FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
VOL. 31, NO. 32
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Friday, August 14, 1987
FALL RIVER, MASS.
Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
58 Per Year
Jewish dialogue planned
K of'C endorse Bork NEW ORLEANS (NC) - The Knights of Columbus, at an Aug. 4-6 meeting in New Orleans, endorsed the nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court. At the 105th annual meeting of the Supreme Council, the Knights passed resolutions on abortion and sex education and received messages from Pope John Paul II, President Reagan and Mother Teresa of Calcutta. They also reelected directors, including Supreme Knight Virgil C. Dechant. The Catholic fraternal society's top policy a'nd law-making body issued a resolution saying that Bork's record shows the controversial judge "to be exceptionally well-qualified for the position ... ; having the proper judicial temperament, intellectual power and breadth of legal experience." Elmer Von Feldt, director of public information, called the resolution on Bork unusual because, he said, the Knights "ordinarily try to stay clear" of appearing to take part in partisan politics. But, in this case, he said, "it's a question of public morality and values. We do stand up for values, we do not consider that partisan politics." The resolution urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to report favorably on Bork's appointment and asked the Senate to confirm the nomination so that the Supreme Court will not begin its fall session with a vacancy. Turn to Page Six
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MARY, the feast of whose Assumption into heaven is tomorrow, must have appreciated the plight of another young mother attempting to combine art appreciation with handling a wiggling youngster. (NCjKNA photo)
WASHINGTON (NC) - U.S. Catholic officials and some Jewish leaders hope a planned meeting between Vatican officials and Jewish representatives will help ease strained relations between the two groups. What will be discussed at the meeting and its date have not been set, although officials from both sides expect the meeting to be in late August. Vatican-jewish relations have been strained since Pope John Paul II met June 25 with Austrian President Kurt Waldheim, who has been accused of Nazi wartime activities in Yugoslavia. After the Waldheim meeting, some Jewish leaders threatened not to attend a meeting scheduled with the pope in Miami Sept. 11. In San Francisco, marchers including survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camp - picketed a papal visit fundraiser, and Archbishop John R. Quinn issued a four-page letter defending the pope's meeting with Waldheim. The Vatican invitation to Jewish leaders was from Cardinal Johannes Willebrands to Rabbi Mordecai Waxman, chairman of the international Jewish Commitee on Interreligious Consultations. Cardinal Willebrands is president of the Vatican Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity and the Commission for Religious Relations with Jews. Eugene J. Fisher, executive secreTum to Page Six
Bishops to help enforce regional peace plan GUATEMALA CITY (NC)Catholic bishops will playa role in the implementation of the new regional peace plan signed in Guatemala City by the presidents of five Central American nations. Bishops in each of the countries - Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica - will be members of their countries' National Reconciliation Commissions to oversee compliance "in matters of amnesty, ceasefire, democratization and free elections." The peace plan, signed Aug. 7, outlines measures to take effect in each country within 90 days. These include a general ceasefire, amnesty for guerrilla forces, internal democratization and prohibition on the use of one country's territory for aggression against another country.
In calling for "complete freedom for television, radio and the press," the plan also will affect Nicaragua's Radio Catolica, the Catholic radio station closed by the Nicaraguan government in December 1985' for failure to broadcast a speech by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. Under the agreement, Nicaragua and the other Central American nations must comply with a section calling for "the opening and continued operation of communications media for all ideological groups and the operation of those media without their being subject to prior censure." According to the agreement, each government must formally invite the local bishops' conference to suggest the names of several bishops as possible delegates to the commission. The govern-
ments will choose one bishop as a national- cathedral prior to the delegate and another as an alter- signing of the accord, Archbishop nate delegate to the commissions. Prospero Penados del Barrio of Each national commission will Guatemala City told the five presinclude one bishop, one delegate idents to be wary of pressure from representing the government, one The United States and the Soviet delegate from an opposition polit- Union and to seek a lasting ical party and one citizen inde- regional peace through their own pendent of the government. effects. In addition, the United Nations, "You are the ones responsible the Organization of American for peace, and you must build the States, foreign ministers of Cen- peace in Centrai' America," the tral America and the Contad ora archbishop said. Group - Mexico, Panama, Colombia and Venezuela - will "It is dramatic to see how our be asked to take part in an interna- world has become polarized around tional verification commission to the superpowers and ,how they monitor the progress of the peace don't direct their actions towards a plan. search for truth or the welfare of Some observers have said the peoples, but rather toward the plan contains no mechanism to daily, total and undeniable consolbring about a ceasefire in regional idation of their destructive powguerrilla wars. ers," said Archbishop Penados. During a Mass in Guatemala's "You are the victims of the pres-
sure that they (superpowers) exercise," he told the presidents. "We are all conscious of the fact that many of the political options which perhaps could lead to solutiol}s must be submitted for approval to those who have the power and wish to impose their will." The archbishop told the presidents to seek "strength in unity" and "to resist the temptation of giving in to Machiavellian proposals which rather than help politically are detrimental to the happiness, the freedom, and the (mutual) respect of our peoples." Signers of the peace accord were Ortega, Guatemalan President Vinicio Cerezo, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez, Honduran President Jose Azcona and Salvadoran President Jose Napoleon Duarte.