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t eanc 0 VOL. 33, NO. 41
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Friday, October 20, 1989
FALL RIVE.R, MASS.
FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSmS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
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On Asian trip
Bush seeks Roe overturn WASHINGTON (CNS) - The Bush administration Oct. 13 asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs. Wade, while 10 governors endorsed Roe and told the court to rule against Illinois abortion regulations. In separate friend-of-the-court briefs filed for separate, pending Supreme Court abortion cases, both the administration and governors discussed Roe vs. Wade the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion nationwide. "There is, in view of the nation's history and traditions, no fundamental right to abortion," said the Bush administration brief, filed by the Justice Depa·rtment. "We continue to believe that Roe was wrongly decided and should be overruled." But in a brief filed Oct. 14, 10 governors, including Democrat Mario Cuomo of New York, a Catholic, argued that "Roe vs. Wade should not be abandoned." The administration's brief addressed Hodgson vs. Minnesota, a dispute over a state law that demanded that 48 hours before having an abortion a pregnant girl under age 18 should provide written notice to both parents,although she could alternatively get court approval for the abortion. "A state may reasonably conclude that a minor's parents are, as a general matter, better suited to make these critical decisions than a minor and her physician, or a minor and her physician in conju.nction with ajudge," the administration brief argued. "There is utterly no support 'for the proposition that a minor has a fundamental right to keep her parents in the dark about her welfare," the brief said. "Indeed, if there is a fundamental right implicated by this case, this court's decisions suggest it is the right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children,· not the right of children to evade parental control." Furthermore, according to the administration's brief, the state legitimately may be concerned about unborn life. "The state's interest in protecting fetal life through pregnancy provides an entirely adequate basis .for limiting any right of privacy or procreative choice," the brief stated. Cuomo and the other governors focused on Turnock vs. Ragsdale, involving three Illinois statutes regulating abortion clinic activities. According to their brief, the regulations included such "extremely burdensome requirements" as mandating the size of the clinic, its equipment, staff "and even air pressure." The governors said that "the only apparent purpose of these provisions and their clear effect is to limit severely the number of
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Pope mixes politics, religion
SISTER MARIE LYNCH with fJriends in Tacna, Peru. (King photo)
Serving God in Peru . Maryknoller's p.arents are Cape Cod residents The following article tells the story of one of the many missionaries with ties to the Fall River diocese. It is published in connection with this weekend's Mission Sunday collection, which is coordinated by Msgr. John J. Oliveira, VE, chancellor and director of the diocesan office of the Society for the Propagation ofthe Faith, which aids missionaries around the world. Sister Marie Lynch, a Maryknoll Missioner serving in Tacna, Peru, is the daughter of Catherine and Edward Lynch of West Dennis, members of St. Pius X parish, South Yarmouth. At the beginning of this month she returned to Tacna after a four month visit to the United States, during which she took renewal ~ourses at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Ossining, N. Y., and visited her parents. In 1957, after graduating from Regis College, Weston, Sister Lynch joined the Regis Lay Apostolate Program and worked in impoverished schools in the United States before entering Maryknoll in 1959. After four years of formation as a sister, she was missioned to South America and since then has spent 20 years in Peru and Bolivia as a teacher and religious educator among the poor. Her service was interrupted for five years when she returned to Ossining to serve for a year on her. community'S general assembly task force and then for four years on a formation team preparing young sisters for overseas assignments. First obtaining a master's degree in theology from MaryknoJI School of Theology, Sister Lynch returned to Peru in 1984 and for the past five years has worked in Tacna as one of four Maryknoll Sisters re-
sponsible for pastoral ministry in a latge poor ar,ea of the parish of San Pedro. "San Pedro has only one priest to take care of all pastoral needs in the center of the parish," she said in an interview while she was at the Maryknoll center. "So those of us responsible for the three large zones· at the parish periphery must train lay leaders to shoulder religious formation of f.amilies. "All of us sisters are engaged in formation oftile laity, especially in regard to lay leadership of the small Christian communities within our parish. Each of us also has a special ministry in addition to the basic thrust of our team. "One sister concentrates on youth ministry, one on social ministry, including two large food programs, and one on visiting and bringing help to the sick, the elderly and those in hospitals. "I am responsible for religious/
pastoral formation of catechists, coordinating the women's programs for arts and crafts production and marketing and teaching music and liturgy to those who coordinate celebrations in the small communities." There are six "barrios" or districts in La Inmaculada zone, for which the sisters are responsible. In each, they are working with a small Christian community. A priest celebrates Mass once a week in the zone, but that is hardly adequate for the 1,800 Catholic families living there. Sister Marie concluded the interview by sharing her hopes for a poor country now suffering terrible violence and rising inflation. "One of my hopes for the work as I return to Peru is to create more Bible reflection groups. It is one ofthe key desires of the people to know the Bible better and see how it relates to everyday life. The positive part of Peru's pov.erty and economic/ political deterioration is that people are drawing closer together and sharing food, labor skills, Bible reflections and prayer. For example, one group of women with whom Sister Lynch works are sharing their knowledge of native herbal medicines, thus cutting down the expense of buying conventional drugs. . Maryknoll Sisters have worked in Peru since 1951. There are presently 32 sisters serving there in the fields of education, health, community develc;>pment, social ministry, catechetics and other areas of pastoral ministry. Maryknoll Sisters are also present in 30 other countries of Africa, Asia, the Central Pacific Islands and North and South America.
PORT LOUIS, Mauritius (CNS) - Early in his trip to Asia and the Indian Ocean this October, Pope John Paul II said there was "a distinction but not a separation" between politics and religious values. Politics must be guided by moral principles, he said. The pope's lO-day, 25,000-mile journey turned out to be a continuous attempt to apply the distinction in real-life circumstances. The Oct. 7-16 visit to South Korea, Indonesia and Mauritius also showed that there is no separation of religion and politics in the pope's thinking. During the trip he: - Sought to further detente with the Soviet Union by making the first papal flight over Soviet territory, thus allowing him to send a message to President Mikhail Gorbachev, asking "the blessing of the Most High on all the Soviet people." - Pleaded for reconciliation and unity in a divided Korea. - Expressed a desire to become the first pope to visit China, despite the difficulties of a stateapproved Catholic hierarchy that does not accept his authority. - Asked greater respect for human rights by Indonesia's leaders, especially in East Timor, while avoiding a stand regarding Indonesia's bloody 1976 annexation of the former Portuguese colony. The tensions in East Timor, where opposition to Indonesian rule is strong, were evident at the end ofthe papal Mass when about 20 pro-independence demonstrators tried to reach the pope. They were stopped, but fighting broke out between police and members of the crowd after the pope left. Before arriving in Asia, the pope made a historic eight-and-a-halfhour flight the length of the Soviet Union. While flying over Moscow, he sent a radio message for Gorbachev to the airpo·rt control tower. "I wish to greet Your Excellency and to assure you of my best wishes for the well-being and prosperity of your fellow citizens. I implore the blessing of the Most High on all th.e Soviet people," the pope said. He is expected to meet Gorbachev during the Soviet leader's Nov. 29-Dec. I visit to Rome. It would be the first meeting of a pope with the Soviet U£lion's most powerful figure. During a news conference aboard the papal flight, the pope said that religious freedom will be a main item on his meeting agenda. The possibility of a papal trip to Turn to Page Six