FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISILANDS
t eanc 0 VOL. 27, NO. 46
/FALL RIVER, MASS., FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1983
$8 Per Year
Peace, justice head to speak here
Pastoral study day set i
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FATHER HEHIR
each on Dec. 11. There will be no admission charge to the study day itself. In other implementations of the pastoral education program, diocesan elementary schools will have peace and justice workshops this year and a five session "awareness program" for integration into curriculums will be made available to princi pals, who wiJ.l also study meth ods of ,bringing the message of the pastoral into the homes of pupils. On the high school level "in fusion workshops" have been held in each diocesan school to discuss concepts and values in volved in education for peace and means of incorporating them throughout the curriculum, es pecially in religion courses. On the adult level, many par ishes have made available to their members newsprint copies of the pastoral, distributed through The Anchor. Father Hehir Father Hehir, a native of Low Turn to Page Six
Study of the U.S. bishops' war mentation of pastoral study and discussion programs. and peace pastoral, "The Chal His talk will be followed by lenge of Peace: God's Promise and Our, Response," is a top small-group discussions and the priority undertaking in the Fall day will conclude with a general . session at which the floor will River diocese. Reflecting the wish 'of the be open for questions and comments. bishops that the pastoral mess 'Priests are asked to encourage age should reach people ,of all ages by means of "balanced and attendance at the Connolly pro objective educational programs," gram, especially by catechists 'Bishop Daniel A. Cronin has and others who may be involved in preparing parish-level dis commissioned the diocesan de partment of education to plan cussion programs on the pas toral. and implement such programs. The Dec. 11 sessions will pro A major part of an ongoing and extensive effort to reach vide a model for parish groups, every diocesan Catholic will said Father George W. Coleman, come on Sunday, Dec. 11, when education department director. An informational packet contain Father J. Bryan Hehir will key note a pastoral study to be held ing material suitable for such from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Bishop groups will be available to in Connolly High School, Fall River. terested parishes. Father Hehir, newly appointed Additionally, he said, a video head of the bishops' secretariat cassette on the pastoral by for justice and peace issues, was Father Hehir is available at the one of the principal architects Catholic Education Center in of the pastoral. Fall River, as are discussion In addition to speaking, he questions. Bound copies of the pastoral will meet with priests of the diocese to discuss parish imple- letter will be available at $1 0
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'The real· thing will be worse")
By Cindy Wooden
NC News Service
"The Day After" was a mild depiction of the effects of nu clear war, but it "may open the door to more graphic" discus sions and portrayals, said Father Brian McCullough, director of the clearinghouse for the U.S. bishops' war and peace pastoral. Father McCullough viewed the Nov. 20 ABC television flim as part of the audience in the "Viewpoint" program which fol. lowed the movie. The follow-up show was telecast live from Washington. ,People have "been sleepwalk· ing the ,last 38 years," since the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, said astronomer Carl Sagan on "Viewpoint." "The reaHty is much worse than what has been portrayed," he said. J\BC television estimated 50 millior) to 75 million people viewed the movie, which depiCted a Sovi~t nuclear strike on Kan· sas City and the fate of surviv ors in nearby Lawrence, Kan. An A:~C spokesman said the rating was "excellent."
"This film was far weaker as a film than I expected and far less horrible," said Michael Novak, director of the American Enterprise Institute and author of '~Moral Oarity in the Nuclear Age." Margaret Heffner, 16, one of 30 high school students watch ing the movie at St. Patrick's Church, Corpus Christi, Texas, said the experience "was' up setting, but oJ thought it would be worse. f think the real thing will be worse. I don't think any thing will be left." Dan Stephens, 15, also at St. Patrick's, said that if he knew a missile was coming he "would grab someone and go to the beach and watch it coming. There is no use trying to hide or protect yourself." Secretary of State George P. Shultz, on the "Viewpoint show, said the film shows the "un acceptability of nuclear war" and he asked the American peo- , pIe to "rally around and sup port the Reagan administra tion's policy of deterrence and arms reduction negotiations with the Soviet Union.
Shultz said U.S. policy has been :'based on the idea that we simply do not accept a nuclear war, and we've been successful in preventing it." .Among criticisms 'of the movie were assertions that it played on people's fears and did 'not deal with what Richard Perle, assist ant secretary of defense, called, "how to avoid nuclear war, any nuclear war, no matter how lim ited." 'Father McCullough said that he was disappointed with the "viewpoint" discussions which followed the film. "The whole discussion was based on a mili tary solution" to the nuclear threat, while 'ignoring "other forms of deterrence" through economic and global interdepen dence, he said. Father Thomas J. Ralph, edi tor of The Witness, diocesan paper in Dubuque, Iowa, said the movie emphasized the mate rialism and parochialism of the United States. For the people in the film and many' of those commenting on it, "the greatest concern was of the destruction of their present lifestyle."
"There was no consideration that perhaps the majority of the world's population already lives under those conditions" present after the bombs were detonated, Father Ralph said. Many people in the Third World, he said, kill for their food and die of diseases relating to contamination of it. Cardinal Hume Also speaking on nuclear de terrence, although not in con nection with "The Day After," was Cardinal George Basil Hume of Westminster, England. Deterrence on strict condi tions and as a temporary step toward disarmament is emerg ing "as the most widely accepted view of the Roman Catholic Church" he declared in an ar ticle in the Nov. 17 issue of The Times of London. The cardinal also stressed the need to halt the increase in armaments and said those opposed to nuclear weapons do not have the right to break the law. The cardinal's article was pub lished three days after the first U.S. cruise missiles were deliv ered to the American air base at Greenham Common, the site of
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a women's ,peace camp. The week the missiles were deliv ered, police arrested more than 600 protestors, and more were arrested following protests in London. "All of us must retain the right to our conscientious be liefs," the cardinal said. "And I would judge that this does not give us the right to seriously defy the law in the present situation." The cardinal said that to ac cept -deterrence as the lesser of two evils there must be, to re tain moral credibility, "a firm and effective intention to extri cate ourselves from the present fearful situation as quickly as possible." "If any government,in the East or West, does not take steps to reduce its nuclear weapons and limit their deploy ment, it must expect its citizens in increasing numbers to be doubtful of its sincerity and alienated from its defense polio cies." The cardinal suggested that Turn to Page Six