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FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
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VOL. 41, NO. 42 •
Friday, October 31, 1997
FALL RIVER, MASS.
Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
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$14 Per Year
Bishop O'Malley issues statement opposing death penalty Bishop Sean O'Malley, OFM, Cap., issued the following statement October 23 before passage by the state House of R~presentativesof a bill restoring the death penalty in the Commonwealth ofMassachusetts. On Oct. 28 the House passed the measure 81-79. It now goes to committee for reconciliation with a similar Senate bill passed E!arlier this month. Passage of the legislation will make Massachusetts the 39th state to impc>se capital punishment.
Catholic Church's opposition to the death penalty The. Catholic Churqp's opposition to the death penalty 1s ba~iedontQe conViction that h~man life . is sacred and that deliberately to extinguish a life inevitabjytends todirninish the value of all human life. This in no way contradicts the aspirations of society to redress crimes and insure the safety of our people. The truth is that the violence of our age and the devaluation of human life are coarsening us and undermining our moral judgment. We are turning into a society where inconvenient human beings Clre eliminated, whether they be children of unwanted pregnancies, or the elderly with some incurable malady. Our goal must be to seek effective punishment for violent crimes without compromising the values we hold. History demonstrates that the death penalty is not an effective deterrent to crime, that it is not applied equitably, and that, at times, innocent people have been executed for crimes they did not commit. Nations throughout the free world h~ve come to see that capital punishment does not have a place in modern democracies. We are capaQle of developing other methods of dealing with violert crimes rather than government sponsored violence. To debate the death penalty at a timey.Jher'l·the entire community is outraged over recent atrocities is not a responsible way to deal with this issue. Legalizing the· death penalty now would help people feel better bU1t would not make us better people. It will have allowed the criminal element in our midst to dehumani2:e us, to make us more like it. We hope tl1at our elected officials will not use the recent tr8lgic events to exploit people's sentiments for poli1tical advantage. Too much is at stake.
-Most Reverend Sean O'Malley, OFM, Cap.
.AT UIA MEETING, from left, Fall River Fire Chief Francis McDonald and Our Lady of Assumption, New Bedford, parishioner Dorothy Lopes address the gathering; above, part of the large crowd in attendance. (Gaspard photos)
Fall River, New Bedford churches join to improve quality of life in cities Some 800 persons attended the Oct. 27 inaugural meeting of United Interfaith Action (VIA) held at St. James parish hall, New Bedford. They included members of 20 Catholic and other congregations, together with priests, ministers, union members and area politicians. The gathering culminated over three years of meetings of New Bedford and Fall River clergy seeking to organize an interfaith coalition that would work "to restore the faith of New Bedford and Fall River residents in their local governments by asking [those governments] for accountability within a framework of cooperation." Bishop Sean O'Malley, OFM, Cap., opened the meeting with a prayer for hope offered in Portuguese, Spanish, and English. Rev. John Mueller of United Methodist Church, Fall River, chaired the evening's program, himself speaking on the seeming lack of opportunities for youth in New Bedford and Fall River, and the need for
more active police response.to drug dealing and vandalism in both cities. Rev. John 1. Oliveira, pastor of St. John Baptist parish, New Bedford, discussed the history and purposes of VIA. Other speakers included Frederick Kalisz and Mayors Rosemary Tierney, New Bedford, and Edward Lambert, Fall River. Discussing conditions in both cities and posing questions to the mayors were Ms. Dorothy Lopes for New Bedford and Ms. Lean Ferland for Fall River. Both mayors expressed support for the VIA agenda and agreed to follow up on the Oct. 27 gathering with regular meetings with members and also to attend a general meeting planned for spring, 1998. Police chiefs Francis McDonald of Fall River and Arthur Kelly of New Bedford were asked to agree to increasing police presence in certain neighborhoods and also to maintain contact with VIA members.
Catholic parishes represented at the meeting were Holy Name, Our Lady of Health, St. Anne and Santo Christo in Fall River and Our Lady of Assumption, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Sacred Heart, St. James and St. John the Baptist in New Bedford. Craig Gaspard, assistant diocesan director for the Campaign for Human Development, among UIA founders, represented the diocesan office of Catholic Social Services. He noted that "Cities of Hope," as the Fall River-New Bedford alliance has been termed, aims to unite "people of different faiths who have many visions but one goal: to improve the lives of the residents of these two diverse and creative cities." Those interested in joining the project may contact the UIA office by mail at 635 Purchase St., New Bedford, 02740; in Fall River call Ray Gagne tel. 673-4670; in New Bedford Elmer Stanley, tel. 9938976.