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SERVING 88 SOUTH GEORGIA COUNTIES
The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 54 No. 7
Thursday, February 15,1973
Single Copy Price — 12 Cents
SALUTE FROM A POW -- Supporting himself on
his crutches, returning POW Navy Cmdr. Ray D.
Vohden of Memphis, Tenn., salutes Adm. Noel Gaylor,
commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, as the
released prisoner steps off the plane which brought
him from Hanoi Monday. Cmdr. Vohden’s home town
is listed as Springfield, Mo. He was among the first of a
group of 116 men released under terms of the Vietnam
cease-fire agreement. They arrived at Clark Air Base in
the Philippines. (NC Photo)
Soviets Bar Religious Leaders
WASHINGTON (NC) - A group of
10 U.S. religious leaders including two
priests and two nuns, has been barred
from entering the Soviet Union to
investigate the plight of Soviet Jews,
said Rep. Robert F. Drinan (D-Mass.),a
Jesuit priest and chairman of the group.
At a press conference here Father
Drinan called the Soviet action “an
affront to the dedicated members of
this group.”
He charged that the denial of travel
rights to the group “can only mean that
the Russian government does not want
to allow American observers to discover
the way in which the USSR treats the
three million Jews who reside in that
nation.”
“We have been unable to discover any
other case within recent memory in
which the Russian government has
denied a visa to any American individual
or group traveling to Russia,” Father
Drinan said.
Other members of the group besides
Father Drinan were:
-Father Edward Flannery, executive
secretary of the Secretariat for
Catholic-Jewish Relations, National
Conference of Catholic Bishops.
-Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum, national
director of interreligious affairs for the
American Jewish Committee.
-Mother Margaret Brennan, president
46
Sound and Sense
99
What do singers like Neil Diamond, The Carpenters, Three Dog Night, and
Carol King have in common? Well, they sing the songs that touch the emotions,
and reach the minds of audiences across the country. Their songs talk about the
needs of people today, needs which eventually relate to God.
And all of them, plus others, are on Father John Geaney’s SOUND AND
SENSE radio program. SOUND AND SENSE is a religious program, but geared
towards today’s radio formats and sophisticated audiences.
Through it, Father Geaney seizes today’s music about people, and deals with
the problems they point out, easily, but incisively.
SOUND AND SENSE is produced by the Paulist Communications Services for
the Diocese of Savannah and is heard weekly on: WODE AM - Albany, Sunday
at 7:30 a.m.
of the Leadership Conference of Women
Religious.
-Sister Margaret Ellen Traxler,
executive director of the National
Council Conference for Interracial
Justice.
-Dr. Ursula Niebuhr, widow of the
noted Protestant theologian Reinhold
Niebuhr.
-Dr. Arnold T. Olson, president of
the Evangelical Free Church of America.
-Dr. Milton Curry, president of
Bishop College, Dallas.
-Gerald Strober, consultant on
interreligious affairs for the American
Jewish Committee.
-Dr. Thomas Bird, professor of
Russian at Queens College, New York.
The group had planned to visit the
Soviet Union from Feb. 11 to Feb. 19.
Originally, they said, Intourist, Russia’s
official travel agency, had confirmed
hotel reservations for them.
But on Feb. 2 Intourist cabled again
saying, “Disregard our confirmation,
regret unable accept.” Advance hotel
reservations are required for travel visas
in the Soviet Union.
The group cabled Soviet Party
Chairman Leonid Brezhnev asking him
to intercede and reverse the decision.
“This arbitrary action will have a
decided negative effect on mutual
understanding between our nations and
people,” the group said.
Holy See Establishing
Grievance Procedures
By Father Leo E. McFadden
ROME (NC) - For the first time in its
history, the Church will have within the
next year an independent court system
to judge impartially grievances against
administrative rulings rendered by
Church authorities.
Now being hammered out by an
international group of legal experts in
the Vatican, the new grievance
procedures will be offered to the
Universal Church by Pope Paul VI
“within the coming year,” according to
a Church source.
