Newspaper Page Text
%
♦
#
i
»
4
f
SERVING 88 SOUTH - GEORGIA COUNTIES
The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
lltllllUlltmilNIIIIIIIMI
MMIIMimilMMIUIIIIIIIIIMIMMIIUMM
iMIlllltlIMflf MIHMtIMf IIIMIMItlMIIIMIttllttHllltlllllllli
Vol. 51 No. 2
THURSDAY, JANUARY 8.1970
»•»••••••••••••«
IIMIIIIIIIIIIII•••••III•%••••*<
$5 Per Year
IMIMMHIHIMMIMIMMIIMirtMtlllMIMMMMMMMMMMMIMMM.HMtHt I MMMMIMMI l III •MMMI MM II MMIM I • • MflMtcMMlM*
JEWISH-CHRIS TIAIS
The Most Crucial
Ecumenical Area?
BY MARJORIE HYER
(NC NEWS SERVICE)
NEW YORK--A growing number of ecumenical
leaders feel that Christian-Jewish relationships
constitute a crucial area much in need of further
exploration.
One of these leaders is the Rev. Dr. Robert C.
Dodds, associate secretary of the division of Christian
unity of the National Council of Churches.
‘‘Jewish-Christian
relationships are the single
most important item on the
ecumenical agenda,” Dr.
Dodds told National Catholic
News Service.
But while American
Protestant and Orthodox
churches have relatively
extensive ecumenical
programs concerned with the
various branches of
Christendom, Dr. Dodds
complained that there is
“virtually no interest in the
Jews at present.
“With maybe one
exception, there is no one in
American Protestanism
working full-time on
Jewish-Christian relations. I
think this says a lot about
priorities.”
Dr. Dodds credits the
Roman Catholic Church with
being “way ahead” of
Protestants at present in this
field, though this has not
always been the case.
‘‘There was a
per io d--before Vatican
II~when jews working on this
problem felt that Protestants
were more progressive than
Catholics,” he explained.
“The Catholic Church had a
lot of catching-up to do, but
in doing it, it has leap-frogged
whatever progress Protestants
had made.
“Now through the
declaration on the Jews of
the Vatican Council and the
recent draft of the Vatican
Secretariat for Promoting
Chrisitan Unity, the Catholic
Church-in the hierarchy and
officialdom-recognizes the
Jew as brother. Protestants
have yet to take any similar
step.”
Dr. Dodds noted that
“outside of officialdom,”
both Protestant and Catholic
theologians and thinkers are
calling for more progress.
“They are beginning to say
that it is as important to the
future of Christianity that we
reorder Jewish-Christian
relations as it is to the future
of America that we reorder
black-white relations.”
The Protestant leader, who
is a clergyman of the United
Church of Christ,
acknowledged that “part of
the problem in relating to the
Jews is that it has been
impossible to get off the
political issue” of Israel and
the Middle-East crisis.
Both the National Council
of Churches and the World
Council of Churches have
issued statements on that
crisis. “In an attempt to
appear even-handed, they
have produced documents
that were unacceptable to
either side,” he noted.
Dr. Dodds’ views on
Jewish-Christian relations
have been greatly influenced
by his participation in a
unique but completely
unofficial discussion group of
Jewish and Christian leaders.
The group has been meeting
quietly and informally for
nearly six years.
Most of the Christian
participants are related to the
National Council of
Churches, although several
Roman Catholics have
participated regularly
including Father Edward H.
Flannery, director of the U.S.
Bishops’ Secretariat for
Catholic-Jewish Relations.
Jewish participants in the
group have come from all
three branches of
Judaism-Orthodox,
Conservative and
Reforme d-and from Jewish
service groups such as the
American Jewish Committee
and the Anti-Defamation
League of B’nai-Brith.
“We started talking about
social action concems-about
Vietnam and the black-white
crisis,” Dr. Dodds recalled.
“When the Christians tried to
edge into theology, there
were enough Orthodox Jews
in the group that they backed
away.”
The reticence began to
break down gradually, he
said, “as we continued
working together and learning
to trust each other and
understand each other. With
increasing confidence we’ve
been able to get harder and
harder on each other in
dealing with more meaningful
subjects.”
The major accomplish
ment of the group, Dr. Dods
feels, is that “a group of
Christians and a group of
Jews know and trust one
another.”
Dr. Dodds, who, in
addition to his duties with
the Council has been serving
as interim pastor of a local
United Church of Christ
congregation in Wantagh,
Long Island, is fearful that
America may be facing a
wave of anti-Semitism. The
wave could very well be
encouraged by Christian
misunderstandings.
“I hear all the old
anti-Semitism cliches when
Christians are talking about
Jews, he said. “I see anti-
Semitism manifesting itself in
the popular religion.
“Perhaps most dangerous
of all is the refusal of many
Christians at both the grass
roots and leadership levels to
admit they are anti-Semitic.”
