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PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, March 15,1973
The Southern Cross
Business Office 225 Abercorn St. Savannah, Ga. 31401
rtev. Francis J. Donohue, Editor
John E. Markwalter, Managing Editor
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Abortion Alternatives
Sure and begorrah, we could use the Ole Snake Charmer today in Ireland!
Get Me to the School
on Time
Mary Carson
Unrestricted abortion is not
inevitable.
That was the theme of last week’s
annual meeting of pro-life groups in the
Delaware Valley.
Among the practical suggestions
offered for preventing the United States
from becoming a veritable fetal
slaughterhouse were:
(1) Write to federal Congressmen and
Senators, asking them to support a
constitutional amendment guaranteeing
the right to life from conception through
death.
(2) Ask state legislators to
memorialize the federal Congress to
approve either a right-to-life amendment
to the Constitution or an amendment
which would permit states to regulate
abortion. (Frankly, we hope that citizens
and states choose to support a national
right-to-life amendment, since the lives
of the unborn infants of every state are
equally precious.)
3) Be informed and continue to
inform others about the fact that unborn
infants are, in fact, human beings and
that the deliberate destruction of such
human beings is tantamount to murder.
4) Encourage lawmakers to support
alternatives to abortion — hospitals for
unwed mothers, supportive counseling,
dignified procedures for adoption of
“unwanted” infants, insurance coverage
If American liberalism wishes to regain its
status as a movement for all the people of the
United States instead of remaining a doctrinaire
faction seeking power so they might punish a
guilty nation, there are three problems to which
it ought to address itself with its creative
intelligence, which is ultimately its decisive
asset over conservatism.
1. The question of making bureaucracies
responsible and responsive. Government
bureaucracies seem to think that the people
exist to serve the government instead of the
opposite. Government bureaucrats are no worse
and no better than the rest of us; the problem is
not with the humans involved but with a
narrow, rigid, and inflexible system which
rewards those who are indifferent to the human
dimension and punishes those who think for
themselves. The big advantage in dealing with a
precinct captain was that you had something he
and his organization wanted -- your vote. Most of
us have nothing that a government bureaucracy
wants, and there is no need for the bureaucrats
to treat us with respect and helpfulness. Some
do and some don’t, but those that do are hardly
likely to be rewarded for their efforts.
Nor are private bureaucracies any better, as
anyone who has had to deal with the big auto
companies well knows. If you are offended by
Ford, take your business to GM. Ford doesn’t
care, because it figures it will pick up someone
who has been offended by GM. Better to spend
money on advertising than on helping
customers. (I recently lost the keys to my car
and discovered that the dealer from whom I
bought it had lost the records. Until I found the
equivalent to a precinct captain, it looked like my
car was to be forever locked and inaccessible.
Or as one helpful service manager told me,
“You might as well tow your car into the lake.”
Out of gratitude to the prototypical precinct
captain, I won’t say whether it was Ford or
GM. It doesn’t much matter. As far as
responsiveness goes, there are no more in
competition than they are in price. Nor for that
matter is any large corporate
institution-including, be it noted, the Roman
Church.)
There are no simple solutions to the problem
of bureaucracy out of control, but what else do
we have liberals for if they are not busy trying
to think up solutions? Let us hope that what is
forthcoming will be more practical than a
suggestion that we all decamp to communes.
2. Crime. The liberals have given this one
away to the conservatives. Nat Hentoff, that
self-caricature of a liberal, recently told us in
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE how
delighted he was that his children, who had
4
for unwed mothers (who can sometimes
get health insurance payments for
abortions but not for deliveries), special
insurance coverage for the extended care
of prematurely born infants.
5) Support the passage of “conscience
clauses” which will prohibit hospitals,
physicians or nurses from being forced
to participate in abortions.
6) Try to insure that state laws
regulating abortion are as restrictive as
the recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions
will allow (e.g., abortions only by
doctors in licensed facilities, no
experimentation on aborted fetuses, no
denial of welfare benefits to those
refusing abortion).
Thus, the recent decision of the U.S.
Supreme Court to strike down state laws
prohibiting abortion represents not a
defeat of dedicated pro-life forces but a
challenge to their complacency. If this
nation’s highest court reflects the
current state of the nation’s conscience,
then that conscience must be better
informed. (At least, the conscience of
the Court must be better informed.) A
concerted effort to form the widespread
conscientious conviction that abortion is
indeed the direct destruction of innocent
human life is a task which needs to be
done and is a task which will provide the
foundation to secure guarantees of the
right to life.
(The Catholic Standard
and Times - Phila.)
been mugged several times, were not turning
into bigots. This is nice for him (and the
children), but another possible alternative
would be to stop the mugging. I daresay that
the blacks in New York City (or any other
major city), who are the most frequent victims
of mugging, are not turning into bigots either.
Unlike Mr. Hentoff, they don’t have the
deliciously painful option of moving away from
mugging or offering their children up as
sacrifices to their liberal guilt complexes. One
imagines that many blacks (indeed almost all of
them) are quite unaware that law and order is a
conservative issue.
