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SERVING 88 SOUTH GEORGIA COUNTIES
The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 53 No. 41
Thursday, November 23,1972
Single Copy Price — 12 Cents
THE DEATH OF A SOLDIER - A South Vietnamese soldier arms of freelance photographer Lim Thanh Van who took the
points his weapon toward an enemy near Binh Duoung. The picture. (NC PHOTO),
young man was fatally wounded moments later and died in the
Basic Teachings Document
Mailed to Bishops for Vote
WASHINGTON (NC) - The final
aft of “Basic Teachings for Catholic
iligious Education” will be sent to the
tion’s bishops within the next few
feks for a vote by mail, according to a
sort submitted at the bishops’ annual
eeting here by the committee
jponsible for the document.
The committee, directed by
rch bishop John F. Whealon of
irtford, Conn., was established in
avember, 1970, to “prepare a positive
atement of irreducible doctrinal
inciples . . .without which adequate
techesis is impossible.”
NC News learned from sources within
e National Conference of Catholic
shops (NCCB) that the document was
>t put on the agenda for a vote at the
[shops’ annual meeting here because
ie NCCB Administrative Committee
id felt an extensive discussion of the
xt would serve no good purpose at the
•esent stage. Under the vote-by-mail
rocedure, the document must get a
two-thirds yes vote
approved as it stands.
in order to be
Israelis Charged
Pg. 2
Interview Hoax
Social Awareness
Pg. 4
Life in Music
The draft now up for approval is the
result of numerous revisions. An initial
draft, sent last year to the nation’s
bishops and to a large number of groups
and organizations, brought hundreds ui
suggestions for changes. Subsequently, a
revised draft was drawn up and sent to
the Vatican for further suggestions and
approval, and the resulting document is
the one to be mailed to the bishops for
a vote.
The document is a listing of basic
doctrines that should be taught in
religious education. It says that it is
“not to be confused with a national
catechetical directory” which the
bishops hope to develop by 1974.
In other action, the bishops also
received reports on the Spanish-speaking
and Respect for Life Week.
Bishop Joseph L. Bernardin, general
secretary of the U.S. Catholic
Conference (USCC), told the bishops
that the USCC committee on the
Spanish-speaking would release a
document in February responding to
resolutions from the June national
meeting on pastoral care for
Spanish-speaking (Primer Encuentro de
Pastoral).
Bishop Bernardin said the panel
would draw up the document, which is
to be sent to the USCC administrative
board, as a result of its meeting with
Encuentro representatives Oct. 31.
The Encuentro, a meeting of
Hispanic-American community leaders
here last June under the sponsorship of
the USCC Division for the
Spanish-speaking, passed 78 resolutions
for presentation to the American
bishops. The recommendations were
sent to the prelates last month.
“Basically,” Bishop Bernardin said of
the resolutions, “The Spanish-speaking
want greater participation in the life of
the Church, especially in
decision-making roles.”
The chairman of the bishops’
Committee for Respect for Life Week,
Cardinal Terence Cooke of New York,
reported to the prelates that their recent
observances of the week across the
country - in which abortion, euthanasia
and other threats to life were
condemned - cost $65,000.
This cost, the cardinal said, may be
lowered by $38,000 from the sale of
pro-life materials and from diocesan
contributions.
Pacelli Priests, Nuns
Submit Resignations
In the wake of a simmering dispute between the Religious faculty
members of Pacelli High School, Columbus, and the Pacelli School Board,
the school’s principal, Father Robert Mattingly, and the four Sisters who
serve on the faculty have submitted their resignations. According to a
letter from Father Mattingly to Bishop Gerard L. Frey, Father Donal
Keohane, the other priest member of the faculty, will also submit his
resignation to the bishop.
Father Mattingly outlined his
position in the dispute and that of the
other resigning faculty members in a
letter sent to bishop Frey and to Father
Ralph E. Seikel, diocesan
superintendent of schools. Copies of the
letter were sent to parents of Pacelli
students and a statement was released to
Columbus area news media.
According to Father Mattingly’s
letter, Mr. Tom French, Chairman of
the Pacelli School Board, called for
rejection of what the teaching Religious
claim is their right “to determine where
their contributed services go.” A motion
to adopt the rejection was made by
another Board member and passed.
In his press statement, the Pacelli
Principal explained “Contributed
Services” this way:
The priests and Religious receive a
salary which is below the salary of the
lay faculty members. Traditionally,
Sisters and priest have contributed their
services for the good of Catholic
education. These contributed services
are saving the school over $34,000 this
year.”
