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PAGE 2—The Southern Cross, March 29,1973
THE SPRING MEETING of the Augusta Deanery
Council of Catholic Women was held Saturday at Fort
Gordon. Ladies from all the parishes in Augusta, were
invited. Pictured left to right are: Msgr. Marvin J.
LeFrois, Pastor of St.. Mary’s On-The-Hill Church and
Deanery Spiritual Moderator; Mrs. Clifford J.
Herzberg, recently elected Deanery President; Mrs.
Charles Turner, President, Women of the Chapel, Fort
Gordon; Father Adam Bydlon, Chaplain at Fort
Gordon; Dr. Royal Murdock, guest speaker who spoke
on alcoholism; Mrs. Richard Bowles, outgoing
Deanery President.
Fewer People Watching
Network TV News Shows
NEW YORK (CPF) - The audience
for network TV news dropped by
almost a million households during the
past year and by a whopping 17%
during the last four years, according to a
survey of news-viewing habits.
The study, the fourth annual one
made by the Alfred I. du Pont-Columbia
University Survey of Broadcast
Journalism, showed that in 1972 the
total audience for the evening news
programs broadcast by CBS, NBC and
ABC went into 900,000 fewer homes
than during the previous year. The
households watching dropped from 25.6
million to 24.7 million, a 4% decrease.
But the most dramatic figure revealed
by the survey showed that between
1968 and 1972 there was a drop from
50.6 million viewers per average minute
of network newscast to 41.9 million
viewers, a 17% drop.
“Explanations ranged from loss of
network credibility, and too much
unpleasant news, to the prime access
rule, which separated the network
newscasts from the popular network
entertainment with locally provided
fare,” the survey noted.
The survey also gave special attention
to what it regarded as increasing
governmental pressures on the news
media and also to the networks’ general
lack of interest in news documentaries.
“Network television,” the survey
said, “looked as though it were trying to
lose its documentarians (by) refusing
them the opportunity to do their best,
cutting off their time and money,
keeping them from prime time spots on
the schedules.”
It was noted that at present only one
network, NBC, schedules a prime-time
public affairs program, NBC Reports,
alternating with First Tuesday. The
report said the public was as much to
blame as the networks. Both the
sponsors and the viewing public, said
the report, “prefer fantasy to reality,”
observing that whenever a network
scheduled a news program in prime
time, the viewers switched to another
channel offering entertainment.
The report was compiled from
contributions made by 65
correspondents throughout the country
and from local chapters of the League
of Women Voters.
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Regarding pressures on broadcasters
from the government, the report said
that “the adversary in Washington often
seemed more intent upon emasculating
than reforming the broadcaster’s vast
enterprise.”
The report added that “many
Administration spokesmen and friends”
had begun an all-out attack on
broadcast journalism” and that the
“negative vibrations . . . .emanated in
most part from the White House, where
staff members concerned with
communications matters were
particularly active.”
However, the report was highly
critical of the networks for their failure
to supply more substantial news
programming.
“We are troubled by the fact that
although revenues at the networks are
once more increasing, there is no
commensurate increase in the time
allotted to regular news and public
affairs programming ....
“Both the networks and the sponsors
would make more plausible their
protestations of unjust treatment by
government agenices, dissident groups,
and critics in general if their investment
in the worthwhile were more
conspicuous on television — regardless
of the ratings.”
The survey concluded, however, that
despite some allegations, network news
is free of bias.
“Imbalance and unfairness on the
major news broadcasts are rare,” the
report said, “For integrity, striving for
fairness, and general responsibility (we)
must give high marks to these
broadcasts and the journalistic
professionals who staff them. Theirs is a
difficult assignment carried out with
decency and honor.”
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iV.F.P.C. Back Right to Life Amendment
By Jo-ann Price
(NC News Service)
DETROIT (NC) — The House of
Delegates of the National Federation of
Priests’ Councils (NFPC) called
unanimously for a constitutional
amendment to protect the rights of the
unborn child, and unite its fight against
abortion with that of the Catholic
bishops and other pro-life groups.
In the closing hours of its four-day
annual meeting, the NFPC approved the
measure without any debate.
It urged that the posposed
amendment be worded so as to assure as
well protection to the lives “of the aged,
the ill, and the disadvantaged.”
In 1972, the NFPC supported pro-life
laws and programs aimed at protecting
the dignity of all persons, including
unborn children and their mothers.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (NC) -
Massacres of members of the Hutu tribe
in the African country of Burundi are
continuing, according to reports
received by Swedish Pentecostalists
here.
Hutu refugees arriving at camps set up
by the Pentecostalists in neighboring
Tanzania have charged that the
massacres are still going on but are being
carried out less openly than last year.
White missionaries, the refugees claim,
almost never witness the killings.
The massacres have been carried out
by members of Burundi’s ruling Tutsi
tribe who blamed the Hutus for a revolt
that broke out in late April 1972. The
rebels, armed with axes and machetes,
killed about a thousand members of the
ruling Tutsi tribe, but the
predominantly Tutsi army quelled the
revolt within 10 days.
The recent Supreme Court decision
of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton have
“seriously impaired the right to life of
the unborn child,” the resolution said.
“We priests as moral leaders” the
NFPC said, “must be champions of the
dignity and sacredness of each human
person.”
A proposed constitutional
amendment, it recommended, should
contain provisions “whereby the unborn
child would clearly be regarded as a
person, enjoying the right of life and
liberty, and the protection of these
rights by law.”
