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SERVING 88 SOUTH - GEORGIA COUNTIES
The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
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Vol. 52 No. 38 Thursday, November 4,1971
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BISHOP FREY SHAKES HANDS WITH PRISONERS p *°to by Freddie Bentley
Father Tom Healy strums his guitar
BIBB COUNTY JAIL
Bishop, Macon Sisters
Join In Prison Service
By Grace T. Crawford
Macon News Staff Writer
MACON — There was
singing in the cell block.
The men behind the bars
were smiling as Father Tom
Healy, a young Irish priest,
strummed the guitar, bobbed
his head, and sang along with
them in a folk hymn -- “Make
me a channel of your peace,
where there’s hatred let me
sow your love . ..”
The Irishman was not
alone. The broad shouldered
man who stood beside him
was singing too, smiling and
patting his foot. At one side
of him were the Singing Nuns
from St. Peter Claver Catholic
Church.
The big man was the Most
Rev. Gerard L. Frey, bishop
of the Catholic diocese of
Savannah, who made a bit of
history here recently in
becoming the first bishop of
any religious denomination to
hold services in the Bibb
County jail.
He joined Father Healy
and the Sisters of the Blessed
Sacrament in their weekly
visit to the jail which includes
Bible reading, singing, a short
sermon, and, for those who
request it, counseling.
The bishop’s visit to Macon
the week of Oct. 20, was the
first lap of a five-month tour
that will take him into 44
Catholic parishes and 88
Georgia counties. “And
36,000 square miles,” he
noted, “that’s bigger than
Ireland.”
Bishop Frey explains his
mission briefly. “I want to
know the people of our
diocese, and I want them to
know me. I want to
understand their problems,
and to meet informally with
as many as possible.”
The bishop was noticably
touched as he read to a group
of black prisoners from a
special translation of St.
Matthew, then told them,
“There is always someone in
deeper need than you,
someone you can help, rich
or poor. You can always help
a brother.”
Afterwards he stopped for
a few moments to chat with
the men and to shake the
hands outstretched through
the bars. As the bishop
turned co enter another call
block, an elderly “trusty” at
the elevator asked a question
of a reporter who had come
to get a story.
“Miss, you think he’ll say a
prayer for me?”
The jail visit was just one
of a round of activities
planned during his week-long
visit to Middle Georgia.
Wesleyan College and Mercer
University students honored
him at a reception.
There were visits to
Macon’s three Catholic
schools, and to Catholic
parishes in Warner Robins,
Perry, McRae and Dublin.
But the biggest event of
them all was the “Share
Fair”, Sunday, Oct. 24,
sponsored by the three
Macon parishes - St. Joseph,
Holy Spirit and St. Peter
Claver. The festival was
planned around the bishop’s
visit, and was held on the
12-acre grounds of Holy
Spirit parish.
At least 10 booths,
decorated to the hilt,
represented church
organizations and church
related groups. There were
exhibits of religious art from
Catholic children in public
schools and those in parochial
ones, plus a covered-dish
dinner that stretched out over
a dozen tables on the church
lawn.
After a round of games and
rides for the children, a huge
crowd of overstuffed
parishioners gathered around
to hear a group of young
singers from Mercer
University and to hum along
with Father Healy and his
guitar.
Memorial Services
The annual memorial service for those who have
died during the past year will take place at Savannah’s
Catholic cemetery November 7, at 4 p.m. Preacher
for the service will be the Rev. Patrick McCarthy, an
instructor at Benedictine Military School, Savannah.
A musical program will be given by the glee club of
St. Vincent’s Academy, directed by Mrs. Joseph
Schreck. A guard of honor will be provided by
Savannah’s Fourth Degree Assembly of the Knights
of Columbus. Monsignor Andrew J. McDonald will
read the list of those who have died during the last
twelve months and will give the Final benediction.
PRIEST TELLS SYNOD
Population Problem Needs
Greater Church Attention
By Esther Cyson
LONDON (NC) — “If you tell a hostess to prepare a dinner for four people and twenty people turn up, you can’t
blame the hostess if the arrangements are inadequate,” said Father Arthur McCormack, once a missionary in West
Cameroons, Africa, and now a world authority on population growth.
The Mill Hill priest spoke at a press conference here to mark the publication of his new pamphlet, “Population
Explosion -- A Christian Concern.”
“Similarly,” said Father
McCormack, who works with
the Vatican Secretariat of the
Justice and Peace
Commission, “the Church
must recognize that
population growth is a grave
problem, that it is
fundamental to any
consideration of the growth
of underdeveloped
countries.”
He refused to commit
himself to any viewpoint on
the 1968 encyclical Humanae
Vitae but stressed that,
within the framework set out
by the controversial papal
document, the Catholic
Church has a duty to
promote the ideal of a small
family. He subsequently left
London for Rome, where he
said he would distribute
copies of his 80-page
pamphlet to bishops at the
synod. The pamphlet was
produced by the Justice and
Peace Commission of the
English-Welsh hierarchy.
“As a civil servant of the
Church-by my own choice-I
cannot negate Humanae
Vitae,” he said here. Noting
the “awkward questions”
pressed on him by reporters
concerning his personal
opinion, the British priest
said that, perhaps fearing the
same sort of pressures, “very
few Catholic priests have
given the attention to
population control that it
deserves.
