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DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSjl CAPE & ISLANDS Vol. 27, No. 32
Fall River, Mass., Friday, August 19, 1983
$8 Per Year
'An indescribable joy'
Pope at Lourdes
By Nancy Frazier LOURDES, France (NC)-The sick, the mother of Christ and a 19th century peasant girl were the stars of Pope John Paul fi's Aug. 14-15 visit to Lourdes. Tohe pope devoted one of the final acts of his more than 30 hour visit Ito the world-famous Marian shrine to the sick and crJppled. . Ignoring the warnings of se curity-conscious French police, who had encouraged him to greet the crowds only trom the bullet proof "popemobile," Pope John Paul passed on foot through a throng of 2,000 sick people Aug. 15. !Before leaving France for Rome on Monday, nearly an hour behind schedule, he described the vJslt as "an indescribable joy" and said he would remem ber the 1983 feast of the As sumption as "one of ,the most beautiful of my existence..... The feast of the Assumption, Aug. 15, celebrates the bodily assumption into heaven of the mother of Christ. Pope John Paul's trip marked the first time a reigning pope had vJsited Lourdes. The pope originally had been scheduled to visit Lourdes in July 1981 for the International Eucharistic Congress, but the visit was postponed af,ter the pope was severely wounded in the May 13, 1981, attempt on his life. One of the trip's most drama tic moments came as Pope John Paul kissed many of the sick people who had come to Lourdes in hopes of a cure. Visibly moved and smiling, the pope passed among scores of wheelchairs and stretchers in front of ,the grotto where Mary appeaTed to St. Bernadette Sou birous 18 times' in 1858. "Neither just nor unjust, suf fering Temains, despite partial explanations, difficult to under stand and dimcult to accept even for ,those who have faith," he said. Earlier on Aug. IS, Pope John Paul had celebrated Mass on the shrine's ~eadow for about 250, 000 peop,le. He sa\fi he had made the pil grimage to Lourdes "not only to honor, by this solemnity of the Assumptjon, ,the birth of Mary into heaven, but also to honor the blellsed moment of her earthly birth."
The pope equated the Holy "I am filled with joy to have Year of Redemption, scheduled at last been able to add Lourdes to end next April 22, with Ad ito the chain of Marian shrines vent. ,The Holy Year of Re that I am able to visit through demption "is preparing the out the world in order to pray church for the great jubilee of there with my fellow Christians," the second millennium (of he said at the Tarbes~Ussun air Christ's birth) in the year port, 10 miles from Lourdes, 2000," the pope said. shortly before his departure. , "But Advent is most particu Although 'Pope John Paul vi8 ,Iarly the time of Mary," he said, ited Lourdes at the .invitation of "It is In her alone that the ex church authorities and not as a pectation of 'the whole human guest of the government, he was race concerning the coming of . greeted on arrival by French Christ Teaches its climax." President 'Francois Mitterand, a As part of the preparations for Socialist. French Prime Minister the second,millennium of Chr:ist's Pierre Mauroy attended the de birth, ,the pope suggested that parture ceremonies. the current holy year should also The pope also met for an hour be a commemoration of the with Mitterand Aug. 14 in Tar 2,OOOth anniversary of Mary's bes, France. The topic of Cath birth. The Catholic Church has olic schools ,in France was be no official date for Mary's Heved to have been a key theme. In an address to an estimated birth. Throughout the visit, Pope 200,000 people after a candle John Paul spoke about his faith light procession that evening, in the events at Lourdes 125 Pope John Paul pointedly criti.' years ago and the shr:ine's role cized the Socialist government's In the church as "an exceptional plan to nationalize the Catholic schools. place of grace." Calling for an end to religious P.ope John Paul's first stop throughout the after reaching Lourdes Aug. 14 persecution was at the groUo, where he world, he Hsted among the op drank a glass of the spring pressed groups "parents who are Turn to Page Six water.
Go-ahead to study By JeJTY FUteau
WASHINGTON (NC) The final working plan for a Vatican commissioned study of U.S. seminaries covers everything from the academic and spiritual formation of seminan,ans to such questions as the type of photo copying machines in seminary libraries and their frequency of use. The 103-page plan, the result of nearly two years of consulta tions and development, was re cently approved by the Vatican and was made public Aug: 17 after it had been mailed to the country's bishops, seminary rec tors, and superiors of men's re ligious orders. It establishes comprehensive norms for evaluating a semin ary's effectiveness and sets up two main phases for individual study of each of the nation's Catholic theological seminaries. The first phase will consist of an advance written report in response to an extensive ques-
tionnaire. In it the seminary will provide detailed information on its adminisrative structures and personnel, finances, research fa cilities, faculty qualifications, student body, academic,spiritual and pastoral programs and fu ture planning. The second phase, the heart of the study, will involve three day visits to each seminary by a five-member team of experts composed of two bishops, one religious superior and two priests from seminary facilities. The team will meet with the tocal bishop and seminary trus~ tees, administrators, faculty, students and other designated groups in order to analyze in tlepth the quality and effective ness of the seminary's spiritual, liturgical, pastoral and academic .preparation Of. its students. Those to be interviewed by the visitation team, the study instrument says, should include "a large segment" of priests and laity with whom the seminarians Turn to Page Six
ACTIVE IN the things of the church as she has been throughout her 90 years, Carrie Silveira of St. Mary's parish, South Dartmouth, makes pads for the Rose Hawthorne Lathrop Horne, Fall River. (Rosa Photo)
Always involved
90 years of action
By Pat McGowan
guese, however, was to stand her in good stead later in life. "I have a policy of' always But first, after her gradua being involved." That policy has brought Carrie ,tion from Dartmouth High Silveira of St. Mary's parish, School, she worked in New Bed South Dartmouth, into lively ford clothing stores, often being contact with movements, people driven to work by her father ~n and activities of the church a horse-drawn carriage in the early years. For m while she also throughout her 90 years. She was born .in Oak Bluffs operated her own bridal salon. at a time when ,the Martha's But then came World War II Vineyard town was known as and Uncle Sam beckoned her to Cottage City. The reason for the New York City to translate change, she explains, is that in Portuguese ~etters In the U.S. the 1890s the municipal ,treas 'Office of Censorship. After the urer absconded with ,the town need for censorship ended, she funds, so embarrassing the citi remained in the lBig Apple, work zens that they changed the ing first ~n ,the goverment's Cottage City name in an effort General Accounting Office, then to escape their unwanted noto returning to ,the world of fashion r.iety. via a position at the Arnold Con In 1902 the Silveiras ,left Oak stable emporium. Bluffs for farm life on the main But for Carrie work was more land, where one of little Carrie's or less a backdrop to the exciting jobs was feeding the pigs, a Catholic life of Manhattan in the chore for which she recalls she 40s and early 50s. She met had to stand on a pail because Father James Keller, MM, foun she was so tiny. . der of the Christophers and was Her parents had immigrated later 'to arrange a New Bedford from the Azores in the 1870s, appearance for him; she joined her father from P.ico, her mother an early interrardal study group from Fayal. Only Portuguese was di'rected by famed civil rights
spoken at home with the result advocate ,Father John LaFarge,
that when Carrie and her' six SJ; and frequently slJw Bishop
Fulton J. Sheen, both at St. Pat
younger 'brothers and sisters en rick's Cathedral and as a mem
tered school they knew no Eng lish and got in trouble with ber of the studio audi~nce at his
well-remembered television pro
teachers who thought them dis grams.
obedient when they didn't re spond to instructions. She attended Catholic Evi
Carrie's knowledge of PortuTurn to Page Three'