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PAGE 2 — The Southern Cross, December 7,1972
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Update on Pacelli Crisis
FATHER WILLIAM DOWLING, Diocesan Coordinator of the
Social Apostolage of the Diocese of Savannah, presents a
special gold-pin award to Mrs. Sidney Anderson of Our Lady
of Lourdes Parish in Columbus. Mrs. Anderson had given a
total of 1250 volunteer hours of work to the Social Service
Bureau of the Columbus Deanery. Looking on is Sister
Kathleen Murphy, O.S.U., a caseworker in the Social Service
Bureau since its beginning in 1967 and a coordinator of all the
volunteer help.
Part of Catechetical Course Withdrawn
AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands
(NC) - Two of the four volumes of a
controversial experimental catechetical
course used in two Dutch dioceses have
been withdrawn.
There was no immediate reaction,
however, from Vatican officials who had
ordered that the entire course be halted.
The board of the organization called
Ons Middelbaar Onderwijs (Our
Secondary Education) said it decided to
withdraw volumes three and four on the
request of Bishop Hubert Ernst of Breda
and Bishop Jan Bluyssen of
’s-Hertogenbosch, the two dioceses in
which the course was used.
The first two volumes will continue
to be used.
Volume one is on religion in
humanity and was supervised by Father
E. Cornelis, who teaches world religions
at Nijmegen University; Volume two is
on the Old Testament and was
supervised by Father J.T. Nelis, who
teaches Scripture at Nijmegen.
Volume three, on the New
Augusta Bids Farewell
Catholics from all the parishes of the
Augusta Deanery will honor Bishop
Gerard L. Frey at a farewell celebration
on Monday evening, Dec. 11. At 7:30
o’clock there will be a concelebrated
Mass at St. Mary’s on the Hill Church
followed at 8:15 p.m. by a reception in
the Parish Hall adjacent to the church.
Bishop Frey and all the priests of the
deanery will concelebrate the Mass. The
altar boys from each parish are also
being invited and the Aquinas High Glee
Club will sing for the occasion.
The Presidents of the Ladies
D.C.C.W.’s will be in charge of the
reception, with Mrs. Richard N. Bowles,
St. Mary’s on the Hill Parish, as the
general chairman. Her co-chairman are
Mrs. Thomas Murphy, St. Joseph’s, Mrs.
William Lawler, St. Teresa’s, Mrs. James
McLeod, Holy Trinity, Mrs. Charles
Turner, Fort Gordon, Miss Mary Dana,
Deanery President, and Mrs. Daniel
Eicher, Organizational Chairman, and
representatives from all the parishes will
greet guests at the door.
Bishop Gerard Frey of Savannah has
been named Bishop of Lafayette,
Louisiana. He leaves the end of the
month to head a diocese which
comprises 11,090 square miles and has a
population of 395,000 Roman
Catholics.
Testament, was supervised by Father
Bas Vaniersel, another scripture teacher
at Nijmegen, and volume four, on faith
and philosophy of life, by Father
Bonifacious Willems, also of Nijmegen.
Both Bishop Ernst and Bishop
Bluyssen said that they have great
respect for the course. They said they
do not agree with Cardinal Franjo
Seper, prefect of the Vatican’s Doctrinal
Congregation, and Cardinal John
Wright, prefect of the Vatican’s
Congregation for the Clergy, that the
course is “useless and incorrigible.”
The course has also been criticized by
conservative elements in the Dutch
Church as well as others.
Jesuit Father Jean Galot of the
Gregorian University in Rome attacked
the course earlier in the Rome Jesuit
review La Civilta Cattolica as reflecting
“neither the authentic face of Christ,
the Son of God, nor that of the
Church.”
The board of Our Secondary
Education, which published the course,
said it had complied with the request of
the two Dutch bishops to withdraw
volumes three and four because “it
values the good relations with those
bishops.”
The two bishops said that they hope
preparations of a new course will help
close what they said is a dangerous gap
in religious education in Catholic
secondary schools.
Special to The Southern Cross
Pacelli High School in Columbus has
had its share of crises during its
relatively short 14-year history. In most
cases, the crises were of a financial kind.
