Newspaper Page Text
4
PAGE 2—The Southern Cross, February 22,1973
Trials of a Woman Minister
SCIENCE FAIR JUDGES at St. James School, Savannah, look over entries from students
Saint James Holds Science Fair
Junior High
Bishop Seeks Strike Support
This amount, he said, “is not an
• • • WITH
LIBERTY
»•» JUSTICE .
By Fr. Wl LLIh M P. DOWLI HG
Abortion
1st, Elizabeth Filson; 2nd, Chris
Robertson; 2nd, Tina Demopoulos.
3rd, William Dunstan; 4th, Mark
Osbourne; 5th, John Hohnerlein.
JUDGES were;
Dr. Carl Brennan, M.D.; Rev.
Bertrand Dunegan, O.S.B., Benedictine
Military School; Dr. Edgar Filson, M.D.
Dr. Henry Highland, Entomologist;
Mrs. Connie McNeill, Head of Science
Department, Winsor Forest High
School.
Mrs. Mildred Mobley, Science Teacher,
Winsor Forest High School.
Mrs. Mary Peterson, Science Teacher,
Myers Jr. High School.
Mrs. Odessa Richards, Former
Science Teacher, St. James Catholic
School.
adequate living wage in our day for a
family in El Paso.”
The bishop cited Chamber of
Commerce statistics indicating that
petroleum workers earn an average of
$7500 yearly, metal workers earn
$7200 yearly, food processing
employees average $6100.
The Amalgamated Clothing Workers,
who are seeking a contract with Farah,
have contracts with three apparel
manufacturers in El Paso, two of which
are smaller companies than. Farah, the
bishop said. “Work for which workers at
Farah receive $69.00 per week take
home pay, union workers receive
$102.00 per week take home pay,
which sounds more like a living wage. If
these smaller plants can live with a
union contract and prosper, why is it
impossible for gigantic Farah to do the
same?”
By Matthew Hyland
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (NC) - If
Margit Sahlin were a man, no one would
be in the least surprised that she is a
vicar. She looks the part, with gentle
understanding manner, unflinching gaze
expecting honesty in others, and
pleasure at evidence of the wonderful in
little things (in her case, the “small
miracle” of grapes on the potted vine in
her Stockholm apartment.)
iBut even now, there are still thousands
of people in Sweden convinced that she
should have been allowed to pursue her
vocation. Others talk of her with awed
admiration, for she has paid, and still
pays, a high personal price for her
conviction that the Church must move
with the times.
The Lutheran Church in Sweden is an
established state Church, similar to the
St. James won the boys’ division of
Savannah’s Parochial League by winning
37-21, a playoff game which decided
the first place tie between St. James and
St. Mary’s. The tie was the result of an
upset when Nativity defeated 22 to 20
previously unbeaten St. Mary’s.
Blessed Sacrament girls won their
division handily and remained unbeaten
and untied with 6 wins and no losses.
Another tie in the boys’ division for
fifth place was decided by a drawing in
which Cathedral boys drew fifth place
and Nativity boys drew sixth place in
the tournament pairings.
The standings at the end of the
St. James
Anglican Church in England, and has
many similarities to Catholicism.
She says of her ordination: “It is a
very Catholic ceremony, with laying on
of hands, and all the symbolism of a
male Trinity.”
As vicar of St. Engelbrecht’s, a
high-class and conservative parish in
Stockholm, she has four clergymen
under her. She is one of a very small
group of women vicars, though since her
ordination in 1960, there are now 80
women pastors in Sweden.
The two sentences I hear all the time
are, ‘It’s never been done before,’ and
‘We’ve always done things like that,’ ”
she says, but she appears not to waver in
her conviction that her somewhat
revolutionary measures are right, though
unpopular among some of the faithful.
regular season including the
game are:
playoff
BOYS
WON
LOST
St. James
6
1
St. Mary
5
2
Sacred Heart
4
2
Blessed Sacrament
3
3
Cathedral
2
4
Nativity
2
4
St. Michael
0
5
GIRLS
WON
LOST
Blessed Sacrament
6
0
St. James
5
1
Sacred Heart
4
2
Nativity
3
3
St. Mary
2
4
Cathedral
1
5
St. Michael
0
6
Parochial School League Tournament
Boys Division
She lives in the church precinct, in a
large, light apartment connected by
elevator to the parish administrative
offices below. Her secretary left another
job to work for Vicar Sahlin because she
admired her.
Most of the time the vicar is
accompanied by an elderly poodle, “the
second dog in my life.” She wears a
black, roll-neck blouse under her tweed
suit, and it’s a while before you realize
that this is her clerical collar.
