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SERVING 88 SOUTH - GEORGIA COUNTIES
The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Thursday, June 22,1972
Single Copy Price — 12 Cents
BY BISHOPS’ SPOKEMAN
Democrats Told Human
Dignity Is Under Attack
ST. LOUIS (NC) — A spokesman for the U.S. bishops warned the Democratic Platform Committee that “the
fundamental dignity of the human person, particularly before he is born and toward the end of his days, is under
assault.”
Bishop Raymond Gallagher repeated the Church’s opposition to abortion and said it opposes any law or
public policy -- state or federal -- that deprives the weakest members of our society of their basic rights.”
In a 17-page statement the Lafayette, Ind., bishop, speaking as chairman of the U.S. Catholic Conference
Committee on Social Development, discussed the economy, health care, welfare reform, urban and rural
problems, the environment and population, and human dignity.
Father Healy and young neighborhood friends in front of Interfaith House at Mercer University.
FATHER HEALY
Priest Gets Degree From Mercer
Bishop Gallagher said that in
population policy “some will raise the
question of who is an ‘effective citizen’
and thus ‘entitled’ to life - or entitled to
exercise his full sexuality and, indeed, his
full humanity.”
“The balance between the activity of
government agencies and the free and
voluntary decisions of families is a
delicate one, but it must be maintained in
all matters affecting population and
family planning,” Bishop Gallagher
explained.
Government cannot “adopt the
posture of merely providing maximum
freedom for each person to determine
how fertility goals will be met.” In cases
of basic conflicts of rights - such as
abortion - Bishop Gallagher suggested the
government “provide legal protection for
the rights of all concerned.”
In preparing any population policy or
providing family planning assistance, the
bishop listed six objectives. They are:
--“Preserve adequate freedom for the
individual couple to bear and support the
number of children they desire.”
Government must provide freedom from
coercion in population matters, he said.
--“Government should plan for
sufficient resources to service the
population and its projected increase.”
-Solutions to current problems should
be measured in respect to their long-range
harm no matter how great their
short-range effectiveness.
-A distinct difference must remain
between welfare assistance and birth
control information to protect the
privacy and freedom of the poor.
-Government should allocate funds for
research on “the family life cycle and the
effect of social trends on the
family . . .There should also be funding
for demographic research and for the
scientific work that will lead to the
development of safe and morally
acceptable methods of birth control.”
-Abortion should be excluded as a
method of population control.
CLERGY APPOINTMENTS
New Pastor Named
For St. Anthony’s
Bishop Gerard L. Frey has announced
the appointment of Father Francis C.
Higgins as pastor of St. Anthony’s parish,
Savannah, succeeding Father William
Dowling, Diocesan Coordinator of the
Social Apostolate. Father Dowling, who
will take up residence at the Oath-ad”'- 1
rectory will work full-time with the
Social. Apostolate. The appointment is
effective September 1.
Father Higgins has served as assistant
pastor of Blessed Sacrament parish,
Savannah and assistant pastor of St.
Anne’s parish, Columbus. He is presently
the associate pastor of St. Teresa’s parish,
Albany.
Ordained in 1968, Father Higgins is the
son of Francis and Hannah (O’Mahony)
Higgins of Cork City, Ireland where he
was born in 1944.
He is a graduate of St. Patrick’s
National School and St. Finbarr’s College,
both in Cork City. He studied Theology
at All Hallows College, Dublin where he
was ordained.
In other clergy changes, Father Donal
Koehane has been named Chaplain of St.
Francis Hospital, Columbus, effective
September 1.
Coordinators and Associate
Coordinators for the Department of
Christian Formation have also been
appointed. In the Columbus Deanery
they are Father Timothy O’Mahony,
Deanery Coordinator, and Mother M. de
Sales, Associate Deanery Coordinator.
Father Gerard A. Murphy has been
named Coordinator for the northern half
of the Savannah Deanery. Father John
O’Brien will serve as Coordinator of the
southern half of the deanery, working
with Mrs. Mary Kay Persse, Associate
Coordinator.
The Augusta Deanery Coordinator is
Monsignor Felix Donnelly. Serving as
Associate Coordinator will be Sister
Camile Collini.
Father Eugene Krygier, associate
pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes parish,
Columbus has been granted a leave of
absence beginning June 26.
Fr. Higgins
K
MACON — Father Thomas Healy, a
priest of the Savannah diocese who went
back to College as a way of “getting into
the thinking of young people”, was
among 23 persons to receive a Master of
Education Degree recently from Mercer
University.