Liberals like Mr. Hentoff would have us
believe that social problems cause crime
(though they never say why the vast majority
of the poor do not become criminals). They
seem to think that suffering crime in silence is a
price we must all pay for the social injustice
which exists in the country. Unfortunately, we
do not have a ghost of a chance of eliminating
social injustice until the crime situation is
brought under control. And the innocent
mugging victim-black and white-may be
excused for thinking that he has been the
victim of injustice.
3. Finally, ways have to be found to deal
with the various chronic social problems we
face and at the same time distribute equitably
the costs of social programs (elimating those
programs that clearly don’t work is part of it
too). One such solution was the Moynihan
welfare scheme which the liberals gleefully
struck down because it didn’t go far enough.
That it went further than anything else was
scarcely the point to the “all or nothing” boys.
They took nothing, thank you.
The evidence is clear-despite the
conventional wisdom - that the American people
are willing to pick up the tab for social reform
legislation, but they will do so only when they
are persuaded that the programs in question
work and that the costs are not imposed on
certain groups that are favorite victims of the
liberals (like “ethnics” and “hard-hats”).
Instead of imaginative and innovative programs,
the people are offered quotas (or “affirmative
action” to use the polite euphemism) and
busing-crackpot schemes which don’t work and
which select certain groups to expiate the guilt
the liberals feel but can hardly be expected to
pay for themselves.
If Edward Kennedy-or any other liberal-can
come up with persuasive solutions to these
problems, there will be no trouble with John
Connally in 1976. Otherwise, the liberals might
just as well stay home like they did this time.
No matter how early I get my kids up in the
morning, they’re frequently late for school.
The usual reasons are that I can’t find the car
keys; someone can’t find a book; another can’t
find shoes; or another can’t find the last answer
on the homework she should have completed
the night before.
All these “can’t find” excuses get pretty dull
after a while .. .dull-hopeless-and exasperating!
But the other morning, we had a new one. I
had them all in the car and just as I was about
to start the motor, the neighbor’s cat ran under
the car.
At that time of the morning, I’m not
enchanted by little girls crying,
“Mommy . . .look out for Fluffy.” In fact, at
most times, I’m not too enchanted by Fluffy
either.
I decided that if I started the motor, Fluffy
would dart for safer quarters. Fluffy has a
reputation for many things, but being bright is
not one of them. He wouldn’t budge.
The kids were upset . . .not because they
were late, but because they thought I was going
to run over the dumb cat. (They didn’t say he
was dumb. I said it.)
I got down on all fours alongside the car, and
found the cat . . .very contentedly licking his
paws.
“Here, kitty, kitty, kitty ...”
I kept coaxing, reaching out with my hand,
trying to grab his little neck.
Fluffy simply backed off a bit, till he was
positive I couldn’t reach him. He continued to
lick his paws.
I found his weakness. I went “Pssssst!” He
jumped back several inches, within reach from
the other side.
I went carefully around the car, and made a
fast pass. I nearly had his paw, then learned he’s
got claws.
Smugly, he moved out of reach, ana
sharpened his nails on the concrete driveway.
The kids were whimpering; the clock was
racing; and I swear, the cat was laughing.
One of the kids offered, “Mommy, I’ll get
him out. He LIKES me.” I couldn’t imagine
that cat liking anything.
My daughter didn’t even have to crawl under
the car. All she said was, “Comere, Fluffy” and
the cat obediently pranced out.
He stuck his tongue out at me!
My daughter carried him to his own back
yard.
But cats can run faster than kids. Before
she was half way back, the cat was under the
car again.
This time, after my daughter retrieved him, I
took him home and locked him in the
neighbor’s garage.
As we drove to school, I told the girls to
explain to Sister.
The following morning, the cat was there
again.
That night, instead of leaving the car on the
driveway, I parked it in front of the house.
Fluffy wasn’t quite as dumb as I gave him
credit for. He not only found the car, but I was
beginning to think he could tell time. It didn’t
matter how early I started chasing him, it took
till ten minutes after school started to get rid of
him.
That afternoon the kids told me, “We need a
note why we’re late for school every day.”
“Dear Sister, Every morning there is this
cat . . . .”
The moral of the story: I always try to be
completely truthful. But “Mother overslept”
would have been a more expedient excuse for
the lateness. The Sisters would have thought I
was overtired, or irresponsible. Either would
have been better than their thinking I’m nuts.
Questions
And Answers
Monsignor John F. McDonough
QUESTION: What does the word ‘metanoia’ mean? I read it in an article on
conversion, but I am not sure of its exact meaning.
ANSWER: ‘Metanoia’ is a Greek word which means after-thought, a change of mind
on reflection, repentance. One who experiences metanoia experiences a complete
authentic renewal of self.
Conversion and repentance are the Biblical “metanoia”. John the Baptist preached a
baptism of metanoia and repentance. This sentiment, which exteriorises Baptism in the
Jordan, accompanied by a public avowal of culpability, does not concern only the past.
There must be worthy fruits of repentence. A basic change in the externals of one’s way
of life, at least in the manner in which one behaves. For this is the proof of the interior
change which has taken place in the depth of one’s soul. And the word of St. John the
Baptist is taken up again by Jesus as the theme of his first preachings. The time is
fulfilled, the Kingdom of God is at hand: repent and believe in the Gospel (Mark, 1,15).
