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WON’T RECONSIDER RULING
High Court Deals More Blows
To Anti-Abortion Petitions
WASHINGTON (NC) - The Supreme
Court, in keeping with its controversial
January 22 abortion decision, has come
down hard on separate court appeals
which were casting doubt on the high
court’s decision.
In further upholding its earlier
decision the Supreme Court has:
-Dismissed “for want of a substantial
federal question” an appeal by Fordham
University law professor Robert M.
Bym who was challenging New York’s
liberalized abortion law.
-Told a lower court to re-examine its
decision on a 1972 Connecticut law that
prohibits abortion except when
necessary to save the life of the
expectant mother.
-Refused to reconsider its Jan. 22
abortion ruling in cases dealing with
laws in Texas and Georgia, and returned
abortion cases to lower courts in other
states.
These decisions brought immediate
response from Msgr. James McHugh,
director of the family life division of the
United States Catholic Conference.
Msgr. McHugh called the court’s
decision “a further display of its
obstinate refusal to recognize the
existence of human life during the first
six or seven months of pregnancy.”
“The court’s action can be expected
to encourage a lifestyle of abortion on
request throughout the country,” the
priest said.
“By refusing to consider the rights of
the unborn child in the New York case,
the court has reaffirmed its opinion that
the child is not entitled to any legal
protection prior to birth. There is no
scientific evidence to support such a
judgment. In fact, the sciences of
genetics and fetology document the
continuity of human development from
conception on.”
Bym, who legally had been named
guardian of unborn fetuses, had sought
to prove in court that the fetus had an
inalienable right to life.
Bym had appealed to the Supreme
Court after a federal appeals court in
Albany, N.Y., last July ruled that the
New York Constitution does not
determine whether the unborn have
legal rights.
In the Connecticut case, the Supreme
Court has told the Federal District
Court at Hartford, Conn., to re-examine
its 1972 decision in light of the
Supreme Court’s Jan. 22 decision.
Last September, the federal court at
Hartford had declared unconstitutional
Connecticut’s four-month-old law
permitting abortions only when the
“physical” life of the mother is
endangered. But the decision was stayed
pending a Supreme Court decision.
At that time the Connecticut state
attorney’s office had noted that the
Supreme Court was to hear new
arguments in Georgia and Texas which
were expected to have a bearing on the
Connecticut law.
The Supreme Court struck down the
Texas and Georgia laws. It ruled further
that no state could interfere with the
decision between a woman and her
physician to terminate a pregnancy
within the first six months.
The Supreme Court has now refused
to reconsider its Jan. 22 rulings dealing
with the Texas and Georgia laws and
directed lower federal courts to decide
on cases in other states including
Connecticut.
The other states are Missouri, Illinois,
North Carolina, Utah, Kentucky, South
Dakota, and Ohio.
The Supreme Court has thus cleared
its docket of a backlog of abortion cases
which had been held back pending
Georgia and Texas rulings.
Black Catholics
Raise $187,000
WASHINGTON (NC) - The National
Office for Black Catholics (NOCB) has
obtained $187,796.09 from its first
fund-raising program called “Black
Catholics Concerned.”
However, the independent
3,000-member organization with
headquarters here had hoped to raise
$250,000 in the drive conducted last
Oct. 8 in over 600 parishes across the
country.
“For the first effort of this kind, we
were very pleased by the results,” said
Marianist Brother Joseph M. Davis,
NOCB executive director. “In no way
were we disappointed by them.”
Brother Davis said it was “a
combination of any number of reasons”
that led to the drive raising about
$62,000 less than it had hoped.
However, he said some reasons might be
“organization on the local “level” and
“the extent to which people were aware
of the effort and its purposes.”
Brother Davis said the funds garnered
by the drive would be used to recruit
blacks to Religious life; develop black
lay leadership; finance continuing
education programs for black Religious;
foster forms of worship including
elements of the black heritage; offer
training programs for non-blacks
working in black areas; and establish a
training center for black priests.
Pro-Life Committee
Suggests Full Discussion
At Regional Meetings
WASHINGTON (NC) - The Committee on Pro-Life Affairs of the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops has recommended that the U.S. bishops have a
thorough discussion of the U.S. Supreme Court abortion ruling at their regional
meetings in April.
The panel also suggested that the bishops encourage priests’ senates, councils
of Religious and pastoral councils to establish educational programs designed to
analyze the court’s Jan. 22 decision.
In addition, the panel recommended that the U.S. Catholic Conference
Education and Health Affairs Committees study and make recommendations
about the ruling as it pertains to their offices.
The Pro-Life Affairs Committee’s recommendations were disclosed by
Cardinal John Cody of Chicago, committee chairman, at a news conference at
which the U.S. bishops’ administrative affairs committee issued a pastoral
message rejecting the abortion ruling as “erroneous, unjust and immoral.”
