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DISPUTES STUDY REPORT
CFM Head Denies Group
Is Becoming Irrelevant
CHICAGO (NC) - The
president of the International
Confederation of the
Christian Family Movement
took sharp issue with a
suggestion by a University of
Notre Dame sociology team
that CFM may soon become
“irrevelant.”
Patrick F. Crowley,
Chicago attorney and a
founding member of the lay
apostolate organization said:
“Though the Notre Dame
study was generally a good
and valuable one, I cannot
agree with the team’s
conclusion that CFM may
soon become irrelevant
because it is not attracting a
new generation of committed
young persons.”
Crowley pointed to what
he said is a recognized
limitation of statistical
surveys. He said:
“They are operating on
statistics that are about three
years old and in the last one
and a half years many new
young couples have joined
the movement.”
He cited a CFM group at
Holy Name cathedral here in
which the average age is in
the early 20s.
Crowley also referred to a
50% increase in the last three
months over the same period
last year in the sale of CFM
publications.
“An undue importance,”
he thinks, “has been placed
by the study team on answers
to questions on birth control
population, and quality of
family life,” Dr. D’Antonio
which they tacked on the end
j
E*-1
of their questionnaire.”
stated.
*
Dr. William V. D’Antonio,
a member of the study team,
thought that CFM’s approach
to birth control was shown
by the questionnaire results
to have been too
conservative, Crowley said.
(Contacted at the
University of Notre Dame,
Dr. D’Antonio, chairman of
the departments of sociology
and anthropology, said part
of the study involved a series
of questions asking
respondents what their family
planning practices were. But
he denied the questions were
“tacked on,” as Crowley put
it, saying they were “an
integral part of the study
instrument.”
(About half the 1,200
respondents in the study
refused to answer the
question on family planning,
according the Dr. D’Antonio.
Of those that did answer,
52% said they used rhythm
and the remainder said they
used various forms of
artificial contraception.
(Dr. D’Antonio said these
results showed that CFM
members tend to be more
“traditional” in their
behavior than some other
Catholics are, according to a
Gallup poll and other surveys
of Catholic family planning
practices.
(“I feel CFM’s days are
numbered unless they can
reorganize and confront
crucial issues--including
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(But he maintained that
the Notre Dame study’s
central assertion-that CFM is
on the wane-“was not
predicated on the birth
control issue at all.”
(“I think CFM is an
interesting idea, but young
people don’t want something
so middle class and cautious,”
Dr. D’Antonio said.)
Crowely, meanwhile, said
the birth control issue has
diminished in force over the
last three years and that he
does not believe it was a
prime CFM issue even when
the study was initiated.
Salient CFM issues, in •
Crowley’s opinion, are
improving the quality of
family life in the
nuclear-satellite age, the total
impact of the family on
education and educational
processes, and the creation of
new monogamous family life
values in the face of threats
to the family by certain
economic, political and
philosophical forces.
CFM was formed in
Chicago in the 1940s in
response to he alienation
many Catholics felt in a
war-tom world, marked by
divorce and fragmented
families.
Inspired by papal
encyclicals calling for a “lay
apostolate,” the movement
began as small, community-
-oriented groups of couples
dedicated to positive action
on local problems.
Crowley defended the
strength of the movement by
citing examples of its
continued growth. Among
them: 3
-“The marriage Encounter
weekend sessions are one
example. Everybody who
makes them comes away with
a great enthusiasm and new
insights into his marriage,” he
said.
-CFM in Spanish-speaking
sections of urban areas
throughout the nation “is
blossoming.” And in black
communities, he said, it is
more a matter of how to
implement CFM through
black leaders than whether
the ideas lack relevancy there.
-Local autonomy granted
community groups may make
it difficult for the national
organization to take stands
on national or Church issues,
as the Notre Dame study
pointed out, but CFM
planners never intended the
usual type of national
structure in the first place,
Crowley said. When asked, he
went further:
“Absolutely, pluralism is
one of CFM’s main virtues.
And our national
confederation is not going to
impose priorities on any local
community group.”
Viewed from another
controversial vantage point,
that of ecumenism, the
movement has undergone
deeply significant growth,
Crowley claimed. Protestant
CFM groups, as well as mixed
groups of Protestants and
Catholics, can be found in
many areas of the country he
added.
Father Edward Kohler,
chaplain of the national
confederation, is reported by
Crowley as saying that “the
number of ecumenical groups
being formed is very
encouraging.”
Internationally, Crowley
said, the Latin American
CFM is making great strides.
“The Philippines are doing
very well, as is India, whose
movement is spreading in
close relation to the Church.
“In East Africa, forward
strides continue to be taken
in CFM, even though the
movement is being impeded
elsewhere, as in Nigeria, by
the civil war.”
Crowley also said CFM is
“very strong” in Ireland and
Australia.
THE EXCHANGE CLUB of Augusta has presented a Freedom Shrine, an impressive exhibit of 28
authentic reproductions of historically famous American documents spanning the 325 years from
the Mayflower Compact to the World War 11 instrument of surrender in the Pacific to Aquinas
High School. Presentation on behalf of the club was made by R. W. Locke, first vice president.
(L-R) Rev. Ralph E. Seikel, Diocesan Superintendent of schools; Sister Mary James, Principal of
Aquinas High School; Levert Hood, president of the National Honor Society; Louis Battey,
president of the Student Council and Mr. Locke.
IN DRAMATIC FASHION
Archbishop Sheen Bids
Good-Bye To Rochester
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (NC)
— Archbishop Fulton J.
Sheen, 74, in typical dramatic
fashion, said his good-byes to
Rochester and headed for his
planned, new working-
- retirement career in New
York City.
