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‘Hard Work’ for Polish Church
PAGE 7 — The Southern Cross, November 16,1972
COLUMBUS DAY FIELD MASS - Pictured above is Father Mass at Holy Family Council 5588 Knights of Columbus,
Liam Collins as he celebrates the annual Columbus Day Field Savannah.
Rapping With The Reverend
REV. JOHN KENNEALLY
BY PATRICK RILEY
WARSAW, Poland (NC) - “We are
not the Church of silence,” the Polish
bishop said: “We are the Church of hard
work.”
And, he added later, also the Church
of the working-class.
The bishop, interviewed in a town of
the Polish provinces, later qualified
some of this. Although bishops and
priests can speak loud and clear from
the pulpit, the Church in Poland
remains a Church of silence insofar as all
ordinary means of communicating with
the broad Catholic public are denied it.
And although the vast majority of
Catholics in Poland belong to the
working class -- and indeed make up the
very working-class which is supposed to
rule in Communist Poland - there are
plenty of Catholic professional people
and scholars.
What the bishop never toned down
was his description of the Polish Church
as the Church of hard work.
Observations in central, southern,
eastern, and western Poland bore out his
contention.
Polish priests, almost to a man, are
SVA Issues
Honor Rolls
The Saint Vincent’s Academy honor
roll for the first quarter as announced
by Sister M. Jude, Principal is as
follows:
FIRST HONORS; SENIOR, Helen
Oliver.
JUNIORS, Cathie Chandler, Terry
Ferraro, Michelle Gillikin, Martha Guild
and Josie Von Waldner.
SOPHOMORES, Kathy Brown, Julie
Capin, Margo Doyle and Patty Frew.
FRESHMEN, Cecilia Castilian,
Theresa DiBendetto and Mary Trees.
SECOND HONORS; SENIORS,
Regina Goettler, Ann Haslam, Helen
Hosti, Maureen Jackson, Ann Johnson,
Kathleen Kameron, Cheri Lanier, Marie
Macher, Antoionette Bell, Ethel Butler,
Margie Cates, Ann Counihan, Karen
Gleba, Therese Powers, Kathleen
Robertson, Diana Scarwid, Linda South
and Ann Tilton.
JUNIORS, Angela Beytagh, Susan
Bunbury, Beth Doolan, Janet Doyle,
Patricia Finnegan, Tina Flournoy, Jo
Lindsay, Rita Meredith, Alicia
Gallagher, Marchanita Robinson and
Kim Osbourne.
SOPHOMORES, Mary Catherine
Moore, Leslie Waters, Andrea White,
Brenda Payton, Kathy Banks, Lydia
Bowers, Frances Coffield, Mary Hutton,
Karen Knight, Holly Lyons and Karen
McMillan.
FRESHMEN, Carol Hadsell, Ann
Howard, Patty Kameron, Bambi
Lawson, Patrice Mell, Mary Merrick,
Cecilia Persse, Wendy Robinson and
Stephanie Stevens.
working from early morning till evening,
and in many cases till late at night.
Committed lay Catholics work with the
priests day and evening in Poland’s
numerous marriage guidance centers.
Other laypersons are at the Church’s
catechetical centers early in the morning
to welcome the children. Virtually all
these laypeople are unpaid volunteers.
Because printing presses and even
mimeograph machines are forbidden to
the Church in Poland, dozens of nuns in
every diocese are busy all day typing
hundreds of carbon copies of the most
innocuous material such as catechetical
syllabuses and parish assignments. To
get a copy of one bishop’s pastoral
letter into every pulpit in his diocese,
some 400 copies were typed this
autumn by nuns working day and
evening. This is far from an isolated
instance. It is wholly commonplace.
Poland seems, like ancient Egypt, to
echo with Pharoah’s rude command:
“Let them be oppressed with works.”
The Polish priest’s day usually begins
at 5 a.m. Within half an hour he is in
church, where he and his colleagues
alternate saying Mass and hearing
Confessions, weekday or Sunday.
(Frequent Confession remains rooted in
Poland’s Catholic life). The last morning
Mass on weekdays is at 8 o’clock.
Before that last Mass is over, some
priests have breakfasted and are at work
preparing catechetical instruction or
even, in some cases, giving it. In most
parishes, the teaching of religion goes on
morning, afternoon, and (for older
children and adults) evening.
Then there is the normal parish work
as well.