Though records are not kept on this
sort of thing, Father Healy, an assistant
pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church,
Macon, and youth director for the
diocese is perhaps the first Catholic priest
to receive a degree from the Southern
INSIDE STORY
Famine Stalks
Pg. 2
Mission Work
Pg. 5
Swedish Perspective
Pg. 7
Readers Reply
Pg. 8
Baptist University.
Father Healy has served St. Joseph
parish for four years.
Part of his work at Mercer revolves
around Interfaith House, headquarters of
the campus religious ministry established
this year by Mercer’s minister to students,
Edwin Bacon, a Baptist. Father Healy
keeps regular counseling hourse there,
and presides at a folk mass every Sunday.
“Interfaith House is a great thing”, he
said. “It has drawn Protestants, Catholics,
Jews, Blacks and Whites together. There
are encouraging signs that it will
accomplish something of lasting value.”
Four Mercer students, only one of
them a Catholic, have become interested
in his work at the house and now are
regular helpers on his visits. One of them,
a Baptist ministerial student, devotes his
time to the ministry.
“It’s impressive how many high-quality
students there are at Mercer”, Father
Healy said, “who take to heart what St.
Paul said, ‘have no conceit. . .think of
others beyond yourself.’
“They have shown a great concern for
people who suffer from sickness, poverty
and injustice. And I believe the good
leadership of equally concerned faculty
members and
contributed to it.’
administrators has
His work takes him off campus into
the wider Macon community, and Father
Healy says he has been struck from the
first by the “great friendliness and easy
acceptance of me, as a Catholic priest”
which he has encountered in Macon.
While Catholics are a minority in Macon,
there have been good Catholic-Protestant
relations here since the founding of the
city in the 1820’s.
In the early days, Baptists, Methodists
and Presbyterians shared their facilities
with Catholics. For many years, Macon
was the site of a Jesuit-operated college
attracting students from all over the
world.
At the recent Mercer Arts Festival,
Father Healy and Father Michael Delea,
St. Peter Claver Church pastor, presented
part of the folk-music concert. Both
attended the same high school in Ireland.
At the Mercer commencement
exercises, a widely known Atlanta Baptist
minister told the tremendous crowd
filling Willingham Chapel it was a “very,
very great honor” for Mercer to have a
Roman Catholic priest graduating. “It is a
great honor for us, and a great honor for
him”, he added.
Pope Paul’s
Anniversary
The ninth anniversary of the
papacy of Pope Paul VI will be
observed in Savannah at a special
Mass in the Cathedral of St. John
the Baptist June 25th at 11:15
A.M. Celebrant will be Bishop
Gerard L. Frey.
The National Conference of
Catholic Bishops (NCCB) has asked
all U.S. bishops to mark the
anniversary with ceremonies which
place “a fresh emphasis on (the
papacy’s) eminently spiritual
character.”
“Such an effort,” said Father
Thomas C. Kelly, O.P., NCCB
associate general secretary in a
letter to the bishops, “would aim at
bringing about a greater awareness
and appreciation of the person of
the Holy Father and his mission as
successor of St. Peter.”
HEADLINE
HOPSCOTCH
V,
Two Missioners Die Rescuing Boy
KIGUMBA, Uganda (NC) — Two Italian missionary priests died here while rescuing
a boy from a 20-foot-deep abandoned well. The boy had gone into the well to recover
his knife that had fallen into it. When he could not get out the two priests, Fathers
Mario Pozza, 37, and Paolo Ponza, 42 -- both Verona Fathers -- were called to help.
Father Pozza climbed into the well with a rope, tied it around the boy, and Father
Ponzi then pulled the youth out. While Father Ponzi was giving the boy first aid, he
realized that Father Pozza had been unable to climb up the rope and had fallen back
into the well, which contained a lot of garbage and rubbish. Father Ponzi climbed
down the well to try to rescue his fellow priest, but he too fell unconscious.
Authorities believe that death occurred within a few minutes for both priests.
Lutheran Mediation Sought
OSLO, Norway (NC) — The Lutheran State Church of Norway has been approached
to serve as mediator in the bloody conflict in Northern Ireland, Lutheran Bishop
Fridtjob Birkeli of Oslo announced. But “it would be easier for international
organizations to deal with the matter,” he said. A broad international church opinion
must be formed, said the 66-year-oid Lutheran bishop.
Bishops Hit Torture
SAO PAULO, Brazil (NC) — The bishops in southern Brazil have reminded the
military government that the nation’s Constitution guarantees prisoners against
torture. The bishops cited proof of instances of permanent injury a d death due to
torture. “It is illegal to force suspects to make confessions, reveal secrets and
incriminate third parties,” said bishops attending the meeting of the southern region of
the Brazilian Bishops’ Conference at Brodosqui, west of here.