12.31.81

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t eanc 0 VOL. 25, NO. 53

FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSEnS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS

FALL RIVER, MASS., THURSDAY, .DECEMBER 31, 1981

20c, $6 Per Year

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AND I SAID to the man who stood at the gate of the year: "Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown." And he replied: ",Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way." So I went forth, and finding the hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And he led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone :East. -Minnie L. Haskins

a' gift of God entrusted to us' VATICAN CITY (NC) - Catholics should join "the first rank of those preparing 'peace," said Pope John Paul II in his message for the 1982 World Day of Peace, Jan. 1. The 5,500-word message comments on the theme chosen last fall by the pope for the annual observance: "Peace, a gift of God entrusted to us." "The church supports and encourages all serious efforts for peace," Pope John Paul said. "The church wishes her children to join, through their witness and their initiatives, the first rank of those preparing peace and causing it to reign." But the pope warned against "ideologies that hold up the prospect of a totally and permanently peaceful human society as l~asily attainable" and said that "these decep-

tive hopes lead straight to the false peace of totalitarian regimes'." "This is why Christians, even as they strive to resist and prevent every form of warfare, have no hesitation in recalling that, in the name of an elementary requirement of. justice, people have a right and even a duty to protect their existence and freedom by proportionate means against an unjust aggressor," he said. But "this right, which is very real in principle, only underlines the urgency for world society to equip itself with effective means of negotiation," he added. The message made no reference to specific nations or specific world situations, but said that "there are still serious threats to peace in the world." Turn to Page Two


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