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SERVING 88 SOUTH - GEORGIA COUNTIES
The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 50 No. 3
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SAVANNAH, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 1969
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$5 Per Year
MSGR. JOHN G. NOLAN, executive secretary of the Catholic
Near East Welfare Association, New York, chats with refugee
children as he opened a new school at Baqa’s refugee camp in
Jordan, during a Christmas visit to the Middle East. (NC Photos)
MSGR. NOLAN SAYS
Arab Refugee
Problem Grows
ROME (NC) — Arab
refugee needs are greater than
ever in the Middle East,
according to Msgr. John G.
Nolan, president of the
Pontifical Mission for
Palestine.
Passing through Rome
after a Christmas visit to
Israel, Jordan and Lebanon,
Msgr. Nolan, who is also
secretary general of the
Catholic Near East Welfare
Association in the U.S., said:
“In view of current events
there is absolutely more need
than ever for assistance to the
refugees.”
While in Rome Msgr.
Nolan had a half-hour private
audience with Pope Paul VI,
who urged him to make the
work of the Pontifical
Mission better known. Pope
Paul said he wanted this not
to focus attention on his
interest in the refugees but on
the presence of Christ among
the suffering.
The 44-year-old Albany
diocesan priest has been
president of the Pontifical
Mission for Palestine for four
years and was an assistant to
the mission in the Middle
East before that for two
years. The mission maintains
offices both in Beirut,
Lebanon, and in Jerusalem.
Msgr. Nolan explained that
his most recent visit to the
Middle East-his 15th in four
years-had a threefold pur
pose.
The first was to show the
Pope’s concern for the
refugees and war victims
during the Christmas period.
Secondly, he officially
transferred a school for 5,000
children built by funds from
the Pontifical Mission at
Baqa’a, Jordan, to the
government of Jordan.
Thirdly, he made the trip
to discuss with civilian and
church leaders, as well as staff
members of the mission’s
offices in Beirut and
Jerusalem, problems of the
refugees, which now number
1.5 million.
Surveying the vast field of
endeavor before him, Msgr.
Nolan hopes that plans can be
made and funds found to
mount mobile clinics and
establish libraries and new
orphanages. “We also need
increased assistance to help
existing vocational programs
and programs which will
provide for the aged,” he
said.
Although his thoughts
tend to concentrate on the
future Msgr. Nolan and his
predecessor, now Archbishop
John Ryan of Anchorage, and
the Pontifical Mission have,
through the generosity of
Catholics, provided Arab
refugees with close to $100
million in money, good c and
services.
Most of the funds have
come from the U.S., but
there has been help for
special projects, Msgr. Nolan
said, from many other
agencies, such as Miserior, the
German Catholics overseas
relief agency, and Britain’s
OXFAM and Catholic
Women’s League. The mission
has worked particularly close
with U.S. Catholic Relief
Services (CRS).
Aside from immediate
relief and assistance programs,
Msgr. Nolan siad that the
Pontifical Mission is
sponsoring long-term projects
for refugees, such as
scholarships for refugees in
vocational training schools.
Among these are scholarships
to the Salesian Fathers’
schools in Bethlehem and
Nazareth and the Benedictine
school in Tripoli, Lebanon.
INSIDE STORY
New Jersey Dispute Pg* 2
Cardinal On Schools Pg. 3
Dutch On 'Humanae Vitae’ Pg. 3
-v
Church Unity Week Pg* 6
John XIII Lectures ^9* ^
GROUP’S SECRETARY INTERVIEWED
Synod Will Help
F orm Instrument
To Meet Crises
BY PATRICK RILEY
VATICAN CITY (NC) — Next autumn’s extraordinary session of the Synod of
Bishops will try to consolidate the Holy See and national bishops’ conferences into a
collegial instrument that can meet “not merely the difficulties but the crises” in the
Church, the synod’s permanent secretary has stated.
Bishop Ladislaw Rubin also predicted that the composition of the theological
commission that the first session of the Synod of Bishops, in 1967, asked the Pope
to create will be announced “soon.” He said, however, that he had no knowledge of
the identity of the members of the commission, designed to help the Pope and the
Doctrinal Congregation to discern and deal with modem currents of theological
thought.
The task of forming the
long-awaited theological
commission was entrusted to
the Doctrinal Congregation
said Bishop Rubin, who is an
auxiliary of Stefan Cardinal
Wyszynski of Warsaw but
now lives in Rome. The
commission is expected to
help avert- head on clashes
between advant-garde
theologians and Church
authorities.
