Newspaper Page Text
V
PAGE 3 — November 16,1972
AT PRO-LIFE RALLY
Question Views of Feminists
HARRISBURG, Pa. (NC) - A Festival
of Life, organized to disseminate the
views of the anti-abortion Pennsylvanians
for Human Life group, was held on the
steps of the state capitol here.
During the rally, James McGuire,
executive director of Pennsylvanians for
Human Life, took note of the legislative
activity in the state on the abortion issue
and supported bills permitting abortion
only to save the life oftne mother.
“The eyes of the nation are upon
Pennsylvania,” he asserted. “We stand as
the Keystone against the destruction of
human life. Over 500,000 fetal children
were destroyed through abortion in New
York State over the last two years. This
appalling figure equals the number of
human lives lost in all the wars in our
200-year history. Our courts are only
now beginning to discuss when human
life begins, which is the real issue. Our
legislature and governor must protect the
unborn.”
>
Judy Fink, a member of the governor’s
commission to study abortion, told the
rally that women supporting abortion are
placing their rights above the rights of
fetal babies. This, she stated, was the
same sort of abuse women themselves are
now fighting in the women’s rights
movement.
Mrs. Randy Engel, executive director
of the U.S. Coalition for Life, also
discussed women’s rights as related to the
abortion issue when she declared:
“How strange that many in women’s
lib, having denounced men’s misuse of
women as mere property or chattels,
should themselves adopt the very same
latent bigotry that reduces the unborn
child to nothing more than a chattel
which they are hell-bent on destroying.”
Mrs. Engel, a Pittsburgh resident, also
told rally participants:
“This is a pro-life rally, not an
anti-abortion gathering. To be
anti-abortion is to be simply against a
single manifestation of the elimination of
life. To be pro-life is to be for life as a
positive value whether in the unborn, the
aged, the mentally retarded, or others
whose lives are threatened for any reason.
Those who care for life do not seek the
death ethic as the final solution to
society’s problems.”
Former NC Director
Dead at Age 78
WASHINGTON (NC) - Frank A. Hall, for many years director of the National
Catholic News Service here, died Wednesday at his home.
Hall had retired from newspaper work in 1963, honored by high officials of
the Church for his work in religious journalism.
Hall spent some 45 years in active newspaper work, 40 of those years with the
N.C.W.C. News Service, forerunner of the National Catholic News Service.
Pope Paul elevated Hall to the rank of Commander with Silver Star in the
Order of St. Gregory the Great. Cardinal Amleto Cicognani, then papal secretary
of state but for many years before the apostolic delegate in the United States,
sent an expression of his “heartfelt gratitude” for the work Hall had done for
the Church.
Hall led the Catholic news service as director from 1932 to 1963, the period
of its greatest development. He was widely known in the general newspaper
field, having been a member of the National Press Club for more than 50 years.
A PRO-LIFE BALLOON keeps a youngster distracted at a
Festival of Life at the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg.
The family rally, sponsored by the Pennsylvanians for Human
Life, was held, according to a spokesman, “to foster a climate of
respect for all human life and to try to awaken the conscience
of the public . . .” (NC Photos by Charles A. Blahusch)
Michigan, North Dakota Voters Reject Liberal Abortion Measures
Voters in Michigan and North Dakota
rejected by wide margins ballot
propositions which would have altered
laws in both states to permit abortion on
demand.
Thus, 19th-century statues in both
states allowing abortions only if the
mother’s life is endangered will continue
in effect, although a court in Michigan
has said it will rule later on the
constitutionality of the current law.
The Michigan ballot proposition,
providing that a woman could receive an
abortion for any reason up to the 20th
week of pregnancy in approved medical
facilities, was rejected by almost a 2 to 1
margin. With 73 percent of the vote
tallied, there was 1,466,912 “No” votes
and 929,755 votes in support of the
proposal.
SACRAMENTO, Calif (NC) -
California voters took the state’s bishops’
advice and voted almost three-to-two
against an attempt by agribusiness
interests to restrict unionizing activities
by farm laborers.
Faced with a maze of ballot initiatives,
the voters of the most populous state in
the union also decided:
- To reinstate the death penalty;
-- To oppose stricter pornography laws;
- To oppose the legalization of
marijuana;
- To keep the present property tax
structure in the state;
- To enforce strong conservation
measures in opposition to big oil
interests.
California law allows the placing of
propositions on election ballots by “voter
initiative” - by collecting enough
signatures on petitions before the
election. When such initiatives are passed
in a general election, they can be changed
or struck down only by another initiative
in a general election.
Proposition 22, the Agricultural Labor
Relations Act, had been publicly opposed
by California’s bishops. The proposed act
would have restricted farm laborers in
their attempts to form unions and it
would have outlawed secondary boycotts
of agricultural products.
