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SERVING 88 SOUTH - GEORGIA COUNTIES
The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 52 No. 27 Thursday, October 28, 1971
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Single Copy Price — 12 Cents
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V
THE REMNANTS, a musical combo composed of nuns from Ball, for an episode of Here’s Lucy. The group’s leader is
Leavenworth, Kansas, pose with a ringer, saxophonist Lucille cometist Sister Madeleva Ditmars, rear center.
NOV. 1 AIR DATE
“Band” Of Nuns Plays For
TV Ball (Lucille, That Is)
GENERAL, SELECTIVE
Conscientious Objection
Gets Bishops’ Support
WASHINGTON (NC) Catholics can conscientiously object to war in general or to a particular war “because of
their religious training and belief,” the nation’s bishops declared here.
The bishop’s statement, announced Oct. 22 by the United States Catholic Conference (USCC) here, followed a
mail vote which revealed that more than two-thirds of the 290 Catholic bishops in the nation approved
conscientious objection.
DIOCESAN PASTORAL COUNCIL
Poverty, Vocations,
Schools Discussed
LEAVENWORTH, Kans.
(CPF) - This is a
nuns-and-show-business story
that sounds too corny to be
true.
Last Christmas, an
instrumental combo made up
of Sisters of Charity from
Leavenworth were asked to
entertain at St. John’s
Hospital in Santa Monica,
Calif.
The hospital (where many
of the scenes from the Marcus
Welby TV show are shot) is
operated by the Sisters of
Charity; so, naturally, the
Leavenworth playing nuns
were happy to oblige.
Called The Remnants, the
group had made appearances
here and there when the nuns
weren’t busy teaching at St.
Mary’s College in
Leavenworth or in several
Catholic high schools in
Kansas City, Mo. But you
couldn’t say they had made
“the big time” yet, musically
speaking.
Well, in the audience
during the St. John’s Hospital
performance, attended by
patients, nurses, doctors,
friends, relatives, was
Madelyn Davis, wife of one of
the doctors.
Madelyn Davis is also one
of the principal writers of the
Here’s Lucy television show.
The old, corny story would
have Madelyn Davis going to
Lucille Ball, telling her about
this marvelous group of nun
musicians, and suggesting an
episode for a future Here’s
Lucy show that would
involve the nuns. This old
tried-and-true story would
then have Lucille Ball saying,
“I think that’s a terrific idea”
or something like that, and
suddenly the Remnants
would be performing on a
network TV show.
It’s a corny story, but
that’s just what happened.
In the Here’s Lucy episode
that was scheduled for
Monday night, Nov. 1, Lucy’s
boss, Harry Carter (Gale
Gordon) insists that she help
him find talent for a hospital
benefit. Lucy learns that
there is a group of nuns in
Kansas City who will perform
free of charge, and the rest of
the episode involves getting
them to the West Coast in
time.
A “crisis” develops when
one of The Remnants
members can’t make it and
Lucy decides to fill in,
donning a nun’s habit and
playing the saxophone in a
rousing rendition of a
spiritual number.
Back in Kansas City, where
she is music director at
Bishop Hogan High School,
The Remnants’ leader, Sister
Madeleva Ditmars, explained
that the episode was filmed
last May, although she found
the Nov. 1 airdate rather
fitting, it being All Saints Day
and the name of the song
they play being When the
Saints Go Marching In.
Sister Madeleva noted that
the habits worn on the Here’s
Lucy show are “the old
habits,” because the show’s
staff felt that the nuns’
modern dress makes them
difficult to identify as nuns in
the short amount of time
they’re actually on camera.
The nuns have been given a
print of the Here’s Lucy
show-which they’ve viewed
several times and are happy
with-and the show’s musical
director has even reciprocated
by giving a lecture at St.
Mary’s College.
The Remnants is so named
because several members of
the group are remnants of an
outfit called Dot and Her
Dashes of Rhythm. The
“Dot” was Dorothy Ditmars,
who played a cornet and led
her own dance band in high
school and later at St. Mary’s
College, where she became a
convert to Catholicism and
then was to become Sister
Madeleva.