In one diocese, priests and nuns, plus
a sprinkling of laypersons, give a total of
12,759 hours of catechetical instruction
weekly. About half the priests living in
that diocese are engaged in catechetical
work, most of them for 20 or 25 hours
a week. Some priests in the diocese
teach catechism almost 40 hours a
week, and some say this holds true
throughout Poland.
Catechism lessons are virtually the
only means allowed the Church in
Poland to reach the young. But coverage
is almost total.
In the Warsaw archdiocese, well over
90 percent of the primary school
children attend catechism classes. In
another diocese the figure is 95 percent
for primary school children and 77
percent for youths in secondary and
trade schools.
Such high attendance at religious
studies should be a constant source of
concern for Poland’s Communist
authorities, since atheistic Communism
regards religion as a dimunition of man
and of society. An early attempt by the
Communists to take control of the
teaching of religion by underwriting it
was frustrated when the Polish primate,
Cardinal Stefan Wysynski of Warsaw,
forbade any priest to accept state
money for teaching catechism.
State education officials who seek to
examine the catechism classrooms are
refused admission, although fire
inspectors and health department
officials are admitted.
The latest strategem of Communist
authorities has been to switch the
schedules of catechism classes. One
pastor, in confirming that this had
happened to him already this fall, said
one of his assistants had had to adjust to
nine such switches in a single school
year at another parish.
“We just change our schedule,” he
said.
Polish Communist law restricts
organized religious activity to churches
or parish houses. But there are just not
enough churches and parish houses in
Poland to accommodate nine out of ten
of the nation’s children, wholly because
government policy prevents the
construction of churches and parish
houses. As a result, catechism is taught
not only in the churches and rectories
but in private houses as well. In one
diocese, one-third of the catechism
classes are held in private homes.
Of course, this could not be
accomplished if the people - that is, the
working class that is supposed to rule in
Communist Poland - were not firmly
opposed to such oppressive laws and
policies. Such wholesale opposition is
virtually traditional in Poland now after
a quarter-century of Communist rule.
When religion was banished from the
schools in 1961, nuns and male Relgious
were forbidden by law to teach
catechism. The law was ignored, again
upon instructions from the bishops.
Some religious were in fact fined, and
lost clothing or radios to the police in
lieu of ready cash. But in many cases
the parents of the children they were
teaching came forward to pay.
That same principle obtains to this
day in Communist Poland. It is the
parents, principally working-class, who
support the parishes and through the
parishes support what may be the most
formidable system of catechetical
instruction in the world.
Pacelli
Honors
Students
Pacelli High School, Columbus, has
released its Honor Rolls for the first
quarter of the academic year. Students
cited on the 1st Honors Roll for
maintaining an average of 5.0 or better
are:
SENIORS - Nancy Attaway, Becky
Brown, Michael Tully.
JUNIORS - Barbara Hubertz, Belinda
White.
SOPHOMORES -- Lisa Darbonne,
Steven Fadul, Eric Oswald.
FRESHMEN - Cathleen Jones.
Students who maintained an average
of 4.16 or better won places on the 2nd
Honors Roll. They are:
SENIORS - Christopher Bo wick,
Maureen Brown, Leisa Buckner,
Jeanette Chrismond, Brenda French,
Henry Jasper, Chris Jennings, Joseph
Lunsford:
Debra Lloyd, Cindy Moxley, Karen
Patillo, Mike Ranieri, Brenda Rogers,
Teresa Schomburg, Mike Shannon,
Vicky Smith.
JUNIORS - Paula Adams, Kirk
Caldwell, Ann Cobis, Valerie Greco,
Mary Hall, Linda High, Sally Lunsford,
Felicia Mathews, Michael Patton, Karen
Remppel, Lanette Rogers.
SOPHOMORES - Eva Alquist, Mike
Berard, Paul Bowden, Patricia Bradford,
Charles Fogle, Mary Hubertz, Deborah
Kaczmarek, Susan Kaido, John Kearns;
Joe Landon, John Marino, Stephen
Murdock, Mary Pla, Susan Schomburg,
Eileen Shannon, Vicki Siebenmorgan,
Betsy Tully, Rosann Twiggs.
FRESHMEN - Pier Boutte, Ellen
Brown, Jennifer Coveny, Allison
Hilsman, Carmen Lopez, Theresa
Majors, Valerie Otap, Chris Ramieri.
