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SERVING 88 SOUTH GEORGIA COUNTIES
The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 54 No. 5
Thursday, February 1,1973
Single Copy Price — 12 Cents
THE U.S. AT PEACE - Doves rest in cannon at
Miller Park in Chicago Saturday symbolizing the silence
that was supposed to come for guns in Vietnam that
day. In Dallas that day, Vietnamese native Tran Thi
Lai, 23, sings the prayer for peace at a Mass in St.
No Abortions
Elizabeth Catholic Church. She came to the United
States in 1968, but most of her relatives remain in
Vietnam. Tran Thi Lai was born in the North
Vietnamese village of Vinh. (NC Photos)
in Catholic
Hospitals, Bishops Say
WASHINGTON (NC) - The Catholic
bishops of the United States will
continue to “stand unalterably opposed
to providing abortion service in Catholic
hospitals,” the bishops’ spokesman for
health affairs said here.
Bishop Edward D. Head said that the
bishops also oppose “anything which
might require health care personnel
anywhere to participate in abortion
procedures in violation of their
consciences.”
Bishop Head, a New York auxiliary
who was recently named to head the
Buffalo, N.Y., diocese, made the
statement after a meeting here of the
U.S. Catholic Conference Committee on
Health Affairs. He is committee
chairman.
Speaking for the committee, Bishop
Head said:
“I wish to express dismay and
disappointment at the frightening
decision of the United States Supreme
Court concerning abortion. We find the
court’s position entirely inconsistent
with the attitude of reverence for life
shown by our founding fathers.
“The committee reaffirms its pro-life
position and its conviction that the
destruction of innocent unborn babies is
morally evil.”
“We are convinced,” Bishop Head
said, “that these decisions of the court
will never destroy the deep respect of
Catholic people for life and their
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dedication to its preservation.
Nonetheless, the Supreme Court
judgment and its implications seriously
infringe upon the conscience of health
care personnel and the ability of our
health care facilities to function within
the framework of our moral
convictions.”
Meanwhile, bishops and right to life
groups across the country continued to
condemn the Supreme Court decisions
striking down abortion laws in Texas
and Georgia.
Bishop Michael F. McAuliffe of
Jefferson City, Executive chairman of
the Missouri Catholic Conference, said
that the abortion decision was
inconsistent with the court’s recent
decision banning the death penalty as it
had been imposed in the United States.
“The Supreme Court,” Bishop
McAuliffe said, “recently declared the
death penalty unconstitutional and said
capital punishment was ‘uniquely
degrading to human dignity.’ Is the
killing of an innocent baby in its
mother’s womb uniquely upgrading to
human dignity?”
Archbishop Humberto Medieros of
Boston said, “This is a terrifying hour
for our country. We are calling upon our
heads the just anger of our heavenly
Father. Let us plead with Mary
Immaculate the patroness of our nation,
to intercede for us and to lead us to
repentance. May she inspire all our
people with a true horror for the
unspeakable crimes about to be
committed under the protection of the
law so that we may, as a nation under
God, reverse the trend to utter
corruption and self-destruction as a
people.”
Bishop Paul F. Anderson of Duluth,
Minn., said: “I sympathize with the
Supreme Court in its attempt to
establish justice for a pluralistic society
based on the United States constitution,
but as Catholics we base our concept of
justice and the right to life on the
Judaeo-Christian ethic and the teachings
of Jesus.
“We must try to live out our
convictions and aid as best we can those
who seek alternatives to abortion.”
Bishop Walter P. Kellenberg of
Rockville Centre, N.Y., compared the
1973 abortion decision with the 1857
Supreme Court Dred Scott decision.
“In 1857 the revered Supreme Court
ruled that it was ‘unconstitutional for
any state’ to protect black people from
da very,” Bishop Kellenberg said.
“Fortunately, that decision was reversed
by constitutional amendment on the
part of God-fearing people. This present
decision can also be reversed by a
constitutional amendment and
God-fearing people are urged to work
and pray to accomplish this.”
The Pennsylvania Catholic
Conference said, “In betraying the lives
of innocent children, the court has
fallen prey to the decadent philosophy
that argues that individuals or states
have the right to decide who shall die
and who shall live. We condemn this
insidious philosophy, for it can only
lead to a total erosion of freedom and
justice.
“We are deeply saddened by the
court’s ruling this week. This decision
not ohly threatens the basic rights of
innocent persons in this country, but it
also sounds the death knell for hundreds
of thousands of innocent children.”
Development
Funds Ready
The Savannah diocese has received
application forms for funds from the
Campaign for Human Development
(CHD), the Chancery announced last
week. The forms, applying for funding
for anti-poverty programs from
interested organizations within the
eighty-eight counties comprising the
Diocese of Savannah are available from
Monsignor Daniel J. Bourke, Diocesan
Comptroller, at 225 Abercorn Street,
Savannah.
Only incorporated organizations with
an Internal Revenue Service
tax-exemtpion number are eligible to
receive funding from CHD.
In order to receive CHD funding, the
project of the organization applying
must benefit the poor and the poor
must have the dominant voice in
planning te project. CHD normally
considers proposals requesting grants or
loans of no less than $10,000 and no
more than $200,000.
Applications for funds for 1973 must
be submitted to CHD national
headquarters by March 31, 1973.
Pro Life Forces Gear
To Fight Court Edict
By Louis A. Panarale unborn person shall have the same rights
(NC News Service) 38 others to equal protection of the
law.”