The good-byes extended
over several days, each
stamped with the Fulton
Sheen touch.
-Smilingly, thankfully,
enthusiastically (Nov. 28) he
shook hands with more than
200 priests, nuns and laymen
who saw him off at the
airport.
-Seriously, dramatically a
few hours earlier he spoke to
more than 900 priests and
laymen at a luncheon
honoring Bishop Joseph L.
Hogan, his newly consecrated
successor, and repeatedly
asked the priests of the
diocese “forgive me.”
-Jauntily, proudly he
mounted a platform in the
Pastoral Office Building (Nov.
26) and spoke his farewell to
his “official family” - some
300 priests, nuns and laymen
who work for diocesan
offices and agencies. There he
stressed every speech should
have a prepared ending. He
said: “It’s one of the hardest
things to do, to get off stage.
I don’t know the last line. I do
not conclude ...” Then he
extended his arms and left
the platform.
While serving as national
director for the society for
the Propagation of the Faith
in New York City, he became
auxiliary bishop of New York
in 1951. He came here in
1966 as sixth bishop of
Rochester. In submitting his
resignation, Bishop Sheen
urged the appointment of
Bishop Hogan as his
successor. Pope Paul VI
accepted the resignation Oct.
15, appointed Bishop Hogan
at the same time and elevated
Bishop Sheen to archbishop.
As he walked down the
long corridor at the airport,
the crowd surged around him,
each trying to reach him,
shake his hand, wish him
well.
At the luncheon it had
been more traumatic as the
archbishop twelve times
pleaded with “my priests” for
forgiveness.
‘‘I would have been
missing one of the foretastes
of Heaven,” he said, “if it
were not for this God-given
privilege to have been one of
you. The greatest joy of my
life has been the priesthood
of this diocese . . . this is the
hardest thing about leaving
Rochester-believe me, under
God . .. ”
“No,” he continued, “1
would not have had wounds
unless 1 were in your
battles-I would not have
scars unless I were in the
midst of your conflicts. I just
ask one thing-one tmng-your
forgiveness!
“For the things I have said
to you priests, and should
have left unsaid-forgive
me ... for the things I have
done which you felt I should
not have done-forgive
me . . . for the times I
monologued when I should
have dialogued— forgive
me . . .
Archbishop Sheen said
“the world is full of a word I
hope we will erase from our
dictionaries in the diocese of
Rochester-the word ‘down
with the bishop, down with
the priests, down with
celibacy, down with
infallibility.” He reeled off
issues which acquaintances
said deeply have affected
him.
‘‘Rally around your
bishop-be constructive and
helpful; he’s here for healing.
Come to see him-lift him
up-he needs your prayers.
‘Up’ is the Christian word-“if
I be lifed up,” he said.
The archbishop in New
York will resume a career of
broadcasting, lecturing and
writing which made him
internationally famous. He
has taken an apartment on
East 77th Street.
He said he soon will leave
for California to preach two
retreats for priests. He will
continue his weekly
synidcated newspaper
column, presenting
discussions on moral issues.
He also will put finishing
touches to still another book,
portions of which were
published during the last
year.
“I hope to do other
things,” he said, “but I’m not
sure what they will be. I’ll
leave it to the Lord to open
the doors.”
Replying to recent
questions, Archbishop Sheen
commented that “the world
has had enough of
relativities-it is demanding
absolutes.” To another query
about his nearly three years
in Rochester he said he had
some successes and “many
failures.” He added that “I
was too young for the, old
persons, and too old for the
young ones.”
In another answer to
besieging reporters, he
accused the press of
“promoting tension and
conflict” and of “tearing
down instead of building up.”
The archbishop’s
departure was accompanied
by many sincere tributes. One
was the luncheon comment
of Archbishop Luigi
Raimondi, apostolic delegate
in the United States, who
described him as “a kind of
gentle priest, who worked so
hard here and who gave so
much of the abundance of his
talent and his mind and
heart.”
VATICAN CITY (NC)
-The Vatican has published
the Christmas schedule of
Pope Paul VI for this year,
which will find him
celebrating the three Masses
of Christmas either in the
Vatican or in Rome.
The announcement of the
schedule put an end to press
speculation that the Pope
might spend part of
Christmas in Sardinia or
Sicily. The speculation was
stirred up because the Pope in
the past has travelled outside
of Rome on several occasions
to be with the Catholics of
other Italian cities. Last year,
he went to the seaport city of
Taranto for midnight Mass,
and in 1966 he went to
Florence for Christmas Mass
with the townspeople of the
flood-ravaged city.
At midnight, he will
celebrate Mass in the Sistine
Chapel within the Vatican for
the diplomatic corps
accredited to the Holy See.
On Christmas morning at 8
a.m., he will drive to a Rome
parish of St. Agapitus to
celebrate the second Mass at
11 a.m. At noon, he will
impart the traditional ‘urbi et
orbi’ (to the city of Rome
and to the world) blessing
from the central balcony of
St. Peter’s overlooking the
great square below.
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1
PAGE 7 — The Southern Cross, December 11, 1969
Correction!
In a story last week about
a meeting of Diocesan Social
Apostolate bureaus, THE
SOUTHERN CROSS
erroneously identified Msgr.
John D. Toomey as
“Diocesan Director of the
Social Apostolate,” and
Father William Dowling as
“Diocesan Co-ordinator.”
Monsignor Toomey is
Chairman of the Diocesan
SocialApostolate
Commission, a body distinct
from the Office of the Social
Apostolate. Father Dowling is
Diocesan Co-ordinator of the
Diocesan Office of the Social
Apostolate.
We regret the error and
hope this correction will clear
up any confusion caused by
Editor.
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