Member councils, the organization
suggested, should continue to unite
their fight against abortion with the
United States Catholic Conference, the
National Conference of Catholic
Bishops and pro-life groups in educating
people “concerning the dignity of
human life even before birth.”
apparent attempt to eliminate the
Hutus.
At the refugee camps in Tanzania, the
Swedish missionaries are now caring for
50,000 to 60,000 Hutu refugees. They
help feed the children with powdered
milk and the adults with local produce.
The 60 Swedish missionaries in
Burundi ahve been able to remain in the
country undisturbed.
Since the recent high court ruling on
abortion, the American bishops have
issued a strong pastoral letter rejecting it
as “erroneous, unjust and immoral,”
declaring that Catholics must oppose
abortion and that those who undergo or
perform one are in a state of
excommunication.
Recently, Father Reid C. Mayo,
president of the NFPC, urged Catholics
“of every political and ideological
persuasion” to unite in the fight against
abortion. He observed at that time that
not since the Second Vatican Council
has there been such virtual unanimity
by Catholic leaders on a single issue.
The NFPC asked member councils to
press U.S. senators and congressional
representatives to favor a constitutional
amendment and to encourage bishops,
priests and people to aid financially and
morally any expectant mother, of any
religious persuasion, who prefers to give
birth to her child rather than have an
abortion.
They asked that the NFPC join the
Spanish-speaking community in demand
ing more Spanish-speaking bishops. During
the debate, Father Raymond M.
Rafferty of the New York archdiocese
urged that these prelates should not be
selected for the United States from
abroad simply because they speak
Spanish. Rather, he said, the selection
should be from American-born clergy.
The selection could thus be made from
any Spanish-speaking clergy in the U.S.,
whether of Puerto Rican,
Mexican-American or other national
descent.
MARTINEZ
CYO Home Mass;
Burundi Massacres Continue
The rebels apparently hoped that
many Hutus, who constitute about 85
percent of Burundi’s population, would
rise against the Tutsi, but they did not.
Refugees arriving recently at the
camps in Tanzania have told of Tutsi
soldiers closing entire families in huts
and setting fire to them. In other cases,
they said, Hutus have been taken away
in trucks and then killed with machetes.
Others have been buried alive.
It is estimated that 150,000 to
300,000 Hutus have been killed since
the rebellion.
The Pentecostalists, who have
100,000 members in Sweden, have six
missions in Burundi, the first of which
was founded in 1935. Since the
beginning of the massacres, two of the
missions have been abandoned. The
Pentecostalists run dispensaries, teach
about 45,000 children in primary
schools and train about 300 teachers.
Last spring, the Tutsi took away 122
Hutu pupils and five teachers who were
never seen again, according to reports.
Swedish missionaries report that many
of the educated Hutus have been
massacred and the Tutsi are now
attacking mainly men and boys, in an
A Ibany
DCCW
The Albany Deanery Council of
Catholic Women met at the Holiday Inn
in Thomasville on Saturday, March 17.
Mrs. Aaron Dukes (Phylis) of Albany
was elected President for 1973-74. Long
active in Council activities, Mrs. Dukes
has just completed her term as President
of St. Teresa’s Council of Catholic
Women.
Other officers elected at the March
meeting were Mrs. Carlton (Lucille)
Ussery of Albany, Vice President; Mrs.
Ralph (Lois) Kahler, also of Albany,
Secretary; Mrs. John (Frances)
Crawford of Plains, Treasurer.
Principal speaker for the meeting was
Father Peter Sheridan, O.F.M., pastor of
St. Mary’s parish, Americus. His topic
was “The Humanness of Jesus.” The
Franciscan priest said that in the
centuries since Christ’s death and
resurrection, his humanness was “lost in
man’s preoccupation with his divinity.”
He posed two questions to the
assembled Council members: Was it an
accident that Leonard Bernstein’s Mass,
written for the opening of the John F.
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
has been so widely acclaimed by the
critics? Was it an accident that the
Broadway hit “Jesus Christ, Superstar”
outsold every other box office on
Broadway?
Betty Williams, outgoing President,
closed the meeting by luring as many
members as possible to send in
reservations for the convention
scheduled for May 5 and 6 in
Columbus.
First Communion
The CYO of St. Theresa of Avila
parish (Martinez) celebrated a Home
Mass honoring two members of the First
Communion Class.
The entrance hymn, “The Love
Round,” was accompanied by three
young guitarists. The young people sat
comfortably in the spacious den of their
leaders, Mr. and Mrs. Larry Maucher in
West Lake. v
Monsignor Felix Donnelly celebrated
the Mass. Readings were from
Corinthians 12:12 - 12:27, Matthew
18:1-4, John 15:1 - 15:17, and
Ephesians 4:1-6 and 5:1,2. The banner
over the altar reading: “Give Us This
Day Our Daily Bread” was made by one
of the first communicants, Diane Mainz.
The CYO members wrote their own
Prayers of the Faithful. The theme was
a petition that we grow in unity
within the church and from that, we
grow in the world. This was another
aspect of the Lenten Program: The
Church - a place to grow. “The great
Amen” and the Offertory song, “Hear O
Lord,” were especially stimulating.
Kathy Maucher and Diane Mainz
received their First Communion and
also read from the CHILDREN’S BIBLE
the passages about Jesus and the
children .. .“and they departed
knowing Jesus loved them.”
“They’ll Know We are Christians”
rounded out the evening.
ST. THERESA CYO GROUP
KATHY MAUCHER & DIANE MAINZ - Receive First Holy
Communion from Msgr. Felix Donnelly.