FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
t eanc 0 VOL. 28, NO. 43
FALL RIVER, MASS., FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1984
$8 Per Year
On election eve
Candid,ates give views
WASHINGTON (NC) - On the eve of the presidential election, both President Ron ald Reagan and candidate Walter Mondale' have responded to written questions sub mitted by National Catholic News Service. Reagan promise~, ,if reelected, to seek passage of anti-abortion and tuition tax credit legislation and to protect Central America f rom "military solutiollls" imposed by Com munist-backed governments. While .declaring that he "respects" the Catholic Church's teaching on tine unborn, Mondale backs the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. He also pledged that if elected he will deemphasize the role of nUclear weapons in U.S. defense policies. Reagan also pledged "at least equivalence" in mili rtary strength with the Soviet Union. He said ,the United States provides nuclear strength for Western Europe because Am erica's NATO aHies have been reluctant to match growing So viet-bloc conventional force power with increased conven tional force clout of their own. He declared that "the United States is committed to encourag~ ing internal ;reforms and nego tiated solutions to political prob lems in EI Salvador" but that "we wi'll not stand by and let miHtary solutions· be imposed on rthe free people of Central America by· their adversaries." Questioned about NATO nu clear first~use policies, criticized by the U.S. bishops as moraHy unacceptable, Reagan said that the United States and NATO "do not start wars and we use OUT forces - especially our nuclear forces - only to deter aggres sion." . Discussing other defense mat ters, he said that the U.S. pro ~ssentia.J
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_ Gaudette Photo
CHEA SOPHEA
Refugees are home
cise in practical Christianity. By Pat McGowan The Cambodian family was When Chea Sophea, aged eight months arrived in this country greeted 'in Fall River by Sambath eight days ago she possessed Rim and Oum Ath, already in nothing but the diaper she wore. the city. Now you could say she's one The new alTivals are Sam of the richest little girls in the bath's mother, stepfather and Fan River diocese. half-brothers and sisters. Several She has a newly-met big of the children were born after ibrother, a whole parish-fwll of Sambath was torn from' his par ents in ,the confusion attendant friends and a bright, bright fu upon the Communist takeover of ture. Cambodia in 1979. She, her mother, father and five brothers and sisters are a They went to one re~ugee Cambodian refugee family that camp, he to another and it was has found haven in Fall River not until he arrived in the United under sponsorship of rthe Ed and 'States several years ago that he Mary Arruda family of SS. Peter could begin efforts to locate and Paul parish. them. At last, rbhJ:'ough the of Last Friday, weary f,rom a fices of the World Relief Organ hopscotch flight from a ;Philip ization, he traced them to the pine refugee holding center to Philippines, where workers for New ;Bedford, wlth stops in many church groups were mak California, Chicago, Boston and ing desperate efforts to relocate Provincetown en route, the fam them and hundreds of other ily was settling at least ~mpor families in permanent homes be arily in a North Main Street fore refugee sites were closed apartment in FaH River. down. With them were the Arrudas Enter SS·. Peter and Paul par and their two daughters, April, ish, whose pastor, Msgr. Pat 10, an SS. ,Peter and Paul School rick J. O'Nei'll, was familiar with pupil, and Elise, 15', a Bishop earlier resettlement programs Stang student. undertaken by Catholic Social Both . schools had wHlingly Servic~s and several Fall River granted the girls days off for the Episcopal churches. beginning of their family exer Tum to Pa~e Eight
gram "is peace through strength, and it requires' rthat we must achieve 'at ileast essential equi valence between the military forces of the U.S. and the Soviet Union." On other ,topics, Reagan: - Said that the 1985 Defense Department budget ,is $65 billion less than the budget for the De .partment of Health and Human Services and that "over the next five years" government will spend on defense." - Promised that by the end of 1989 his administration will be providing "rent vouohers" rto low-income families to help them obtain housing anywhere in ,the nation. - Said his' administration has "slowed the rate of tax in creases on lower - and middle income Americans" whose taxes "have not decreased much only because our ,tax cuts were off set by the C~rter-Mondale So cial Security rtax increases and their high rates of inflation that forced taxpayers into higher tax brackets."
- Said that poverty is in creasing at a slower pace under his administration and that a small "rise in poverty really re presents a stalHng of a trend to increased poverty that began dur. ing the previous administration." - Stated that "ours is the first administra~ion in 20 years to reduce both the inflation and unemployment rates during a single ,term," and that a federal job-training program for disad vantaged .youths, welfare recipi ents and displaced workers .is "one of my administration's crowning achievements." Mondale's Views In his response to NC ques tions, Mondale criticized the Rea gan administration for "moral bankruptcy" in lbudget cuts and said he wtll restrain federal spending while protecting the poor and disadvantaged. He rejected tuition tax credits but said he favors other federal assistance to education which can benefit private ,sohools. Mondale renounced the conTurn to page thirteen
Heav'y agenda at fall meeting
Busy bishops By Jerry Filteau WASHINGTON (NC) - When the Catholic bishops of the United States gather' for their regular fall meeting Nov. 12-15, most popular attention will fo cus on their pastoral letter on the economy. But they face more Jmmediate decisions on a non sexist version of the Psalms, a new eucharistic prayer, and new guidelines for permanent deacons and for continuing for mation of priests. Their 20-item action agenda alone dnvolves nearly 400 pages of documentation sent to each bishop in October. Written
backgrounders for information and discussion are expected to run to several hundred addi tional pages. Discussion of a still-secret first draft of a nationa,1 pastoral letter on Catholic social teach ing and the U.S. economy is the most controversial general issue facing <the four-day assembly. Many observers have predicted that the proposed pastoral could provoke more pubHc debate thari the bishops' 1983 pastoral on war and peace issues. Initially the first draft of the economy document was to be re leased this s~mmer, but concern over its possible misuse in elec
tion-year campaigning ,led the bishops to postpone ,the release until just before the meeting, after the elections are over. The economic pastoral is not an "action" item on the Novem ber agenda, however. It is only up for discussion, with an eye toward further revisions over the next year and a fina'i debate and vote by the bishops in Nov ember 1985. Several items on which the bishops wiJl be asked to vote 'involve church law questions, ranging from the age of receiv ingconfirmation to rules for Turn to Page Nine
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