America today is deeply
divided and deeply troubled,
he pointed out. Recalling the
situation of Hitler Germany,
Dr. Dodds predicted that
“when it gets bad enough,
someone will start looking for
a scapegoat and it’ll be the
Jew.
“The Jew has provided the
scapegoat throughout history.
I don’t think we can assume
that that demon has been
exercised in American
history.” The German church
did not lead in creating the
Jew as the scapegoat, but it
did stand by and let the
Jewish people become that.
“I see no evidence that the
American church would do
any differently.”
LIMA-PERU - A discarded bicycle tire from the nearby dump is Chiquita’s toy. Every large city
has its slums, sometimes in the shadow of skyscrapers; in Lima's barriadas thousands of persons
live without light, water or sanitation. In the midst of squalor where children play-or even
work-the United Nations Childrens’ Fund (UNICEF) helps to improve the environment, starting
programs to help governments improve health, sanitation and social services in their cities. (NC
Photo)
Cardinal Asks For End To
Peace-By-Violence Policy
WORLD PEAf.F. DAY AIMTAI.
‘Working For Peace
Is Everybody’s Job,’
Pope Paul Stresses
VATICAN CITY (NC) — On world peace day-New Year’s Day-Pope Paul VI
hammered away at the notion that to work for peace is everybody’s job.
“Peace is a duty for leaders, yes, but not for leaders alone,” the pope declared at
a special Mass in Rome’s Church of the Gesu of the third World Day of Peace to be
celebrated since he launched the idea three years ago.
PHILADELPHIA (NC) -
John Cardinal Krol said peace
“cannot be built by violence”
and called for a sharp
reduction in the military
spending which has brought
mankind to the brink of mass
destruction.
The Philadelphia
archbishop spoke (Jan. 4) in
Sts. Peter and Paul cathedral
before some 1,700 persons at
a special ecumenical service
geared to the World Day of
Peace advocated by Pope Paul
VI.
“Peace cannot be built by
violence,” the cardinal said.
“Peace is more than a mere
abatement of armed conflict
or its determent by a balance
of terror-of military power.”
“We pray that men will
recognize the dangerous
brinkmanship of those, who
by aiding and abetting enmity
and strife, pursue a ‘no
war-no peace’ policy for
their own economic or
political gain,” he continued.
In addition to the
outpouring of laity of various
religious faiths, participants
in the service included
officials and clergy of
Orthodox and Protestant
denominations. The service
concluded with a Mass
concelebrated by the cardinal
and by Auxiliary Bishops
Gerald V. McDevitt and John
J. Graham of Philadelphia.
Those in attendance
included Archbishop
Ambrose Senyshyn,
O.S.B.M., of the Byzantine
archdiocese of Philadelphia;
Methodist Bishops Howard J.
Gordon and Fred Pierce
Corson of Philadelphia; Proto
Presbyter Demetrios S.
Kalertis of the Greek
Orthodox church; Richmond
Miller of the Religious
Society of Friends, and
officials of the Metropolitan
Christian Council of
Philadelphia, which arranged
the service with the
Philadelphia archdiocese. Six
(Continued on Page 2)
“Today, democratically
organized society assigns
powers and duties to all
members of the community,”
he said. “Even if this were
not so, it would remain true
that peace is everyone’s duty.
For peace has dominion not
in politics alone but in many
lower spheres which in
practice involves our personal
responsibility even more.
“Another reason is that
peace has its active source in
ideas, in minds, in moral
attitudes even more than in
outward action.”
He pointed to the role of a
revenge-oriented notion of
justice in preparing the way
for war.
He continued:
“We must place at the
foundation of our social
psychology a hunger and
thirst for justice, together
with that seeking for peace
which merits for us the title
of children of God. It is no
Utopia, it is progress ...
‘‘Civilization has
succeeded in banishing, at
least in principle, slavery,
illiteracy, epidemics, social
classes, etc. It has banished
evils that were long
established and that were
tolerated as if they were
unavoidable and were
inherent in the sad, tragic
social life of mankind.
Civilization must also succeed
in banishing war.”
The Pope said a “terrible,
increasing danger of world
conflagration” demands the
banishment of war.
Asking what “individual,
weak mortals” can do to
avert such a universal
catastrophe, he answered:
“We have recourse to
public opinion, which in this
emergency becomes the
expression of mankind’s
moral conscience. And we all
know how great can be its
power for good. We have our
individual, personal duty to
be good. That does not mean
to be weak, but to be able to
break the sad, logical chain of
evil by patience and
forgiveness. It means to love,
that is, to be Christians.’'
The Pope also said
Christians have “another
resource,” that of faith joined
to prayer.
“Prayer made with faith
will never be disappointed,”
he said.
Pope Paul ended his
address with this prayer
confessing mankind’s guilt
and pleading for peace:
“Lord, our hands are still
bloodstained from the last
world wars, so that not all
peoples have yet been able to
take each other’s hands in
friendship.
