FALL RIVER DIOCESAN PAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
t eanc 0 VOL. 25, NO. 33
20c, $6 Per Year
FALL RIVER, MASS., THURSDAY; AUGUST 13, 1981
Recovering pope anxious for action
DARTH VADOR of Star Wars infamy will attempt to take over Sacred Hearts Seminary, Wareham, as a highlight of the retreat center's annual family fair. Will evil triumph? Come and find out, say center officials.
LOVt! By Pat McGowan "Once people come, they keep coming." That's how Jim Civilinski of S1. Margaret's parish, Buzzards Bay, sums up the appeal of Sacred Hearts Seminary, Wareham. Established in 1943 as a seminary for the Sacred Hearts community, the 125-acre waterfront property is now also a retreat and conference center. It offers sun, sea breezes, roiling meadows and privacy for contemplation and introspection. So do many places. The pluses at Sacred Hearts and the reas,:>ns 250 people are going to sp'~nd the weekend of Aug. 22 and 23 running an old-fashioned family fair for its benefit are two in number. They are Brothers Joseph Fandel and Damien O'Hare, workaholics both, who routinely put in IS-hour days maintaining buildings and grounds, cutting grass, lending a hand with retreat cooking and doing a superb public relations job in the Cape Cod community. On a recent sunny morning Brother Damien took time from all that to show visitors around the seminary's 35-room main house and its spacious grounds. The complex, including a boathouse, stables and assorted outbuildings, was built in 1928 by the late Robert Herrick, a E:oston attorney who was U.S. ambassador to France during the presidency of Frankin Delano Roosevelt. The president stayed
makes it work at the house several times during his term of office, noted Brother Damien. The estate was later turned over by Herrick to Massachusetts General Hospital for possible use as a convalescent home. The plan never left the drawing boards, however, and in 1943 the buildings and grounds were purchased by the late Bishop James E. Cassidy and turned over to the Sacred Hearts community. They were dedicated as a seminary later that year. In recent years the estate has' also' become a spot for parish picnics and other events. Parishioners of St. Stanislaus Church, Fall River, held a day of recollection and a retreat there this week, for instance. Marriage and Engaged Encounter couples, Teens Encounter Christ and various ecumenical and family groups lrom as far away as Virginia have also used the facilities said Brother Damien. The house can accommodate about 40 people in double bedrooms, he said, and numbers are more flexible when teens and children are willing to bed down in sleeping bags. The estate grounds include a large corral, now a convenient parking area, that formerly held the Irish horses favored by Herrick. There are also tennis and handball oourts and a beautiful private beach overlooked by a boathouse. Among many small islands visible from the beach is a former holding island for lepers.
"They were kept there until they could be taken to the federal leprosarium in Louisiana," explained Brother Damien, "and as late as the 1930s the Sacred Hearts fathers from Fairhaven would go there by boat to say Mass for them." The historical vignette provided an interesting link between the diocesan Sacred Hearts community and the famous Father Damien of Molokai, also a Sacred Hearts Father, who spent his life caring for lepers of the Hawaiian Islands. Nowadays the former estate is as busy as ever it was in the days it hosted a president; and presiding over its comings and goings are Bmthers Damien and Joe. Several years ago, their hospitality and "fantastic courtesy" to a visiting group from St. Patrick's parish, Wareham, within whose boundaries the estate lies, gave rise to the family fairs. Civilinski, then in St. Patrick's parish and a member of that group, said "We got to love the place and what it stands for. -But we soon realized that the brothers needed physical and monetary assistance. We got together a permanent committee of about 12 people from the Cape and New Bedford and called ourslves Friends of the Sacred Hearts. We started out with suppers and sales, that sort of thing. Then we decided to have one big fair instead of many small events. Turn to Page Ten
VATICAN CITY -(NC) - Four days after Pope John Paul II underwent a second intestinal operation at the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, his voice was strong and clear in an Angelus message taped from his hospital bed. The pontiff prayed that "no one may lack bread" in his native Poland and noted the third anniversary of the death of Pope Paul VI. Vatican sources said preparations had been completed at the papal summer residence in Castelgandolfo, about 15 miles south of Rome, for the pope's arrival for a two-month period of further recuperation from an assassination attempt May 13. In a medical bulletin Aug. 8 Pope John Paul's nine physicians said that their patient's "postoperative progress is proceeding regularly ... The general conditions remain good." The pope began taking liquids orally Aug. 7 and his intravenous feedings ended shortly afterwards. But one member of the papal
medical
team, Dr. Giancarlo feared that Pope John Paul may not allow himself sufficient time to recover fully from his injuries. "He is full of projects, of good ideas," said Castiglione.- "But like every patient he too has to convalesce. I am convinced that he will not spare himself and therefore our concern is that he wants to begin too soon." It was reported that the pope spoke with his doctors 15 minutes after being wheeled into the recovery room following Aug. 5 surgery to reverse his colostomy. An Italian newspaper said he opened his eyes, smiled and said to his doctors: "Thank you once again. I bless you." According to Vatican Radio, the pontiff recited the breviary and concelebrated Mass on the very afternoon of the operation. About 6 p.m. on Aug. 5, said Vatican Radio, the pope, lying in his bed, concelebrated Mass with Secretary of State Cardinal Agostino Casaroli and one of the pope's personal secretaries, Father Stanislaus Dziwisz. Castiglio~i,
time' Scouts were doing good deeds for each other last weekend. Members of St. Anne's parish, Fall River, including Boy and Girl Scouts, sheltered and fed 22 boys and five adult leaders from a Dalton, III. troop after their bus broke down on Route 24 in Tiverton. Father John R. Foister, St. Anne's pastor and Fall River fire department chaplain, was alerted to the boys' plight by the Somerset disaster team late last Friday afternoon. He went to the breakdown site. By that time the youngsters had been waiting on the highway six hours as mechanics tried fruitlessly to repair their bus. Passersby had provided soft drinks but it was a weary bunch of Scouts that Father FoIster loaded into his chaplain's wagon and transported to S1. Anne's school. There Girl Scouts joined the action as mothers waiting for their daughters to return from a parish-sponsored camping trip were hastily pressed into service to obtain fast food chicken dinners for the Scouts.
Meanwhile Father FoIster returned to the highway to pick up the Scouts' sleeping bags and knapsacks, aided by S1. Anne Boy Scout Michael Michno. Then the Girl Sqrut campers returned, led by Mrs. Michael Michno, Michael's mother. "We had been camping all week and we were exhausted," she said, "but we were put right to work." With parents and assorted siblings, the Girl Scouts formed a human chain to transport the boys' gear into St. Anne's School. "The boys were eating and we didn't want their dinner to get cold," explained Mrs. Michno maternally. In the school other volunteers had set up cots from S1. Anne's nursery school for the boys. Next morning Mrs. Michno led the Girl Scout mothers in preparing blueberry pancakes for the boys and their leaders. Then, as efforts continued to get them back on the road, they toured the battleship Massachusetts and the Marine Museum and played baseball with St. Anne Turn to Page Seven