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SERVING 88 SOUTH - GEORGIA COUNTIES
The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
•■■■Il.lll.l.l
Vol. 47, No. 21
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1966
$5 Per Year
“JVOT A CONDEMM TI0N1
Jesuit Superior Clarifies
Papal Warning To Order
FATHER PEDRO ARRUPE, general of the Jesuit
Order (left), holds a* press conference foils v?ng
the society’s two-month-long general chapter meet
ing With him is Msgr. Fausto Vallainc, director
of the Vatican Press Office. Father Arrupe denied
that Pope Paul’s recent talk to Jesuit leaders should
he interpreted as a sign of papal displeasure.
(RNS Photo)
3 DAY MEETING
Protestants At
Atlanta Synod
By Chris Eckl
By Father John P. Donnelly
VATICAN CITY (NC) — Pope Paul Vi’s recent stiff words to Jesuits,
according to the general of the Society of Jesus, were a prudent and paternal
warning — “not a condemnation or a reprimand.”
Father Pedro Arrupe admitted that the Jesuits, m some parts of the
world have been im|prudent and made mistakes. “We do not intend to de
fend these,” he said. “But neither do we (Want to make a bigger mistake
than all the rest: that of folding our arms in a vacuous wait-and-see atti
tude for fear that if we act we will make mistakes.”
ATLANTA — An Episcopal
bishop was among non-Catho-
lic observers who attended and
addressed delegates to the
three-day Atlanta Arch
diocesan Synod in the cathe
dral center.
Delegates discussed paro
chial education, the sacra
ments, celibacy and birth con
trol. The names of priests
elected to the senate of the
archdiocese were announced.
Discussing the sacraments,
the delegates favored a pro
gram for more Masses in the
homes and a greater role for
parents in preparing their
children for first Holy Com
munion. A three-man commit
tee was appointed to study the
question of valid baptisms.
Several delegates also fa
vored a communal service be
fore private confessions while
others wanted a communal
service without private con
fession when there was not a
question of serious sin. How
ever, Archbishop Hallinan
said he would not favor any
practice beyond private con
fession in a communal setting.
The delegates were told that
celibacy should be discussed
while most of the priests were
together. The archbishop said
he was not in favor of a
casual poll: “I am in sym
pathy with a study and will
be glad to send it to the Holy
See with comments from the
laity. However, it should be
a detailed study with full con
sideration on the economic,
sociological and psychological
aspects.”
Among the observers at
tending the synod and briefly
addressing the delegates were
Bishop Randolph R. Claiborne
of the Episcopal Diocese of
Atlanta; Charles Wittenstein,
southeast director of the
American Jewish Committee;
Don McEvoy of the National
Conference of Christians and
Jews; Mike Gettinger of the
Jewish Community Council of
Atlanta; and pastors of
Lutheran, Presbyterian and
Greek Orthodox Churches.
The general’s remarks
were in response to a volley
of questions from journalists
at an extraordinary press con
ference in the Holy See’s press
hall (Nov. 24). The conference
was called, Father Arrupe
said, because of a rash of
contradictory reporting which
followed the Pope’s audience
(Nov. 16) with delegates to the
society’s 31st general congre
gation. The Jesuits wound up
the second and final session
of the longest congregation
in their history the following
day.
While praising the results
of the congregation and the
work of the society through
out the world, the Pope said
during the audience that he
was saddened by rumors
reaching him regarding the
Jesuits and other religious
families. “We cannot remain
silent about these rumors,”
he said. “They astonish us and
some of them have brought
us genuine pain. What strange
and warped ideas could ever
give rise in your far-flung
society to doubt as to whether
it should continue to exist in
the way it was conceived and
founded by the holy man who
established its most sound
and rigid norms, and whose
age-old tradition has been ma
tured by the wisdom of experi
ence and the approval of au
thority to the glory of God,
the defense of the Church and
the wonder of the world?”
