t eanc 0 VOL. 40, NO. 32
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Friday, August 23, 1996 .
FALL RIVER, MASS.
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Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
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FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSEnS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
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Ortlinaty ~ime Index 15
Daily Readings
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Editorial
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Family Fare
10
Father Dietzen Necrology
7 6
Steering Points
16
Youth News
14
513 Per Year
Pope, looking well, attends lectures on Slavic cultures CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) - Some 60 years after they were high school classmates, Pope John Paul II and Teresa DabekWirgowa were together listening to lectures again. The retired professor of Slavic literature at the University of Warsaw and the 76-year-old pope were with a small group of scholars meeting at Castel Gandolfo to discuss "Contemporary Slavs in the Context of their Myths and Cultural Traditions." Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, who had trained as a medical doctor, said the pope looked well during the Aug. 20 symposium. "The fe.ver is gone and he may even have finished taking the antibiotics which were prescribed," Navarro-Valls told reporters at the Vatican. "He seemed well to me," the spokesman said. The 17 scholars from all over Central Europe - including the pope's secondary school classmate - were presenting formal papers looking at the social, economic and political situations of their countries through the lens oftraditional Slavic culture and myths. "The pope let them talk and talk and talk; he listens," NavarroValls said. "At the end of each session, he made a few comments and asked for some clarifications." Navarro-Valls had just returned from his summer vacation and went to the symposium to see the pope for himself. After complaining of abdominal pain, the pope underwent an abdominal CAT scan Aug. 14 which the Vatican said showed "nothing worthy of note." However, Pope John Paul did miss the Mass he was scheduled to celebrate for the public Aug. 15, the Feast of the Assumption. He kept his midday appointment with pilgrims gathered in the courtyard of his summer residence, leading the Angelus prayer and talking for about 20 minutes. The pope did not stay on the balcony overlooking the courtyard quite as long Aug. 18 and seemed a bit weary. While Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state, said the pope was not feeling well and Vatican Radio reported he was "slightly unwell," the Vatican newspaper blasted the media for exaggerating the pope's health problems.
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Coming of Age
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A SUMMER luncheon for religious women on Cape Cod was held recently at the Coonamessett Inn in Falmouth. The event was sponsored by S1. Elizabeth Seton parish, N. Falmouth. Master of ceremonies for the event was Father Mark R. Hession (top photo). 54 religious and friends attended the event.
Describing how Pope John Paul spent more than a half-hour in the courtyard the evening of Aug. 18 listening to a concert of Spanish folk music, the Vatican newspaper said it was a "sharp contrast to the hoarse voices of the past few day~" which tried to alarm the public about the pope's health.