t eanc 0 VOL. 36, NO. 30
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Friday, August 2, 1991
fALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER fOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
FALL RIVER, MASS.
Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
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ANNA BERGALIS watches over her daughter Kimberly, left photo. Above, Kimberly with her cousin, John Cathcart, her mother and her sister Sandra. (CNS photos)
Kim forgave dentist who infected her
AIDS victim seeks to save others Sr. Gottem'oeller to head new Mercy Institute Sister Doris Gottemoeller, RSM., has been elected first president of the Institute of Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, one of the largest orders of religious women in the world. The news delighted Sister Mary Noel Blute, RSM, Episcopal Representative for Religious for the Fall River diocese. "She has the attributes needed for the job and I have every confidence in her," said Sister Blute, who in the 1970s as superior of the Providence province of the Sisters of Mercy of the Union, worked with Sister Gottemoeller on the general administrative conference of the nine-community union now subsumed into the new institute. The new president, among four nominees for the position, was elected on the first ballot to head the 7,400-member institute which serves in North, South and Central America, Guam and the Philippines. It unites 25 regional communities of sisters in one papally chartered organization with headquarters in Silver Spring, MD. The election took place in Buffalo, NY, where 3,000 sisters representing their colleagues in 29 countries and 45 of the 50 United States, have been meeting for two weeks not only for elections but to set an agenda for the next four years for the new institute. Possibly unique 'among them was Sister Constance Monahan, RSM, 82, now retired and living in New Bedford, who in 1929, as a young sister, signed the founding document for the Sisters of Mercy ofthe Union. Last week she was in
Buffalo to sign the document founding the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas. While there, she said, she met no one else who had been a 1929 signatory. During her years of active ministry, Sister Monahan taught at St. Mary's Cathedral, SS. Peter and Paul and St. Patrick's schools in Fall River and at Holy Name and Holy Family schools in New Bedford. A native of Cleveland, Sister Gottemoeller entered the Cincinnati Sisters of Mercy in 1953. Currently she serves on the boards of the Eastern Mercy Health System in Radnor, PA, and the University of Detroit. Previously she was a board member for Salve Regina University, Newport, RI; Edgecliff College and Mercy Health Care System, Cincinnati; and Mercy Hospital, Baltimore. Prior to her election, she was an administrative intern at the Sisters of Mercy Health System in St. Louis. From 1983 to 1990, she was administrator of the former Cincinnati province of the Mercy community. She holds doctoral and master's degrees in theology from Fordham University and a master's degree in chemistry from the University of Notre Dame. In remarks prior to and following her election, Sister Goettemoeller said, "I believe in the importance of the Institute for the ongoing life of Mercy, ofthe church and of the world." She added that she believed that "one of the chief reasons for our Turn to Page II
FORT PIERCE,. Fla. (CNS)As 23-year-old Kimberly Bergalis lay dying of AI DS at her family's home, Anna and George Bergalis struggled to understand why their daughter contracted the disease. Hers is the first confirmed case of an AIDs-infected doctor infecting a patient, according to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. Her parents say their Catholic faith has given them the fortitude to help Kimberly achieve something by her death - to see federal legislation enacted to require certain health workers to be tested for AIDS and to punish those who are infected but fail to tell patients of their disease. "It is such a shock to us," said Mrs. Bergalis, a public health nurse. "Our goal is to keep it from
happening to other families. It should never have happened to this family, either." During an interview with the Florida Catholic, newspaper of the Palm Beach diocese, Mrs. Bergalis sat next to her blonde-haired, blue-eyed daughter, now so emaciated and diseased that she cannot talk or walk. "Kim could have easily laid out in her backyard and quietly slipped away," Mrs. Bergalis said. "This is a tragedy as it is, but if we had not done anything it would have been more of a tragedy. "I feel in my heart that this is her assignment," she added. "I am sure her mission in1ife was to educate people about AIDS and bring to attention that it is not just a gay disease." In December 1987, while a stu-
dent at the University of Florida studying for a career as an actuary, Kimberly went to Dr. David Acer in Fort Pierce to have her wisdom teeth extracted. Two years later, in December 1989, she was diagnosed as having AIDS. "It WllS the shock of my life and my family's as well," Kimberly wrote in a much-publicized letter to Florida health officials in April, pleading for laws to protect others by requiring health professionals to be tested for the AIDS virus. After the diagnosis, investigations began, going back as far as her grade school days at St. Anastasia School in Fort Pierce. Kimberly didn't fall into the categories of typical AIDS victims: She said she had never used Turn to Page II
For sur.vival, U .8. Maronites must evangelize, says leader CINCINNATI (CNS) - Maronite Catholics must reach out to those in their church who are inactive if the rite is to survive, says \rchbishop Francis M. Zayek of the Diocese of St. Maron. "We can disappear as a rite if we don't gather together and if we don't try to reach other Maronites," he said at the 28th annual National Apostolate of Maronites convention, held July 16-21 in Cincinnati. The convention was preceded by a business session for priests, attended by Msgr. Norman J. Ferris, pastor of St. Anthony of the Desert parish in Fall River and Father Edward T. Nedder, pastor of Our Lady of Purgatory parish,
New Bedford. Both parishes, although territorially in the Fall River diocese, belong to the diocese of St. Maron, which includes all U.S. Maronites and has its headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y. Massachusetts has seven Maronite parishes, the second largest number among the states, exceeded only by Pennsylvania, with eight parishes. MSJr. Ferris said that the next year's national conference will be held in Boston and that a regional conference is scheduled for late September in Waterville, Maine. There are 500,000 'Maronites in the United States, but only about 52,000 are practicing the Maronite rite, Archbishop Zayek said.
"Where are the half million Maronites?" he lamented. "Why do they not come?" Some Maronites no longer associate with the church because they attend Latin-rite churches, have married into other faiths, no longer practice any religion, or have no interest in their Maronite heritage, Archbishop Zayek said. He added that it has been difficult to get a feeling of togetherness among practicing Maronites because they are scattered about the country, with 60 Maronite parishes and missions in 23 states and the District of Columbia. "It has not been easy for anyone, not for the lay people, not for the Turn to Page II