Other members of The
Remnants include Sister Mary
Rosell Kroetch, vocalist and a
staff nurse at St. Vincent’s
Hospital in Leadville, Colo.;
Sister David Marie Soloman,
marimba player and music
director at St. Pius X High
School in Kansas City; Sister
Rita McGrath, drummer and
student at St. Mary’s College;
Sister Mary Lenore Martin,
percussionist, business
manager and a teacher at St.
Mary’s; Sister Mary Vincentia
Maronick, bass player and St.
Mary’s College development
officer, and Sister Dominic
Long, pianist and a member
of the St. Mary’s College
faculty.
The Remnants’ repertoire
ranges “from rock to
standard,” said Sister
Madeleva, “everything from
Stardust to I Don’t Know
How to Love Him. But no
acid rock.”
The national exposure on
the Here’s Lucy show
shouldn’t go to the nuns’
heads. The following
weekend they were scheduled
to play in the Bishop Hogan
High School gym for the
Parents’ Club dance.
In their declaration, the
bishops urged government
officials to recognize that
Catholics -- much as the
traditionally pacifist Quakers
- have the right to claim
conscientious objector status.
The prelates also asked
that officials consider
granting amnesty to those
who have been imprisoned or
have left the country because
of sincere opposition to
compulsory military
conscription.
Commenting on the release
of the declaration, Bishop
Joseph L. Bernardin, USCC
general secretary, noted that
the bishops realize that legal
recognition of selective
conscientious objectors will
pose complex procedural
problems for the Selective
Service System.
Bishop Bernardin suggested
that a presidential
commission be formed to
determine methods of making
a selective conscientious
objection provision work
properly in a modified
Selective Service Act. He
offered USCC assistance to
such an endeavor.
As it stands now, he said,
“the law makes provision,
and rightly so, for men who
are absolutely opposed to any
and all wars on principle. But
there is no similar provision
for so-called selective
conscientious objectors, those
who, while not absolutely
opposed to war under all
circumstances, nevertheless
find themselves sincerely
opposed to a particular war
(Continued on Page 8)
CAMERON AND
HIDALGO COUNTIES,
TEXAS — Fresh, pure
drinking water will be
brought for the first time to
the rural poor of two Texas
counties. A new pipeline to
be financed by a loan from
the Farmers’ Home
Administration and a grant
from the Catholic Church’s
Campaign for Human
Development will carry the
water.
The Campaign, which is
donating $180,000 to the
project, is a multi-million-dol-
lar effort by Catholics in the
United States to fight poverty
at its roots.
The pipeline, called the
Military Highway Project, will
By Rev. John A. Kenneally
On Saturday, October
23rd, the Diocesan Pastoral
Council met in the
cafetorium of St. Joseph’s
School in Macon. Thirty-one
people attended this meeting;
twenty three delegates and
eight guests from the various
deaneries.
The meeting began with
Fr. William Coleman,
Coordinator of the
Department of Christian
Formation, informing the
group of the progress of the
department’s Adult
Education Programs. He also
outlined the department’s
program for the coming
months.
This included a description
of the educational program
for the American Bishops’
Human Development
Campaigh, the Advent
program which will deal with
the sacrament of Penance, the
Lenten program which will
try to give a contemporary,
personalist approach to the
sacraments. He also
mentioned that this
department was working on
programs for young adults
and young married couples.
be owned and operated by
the Military Highway Water
Supply Co., a non-profit
corporation made up of the
people it serves.
When completed some two
or three years from now the
pipeline will bring water to a
minimum of 3,600 families at
a cost of approximately $6
per month. Schools, other
institutions, farms and
businesses will pay a slightly
higher rate.
The project will cost an
estimated $3,600,000. The
initial $180,000, representing
connection fees for 3,600
low-in come families, will
come from the Campaign for
Human Development.
The Chairman, Mr. Tom
Coleman of Savannah, asked
that the deanery
representatives open up lines
of communication between
the Dioceasan group and the
pastoral councils at the
deanery and parish levels.