Calling their opposition a matter of
conscience, the California bishops had
said that the act “would unjustly limit
the rights of the farm workers and it
would not bring peace and harmony to
the California agricultural scene.”
Cesar Chavez, leader of the United
The voters’ rejection of the liberal
measure was a reflection of a change in
sentiment for the ballot proposition in
the state. Groups supporting the
proposition had been forecasting victory
until the week before election day, when
newspaper polls in the state suddenly
indicated voter feelings for the measure
had altered and that the proposition was
in jeopardy.
A controversy has raged in Michigan for
the past several months over the abortion
issue. On Sept. 9, the State Supreme
Court ruled the amendment rescinding
the restrictive 125-year-old abortion law
could be placed on the ballot,
immediately inspiring Catholic clerical
and lay leaders in the state - led by
Cardinal John Dearden of Detroit - to
begin a campaign to insure defeat of the
proposal.
Farm Workers Union (UFWU), called the
defeat of Proposition 22 “a victory for
the workers but also for the voters.” He
promised a stepped-up boycott of
non-union lettuce in California.
The voters by a 2-to-l margin
reinstated a mandatory death penalty for
persons convicted of murder of law
enforcement officers and for
rape-murderers. An earlier California
death penalty law had been overturned
last February by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Also by a 2-to-l margin, the voters
rejected a proposition that would have
eliminated criminal penalties for growing
or using marijuana.
By the same margin they rejected
Proposition 18, which would have made
it a crime to “knowingly be associated
with materials that depict nudity, sexual
excitement, sexual conduct,
sadomasochistic abuse, scatology or that
contain obscenities.”
A week before the election, the
California bishops had urged “all
right-minded citizens to refrain
voluntarily from supporting” lewd
materials, but they did not come out for
or against the ballot initiative. Opponents
of the measure considered its wording too
vague and broad.
Amendment 10
In Georgia
With the bulk of precincts reporting, it
appears that constitutional Amendment
No. 10 — to exempt Georgia’s non-profit
hospitals from paying ad valorem taxes —
would pass.
Latest returns show the amendment
heading for passage by more than a 4-1
margin.
The controversy became more heated
on Oct. 5, when a Wayne County Circuit
Court judge said the old law was
unconstitutional and issued an injunction
barring the Wayne County prosecutor
from enforcing the old law.
The state Supreme Court then
reentered the controversy, setting aside
the lower court’s prohibition against
application of the law and saying it would
rule on the constitutionality of the statue
following the Nov. 7 elections.
Whether the court will rule on the
Voters in Maryland rejected a ballot
proposition that would have established a
$12.1 million fund to provide
scholarships to nonpublic school
students.
In related developments, voters in
Idaho rejected a ballot measure that
would have allowed nonpublic school
students to use public school buses to go
to school, while Oregon voters rejected a
proposal to amend the state’s
constitution that could have benefited
proponents of aid to nonpublic schools.
The Maryland Catholic Conference
reported that the vote against the
scholarship fund measure was 523,156.
The vote for the proposition was
462,294.
The conference said the defeat of the
proposal - which would have channeled
funds firectly to nonpublic schools
through a voucher system - would lead
Catholic officials in the state to examine
new ways to gain assistance for nonpublic
schools.
The school aid program was enacted by
the Maryland General Assembly in March,
1971. Opponents of the program, who
asserted it was an unconstitutional form
of government aid to church-related
schools, gathered enough petition
signatures to force a ballot referundum
constitutionality of the law in view of the
defeat of the liberal proportion is
questionable. Experts on the abortion
issue in the state are confused on whether
any court ruling would take precedence
over the voters’ judgment.
Voters in North Dakota showed even
greater aversion for the abortion
proposition on their ballot. The measure
would have permitted an abortion for any
cause up to the 20th week of pregnancy
in an approved medical facility fur a
woman who has lived in the state at least
90 days before the operation.
before the legislature’s program could be
implemented.
Under the plan, grants would have
ranged from $75 to $200 annually to
each student depending on his family’s
income. Maryland’s parochial schools,
which reportedly enroll more than 80
percent of the state’s nonpublic school
students, would have been the main
beneficiary of approval of the ballot
question.
James E. Shaneman, executive director
of the Maryland Catholic Conference and
director of the bureau of information for
the Baltimore archdiocese, issued a
statement after the balloting which, he
said, reflected the views of Cardinal
Lawrence Shehan of Baltimore.
“While the election results of the Nov.
7 voting were somewhat disappointing on
question 18, there nevertheless does
exist. . .a very strong sentiment among
the electorate that nonpublic schools in
the state deserve some sort of assistance,”
the statement asserted.
“What form that assistance should take
has yet to be determined and we think it
would be necessary to go over the
election returns and recent decisions
rendered on the matter in order to find
the proper answer.”
