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SERVING 88 SOUTH - GEORGIA COUNTIES
The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
vm 52 No. 25
Thursday, July 15, 1971)
Single Copy Price — 12 Cents
FOLLOWING COURT RULING
Nonpublic School Leaders
Continue Quest For Aid
WORDLESS PLEA: This photo needs no further caption to
appeal to the charity and aid of the more unfortunate. All the
tragedy and suffering of the refugees is in the eyes of this aged
woman in Calcutta. (NC PHOTO by Father Leo E. McFadden.)
COURT TESTIMONY
Nun Doesn’t Have
Priests’ Privilege
BY NC NEWS SERVICE
Nonpublic school officials are continuing their search for financial aid programs
which would be constitutionally acceptable in light of a recent U.S. Supreme Court
ruling nullifying two such aid forms.
The high court knocked down June 28 a purchase-of-secular-services law
benefiting Pennsylvania nonpublic schools and a salary supplement for qualifying
nonpublic teachers in Rhode Island.
Two days later, it affirmed a lower court decision declaring a Connecticut
purchase-of-services law unconstitutional.
TRENTON, N J. (NC) - A
nun does not have the right
to invoke a priest’s privilege
and refuse to answer a grand
jury inquiry about a murder,
a New Jersey appeals court
ruled here.
Dominican Sister Margaret
Murtha, 32, who works for
Catholic Charities in Newark
and lives at St. Boniface
parish in Jersey City, was
directed by the appellate
division of superior court to
tell a grand jury about a
conversation she had last
February wth a 17-year-old
boy who was questioned in a
murder case.
Sidney Goldmann, the
presiding judge of the
appellate division whose
12-page opinion upheld a
lower court order, ruled that
the priest’s privilege to
remain silent about
information received in
confession does not extend to
nuns.
When the court opinion
was handed down July 6,
Sister Murtha was
recuperating from a
gallbladder attack in St.
Joseph’s hospital in Jersey
City.
Judge Goldmann held that
Sister Murtha was not
entitled to remain silent on
grounds of conscience.
“This case calls for a
balancing of interests, that of
the state in enforcing the
power of the grand jury to
inquire into the commission
of a crime and that of Sister
Margaret, who claims that she
responds to a call of
conscience,” the judge said.
“In the particular
circumstances of this case the
latter must give way to the
former.”
Sister Murtha spent a night
in Hudson County jail last
May for refusing to testify
before the grand jury even
after the prosecutor’s office
offered to question her on
her actions and not about any
conversations with murder
suspect Louis Cevitello.
David J. Young, legal
counsel for Ohio’s Protestant,
Catholic and Jewish schools,
said at a July 6 meeting with
school officials that an Ohio
teacher salary supplement
program was distinguishable
“in many significant
respects” from the Rhode
Island program which the
high court dissolved.
FATHER CLEMENT
BORCHERS, Glenmary, will
replace Father Francis
Schenk at Sacred Heart
Church. Lyons-Vidalia.
Father Borchers was ordained
in 1941, and has served as
Superior Geberal of The
Glenmary Home Missioners
for twelve years. Since 1965,
he has been pastor of St.
Francis Church in Aberdeen,
Mississippi, effective as of
August 1, 1971.
***
FATHER JOSEPH DEAN,
But Young told the group
no one could assure
constitutionality of the law.
He said parental grants and
credits were the forms of
future educational assistance
most likely to meet the new
criteria established in the
Supreme Court ruling.
Young also advised the
Glenmary will replace Father
William Smith of Holy
Redeemer Parish, McRae. He
was ordained in 1945, and
has served in the Mission
Fields of North Carolina,
Virginia, Mississippi and
Kentucky. Father Dean is a
twenty-five year veteran,
effective July 7, 1971.
***
FATHER WILLIAM
SMITH OF McRae-Hazelhurst
will be moving to New
Bloomfield, Pennsylvania.
group that other forms of aid
currently benefiting
nonpublic schools in the state
which would probably not be
affected by the ruling were
bus transportation, school
lunches, health services,
remedial reading and other
programs.
