'FALL RIVER DIO,CESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS .AP .&'l'l'tEISLANDS" . VOL. 33, NO. 30
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Friday, August 4, 1989
FALL RIVER, MASS.
Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
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Cardinal Ratzinger sees risk in bishops' conferences
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IN 1959, Mother Angeline, left, visited the Catholic Memorial Home in Fall River for the silver jubilee celebration of Mother Cecilia Helen, right, then the home superior, (Anchor file photo)
Mother Angeline's -canonization eyed Permission has been granted to the Carmelite sisters for the Aged and Infirm, who operate the Catholic Memorial Home in Fall River, to proceed with the cau!!e for canonization of their foundress, .Mother M. Angeline Teresa McCrory. Word of the action by the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints came on July 15 from Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of Albany, N.Y., in whose diocese the community's motherhouse is located. Mother Angeline died Jan. 21, 1984, on her 9lst birthday, at St. Teresa's Motherhouse in Germantown, N.Y. Bishop Hubbard presided at her funeral Mass on Jan. 25 and Bishop Daniel A. Cronin was among concelebrants. Born in County Tyrone, Ireland, Mother Angeline later moved with her family to Scotland where she entered the Little Sisters of the Poor. In 1912 she went to France for study and made her first profession of vows in 1915. She was transferred to Brooklyn, N. Y., later that year. After discussing her concerns for the aged with the late Cardinal Patrick Hayes of New York, Mother Angeline founded her Carmelite order in 1929. The order began with seven members and now has nearly 300. They staff 29 residences for the elderly in the United States and one in Dublin, Ireland. Mother Angeline was the order's mother general,for 49 years until poor health caused her to retire. She received numerous awards
and honors for her work with the elderly, including the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice award from Pope John XXIII and the Benemerenti Award from Pope Paul VI. In 1978 her community honored her with a "Universal Decree of Recognition." It decreed and declared "for airtime'; that Mother Angeline was forever Superior General Emerita of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm and "is acclaimed throughout the whole church as the true and only Turn to Page Six
ROME (CNS) - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican's top doctrinal official, said bishops' conferences have some "legislative competence" but said such conferences could interfere with the governing of individual dioceses. Cardinal Ratzinger said his fear was that "anonymous and collective government could substitute the personal responsibility ofbishops" and "fragment the spiritual identity of the universal church." , The cardinal, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, made the comments in an interview published July 30 by the Rome newspaper II Messaggero. The status and authority of bishops' conferences is under study by the doctrinal congregation and other Vatican departments. In 1988, a first draft of a Vatican document outlining limits of the 'role of such conferences was sharply criticized by bishops in the United States and elsewhere. "A certain legislative competence of bishops' conferences does exist and corresponds to the true diversity of situations," Cardinal Ratzinger was quoted as saying in the interview. "The real problem is deeper. The bureaucratic organization of bishops' conferences could damage the freedom of the bishop in governing his diocese, as well as the free development of decisions' during assemblies of bishops," he said. The cardinal expressed apprehension that the "anonymous power" of conferenceS could "fragment the spiritual identity of the universal church and create particular identities that are sometimes opposed to each other." In more general remarks, Car-
dinal Ratzinger said "authority in . inplaees such as his native West the church is in crisis" because the Germany, the protests also reveal concept of authority is under a desire to "reject Rome" and to attack. The trend in the church, he stake out an independent position. On other topics, Cardinal Ratsaid, reflects a "mistaken egalitarzinger said: ianism" found in modern society. As part of the solution, he sug- The "drastic requests" comgested that "authorities themselves ing from excommunicated Archneed to re-learn to be authorities." bishop Marcel Lefebvre's Priestly That means church leaders should Society of St. Pius X indicate there make clear that the person in au- is no chance the Vatican can bring thority is not simply exercising his it back into the fold. will, "but is obeying the Lord's He said the breakaway society is will," he said. still pressing for negotiations but Commenting on groups oftheo- only on its own narrow terms. logians who have recently chal- Efforts to integrate the self-styled lenged the Vatican, the cardinal "traditionalist" group were broken said the protests involve compli- off when Archbishop Lefebvre orcated issues dealing with the dained four other bishops and was church's teaching authority, the excommunicated in 1988. reforms of the Second Vatican "I cannot see, at the moment, Council and the role of the indiTurn to Page Six vidual conscience. But he said that I
Divine Worship Office established by bishop Bishop Daniel A. Cronin has appointed Rev. Jon-Paul Gallant, .S.L.L., director ofa newly-established Diocesan Office for Divine Worship. Father Gallant will also serve as chairman of the Diocesan Commission for Divine Worship and will retain his position as parochial vicar of Holy Name parish, New Bedford. As commission chairman, he succeeds Father James F. Lyons, pastor of St. Patrick parish,Wareham. The appointments were effective Aug. I. Father Gallant holds a licentiate in sacred liturgy from the Pontifi-
cal Liturgical Institute in Rome, where he chose. the sacrament of penance as a thesi!l topic. In the thesis he explored the historical development of the sacrament from its origins in Scripture through its use in the early, medieval and preVatican II church. He continued to a textual study of the current rite of reconciliation, showing how its prayers reflect the theological revision of the sacrament decreed by the fathers of . Vatican II. Explaining the difference between the Diocesan Commission for Divine Worship, which has existed for years, and the new Office for Divine Worship, Father Gallant said that the commission, which includes members of the diocese schooled in liturgy, liturgical art and sacred music, functions in an advisory capacity to Bishop Cronin. When the bishop accepts guidelines or directives suggested by commission members, it will be the function of Father Gallant's office to implement them. The office will also implement rulings coming from the National Conference of Catholic Bishops or from the Vatican. It will, for example, be involved in introduction of a new rite for'funerals expected to be promulgated in November, said Father Gallant. Summing up the function ofthe new office, Father Gallant quoted Pope John XXIII, who compared liturgy to "the village fountain," continually providing fresh water to those who draw from it. "The church provides the founTurn to Page 16