09.30.88

Page 1

FAll RIVIR DIOCESAN NEWSPAPE FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUS

C VOL. 32, NO. 39

.' Friday, September 30,1988

FALL RIVER, MASS.

.&

Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly

S10 Per Year

Candidates discuss abortion, death penalty WASHINGTON (NC) - Vice President George Bush and Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, in the first of two televised debates, discussed their positions on abortion and the death penalty in response to questions from reporters. The initial debate, held Sept. 25 at Wake Forest University in

Winston-Salem, N .c., also included a reference to an 8-year-old lawsuit seeking to strip the Catholic Church in the United States of its tax exemption. Bush, the Republican nominee for president, mentioned the lawsuit when discussing his disagreement with positions of the American Civil Liberties Union. "I don't

Reconciliation rite at St. Patrick's NEWYORK(NC)- The morning after two people were killed inside St. Patrick Cathedral, Cardinal John J. O'Connor of New York, dressed in purple vestments signifying penitence, led a rite reconciling the church to its purpose as a place of worship. Catholics "cannot stand by and ignore an act of violence that goes against the very nature" of why the church building was designed, said Msgr. Alan F. Detscher, associate director ofthe U.S. bishops'liturgy committee in Washington. "When a church is consecrated, it is set aside for sacred use as a place of worship," Msgr. Detscher said. "An act of violence goes against the sanctity ofthe church." A man with a history of mental iIIness injured a police officer and beat an elderly usher to death Sept. 21 at St. Patrick's. Another officer shot and killed the attacker, 32-year-old Jorge Delgado. Before the 8 a.m. Mass Sept. 22, Cardinal O'Connor led an estimated 300 people in the rite of reconciliation of a desecrated or profaned church. The rite is used when violence and bloodshed, particularly a murder, occur within the church building. The rite, which is conducted in sorrow, Msgr. Detscher said, is an occasion "to acknowledge what happened and that it was an act of evil." Acts requiring the rite of reconciliation, according to canon law, are those which "scandalize the faithful and are so serious and contrary to the holiness of the place... that it is not licit to perform acts of worship in them until the harm is repaired." The text of the rite currently is being revised by the Vatican, Msgr. Detscher said. The Sept. 22 celebration of the rite was the first time it had been used in St. Patrick's I09-year history, said an archdiocesan spokesman. The same rite was used in 1985 at St: Patrick Church in Onalaska, Wis., after a man who reportedly objected to girls reading the Scriptures at Mass shot and· killed the pastor and two lay employees. The church was closed for a

weekend and Bishop John Paul of La Crose, Wis., the diocese in which Onalaska is located, celebrated the rite of reconciliation. As Cardinal O'Connor sprinkled holy water throughout the church Turn to Page Six

think they're right to try to take . the tax exemption away from the Catholic Church," Bush said. The lawsuit was filed not by the ACLU but by Abortion Rights Mobilization, an unrelated organization. An ACLU official said the next day that the ACLU has not taken a position on the merits of the lawsuit. The two candidates discussed their views on abortion and the death penalty after Dukakis was asked if there was a conflict between his support for abortion and his opposition to the death penalty News stories relating to national, state or local political campaigns are reported for their news value and are not intended to constitute statements of endorsement or of opposition to any candidate.

The Anchor

since many people consider both as forms of kiIIing. "No, I don't think that there is [a conflict]," the governor answered. "There are two very different issues here, and they've got to be dealt with separately. I'm opposed to the death penalty; I think everybody knows that." Bush said that "I think most

Seminaries praised, houses hit WASHINGTON (NC) - A top Vatican official has given high marks to' U.S. college seminaries but urged the nation's bishops to shut down their very small priestly formation houses, especially those linked to secular colleges.

I

StORE VOLUNTEERS include manager Mary A. Mayall, center, and, from left, Rose Remillard, Eva Bourgeois, Yvonne Cyr and Marie Bussiere. (Motta photo)

Doing better than okay By Joseph Motta Question: What are a bunch of grandmas and great-grandmas doing in New Bedford? Answer: Working hard to make a success of their store and loving every minute of it. The mostly-senior-eitizens working at the St. Vincent de Paul Society's Catholic Salvage Bureau in New Bedford's North End are managed by 78-years-young Mary Mayall of that city's Holy Name parish. "I'm not looking for any honors," the senior told The Anchor when approached for an interview. "I do this for the store." Mrs. Mayall, 51 years the bride of AI Mayall, mother of two sons and grandmother to one young man, said the store was founded about 35 years ago by the late Father John F. Hogan at a site

people know my position on the sanctity of life. I favor adoption. I do not favor abortion." Dukakis called abortion "a very difficult issue, one that I think we all have to wrestle with, we have to come to terms with." "I don't favor abortion," DukaTurn to Page Six

across the street from its present Mary was thrilled to make another location. couple of bucks for the church. The manager has been involved The store's best months, she rewith the business for about 27 ported, are April and October, years, starting when she worked as with cooler weather bringing in a part of a Ladies' Guild contin- more customers. gent from her parish. She became Mrs. Mayall has met a lot of manager 17 years ago and now people on what used to be her works Mondays and oversees store "empty" Mondays. "I could write volunteers. a book on the. tragedies and how . The store, she says, "is really people are so poor," she said. doing okay. The senior says the youngest of "We're doing the best we can," her all-woman crew is in her early she adds, modest again. 50s "and all the others are getting "The best we can" for Mary and up there." She wonders why the her team, actually, is pretty darn middle-aged set isn't present to good. During her interview, the help. Maybe, she says, they don't store did brisk business. Shoes and know the store exists. clothes sold, and one man browsed Well, folks, it does from 9 to 4 the bookshelf. Saturdays and weekdays except "Ooh, aren't they cute," Mrs. Mayall said to a woman who had • Wednesdays. It's phone number is selected a nice pair of sneakers and 997-8291; call ahead during incleasked how much. ''I'll need at least ment weather. New volunteers, senior and not, are most welcome. $2 for those. Give me $2." Turn to Page 10 Her customer was happy and

Cardinal William W. Bau_m, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education and former archbishop of Washington, in an II-page report released Sept. 27, stressed the importance of college seminaries for fostering vocations. He said students entering theology studies from a college seminary background are "more mature ... more spiritual ... and better equipped for theological study" than those who do not have that background. But he did not give such good grades to small formation houses. He said that all U.S. bishops with "small houses of formation for their college-level students" should "transfer their students to proper college seminaries." "Such slogans as small-is-beautiful, local-is-best are disguising a situation in which college-level candidates for the priesthood are being deprived of the quality of priestly formation which they merit and which the church needs," he said. At the same time, the cardinal said, the "ably-Ie'd, well-staffed" college seminaries in the country "are being starved of students." According to Benedictine Father Adrian Fuerst, who gathers yearly statistics on U.S. Catholic seminaries and seminarians, only 21 of the 115 college-level formation houses in the United States last year had more than 15 students, and only 12 had more than 25 students. Nearly half - 56 - reported from zero to five students, and an additional 25 had from.six to 10 students, he said. Such formation houses rely on a neighboring college or university for their students' academic formation. Cardinal Baum's report summarized the results of the collegelevel phase of a study of all U.S. seminaries and formation houses begun in 1981 by Pope John Paul

II. "We are generally very well satisfied with the college seminaries," Cardinal Baum wrote. "They are ably led, well staffed, convinced of the enterprise of priestly formaTurn to Page Six


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09.30.88 by The Anchor - Issuu