The statement added:
“We believe the voters said that while
they cannot subscribe to the payment of
direct cash grants to parents of nonpublic
school students, they do nevertheless
believe there exists an obligation to assist
New Mexico
Property Tax
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (NC) - Voters
in New Mexico approved a resolution to
amend the state constitution to allow
taxation of church property that is used
for commercial purposes.
The vote was 137,763 for the
resolution and 72,130 against.
The resolution affects little, if any,
Catholic property, said Franciscan Father
Donnan Herbe, editor of The Voice of
the Southwest in Gallup.
There has been no reaction expressed
by church leaders.
With 1,334 out of 1,759 precincts
reporting, the vote for the proposal was
45,736 while the vote against the measure
was 138,180 -- a 3 to 1 margin. Like the
Michigan statute, the North Dakota
abortion law dates from the 19th
century.
The leaders of the forces opposing the
abortion ballot proposals in both states
indicated Protestant support of
Catholic-led campaigns against the
measure contributed significantly to the
proposals’ defeat.
The Voice of the Unborn organization
these same parents in some manner. That
manner is the object of a great deal of
examination and assessment.”
In Idaho, the voters’ decision to reject
the proposition permitting school
students to use public school buses was
expected. In October, a spokesman for
the state’s Catholic schools had predicted
the measure’s defeat because only a small
part of the state’s population is Catholic.
The ballot proposition rejected by the
Oregon voters would have changed part
of the present state constitution’s
wording to that of the First Amendment
of the U.S. Constitution.
The current wording of the state
constitution states: “No money shall be
BY NC NEWS SERVICE
Jesuit Father Robert E. Drinan, the
Massachusetts Democrat who in 1970
became the first Catholic priest to be
elected to the U.S. Congress, was
re-elected on Nov. 7.
Elsewhere, a 57-year-old priest running
for a New York state Senate post was
soundly defeated by his
Republican-Conservative opponent, and a
46-vear-old nun lost a close state Senate
race in Iowa.
The Massachusetts priest defeated his
Republican opponent, Martin A. Linsky,
by a narrow margin in the race for U.S.
Representative for Massachusetts’ Fourth
Congressional District. The vote was
101,686 for Father Drinan, with 92,310
for Linsky and 11,135 for John Collins,
an independent candidate running on a
conservative platform.
Father Drinan’s office said the race was
close because of redistricting which had
cut into his former constituency and
because of the similarity between the two
candidates’ platforms - both were
running as liberals.
Father Drinan’s priesthood was not an
issue in this year’s campaign, although it
had been made a minor issue two years
ago. But the central issues in both
campaigns were the candidates’ views and
party affiliation.
in Michigan said one reason for the
proposition’s defeat was the stronger than
expected campaign directed by Protestant
churches in the rural areas of the state.
Edwin Becker, executive director of
the North Dakota Catholic Conference,
said the defeat of the ballot proposition
resulted from “a major ecumenical effort
in the state.”
“We didn’t have all the Protestant
churches supporting us,” he said, “but we
had major denominations either actively
or passively on our side.”
drawn from the treasury for the benefit
of any religious or theological
institution.” This language had defeated a
textbook loan program proposal in the
state supreme court several years ago.
Advocates of the word change feel
such programs would have a better
chance in the courts if the state
constitution adopted the U.S. First
Amendment - which affects church -
state relationships - almost intact except
for changing the word “Congress” to
“legislative assembly.”
There were no immediate reactions
from Catholic officials in Oregon and
Idaho to the defeat of the ballot
questions that would have aided
nonpublic schools.
After the tallies were in, Father Drinan
thanked Massachusetts voters for their
“mandate to the cause of peace.”
Contrasting Massachusetts’ pro-McGovern
vote with the rest of the nation, he said:
“We’ve stood up alone today, as we have
throughout our history.”
In the New York race for state senator
from Rochester, Father Joseph B.
Dorsey, a Basilian Father on leave of
absence from John Fisher College in
Rochester, ran as a Democrat against
Republican-Conservative Gordon J.
DeHond. DeHond won handily, 62,000 to
43,000, in the overwhelmingly
Republican area. Both candidates were
opposed to New York’s liberalized
abortion law.
In Muscatine, Iowa, Sister Eleanor
Anstey generated considerable
pre-election interest by being the first
nun in anyone’s memory to run for an
Iowa state office.
A member of the campus ministry
office of the State University of Iowa and
a former religious education coordinator,
she ran on her educational background
against Republican incumbent state Sen.
W.R. Rabedeaux.
She lost by 200 votes -- 2374 to 2174
- in a region described as solidly
Republican.
California Votes No
To Agribusiness - Oks
Porno, Death Penalty
Maryland, Idaho, Oregon Nix Nonpublic Aid
Father Drinan Re-elected;
Priest and Nun Lose Races