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Problem Is Values
The ANCHOR An Anchor 01 the Soul, Sure and Firm-St. Paul
Fall River, Mass., Thursday, Oct. 24, 1974 PRICE 15c Vol. 18, No. 43 漏 1974 The Anchor $5.00 per year
Anti-Abortion Stand Began in So. Africa ST. LOUIS (NC) - The posed, That early experience caused sophisticated Mayo Clinic physi- him to question the medical educian stated his position unam- cation he-and many othersbiguously: received on medical justification "I am absolutely and totally for abortions. Succeeding cases opposed to abortion in any cir- at the Durban clinic, and elsecumstance; under any condition. where since, bas convinced Dr. There are no qualifications; there Gordon. are no exceptions. Abortion is "In more than 25 years now killing." of medical practice," he said, "I But his stance comes not from have come to learn that if a religious belief nor from his med- woman is healthy enough to beical education. The physician, come pregnant, she's healthy head of medical genetics at the enough to complete the termfamed clinic in Rochester, Minn., in spite of heart disease, liver says his conviction comes from diseases, almost any disease. As first hand experience with pa- far as I'm concerned, there are tients, beginning with a poor no medical indicaNons for termiblack woman in Durban, South nating a pregnancy. My patients led me to it." Africa. On a recent visit to St. Mary's He promptly added that his rer.-:>spital in East St. Louis. IlL, ligious .background - Orthodox Dr. Hymie Gordon explained that Judaism-is more lenient. "Even his first medical assignment was . Maimonedes, . the 12th-century at a poor peoples' clinic in Dur- historian who was .also a physiban. The Cape Town-born physi- cian, accepted abortion if pregcian, his British accent still crisp, nancy threatened the wo~an. I, said the woman was suffering Turn to .Page Four' from a severe heart condition, and was in her seventh pregnancy. "I suggested that, because of her health, termination of the pregnancy might be considered. She refused flatly, adding that doctors had advised abortion since her second pregnancy, and she wasn't about to capitulate with the seventh." Skeptical, Dr. Gordon nonetheVATICAN CITY (NC) - Two less continued treatment, and when it came to the delivery, American prelates have presented to the Synod of Bishops writ"she just sailed through." ten syntheses of discussions by language groups on the theology of evangeliza,tion. Archbishop Joseph L. Bernardin of Cincinnati stressed the reRev. Hugh Cleary, C.S.C., As- lationship between ecumenism sistant Pastor of Holy Cross Par- and evangelization, while Archish in South Easton was elected bishop John R. Quinn of Oklaby the Holy Cross Fathers to be homa City asked that the Holy their representative on the See's representatives and theoloPriest's Senate. In conformity gians seek "consensus and underwith the new election procedures standing" concerning dissent for religious on ,the Senate, Fr. within ,the Church. Archbishop Bernardin stressed Cleary was elected by the members of his community active in three points in his paper: "Ecuthe diocese for a two year term. menism is in danger today; nevHis election brings to three ertheless, the ecumenical movethe number of religious to the ment must go on and, in our time senate, Rev. Roland Bedard, ecumenism must have as its foM.S. representing the LaSalette cus not.only the chul'ches but the Fathers and Rev. James Nickel, human person as welL" Stating that initial enthusiasm SS.CC. representing the Sacred Hearts Fathers. Each religious over ecumenism had waned becqmmunity has an opportunity to cause of disappointment at slenselect a representative to the der results, or suspicion by both senate on a rotating basis of Catl".-:>lics and Protestants of a Turn to Page Two three religious senators a year. o
Defends Ethics as Protector 01 Science and Research WASHINGTON (NC) - Dr. Andre Hellegers, defending bioethics against the standard ac:;usation that it shackles scientific research, has declared that bioethics serves "as the protector of the scientific method against an anti-scientific backlash." Dr. Hellegers. director of Washington's Kennedy Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction and Bioethics, was speaking at a symposium organized by medical students of George Washington University on the abortion of defective fetuses. He observed tb3t while many researchers regard the emphasis placed by bioethics on the rights of the human subject as "a restriction on medicine," bioethics in fact "will protect soience." The Georgetown University professor of obstetrics. explained to NC News that scientific research "depends on the people who finance it." Bioethics, h~ continued, can ward off two distinct kinds of disillusionment with science: revulsion at unethi-
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cal experimentation, and disappointment at science's inability to solve buman problems that lie beyond its scope. Bioethics, a word not to be found in dictionaries, is described as the study of social and ethical implications of practices and developments in biology and medicine. This branch of ethics draws upon the. findings of ph)"sician, scientists and lawyers. Dr. Hellegers, referring to the disappointment that results from expecting too much from med-
OCTOBER 24 * **
United Nations Day
u. s.
WASHINGTON (NC) - The number of U. S. Catholic missionaries abroad dropped 273 in the past year, from 7,691 in 1973 to 7,418 in 1974, according
(cme and other sciences, cited the World Health Organization's definition of health as "not the mere absence of disease but the presence of a total sense of physical, mental and social wellbeing." He described this as "the craziest definition of health ever 'given," and said that a person who felt a lack of路 social wellbeing for want of an automobile might ask his physician to prescribe a car for him. "Take the present quest for a discomfort-free society, mix in something powerful like the drug industry, and you begin to won. der if society isn't getting into a chemical straightjacket," he observed. "U people no longer want to die, and if they have a desire to be happy, we have an infinite need - happiness forever - and limited means: science." Nor, he declared, 'Can science supply values. "This is the first thing to get across: that science is not the problem. The problem is, values."
Missionaries Abroad
to the 1974 Mission Handbook published here' in October~ The handbook is a compilation of mission data published annually by the U. S. Catholic Mis-
u.s.
Prelates Gi'ye Synod Findings
Religious Elect Senate Member
MISSION. WORK: The Congregation of the Sacred' Hearts has obse~ved the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the founding of its Japanese Mission. Rev. Albert Evans, SS.Cc., is shown at St. Mary's Church, Fairhaven, discussing the commemorative exhibit with Mrs. Ayard Rooney, one of his converts whom he baptized in Japan twenty-five years ago. With them 'are her children, Monica and Mark.
sion Council (USCMC), the communications and coordination路 agency on missions for the American bishops, Religious orders, laity and mission agencies. It includes details of the number of missionaries in each country in the world along with descriptions of the kind (diocesan or Religious priests, nuns, Brothers, seminarians, lay missioners); and separate summaries of the number of missionaries from each Religious institute, diocese, or other mission-sending agency. According to the handbook, the Far East has the greatest number of U. S. missionaries wi,th a total of 1,845. It is followed closely by South America. with 1,716. Other areas, in order of numbers, are Africa, 1,121; Oceania, 883; Caribbean Islands, 757; Central America, 752; North America, (Alaska, BermUda, 'Canada, Greenland), 241; Near East, 60; and Europe, 43. Most of the U. S. missioners abroad are members of Religious orders; 3,084 Religious priests, 2,916 Sisters, and 639 Brothers. In addition there are 220 diocesan priests in the foreign missions, 458 lay persons, and 101 seminarians. The decline of 273 missioners in the past year is slightly higher than the drop of 246 from 1972 to 1973, but is lower than the drastic: drop of over 600 per year from 1968 to 1970. Among 69 mission-sending orders of Religious priests and Brothers, the Jesuits had the most foreign missionaries, 712, followed closely by the Maryknoll Fathers, 673. The Maryknoll Sisters topped all other groups of Religious women with 538 members in the mission fields.