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SERVING 88 SOUTH GEORGIA COUNTIES
The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 53 No. 43
Thursday, December 7,1972
Single Copy Price — 12 Cents
Jacket cover of “Magnificat;” illustration by Whitney Darrow, Jr.
4 Purr-feet’ Novel
Catholic Press Features
NOBC Fund Drive Dec. 10
NEW YORK (CPF) - If you were a
cat with a saintly imagination, might
you do not think that a CAThedral was
meant to be your home, and that the
Magnificat was composed expressly for
you?
Writers Carolyn and Edmund
Sheehan must have been thinking along
those FElines when they wrote a
light-hearted novel called, Magnifi-Cat.”
It is a story about how a dirty alley
cat one day showed up outside Heaven’s
gates, halo and all, seeking admission,
and about the great consternation and
the event caused not only in Heaven but
in Hell as well.
And, in flashback form, the novel
explains how the cat, named Nemrod,
came to merit his celestial place.
“The Catholic Review,” newspaper of
the Baltimore Archdiocese, has
described it as “well-written,
imaginative, and highly amusing,” and
indeed it contains a plot that a company
like Buena-Vista could well turn into a
delightful animated feature film.
Or Alfred Hitchcock could take a
shot at it, for “Magnifi-Cat” also
contains some hair-raising suspense
involving a fanatic plot to assassinate a
Catholic bishop and hundreds of
worshippers.
Much of the fascinating byplay
occurs, however, after the cat’s death -
it is, predictably, a martyrdom - and his
arrival at a computer - run “Judgment
INSIDE STORY
Pacelli Update
Pg. 2
Know Your Faith
Pg. 5
Film Ratings
Pg. 6
Readers Reply
Pg. 7
Separation Point,” where blinking and
whirring machines process those who
have died and render a decision as to
whether the arrival should be sent into
Heaven or to Hell or to a
“Rehabilitation Facility”
A “Judgment Separation Scanner”
has been programmed to make a
instantaneous decision as to where the
new arrival must go, but when an animal
arrives - Nemrod - it goes into a short
circuit, causing all manner of comical
problems.
The novel’s view of Heavenly
administrative procedure is a charming
mixture of past and present. New
arrivals are greeted with special music
composed by Beethoven himself, with
perhaps Bach sitting at the organ. St.
Vincent de Paul scurries around
looking for a suitable room for the
tenant.
But there is also a “protest” scene,
complete with dog-lovers and cat-lovers
picketing St. Peter’s offices. The
dog-lovers contending that cats have
always been looked upon there as evil,
from the time that cats were
worshipped by pagans. The cat-lovers
chanting, “Pussycats are nice, chasing
rats and mice; Let the kitties in, they
are free from sin.”
There is some fascinating, and
delightfully farfetched, description of
how halos are formed and of a fail-safe
Pearly Gates lock that fails.
But the scenes set in Lake City’s St.
Michael’s Cathedral, home of the bishop
and his cat, make for high excitement,
especially as the date of the Bishop’s
silver jubilee Mass approaches, with
Nemrod suspiciously eyeing two
“masons” who have to come to make
repairs on the old cathedral.
In his eulogy, deliverd at a funeral
service for Nemrod at the book’s end,
Bishop Casey tells the congregation:
“I do not wish to enter into a
theological controversy as to whether
animals have souls. But I say that
courage, love and intelligence, when
manifested unselfishly for the good of
all, are immortal qualities - whether
expressed by a human or an animal.”
What St. Peter decides to do should
be withheld here, but suffice it to say
that when Bach plays his “Magnificat”
on his celestial instrument, the accent is
definitely on the cat.
WASHINGTON - A national
organization of black Catholics is
sponsoring a drive to raise funds for six
programs designed to promote
Catholicism in black communities.
The National Office for Black
Catholics (NOBC), a 3,000 member
independent group, said the drive aims
to collect $350,000 through collections
in all dioceses with 2,500 or more black
Catholics.
