Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 3—April 19,1973
Jesus, Lord of Life
By Cardinal John Krol
Archbishop of Philadelphia
‘I have come that they may have life
and have it more abundantly.”
The message of Easter is quite
appropriately expressed in these words
of our Lord as narrated by St. John.
Easter is indeed a feast of life.
First and most important, it
commemorates the victory of the
God-man Jesus Christ over death. God
wills that all men, freed from the
corruption of sin and death, might live
with him forever in heaven. To respond
to this invitation to eternal life is man’s
greatest opportunity; to ignore it is
man’s most tragic failure.
Second, the Resurrection of Jesus
reminds us that not only our souls but
also our glorified bodies are destined to
live forever in glory. Is not all matter
invested with a new sacredness when
one realizes that it is not only a product
of God’s creation but is also an object
of Christ’s redemption? Is not the
sanctity of the body clearly indicated
by its destiny? Is not the Resurrection
of Jesus Christ a pledge of our own
resurrection and a reminder of the
precious dignity of every human being
and of the entire human being- body
and soul?
Third, the liturgy of Easter is a
liturgy of life - a commemoration of
spiritual rebirth in Baptism; a
culmination of spiritual renewal after
the rigors of Lent.
Fourth, the season of Easter is a
season of life - a season when nature is
renewed and when mankind is
surrounded by reminders of
resurrection.
Fifth, the sumbols of Easter are
Catholic Parents Don’t
Mind Paying... If...
CLEVELAND (NC) - Whatever their
income level, parents of children in
Catholic schools, while primarily
concerned about tuition, don’t mind
paying it if they believe they’re getting
something “above and beyond what the
public schools could offer.”
This conclusion is indicated by a
survey of attitudes of Catholic parents
done by the research department of
Marschalk Company, Inc., an advertising
agency. The survey was done in
preparation for Catholic Education
Month.
For the survey, five groups of 10 to
12 persons were interviewed. One
included Catholic parents with children
enrolled in grades 7 or 8 or a Catholic
school; a second had children enrolled
in the same grades in public schools; a
third group was composed of Catholic
parents with children about to enter
school; the fourth and fifth groups were
seventh and eighth grade Catholic
students in Catholic and public schools
respectively.
The group interview technique is used
to learn expressions that people use in
discussing a subject, a Marschalk
spokesman explained. These expressions
are used in guidelines to find out what
people are thinking. The technique is
not designed to determine what
percentage of a group holds a given
attitude.
The average annual family income
of the groups surveyed ranged from
$10,000 to $14,000. All groups were
suburban residents.
“If there are questions or doubts in
parents’ minds regarding the quality of
either the academic or religious
teachings in Catholic schools 4 ” the
survey report said, “there will also be
doubts about the value of the
investment they are making or being
asked to consider.”
The report also said: “There is no
doubt in the minds of parents that the
primary reason for sending a child to
Catholic school is for the religious
training- ‘to learn his faith’- ‘for the
basic foundation in the Catholic faith.”
Many parents misunderstand and are
confused by the atmosphere of change
in today’s Church, the survey indicated.
“They believe their children are
confused and are not getting the straight
‘black and white’ basics of the Church.”
Many interviewed parents believe that
the Church has become “too lenient”
and that there should be a return to
specific laws that tell people what they
should and shouldn’t do, the survey
report said.
Parents interviewed said they wanted
their children in Catholic schools were
to be taught by Sisters, especially in
religion classes. They felt that there are
too many lay teachers in Catholics,
most of whom are not as qualified as
those in public schools. If their children
are going to be taught by lay teachers,
the parents believed, it would be better
and cheaper to send them to public
schools.
Convincing parents of the value of
the religious training given in Catholic
schools, the survey report said “requires
‘grassroots’ selling, person-to-person
explanations of what is being done^ why
it’s being done and the overall objectives
of the religious training programs. This
may require discussion from the pulpit,
recruitment of already ‘sold’ parents to
sell others, greater emphasis on parent
involvement in the schools with specific
objectives for them to reach.”
symbols of life. The lily is an
appropriate symbol of the renewal of
nature in purity and spotlessness: a’
fitting symbol of life and of sinlessness.
The chicken breaking forth from the
Easter egg is an apt symbol of the Savior
emerging from the tomb: a fitting
symbol of virbrant life where there
seemed only to be a tomblike stillness.
Thus, Easter is a challenge to develop
and to defend the new life given to
mankind by Christ Jesus.
