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The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 54 No. 25 Thursday, July 5,1973 Single Copy Price — 12 Cents
High Court Rules Out Non-Public School Aid
SMUT SHOP CLOSES UP ~ In the wake of the U S.
Supreme Court decision on obscenity, a Cincinnati
“Adult Bookstore” closed its doors after posting its
reasons in the window. The Court ruling gave the local
community authority to judge obscenity, and said that
material does not have to be “utterly without
redeeming social value” to be declared obscene and/or
pornographic. (Photo by RNS)
OBSCENITY RE DEFINED
States Free to Challenge Smut
WASHINGTON (NC) -- In a
wide-ranging series of decisions the U.S.
Supreme Court reversed its earlier trend
towards permissiveness and opened the
door for states to crack down on the
sale and distribution of obscene or
pornographic materials.
In a 5-4 decision June 21, the court
rejected a controversial standard for
determining obscenity that had been in
use since a 1966 Supreme Court
decision. Under that standard, only
material “utterly without redeeming
social value” could be judged to fall
outisde the First Amendment
protection of free expression.
While rejecting that concept as
“unworkable,” the court set a new
standard to be used in judging the
constitutionality of obscenity laws.
The court said that the laws must be
limited to works which “taken as a
whole, appeal to the prurient interest in
sex, which portray sexual conduct in a
patently offensive way, and which,
taken as a whole, do not have serious
literary, artistic, political, or scientific
value.”
The court also stated that there is no
need for a “national standard” or for
“expert testimony” to determine what
offends community standards. A jury
trying an obscenity case may determine
whether the material appeals to prurient
INSIDE STORY
Father Delea
Pg. 2
Needless Tragedy
Pg. 4
Movies
Pg. 6
Music
Pg. 6
interest or patently offends community
standards, the court said.
While it upheld the right to possess
obscene materials in the privacy of one’s
own home -- a right established earlier
by the high court - the court said in its
new decision that the right to privacy
did not extend to the right to import
obscene material, even for private use,
or to a right to receive, transport or
distribute such materials.
Nor does the right to privacy extend
to consenting adults in movie theaters
or bookstores, said the court.
Responding to several claims that
obscenity laws should be aimed only at
(Continued on Page 7)
THIS LIFE-LIKE STATUE of a Minuteman standing guard at
Lexington, Mass, is a reminder to all who view it, of the unnamed early
Americans who made an independent United States of America possible.
(NC Photo courtesy American Airline.)
THE REV. MR. RONALD PACHENCE, an ordained Deacon serving
for the summer months at Savannah’s St. Benedict’s parish, prepares to
loft a helium-filled balloon during special Pentecost Liturgy held June
17th. Priest in photo is the Rev. Fred Nijem, St. Benedict’s pastor.
Birthday Party at Church?
WASHINGTON (NC) - In a series of
6-3 decision the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled out several forms of aid to
nonpublic schools or to tuition-paying
parents of nonpublic school children.
Declaring that the laws in question
“have the impermissible effect of
advancing religion,” the high court
declared unconstitutional:
--An amendment to New York
State’s Education and Tax Laws which
provided “maintenance and repair”
grants to private, nonprofit schools
serving low-income areas.
--Another section of the same law
that provided tuition grants up to $100
for tuition-paying parents of nonpublic
school children if the parents’ annual
income was below $5,000.
-A third section of the New York
law which gave the tuition-paying
parents a deduction from gross taxable
income when computing their state
income tax.
-A Pennsylvania law that reimbursed
parents up to $150 if they were paying
tuition to send their children to
nonpublic schools.
The high court also ruled 8-1 against
a “mandated services” law in New York
state. Under that law the state provided
nonpublic schools with payments to
cover the cost of services required by
the state, such as state-prepared testing
and evaluation programs.
The court ruled that the services
covered by the act included some
services that were potentially religious.
Reductions and restrictions in the state
allotment, so that it would cover only
services that are strictly secular in
purpose, would be a function of the
legislature, not of the courts, the
Supreme Court said.
The high court on June 25 issued
orders that affirmed a lower court
decision that an Ohio tax credit law is
unconstitutional, and it reinstated a
lower court injunction stopping parent
reimbursements in a New Jersey law
that a lower court had found
unconstitutional.
The court took a freer view of state
aid to religiously affiliated colleges,
affirming South Carolina’s right to give
construction loans to religiously
affiliated colleges and dismissing an
appeal that contested South Carolina’s
right to give student loans to students
attending religiously affiliated colleges.