Bishop Rubin also
announced the membership
of two commissions preparing
for the synod: one to draft an
agenda, and the other to
weigh suggestions for revising
the synod’s rules of
procedure.
Among the six members of
the agenda committee are
presidents of bishops’
conferences from the world’s
five continents. Archbishop
John F. Dearden of Detroit,
president of the National
Conference of Catholic
Bishops, represents North
America.
★ ★
Church
Bishop Rubin indicated
that one of the synod’s
regulations that may be
modified is the very
definition of an extraordinary
session of the synod.
“According to the norms of
the synod’s ‘ordo,’ the Synod
of Bishops meets in
extraordinary assembly if the
matter to be treated, while
concerning the good of the
Church, demands a quick
settlement. It might
consequently seem that the
essential part is the urgency
of the matter. Yet in reality
this type of assembly . . .
takes its characteristic note
from the consideration not so
much of the urgency of the
matter and the need of a
rapid settlement, as from its
particular importance.”
He recalled that Pope Paul
VI in his last regular
pre-Christmas speech to the
cardinals of Rome, had
emphasized that the synod to
meet Oct. 11 was designed to
foster cooperation between
the Holy See and the bishops’
★ ★
conferences, and among the
bishops’ conferences
themselves.
(This is a close variant
upon the very first of the
general aims of the synod
listed by Pope Paul when he
created it in his motu proprio
Apostolica Sollicitudo of
Sept. 15, 1965: “To
encourage close union and
valued assistance between the
Sovereign Pontiff and the
bishops of the entire world.”)
Bishop Rubin quoted from
Pope Paul Vi’s speech to the
cardinals: “The importance
we attach to this possibility
of mutual aid, based on the
principle of collegial
collaboration and common
responsibility approved and
encouraged by Vatican II, has
led us to this decision.”
Bishop Rubin commented
that, until now, such relations
between Holy See and the
bishops’ conferences and
(Continued on Page 2)
★ ★
Changes Tied To
Secular World Turmoil
HOUSTON, Tex. (NC) -
A Canadian professor of
religious studies asserted here
that “it is impossible to
understand recent events in
the Catholic Church except in
relation to the upheavals of
our culture in every other
area.”
Dr. Leslie Dewart of the
University of Toronto
declared: “The Catholic crisis
is but part of an unintelligible
pattern in which all other
numerous crises of our time
can be fitted.”
He and Philip Scharper,
editor of Sheed and Ward,
New York publishing firm,
were chief speakers at the
three-day (Jan. 6 to 9)
sessions of the National
Newman Chaplains’
Conference at the Rice Hotel
here.
Scharper discussed the
changing Church structures
since the Second Vatican
Council and role-playing in
the Church of the future.
Theme of the conference
was: “New Theology--New
Structures; Newer
Structures--Newer Theology.”
Father Michael
Gillgannon, diocesan director
of Newman chaplains in the
Kansas City-St. Joseph Mo.,
diocese, was program
chairman. Father Charles
Forsyth, O.S.B., rector of the
Catholic Newman Center at
the University of Colorado
and national president of the
Newman Chaplains’
Association, attended.
“The really adequate
viewpoint from which to
grasp the pattern within which
the Catholic crisis of the 20th
century takes its place, is the
viewpoint of the history of
man as a whole, that is, the
viewpoint of human
evolution,” Dr. Dewart said.
Dr. Dewart added that the
background of theological
thinking that predominated
Vatican II was not itself
theological and is best
analyzed from viewpoints
other than theology.
“For this background
consisted in a large and
complex pattern of events
which are best envisaged from
the evolution of Western
Christendom,” he said.
“Human evolution has
accelerated to the point that
it is no longer the
imperceptibly slow
movement which can be
deduced from the traces left
over long periods of history;
it is now an observable
condition of human life
which must enter into our
everyday calculations and
perceptions,” he added.
Dr. Dewart referred to the
present stage of human
development as the beginning
of the age of “post
civilization.”
“In other words,”
observed Dr. Dewart, “having
passed, about 100,000 years
ago from the herd to the
tribe, and less than 10,000
years ago from the tribe to
the city, in much less than
1,000 years man has covered
the transitional zone which
progresses from city towards
world.
“Note that all these
various revolutions have not
been successive, but
cumulative. Each one has
added its turmoil to the
previous one: none of them
has ever really ended,” he
said.
Dewart said the various
revolutions since the end of
the Middle Ages-scientific,
ecclesiastical, philosophical,
technological, political,
industrial, economic and
social--mark the
reorganization of man on a
planetary scale, “a process
which is at once painfully
disruptive of established
patterns and, at least
hopefully, constructive of
new ones.”