By dint of hard work on the part of a
lot of people, their concurrent parting
with goodly sums of cash, and by a bit
of belt-tightening on the part of the
school’s administrators, the crises were
overcome. For a while it seemed that
every spring would bring forth the same
plaintive query: “Will Pacelli open next
year?”
Once again, Pacelli High School is
faced with a crisis, a most serious one,
probably the most serious crisis the
school has ever had to face. For on
November 16, 1972, in a letter signed
by Father Robert B. Mattingly, the
school’s principal, and addressed to
Bishop Frey, the six full-time religious
members (two priests, four nuns) of the
school’s 15-member full-time faculty
indicated their intentions of resigning
from Pacelli effective June 1,1973.
The basic issue, as Father Mattingly
sees it, is “a serious problem concerning
power.” To him, as he points out in his
letter, “there simply are no checks on
the Board’s power written in the
constitution. There is no way provided
to veto a policy ... This lack of checks
and balances has precipitated an
increased interference in the
administrative functions of the school.”
The priests and nuns have another
complaint, i.e., the fact that the Pacelli
High School Board (15 lay and 7
religious persons) rejected, in a meeting
on November 13, a contributed
services-scholarship statement presented
to the Board by Father Mattingly the
preceding month. To the religious, “we
do have the right to apply a portion of
our contributed services to the poor and
to minority groups.”
Mr. Tom French, chairman of the
Pacelli High School Board, called a
special meeting of that group for
Monday evening, November 20, as the
first step in coming to grips with the
new crisis. Father Mattingly is a member
of the Board, as is the other priest
assigned to Pacelli, Father Donal
Keohane. In particular, Mr. French was
concerned with the following statement
which appeared in Father Mattingly’s
letter to Bishop Frey: “Furthermore, I
cannot recommend in conscience to you
that any priests be assigned to Pacelli
nor to any religious superior that sisters
replace the existing ones until the
present school board either resigns or is
dissolved, the constitution rewritten
with checks in power, and respect be
given to the rights of teachers who in
conscience wish to dedicate part of their
contributed services to minority races
and the poor.”
At times, the meeting was loud and
acrimonious. But for the most part,
those in attendance seemed sobered by
the events that had transpired over the
weekend, and many spoke feelingly of
the need to seek an immediate solution
to the seeming impasse between the
School Board and the religious faculty
members. A goodly crowd of parents,
students, and interested Catholics were
in the meeting room, and all who
desired were given the opportunity to
address the Board. Several of the news
media were also represented, although
the Board did deny the use of tape
recorders during the meeting. The
decision was taken good-naturedly.
Since the basic problem seemed to
hinge on the apparent need for a
revised, or even new, constitution,
Father Roy Cox, pastor of St. Anne’s
Parish in Columbus and a member of
the School Board, was appointed to
chair the by-laws committee which
would take a long, hard look at the
present constitution, drawn up in 1962,
revise it if that was all the committee
considered necessary, or rewrite it
completely if that was the committee’s
decision.
When the by-laws committee
completed its task, Father Cox stated, it
would present its findings to the School
Board for final acceptance or rejection.
If a new or substantially revised
constitution was presented, Father Cox
pointed out, it might require that the
present School Board members resign to
permit the election of new members.
Father Cox’ offer was accepted
unanimously by the Board. His
committee was not given the specific
time in which to complete its task, but
the indications were that most of the
School Board members were thinking in
terms of several weeks, and not several
months, It was also left to Father Cox
to fill out his by-laws committee with
people of his own choosing.
While Father Mattingly did not make
a statement as to his feelings on this
approach toward solving the Pacelli
crisis, in response to a series of
questions from the audience, he
indicated his approval. Apparently,
Father Mattingly’s November 16th
letter to Bishop Frey will not be
withdrawn at this time.
And, so, Pacelli High School has
come to firm grips with its latest crisis.
Unfortunately, it seems this crisis may
leave far deeper scars on the Catholic
body-politic of Columbus than any of
the previous crises.
For many of the long-time Pacelli
supporters, there is the nagging worry
(and fear) that their school has faced
one too many crisis, that no school can
survive for long if every two years it is
shaken to its very foundations by crisis.
