t eanc 0 VOL. 44, NO. 38 • Friday, October 6, 2000
FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETIS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
FALL RIVER, MASS.
Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly • $14 Per Year
Beyond abortion to infanticide ~
Diocesan Pro-Life director zeroes in on the issues and the elections. By JAMES N. DUNBAR
expanded the 1973 Roe v. Wade right to kill unborn children in the womb to children almost completely born, partial-birth abortion in its most horrid state. What the high court has w'rapped in the mantle of the Constitution is a doctor stopping in mid-delivery of a child in its second or third trimester of development and
FALL RIVER - As the U.S. Supreme Court ~ppears to be running roughshod over Pro-Life tenets and opening the way to infanticide, Father Stephen A. Fernandes, director of the diocese's Pro.,., Life Office, took aim at the latest crisis imperiling the unborn. His comments came even as the Christian world continues its celebration of Re"In his encyclical entitled "The Gosspect Life Sunday this week. pel of Life," Pope John Paul II encourIn an interview with The Anchor, Faaged the building of an authentic civilither Fernandes called attention to the dezation of love. The Food and Drug Advelcrping situations in U.S. law as well as ministration, by its approval today of the calling attention to the duties of Catholics early abortion pill known as RU-486, proto vote according to conscience in the upmotes, both metaphorically and in fact, a coming presigential elections. culture of death. The abortion pill RU"We were certainly pained when Presi486 has no use other than to kill innodent Clinton twice vetoed bipartisan legcent, unborn human life. Its use, whatislation which sought to ban partial-birth abortion, but the Carhart Decision comes as a even greater blow," Father Fernandes with the child's head still inside its mother, asserted. "They really insisUhat the tak- kills it brutally and then extracts the body. ing of a life ... inches and seconds away In making that decision,the court overfrom full birth must be subordinated to the rode the judgment of the American Medi'right to choose' of the ~other." cal Association and respected specialists He was referring to the Supreme Court's that partial-birth abortion is never mediJune decision in Stenberg v. Carhart that cally necessary.
"We get frustrated and then become resolved to act even stronger than ever to educate and legislate in so far as we can," Father Fernandes said. "The Carhart Decision immediately affected Nebraska and 30 other states which have legislation banning partial-birth abortion." He said talking about such a gruesome
Bishop O'Malley issues statement on FDA approval of abortion pill ever the circumstances, is morally wrong. _ I encourage the faithful of the Church and, indeed, all people of good will, to defend human life vigorously in order to offer our world clear signs of hope that a new culture of human life will be affirmed." Turn to page six for the eNS story
on the approval by the FDA ofthe abortion pill RU-486.
procedure is obfuscated by many who 'would rather say 'choose what,' rather than speak plainly. "As discouraging as that Supreme Court decision, was, there is something even more frightening happening, the response by the National Abortion Rights Action
League to passage of the U.S. bishops-endorsed Born-Alive Infants Protection Act," he added. Sponsored by U.S. Rep. Charles Canady, R-Fla., the act states that any infant "who is completely expelled or extracted from the mother and who is alive" is a person under federal law, regardless of the child's lung development, his or her chances of survival or whether the baby survived an abortion. Babies who survive botched abortions would be entitled to receive medical care under the measure. . The U.S. House passed the measure on Sept. 26 on a 380 to 15 vote. "One would say, 'good heavens, doesn't Congress have something more to do because this can't be necessary,''' said Father Fernandes. "I think the average man on the street would say that yes, the child needs protection." He said the proof that Congress "is on the mark in trying to pass this legislation is seen in the response by the NARAL that this measure is an attack on Roe v. Wade and the right of women to choose. The abortionists have taken off every mask in their response to this measure which cannot be criticized by any right-thinking individual. The face of the abortionist is infanticide. They go far beyond the child in Turn to page nine - Father Fernandes
Pope canonizes
Our Lady of Guadalupe Mother Drexel icon replica to visit diocese By JOHN THAVIS
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II canonized the second U.S.-born saint, Mother Katharine Drexel, and said her use of a family fortune to help educate the poor was a shining example of American generosity. At a jubilee Mass Sunday the pope praised Mother Drexel, a Philadelphia heiress, for recognizing the dangers of racism in U.S. society, then giving all she had - spiritually and materially - to fight it. She eventually founded more' than 60 schools for African-Americans and Native Ameri. AN IMAGE of Mother cans. "Katharine Drexel Katharine Drexel hangs from the facade of St. is an excellent exPeter's Basilica Oct. 1. Turn to page 13 -
.
(CNS photo from Reuters)
Drexel
By MIKE
GORDON
ANCHOR STAFF
FALL RIVER - The Fall River diocese will be getting a special visit when a replica of the icon· of Our Lady of Guadalupe is welcomed here Oct. 21 through 29. The life-sized replica, measuring four feet by six feet, was a gift of the Mexican Bishops to the United States in 1991 and is brought here under the sponsorship of the Fall River District Council of Catholic Women. The original remains in Mexico, but the replica travels the United States year round. District Church Communities Chairman Claudette Armstrong has been in charge of the icon coming to the diocese. She said that bringing it here was. important and something that her group wanted to do for the millennium. "We have a living rosary every year around this time, but we wanted to do something very special for Mary in honor of the jubilee," said Armstrong. "It's very important and significant for the diocese." The replica recalls a miracle on December 12, 1531 when the Virgin Mary appeared to Mexican peasant Juan Diago at Tepeyac Hill near Mexico City. She instructed Diago to tell Bishop Zummarago to build a church on the site where she stood. That church now is center for the largest shrine in the western hemisphere. The bishop doubted Diago's story and told him to re-
tum to the lady and ask for a sign. Diago was instructed by the woman to collect the flowers he found atop a hill and she arranged them in his cloak or tilma and sent him back to the bishop. It is said that the bishop, who was a Spaniard by birth, prayed that the sign would be a Castilian rose, a flower not native to Mex·ico. Later, when Diago arrived he opened his cloak and the flowers which fell were ~astilian roses and the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was imprinted on the inside of the garment. That original cloak has been studied by scientists and they are convinced that the image of Mary could not be the work of human hands. The material of the cloak is a harsh fiber fabric, impossible to paint on, yet it Turn to page 12 - leon