“Lord, we are today more
heavily armed than ever we
were in centuries past, and we
are so provided with
instruments of death that we
could in a single instant set
the world ablaze and perhaps
even destroy mankind.
“Lord, we have based the
development and prosperity
of many of our giant
industries on the diabolical
capacity to produce arms of
every size and shape, all
designed to slaughter and
exterminate men who are our
brothers. Thus we have
cruelly established the
economic stability of so
many powerful nations upon
the trading of arms to poor
nations lacking ploughs,
schools and hospitals.
“Lord, we have allowed to
reappear among us the
ideologies that make men
enemies of one another:
revolutionary fanaticism,
class hatred, nationalistic
pride, racial exclusiveness,
tribal rivalry, commercial
selfishness, self-satisfied
individualism that is
indifferent to the needs of
others.
“Lord sorrowful and
powerless, we are listening
daily to the news of three
wars still raging in the world.
“Lord, it is true! We are
not on the right path!
January 29 - 31 will mark
a historical milestone for the
Holy Name Society in the
United States. A
constitutional convention will
be held in New Orleans, La.
and national officers will be
elected. Subject to final
approval, the name will be
“The National Association of
the Holy Name Society.”
A committee headed by
Louis C. Fink of Atlanta,
Georgia, assisted by
representatives from dioceses
in all sections of the United
States, have drafted a
workable constitution that
will make the Society truly
national in scope and
purpose. To conform with
that concept, national
officers, including regional
vice-presidents, one for each
region established by the
American Bishops, will be
“Lord, look nonetheless at
our inadequate but sincere
efforts for peace in the world.
There are wonderful
international organizations.
There are proposals for
disarmament and for
peace-talks.
“Lord, there are above all
so many graves that tear our
hearts, families broken up by
wars and death-inflicting
repression, women in tears,
children dying, refugees and
prisoners crushed by the
weight of solitude and
suffering, and there are many
young people rebelling that
justice may be advanced and
that concord may be the law
of coming generations.
“Lord, you know that
there are upright souls doing
good in silence, courageously
and unselfishly, and praying
with penitent and with
innocent hearts. There are
Christians in the world-and
how many they are,
Lord-who want to follow
your Gospel and who practice
self-sacrifice and love.
“Lord, Lamb of God, Who
takes away the sins of the
world, grant us peace.”
elected by diocesan delegates.
The new image of the
Society will be demonstrated
in objectives calling members
to be foremost in responding
to the challenges of civic and
social life on all levels,
meeting their responsibilities
to alleviate hunger, poverty,
unemployment, recognition
of human dignity in all their
brothers and untiringly
striving for peace.
Gerard Schoen is
convention chairman. His
address is 6034 Chamberlain
Drive - New Orleans.
Louisiana 70122.
Reservations for delegates
are being accepted by Very
Rev. Brendan Lamen, O.P. at
National Headquarters of the
Holy Name Society - 141
East 65th Street - New York,
New York 10021.
^ HEADLINE /■*
” m “ HOPSCOTCH r t
Recommended Programs
NEW YORK (NC) - The National Catholic Office for Radio
nd Television lists the following network presentations as
rograms of special interest. Times indicated are for the New
r ork area (EST). TELEVISION: Sunday, Jan. 11, 1:30 p.m. -
)irections-“Two Songs”, ballets “The Song of Deborah” and
Song of Shirah” performed by the modem dance group, Pearl
,ang and Company. (ABC) Sunday, Jan. 11, 1:30 - 2 p.m. -
Guideline - “Hunger: Whose Problem?”, a panel discussion
eaturing Prof. Charles Riker of Purdue University. (NBC)
’uesday, Jan. 13, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. - “The Golden Age of the
LUtomobile” - Documentary special looks back on the
orseless carriage and the social change it wrought. (ABC)
Wives Or Widows?
ROME—For most American housewives, a whirlwind trip
o Paris and Rome is a dream of a lifetime. But for three Navy
rives who are trying to find out if their husbands are alive or
lead in Vietnam, it has been a frustrating experience with a
forth Vietmanese official in Paris and a rewarding one with
*ope Paul VI in the Vatican. Sherry Duncan, 23; Nicki Stegman,
10, and June Nelson, 26, talked quietly with NC News Service
n their hotel in Rome prior to returning home to Virginia
Jeach, Va. They routed their flight via Paris for another try
vith the North Vietnamese. “We just want to know,” was their
:ommon plea. “If Someone would knock on my door tomorrow
noming and tell me Tom was dead, I would be grateful for the
lews,” said Nicki Stegman in a soft North Carolina drawl. “That
night sound cruel to some people, but it is this eternal ‘not
mminnrt’ Ihflt unit not Cfn W8V ”
INSIDE STORY
English Martyrs Pg. 2
The 1970s Pg. 3
Monsignor Toomey Pg. 4
Tito To Visit Pope Pg. 6
REVAMPED SOCIETY
New Image For
Holy Name Men