He then went on to list several
“dangers,” including the
philosophy of historical rela
tivism, suggestions to abandon
traditional disciplinary
norms, especially in the realm
of obedience, the down-grad
ing of spiritual exercises and
the adoption of secularism.
Father Arrupe said that it
was “clearly the Pope’s win
to bring some dangers and
regressions to our attention—
not abstract symptoms ar
rived at by logical deductions,
but coming from concrete
facts within the society itself.
It is his preoccupation as a
father and shepherd which
prompts the desire to keep
the militia corps, which he
considers his own and which
he loves, safe as a whole from
dangers which have become
real and actual for some of
its members. The Pope him
self pointed out that the ‘ same
thing happens in other reli
gious families.’
“Because of evidently
gratuitous generalizations
made by hasty interpreters—
but certainly not malicious—
and which are in danger of
giving a completely distorted
picture, I would like to call
your attention to the delicate
precision with which the Pope
spoke. He assured the entire
order of his trust, gratitude
and affection. . . . Dangers,
negative rumors and reports
were referred to as isolated
phenomena ‘in some quar
ters’. . .
“Certainly these isolated
phenomena are regrettable,
and if not opposed could be
come more widespread. What
now applies to a few could ex
pand. But the Pope spoke out,
cautioned, called for vigilance
and underlined in a positive
way that to which we must hold
fast (and to which thanks be
to God our congregation re
newed its dedication with most
absolute fidelity).
“It was a matter then of
serious words, prudent words,
of not remaining silent in the
face of dangers. But they were
spoken with so much affection
and paternal solicitude that it
is impossible to see how they
could be confused with a con
demnation or reprimand. All
the more since the majority
of the discourse was filled
with the usual expressions of
esteem, affection and trust—
and this after the Pope had
examined the decrees of the
general congregation.”
Confirmation
Schedule
The Most Reverend Thomas J. McDonough wiU confirm
at 6 P.M. at St. Anthony’s, Savannah, on Tuesday, Decem
ber 6th.
The following evening, December 7th, the Bishop will
administer the Sacrament of Confirmation at 7 P.M. at
Fort Gordon.
In both cases, the Sacrament will be administered dur
ing an evening Mass.
INSIDE STORY
Penance Statement P9* 2
Gov’t & Birth Control Pg* 2
Race Relations p 9« 3
Endorse U.N. Document Pg- 5
50th Anniversary **9- $
ilCEIVE THE BOOK OF THE WORD OF GOD ...” — In a ceremony
ieled after the reception of the Minor Order of Lector, the Lay Readers
Nativity Parish in Thunderbolt, are invested by their Pastor, Father Rob-
j. Teoli. In addition to Fred Corcoran and Bill Fogarty who are seen
ehing the Book of Scripture, the following men w ®re also inverted: % la .
■ter, Louis Castilian, Robert Dethlefs, Bart Shea, Dallas McClellan, Julian
Lendon, Louis Drawdy,, John Smith, Richard Lee, and Joseph Sullivan.
REMEMBER PATSY LI? — She’s a U.S. citizen now, but in 1942 this young
lady was a bruised and wounded little orphan, found by a Maine chaplain in
the midst of Guadalcanal fighting. Father Frederic M. Gehring, C.M. (left),
who found Patsy Li, congratulates her on becoming a Ui.S. citizen, as her hus
band, Joe Buck Lee, proudly looks on. (NC Photos)
SAGA OF WWII
Patsi Li, ‘Miracle Girl, 9
Becomes Citizen
BALTIMORE (NC) — It
doesn’t happen every day but
when it does, the scene is
familiar.
There were 131 eager men,
women, children in the large
room at the General Post Of
fice building here. Each was
certified as qualified for the
ensuing ceremony. The big
moment came when they took
the oath making them na
turalized citizens of the United
States.
The one who made the cere
mony unusual was Mrs. Joe
Buck Lee, 30, of nearby Eli-
cott City, Md. Her husband
and a priest watched intently,
proudly as she took the oath.