In the diocese of Savannah, the drive
will be mounted in predominantly Black
parishes next Sunday, December 10,
when a special collection will be taken
up to help raise the $350,000
nation-wide total.
In a letter to be read in all churches
where Sunday’s special collection is to
be taken up, Bishop Gerard L. Frey
reminded black Catholics that “Pope
Paul has called upon you to enrich the
Catholic Church with your valuable and
unique gift of blackness which the
Church needs especially at this time in
her history.”
Citing the goals of NOBC, the bishops
declared that “this organization has my
full approval.”
The NOBC is recognized by the
National Conference of Catholic
Bishops.
Brother Joseph Davis, NOBC
director, said, “I feel in a sense that the
challenge of this program to the black
community is a real blessing. It is an
opportunity for us to show that we have
come of age, that we are no longer a
missionary church . ..”
The NOBC said it wants the funds to:
- Recruit Blacks to Religious life.
Develop black Catholic lay
leadership.
- Finance continuing education
programs for black Religious.
- Foster forms of worship having
elements of the black heritage.
Offer training programs for
non-blacks working in black areas.
-- Establish a trainfng center for black
priests.
In practical terms, said Brother Davis,
black Catholics are saying it is time for
the issues of vocation recruitment,
continuing education for priests and
Religious, lay leadership, parish
structures, school programs and finances
and the like to be dealt with by black
Catholics themselves.
Thus, NOBC came into being two
years ago in July, 1970, culminating
two years of inquiry, research and
planning on the part of black Catholic
clergy, Religious and laity.
At the November, 1970, meeting of
U.S. Catholic bishops, $200,000 was
allocated to fund NOBC, but since that
time the office has received no further
funding.
The NOBC has produced figures
showing that of more than 50,000
priests in the U.S., only 170 are black
and has placed vocations recruitment at
the top of its list of priorities.
Of the 170 black priests, only 60 are
WASHINGTON (NC) - Father
Edward H. Flannery, executive
secretary of the U.S. bishops’
Secretariat for Catholic-Jewish
Relations, has attacked an NC News
series on the Middle East as “one-sided
and anti-Israeli.”
Father Flannery said that the
reporter, Louis Panarale, “gave no
evidence whatever of having consulted a
single Israeli or defender of the Israeli
position. This in itself renders the series
journalistically deficient and, as an
exposition of the realities in Israel,
worthless.”
In a denial of the charges made in
Father Flannery’s statement, Panarale
said he has spoken to both Israelis and
Arabs as well as non-Israelis and
non-Arabs who have lived for years in
the Middle East.
The priest criticized remarks made by
Melkite-rite Archbishop Joseph M. Raya
of Acre, Israel, in an interview in the
series. “Referring to an ‘exodus’ of
Christians from Israel - which has been
challenged by many,” Father Flannery
said, “he made no allusion to the well
known fact that Christians have been
leaving the entire Middle East for more
than 100 years and are now leaving
other Arab countries at a much faster
rate than Israel.”
Father Flannery said Archbishop
Raya’s statement “that one of the
reasons for the ‘exodus’ is the failure of
the Church to act on behalf of the Arab
Christians has no foundation in fact. His
assertion that ‘Christians of the Holy
Land have become victims of injustice,
discrimination, and persecutions’ from
the Israelis is nothing short of
slanderous.”
The priest said that an article in the
series of an Arab doctor working in a
Christian welfare center in Jerusalem
“intimated that Arabs would not
frequent a like Israeli center. This flies
in the face of the fact that in the Old
City there are extensive medical,
maternity, and social welfare services
provided by the Israeli government and
staffed with Arab and Jewish doctors
and officials. Last January, in the
company of Msgr. George Higgins,
diocesan priests. The rest belong to
Religious orders, half to the Society of
the Divine Word. There are presently no
black priests in the Savannah diocese.
Nine hundred of the 150,000
Religious women in the nation are
black. At least 600, or more than
two-thirds of all black Religious women
belong to three congregations - all
predominantly black - among the 635
communities of Religious women in
America.
director of research USCC (U. S.
