FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
eanc 0 VOL. 28, NO. 30
fAll RIVER, MASS., FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 1984
$8 Per Year
Olympi,cs peace model, says pope VATICAN CITY ~C) - The Olympic games are impoJltant not only for athletes but for the future of the world because they show cooperation and under standing, says Pope John Pool II. In a telegram sent to Cardinal Timothy Manning of Los An geles on the eve of the games, the pope blessed everyone con nected with the Olympics. "I ask you to convey my cor dial greetings and good wishes to all ·the organizers, partici pants and spectators," the pope said. "This great event has sig nificance not only for the world of sport as the expression of friendly athletic competition and the striving for human excel lence but also for the future of ,the human community, which through sport gi~s external ex pression to the desire of all for universal cooperation and under standing. "I offer my heartiest congratu lations ·to the men and women who are representing their coun tries, and I hope that at this worldwide encounter they wHl _be worthy models of peaceful harmony and human fellowship." The Vatican newspaper, L'0s servatore Romano, in a front page editorial ,last week said that despite ,legi,timate concerns over commercialization and po litical exploItation~ the games can be an example of interna tional peace. "The cold winds of mistmst, fear and misunderstanding can not put out the flame of youths in celebra,tion," the newspaper said in the editorial signed by an editor, Massimo Carrara. "Their meaning of peace and brotherhood can stil,l overcome ideological barriers and political boundaries." The boycott of the games by the Soviet Union and other coun tires "disappointed the expecta tions and hopes" of many, the editorial said. The edItorial MSO said tha,t "the Olympics !have become, on an organizational .}evel, a big business with gigantic commer cial sponsorship." It added that there is no .longer a distinction between ama,teurism and pro fessionalism in sports. Despite these drawbacks, the editorial said, the Olympics can stiU show ,the modem world the values of honesty, unity and friendship.
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HOLY TRINITY, WEST HARWICH
Holy Trinity·story also
that of Cape Catholicism
Holy Trinity parish, West the University of Southern Cali Harwich, is rarely 'fol'tunate in fornia. As a teenager he, sum- . that a professional historian has mered on Cape Cod and as a studied Us long and interesting young priest he served at Holy background and has woven it Trinity, where he has also as into the larger story of the de sisted for the past four summers. He spent two years research velopment of Catholicism on ing the church history, conduct Cape Cod. Just published by the Mer ing interviews and <utilizing rare cury Publishing Co. of Rutland, . books, libnuy resources and Vot., is ari 86-page lavishly illus parish records. His preface explains why, al trated so~tcover book, "Cath olicism on Cape Cod: The His ·though his ·book was written. at tory of Holy Trinity Church, the request of Father John F. West Harwich, Mass., 1866 SuUivan, SS.CC., then Holy Trin ity's pastor, to commemorate the 1981." It is 'by Father Harold A. parish's 59th anniversary, it goes Whelan, SS.CC., a Boston na back .in time to 1825. "When I undertook the task tive now stationed in Van Nuys, Calif., where he is archivist and of writing -this history," he historian for the western pro writes, "I thought Holy Trinity vince of the Sacred Hearts parish was an ordinary parish Fathers, a hospital chaplain and with a continuous record of its engaged in weekend ministry at growth and development for 50 yell'r. I soon discovered that an area pariSh. He holds a master's degree in things were not tha,t simple. history from the Ca.Jifornia Sthte "The 50th anniversary of the University at Los Angeles and a parish in 1981 turned out to be doctorate in the subject from only one of three anniversaries.
"The first Holy Trinity Church was built in Harwich Center in 1866. 'Mass was celebrated there occasionally when the missionary priests travelled the circuit from ,Sandwich or Boston, but the church was seldom <used other wise until Father George F. Ma guire in 1904 came to vitalize parish life. "After six years of labor in this extensive parish, the bishop entrusted the care of the parish and its mission' to the Sacred . Hearts Fathers. A year later the parish became a mission, of Our Lady of Lourdes, Wellfleet, and 20 more years passed, and iot became a parish again. "Of all the parishes on Cape Cod, Holy Trinity has the most unusual history. Presently, it is 117 years old and had a resi dent pastor in 1868. It has been a parish 79 years, if we go back to its establishment in 1904 when the diocese of Fall River was es tablished. Lastly, we can and did celebrate 50 years of paro-
chial independence in 1981. "The history of Holy Trinity however, .is a sizable part of the overa}.} development of Ca,tholic ism on Cape Cod, especially of ,the mother church in Sandwich and the fiTSt efforts to plant the Catholic faith on Cape Cod are rightly the inheritance of Holy Trinity. "In its, early days Holy Trinity served the spiritual needs of Catholics from Yarmouth to Provincetown. What happened on ,the Cape would have some effect upon Holy Trinity. Be cause of 'that, what began as a history of a confined area, Hll'r wich, had to be extended, in my judgment, to all of Cape Cod, so ,that the reader might have the proper perspective and an appreciation of how Holy Trinity Church reached its present state." Catholicism was first noted on Cape Cod, reports Father Whe lan, in 1825, when Irish glass workers came to Sandwich to Turn to Page Eight