FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS VOL. 36, NO. 33
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Friday, August 23, 1991
F ALL RIVER, MASS.
Pope tours Poland, Hungary
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$11 Per Year
Brief Gorbachev ouster nightmare for Vatican
By Catholic News Service Pope John Paul II has returned to Vatican City after a whirlwind Aug. 13 to 20 tour of Poland and Hungary, climaxed Aug. 19 with the news of the Soviet coup that briefly deposed President Mikhail Gorbachev, now back in the Kremlin. The pope used a Soviet-built helicopter to fly around Hungary Aug. 16 to 20 and prescribe religion as the binding force for the new foundations of Eastern Europe. He said that promotion of religious :values can foster unity and help prevent the spread of ideologies which destroy society. He warned Hungarians that . stepping into political freedom after decades of communism will not automatically solve their economic and social problems. In Hungary the pope was met on Aug. 18 by representatives of the largest Jewish community in Eastern Europe who said the Hungarian Catholic leadership "did not denounce publicly" the massive deportation to Nazi concentration camps of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews during World War II. "Had they broken the silence, and ceased their indifference, who knows what would have happened," said a statement read to the pope by Rabbi Peter Kardos, representing the 80,000-member Hungarian Jewish community. The Jewish delegation decided to make the criticism despite Vatican efforts to get them to change it, said Jewish leaders. But Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls Turn to Page 10
Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
F ALLEN TREE branches surround statue of Our Lady at St. Mary's Cathedral, Fall River, in wake of Hurricane Bob. (Hickey photo)
.Cape Cod parishes meet Hurricane B'ob challenge With CNS reports Parishes the length of the Cape Cod peninsula opened their doors to people evacuated from lowlying areas in the path of Hurricane Bob, and kept up a steady flow of assistance as recovery work began. Days after the powerful storm flattened trees, shredded roofs and tossed boats ashore, some churches still were providing shelter and meals for those whose homes were damaged or who had no electricity.
Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket were hardest-hit, with Massachusetts Gov. William Weld estimating the cost of repairs in his state at $1 billion. In Fall River, falling trees damaged an iron fence at St. Mary's Cathedral and windows were broken at the diocesan health facilities office. Trees also were uprooted at the chancery complex, which includes Bishop Daniel A. Turn to Page 10
VATICAN CITY (CNS) When hard line communists attempted to remove Mikhail Gorbachev as president of the Soviet Union, the Vatican almost lost a key ally in the struggle to bring full religious freedom to Soviet Catholics. Gorbachev's abrupt departure from power Aug. 19 - and his apparent return to power just days later - was in many ways a nightmare scenario for top church officials. The developments had threatened to close a six-year chapter of religious reform in the Soviet Union. Those reforms came in under the wing of Gorbachev's "perestroika" program of social restructuring, and reflected his view that religion was no longer an enemy. Gorbachev's t<,:mporary ouster also had placed a cloud over religious affairs in Eastern Europe, where the fall of communism in former Soviet satellites has given local churches a new lease on life. Pope John Paul II met with Gorbachev twice at the Vatican and both times greeted him as a· man who could be trusted to deliver on his promises and who deserved public support. The pope could point to a number of concrete gains for the church under Gorbachev's leadership: - A freedom of religion law in 1990 which rolled back decades of communist restrictions on churches, including those against religious instruction and freedom of association. - The legalization of the 5million-member Ukrainian Catholic Church, along with the restitution of some of its churches and other properties. - The exchange of diplomatic
representatives, which allowed the Vatican to undertake a much-needed census of the church in Soviet lands and begin reorganizing its hierarchy there. - An invitation for the pope to visit the country, a trip which had been foreseen for next year or 1993. - Growing recognition, in policy statements by Soviet officials, that religion represents a cultural strength. For these and other reasons, the pope and the Vatican were some of Gorbachev's loudest cheerleaders, even when he was under fire at home for failed domestic policies. In 1985, reacting to Gorbachev's election as head of the Communist Party, the Vatican newspaper said the 'move opened "a new era for the Soviet Union." This optimism - shared by few observers at the time - was borne out as Gorbachev introduced dramatic social changes. especially in the area of human ri~hts. A breakthrough occurred in 1988, when Gorbachev welcomed a top-level church delegation to Moscow for ceremonies commemorating the millennium of Christianity in what is now the Soviet Union. Early 1989 saw the restoration of the Lithuanian hierarchy, the return of the Vilnius cathedral and the freeing of a Lithuanian archbishop from house arre~t. In that period, the then-Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, summed up what Gorbachev meant to the church: "We are always ready to dialogue. What was lacking was a partner. now a partner exists." In his first meeting with Gorbachev in late 1989, the pope in effect Turn to Page 10
A "tall gringo" adapts to life in Latin America By Marcie Hickey .The Emmaus retreat programfor young adults, runfrom Cathedral Camp in East Freetown, is designed to help young adults deepen their faith and develop their relationship with Christ. The program takes its name from the town near Jerusalem cited in the Gospel of Luke. En route to the town, two disciples encounter a stranger, and only after walking, talking and breaking bread with him do they realize he'is the risen Christ. Like the Gospel story, the retreat program emphasizes recognition of Christ in the stranger. For some members of the Emmaus community that has meant a call to live the Gospel in a challenging way: to find the face of Jesus among strangers inforeign lands. For·them the road to Emmaus has led beyond the Fall River diocese: to Costa Rica and Ecuador, where Sean Sheehan has worked with the disabled in two Peace Corps assignments; to Mexico, where Rayleen Giannotti worked in a shelter for migrants; and to Zimbabwe, where Kathy Sullivan Westgate spent six months assisting in a mission hospital. A II three recently shared their experiences with the A nchor, and their stories will appear consecutively, beginning with this issue.
A TOUCH OF HOME? Though Sean Sheehan spends most of his time in Latin America, he found this tropicallooking nook at St. Mary's rectory in Fairhaven. (Hickey photo)
Sean Sheehan knew three Spanish words when he embarked on his present career in 1987: "Si, no and no gracias." But that limited vocabulary did
not deter the native of Our Lady of the Cape parish, Brewster, from accepting a Peace Corps posting to Costa Rica, where the three words had to go a long way as the
"tall gringo" learned the language and adjusted to Central American culture. Drawing on the background he Turn to Page Nine