10.30.87

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t eanc 0 VOL. 31, NO. 43

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Friday, October 30, 1987

FALL RIVER, MASS.

FALL RIVER DiOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEASTMAS.SACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS

Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly

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58 Per Year

S-ynod raises

many questions

PARTICIPANTS IN the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women's Marian year Living Rosary carry carnati,ons symbolizing the rosary prayers. Hundreds of people from all over the diocese shared in the recitatioIflast Sunday at St: Mary's Cathedral, Fall River. Standees, front of line to back: Dorothy Curry, DCCW president; Mary Almond, senior living past president; Rita Rock, recording secretary; Madeline Wojick, first vice-president; Theresa Lewis, corresponding secretary; Emma Andrade, parlamentarian and past president. (Gaudette photo)

Christian Brothers didn't sell underlying value of a security, and ers bought stocks for the longNEW YORK (NC) - Wall yesterday's activity was based on term return, not short-term specuStreet's 500-point drop in its Dow Jones industrial average 0ct. 19 . psychology, not. the underlying lation, and they considered stocks. such as IBM still sound investvalue of the stocks," he added. had a far smaller impact on an The Christian Brothers firm ments despite the price drop. investment firm operated by ChrisHowever, he noted that the dehandles about $500 million of entian Brothers that handles many church-owned stocks, said an offi-' dowment, reserve and other fund cline in market price of a firm's for a variety of religious orders, stock could affecLits performance cial of the firm. ' colleges or other institutions of in the future, and the Christian While the Dow Jones industrials these orders, several dioceses and Brothers would be watching to see lost 22.6 percent of their value in a wave of panic selling, Christian other church-related entities. It whether some changes in investBrothers Investment Services lost has about 750 separate accounts, ment strategy might be needed later. only 7.5 percent of the value of its Brother O'Hern said. total portfolio that day, said ChrisOnly about 40 percent of the "We didn't make any decisions tian Brother Michael Q.'Hem, firm's investments were in stocks, about changing our portfolio in executive vice president. and in "quality issue" rather than the midst of the activity yester"We did not participate in the "highly speculative" stocks, Brother day," Brother O'Hern said. "We O'Hern said. have been talking with our largest selling," Brother .0'Hern said Oct. Brother O'Hern said most of the investors, and so far they are 20, the day after the largest single religious orders and other inves- pleased. They have not called on drop in Wall Street history. tors served by the Christian Broth- . us to start selling." "We purchase on the basis ofthe

New era for Maronites BEIRUT, Lebanon (NC) Lebanon's Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir spent a week in the Soviet Union in unprecedented meetings with Russian church and government officials on the search for peace in the Middle East. It was the first such visit by a leader of the Eastern-rite Catholic Church, and was viewed by an official church agency as a new era in Maronite international contacts.

According to the church-run Lebanese Information Center, the 67-year-old patriarch discussed a possible international conference on the Middle East and Lebanon's long-running strife. Patriarch Sfeir has said Lebanon's troubles have international roots and require international cooperation to resolve. "The importance of the visit springs from the fact that the USSR

seems to see the necessity of openness to the Lebanese Maronites, who till quite lately were in contact only with the West," the information agency said Oct. 27. Russian Orthodox Patriarch Pimen had invited the Lebanese Catholic leader to the Soviet Union. Patriarch Sfeir "considers the visit of the Maronite delegation Turn to Page 15

VATICAN CITY (NC) - Participants in the world Synod of Bishops backed equal access to lay ministries, but in discussions on some key points of the ministries they appeared to raise more questions than answers. Unlike previous years, summa'ries of the synod's small-group discussions were kept secret. However, statements at a press conference and a midsynod summary report obtained by National Catholic News Service revealed some of the content of the closed-door sessions. The third week of the synod, which ended today, consisted mainly of those discussions. with participants grouped according to language. The same week, a Vietnamese bishop who arrived halfway through the synod said his country's Catholics have won the sympathy of Vietnam's communist authorities. and the Vatican appointed four bishops and a priest to compile the final message from the synod. Pope John Paul 11 also 'mentioned the synod in his weekly general audience. Archbishop John L. May'Of St. Louis. head of the U.S. bishops' conference. said Oct. 20 that a "strong consensus" had emerged in the small groups that all nonordained ministries should be open to men and women. Many of the groups specifically asked that "children of both sexes be allowed to serve at the altar," he said. Archbishop May said it was the feeling of many of the groups that the ministries of lector and acolyte should either be "refashioned as steps to ordination," or if retained as they are now, "they should be opened to both men and women." The archbishop said there has been "less unanimity" among the small groups about the role of ordained and non-ordained ministers than about other topics. Besides lectors and acolytes, "lay ministers" could refer to permanent deacons, delegates of the Word, teachers and catechists, communion distributors, parish administrators and workers in Catholic charity and social programs. A midsynod summary report, dated Oct. 13, and obtained later by National Catholic News Service, posed these questions: - Which functions should be called ministries, which should be called offices and which should be called duties? - Which is the competent authority to decide or permit these ministries in the church? - How should non-ordained ministries be conferred on the laity?

Is a liturgical act required or does a juridical act suffice? "Clearly there was dissatisfaction in descriptions of the role of ordained and non-ordained ministries," said Archbishop May. "There is'll ... lack of theological and canonical precision, which needs correction and then development." . The archbishop said women should be, considered for more church positions, but he warned against "unreal expectations" on the part of some laity that major changes regarding women would come out of the synod. From Oct. 14 to Oct. 17 synod delegates and observers met in' small groups, called "circuli minores." These groups reported back to the general assembly on their discussions Oct. 19-20. The press conference was the first public word about what the groups discussed. Following the conference, the delegates returned to their groups for another week of closed-door discussion. The midsynod report struck a cautious note regarding lay lead-' ers ofchurch communities. Citing canon law, it said that even if a priest shortage forces lay people to exercise pastoral care in individual parishes, bi~hops must appoint outside priests to oversee them. The "sacramental character of the church and the centrality of the Eu<:harist" cannot be forgotten, the report added. Synod sources said it was doubtful the synod by itself would be able to resolve the complex issues arising in small-group discussions. Instead, it may choose to do one or more of the following: - Ask for a special international church commission to study the problem. - Present the mix of views to the pope and ask him to reflect on them and work them into his oWn expected document on synod themes. - Suggest that local churches and bishops' conferences keep experimenting. On Oct. 22 the Vatican named five people to compile the synod's final message, to be pastoral or exhortative in nature. Members of the drafting committee were Bishop Dario CastrilIon Hoyos of Pereira, Colombia, president of the Latin American Bishops' Council; Archbishop Leonardo Z. Legaspi of Caceres, Philippines; Bishop Robert Sastre of Lokossa, Benini; Chaldean Bishop Yusseflbrahim of Cairo, Egypt; turn to Page Six


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