Catholic Conference), I visited these and
saw crowds of Arabs accepting these
services.”
Father Flannery said that an article
on the town of Karameh in Jordan
“reverses the history of the town.” He
said the reporter described the town as
peaceful until 1967 when it became a
target for Israelis, was reduced to rubble
and then became a post of armed
resistance against the Israelis.
“The facts are that well before 1967
Karameh was a stronghold of Arab
guerrillas, which constantly infiltrated
Israel for terroristic purposes,” Father
Flannery said. “It had become so
overrun by the guerrillas that many of
the native villagers were expelled by
There are two black Sisters working
in the diocese of Savannah. They are
Sister M. Julian, a Vincentian nun, and
Sister Monique Valville, a Benedictine.
Sister Julian is a Social Apostolate
worker in Savannah, while Sister
Monique works with the Social
Apostolate in Albany.
There are no black Religious brothers
working in the diocese and there are
only 200 in the entire United States.
Two black priests have been appointed
bishops in recent years.
these forces. Yassir Arafat, A1 Fatah
(guerrilla) leader, directed operations
there.”
The priest went on to say that before
their attack Israelis distributed leaflets
in Karameh indicating to the villagers
that the target of the attacks was the
guerrilla strongholds not the villagers
themselves. Thirty Israelis were killed in
the operation, he said.
Father Flannery said that in the
article on Jerusalem, “Panarale’s
mention of the ‘dwindling numbers’ of
Christians in Jerusalem is presented with
no statistics, perhaps because there are
none to substantiate the charge. He
could have referred to the fact that this
year for the first time since 1948 no
young Arabs have left the City.”
BISHOP EMMANGUEL MILINGO of the African Republic of Zambia is
shown here with two black American priests, Fathers Eugene Wilson and
Fred Hinton after Concelebrating a Mass at a recent convention of Black
Lay Catholics.
WOMEN IN THE HALLS -- Two female graduate students, Kath>
Walter and Susan Moser (right) talk with a male student in the library al
St. Francis School of Pastoral Ministry. The women are the first admitted
to study at the Milwaukee seminary. (NC Photo)
i
HEADLINE
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HOPSCOTCH
'Our Father’ Survey
CLEVELAND (NC) - A poll conducted by the Cleveland diocese’s newspaper shows
overwhelming opposition to suggestions that the ‘Our Father’ be changed. The
Catholic Universe Bulletin survey, although incomplete, reveals 1,518 respondents
against alteration of the prayer and 145 supporting the revised version. An updated
version of the “Our Father” has been considered by the International Consultation on
English Texts, an ecumenical advisory group to the bishops of the English-speaking
world. The ICET version, which has not been approved by U.S. or Canadian bishops,
reads: “Our Father in heaven, holy be your Name, your kingdom come, your will be
done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we
forgive those who sin against us. Do not bring us to the test but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, nowand forever.”
Bishop 'Soul Brother
DAYTON, Ohio (NC) - Auxiliary Archbishop Nicholas T. Elko of Cincinnati has
been named “honorary soul brother” by black members of the Cursillo movement in
the Dayton area. The honor was announced at a Mass and ecumenical program here by
Oliver Cousins, coordinator of a Cursillo group in the three parishes in which most
Dayton area black Catholics live. Cousins said at the Mass, at which the archbishop was
principal concelebrant, that the Cursillistas “want to give this honor to Archbishop
Elko because he relates to us well” and because “we admire his special devotion to the
Blessed Mother, whose sons and daughters we try to be.”
Hospital Rolls Up
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (NC) - The Catholic Hospital Association has reported about 5.6
million patients were admitted to the nation’s 734 Catholic hospitals last year, an
increase of almost 100,00 admissions over 1970. The association, which represents 97
percent of all U.S. Catholic hospitals, said the increase occurred despite the fact that
15 Catholic medical facilities were phased out due to mergers or closings.
Priest Attacks NC Series