“It’s business as usual. Only now we are going to try harder,” said the
black woman doctor who is the head of a right to life group in Boston.
Dr. Mildred Jefferson is the head of the Value of Life Committee. The
slim soft-spoken Dr. Jefferson is a Methodist. She said that both her
religious convictions and her medical code of ethics would not allow her
to concur with a recent Supreme Court decision on abortion.
“The Value of Life Committee is
dedicated to offering the public a means
for defending the reverence of human
life,” she said. “Its programs are aimed
to protect the unborn in situations
where their destruction may be sought.”
The court’s decision is in direct
contradiction to these aims, said Dr.
Jefferson.
The Supreme Court ruled that the
abortion laws of Texas and Georgia
violated a pregnant woman’s right to
privacy. The court thus barred any state
from interferring with the decision of a
woman and her doctor to end
pregnancies within the first three
months.
But more significantly, the court has
said that for the first six months, the
^only concern should be for safeguarding
the Tife and health of the pregnant
woman.
In other words, the safeguarding of
the woman’s health is solely her
business and her doctor’s for the first
three months. No state regulation may
prohibit that relationship, the court
says.
During the second half of the first
six-month period a state may “regulate
the abortion procedure in ways that are
related to maternal health.” This could
be done through licensed facilities.
It is only during approximately the
last three months of pregnancy that the
court takes into account the “potential
human life” of the fetus itself. The
court says that during this period of
“viability” the state may prohibit
abortions . But there is a stipulation
here. Even in this instance the court
may not prohibit abortion if the health
or life of the mother is judged to be in
danger.
“Viability,” according to medical
sources, is that period in which the fetus
begins to move and kick and in which it
can survive if bom.
he intends to introduce a bill to amend
the Constitution.
A spokesman from Hogan’s office
said that the amendment might read
something like this: “The right of the
unborn life shall not be abridged. An
At Bismark, N.D., right to life
members were said to be the first to
propose state bills as a result f the
Supreme Court’s decision,
“We are moving full blast in our
effort to enact legislation in the area of
positive alternatives to abortion,” said
Edward Becker, a member of the
legislative committee of the North
Dakota Right to Life Association.
The North Dakota group had only
hours to make the deadline for
submitting bills to the state legislature.
Faced with these court decisions,
several right to life and anti-abortion
groups swung into action immediately.
Generally, their attitude was to learn
how they cope with the decision and
investigate what other laws they could
propose.
Jay Bowman, chairman of the
Georgia Right to Life Committee, said
he feels “it is almost a certainty that
some sort of legislation will be
introduced.”
Bowman said he is looking for
legislation to “protect hospitals and
personnel from performing abortions if
they don’t want to during the first three
months of a woman’s pregnancy.” He
said such a law would determine what
type of facilities should be required for
abortion and what special knowledge, if
any, should be required of the
physician.
In Texas, Norman Philips of the
Texas Catholic Conference said that
local right to life groups had anticipated
the Supreme Court’s decision. Plans had
already been made to enlarge day care
and adoption services, he said.
TEARS OF JOY - Thirteen-year-old Debbie Christian wipes away tears
of joy as she listens with her family to the news of a Vietnam cease-fire
agreement in her Virginia Beach, Va., home. Debbie can’t remember her
father, Cmdr. Michael D. Christian, a Navy pilot who has been a prisoner
of war in North Vietnam for more than six years. They will be getting
reacquainted soon. (Religious News Service Photo)
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HEADLINE
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HOPSCOTCH
Tax Credit Bill
WASHINGTON (NC) -- The Nixon administration intends to submit legislation to
Congress to allow tax credits for tuition paid to nonpublic schools by parents with less
than $18,000 after-tax annual income, Acting U.S. Commissioner of Education John
R. Ottina announced. The proposed legislation will be similar to a bill sponsored by
Rep. James Burke (D-Mass.) that was approved by the House Ways and Means
Committee last fall. Burke’s bill has been introduced again and House Republican
leader Gerald Ford (R-Mich.) and Rep. Herman T. Schneebeli (R-Pa.) have introduced
a bill identical to it. The administration bill will allow parents tax credits of $200 a
year per child for tuition and fees in either public or nonpublic schools, Ottina said.
Aid to N. Vietnam
“We can no longer just say what we
are against,” said Philips. “Now we also
have to say what we are for. The court’s
decision has caused us to shift priorities
and throw educational and supportive
services into the forefront.”
The high court’s decision also
brought reaction from one U.S.
Congressman in Washington. Rep.
Lawrence J. Hogan (R-Maryland) says
NEW YORK (NC) - Catholic Relief Services (CRS) hopes to provide direct aid to
North Vietnam after the truce, accordg to Bishop Edward E. Swanstrom, executive
director of the U.S. Catholics’ overseas aid agency. “If the government of North
Vietnam permits, we will try to do what wfe can there,” said Bishop Swanstrom. He
also said that the CRS has sent a “task force” over to South Vietnam to see how the
relief agency could step up its program and restructure them in the wake of the
ceasefire. “We have to find out what the governments will be doing,” he said, “in order
to know how we can best coordinate our programs with theirs.” Bishop Swanstrom
and the CRS “has been laying out plans for some time” in anticipation of an eventual
truce. But, he added, the specifics of the plans will depend on how the post-war
situation develops.