAMESE BOAT PEOPLE wade ashore at Bidong Island; Malaysia, but the nation has announced it will not accept any more refugees. To meet the emergency, the U.S. government and the U.S. Catholic Conference are stepping up aid efforts. (NC Photo)
Refugee Prob'lem Likened To Holocaust of Jews Tens of thousands of Vietnames refugees are drowning, thousands more are huddled together in filthy camps, thousands of Cambodian refugees' are starving to death. And goverment officials are planning and meeting and discussing the problem. 'President Carter has expanded the U.S. quota of refugees and urged other nations to do so also, but resettlement officials warn that aid is coming too slowly, too sparsely to avert what they call another Holocaust. Religious leaders and heads of service agencies called for governments to cut the red tape holding back the flow of refugees. Experienced resettlement officials compare the situation to the Holocaust which took millions of Jewish lives in Nazi Germany not only because of the hundreds of thousands who are dying and the racial overtones of the expulsion, of Vietnam's ~thnic Chinese, but because C?f the bureaucratic red tape th;at prevents outside nations from averting tragedy. -I
John McCarthy, director of the U.S. Catholic Conference's Migration and Refugee Services, was one who compared the plight of the Indochinese refugees today to the thousands of Turn to Page Seven
Bishops Prepare ,For World Synod VATICAN CITY(NC) - The church has begun the final consultation stage in preparing a "working 'instrument" for the 1980 World Synod of Bishops, which will discuss the Christian family in the modern world. Cardinal Ladislaw Rubin, general secretary of the Synod, said a preliminary document on the theme has 'been sent to the world's bishops, and other top church officials. The document, he said, will be the basis for discussion and suggestions from the bishops, major religious superiors, and "to the extent possible" from "priests and laity throughout the church." Turn to Page Seven
WASHINGTON (NC) - The president of the National Confer,ence of Catholic Bishops has sharply criticized the U.S. Supreme Court's decision that parents do not have to be consulted before an abortion is performed on an unmarried minor. "Parental rights and family relationships have become victims of the Supreme Court's obsession with abortion," said Archbishop John R. Quinn of San Francisco about the Supreme Court's ruling that pregnant teen-agers must be given the right to bypass their pa~ents and go to a judge if, they want permission to obtain an abortion. Archbishop Quinn said the court's decision "goes a long way toward tearing apart the fa,bric of the family:' The Supreme Court, in striking down the Massachusetts law requiring unmarried minor females to obtain the consent of their parents or a judge before undergoing an abortion, said that "every minor must have the opportunity - if she so desires to go directly to a court without first consulting or notifying her parents:' The 'court said the Massachu-, setts law was unconstitutional because it required parental consultation or notification in all cases where abortion was being considered. The court's decision expanded upon' a 1976 ruling striking down a Missouri law which required parental consent for abortion. The Massachusetts law differed in that it allowed minors to go to a court for permission to obtain an abortion if the parents refused to grant such permission. But the court ruled that did not go far enough in ensuring unmarried minors the right to obtain an abortion. "If she -(the unmarried minor) satisfies the court that she is mature and well-informed enough to make intelligently the abortion decision on her own, the court must authorize her to act without parental consultation or consent," the court ruled. The vote was 8-1, with only Justice Byron R. White dissent-' ing. There had been hope ~at the court, while earlier striking down the Missouri law, might uphold the Massachusetts law because it did not grant parents an ab-
'SOlute veto over abortions. The U.S. Catholic Conference was among those who filed "friendof-the-court" briefs in the case asking that the Massachusetts law be upheld. "While this is true that this court has held ... that ,a parent does not have the right to control the abortion decision of an , unmarried minor, it did not hold that a parent has no right~ to participate in such a decision," the brief, filed last January, said. Even if a pregnant teen-ager,
is unable to satisfy a court that she is competent to make the abortion decision alone, the Supreme Court said 's,he "must be permitted to show that an abortion nevertheless would be in her best interest." The court then must authorize the abortion if it is persuaded that the abortion is in the minor~s own best interest, but it may also decline to authorize one if it is not. "We are concerned here with Turn to Page Seven
'We've Only Just Begun' Father Fred Guthrie, a priest KENT, Ohio (NC) - 15,000 married couples, priests and of the Boston Archdiocese and nuns, including delegates from liaison for Worldwide Marriage the Fall River diocese, attended Encounter in Washington, D.C:, the Worldwide Marriage En- added, "As a priest, if I want to counter convention held last.. know what a parish ought to be week at Kent State University in and how it should- be growing, then my primary resource would Ohio. Even with a national fuel be couples like Fred and Barb:' At the closing of the liturgy, shortage, the meeting drew participants from practically all the Jesuit Father Charles Gallagher 50 states, including Hawaii, as of Long ,Island, a developer of well as from Spain and a mili- the encounter program in the U.S., was interrupted often by tary base in West Germany. The encounter banner stret- applause as he delivered a homily the convention's ched across the main highway reiterating into Kent proclaimed, "We've theme. only just begun:' He spoke primarily of the need And it was evident that these for a more enthusiastic priestenthusiastic people, all of whom hood, and came back to the everhad participated in Marriage En- present theme ,of interdependcounter weekends, had truly ence when he told the Massjust begun. goers, "You have to constantly They had been taught how be anointing us priests, calling communication with and- lin in- us. Our concentration must be terdependence on their spouses on you." would enrich their married life. Now they were ready to go out and spread their message of openness and love to all. The Marriage Encounter movement, begun in the 1950s Mrs. nolor~s Curra.n, nationin Spain, has brought couples ally-known author, lecturer, and from being "just two people lay theologian, will be the keymarried to each other" to a hus- note speaker for the New Engband and wife relying more on land Congress of Religious Edueach other, 'learning to talk with . cation, to be held at the Unione another. versity of New Hampshire, DurFather Joseph Champlin of ham, Friday through Sunday, Syracuse, N.Y., a noted lecturer August 17 to 19. and author, provided the link "Family: A Catechetical Chalbet~een family and parish by lenge on the '80s" will be the explaining that just as success- title of Mrs. Curran's address. ful marriages can't be self-cen- In it she will ex'amine the Cathtered, successful parishe~ must olic family in a changing reach out to others., -Church, exploring its strengths, Frank and Barbara Jelinek of needs, hopes and ministries, and Columbus, Ohio, past national offering practical suggestions board members of Worldwide for religious educators. ' Marriage Encounter and members - The congress theme, "Famiof the planning committee for the convention declared, "We lies: Living, Learning, Serving," (in Marriage Encounter) are the is particularly appropriate, since strength of the church," Turn to Page Seven
Dolores Curran On CCD Program