“We still suffer from a lack
of communication of this”,
he said. “However, if we
follow through, we can get
feedback from the other
groups to the Diocesan
Council that will help it to
function in a more positive
way.” Bishop Frey said: “The
Diocesan Council needs
visibility, the Southern Cross
could be used for this
purpose.”
Fr. Robert Mattingly,
Diocesan Vocations Director,
gave a report on the number
of men studying for the
priesthood from this diocese.
To give his report more
impact, Fr. Mattingly
accompanied it with some
(Continued on page 2)
A HEADLINE /«!'
ifi? HOPSCOTCH
Want-Ads For Priests
DETROIT (NC) — Priests here will have more control over
their reassignments by applying for pastoral vacancies listed in a
help-wanted bulletin published by the Detroit archdiocese. All
priests in the archdiocese are eligible to apply for any jobs
appearing on the list, the archdiocese announced after releasing
its first list of 12 vacancies. Auxiliary Bishop Walter Schoenherr,
delegate for the clergy in charge of the new reassignment
system, said the lists will be published regularly, and anyone can
recommend other priests for the announced openings.
School Prayer Amendment
WASHINGTON (NC) - A bi-partisan group of U.S.
Representatives has formed a committee to fight a proposed
constitutional amendment to allow prayer in public schools. In
letters to all fellow Ho use members, the committee urged that
the proposed amendment be defeated because it “would alter
the first Amendment to the Bill of Rights for the first time in
our history.” Religious groups opposing the amendment include
the United Methodist Board of Charistian Social Concerns and
the American Lutheran Church, Lutheran Church-Missouri
Synod and Lutheran Church in America. The nation’s Catholic
bishops have not taken a stand on the current proposal.
Asked To Expose Racism
VATICAN CITY (NC) — A bishop from white-ruled Rhodesia
told the Synod of Bishops that the first and most effective blow
for justice should be aimed at racial discrimination “wherever it
is found.” Bishop Donald Lamont of Umtali, observing that the
synod had asked for practical suggestions on how to eliminate
injustice throughout the world, said: “The first thing to be
done, the most effective thing, is to point out and expose to the
condemnation of the civilized world every single instance of
racial discrimination wherever it is found.”
INSIDE
West
'Know Your Faith’
"Ginny, A True Story”
Liberty And Justice
Pg. 7
China Expulsion
As millions saw on TV, the vote in the United
Nations last Monday night to seat Communist China as
a member of the world body of nations and to expel
the Nationalist Chinese delegation was greeted by some
national delegations with wild exhuberance.
Strangely enough, however, the U.N. action met
with an indifference on the part of Communist China
every bit as deep as the sadness and resentment of the
Nationalists.
As of today (Tuesday), there is hardly any
indication, at all, that Peking will not simply thumb its
nose at the U.N.’s invitation to membership, as it did
at the U.N. action more than two decades ago, to repel
aggression against South Korea.
At that time, the forces of Mao Tse Tung poured
across the Yalu River into North Vietnam and engaged
in a bitter weir against United Nations troops.
Troubling Questions
In the event, however, that Peking does send a
delegation to the U.N., thus ratifying the world
organization’s action in rejecting a two-China policy,
the U.N. could find itself facing some very troubling
questions involving, possibly, some very nasty answers.
For instance, now that a two-China concept has
been officially rejected, what does the future hold for
U.N. membership by the divided nations of Germany,
Korea and Vietnam?
Now that it has been decided that only the Peking
regime may represent a divided nation represented up
until now by the Government on Formosa, will the
U.N. membership, at some future date, decide that
only a delegation from the East German government
may represent all Germans, or that both North and
South Korea may be represented only by a delegation
from the Seoul government, or that any vote by South
Vietnam must be cast by a delegation from Hanoi?
License To Make War?
And what of the future of the fourteen million
Nationalist Chinese? Will the Communists interpret the
expulsion of the Nationalist delegation as an invitation
or a license to unlease the fury of its military might
against Nationalist Formosa and the offshore islands
under Nationalist control?
The seating of Communist China may or may not be
a good thing for the United Nations, but we have the
uneasy suspicion that in expelling Nationalist China,
the U.N. has embraced a policy which will produce
some very bitter fruit.
$180.000 GRANT
Church Helps
Bring Water