“Just to put a paragraph in
a document, as they will at
the synod, isn’t enough. It is
utter nonsense to treat the
issue so briefly.”
(A few days later, at the
Vatican, British Cardinal
John Heenan of Westminister
told one of the synod’s
working groups that he
thought the synod could not
put together a final paper on
world justice without some
mention of family planning
and population. Reports said
that what Cardinal Heenan
hoped for was synod
endorsement of getting the
rhythm method better known
and accepted around the
world.)
Father McCormack said
that, although the encyclical
still stands, there is also “the
time - honored principles”
which relieves a person of
obligations he cannot fulfill.
“There are at present many
situations where good
Catholic women wish to keep
the laws of the Church but
are unable to use this
method,” he said.
“Nevertheless, they have the
right and even the duty to
practice responsible
parenthood.
“For them, complete
abstinence from the physical
expression of love within
marriage would not only be
undesirable for many reasons,
it would also over a lengthy
period of time be morally
impossible.
“In this impasse it would
seem that a pastoral attitude
is necessary, perhaps on the
lines of the findings of the
Vatican Congregation for the
Clergy headed by Cardinal
John Wright with regards to
(Continued on page 8)
INSIDE STORY
Youth Views.... Pg. 3
’Know Your Faith’ . Pg. 5
Nations Ignoring Pakistan... Pg. 7
Readers Reply Pg. 8
NEIGHBORS IN NEED - Eager nands stretcn for sacks of
potatoes being distributed by a “Neighbors in Need” food bank
in Seattle. “Neighbors in Need” is a broadly ecumenical
volunteer organization founded in the fall of 1970 to help
families hit by the city’s economic crisis. It operates 34 food
banks in tne area. (NC PHOTO)
HEADLINE
HOPSCOTCH
’Church Alive And Well’
PITTSBURGH (NC) — A recent increase in religious news
coverage -- even if unfavorable - proves that the Church is alive
and well, Cardinal Lawrence Shehan of Baltimore said here.
“People generally, and the news media in particular, are not
interested in dying organizations,” Cardinal Shehan said at a
fund-raising dinner here benefiting Church missions in Peru.
Referring to current newspaper and magazine articles like the
recent Newsweek essay, “Has the Church Lost Its Soul?”, the
Baltimore archbishop remarked: “The point I would like to
make here is this ~ that whenever the least thing significant or
unusual happens in the Church or to the Church, it is the object
of interest to the news media. This interest can only be “an
acknowledgment of the vitality of the Church,” he said.
Christmas Date Changed
PAPAL TARGET
‘Organized
Delinq
VATICAN CITY (NC) -
Pope Paul VI lamented
“organized delinquency”
which he said seems to be
overtaking the world.
The Pope spoke from his
window to thousands
gathered in a sunny but cold
St. Peter’s Square on Oct. 31
for his Sunday blessing. He
noted that while it is better
for Christians to work for the
real principles of life, rather
than sit in judgment on
others, there are today “crises
of a moral sense, which seem
to have yielded to permissive
indifference which
accompanies and promotes
gross habits and growing
organized delinquency.”
uency
He said the moral crises
facing the world are leading
persons to forget the
“supreme rights” of justice
and peace. His comments
followed almost two weeks of
debate in the Synod of
Bishops here on the subject
of justice in the world.
The day after the Pope’s
remarks, the Vatican daily
newspaper had its say on the
admission of Communist
China to the United Nations
and on the killing of the U.S.
foreign aid program.
L’Osservatore Romano said
of Peking’s admission to the
(Continued on page 8)
SO. CANAAN, Pa. (NC) — Many parishes of the Orthodox
Church in America (OCA) are changing the celebration of
Christmas from Jan. 7 to Dec. 25, the date used by most other
Christians, it was made known here. At the second All-American
Council of the OCA, Dean Alexander Schmemann of St.
Valadimir £ Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood,
N.Y., said that since the OCA became independent last year,
more and more parishes are adopting a revised Julian calendar,
named after Julius Caesar. This consists of celebrating Christmas
on Dec. 25 and adapting Church feast and fast days to conform
to that.
No Parenthood Proclamation
ROME (NC) — A proposed synod proclamation to the world
that would have encouraged responsible parenthood in the
midst of a population explosion has been “killed in committee,”
mainly because it raised the spectre of birth control, according
to an informed source. The proclamation was a four-page
synthesis of the world’s major problems drawn up by British
economist Lady Jackson (Barbara Ward) at the prompting of an
English-language synod group under Cardinal John Dearden of
Detroit. One justice expert who is involved with a committee
preparing the official synod document on justice said the
proclamation draft was killed primarily because it* mentioned
responsible parenthood. “One very influential official of the
synod, believing that mention of responsible parenthood was
suggesting approval of birth control, ripped this part Of the
statement to pieces and said he would fight its issuance with all
his might,” the expert related. Father Philip Land, an American
Jesuit and member of the Pontifical Commission on Justice and
Peace, offered a different insight: “I think the main reason the
proclamation is not being issued is that some langugage groups
did not fully comprehend that this would be a proclamation
separate from the regular synod statement on justice. For
instance, one French group was very respectful but did not
know what they were supposed to do with it.”