The cardinal told the news conference that the court, in its abortion decision,
“had overstepped itself, making law and not only interpreting it.”
He said a constitutional amendment to reverse the ruling is only one
possibility of those now being studied “by our attorneys.”
Finally, he said Catholics “have a moral obligation to protest” the use of
public funds for abortion, but stressed he was not advocating the withholding of
tax money by Catholics angered by such usage of money.
The pro-life affairs committee has eight members. Besides Cardinal Cody, they
are Bishop George W. Ahr of Trenton, N.J.; Auxiliary Bishop Juan A. Arzube of
Los Angeles; Bishop Walter W. Curtis of Bridgeport, Conn.; Auxiliary Bishop
Francis J. Dunn of Dubuque, Iowa; Auxiliary Bishop Timothy J. Harrington of
Worcester, Mass.; Bishop Andrew McDonald of Little Rock, Ark.; and Auxiliary
Bishop Harold R. Perry of New Orleans.
Bishop of Little Rock
Wants 100 New Priests
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (NC) — Bishop Andrew J. McDonald of Little Rock has called
for “100 newly-ordained priests over the next 10 years” in setting his first major goal
for the diocese since becoming bishop last September.
While the diocese now has only 96 diocesan and 68 Religious priests, Bishop
McDonald said that his goal “is not unrealistic.”
“To get the generous response of youth,” he said in a circular letter to priests,
Religious and laity, “Here’s what’s needed:
“1-Young men must be young men of daily prayer; 2-Young men must
sacrifice-practice self-denials; 3-Young men who wish to face the exciting and real
issues of life should leave themselves open to the call of Christ.”
Bishop McDonald asked his people to revere and help priests, be slow to criticize
priests, always have with kind words about priests, anduse a newly produced vocation
visual aid program wisely.
CARDINAL-DESIGNATE IN ACTION
Archbishop Timothy Manning of Los Angeles heard of
his elevation to the College of Cardinals in Tokyo on
his way to the Eucharistic Congress in Melbourne,
Australia. He stopped at Hong Kong and Taiwan on his
way home where he was greeted by retired Cardinal
James Francis McIntyre (right photo). In Hong Kong,
the cardinal-designate visits Block 7 in a Kowloon
resettlement area with Maryknoll Father John Moore
(foreground). (NC Photos)
PAGE 3-March 1,1973
MASS OPENS CONGRESS -- St. Patrick’s Cathedral in
Melbourne is packed with more than 3,000 persons
attending the Mass opening the 40th International
Eucharistic Congress. Cardinal Lawrence Shehan of
Baltimore (right photo) presided at the liturgy and
preached the homily. (NC Photos)
Population Growth Pessimism
Decried at Eucharistic Congress
MELBOURNE (NC) - A U.S.
Catholic sociologist and one of
Australia’s leading Catholic actionists
decried the “pessimism” of libertarian
movements at a “population and
ecology” conference held as part of the
40th International Eucharistic Congress
here.
Dr. Sylvester P. Theisen, professor of
sociology at St. John’s University,
Collegeville, Minn, and Mr. B.A.
Santamaria of Melbourne agreed that it
is “a conflict of philosophies” rather
than food shortages or pollution which
is inspiring advocates of zero population
growth through birth control and
abortion.
Theisen said that “during the last few
years, prophets of doom have warned us
that famine will be the grisly end of
over-population.”
“Those of us who claim that if
human beings work with diligence and
imagination, they can produce abundant
food for all people, are ridiculed as
living in a world of fantasy and
escapism. However it is the optimists in
this matter who are the realists, and it is
the pessimists who are the escapists
retreating into a world of fantasies,”
Theisen said.
Santamaria contended there are three
philosophies contending for “mastery of
the world”:
-Libertarian: Its method is to control
the climate of public opinion, mainly
through its influence in the education
system and the media in most western
communities, and thus to create an
CARDINAL-ELECT
atmosphere on issues like population
control, abortion, homosexuality,
pornography and censorship which few
political parties will find it impossible to
confront.
-Totalitarian: For it, mastery
involves the use of the physical,
military, political methods in order to
control the state through the coercive
power of government to impose a
radically changed set of guiding beliefs
on the people.
-Christian or religious in general:
Whose method is internal change in the
hearts of men, and external change
through the presence of committed
Christians in all the institutions of
society.
The libertarian challenge, Santamaria
said, is aimed at the religious world
view, even if the real doctrinaires are
only the tiny minorities in the humanist
groups.
“Its doctrines hang together
cohesively,” he said. “The supreme
purpose of human activity is to
maintain the ecological balance as they
interpret it. Against that interpretation
the human being has no essential rights.
What follows is an inversion of
normality . .. .”
Santamaria said that the libertarian
philosophy justifies government
intervention against parental rights in
relation to size of families. “The fetus
has no rights against the person
determined to dispose of it. Birth
control, pornography and
homosexuality all become normal under
such a philosophy.”
