FALL  RIVER — An international baptism of The New England Academy of Codfish Inc. (Academia do Bacalhau da Nova Inglaterra Inc.)  was held Saturday.

The event was held in the early after­noon at the Beira Alta Restaurant on Plymouth Avenue. The ceremony made it official for the New England Academy to become a member of the International Academies of Codfish.

About 350 people were on hand for the banquet at Beira Alta on Saturday night.The organization’s international pres­ident admits that people still chuckle today at the academy’s name, but he is quick to add that the healthy benefit of the codfish is no joke.

“Even today, the people laugh when we mention the name,” said Silvério da Silva of Johannesburg, South Africa, home of the mother academy.

“But when we explain the main objectives of our organization and also inform them of the excellent healthy qualities of the codfish — as the best food in the world — they verify that it is not any laughing matter,” he said. “Our academy of codfish is a serious organiza­tion dedicated to the good health, and to the cultural, social and historical well being of our citizens.”

He said the name of the academy was born in one of the dinner meetings in Johannesburg in 1968.

“It was someone who had attended the University of the City of Oporto, Portugal, and had belonged to the Academic Musical Group, who suggest­ed the name academy,” Silvério da Silva related. “Everyone had laughed, but the name stuck.”

Silvério da Silva, who presided over the cere­mony, gave the new flag and bell to Dr. Manuel Luciano da Silva, president of the New England Academy, located at 16 Brooks Farm Drive, Bristol, R.I.

After the banquet, entertainment included Portuguese guitars and fado songs from the University of Coimbra, Portugal.

On Saturday morning, 110 visitors from Portugal, Azores, Madeira, South Africa, Brazil, Australia, Newark. N.J., and Toronto visited the Dighton Rock Museum in Berkley. Theories are pre­sented on the origin of inscriptions on the rock, supporting American Indian, Norse, Phoenicians and Portuguese sources.

Visitors are invited to study each theory, then view the rock and draw their own conclusions.

Specific purposes of The Academy of Codfish of New England are:

To promote greater awareness among the public that codfish is one of the healthiest foods of New England.

To promote among the American public the knowledge that the Portuguese navigators were the first to name New England as the Land of Codfish or “Terra do Bacalhau.”

To promote the knowledge that because of the abundance of codfish in the seawaters of New England, the early Portuguese fishermen called codfish the “fiel amigo” or “true friend”

To promote the meaning of friend­ship, using the codfish as the icon of “true friend” or “fiel amigo” among Americans, Portuguese Americans and all Portuguese in other countries, including comradery with other Academies of Codfish throughout the world.

Da Silva explained that codfish is better for one’s health than red meat because of “excellent dietetic qualities.”

He listed the following benefits of codfish: less calories because of no sugar and excellent for diabetics; as much protein as beef or pork; a fatty fish, but with the right fats: linoleic acid and omega-3, both lowering bad cholesterol; rich in calcium to prevent osteoporosis; rich in phosphorus for functioning of the brain; poor in iron, therefore preventing heart attacks; rich in potassium for healthy contraction of muscles, especially the heart; rich in iodine for normal functioning of the thyroid gland; rich in fluoride to pre­vent cavities, and rich in vitamins A, U and complex B. 

Da Silva said all of the above are so because “the codfish eats lots of plank­ton.”

In the first year of its incorporation, The Academy of Codfish of New England gave 650 books in English

About the Portuguese history and culture  to the libraries of the high schools, colleges and universities of New England, da Silva said.

Titles of the books, by Manuel Mira, are “Eyewitness to Portugal, Madeira and Azores,” and “The Portuguese in the Formation of America.”

Da Silva was born in Portugal and emigrated to Brooklyn, N.Y., with his mother and brother to join his father in 1946. He graduated from New York University with a biology major in 1952. He returned to Portugal and graduated from Coimbra University Medical School in 1957.

After one year of medical practice in Portugal, he returned to this country to do an internship at St. Luke’s Hospital, New Bedford. He completed his special­ization in internal medicine at Lahey Clinic, Boston.

For more than 50 years, da Silva has been studying the history of Dighton Rock inscriptions made by Miguel Corte Real in 1511.

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