The attorney met later
with Ohio’s seven bishops,
including Archbishop Paul F.
Leibold of Cincinnati. The
bishops said in a July 8
statement that they had
“authorized legal counsel and
those responsible for
coordinating statewide
nonpublic education to
cooperate to the fullest with
Ohio’s legislators to secure
constitutionally sound
avenues for continued aid to
nonpublic school parents.”
Also advocating the
development of
constitutionally sound aid
programs were the four
bishops of Florida, including
Archbishop Coleman F.
Carrol of Miami.
The Florida bishops, who
have endorsed tuition grants
for nonpublic students, noted
in a joint statement that
similar programs had been
previously considered
constitutional.
They cited the GI Bill of
Rights, which allows veterans
of all faiths to attend the
school of their choice and
receive state and federal
assistance for their education.
“Why, one might ask,
could not this same principle
be applied in secondary and
primary schools,” the bishops
said, “without bringing about
what the Supreme Court, in a
strange phrase, refers to as
‘excessive entanglements’
between Church and State?”
The GI Bill of Rights was
also mentioned by officials of
a citizens’ group backing
educational freedom of
choice in Michigan.
Michigan Citizens for
Educational Freedom (CEF)
issued a statement advocating
“an education voucher
system, giving the benefits to
the citizens, rather than to
the institution.”
“In all other social welfare
fields-such as Social Security,
Medicare, Medicaid, welfare
and the ul Bill of
Rights-govemment gives the
benefit to the citizen,” CEF
said, “ and the citizen, as the
consumer, chooses the
supplier or institution for
needed services.”
Only in the field of
education, the statement
concluded, does government
send money to an
institution-the public school,
and impose “a financial
penalty on parents, who
exercise their civil right of
choosing a citizen-owned and
operated school, rather than a
government-owned and
operated school.”
HEADLINE
HOPSCOTCH t
Orange Day Violence
BELFAST, Northern Ireland (NC) — The Protestant Orange
Jay celebrations marking the 281st anniversary of William of
Jrange’s victory over the Catholic armies of King James II
tnded with rioting, bombings, shootings and the death of a
British soldier. There were only minor incidents during the
arious parades July 12 celebrating the Protestant victory in the
L690 Battle of the Boyne, but soon after a sniper shot and
filled a British soldier as he kept watch over a “peace line”
eparating a Catholic area from a Protestant one. He was the
linth British soldier and the 28th person to die this year as the
esult of the violence in Northern Ireland. Two civilians, one in
Londonderry and one in Belfast, were wounded by army gunfire
>n Orange Ehy. A group of Catholics in Londonderry
Irebombed a shirt factory and a Belfast department store was
jlown up.
Death Toll Nears 100
VALPARAISO, Chile (NC) — This port city mourned the
leath of about 100 persons after another major earthquake
truck at Central Chile near midnight July 8. The cathedral’s
lome crumbled into the main altar, other Church buildings were
lartHged, and thousands of Chileans were left homeless. “God
ook away one church, but is giving me another,” said Bishop
Imilio Tagle of Valparaiso after inspecting the cathedral and
•efore leaving for opening ceremonies at a new church in a poor
ection of town.
Suspend Registration
DALLAS (NC) — Registration of new students has been
suspended in Catholic schools in the Dallas diocese to keep
them from becoming havens for those attempting to avoid court
ordered integration. Th e registration freeze affects the 29
parochial elementary schools and high schools in Dallas County
and applies to all registrations except students registered in the
same school during the past academic year, students transferring
from another Catholic school, and students moving from out of
town. Bill Cox, president of the diocesan school board, said the
action was taken by the board with the approval of Bishop
Thomas Tschoepe of Dallas and Sister Caroleen Hensgen,
diocesan superintendent of schools. It was taken in the face of
pending court action on a suit brought by the Efellas Legal
Services Project against the Dallas Independent School District
in an effort to speed-up the school district’s present plan of
racial integration. Several alternative plans for accelerating
integration in the district have been presented to U.S. District
Judge Wiliam M. Taylor in advance of a scheduled hearing set.
