08.09.96

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t eanc 0 VOL. 40, NO. 30 •

Friday, August 9, 1996

FALL RIVER, MASS.

FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST' MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly

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513 Per Year

THE "SUIGIDE DOCTOR," Jack Kevorkian speaks to the National Press Club last week in Washington. The doctor who has been involved with 34 assisted suicides, criticized religion and defended his actions. (CNS/ Roller photo)

Protest~

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. oj" Ortlitulnj tr~ Index Coming of Age

15

Daily Readings

5

Editorial

4

Family Fare Father Dietzen Necrology

1.0 6 6

Steering Points

13

Youth News

14 " .

greet Kevorkian address at National Press Club

WASHINGTOl'/ (CNS) - As "suicide d.octor" Jack Kevorkian delivered a speech at the National Press Club criticizing religion in general and the Catholic Church in particular, a dozen protesters outside condemned what they called' his attacks 'on human life and human dignity. "This week happens to be the sixth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a law confirming our right to a life with dignity and value," said Mary Jane Owen, head ofthe National Catholic Office for Persons with Disabilities, at the July 29 protest in Washington. Kevorkian, who has been present for at least 34 suicides since 1990, "is the man who is promoting that we (persons with disabilities) have no dignity and no value," she said. Owen, who is blind, partially deaf and in a wh~elchair, organized the protest and was joined by leaders from the American Life League and the Cbristian Defense Coalition. "He has killed people like me - I felt I had to be here," she said. . The protesters distributed leaf-

'Iets to passers-by detailing recent assisted-suicide cases involving Kevorkian, and several carried signs proclaiming"Doctors Should Not Kill' or "Kevorkian Stop the Killing." A numbl:r of the protesters attempted to enter the National Press Club building before Kevorkian's talk, but were quickly turned away. In his talk, Kevorkian said "all religion is irrational" and argued that Catholicism and other religions have undue influence on the U.S. government. "The pope has his' hands on our neck. He's wringing it," he said. "I'm not against the pope, but I know he has a grip - no, he controls - the Michigan Supreme Court." Kevorkian and his attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, roundly criticized the court system and the Legislature in Michigan, which have repeatedly tried to curtail the retired pathologist's activities in the state. They call1:d religion "mythology" that should have no influence on society or on societal institutions like medicine. . Just as priests and rabbis should

not tell architects how to practice their profession, they should likewise not impose their beliefs on the field of medicine, Kevorkian said. "Rational medical practice (should be) devoid ofreligious mythology," he said.

"I'm basically agnostic," he added. "I'm not against religion, but when you force it on me as law, I'm against it." Kevorkian also said Christ's birth in a stable and his painful death on Turn to Page Eight

Church mourns loss' of two bishops CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy spects no one and nothing, Algeria (CNS) - Pope John Paul II said a more than ever needs peacemakers bishop murdered in Algeria must and brotherhood," the pope said. become a seed of hope for Al- "May God move the Christians and Muslims there to gather togerians. Bishop Pierre Lucien Claverie, gether and imitate the witness of 58, of Oran, Algeria, "was the vic- Bishop Claverie." tim of an unjustifiable and inhuBishop Claverie and his chaufman attack in that same land where feur were killed Aug. I when a gas he lived part of his life at the ser- canister, ignited by remote convice of the tiny Catholic commun- trol, exploded near his front porch. ity," Pope John Paul said Aug. 4. Authorities suspected that Is"His martyrdom must become lamic rebels, seeking to establish a the seed of love and the reason of new government in Algeria, staged hope," the pope said during his the attack to draw attention to regular Sunday Angelus address their cause during a visit to Algiers at his summer residence in Castel by French Foreign Minister Herve Gandolfo. de Charette. "In the face of.violence that reTurn to Page Eight


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08.09.96 by The Anchor - Issuu