At a meeting of the Pacelli School
Board last month, Father Mattingly had
declared that “the Priests and Sisters
would like to guarantee the
continuation of Pacelli’s scholarship
program by applying a portion of
contributed services to this fund,”
noting that “if Pacelli Educational
Foundation plus the contribution of the
Negro and Indian Missions can meet the
budgeted goal, the contributed services
need not be applied.”
The amount budgeted (of the
$34,600 contributed services estimate)
was announced by Father Mattingly as
$9,600, representing scholarships for 16
needy and minority students at $600
per scholarship for the 1973-74 school
year.
It was the rejection of this specific
proposal which triggered the mass
resignation, Father Mattingly said.
In his letter of resignation, he called
‘Thrust’ Series Praised
By National Publication
BY GIL BROWN
“THRUST” - the five-week adult
education program prepared for parish
use this year by the Department of
Christian Formation - recently came in
for high praise from LINK, a new
national publication for people
connected with pastoral and community
ministry.
In an article entitled “New Thrust in
Adult Education”, LINK says: “Many
dioceses are developing imaginative
programs for adult attitudinal
formation. None is more promising than
“Thrust”, now in use in parishes
throughout the Diocese of Savannah,
Ga. The recently published series of five
essays searching American civil religion
is being used now in most parishes of
the diocese and in other locales. It’s
excellent for ecumenical groups.
“The program attempts to come to
grips with fundamentals of American
life on which so much action in national
and local political policy rests. The
material has met with mixed response -
adults searching for clear thinking from
the church on these questions have
responded enthusiastically; tnose reeling
the church should stay out of “politics”
are often enraged.”
LINK recommends “Thrust” as
“excellent and challenging material, for
parishes, Newman clubs, high school,
college discussion groups.” Published
twice monthly in Kansas City, Mo.,
LINK connects those involved in
pastoral and community ministry with
others who have similar interests. It
brings new items and current
information on issues personalities,
programs and successful projects to
priests, brothers, sisters and lay people
directly engaged in urban and suburban
ministry.
LINK’S editor is Monsignor John J.
Egan of Notre Dame, one of the
foremost priest-experts in urban affairs
in the nation. Msgr. Egan comes from
Chicago, and now serves under a joint
appointment with the Pastoral Theology
program and the Institute for Urban
Studies at Notre Dame. He is Chairman
of the Catholic Committee on Urban
Ministry, and a past Chairman of the
Association of Chicago Priests as well as
a former Director of the Office of
Urban Affairs in Chicago.
for a new Board constitution “with
built-in checks and balances” and
declared that a lack of such checks and
balances puts Pacelli “in violation of the
Southern Association’s standards.”
Seven lay teachers of Pacelli’s faculty
have voiced their sympathy with the
position of those who have resigned.
Due to an early press date (Nov. 20)
because of the Thanksgiving holiday,
THE SOUTHERN CROSS has not been
able to contact Board members for their
comment or reaction to the
resignations.
ARRESTED AT BISHOP’S MEETING -- Bill Baird of the Abortion Freedom League is
arrested by an Arlington (Va.) plainclothes policemen (left) Thursday on a charge of
disturbing the peace at a meeting of the U.S. Bishops in the Marriott Hotel near
Washington, D.C. Baird carried an abortion film which he said he planned to show the
bishops. (NC Photo)
HEADLINE
HOPSCOTCH
New Bishop-Saint?
WASHINGTON (NC) - The U.S. bishops have asked Pope Paul VI “to proceed
expeditiously” on the beatification and canonization of Bishop Frederic Baraga, the
first bishop of the Diocese of Marquette, Mich., and called “Apostle to the Indians.”
The prelates’ request was incorporated in a resolution submitted to them at their fall
meeting by the present bishop of the Marquette diocese, Charles A. Salatka. The
diocesan process for the cause of the beatification and canonization has been
completed, and materials are being sent to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in
Rome. From 1831 to 1868, Bishop Baraga was a missionary to the people of the
Upper Great Lakes, chiefly the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. For 14 of those years,
he served as first bishop of the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie-Marquette.
Foundation Rapped
VATICAN CITY (NC) - The Vatican has warned that a money-raising organization
known as “Foundation of the Holy Land, Inc., Jerusalem” has never received any kind
of approval from the Vatican or from competent Church officials at a local level.
According to the Vatican daily, the foundation apparently collects funds “in various
countries and especially in the United States of America.” The notice in L’Osservatore
Romano of Nov. 15 was captioned “warning” and read as follows: We are able to state
that an undertaking known as ‘Foundation of the Holy Land, United States of
America with the declared purpose ‘of collecting funds for the Holy Land,’ has not
received any approval either explicit or implicit from the Holy See or from the
competent local ecclesiastical authorities.”