Easter first challenges man’s mind to
accept Christ’s divinity and man’s
dignity. The acceptance of Christ’s
divinity requires a response of faith; the
acceptance of man’s dignity implies a
response of justice. Christ’s victory over
death reveals a power more than human,
and faith gives assent to the visible
evidence of invisible power so that Jesus
is acknowledged as Lord, God and
Redeemer. Christ’s redemptive act
invests mankind with a dignity that is
truly transcendent, and the rights of
each man are seen to have thier origin in
God and their confirmation in the
Blood of Christ.
Men must live in faith and grow
in charity. Living in faith, Christians will
be a light to the world; living in charity,
they will be to the world both an
inspiration and a consolation.
Enlightened by faith and inflamed bv
charity, Christians ought to be a living
Gospel - a living proclamation of the
good news revealed in and by Jesus
Christ.
Christians ought to be witnesses not
only to supernatural revelation,
however, but also to natural revelation -
to the evidences of God’s existence and
man’s dependence which can be read in
the book of nature. If men of good will,
through the use of their intellects and
the exercise of reasonable reflection can
be led to admit that God lives and that
men live because of God, then we will
have gone far in defining and defending
the dignity of life.
It is particularly tragic that, as we
commemorate Christ’s Easter victory of
life over death, we are witnessing a
growing exaltation of death over life.
The lives of the unborn no longer enjoy
the protection of law; the lives of the
old and the sick are threatened by the
crushing weight of poverty and by the
death-dealing act erroneously described
as a stroke of mercy. Life is too easily
destroyed and its destruction. is too
little mourned in the international
violence of war and in the domestic
violence of crime and retaliation.
Jesus came that men might have life
and have it more abundantly. The
abundance of life consists in a
grace-filled present and a glory-filled
future; in Christian virture now and in
Christian victory hereafter. But an
abundance of life presupposes life itself
- and the same God who has promised
us life in eternity has given us life in
time: a life which no mere human
authority can take.
If Christians of the 20th century are
indeed an Easter people, then they must
tirelessly defend the right to live in time
that they might enjoy the right to live in
eternity with him who demonstrated on
the first Easter that he is indeed the
Lord of life.
REFUGEE FROM CAMBODIA - A frightened child
reached for help at a refugee camp in Tinh Bien, South
Vietnam. The child and its mother were among 500
POPE PA UL:
Cambodians to flee their country after a battle
between South Vietnamese troops and Communist
forces. (NC Photo)
4 God’s Help Necessary for Peace’
VATICAN CITY (NC) - God’s help is
necessary for peace in the world, Pope
Paul VI told thousands at his audience
April 11, the 10th anniversary of Pope
John XXIII’s encyclical on peace,
Pacem in Terris.
Stating that Pope John had “called
every man of good will” to work for
peace, Pope Paul also said that he
himself had never tired in his efforts for
peace.
After pointing out that working for
peace is a serious obligation for all, Pope
Paul observed:
“Help from on high is necessary to
obtain such a noble and exalted reward
as peace. This is so because, while the
constructive participation of everyone is
needed, human efforts are so flimsy and
fragile.”
The present Pope said that his
predecessor’s encyclical had stirred the-
hearts of all mankind, “prompting to
profound reflection individuals and
groups of people of varying religious
persuasion, divergent races and cultures
and different social and political
environments.”
To those who tire of hearing of the
need for peace and who insist that
accepting strife in the world is being
more realistic, Pope Paul countered:
“Let us remember well that peace is
the basis of a new civilization.”
This peace, he continued, must be
more than simply a pause in hostilities
or a temporary situation in isolated
parts of the world. Above all else, he
said, this peace must provide for the
basic rights of each man and for his
supernatural destiny.
“Pacem in Terris called every man of
good will to meditate on one of the
most serious obligations of the
individual in today’s society: that of
becoming ever more aware of his
tremendous responsibility in working
for the construction and defense of
peace.”
Pope Paul said he personally
responded to this obligation during his
pontificate.
“During the years of our
pontificate . . . also we have never tired
of making every effort for the defense
of peace, to convince men of the
absolute necessity of peace, to convince
men of the absolute necessity of peace,
and to promote greater understanding
among peoples,” Pope Paul said.
He said he had also made every effort
to help those who suffered injustice in
any form.
“May Christ, the Prince of Peace,
bring this precious gift of peace to the
world,” the Pope said in conclusion.
At the close of the audience, Pope
Paul invited two newly named American
bishops to join him in blessing those at
the audience. These were Bishop-elect
Raymond Lessard of Savannah, Ga., and
Bishop-elect James Rausch, general
secretary of the National Conference of
Catholic Bishops, recently named
auxiliary bishop of St. Cloud, Minn.
Also present to join in the blessing
was Archbishop Joseph Bernardin of
Cincinnati, Bishop-elect Rausch’s
immediate predecessor as general
secretary of the American bishops’
conference.