Pacelli High School sits on its own San
Andreas fault. Is 1972 the year the fault
might open to engulf the frail brick
structure that has sat so precariously on
its edge for the past 14 years? Or can
the school’s foundations, physical and
moral, be shored up one more time?
A Priest Looks at “Marriage Encounter
*5
FATHER PATRICK J. SHINNICK
There are certain stages in everyone’s
life when one has to stop and take a
good look at himself. Am I just
existing? Moving forward or backwards?
Marriage is an area where everybody
experiences difficulties. The market is
inundated with books on how to
improve one’s marriage. Most of them,
however, miss the whole point of
marriage. They deal with only one
aspect - sex. Marriage and sex are not
synonomous. Sex is a very important
party of marriage, it is good and
beautiful as God created it, but if that is
all there is, then the marriage is doomed
to failure.
On Friday, November 10, a little
apprehensive, I found myself at Ignatius
House, Atlanta. The purpose was
Marriage Encounter. The Marriage
Encounter lasted from 8:00 p.m. Friday
until 6:00 p.m. Sunday. It was for me
and all the participants a unique
experience. In this short period I
witnessed a transformation in the lives
of these people that was almost
miraculous.
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AUGUSTA
Marriage Encounter was started
twenty years ago in Spain by a priest,
Father Gabriel Calvo and a married
couple, Jose and Margharita Pich. It is
an outgrowth of the Christian Family
Movement. Essentially it is an attempt
to expand and refine the art of
communication within the basic unit of
society - the married couple. It operates
on the theory that it is this relationship
that determines the quality of family
life itself. It is not group therapy, nor
sensitivity nor a problem solving
week-end. The cost of the weekend is
minimal and made through a blank
envelope offering.
The week-end was conducted by Fr.
Larry Hein, S.J. and two couples from
New York. One couple was Catholic and
the other Jewish. Those participating
consisted of two priests and eleven
couples, among these were three
non-Catholic couples and one colored
couple. They varied in marital age from
one to thirty-three years.
One thing that was constantly
stressed was that everybody has feelings
about different things and that a feeling
is neutral. A feeling is neither good or
bad in itself, it is just a feeling.
The priests followed somewhat the
same outline and dialogued with each
other. Their dialogue was geared
more towards their relationship with
their people.
For most of the couples it was the
first time they had really got to know
each other and their feelings. It opened
up lines of communication that never
existed. The final evening a ‘Covenant
Service’ took place which included the
renewal of marriage vows. It was a
beautiful and moving experience.
The movement emphasizes that it is
not for problem marriages, but to make
a good marriage better. For priests
participating, it is of necessity forced,
but it is by no means a waste of time for
apart from observing the movement at
first hand, it can also bring about a
renewal in the life of the priest.
Marriage Encounter does not end
with the week-end. There is a follow-up
which I consider of equal importance.
One of the follow-up techniques is
called “ten and ten”. The daily “ten^and
ten” consists of ten minutes writing and
reflection on a subject, and ten minutes
dialogue. Another technique is that in a
given area couples who have made
Encounter get together periodically to
discuss their progress and encourage
each other.
Little or no formal advertising is
needed as those who have participated
in the Encounter are so enthusiastic
about their experience that they make
the best salesmen.
Movements like this are needed more
today than ever. Somebody recently
said that marriage has become a national
disaster. One out of every four
marriages ends in divorce and one,out of
every two teenage marriages collapses.
Nearly 40% of all ruptured marriages
today have lasted ten years or more,
14% have survived more than twenty
years. The average age of the U.S. two
million divorcees is now 45 years. With
statistics like these any movement
which can bring back the gleam to a
faded marriage is good. I cannot
recommend the movement too highly.
Most people are reluctant to go at first
but once they take the first step they
never look back. Some of the essential
ingredients of any marriage are
communication and trust and these are
definitely zeroed in on during this
week-end.
If anyone would like further
information on “Marriage Encounter”
they could contact Mr. and Mrs. William
G. Bush, 1300 Buena Vista Drive,
Augusta, Ga. 30904 or phone them at
404-733-2160.
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MARRIAGE ENCOUNTER - Pictured are Augusta couples who have
completed “Marriage Encounter” at a monthly meeting. Present were
Father Larry Hein, S.J. and two couples from Atlanta. Fr. Hein is shown in
background at right.