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SERVING 88 SOUTH - GEORGIA COUNTIES
The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 53 No. 36
Thursday, October 19,1972
Single Copy Price — 12 Cents
PULASKI DAY WAS CELEBRATED IN SAVANNAH with special ceremonies at the
cfty’" public m°nun^fil ^onorinp tbe Polish Count who lost bis Hfc in fighting near the
port city during the battle of Savannah in the American Revolutionary War. Shown
placing the wreath is Daniel J. Keane, Master of the 4th Degree Knights of Columbus
and Mrs. Adrienne Roberts, President of the city’s Battlepark Commission. Looking on
is Hugh H. Grady, former Master of the 4th Degree (r.) and Frank P. Rossiter, Mayor
pro-tem of Savannah.
Just a Reminder
Monsignor Daniel J. Bourke, co-ordinator of the 1972 Bishop’s Confraternity
of the Laity Drive has asked THE SOUTHERN CROSS to publish the following
‘reminder’ about the annual solicitation to raise funds for diocesan programs and
projects:
“By now, almost everyone has received printed matter concerning the drive,
outlining the programs and efforts which will benefit from funds raised this year.
The over-all goal for this year, as it was for last year, is $140,000.
“The bishop is asking every wage earner to make a cash donation of at least
$30 toward this goal. If the average worker does so and if those whose income is
above average will make a donation reflective of the way in which the good Lord
has blessed them, not only will we achieve our goal, but we will exceed it.
“Please, if at all possible, be at home next Sunday, October 22nd, if parish
solicitors are scheduled to visit homes in your parish, and be as generous as you
can. You can’t out-do God in generosity.”
Bishop Begins
2nd “Live-in”
Last Saturday (Oct. 14), Bishop Gerard L. Frey began his second
annual ‘live-in’ tour of the Savannah diocese, which will take him into
every parish and Catholic institution of the diocese over the next several
months.
This year’s tour began in the Columbus Deanery with Bishop Frey
celebrating the Saturday evening Mass at 7 p.m. and meeting with
parishioners at a public reception after the Mass.
Breakfast with the Sisters of Mercy who staff St. Anne’s parish school
followed the 7:30 a.m. Mass on Sunday, also celebrated by the bishop.
Our Lady of Lourdes parish was the
next stop on Sunday with Bishop Frey
observing that parish’s Confraternity of
Christian Doctrine (CCD) program at 10
a.m., speaking to students and teachers
and then celebrating the 10:45 a.m. and
12:15 p.m. Masses. Receptions after each
service provided an opportunity for the
bishop and people to meet and talk.
A luncheon with the Deanery Council
of Catholic Women (DCCW) followed at
the Social Center of Holy Family parish
at 1 p.m. with a busy day coming to a
close with the 6 p.m. Mass and an 8 p.m.
reception there.
Monday of this first week of the
1972-73 ‘live-in’ began with Mass at
Pacelli High School at 9 a.m. and a visit
with students beginning at 10. After
lunching with students and faculty,
Bishop Frey spent the next few hours
driving around St. Anne’s parish to visit
the sick and shut-ins.
Two more meetings rounded out the
day with the bishop attending and
speaking at meetings of St. Anne’s Parish
Council and the School Board of Pacelli
at 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. respectively.
October 17th was much like the
previous day. But this time the students
visited were at St. Anne’s school. They
attended a Mass celebrated by the bishop
and had lunch with him. Bishop Frey
spent the afternoon visiting shut-ins in
Holy Family parish and conferred with
Holy Family Parish Council at 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Oct. 18, was highlighted
by a luncheon with members and
volunteers of the Social Service Bureau of
Columbus Deanery. Bishop Frey
presented awards of recognition to the
Volunteers on behalf of the Bureau. In
the evening he met with members of St.
Benedict’s Parish Council at 8 p.m.
