Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 3—April 26, 1973
Survey Shows Most Americans Oppose Abortion
WASHINGTON (NC) -- Most eligible voters in the United States oppose abortion
strongly and women lead men in the opposition, according to a poll conducted by the
University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research (ISR).
The survey of 2,738 citizens also showed that abortion is not just a “Catholic”
issue. While Catholics lead the opposition with 67 percent, Protestants were not far
behind, with 59 percent opposed. Only Jews were strongly in favor of abortion -- 82
percent indicated support.
The results of the ISR survey, taken just before the national elections last
November, were reported here by the Washington Evening Star and Daily News. The
abortion question was included in the 1972 edition of pre-election surveys that have
been conducted by the ISR for a quarter of a century.
Although the January 22 U.S. Supreme Court decision on abortion stated that
women have the right to decide whether to bear a child or not, the poll indicated that
women do not seem to be as interested in exercising that right as men are in
guaranteeing it. In every age category more women than men opposed easy abortion.
Even in the under-30 age group, in which only 43 percent of the men opposed
abortion, 49 percent of the women were in opposition.
The survey allowed respondents to give favorable responses to one of four
statements:
- Abortion should never be forbidden (25 percent agreed).
- Abortion should be allowed in any case in which the prospective mother would
have difficulty in bringing up her child (17 percent agreed).
-- Abortion should be permitted only when the life of the mother would be
endangered by the birth (47 percent agreed).
- Abortion should never be allowed (11 percent agreed).
Survey analysts agreed that the most accurate separation of the data would combine
responses to the first two questions and compare them with combined responses to the
third and fourth questions. The combined results showed 58 percent of eligible voters
favoring strict abortion laws which would never allow abortions or allow them only to
save a mother’s life. Only 42 percent favored abortion on demand or abortion for
lesser reasons.
Breakdowns of the respondents by categories also showed that:
-- The older a person is, the more likely he is to oppose abortion. While 72 percent
of those over 60 oppose abortion and 60 percent of those between 30 and 60 years old
where in opposition, only 47 percent of those under 30 were opposed.
- The more formal education a person has, the more he is likely to favor easy
abortion. College-educated respondents favored abortion by a seven percent margin,
while those whose education stopped in grade school overwhelmingly opposed it.
- Social class is a factor. Those who characterized themselves as middle-class were
split on the issue, while almost two-thirds of working class members opposed abortion.
- Race is also a factor. Blacks surveyed were slightly more opposed to abortion than
whites.
- Among Protestants, those who belong to more fundamentalist denominations are
more strongly opposed (63 percent), while those in more liberal groups are split almost
evenly.
The poll also showed that frequency of worship in church groups was a factor in
determining opposition to abortion.
Among Catholics, those who worshipped every week or almost every week opposed
abortion much more strongly (83 percent) than those who attended church rarely or
never (49 percent opposed).
Fifty-seven percent of the regular worshippers in mainline Protestant denominations
opposed abortion, while only 41 percent of those who rarely attended services were in
opposition.
Among fundamentalist denominations, opposition was registered by 75 percent of
the regular church-goers and by 56 percent of those who rarely or never attend church.
Final Translation Next Year
WASHINGTON (NC) - The final
English translation of the Church’s
official sacramentary or altar missal is in
its last stages and should be published
sometime in 1974, the secretariat for
the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on the
Liturgy reported here.
Father Frederick R. McManus,
director of the secretariat, said that the
definitive English edition is now in its
final stages of revision. He gave his
comments after attending a meeting in
Chicago at which three liturgical
publishers from America and one from
Ireland discussed the style and format
of authoritative editions of the
sacramentary, which they expect to
begin publishing next year.
The translation of the new Roman
Missal, which was published in Latin by
Pope Paul VI in 1970, is being made by
the International Committee on English
in the Liturgy (ICEL), a working group
responsible for translating liturgical
prayers for the English-speaking world.
After the ICEL completes its
translation, it must still be approved by
the National Conference of Catholic
Bishops (NCCB), the policy-making
body made up of all the U.S. bishops.
The bishops’ approval must also be
confirmed by the Vatican before it
becomes the official altar missal for the
United States.
Father McManus stressed that the
new sacramentary will involve no
changes in the order of the Mass or in
the responses, acclamations or prayers
of the people.
Until the new sacramentary is
approved and published in 1974, U.S.
priests can use either the 1966
sacramentary or the provisional
sacramentary for Sundays which was
published in 1972 by the Bishops’
Committee on the Liturgy.
Father McManus said the publishers’
meeting in Chicago also discussed plans
for publishing editions of the new
English breviary or liturgy of the hours,
which is expected to be completed in
English translation by the end of this
year. If officially approved, the breviary
will be published in 1974.
Sister Says: “Not Taken Seriously”
since the Second Vatican Council
although she acknowledged that the
Council Fathers rarely used the term
“ministry.” When it was used, it
referred to priest rather than Sisters, she
said.
Since the Council, she said, Sisters
have begun to work in pastoral team
ministries, usually initiated by the nuns
themselves, that combine the talents of
priests and Sisters.
“The biggest move in women’s
ministry,” Sister Aquinas said, “is from
the classroom to the religious education
program, retreats, campus and hospital
ministers, social and ghetto work.”
She said, however, that some Sisters
are not supported in this work by
priests and bishops. Some become
alienated and seek ministries outside the
Church she said.
Sister Aquinas, a past president of the
Leadership of Women Religious, said
that in spite of these problems “much
has been accomplished and the Church
is recognizing the many talents of
women.”
In a rare appearance outside her
cloister, Mother Mary Francis, abbess of
the Poor Clare Monastery in Roswell,
N.H., spoke to the vicars about the need
to understand and appreciate the
contemplative life.
