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FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COO & THE ISLANDS
"T.
VOL. 42, NO. 38 • }'riday, October 2, 1998
Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
FALL RIVER, MASS.
$14 Per Year
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Diocese readies to proclaim Respect Life Sunday •
liOn the eve of the Third Millennium proclaim the Gospel of life with honesty and love." - Pope John Paul II By JAMES N. DUNBAR
FALL RIVER - As Father Stephen A. Fernandes was talking about this Respect Life edition of the Anchor a week ago, he suddenly sat forward in his chair and said eagerly: "Do you know what I wish? I wish that when people
read this they will have a reflective sense; to have something trigger them; to stop them for a moment and make them say, 'Yes, there's something unique about human life.... He was right to the point. When the Catholic Bishops of the United States began the Respect Life program in 1972, they clearly stated that its purpose was to bring Church teaching on the value and dignity of human life to the attention of the Catholic cQmmunity and the wider public; The bishops also stressed that the Respect Life program - which celebrates October as Respect Life Month - should strive to combine prayer,
pastoral services, advocacy and education; all at the heart of the matter. "It all starts in the Old Testanient, in Genesis," Father Fernandes said of the respect life message. ''It starts there, that human life is created in the image and likeness of God. Its pinnacle is in the New Testament because human life is redeemed. So it is a very old message and the source ofour motivation," The pastor said that he likes to tell a story of the parakeet he cherished as a boy. "He still has a marker in the garden of the backyard at my father's house. So I am not an animal hater. But there is no dog heaven:' he asserted. ''The distinction of human life that sets us apart is our immortal nature, the soul that we have, which Jesus Christ died on the cross for. He did not die for my parakeet," While the message of respect life is old, ganizer Father Edward J. Healy. Based on an the urgency is new, he said. "We have seen over the past several deold tradition of honoring physicians, "It's a way to remind laity that faith has to playa key role in cades an erosion of what had been an intuition about this respect for and the distinctheir life and the workplace." \ This year's celebration will honor many health tive nature of human life. People are loscare workers incl4ding administrators, chaplains, ing what perhaps before was an innate EMTS, paramedics, hospice workers, pharma- sense of why human life is very special, cists, social service providers, therapists and vol- and it is becoming cheapened," "My strong opinion is that the 1973 unteers. It will include those who bring the EuU.S. Supreme Court decision, Roe vs. charist to the sick and homebound. A reception with refreshments will follow and Wade, crystallized a sense of abortion that feature keynote speaker Sister of Charity Nuala for years some people had sought after. It Kenny, a physician from Halifax, Nova Scotia, was the turning point. We have seen from where she is director of bioethics research and there a continued decline in the respect for human life, to the point that today we have education at Dalhousie University. Mass will include the "Imago Dei (Image of two things that startlingly stand out: the infanticide we refer to as partial-birth aborTum to page 12 - White Mass tion and the incidents of infant abuse and murder by young parents, boyfriends, girlfriends or relatives," "That is because the thinking is that 'I could have aborted this child when it wasjust three inches from birth, so why should I pay respect to it now?'" Another area that manifests itselfwith urgency the $1.8 million center whose architecture and is the area of physician-assisted suicide, he said stone amazingly mirror that of the church that ''It is all part of the idea that you are not worth as predates it. " much now as you were at 42 because, look at you," The center, that carries an inscription over the Father Fernandes also commented on the reentranceway, 'ThatAll May Be One," was needed cent failure of the U.S. Senate to override Presito handle the many modem demands ofthe parish dent Clinton's veto of the partial-birth abortion that serves 2,000 families and 6,000 parishioners. ban, and the failure to support that override by Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and John Kerry. Tum to page 13 - St. John's ''I can't read the mind ofEdward M. Kennedy or any other senator and we have done everything humanly possible to educate and inform these senators. I know that Cardinal (Bernard) Law personally met with Kennedy and Kerry and he presented all of the facts, all the statements "from the American Medical Association about partial-birth abortion and there was a refusal, a
blindness on the senators' part. What motivates that, I am not going to judge," Asked why the papal encyclical "Humanae Vitae," which dealt with human life, is not the topic of many homilies in parishes today, Father
White Mass will celebrate health care workers' dedicated ~inistry •
Oct. 14 Mass will honor those who are part of the healing ministry of Jesus. By MIKE GORDON,
AIIICHOR STAFF
NEW BEDFORD - Plans are completed for the third annual White Mass which this year will be celebrated at Holy Namt: Parish October 14 at 6:30 p.m. Bishop Sean P. O'Malley OFM. Cap., will be principal celebrant and homilist for the Mass, organized by the Department of Pastoral Care for the Sick and diocesan chaplains. 'The White Mass is a means for the Church to affirm the faith and dedication of Catholics who work in all aspects of healthcare," said Director of Pastoral Care of the Sick and chief 01'-
St. John the Evangelist Church dedicate~s its new parish center By JAMES N. [)UNBAR
ATILEBORO - St. John the Evangelist Parish was host to several hundred people last Sunday at a Mass and dedication of its new Hospitality and Administration Center. Following the 11:30 a.m., Mass celebrated by Bishop Sean P. O'Malley, the assembly toured
Fernandes said: ''I think the reason is that priests consider that preaching futile," Marian Desrosiers, assistant director of the diocesan Pro-Life Office, added that she finds people in their 305 and 40s "lack proper understanding of the encyclical. They don't have a comprehension of the full teaching of what it is all about. They only hear the secular reports. They seemed to have made up their minds on what little they know," But she said that when young people across the diocese are taught about chastity education and they hear about the value, dignity and s~ credness of their human sexuality, going back into Humanae Vitae and going forward from there, "there is a great response that they have never heard that teaching before. 'There seems to be a great awakening in youth when you bring that truth to them that they want to hear more," Desrosiers reported. "Once exposed to the encyclical, they are impressed with Tum to page 13 - Life
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,DEDICATION - elf the new Hospitality and Administration Center at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Attleboro was held Sunday. Bishop O'Malley is flanked by Father StE~phen J. Avila, left, secretary to the bishop, and pastor Msgr. Daniel F. HOYE~ at ceremonies outside the facility. (Photo by Martin GabinlThe Sun Chronicle)
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the !l1olrfathe~S9.~vq~'~fs~~~,~. . . ;P4~sembliesofblshopsfor vanous l?eographic areas. All ,ate lri PrePll11lti<m f qr W~ watJ. ,}le,e.;y.'ear 2000. , I . ' , ;; Thefirs~ assie~1J1YWils.~elqf6r -Amf.ain 1994; the.assembly ~or North ~d South America c6ncluded m '[)ec~mber 1997;andtbe~ssembly for ASIa ended thIS past May. !. The last irr.~e'setiesofsy'n9d~;~i1~l>,e that for Europe to be held in the Ilatter part of 1999. ., The Oceama Assembly Wlll'OOgpl 00 Nov. 22 and conclude on Dec. 12, Msgr. Coleman re_ ,'-.J i - , ~~'iI!: • : Tum to page 13 - BlShop <'.
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