Bishop Frey’s Thursday schedule
called for him to visit with the staff and
patients of St. Francis Hospital beginning
at 10 a.m. and to celebrate a Mass there
at 12 noon.
A meeting with Deanery CCD leaders
was slated for 3:30 p.m. at St. Anne’s,
and a Mass for the Sisters at the parish
convent at 5. The bishop was to be the
featured speaker at Our Lady of Lourdes
Parish Council at 7:30 p.m.
The itinerary for Friday, Oct. 20, will
place Bishop Frey at Our Lady of
Lourdes where he will celebrate a
children’s Mass at 8:45 and breakfast
with students at 9:30. A visitation of
classrooms will follow at 10. After lunch
he will visit elderly shut-ins at Muscogee
Manor.
Columbus is the site of one of the
largest Army reservations in the nation,
Fort Benning. After visiting with
chaplains and other soldiers there, Bishop
Frey will concelebrate a Mass at 5 p.m.
and attend a dinner with Catholic
chaplains and other priests of the area at
7:45 p.m.
The people at Holy Family parish, the
city’s oldest Catholic parish, will have
another opportunity to meet and speak
with the bishop after the 8 a.m. Mass on
Sunday.
He will speak at CCD classes at St.
Benedict’s parish at 9:45 a.m. and meet
with the parents and children enrolled in
the CCD parish at Holy Family at 10:45,
returning to St. Benedict’s to speak at the
11 a.m. Mass. He will be the guest speaker
at a special meeting of the Deanery
Pastoral Council at 8 p.m.
The Columbus Deanery ‘live-in’ comes
to a close on Monday, Oct. 23, after a
meeting with Holy Family Council of
Catholic Women at 9:30 a.m., a Mass at
Holy Family at 12:10 p.m. and a meeting
of the Deanery priests at Holy Family
Social Center at 7 p.m.
During his Columbus hiatus, Bishop
Frey will reside at St. Francis Hospital.
“Humanization” Aim of Catholic Charities
POSTER CHILD AT WORK - Paula Marie Pfeifer, 5, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, who will
represent the March of Dimes in visiting U.S. cities as its new poster child, paints in
school. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Roger Pfeifer, are members of the New Haven
(Okla.) Methodist Church where Paula hopes to sing in the choir. Born with open spine
(spina bifida), she has had nine operations in several hospitals, including St. Francis
and St. John’s in Tulsa. St. Francis is operated by Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate
Word and St. John’s by Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother. (NC Photo)
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HOPSCOTCH
Abortion Stands Sought
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (NC) - Pledging
to work for the “humanization and
transformation of social order,” Catholic
Charities workers went away from here
with the promise to liberate the poor and
disadvantaged trapped in misery.
To accomplish this, the 1,000
delegates at the 58th annual meeting of
the National Conference of Catholic
Charities voted unanimously to do more
than dole out material goods or to offer
compassion to those they can’t help.
“No longer is it sufficient to minister
to those in need by providing for their
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Authority Changes
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Comment
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Catechism Ban
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'Must’ Doctrines
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material wants in time of crisis or helping
them adjust to circumstances beyond
their control,” the NCCC said in its final
121-page report.
It is important, the report stated, to
make those in need aware that
circumstances can be controlled by their
own actions.
“No longer need they submit, bowed
in meek resignation,” the report
continued. “Now they can rise up and
cry, ‘We are men, men of free will, made
in the image of God.’ ”
The NCCC agreed to continue
providing services to the poor, the
elderly, unwed mothers, homeless
children and others. But the organization
noted that last January, it had said that
such services alone would increase the
problems they were designed to eradicate
because they maintained individuals and
families at a certain poverty level.
The new role of the Catholic social
services was adopted by a clear majority
of the NCCC delegates, but the report’s
call for more political action by the
organization was opposed by a small but
vocal minority of the delegates.
T. Raber Taylor, president of the St.
Vincent de Paul Society, and other
members of the society abstained from
voting on the general summary of the
NCCC report while most of the other
voting NCCC delegates approved it item
by item.