She pointed out that Vatican II spoke
about the importance of both the
prayer-oriented ministry and the active
ministry.
Father William Hughes, president of
the Conference of Vicars, explained
why ministry was chosen as the theme
of the April 8-11 meeting.
“Vatican II gave several directions to
ministry,” he said. “As ministers of the
word, we must be sensitive to many
more needs of peoples. The Church has
summoned every Christian to become
active and share responsibility for
decisions. We need new structures to
implement this new vision.”
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (NC) -
“Bishops have not taken women
seriously,” particularly nuns engaged in
new forms of work, a leader of the
Sisters of Mercy told a national meeting
here.
Sister Thomas Aquinas, a general
director of her order, spoke to a
National Conference of Vicars for
Religious that included about a dozen
women who serve as associate vicars in
U.S. dioceses.
Sister Aquinas said that Sisters have
become more involved in ministries
SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH -- Some of the 900 women attending the
recent Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph workshop leave modern
O’Shaughnessy auditorium on the campus of the college of St. Catherine
in St. Paul, Minn. Theme of the meeting was
“Conversion-Involvement-Contemplation.” The federation includes 32
U.S. congregations and six from Canada. (NC Photo)
(NC PHOTO)
DULUTH, Minn. - More than 5,500 Catholics filled all-city Easter Mass, concelebrated by Bishop Paul F.
the Duluth Arena Easter morning for the second Anderson with all the priests of the city.
Court Won’t Reopen Abortion Issue
WASHINGTON (NC) - The U.S.
Supreme Court has rejected a request by
the state of Connecticut that it take a
second look at abortion - this time
viewing medical evidence including
photographs of unborn babies.
The court’s April 16 action had the
effect of upholding its Jan. 22 ruling
that sharply limited the rights of states
to restrict abortions. That ruling
involved Georgia and Texas laws but
was applicable to almost all state
abortion laws, including the
Connecticut law.
Lawyers for Connecticut had argued
that medical evidence which was not
made available in previous abortion
cases shows that life begins as
conception and that the unborn child is
a “citizen.”
Besides containing color photographs
of human fetuses, the Connecticut
petition included affidavits signed by
prominent physicians, citations from
medical journals and books, passages
from previous lower court rulings and a
sample copy of a birth certificate issued
in New York City.
This certificate, the petition said, is
issued for all normal live births and for
all live births induced by abortion,
“regardless of length of either gestation
or survival.”
The petition said the certificate,
similar to one used in Connecticut, is
evidence that a fetus is a citizen of the
United States under the 14th
Amendment, which says every person
born or naturalized in this country is a
U.S. citizen.
“The legislature (of Connecticut) was
thus entitled to conclude that human
life exists prior to these stages also and
that human life is, in fact, a continuing
process from the time the child is
conceived,” the petition said.
The Connecticut abortion law
prohibited abortions except to save the
mother’s life and declared in a preamble
that life begins at conception.
A federal court struck down the law
last September.
UN Measure Would Make Aparthed Crime Against Humanity
BY KATHLEEN MCLAUGHLIN
UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. (NC) - The Economic and Social Council of the United
Nations in the next several weeks is expected to complete preparation of a draft
convention designating apartheid - strict racial segregation - a crime against humanity.
The convention, which has been under preparation for some time (most of its
articles have already been adopted by a working group of the Human Rights
Commission), will, if approved by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), be
submitted for action by the 28th UN General Assembly, scheduled to meet in
September.
That means that if the draft wins approval - as appears likely - the document might
by the end of 1973 be declared open for signature and ratification.
After years of criticism and condemnation of apartheid in UN deliberations it now
appears likely that by the end of 1973 the white supremicist governments of South
Africa and Rhodesia will be faced with the reality of an international measure
signifying a new stage in the battle to achieve recognition of the righs of the black
African majorities.
At Geneva on April 2, the UN Commission on Human' Rights adopted a resolution
approving the convention as currently drafted by 21 votes to 2 (the United States and
Britain), with 5 abstentions.
The United States and Britain voted against the draft for technical and legal reasons,
maintaining that it duplicated present UN measures against racism.
A British spokesman said that the draft convention would weaken existing
international conventions against racial discrimination and that it could not be
implemented.
Another agenda item recommended by the Human Rights Commission to the
opening session of ECOSOC is a draft resolution by which the council would call upon
Israel “to rescind all policies and measures affecting the physical character and
demographic composition” of the occupied Arab territories.
Plans to study the role of multinational corporations, especially those operating in
developing countries, and their impact on the living standards of the working
population will be another major topic for consideration by ECOSOC.
A report by the UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim will provide the basis for a
proposal that multinational mining, agricultural and related enterprises operating in
developed countries should join in multilateral agreements with similar firms at work
in underdeveloped countries in order to assure global accountability.
The same report includes a recommendation that governments of developing
countries plan and prepare carefully if and when takeovers of foreign enterprises are
needed, and proposes that both sides have recourse to the United Nations when
problems of compensation arise.
On the far-ranging agenda, which touches on practically every phase of UN activity
and concern, special attention will be directed to a proposal that all major countries,
should participate in the elaboration of “an acceptable concept of minimum world
food security.” The proposal is treated in a report from Addeke Boerma,
director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The FAO director-general states in his report that it is intolerable that the supply of
enough food for millions of human beings should depend upon the vagaries of a single
year’s weather. Such a grim prospect has emerged in an acute form, he says, because
there is no acceptance by the international community in any meaningful sense of the
concept of a minimum safe level of basic food stocks for the world as a whole.
After consultation with other international agencies, Boerma reports, he intends to
draw up the main elements of a minimum world food security policy, to be submitted
in June to ECOSOC and in November to the FAO conference in Rome.