SERVING SOUTHEASTERN MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
t eanc 0 VOL. 22, NO. 29
FALL RIVER, MASS., THURSDAY, JULY 27, 1978
20c, $6 Per Year
Family, Priesthood Crises Seen Linked By John Muthig VATICAN CITY (NC) - The Vatican Committee for the Family has said that the crisis in Christian families in the West is linked to the crisis in the priesthood. ,In a document charting the committee's priority areas, the committee said that "if families do not always know what course . of action to follow, it is because they are often left in un· certainty by their spiritual guides. , "The crisis that is being experienced in the priesthood can be linked with the crisis known by many families," said the committee. "A renewed priesthood will save the family and vice-versa." In the document, titled "The Family in the Pastoral Activity of the Church," the committee deplored the lack of Catholic opposition to anti-family legislation. "It is striking," said the com· mittee, "to note that Catholics in the West are so little prepared to fight the civil battles in favor of the family. One can see this A GLORIOUS DAY: Sons and parents share their joy following ceremonies at St. by looking at the type of legislaMary's Cathedral last Saturday, during which Bishop Daniel A. Cronin ordained Father tion that has been introduced Normand Grenier (left) and Father Jon-Paul Gallant to the priesthood. With them are over the past 10 years even in countries of long Christian tratheir parents, Mr. and Mrs. Armand Cayer and Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gallant. dition: divorce, contraception, abortion, sterilization, euthanasia, etc." The committee urged better seminary training on issues involving the family. It suggested that seminaries be given courses on "biolojlical and ethical implications of the continued to live in a "persistent research in the area of human LOUISVILLE, Ky. (NC) vegetative state" in a nursing fertility, its regulation and appliTwo lawyers offered words of Karen Ann Quinlan case. caution about state enaction of cation in the domain of the naNew Jersey attorney Paul home, Armstrong said. living will legislation at a sem- Armstrong, who represented California's two-year-old na- tural means of family planning." inar at Louisville's Spalding Col- Miss Quinlan's parents in their tural death act, which permits lege examin~ng the medical, legal legal effort to have the young competent adults to sign sowoman removed from a respira- called living wills authortor, said the time has come for izing their physicians to withconsideration of living wills, but draw life preserving mechanisms noted that "we had better be when they serve "no purpose excareful" because "we could end cept to artificially delay the moThe Catholic Church's stand up legislating away our rights." ment of death" during a termFather George w. Coleman, on artificial insemination means Theodore Amshoff Jr., a inal illness. "may deprive us of diocesan director of education, that it would also oppose the Louisville attorney and a mem- more rights," Armstrong said.has reacted strongly to the Masdevelopment of a "test tube ber of Louisville Lawyers ,for The New Jersey lawyer said sachusetts Supreme Court decibaby" like the one expected to Life Inc., said he saw "severe what is ,needed is legislation that a state law that has sion be born in England, according problems" with legislation that which affirms the rights a paprovided private school students to a leading Catholic authority would take life-death matters tient already has in order to with hundreds of thousands of on bioethics. out of the hands of the family "clarify the legal muddle" and dollars worth of publicly purBoth procedures "divorce inter- and attending -physician and which says who shall speak for chased textbooks is unconstitucourse from procreation," said "dump them" into the hands of the patient when the patient can- tional. not speak for himself. Only by Dr. Andre Hellegers, director of courts and legislatures. In a prepared statement Father Georgetown University's KenThe seminar, titled "Christian "passing a clear statute" will nedy Institute for the Study of Approaches to Ethical and Pas- the issues be resolved, he added. Coleman said: "The court's deci- ' Amshoff also cited several sion declaring unconstitutional Human Reproduction and Bio- toral Problems of Living and ethics. "The critical dividing Dying," centered on the case of dangers of living will legisla- the textbook loan program is line is not in the test-tube fer-' Miss Quinlan, a 24-year-old New tion including the risk that it disappointing and regrettable tilization. but in the exteriorizing Jersey woman who has been in may be applied to patients who ·For the past three years, private of the p.rocess." a coma for more than three are not terminally ill or have not Dr. He}1egers was discussing years. Since her respirator was given their. consent. In addition, school pupils have received great Turn'to Page Seven' benefit from loans of textbooks disconnected in 1976, she has Tum to Page Sixteen
Two Lawyers Warn Against Dangers Of Living Will Legislation
'Test Tube Baby' ControversiaI
It criticized seminaries for training seminarians "for a min. istry to individuals, independent of their social milieu." " It is necessary," said the committee, "to help priests to be more attentive to the family as a social unit, and to the place of each of its members in the evangelical renewal of the family as the first milieu of life." In general, the committee document deplored the decline of the family in the West. It cautioned, however, against thinking that the same family problems in the West exist elsewhere in the world. The family crisis in the West, it said, "arises directly from a mentality which stresses material success, individualism, efficiency, technology which is becoming more and more refined, and the development of a l'ifestyle that stresses money, action and power. "More and more the authentic values of family life - love as gift of self, the generous acceptance of life, fidelity, permanence in married life, the spirit of sacrifice - are being regarded as less ,important and relegated to a secondary level," said the document. The committee said that "the peace and harmony of society, and to a certain extent, the future of the church rests on Christian families." Pope Paul VI founded the committee for the Family in 1973. It is now a branch of the Pontifical Council for the laity, headed by Cardinal Opilio Rossi. Canadian Bishop Edouard Gagnon is vice president of the Committee for the Family.
State High Court Finds Loans Unconstitutiona I granted them by public school committees. "The court's decision will result in the imposition of additional financial <burdens on parents who are struggling to exer· Tum to Page Five
• what's inside • • Brendan voyage • papal visit
p. 5 p. 10
• bishops on Quebec p. 11