“I wear this every day, and then, for
services, the white surplice worn by
every male clergyman.” She is a little
puzzled, perhaps, by outside interest in
the peculiarity of her being a woman in
this job for any except theological
reasons.
“In my first year as vicar here, two of
my colleagues felt they could not go to
the altar with me. One has left, and the
other has changed his mind. This does
not hurt me personally, but what is
hurtful is that they cannot accept a
woman. They cannot accept a woman in
a position of being a representative of
God the Father, or God the Son.”
She explained some of the difficulties
of getting women ordained in a country
where by law women could hold the
same offices as men, “except in the
military or as clergy.” Any change
would involve a reversal of state, as well
as Church laws.
In 1957, the suggestion in a synod
that women should be allowed to be
ordained ministers was thrown out, but
in the following year the minister of
church affairs convoked another synod
and one that voted in favor. In
parliament, the hindrance had finally
been removed; and it remained then
only to find a member of the Lutheran
Church hierarchy who would ordain
women.
In 1960 Margit Sahlin applied to the
Lutheran archbishop of Stockholm,
who had expressed himself sympathetic.
In spite of furious opposition from
others, such as the Lutheran bishop of
Goteborg, who published a 17-point
program including edicts that no true
believer would go to a church served by
a woman, and no organist should play at
a service conducted by a woman, she
was ordained on Palm Sunday 1960.
“They called it the burial day of the
Church,” she says simply.
“I felt no personal sense of victory. I
had never felt a personal need to preach.
I felt glad that the Church had taken a
step which I felt would take us forward,
not leave us imprisoned in old bonds.”
She was working in the Church for
many years before her ordination, as
leader of a conference Center. She had
all the theological training necessary to
become a priest, and was a doctor of
philosophy as well. She remained as
secretary to the Central Board of
Church Work, and explains: “After the
ordination nothing changed in my life
except that I Could give the
Sacraments.”
Then the position of vicar of St.
Engelbrecht’s became vacant. She had
lived in the parish and felt close to it
because of its several male clergymen -
and the minister of church affairs
waited four months before deciding
finally that Margit Sahlin should be
appointed.
Since then, she has weathered
persistent criticism from parishioners
about her work. “It’s a conservative
parish, and I try to make innovations.
I’ve been holding debates in the Church
between various shades of opinion - for
instance, a Catholic priest, a well-known
atheist, and myself. They don’t like it.
Hundreds of people come to the church,
but they say they come from outside
the parish.
The Science Fair held at Saint James
School Jan. 21 was an opportunity for
pupils to display their knowledge and
skill in various aspects of science. They
have taken information from home and
school, combined this with their own
interests, applied the scientific method
and made their displays. The projects
were evaluated by a panel of judges.
To eliminate the possibility of
personal knowledge of the children, the
projects were given numbers only. The
judges took into consideration such
factors as the general ages of the
children in a division and could
determine to a fair extent if adult help
was given.
Winners were determined by the total
number of points. Maximum points
possible were:
1. Scientific thought and approach,
30 points; 2. Originality of concept and
ingenuity, 30 points.
WASHINGTON (NC) - The bishop of
El Paso, Texas, has appealed to the
Catholic bishops of the United States to
support factory workers striking against
the Farah Manufacturing Co. in that
city.
In a letter to the bishops that was run
as an advertisement in The Washington
Post, The New York Times and other
major metropolitan area newspapers,
Bishop Sydney M. Metzger of El Paso
said that he thinks the workers’ case is
strong enough to warrant
recommending that bishops make
formal requests to retail outlets to
not reorder merchandise from Farah.
Sponsors for the ad, which was paid
for by the Amalgamated Clothing
Workers of America, included Msgr.
George C. Higgins, secretary for research
of the U.S. Catholic Conference
(USCC); John Cosgrove, director of the
USCC’s division for urban affairs;
AFL-CIO President George Meany; and
Sen. Joseph Montoya (D-N.M.).
“The strike has assumed national
importance and is supported by persons
of national prominence,” Bishop
Metzger said. “Our own ‘little people’ in
El Paso would be crushed if it were not
for this national support.”
The Farah Manufacturing Co.
operates nine clothing plants in Texas
and New Mexico. About 3,000 workers,
most of them Mexican-Americans, have
been on strike since last May 9. The
workers charge the firm with trying to
prevent the unionization of its
employees. An El Paso spokesman for
the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of
America said the strike was due to the
firing of about 250 workers in 1969.
In his appeal to the bishops, Bishop
Metzger said: “I feel that the company
is acting unjustly in denying to the
workers the basic right to collective
bargaining. We know that these matters
are decided by means of federally
sponsored representional elections and
the Farah Company uses all possible
means to block such elections in their
plants. Let the workers decide if they
want a union or not.”
