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ON MINISTRIES
Women’s Council Reacts to Papal Letter
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (NC) - Leaders of
the National Council of Catholic Women
(NCCW), reacting to a papal letter
excluding women from the positions of
lector and acolyte, have declared women
are “capable of assuming equal
responsibilities with men” in the
ministerial functions of the Church.
In a statement issued on the last day of
its three-day general assembly here, the
NCCW leaders noted “recent press
releases” had “created widespread
confusion” over Pope Paul Vi’s letter
restating the tradition that “installation
in the ministries of lector and acolyte is
reserved to men.”
“We think we would neglect our
responsibility as representative leaders of
the Catholic women of the United States
if we failed to express the concern many
feel over this apparent retriction on the
extent of women’s sharing in the
POPE PA UL:
ministries in the Church,” the council
declared.
“We realize that the recognition of
equal dignity of women with men has not
evolved at the same pace throughout the
world. In the United States, however,
despite a longstanding social and cultural
tradition against a ministry of women in
the Church, many women in their
parishes are capably performing
ministerial functions with responsibility
and dedication. We believe that women
are not only willing but capable of
assuming equal responsibilities with
men.”
However, the council did not ask the
Church to give women official rank for
the Church functions which they
perform.
The General Secretariat of the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops already
has stated that the papal letter permits
women to perform the functions of
lectors and “extraordinary ministers of
Communion” even though they cannot
hold those offices permanently.
The council said it was “pleased to
note there is to be continuing study of
this complex problem. We hope and pray
that future study will result in the
acceptance of women in increased
participation in the ministries of the
Church.”
In other developments, the council
heard its president, Mrs. Rita Burke of
Carbondale, Pa., announce that it has
thrived since it held its first general
assembly in Cincinnati last year.
“We said that we would keep our
organizations strong and viable on every
level, and except for a few widely
scattered instances,” we seem to have
succeeded,” she told the 200 council
leaders at the assembly.
“Whither goest NCCW? You are the
women who must pose the questions that
have to be answered. You are the leaders
out of whose experience the future must
evolve.”
The assembly’s closing address was
delivered by H.G. Rountree of Rogers,
Ark., president of the National Council of
Catholic Laity, which is an umbrella
organization for the women’s council and
similar groups.
Rountree advised assembly participants
to use their energies for service rather
than criticism of institutions and
individuals.
“Increased Faith First Need of Church”
VATICAN CITY (NC) - Increased
faith is the “first and great need of the
Church today,” Pope Paul VI told an
overflow crowd at a general audience
Sept. 27.
The Pope, at his first customary
Wednesday general audience at the
Vatican after returning from his summer
residence at Castelgandolfo, mado no
reference to his 75th birthday, which ne
Va. Bishop
Won’t Pay
City ‘Tax’
RICHMOND, Va. (NC) - Bishop John
J. Russell of Richmond has declared that
he “will go to jail” before he will pay a
city “service charge” levied on Catholic
schools and convents here.
His statement came in a meeting here
between Richmond city officials and
representatives of the city’s Catholic
schools and convents.
At issue was a “service charge” for
police, fire and sanitation services, levied
on all tax exempt properties in the city
except “those wholly and exclusively
used for religious worship or for the
residence of ministers.”
“We find that the ‘service charge’ is
really a tax,” Auxiliary Bishop Walter F.
Sullivan told NC News. “And we contend
that this tax is discriminatory, in that
Catholic facilities must bear the brunt of
it.”
When the city’s service charge was
imposed in May, the diocese did not
object. “We thought that the law would
be applied fairly and equitably and that
the amount would be responsible,”
Bishop Sullivan said.
“Instead, we found that our school
facilities and convents would be taxed at
a rate of about $25,000 a year. And we
found out that while Catholic facilities
such as auditoriums, gymnasiums,
cafeterias, and classrooms are being
taxed, the same facilities of other
religious groups are not.”
“We have identical facilities,” Bishop
Sullivan said. “The difference is that
Catholic facilities are also being used for
secular education, not solely religious
education.”
“There is a real irony in this,” Bishop
Sullivan added. “While we are saving the
city approximately $2.5 million a year by
educating 2,700 students, the state
constitution does not allow us to receive
a single penny for that service, on the
grounds tat it is religious.
“Now the city of Richmond is turning
around and saying this education is not
religious.”
