FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
VOL. 31, NO. 34
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Friday, August 28, 1987
FALL RIVER, MASS.
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Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
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58 Per Yeu
Papal trip mission: to unite U.S. Church
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Related stories may be found on pages 12 and 13.
NC photo
AS A WELCOME for Pope John Paul II, city employee Tom Rotureau hangs the first of 190 banners on utility poles along streets in Columbia, S.c. Columbia is the second stop on the pontiffs upcoming visit to the United States and Canada.
VAT1CAN CITY (NC) - Pope John Paul II's Sept. 10-19 visit to the United States should test his ability to foster unity in a church and society marked by pluralism, freewheeling dissent and an organizational genius for mounting media-attracting protest demonstrations. The theme for the visit to nine dioceses is "Unity in the Work of Service." Yet the trip is likely to be marked by protest demonstrations as Catholic and other special .interest groups use papal events as platforms for expressing their grievances. But Vatican and U.S. organizers of the trip are confident that the pope will take any protests in stride and, despite them, strengthen the religious identity of U.S. Catholics. Papal advisers say the pope is aware of the potential for protests all along his route. "The United States is an articulate society. People are used to putting their case out in the open. There is no reason to expect they won't do this during the pope's trip," said Vatican press spokes- . man Joaquin Navarro-Valls. Russell Shaw, public information officer for the U.S. bishops, said the possibility even exists that dissenting opinions will be presented directly to the pope during the structured dialogues with specific groups. Under the norms for papal tri ps, people selected to give talks to the pope in the name of their group
are required to submit prepared texts in advance so the pope has the opportunity to respond to spe_cific points in his speech. Normally, these texts do not contain criticisms of specific papal positions, but raise issues of general concern to the group and ask for papal comment. But there is nothing to prevent speakers from issuing criticisms in their speeches or in departures from their prepared texts at the event, Shaw said. "It's an obvious fact that there are a lot of divisions" among U.S. Catholics, he said. • On previous papal trips, speakers have departed from prepared texts to air criticisms. The pope is unbowed by this and will not change church positions to accommodate dissenters, said Navarro-Valls. "In the past, the pope hasn't tailored his message to protest groups and he won't in the United States," he said. "The pope will preach a Gospel message to Catholics and others who want to listen," Navarro-Valls added. U.S. Catholic officials say a core element of the divisions is the confusion among many U. S. Catholics as they try to live their faith within the context of U.S. society. Shaw says that much confusion is a result of most Catholics "assimilating like wildfire" into the U.S. mainstream at a time when there is a moral revolution going on in the United States. "Catholics a:e becoming like everyone else at a time when every-
one else is becoming alienated to religious values," he said. "It is also a time when within the church there is a lot of theological dissent. People who are not theologians pick up ideas anti~he~~cal to Catholic ways of behavmg, he added. Shaw divides U.S. Catholics into three main groups: - Catholics who live by U.S. cultural values even when they come into conflict with traditional Catholic values. - Catholics trying to live by traditional church values and who see these embodied in the current pope and other strong Catholic leaders who reaffirm basic truths. - The third and largest group is composed of "good, sincere, confused Catholics trying to live their lives as good Catholics and good Americans." The pope is unlikely to chan~e people in the first two groups, said Shaw. "But the presence, even brief, of an articulate, attractive, persuasive spokesman can make a difference with the third group," he added. Navarro-Valls said U.S. church divisions also stem from failure by many to maintain the unity between Catholic social and personal morality by emphasizing or practicing only one. "Don't make the church schizophrenic. Social and personal mo~ ality are both a part of Cathohc life and come from the same values," Navarro-Valls added. "When the pope speaks about Turn to Page Six
Active laity seen as Rome synod approaches WASHINGTON(NC)- When Pope John Paul II convenes the world Synod of Bishops on the laity this October in Rome, one of the freshest images in his mind will be the Catholics he had just met in his IO-day visit to the United States Sept. 10-19. The theme of the Rome synod, which is to run Oct. 1-30, is "The Vocation and Mission of the Laity in the Church and in the World." What will the pope see on his U.S. trip? What do Catholics along the papal route think and feel? What would they like to see happen at the synod in Rome or in church dealings with lay people in the United States? Lay leaders who were interviewed by National Catholic News Service this summer in papal visit cities across the country described a
vibrant, active U.S. Catholic laity - a laity strongly committed to the church even if critical of some positions, self-starting but also looking for training and guidance. They described a laity that is community oriented and involved in both social action and ecc1esial ministry. Indifference and alienation were there, too - often expressed, especially by women, in terms of feeling undervalued or unneeded, or in terms of personal disagreement with church positions on such issues as sexual morality, the role of women, priestly celibacy or social justice. Marsha Whelan of Miami, first stop on the papal visit, said she would like to say "at least two things" to the Rome synod: "E~ phasize the role of the lay people 10
evangelization" and "really, really look at the role of women in the church," Ms. Whelan, Miami archdiocesan evangelization dirl;.ctor and president of the National Council for Catholic Evangelization, said consultations for an archdiocesan synod currently underway in Miami have produced lively discussion of generally 'controversial church issues such as women's role in the church and sexual morality. Among local church issues, the role of the laity in the parish was a central concern, she said. Margaret Robinson, a Miami synod participant, parish eucharistic minister and full-time volunteer in the archdiocesan papal visit office, said she agreed "100 percent" with the pope on issues such as women's ordination, but she
strongly supports greater lay involvement in ministry within current church rules. Citing her own experience as a eucharistic minister, she said that not only does lay ministry serve other people but "it does something major" to the person who gets involved in ministry. When Pope John Paul goes to Columbia, S.c., Sept. 11 in the Diocese of Charleston, he will be in the most rural and sparsely Catholic diocese of his visit. It is an area that abounds with tales of lay people doing the day-to-day work of parishes because there aren't enough priests to go around. "These people don't ask. They do it and they tell you what they just finished," said Trinitarian Father Vernon Danenmann, who heads Catholic churches in Ward
and Batesburg, rural parishes 15 miles apart in the west central part of the state. Rick Beben, a parish religious education director in the New Orleans Archdiocese, sees the rapidly growing lay involvement in recent years partly as "necessity - we don't have the priests, brothers and sisters" that used to be available to fill almost any fulltime churchjob. But he adds, "Even if the seminaries were filled tomorrow and all the empty convents were full, the laity should still be playing an integral role," Lay people in ministry are now "less a novelty and more accepted for their competency," Despite wide publicity given to Turn to Page 11