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Pope Speaks on
VATICAN CITY (NC) - Pope Paul VI said that t.he women's liberation movement has some just demands but that abortion is not one of them.
In a talk Dec. 9 to the Union of Italian Catholic Jurists Pope Paul repeated the Second Vatican Council's condemnation of abortion and infanticide as
The ANCHOR An Anchor of the Soul, Sure and FIrm-Sf. Paul
Fall River, Mass.; Thursday, Dec. 14, 1972 PRICE 10¢ Vol. 16, No. SO © 1972 The Anchor $4.00 per year
Author Asks Pardon For Polarization MILWAUKEE (NC)-A kind of mea culpa for some of the polarization in religious education was expressed here by author, lecturer and religous educator Mary Perkins Ryan. She was speaking for herself and other "progressive" educators who had hoped. for change to come too fast and as a result attempted to imposll their ideas on others. "A lot of harm has been done," Mrs. Ryan said, "by the tactlessness of progressive people, myself included. They've been just as authoritarian as the others-taking down vigil lights, downgrading novenas. What has happened to confession is a tragedy because 'people still feel guilty and yet <.1«1'1. feel it is 'in' to go anymore." In an interview with the Catholic Herald Citizetl here, she listed what she called some "tadless mistakes." "People (religiotl~i educators) took one or two courses in the Summer and, without digesting them properly themselves, tried to give them to people unprepared for l.'hem," she said. "They started new methodology they didn't know how to use. They didn't really understand the media they were using." Also, some "went off the deep end" in sensitivity training, she said. She did not discount all value of the technique but criticized those who claimed it to be "the total answer." She added she did think a useful help is' participation training, a series of exercises in how to reach consensus. Iincluding herself in her criticism, Mrs. Ryan said when she wrote her controversial book, "Are Parochial Schools the Answer?" (1954), "I didn't know enough about ·it. Hopet:ully, we all grow up." She said where religious education is flourishing . now are
parishes where parents are involved and where priests have made a point of making various adult groups feel they had goals that were vital to the parish. "Where the parish is alive, where there are parish meetings, where youth see there is a live Tum to Page Six
Senate Approves Rules Change
Lib
"abominable crimes" and assert- women's liberation, or of soed that "mere individualistic con- called sexual freedom," that are sideration" of women's rights is repugnant not only to Catholic a false approach to the question morality but to the universal of abortion. human ethic itself. "Above all," he said, "the dig"While the problem of abornity of the human person is tion, as has been said, cannot be wounded not only in the inno- approached from. the mere indicent victim of such killing, but vidualistic consideration of the in the very mother who volun- woman but must also be aptarily uses it and on all those . proached under the aspect of the doctors or nurses who cooperate common good, and, above all, in voluntary abortion." under that of the personality of He said that there are "cer- the unborn, true women's libertain distortions of the current ation does not lie in a formalistic and, in itself, just demand for or materialistic equality with the other sex. Rather, it lies in recognizing what is central and specific to 'a woman's personality: the woman's vocation to being a mother." The Pope asserted that the relation between a woman and the new human life that she brings into being is "the first and most
Fears Relative Value Ethic
LOS ANGELES (NC)-It is a schizophrenic subterfuge to say that abortion is anything but taking a human life, according to California Medicine, official journal of the California Medical Association. The journal editorially discussed "A New Etffic for Medicine and Society," and predicted that " the new ethic of relative rather than of absolute and equal values will ultimately prevail." This, said the editorial, will come about because science and technology now have the power to control the quality of life. "It will become necessary and acceptable to place relative rather than absolute values on such things as human lives ... "The process of eroding the old ethic and substituting the new has already begun. It may be seen most clearly in changing attitudes toward human abortion. In defiance of the long held Tum. to Page Six
basic of those constitutive relations of personality." Recalling that the first and most basic of human rights is the right to life, "that is, to the protection of one's life," the Pope declared: "Nobody can have a right that opposes this right, when it is a question of an innocent person." "The weaker the subject and the more needful he is of protection, the more binding upon all is the duty of protecting him. This duty is binding upon the mother most of all, so long as she bears him in her bosom." Pope Paul again quoted the Second Vatican Council: "God, the master of life, has entrusted to men the lofty mission of protecting life, a mission that must be carried out in a way worthy of man."