Bishop Sullivan pointed out that the
clause “wholly and exclusively used for
religious worship” has a broad
interpretation in the state’s constitution.
It includes not just the sanctuary of the
church, he said, “but the gymnasium,
cafeteria, meeting hall, and classrooms”
because they are all part of the church’s
religious mission.
In these terms, the bishop said, “we
would contend that our schools are part
of the teaching mission of the Church.”
“We contend that the city of
Richmond is not competent to judge
what is religious and what is not,” the
bishop said. “For example, the Little
Sisters of the Poor are being taxed. Now,
they have a chapel for religious worship
(in the convent), and we would say their
work among the poor and elderly is much
more of a religious work than, say, a
gymnasium for a baseball team.”
had passed the day before.
Instead, the Pope stressed the need of
greater faith today, saying: “We cannot
permit ourselves to be resigned to
religious decadence in the contemporary
world, its progressive loss of interest in
God - to such a point as to declare
absurdly His ‘death’ - or to the habitual
loss of interest in our relations with
Him.”
Secularism, atheism, and the lack of
“responsibility for our actions in the face
of God, from which is derived moral
religious conscience,” are the
consequences of a “spiritual collapse caused ;( *
by the lack of faith,” the Pope said.
“Faith is necessary,” the Pope
affirmed, because of a present-day
mentality that “places in doubt the
general concept of the world and life
which the faithful believer must have to
fulfill his own way of living.”
The Pope greeted dozens of special
pilgrimages and groups but was surprised
to find that a number of them were not
able to find room in the 6,000-seat
audience hall.
Hearing the cheers of one group who
had listened to his special welcome over
loudspeakers located outside the hall,
Pope Paul said: “This is a new and
spacious hall but still not large enough.
Perhaps we should build another.”
★★★
NEW ADDITION TO COLLECTION ~
This photo of a monk in a monestery
outside Moscow in 1961 is one of the
new additions to the Library of Congress
collection in Washington, D.C. The photo
is among 50,000 prints donated this week
by photojoumalist Arthur Rothstein. One
of Mr. Rothstein’s most famous works is
the classic poverty photos of a farmer and
his sons running for cover during a storm
in Cimarron, Okla., in 1936 (NC Photos
courtesy Library of Congress)
★★★
Vatican Chastizes News Media
For “Sensational” Reporting
VATICAN CITY (NC) - A new
Vatican document on the 1973 World
Communications Day chastizes the news
media for “sensational” reporting.
To spotlight the impact of modem
communications media on world opinion
the Pontifical Commission for Social
Communications has for the past seven
years offered a theme for World
Communications Day, which is scheduled
for June 3 next year.
“Social Communications and the
Maintenance and Promotion of Spiritual
Values,” is next year’s theme. It follows
the trend of past years in suggesting the
finer values which the media should
promote.
The commission’s document contends
that the media can restore to men the
more meaningful motives of life leading
to another world.
The Document asserts, however, that
the mass media becomes a disservice to
man by “looking for the exceptional and
sensational .. .presenting religious events
in a superficial, inexact and one-sided
manner to the detriment of their
profundity and importance.”
The document was introduced at a
press conference Sept. 28 by the
Vatican’s press spokesman, Federico
Alessandrini, who took to task segments
of the Italian press for inexact reporting.
Alessandrini said that he had denied
many times the rumors that Pope Paul VI
would resign on his 75th birthday and
that new radical rules for a conclave to
elect a new Pope would be announced
soon.
“The very day I was speaking,”
Alessandrini told NC News,” one weekly
magazine revived the rumor that the Pope
would resign and one newspaper insisted
the new rules of the conclave were
imminent.”
Alessandrini said that people are left
confused by such inaccuracies.
The commission’s document praised
the media for their contribution toward
human development and for the unity of
humanity.
The document said also that Christians
look to social communications not only
for “the respect of sacred values but for a
positive contribution to make them
known and applied.”
PAGE 3 - October 5,1972
ROSARY WALK IN DUBUQUE -- Carrying a statue of the Blessed Virgin, men
marched in procession through downtown Dubuque, la., in a Rosary Walk from St.
Patrick’s Church to St. Raphael’s Cathedral. An estimated 2,500 to 3,000 participated.