He said: “Religion is
(Continued on Page 2)
UPSTAGES ASTRONAUTS — As President Johnson awarded Distinguished Service Medals to the
Apollo 8 astronauts at the White House (Jan. 9), his grandson, Patrick Nugent, upstaged them all.
The President jocularly explained that perhaps Patrick burst into the scene because LBJ had
mentioned the Air Force, the baby’s father’s service, last. Left to right are the now familiar Moon
circlers; William Anders, James Lovell and Frank Borman. (NC Photo by RENI)
$5.5 MILLION ADDITION FOR COLUMBUS
Hospital Launches Final
Phase Of Its Fund Drive
Columbus’ St. Francis
Hospital has launched the
final phase of its drive for
funds for a $5.5 million
addition. Goal of the
homestretch drive is
$250,000 to $300,000
A report by Constance
Johnson in The Columbus
Ledger says that
announcement of the drive
was made last Monday (Jan.
6) before a representative
group of community leaders.
The news article quoted
Dr. C. C. Butler, a member of
the doctors’ committee for
the St. Francis project, as
saying additional hospital
beds are needed in the
community “right now” and
reported that the $5.5 million
addition to expand the
hospital from 151 to 287
beds is scheduled to start in
the spring.
The article continued:
“The drive of the final
block of funds needed will be
concentrated among
individual and business
donors, guests at a luncheon
Monday were told. Dr. Butler
explained that the Sisters of
St. Francis have set aside
$800,000, and that $4
million will be borrowed.
“Both hospitals currently
average 90 per cent or more
occupancy--which for
practical purposes means they
are at capacity since beds in
many areas of the hospital,
such as obstetrics or
psychiatric wings, are
restricted to particular type
cases.
“And although there has
been talk of a third hospital
in Columbus, such a facility is
10 years away, said Butler.
The extra beds, will be
needed long before then, he
said, adding that the
“immediate answer” is to
expand St. Francis.
“The proposed expansion
program, in addition to
increasing the patient beds,
will include addition of a new
cardiac intensive care unit.
Plans for enlarging the
laboratory include the
addition of isotypes in
diagnostic procedures.
“Almost all ancillary
departments of the hospital
are to be enlarged, including
x-ray, intensive care, physical
therapy, surgery, recovery
room, obstetrics, central
supply, kitchen and laundry.
“The proposed addition
will be the first major
expansion of patient care
facilities since St. Francis
Hospital was established here
some 18 years ago. “It has
not grown in size, but it has
grown in stature. This is the
reason we are asking your
help,” said Butler.
HEADLINE
HOPSCOTCH
a
DIOCESE
Religious Senate
The Religious Senate of the Diocese of Savannah will meet
on Saturday, January 25th at the Holiday Inn, Dublin at 12:30
p.m. Any Religious wishing to place an item on the agenda,
please notify a member of the Senate as soon as possible.
“This leaves $750,000 for
us to raise in the community,
and more than one-half of
that already is in hand or
pledged. It’s the last
$250,000 or $300,000 that
we’re worried about,” he
stated.
“With St. Francis now
listed 26th in priority in
Georgia for a Hill-Burton
grant, federal aid seems “out
of the question in the
foreseeable future,” Butler
told the audience of some
100 persons.
“Dr. Butler explained the
community-wide need for
hospital beds, noting that the
occupancy rate at both local
hospitals-The Medical Center
and St. Francis--has been
increasing at the rate of 5 per
cent a year.
NATION
Bishops Ask Aid
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (NC) - The Catholic bishops of
Missouri have warned that private schools cannot be expected to
continue without outside financial assistance and called for
“cooperative arrangements’ between the state and private
agencies in which both would share the cost of education. They
offered to help the Missouri General Assembly develop
legislation which would permit such a program.
FAR EAST
DMZ Violations
SAIGON (NC) — Since the total bombing halt over North
Vietnam on Nov. 1, 1968, North Vietnamese armed forces have
violated the Demilitarized Zone more than 1,200 times,
according to the South Vietnamese foreign ministry. The figure
was given in a protest to the International Control Commission
by the foreign ministry. It covers the period from Nov. 1 to
Dec. 31. Typical violations mentioned in the note were that the
communist troops had set up “emplacements of rocket
launchers and heavy anti-air craft machine guns; had built many
bunkers, trenches and shelters; had moved on sampans or motor
boats across the Ben Hai River and by heavy trucks to and from
the zone.”