FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSmS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS VOL. 32, NO. 40
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Friday, October 7, 1988
FALL RIVER, MASS.
Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
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$10 Per Year
Papal letter seen defending women
AT 75th anniversary celebration for St. Joseph's parish, North Dighton, from left, parishioners Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Charwood; Bishop Daniel A. Cronin; Father William F. O'Connell. (Rosa photo)
North Dighton parish . On Sept. 25, members of St. Joseph's parish, N orth Dighton~ looked back over 75 years of parish history. The occasion was marked by a Mass ofthanksgiving at which Bishop Daniel A. Cronin was principal celebrant and homilist. Dinner and dancing at the parish center followed the Mass, with remarks by the bishop; Father William F. O'Connell, pastor; Mrs.. Leo Plouffe, dinner chairperson and Taunton district president of
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the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women; and- State Sen. John F. Parker.
Parish History Around the turn of the century, the Mount Hope Finishing Company was built in North Dighton, attracting many workers, including Catholics, to settle in the area. The first Catholics were part of a mission of Sacred Heart parish, Taunton, but by 1913 their numbers grew to the point that they needed
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their own parish. A temporary church building was erected, designed for future use as the parish hall. The first pastor was Father E. Sousa de Mello, who initially also served the people of South Dighton, who now attend St. Peter's parish. In 1917 he was succeeded by Father John E. de Valles, who remained at St. Joseph's only a few months before entering the armed forces chaplain corps to T t P 14
WASHINGTON(NC)- While Pope John Paul II's new letter on women ruled out their ordination to the priesthood, initial reactions to the document viewed it as a strong defense of women.'s dignity.. "He says the inequality we've practiced is due to original sin, and we'.ve got to work to overcome this sinful condition," said Bishop J oseph L. Imesch of Joliet, Ill., head of the U.S. bishops' committee writing a pastoral letter o~ women's concerns. The first draft of the U.S. pastoral says that attitudes or actions treating women as less than men must be overcome. The papal letter, titled "Mulieris Dignitatem" ("The Dignity of Women"), was released by the Vatican Sept. 30. The 119-page document focuses on the place of women in Scripture, with particular emphasis on .Eve, Mary and Christ's approach to women. The pope described the letter as a "meditation" on the "bases" of the equal dignity of men and women. He said specific issues of
Bishop sees dream of unity shattered WASHINGTON (NC) - Elec-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~u.rn~.o~.a.g.e~~~~~1 tionofawomanbishopinthe U.S.
Like a glass of fresh water By Joseph Motta George Averill of St. Patrick's parish, Wareham, was one of hundreds of individuals involved with parish religious education in the Fall River diocese who gathered Saturday at Bishop Stang High School, North Dartmouth, forthe diocese's fourth annual Religious Education Day. Averi II, a veteran eighth grade teacher, said that attending the convention "is always a renewal" for him. "It's like a glass of fresh water," he said. Highlights ofthe gathering were a morning liturgy with principal celebrant Father Richard W. Beaulieu, Diocesan Department ofEducation director; an address by Elinor R. Ford, Ed. D., president of Sadlier Publishing Company; and an AIDS information workshop with Father James M. Krupa, SJ. Convention attendees, who included catechists, religious education coordinators, clergy and religious, also were able to select from two dozen workshops on religious education topics.
The annual convocation is de- of their labors. What they are signed to assist catechists in pre- doing, he said, keeping with the paring for their teaching responsi- . day's "Sow Justice, Reap Peace" theme, is "planting seeds that will bilities. Father Beaulieu said during his bloom later." 'Be assured that "the spirit of the homily that catechists very often do not immediately see the fruits Turn to Page 16
LAURA VER GOW, religious education coordinator at St. John Evangelist parish, Attleboro, conducts workshop at last Saturday's coilVention at Bishop Stang High School. (Motta photo)
women's role in church and society would be addressed in a later document. In the letter the pope argued against traditional views that God meant women to be subject to men. He said that when God told Eve, after she and Adam sinned, "he shall rule over you," it did not refer to the way God meant things to be, but rather to "the constant 'inclination to sin,' the tendency to go against the moral order," that results from original sin. God's intended order, the pope said, is for men and women to be of equal dignity and united in marriage in "a mutual subjection" in which each affirms the other's personhood, dignity and vocation. Pope John Paul described Mary as "the archetype of the whole human race" and said that "Christ's way of acting (toward women), the Gospel of his words and deeds, is a consistent protest against whatever offends the dignity of women." TheologianDoris Donnelly said in a telephone interview that the Turn to Page 14
Episcopal Church is a "major setback" to dialogues aimed at uniting the Roman Catholic and the Anglican Communion as "one flock with one shepherd," said Archbishop John F. Whealon of Hartford, Conn. Archbishop Whealon, coch~ir man of the U.S. Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultations, said that election of a woman bishop "means a shattering of that dream" of unity. Atonement Father Thaddeus Horgan, associate director of the U.S. bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, said the decision "accentuates the need" for continued <:\ialogue between the two churches. "While as an ecumenist, I sincerely regret that this impairs our sense .of communion," as imperfect as it may be, "it doesn't negate my hope" for continued progress and eventual unity, Father Horgan said. The Rev. Barbara C. Harris, 58, a black pastor in Philadelphia, was elected Sept. 24 as suffragan (auxiliary) bishop of Massachusetts during a vote by clergy and lay delegates to a diocesan convention. She is the first woman to be elected a bishop in the U.S. Epis-
copal Church and the first in the 27 member churches of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The election of the pastor of the Episcopal Church ofthe Advocate in Philadelphia must be confirmed by a majority of the 117 diocesan standing committeesin the United States and by a majority of the approximately 200 U.S. Episcopal bishops. . Although Bishop-designate Harris' election is expected to create considerable debate, a spokesman at the Episcopal Church Center in New York said that "it's been rare - only once or twice in history -that an elected bishOJ1 has not been affirmed." Her installation is expected in early 1989. Women's ordination was approved by the Episcopal Church in 1976 and the status of women priests ordained before then was validated. Bishop-designate Harris was or. dained to the priesthood in 1980 after a career in. public relations. For four years she served as a prisTurn to Page 13