The crowd prayed the Rosary aloud and sang Marian hymns along the way. The walk
was held in connection with a month long visit of the statue - the National Pilgrim
Virgin. (NC Photo)
Four Buffalo Priests
Have Been Reinstated
BUFFALO, N.Y. (NC) - Four of seven
priests who had been suspended by the
late Bishop James McNulty of Buffalo
have been reinstated by Auxiliary Bishop
Bernard J. McLaughlin.
The auxiliary bishop, who is serving as
diocesan administrator pending
appointment of a new bishop, said the
four priests who were reinstated were
Fathers James F. Mang, Gilbert L.
Heiman, Thomas E. Traverse, and
Christian J. Puehn.
A fifth priest, whom he would not
name, “likely will be reinstated,” he said.
The three other priests suspended by
Bishop McNulty in June were Fathers
Robert J. Kamman, Gerald Walters, and
William G. Warthling.
“This was one of the final requests of
Bishop McNulty (who died on Sept. 4)
that we speak with all these priests who
were having difficulties and try to
reinstate them,” said Bishop McLaughlin.
“He was much concerned by them.”
He added that the reinstated priests
“are perfectly willing to abide with the
rules and regulations of the Church.” He
declined to say why Bishop McNulty had
suspended the seven and why four had
been restored to full priestly status. He
said he had met with each priest at least
once.
By suspending the seven, Bishop
McNulty deprived the priests of the rights
to celebrate the Mass, administer the
sacraments and preach.
Father Mang, one of the reinstated
clergymen, said Bishop McLaughlin had
initiated the meetings that led to the
restoration of his priestly faculties.
He was very open and honest in all the
meetings we had,” said the priest, who
had worked in the areas of peace and
justice before his suspension. “He didn’t
bring up any past history. He just
discussed the present situation.”
Father Mang said Bishop McLaughlin
had given him no new specific assignment
following his reinstatement. Most of the
suspended priests had been working in
what are regarded as independent
ministries before the suspensions.
Father Traverse, who acknowledged he
officiated at the marriage of a former
priest has been reassigned to parish work.
Father Heiman is teaching at a Toledo,
Ohio Catholic high school, while Father
Puehn is teaching and studying for a
doctorate at the State University of New
York at Buffalo.
Bishop McLaughlin noted that some of
the reinstated priests “have contractual
commitments which make it a little
difficult for them to return to full service
immediately. As soon as the problems are
worked out, they will be incorporated
into the life of the diocese.”
Number of Marriages
Decreases in Sweden
STOCKHOLM (NC) - The number of
marriages in Sweden is declining sharply
because government regulations make
living together without marrying less
expensive than marriage, according to a
newspaper article here.
The number of marriages in 1971 was
40,000, compared to 61,000 in 1966,
said Prof. Staffan B. Linder, a member of
parliament, in an article in the daily
Dagens Nyheter.
Linder maintained that the reason for
the decrease is probably economic
discrimination against marriage as a way
of life. He pointed out that there are
almost no social benefits to married
couples because they are married. Those
who live together without marrying
merely by declaring that they cohabit
receive the same treatment from social
welfare officials as those who marry.
Widows’ pensions and accidental death
benefits are the only welfare benefits
restricted to those who are legally
married.
On the other hand, Linder said, legal
obligations are increased by marriage.
Taxes are higher for married couples and
stricter conditions are imposed on them
to qualify for study grants.
Those who live together without
marrying can save several hundred dollars
a year by doing so, Linder claimed.
The family law commission
appointed by the government in 1961 has
published various proposals for a new
family law, because so many couples are
living together without marrying.
Vatican Press Officer
Sees No “Yellow Peril”
VATICAN CITY (NC) - Longtime
Vatican journalist Federico Alessandrini
views the current detente between China
and Japan as a benefit to the entire world
and not as a yellow peril pitted against
the world.
“Some put forward the hypothesis of a
great ‘yellow alliance,’ but as time goes
on we are less convinced that the Chinese
and Japanese are really yellow-skinned
but exaxfcly like us,” Alessandrini wrote
in his regular column in the Vatican
weekly L’Osservatore della Domenica, of
Oct. 1.
Alessandrini praised the “open door”
policy China seems to be advancing, first
to the United States and now to Japan.
Alessandrini, who is the Vatican press
officer, said that China will gain by this
policy.
“In conductihg trade with many
nations, China will not run the risk of
being tied down in any way to one
nation.”
Further, the situation will be
in which only the rich natir ' n A pe
benefited from trade - 1 '. nina, he said.