Among plans submitted are proposals that include extensive
busing of DISD students to schools distant from their homes in
order to bring about a racial mix in the schools more nearly
reflecting the mix present in the entire city.
Appoin tmen ts
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ABOVE IS ONE of the drawings from “What Are Me and You Gonna Do? Children’s Letters to
Sen. Gaylord Nelson About the Environment.” Now available in a Ballantine edition illustrating
children’s fears concerning pollution.
Cathedral Launches Drive
For Chapel Improvements
Savannah’s Cathedral of St.
John the Baptist in Savannah
has launched a “Mini Drive
for Maxi People” to provide
needed funds for basic
improvements and the future
embellishment of Our Lady’s
Chapel in the basement of the
Cathedral.
This is a Memorial Drive in
memory of Monsignor T.
James McNamara, who died
on October 28, 1970 after
serving as Rector of the
Cathedral for 28 years and
then as Rector Emeritus until
his death.
Monsignor McNamara’s
devotion to Mary the Mother
of God was well known and
the establishment and
beautification of a Chapel in
her honor was one of his
lifetime projects. Our Lady’s
Chapel which was
constructed more than thirty
years ago has been the scene
during all that time of the
Miraculous Medal Novenas in
honor of Our Lady which
have been attended by many
hundreds of people weekly.
The following special
improvements will be made in
the Chapel depending on the
amount realized from the
Drive:
(1) Repair the very serious
crack in the wall near the rear
entrance to the ChapeL This
is a large structural crack
extending all the way up to
the ceiling and could be a
very costly repair job. On
days of heavy rain the water
literally pours into the Chapel
and hence the repair of this
defect is a MUST before too
much damage is done.
(2) Repaint the Chapel and
repair kneelers.
(3) Make the main altar the
principal altar for the
Sacrifice of the Mass to
comply with the new
liturgical directives from the
Vatican. This would entail
moving the marble altar
forward and building up the
steps behind the altar to
enable the priest to say Mass
facing the people.
(4) Refurbish the Sacred
Heart altar so that it becomes
a dignified place for the
reservation of the Most
Blessed Sacrament
Letters have gone out to
Cathedral parishioners
concerning this Memorial
Drive which is also directed
to friends of Monsignor
McNamara in Savannah and
throughout the Diocese so
they may become aware that
this project is being
undertaken in his memory.
ARCHBISHOP SAYS:
Church Neutral
On DeathPenalty
VATICAN CITY (NC) -
The Catholic Church cannot
take a stand for or against the
death penalty, a writer in the
Vatican weekly claimed.
“Such a pronouncement
would in fact have to derive
directly from Holy
Scripture,” the article in
L’Osservatore della Domenica
explained.
“But in Holy Scripture you
find two parallel series of
texts, one in favor of the
death penalty and one against
it. You cannot sacrifice one
series of texts for the other
out of simple whim.”
The writer, Archbishop
Ferdinando Lambruschini of
Perugia, was professor of
moral theology at Rome’s
Lateran University and one of
the theologians consulted by
Pope Paul VI during his
reexamination of the church’s
traditional teaching against
contraception.
Discussing the controversy
over the death penalty, he
observed:
“One of the strangest
aspects of the periodically
revived polemics is that those
in favor of the death penalty
as well as those against it,
whatever the crime or
circumstances, appeal to the
Church, whatever their
religious faith, to make a
statement favorable-natural-
lv-to their view
“Since this is materially
impossible, the Church is
accused pitilessly and its
neutrality is wrongly
compared with Pilate s
gesture.”
During recent arguments in
Italy over reviving the death
penalty to counteract a wave
of criminal violence, some
have likened the Holy See’s
studied neutrality to Pontius
Pilate’s symbolic gesture of
washing his hands of Christ’s
death.
INSIDE STORY
Biblical Commission
Pg. 3
'Know Your Faith’
Pg. 5
General Constitution
Pg. 6
Readers’ Reply
Pg. 8
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