But the court’s major decision
appeared to have dealt a death-blow to a
series of state and federal tax credit
proposals supported by proponents of
aid to nonpublic schools.
Writing for the majority of the court,
Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. said that
because the laws in question served to
advance religion, it was necessary for
the court to determine whether they
involved “excessive entanglement”
between Church and state.
BY RON PaCHEinyE
It was one of those crisp bright
mornings in Savannah. The sun was just
getting up enough energy to leap into its
scorching summertime potition, when
from the corner of East Broad and East
Gordon Streets, a single helium-filled
balloon raced skyward to shout to the
city: “It’s Pentecost; God’s Spirit is
with us!”
Down below, the parishoners of St.
Benedeict’s kept the celebration alive.
After releasing the Pentecost balloon,
symbolic of the effect God’s Spirit has
on all believers, Father Nijem, Pastor of
St. Benedict’s, blessed a mammoth
birthday cake in front of the church and
invited the congregation to enter the
church as little children (Matt.
10:13-16) celebrating the birthday oi a
friend. Mass that day was to be sort of a
birthday party for the Church, which
owes its life to the coming down of
God’s Spirit.
After the liturgy of thanks, the
servers lighted the cake’s seven lonely
candles and the ushers returned the
flaming pastry to the church entrance. It
was soon consumed! This “party” was
repeated at all three Masses on
Pentecost Sunday.
One frosting-faced youth remarked,
“Why don’t we do this every Sunday,
Father?”
Added another parishoner, “We
certainly won’t forget this Pentecost.”
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Bishop Strikes Back
LA RILJA, Argentina (NC) -- Bishop Enrique Angelelli of La Rioja placed under
interdict 14 persons who called him a “Communist” during the patron saint
celebrations at Anillaco, a rural community. Interdict means that these persons
“cannot attend religious services or receive the sacraments; nor can they be given
Church burial,” he said. The bishop, known for his strong defense of the poor, was
accompanied by 10 priests, six nuns and several lay leaders when a group of rightists
entered the parish rectory at Anillaco crying out “down with Red bishops and
priests.”
The excessive entanglement criterion
was used by the court last year when, in
the landmark case Lemon V. Kurtzman,
it ruled against a Pennsylvania
nonpublic school aid law on the grounds
that the law’s execution would require
“comprehensive, discriminating, and
continuing state surveillance.”
Farah Slacks Banned
CHARLESTON, S.C. (NC) - Bishop Ernest L. Unterkoefler has ordered Catholic
institutions in the Charleston diocese not to buy clothes manufactured by the Farah
Co. The bishop issued this directive after it was brought to his attention that at least
one of the schools in Charleston was about to negotiate a deal involving buying Farah
slacks from a local merchant.
Since then, some states and pro-aid
groups have sought various simplified
laws that would circumvent the court’s
objections to entanglement.
But with the majority decision
focusing on “the impermissible effect of
advancing religion,” the court indicated
a determination to close off any forms
of indirect government aid to sectarian
institutions, with the exception of such
things as busing and textbook aid.
The court said that all of the aid
programs in question would erode the
limitations of the First Amendment
clause prohibiting the establishment of
religion.
Nun School Superintendent
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (NC) - Benedictine Sister M. Consuella Bauer, was named
superintendent of schools for the Little Rock diocese by Bishop Andrew J. McDonald.
She taught English this past year at St. Anne’s High School in Fort Smith, Ark., which
closed its doors in June. She succeeds Father William M. Beck.
Teamsters Strike Breakers?
NEW YORK (NC) - The Catholic Church has taken an advocacy role in the dispute
between the United Farm Workers Union (UFWU) and the Teamsters because “the
issue is so clear we can’t avoid it,” Msgr. George G. Higgins said on the ABC television
program “Directions.” Msgr. Higgins, secretary for research for the U.S. Catholic
Conference (USCC), said that he has “no complaint against the Teamsters as such,”
but that in this case the Teamsters are “Strike breakers.”
While a “tension inevitably exists”
between the establishment clause and
the free exercise clause, the court said,
“As a result of this tension our cases
require the state to maintain an attitude
of “neutrality”, neither “advancing”
nor “inhibiting” religion.”
New Columbus Bishop
WASHINGTON (NC) - Auxiliary Bishop Edward J. Herrmann of Washington was
named bishop of Columbus, Ohio, by Pope Paul VI, it was announced by Msgr.
Francesco DeNittis, charge d’affaires at the apostolic delegation here.