“From the basic viewpoint of
religious morality,” he continued,
“there is no simple way in which the
Christian or religious forces can
compromise with this world view. It is
one or the other ....
“When we Christians conflict with
the libertarians, the devotees of
abortion, homosexuality and the rest, we
are not engaged, as they say, in ‘moral
fundamentalism.’ We are trying to build
a basically human society. With us there
are men and women who do not in any
way share our religious or moral
assumptions but who know that there is
no other way of ‘engineering’ a human
social order.”
Theisen said that the “notion that the
solution to the environmental
deterioration is to get rid of people is
similar to the notion that you ought to
save a leaking ship by forcing people to
jump overboard. One must ask whether
something could be done to fix the
ship.”
“We find it difficult,” he said, “to
overcome the inertia which prevents us
from creating a better world. The
industrialized nations of the world
ought to do more to share their
know-how and their wealth with the
countries just beginning the processes of
modernization. Catholics ought to be
among the leaders in finding
constructive ways to deal with the
problems associated with population
and ecology. The possibilities are great.
The need is for men and women to
develop a creative vision of a more
humanized world society and then to
work at fulfilling this vision.”
Archbishop Manning Sees
Vigorous, Vibrant Church
BY AL ANTCZAK
LOS ANGELES (NC) - Cardinal-elect
Timothy Manning of Los Angeles told a
press conference that he “would rather
be a priest today than at any time in the
past 39 years” because the Church is
promising, vigorous and vibrant.
The press conference took place in
the Los Angeles archdiocesan chancery
building across the street from
Immaculate Conception Church where
as a newly ordained priest in 1934 the
cardinal-elect was sent on his first
assignment.
Cardinal-elect Manning had just
returned from Hong Kong, leaving
Auxiliary Bishop William R. Johnson of
Los Angeles to continue to New Guinea
to visit eight archdiocesan lay mission
helpers.
At his first press conference since
being named a cardinal the archbishop
fielded questions about a wide range of
subjects, from amnesty, abortion and
marriage, to aid to education and
Church unrest.
Cardinal-elect Manning said that the
Church here is facing three great
challenges: the defense of life, the war
on pornography and the giving of whole
witness to truth and the Gospels under
all circumstances.
On abortion he said: “I see no
difference between reaching into an
incubator, or into a woman’s womb,
also an incubator of life, and
dismembering the child there. The state
has no right to do this.”
Opposition to pornography, the
cardinal-elect said, “is very important
for the salvation of our culture. It is not
only a question of morality; our whole
Western culture is at stake.”
A woman reporter asked the
cardinal-elect to comment on allegations
that marriage is becoming an obsolete
institution.
“Marriage is to society what a cell is
to the body. If a single cell becomes
malignant, the whole health of the body
is damaged.” he said.
“All of society depends on marriage.
The essence of marriage is unity.
Anything that destroys unity strikes at
the heart of society.”
Cardinal-elect Manning said he was
optimistic about the future.
“I’m very, very hopeful and I rest my
hopes on our young people. They’re a
superb generation. I meet them
constantly in visits to our high schools
week after week.
“I see an idealism among them, a
reaching out for good things. They need
a listening ear.
“I believe they are building up an
immunity to many things that are
attacking our culture.”
The cardinal-elect will delay his
departure for Rome to enable him to
celebrate Mass in Anaheim Convention
Center March 1, youth day of the
Confraternity of Christian Doctrine
Congress that weekend.
Questioned various times about his
views on amnesty for those who avoided
military service in Vietnam, the
cardinal-elect said he would be unwise
to answer a question that he had not
studied.
A reporter asked about the economic
condition of parochial schools and
about expectations of tax aid.
Cardinal-elect Manning said that he
had just come back from Hong Kong
where land is scarce and expensive and
where, nonetheless, the government
buys land, builds schools and sustains
them for various religious bodies
because it places value on the education
they convey.
Hong Kong provides an object lesson,
he said, to those in this country who
claim that even token help to parents of
religious school children constitutes a
breach of separation of Church and
state.
Reporters asked Cardinal-elect
Manning to comment on the tensions of
the 1960s and bluntly asked him
whether Cardinal James Francis
McIntyre, retired archbishop of Los
Angeles, was not “a brick and mortar
man.”
“I inherited a great archdiocese from
Cardinal McIntyre. The brick and
mortar were necessary in the great
unflux of population into this area, but
his prime concern was the welfare of his
people. He did a superhuman job in the
apostolate,” Cardinal-elect Manning
said.
The tension and turmoil of the
1960s, he continued, have largely been
resolved by the passage of time and the
action of the Church. The turmoil in the
Church that came after the Second
Vatican Council has given way to a
greater tranquility. “Many issues are
resolved. We know where we are going.”
The cardinal-elect said the Church
had a new vigor and vibrancy. She is
once again a bride, radiantly adorned,
giving promise of continued life.”