“Ninety percent of the decisions in
the Church are administrative, such as
moving personnel or closing a school,”
the source said. “The remaining 10
percent are juridical, such as those
involving marriage or the disposition of
property.
“Until now, any grievance against an
administrative decision had to go up the
army chain of command to the boss or
the man who made the decision.
“Church authorities wanted to be
fair, but there is always the human
element there.
“Although the chain of command
remains, the aggrieved person will be
able to appeal to an independent court
system which will have the authority to
annul, uphold or amend the decision.”
The source said also that the
grievance procedures will guarantee a
speedy hearing, hold authorities
accountable for their decisions and help
those in authority exercise a leadership
of service, as opposed to domination.
Still another feature of the new
procedures, the source said, is that they
will prescribe “preventive medicine” by
suggesting to authorities that they
prudently consider all the effects before
enacting new legislation.
In the opinion of one Church legal
expert in Rome, the proposed
procedures “cut to the heart of Canon
2222 of the present Code of Canon Law
which allows Church authorities to
penalize their subjects without warning
or giving reasons.”
Such a law cannot possibly remain in
the code now being revised if the
procedures are promulgated as they now
stand, the expert said.
Because the procedures were never in
the code, they are not part of the
revision. Still, the new grievance
procedures and the revision of the
Canon law code have common
backgrounds.
Both are the results of discussions on
the rights of individuals by the Second
Vatican Council and the first Synod of
Bishops, in 1967. Both are being led
into existence by Cardinal Pericle Felici,
who heads the Pontifical Commission
on the Revision of Canon Law, and a
group of legal experts. And both are
benefiting from the critique of bishops
around the world and from the Roman
Curia, the Church’s central
administrative offices.
The new grievances procedures will
INSIDE STORY
Ancestor Rites
Editorial
Pg. 2
Pg. 4
Movies, T.V.
"Cactus Sam”
Pg.6
be a result of the very best in the
Germanic, Anglo-Saxon and Roman
traditions, said one observer.
Many people do not believe that
anything good comes out of Rome,” he
added. “Admittedly it took a long time,
but Rome is trying to provide a bill of
rights for its adherents.”
DESIGN FOR THE LENTEN PROGRAM, “The Church -- a place to
grow,” represents growth and development of faith. The bare branch puts
on new leaves, bears buds and bursts into full flower. The designs, by Ken
McKinnell, appear on posters as well as on the leaflets and handbook
covers of the Program.
Lenten Program in Demand
BY GIL BROWN
“THE CHURCH - A PLACE TO
GROW” - the new Lenten Program
prepared by the Savannah Diocesan
Department of Christian Formation -
has already gone into its second
printing, due to the number of requests
for the program received from parishes
and religious education offices outside
the Diocese.
The program, which this year involves
a study of the Church and its meaning
today in the life of American Catholics,
will be used in parishes throughout the
diocese, and is already being introduced
to priests, sisters, and teachers at
Deanery meetings sponsored by the
DCF.
The dominant theme of the program
is growth. While many have thought of
the Christian life as something static and
unchanging, human beings are called to
grow and mature in faith just as they
grow and develop in other areas of
human life. Posters, showing different
stages of the growth of a branch, from
the bare limb to full blossom, will be
used in churches and schools to
introduce the program, which will
involve the total parish, home, school,
CCD and adult learning.
Requests for sample copies of the
program have been received from areas
all over the nation, and a number of
parishes outside the diocese are using it
for all their members during Lent. More
than 250 sample copies are being used
outside the Diocese - a total which
already exceeds the number that will be
used within the Diocese during the
Lenten period.
HEADLINE
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HOPSCOTCH
"Unwanted” Babies
MILWAUKEE, Wis. (NC) — Fifty women from theMilwaukee archdiocese
volunteered to give homes to “unwanted” babies who would otherwise die in
abortions. The women came forward after Mrs. Eunice Kennedy Shriver, wife of the
former Democratic vice presidential nominee, appealed last year for millions of homes
for children who might be aborted.
Embargo End Asked
DALLAS, Tex. (NC) -A conference of the Catholic Inter-American Cooperation
Program has asked the U.S. and Latin American governments to end their embargo on
Cuba.