The priest—Father Fred
eric M. Gehring, C.M., now at
St. Vincent’s parish, Philadel
phia, 25 years ago was a
multi-decorated Navy chap
lain serving with the Marines
on Guadalcanal.
And Mrs. Joe Buck Lee —
she was Patsi Li, the widely
famed “miracle girl of World
War II,” central figure in
one of the most amazing stor
ies of that conflict.
The flashback centers on
Guadalcanal in 1942, when na
tives brought the 6-year-old
Chinese girl, more dead than
alive, into the Marine lines,
placed her in the arms of Fath
er Gehring. Her tiny body
bore saber and bayonet
wounds, multi-bruises. Some
how the Marine doctors
brought her back to life. She
became the mascot of the Ma
rines. The Leathernecks in
sisted she have a name, so
Father Gehring called her
Patsi Li—white plum blos
som.
None knows how Patis Li
got to Guadalcanal. She was
fleeing Hong Kong with her
mother and sister to escape
advancing Japanese forces.
The ship was torpedoed. Mrs.
Li saw one daughter drown,
the other float away clinging
to a piece of the ship’s
wreckage.
A war correspondent wrote
the Patsi Li story. Mrs. Li,
who had made it to a sister
in New York, read the story—
became convinced the girl
was her own. She was told the
story of how the girl was
found on the island, 4,000 miles
from where the ship went down
and how Father Gehring, one
time missioner in China, just
made up the name Patsi Li.
But Mrs. Li persisted, was
flown to a Pacific island and
sure enough the girl was her
own daughter—her real name
was Patsi Li.
After the war, Patsi Li went
back to China with her mother.
The mother remarried. Pat-
si’s beloved “Father Fred,”
to whom she wrote often, per
suaded the mother to let him
Of U.S.
bring Patsi to the United
States.
Patsi Li arrived in the Unit
ed States in 1950. Father Geh
ring arranged for her school
ing with the Sisters of Mercy
at Our Lady of Walsinghair
Academy near Williamsburg,
Va., where the girl embraced
the Catholic Faith.
Then she attended Gwynedd-
Mercy College, Gwyneed Val
ley, Pa., and the nusing school
at the Catholic University of
America, Washington. She
was a nurse at Providence
Hospital, Washington, when
she met Joe Buck L6e. Father
Gehring officiated at their
marriage in Washington.
DIOCESE
Columbus Breakfast
The Most Reverend Thomas J. McDonough will be the guest
speaker at the December 12th breakfast of the Columbus Chris
tian Laymen’s Association. The Bishop will speak on the Second
Vatican Council and the breakfast program is scheduled for 7:15
A.M. at the Ralston HoteL
Atlanta Mass
SAVANNAH—Bishop Thomas J. McDonough will join with seven
other bishops and two Abbotts from four southern states in a Mass
at Atlanta’s Cathedral of Christ the King, marking the first anni
versary of the closing ofVaticanCouncilll on Dec. 8. The eleven
prelates will join Archbishop EgidioVagnozzi, apostolic delegate
to the U.S., who will be principal celebrant in a concelebrated
Mass.
NATION
Religion Popular
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (RNS) — Religion out-ranks all other
nterests of Twin Cities’ area residents, according to a survey
onducted by the Minneapolis Star’s Metro-Poll. Thirty-nine
er cent of all adults interviewed cited religion as the subject
rhich interests them the most, the survey found.
AFRICA
Aid Anglican Center
KAMPALA, Uganda ^NC)—The Catholic bishops of Uganda
have given a grant to expand the studios at the Anglican Church’s
literature and radio center at Mukono, in order to facilitate
training in the production of radio and television programs.
The grant was announced at a meeting of the three-year-old
Uganda Joint Christian Council at Makerere University Col
lege here. The council, set up by the Roman Catholic and
Anglican Churches of .Uganda, is open to any church “which
adheres to the Apostles’ creed and which accepts Baptism by
water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit.”