The society’s delegates to the NCCC
meeting argued that the political thrust of
the NCCC report might endanger the
society’s tax-exempt status.
“We are not doing this to be negative,
but to be independent,” said Taylor. “We
want to see how you are going to
implement these laudable goals.”
The society is a self-governing affiliate
of the NCCC.
Two of the more crucial motions of
the NCCC report were adopted by
near-unanimous approval. The motions
provided for expansion of NCCC
membership and for a $495,000 budget
for 1973.
The NCCC’s proposed membership
drive is crucial. Should it falter or fail, the
new thrust for greater social and political
involvement will falter or fail accordingly.
The individual annual NCCC
membership fee is $15. If, for example,
NCCC were successful in getting the
additional 12,000 to 15,000 members it
hopes to have in 1973, that would bring
in possibly a third of the funds needed
for the new $495,000 goal. The rest
would come from existing membership
fees, special Catholic Charities appeals
and private institutional grants.
If the membership or appeals drives
produce less than expected, the new
social thrust for the NCCC would get cut
down to size accordingly. The NCCC
board of directors made this clear at
several meetings, where they said they
would spend money only as it became
available.
So that the NCCC could become more
involved in the mainstream of social
action, the delegates decided on the
following guidelines:
- Broaden the Charities’ operations at
local and regional levels, and to deal with
poor people at the parish level. This
would include the aged,blacks,
Spanish-speaking and others.
- Promote an open dialogue among
NCCC members, allowing differences of
opinion to be aired in an atmosphere of
unity.
Cooperate with government
agencies. Those Catholic Charities services
that duplicate existing government
programs should be dropped and new
tasks should be taken up in their place.
- Learn new skills and techniques in
political lobbying, understand legislative
processes, and participate in non-violent
demonstrations when they are
appropriate.
Only a handful of delegates - less than
a hundred -- were on hand to vote on
resolutions submitted by NCCC
resolutions committee. All the resolutions
were passed and one narrowly made it,
(continued on Page 7)
LOS ANGELES (NC) -- Representatives of six million American Holy Name
Society members voted to ask all presidential candidates to state clearly their positions
on abortion. A proposal to allow women to join the society was discussed also but
action was postponed at the society’s national convention here. In its resolution on
abortion, the 2,000 convention delegates said that “we want to know if the candidates
believe abortion is right or wrong, moral or immoral.”
Priest Student Again
MILWAUKEE (NC) - After 17 years in parish work Father Martin Simon is a
seminarian again. The 44-year-old priest enrolled at St. Francis Seminary school of
pastoral ministry on a full time basis to learn “to really serve people most effectively”
when he becomes a pastor, probably next year. Although a number of local priests
have returned to the seminary part time it appears Father Simon has set a precedent
here by giving up a year of parish work to be a student again. “I felt. . .1 had to
update myself,” he explained.
N. Vietnam Church
CAP ROUGE, Que. (NC) -- The Catholic Church is flourishing in North Vietnam
despite U.S. bombing, according to five North Vietnamese Catholics, including three
priests. The five spoke here at the second international assembly of Christians in
Solidarity With the Peoples of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Despite concrete
difficulties, “the life of Catholics goes on” in North Vietnam, said Father Nguyen The
Vinh. Principal among these difficulties, the priest said, were the American bombings
“making it necessary to change the time of Mass often to guarantee the safety of;
believers.”
Intruder Seeks Pope
VATICAN CITY (NC) - Vatican officials confirmed reports that an intruder,
dressed as a bishop, was admitted to the papal summer home at Castelgandolfo in
September but was detected before reaching the Pope. The intruder was identified by
Italian police as Paulino Menecio Demetrio, 42, of the Dominican Republic. He was
expelled from Italy Sept. 29, after having been held for psychiatric examination
following his attempt to reach the Pope on Sept. 14.