OF THRUST, ANTI-THRUST
Thomas Merton, the famous
Trappist author, wrote in “Thoughts in
Solitude”: “The death by which we
enter into life is not an escape from
reality but a complete gift of ourselves
which involves a total commitment to
reality. It begins by renoucing the
illusory reality which created things
acquire when they are seen only in their
relation to our own selfish interests.
Before we can see that created things
(especially material) are unreal, we must
sey clearly that they are real. For the
“unreality” of material things is only
relative to the GREATER reality of
spiritual things.”
This long quotation is very apt in
relation to our present discussion on the
Thrust series. I would like to point out
that I agree with the overall philosophy
in this series. However, I do take
exception to the way certain arguments
are posed, and the rather general
judgmental observations made
concerning certain attitudes.
Obviously, it is important for our
growth, both individual and communal,
that we continually examine and
re-evaluate our system of values. The
writer of Thrust is correct in stating that
we do this; his suggested method of
re-evaluation though, is quite another
question.
As Merton suggests, we will not solve
any individual or social problem by
running from it. It is quite possible
to confront people with the “illusory
reality” of created (material) things in a
way that is acceptable to them. In other
words, they can be confronted in a way
that will make their re-evaluation of
their value system a relatively easy task.
Taking an attitude that will antagonize
compounds rather than solves the
situation.
By apparently attacking some of the
realities basic to American society, the
Thrust series does not make the
re-evaluation of the American value
system the easiest or most pleasant task
in life. A task which is not, under the
best of circumstances, pleasant or easy.
The second essay in the series deals
with the reality of work. The section of
the Old Testament points out, correctly
in my opinion, that the one reality
which has had the most impact on the
human situation is sin. Obviously, as a
reality, sin is still with us, but with
Christ we are better equipped to deal
with it. However, there are times, even
with this help, when sin has a great
limiting effect on our lives and on
society.
The section outlining “what America
teaches” falls into the same mould as
the first essay. It is general, vague and
somewhat onesided. I do not think it is
necessarily correct or fair to lay the
total blame for our present
understanding of work at the feet of the
Calvinistic-Protestant tradition on which
this country was founded. It is quite
correct to say that there are many
abuses of the “work equals success”
myth. I also believe that a more
balanced context would be given to this
section if the author made some
reference to the present theology of
work that is emerging in the Church.
No longer is work looked upon as a
punishment visited on man because of
his sins. Work should be seen as a
positive contribution, on man’s part, to
the ongoing process of creation. I think
it is this aspect of work that should be
emphasized in a program such as this.
This is important, especially in view of
the fact that many, who work in our
present society, find work
dehumanizing rather than personally
fulfilling. In that sense, it could be said
that, “work should bring happiness and
work is redemptive.”
In the final section, the author points
out that the “process of change is
slow”. I agree. However, this process,
especially in our understanding of work,
will not be accelerated by the kind of
treatment it receives in this essay. I
agree wholeheartedly with the abuses of
the work myth highlighted in this essay.
My only point of contention is that the
way these abuses are pinpointed evokes,
in my view, a negative rather than
positive reaction.
In the light of correspondence I
received in reaction to last week’s
article, I feel I must state that I am not
offering a so called “conservative
alternative” to Fr. Coleman’s opinions
in the Thrust series. As I said in the
beginning of this article, I agree with Fr.
Coleman that we should face up to our
value system and see if it needs change
and improvement. It does, but I feel
that suggested changes and
improvements can be presented in an
alternative fashion, other than the
method used by Fr. Coleman. My
disagreement with the Thrust series is
NOT with its CONTENT but with its
METHOD.
As was recently stated by a staff
member of the D.C.F. at a meeting in
our parish: we are, or should be, a
nation UNDER God. Obviously, God
and America are not co-equal realities,
and in that sense America can be wrong.
We must be open enough to see the
truth in this. I thank those who
responded to the last article. Hope you
enjoy this one also. In case you need it,
my address is: St. Jame’s Rectory, 8412
Whitfield Ave., Savannah, Ga., 31406.
Until my next excursion into the realm
of print, may the openness of the Holy
Spirit be a reality in all of our lives.
A NEW ACADEMIC YEAR is in full swing at Immaculate Conception Seminary in
Conception, Missouri. Pictured above (from left to right) are Dennis Brickie (Junior),
Robert Johnson (Sophomore), Laurence Hotard (Senior) and Gary Taylor (Junior),
who are studying at Conception Seminary for the Diocese of Savannah.
*
Wildlife
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program.
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A citizen wherever we serve' ,J