Family Life Director Answers Questions on Fetus Experiments
REAFFIRMATION OF FAITH -- Archbishop Thomas J. McDonough
of Louisville gives a red stole to one of the seniors who reaffirmed their
Confirmation commitment and baptismal vows during a special ceremony
at Angela Merici High School. The red stole symbolizes “the priesthood of
the laity.” The young women said that they thought the sacrament would
mean more now that they are “17 instead of seven.” (NC Photo by Louis
Alexander)
WASHINGTON (NC) - In an
interview with NC News Service, Msgr.
James McHugh, director of the Family
Life Bureau of the U.S. Catholic
Conference, answered questions on
experimenting with fetuses.
The questions were put to Msgr.
McHugh after it was learned that the
National Institutes of Health were
considering whether to approve
experiments on live fetuses resulting
from abortions.
Q-It is not possible to make a fetus
into a child. Under the best of
conditions it can only live a few hours.
Why not benefit mankind by learning
more about birth defects?
A-The problem is that the fetus is
not being treated as a person, a human
being with dignity and rights, but
simply as an experimental animal.
Q-Scientists in Great Britain and
other countries are already
experimenting with fetuses resulting
from abortions. The scientists work
under strict guidelines set up by a
government commission. Couldn’t
similar guidelines be set up in this
country?
A-Scientists in England and other
places seem to work under very weak or
permissive guidelines. The theologians
want strong and restrictive guidelines
that are the result of a serious
discussion.
Q-Should Catholics be unalterably
opposed to experiments on living
fetuses? Aren’t there any circumstances
under which such experiments could be
considered morally justifiable?
A-We are not saying that Catholics
are unalterably opposed to
experimentation, but that there should
be carefully drawn and strict guidelines.
The NIH policy is to open things up-to
lead to a very permissive attitude. The
problem is the danger of no guidelines
or very permissive ones.
Q -How would you answer those in
favor of experimenting on live fetuses
who say the following:
It is immoral not to carry out
necessary research involving human
subjects. There are at least two good
reasons for this. First, in many instances
there may not be a suitable animal
model. Second, even if such an animal
model exists there always comes a time
when the test must be carried out in
man.
A-This question relates to the general
question of experimentation on
humans, and at present the theologians
argue that in most cases there are animal
models, and extensive testing should be
carried on with animals first. If no
animal model exists, then all efforts
must be made to eliminate dangers to
humans. Secondly, the test should move
to human subjects only when dangers
have been eliminated, when the subject
is informed fully and consents, and in
dangerous or risky cases, only when the
therapy attempted is the last resort.
The difficulty is that the fetus is the
result of an abortion, which is itself a
destructive act. The fetus has no chance
to consent. And the callous use of the
fetus as a subject for experimentation
degenerates the value of human life.
Remember, we are talking about
experiments on a living fetus, when no
attempt is made to preserve the fetus.
Also, in some cases the researchers are
testing the fetus in utero.
Q-What about a fetus that was
spontaneously aborted? Would
experiments be justified in this case, as
opposed to a fetus aborted on demand?
A-Experiments may be justified on a
spontaneously aborted fetus, only after
every effort was made to preserve the
child’s life. Given some control,
experiments may be allowed when the
fetus dies. But remember, NIH is dealing
with a policy that would have no
controls or only very minimal ones.
$10,000 Damage to Cathedral
SEATTLE, Wash. (NC) -- A 35-year-old man, claiming he was Jesus and wanted to
“destroy the idols,” has been charged with malicious destruction of property after a
rampage in which St. James Cathedral here suffered $10,000 in damages.
According to cathedral officials, the man pushed a 500-pound life-size marble statue
of Christ off a side altar to the floor, where the statue smashed into five pieces. The
man also pulled a large crucifix suspended above the cathedral’s main altar from its
moorings and broke brass and marble candelabra.
The man was spotted on his rampage in the cathedral by its organist Paul B.
Carmona, and two women who were arranging altar linens. Carmona and the women
summoned the police, two of whom arrested the man and took him to a hospital.
Later hospital officials refused to admit the man because he was too dangerous and
asked the police to take him to jail. Two new policemen arrived and placed the man in
their car. The man reportedly was able to convince these policemen he was innocent
and they released him.
A few hours later, the man was spotted between the rectory and the cathedral.
Cathedral officials called police. He was arrested and held for psychiatric observation.
Police refused to release his name.
Auxiliary Bishop Thomas E. Gill, cathedral pastor, said, “We cannot help but
deplore the loss of the statue and the material damage inflicted, but I think our real
concern should be with the poor man who did it.” The bishop said, "Material things
can, eventually, be replaced but the ill, sick man needs our concern a.id our prayers if
we would salvage him for the good of himself and society.”