Bishop To Celebrate Anniversary' Sunday The clergy and laity of all the parishes and institutions of the Diocese of Fall River have been invited to participate in a solemn Mass of Thanksgiving that will be concelebrated at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in Fall River on Sunday, Dec. 17, at 5 o'clock, marking the second anniversary of the installation of His Excellency, the Most Rev. Daniel A. Cronin as Fifth Bishop of Fall River. The Bishop's second aniversary of his installation as Bishop of Fall River will permit various diocese officials, retired and newly ordained priests, seminarians, and representatives of various diocesan schools, institutions and parishes to officially participate.
At the December meeting of the Fall River Priests' Senate at the Catholic Memorial Home on Friday, Dec. 8, a constitution change that would allow greater representation of religious priests on the Senate was proposed and approved. Through the work of the Constitutional Committee co-chairmen, Rev. Msgr. Robert L. Stanton and Rev. John Brennan, SS.CC., the deep concern of the religious priests of the Diocese of .'Fall River to have a greater voice were brought to the fore. Rev. Fintan D. Sheeran, SS.CC., of the Sacred Hearts' Fathers, had made proposals in this regard, that were corroborated by members of other religious communities working in the Diocese. The Fall River Senate of Priests concurred with the committee and after unanimous approval of the basic concept of greater representation, the proposal was sent back to committee for the working out, of possible methods of i~plementation. . In other actions, the Senate heard and discussed committee reports that indicated that proposals would be forthcoming, to APPRECIATION: Most Rev. James J. Gerrard, D.O., be presented' to the Ordinary of . the Diocese, after Senate ap- retired .pastor of St. Lawrence Church, New Bedford, was proval. tended a reception Sunday at Kennedy Center and is shown The nex~ Senate meeting will receiving the notice of a scholarship fund established in his be held 'at the Catholic Memorial Home at 1:30 on Friday, Jan. 12, . name by parishioners and friends from reception chai~n 1973. All priest!!' are invited to Emile J. Monfils. A scholarship grant will be made each year in theBishop~s name to a St; Lawrence parishioner. attend.
Concelebrating with the Most Reverend Bishop and represent· ing diocesan and vicariate administration will be: Most Rev. James L. Connolly, former Bishop of Fall River; Most Rev. James J. Gerrard,Auxiliary Bishop of Fall River; Very Rev. Luiz G. Mendonca, Vicar General; Rev. Msgr. Alfred J. Gendreau, Rev. Msgr. Robert L. Stanton, Very Rev. Henry T. Munroe, Episcopal Vicars. Also concelebrating will be the diocesan priests who have retired during the past year: Rev. Msgr.. Thomas F. Walsh, Rev. Joao de Medeiros, Rev. Lorenzo H. Morais. Priests ordained for the Dio· cese of Fall River by Bishop Cronin will also concelebrate: Rev. Richard W. Beaulieu, Rev. George C. Bellenoit, Rev. Marcel H. Bouchard, Rev. Timothy J. Goldrick, Rev. Daniel F. Hoye, Rev. Michel Methot, Rev. Michael R. Nagle. Serving as the ministers of the Mass will be diocesan seminarians from St. John's Seminary, Brighton, and St. Thomas Sem· inary, Bloomfield, Conn. The Knights of the altar of St. Joseph Parish, Attleboro, led by Rev. Normand Boulet, will also participate. Participating in the Offertory Procession will be youthful memo bers of the Diocesan High Schools and senior citizens of the diocesan homes for the aged. Dominant in the Most Rever· end Bishop's second year in Fall River has been his eagerness to create a "new thrust" in diocesan activity. Turn to Page Two
Installation Anniversary ST. MARY'S CATHEDRAL 5 P.M.
"Sunday December 17. I