In one of His last recommendations, theSaviour reminds the Apostles that theymust
preach penance and the remission of sins (Luke, 24,47). At the end of the first discourse
of Peter, his listeners asked: “what ought we to do?” To which the Apostles replied: “do
penance and be baptised in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins” (Acts, 2, 37-39).
Such is the general argument of the first official sermon of St. Peter. Such was doubtless
also the major theme of many sermons and discourses which the Twelve gave in their
apostolic journeys. Prophets of the new Church, the ministers of Christ, call all those who
wish to become His deciples to a complete interior renewal and to spiritual “metanoia.”
A renewal that is full of confidence, certainly. A renewal over which hovers the merciful
superabundance of the Saviour. But a basic, authentic, loyal, decisive renewal.
Three Problems
For Liberals to Work on
Reverend Andrew M. Greeley
Copyright 1973, Inter/Syndicate
Birthday Mass
For Jesus
Joseph A. Breig
When our children were small, Mary and I
often held family birthday parties not only for
them, but also for Jesus at Christmastide, and
for favorite saints on their feast days. Our kids
and their neighborhood friends would sing
“Happy birthday, dear St. Therese” (or
whoever) before piling into the ice cream and
cake.
That was one of our ways of trying to make
spiritual things more real-almost visible-for the
little ones. But never did we dream that we
would live to see the same idea carried into the
divine liturgy-into the Church’s community
worship of God in the Mass.
And why not? After all, God did not make
children to sit still, stiff and silent. He made
them to squirm, to bounce, to jiggle, to talk
and talk.
I was in Florida visiting five of our
grandchildren when I learned that one of the
Christmas Eve masses in their parish was to take
the form of a birthday party for Jesus, and that
people who don’t like new things had been
advised in the parish bulletin to select another
Mass. I like new things, so I accompanied the
g-kids and their parents.
After an impressive procession of priests and
acolytes to the altar, the celebration began with
dancing by teenage girls representing angels
bringing tidings of great joy. Then a girl led the
youngsters in singing Christmas carols, and
finally in “Happy birthday, dear Jesus.” The
children participated so lustily that I believe the
roof of the church was lifted an inch or so by
the volume of childlike sound.
Then, in the kind of happy, disorderly order
which is characteristic of children ( who if not
regimented will cheerily regiment themselves
after a fashion) the smaller children-the ones
who were not receiving Communion-filled the
aisles and filed into the sanctuary to receive
pieces of Christ’s birthday cake. And as they
made their way to and fro, the church was
filled with their joyous babble.
Obviously, here was one group of parish
priests who took literally the injunction of
Jesus, “Suffer the little children to come unto
me”.
Next year, I hope they’ll save the cake for
after the Communion. The older children ought
to get some, too. I am opposed to every form
of discrimination, friends.
Another thing I hope is that no small
children will be allowed into the choir loft, no
matter how crowded the church becomes. I
spent much of the time reminding kids that
falling from the balcony is not good for bones
and muscles, even if you do land on somebody
else.
This kind of liturgical celebration should, of
course, be the exception. It should be reserved
for occasions such as Christmas. Yet less
spectacular ways of making the Mass
meaningful for little ones should be tried
oftener.
Jesus is not a frowning oldstyle schoolmaster
with birch rod. He is the Creator and lover of
our kids; and I feel sure that it will be easier for
these Florida children to love him in return,
having enjoyed, at the top of their voices and
with all youthful energy, his birthday-party
Mass.
Rev. Joseph Dean
For the past fourteen years a national
research organization has been at work,
studying the roots and the structures of peace.
It is called the World Without War Council. It
has acted as a consultant for various Protestant,
Catholic and Jewish congregations in
developing sustained programs for peace.
It has the approval of both conservative and
progressive elements in these church groups,
uniting both pacifists and non-pacifists in its
search for peace.
One obstacle is the national apathy toward
working for peace. Peace seems to be viewed by
most people as an absence of war, rather than a
positive development of activities for a
permanent peace. Some of these activities being
promoted by the World Without War Council
are these: <
1. To achieve agreement and mutual
understanding in values, priorities and
guide-lines in national education for peace.
2. To train leadership for educational work
in communicating these values and
understandings to all levels of society.
3. To prepare diplomats and peace-makers to
secure agreement among sovereign nations, with
competing objectives, in advance of any sudden
crisis. World leaders now realize that the
nations of this earth can no longer afford the
luxury of war in the nuclear age - But the
techniques of peacemaking are just coming out
of the stone age.
4. To inspire individuals and groups to act as
catalysts in moving all men in efforts to control
the threat of war. These efforts involve moral
and religious activity as well as economic, social
and political activity. Much can be gained
through an active program for peace. All can be
lost by war.
Jesus, the prince of peace, calls out today
and always, “Blessed are the peace makers, for
they shall be called the children of God.”
RESOLVED: Pray for peace constantly in
faith, and begin to cooperate actively with
God’s grace in love.
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