VOL. 32, NO. 46
•
Friday, November 18, 1988
FALL RIVER, MASS.
Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
•
$10 Per Year
JFK's effect on Church assessed
Bishops mull • many Issues
WASHINGTON (NC) - Twenty-five years after the assassination ofPresidentJohn F. Kennedy, Catholic scholars say his election both allayed suspicions about Catholics and contributed to an overly strict interpretation of the separation of church and state. Kennedy's election in 1960 and subsequent 1,000 days in office are considered a momentous juncture in the history of U.S. Catholicism. His aficionados worldwide, from' the United States to Ireland, from Spain to Colombia, have named parks and libraries, barrios and ,scholarship funds for the first Catholic chief of state. . At campaign time, local, state , and national political candidates of both parties quote him with abandon. An unending stream of Kennedy books and movies 'some more complimentary than others - cannot satiate the public's appetite. Kennedy proved to the nation that Catholicism was "no impediment" to doing the job, said Jesuit Father Avery Dulles, a Catholic theologian at Fordham University in New York. ' "He maintained a correct attitude toward the church in the sense of public acknowledgment of his faith, but when it came to making policy he also tried to keep his distance from his own Catholic Church," Msgr. John Tracy EJlis, a prominent church historian, said. According to Msgr. ElliS,' the 35th president's views on church and state were in line with the U.S. tradition of keeping the two separate - a tradition, he said, that has been invoked "from the dawn of the republic on." But a televised campaign speech by Kennedy before the Greater Houston Ministerial association 'in 1960 during which he tackled church-state issues head-on "gave ' the wrong impression of the connection between religion and politics," in the view of Father Dulles, a convert whose own family ,of Presbyterians has included three secretaries of state and a CIA director. In his speech to the Houston association, Kennedy assuaged Protestant fears that his church would have undue influence on his policies by speaking of "an America where the separation of church and state is absolute." Precisely as a result of that sepa-' ration, said Father Dulles, there is "room for a wide spectrum of philosophies about the human person and society, room for people in public life who stand within a variety of religious traditions." He urged Catholic officials to walk a political tightrope - not ignoring that a majority of their constituencies may be non-Catholic, but at the same time acknowlTurn to. Page 18
Msgr. Hoye completes 'NCCB assignment
Roe vs. Wade reconsideration urged WASHINGTON (NC) - The Reagan administration Nov. to suggested that a Missouri abortion case provides a good opportunity for the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 abortion decision. In a friend-of-the-court brief, filed by Solicitor General Charles Fried, the Justice Department sug-. gested the high court take up a case involving'major provisions of a Missouri anti-abortion lawstruck down by a federal appeals court in July. According to the brief, "if the court is prepared to reconsider Roe vs. Wade, this case presents an appropriate opportunity for doing so." The Nov. to brief included a copy of a brief the administration filed in 1985, regarding Pennsylvania and Illinois abortion law
cases, directly asking the Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs. Wade. The 1988 brief noted that "the United States has stated its views on this issue" previously and did not propose overturning Roe vs.
Wade directly, as the 1985 document did. . In the 1985 brief, the administration said that a "compelling ground for our urging reconsideration of Roe vs. Wade is our belief that the textual, historical and doctrinal basis of that decision is so far flawed that this court should overrule it and return the law to the condition in which it was before that case was decided. There is no explicit, textual warrant in the Constitution for a right to an abortion." ..The 1985 document set off a controversy. The commotion involved the Catholic bishops, when critics of a U.S. Catholic Conference court brief that did not call directly for overturning Roe vs. Wade contrasted the USCC document with the Reagan administration's brief.
WASHINGTON (NC) - The U.S. bishops opened their Nov. 14-17 general meeting in Washington with a defense by their conference president of their justice and peace activities and a last-minute decision to put off ·voting on a document on bishop-theologian relations. By the end of the second day of the meeting they also had elected a Miami archdiocesan priest, Father Robert N. Lynch, as the new general secretary ofthe National Conference of Catholic Bishops. Father Lynch is to begin his term Feb. I, when Msgr. Daniel F. Hoye, general secretary for the past seven years, completes his current term. The NCCB-USCC general secretary oversees the daily activities of the twin national conferences of the U.S. bishops. The conference offices in Washington, with an annual budget of about $30 million, carry out the national policies and programs adopted by the bishops. Msgr. Hoye, 42, a native 9f Taunton, has worked for the NCCB for more than 11 years. He bega~ as assistant general secretary in 1977, was made associate general secretary the following year, and was elected general secretary in 1982. After his original five-year term ended, his term was twice extended for one-year periods, making him the longest-serving general secretary in the history of the NCCBUSCe. Father Lynch, 47, is the first general secretary to have served in the NCCB-USCC as a layman. He has been associate general secretary of the NCCB-USCC since 1984. He was national coordinator ,of Pope John Paul II's visits to the United States in 1979 and 1987. As a layman he was executive director of the NCCB Ad Hoc Committee for the Bicentennial. In other meeting activity, Bishop William H. Keeler of Harrisburg, Pa., was elected NCCB secretary, making him one o( the four top NCCB officers. . The bishops put off a vote on a proposed statement on Vietnam so its scope can be broadened to encompass Southeast Asia. The defense of the bishops' actions on peace and justice issues came in the meeting's opening address by Archbishop John L. May of St. Louis, NCCB president. He rejected criticism that the bishops' conference pursues an ideological agenda and said the bishops' aims are in line with those of Pope John Paul II. Turn to Page 19