Bishop Metzger said that “flagrant
defects in the Farah plants” include:
-The absence of job security: “The
Company can fire anyone anytime and
the worker has no appeal;”
-No negotiated production standards;
-Lack of negotiated wage increases
according to a definite schedule;
3. Thoroughness, 15 points; 4.
Technical skill and workmanship, 15
points; 5. Dramatic value, 10 points.
Winners were as follows:
Primary Grades
1st, Kim Wodkowshi; 1st, Eileen
Strain.
2nd, Rachel Provence; 2nd Hank
Halter; 2nd, Margaret White.
3rd, Thomas Johnson; 3rd, Michael
Orzada.
4th, Melissa Buckheit.
5th, Patricia Podres.
Intermediate Grades
1st, Jeanine Strenski; 2nd, Brett
Rembler; 3rd, James Orzada; 4 th,
Maureen Ryan.
-Inadequate maternity benefits;
-Requiring workers who take
maternity leave to begin at the bottom
of the pay scale when they return;
-The need for negotiated leaves for
sickness.
Workers have complained about
company production quotas that are
impossible to meet, the biship said.
“Workers have said that they are treated
as production machines and not as
human beings.”
The bishop said that “the great
majority of Farah workers receive
$69.00 per week (take home pay) which
for 52 weeks amounts to $3588.00.”
Life is a precious gift from God and
this is a clear teaching of the church.
Abortion takes life. The supreme court
in its recent decision seems to have
decided that either a fetus is not a
person with rights, or if it is a person it
does not have rights because it has no
power to effectively claim any rights
and certainly, if it has any rights at all,
they would be less important than the
right of the mother’s privacy. According
to this way of thinking the fetus has
little or no rights of its own and we have
no obligations towards it.
Thus we see how easy it is to deny a
person his rights if he is unable to
defend himself.
The supreme court has resolved the
matter wrongly because it is following
an unchristian and immoral principle -
namely that MIGHT MAKES RIGHT.
However, we cannot lay all the blame
on the supreme court, since most of the
human race also follows this principle
devoutedly. Even in our twentieth
century most of us have been brought
up to live by it. It is the first cousin to
original sin.
Almost all injustices masquerade
under the sheep’s clothing of MIGHT
MAKES RIGHT. Abortion is but one
application.
Even our social systems are infected.
Since power seems to accumulate with
the powerful, the principle is reinforced
each time it is used, and it pervades all
our economic, educational and
governmental systems. As long as our
people hold that MIGHT MAKES
RIGHT our systems will continue to
unjustly discriminate against the
powerless.
The fight against abortion will not be
won until the problem is seen as a part
of the larger problem, namely, the wide
aceptance that MIGHT MAKES RIGHT.
The fight against abortion will not be
won until it is linked to the fight against
poverty and other forms of
powerlessness.
The fight against all forms of injustice
will be won when the true sources of
rights are discovered and the rights of
everyone are acknowledged. Rights are
founded, not in might alone; but in the
dignity God has given every person, and
in the needs that every person
experiences, as well as in his good deeds.
1 1
Everything for the
Sick Room
Philip Botastini
Tailors -- Cleaners
1 Johnnie Ganem |
Hospital Beds - Wheel Chairs
- Invalid, Walkers - Patient
407 - 12th St.FA2-5900
Columbus
1 Steak Ranch i
L/ifters* Miiiy other Sickroom
needs.
i CHARCOAL BROILED *
STEAKS I
f PRIME STEAKS I
i DINNERS - LUNCHEON J
COCKTAILS |
| DINNER MUSIC |
Prescriptions called For
and Delivered
Wachtel’s
2364271
Physician Supply Co.
Paul H. Ewaldsen
402 BULL STREET
Professional Optical
Service
Eugene Moore - Bill Phelps
Opticians
236-5210 125 East Hall
| Gaston and Habersham
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with quality photography.
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Parochial Basketball
1st Place
February 23,24,25,1973
Benedictine Gym
4 PM Saturday
Blessed Sacrament
4th Place
9 PM Friday
5th Place
Cathedral
St. Mary
4 PM Sunday
2nd Place
5 PM Friday
7th Place .
St. Michael
2 PM Saturday
Sacred Heart
3rd Place
7 PM Friday
6th Place
2 PM Sunday
Nativity
Blessed Sacrament Parochial School League Tournament
Girls Division
February 23,24,25,1973
Benedictine Gym
1st Place
3 PM Saturday
Nativity
4th Place
6 PM Friday
5th Place
St. Mary
3 PM Sunday
St. James
2nd Place
7th Place
St. Michael
Sacred Heart
1 PM Saturday
3rd Place ^
8 PM Friday
6th Place ^
1 PM Sunday
Cathedral