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The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 54 No. 29
Thursday, August 23,1973
Single Copy Price — 12 Cents
ANXIETIES OF WAR -- Women and children gather
outside the Cambodian Army’s “collection center” in
the capital, Phnom Penh, searching for relatives whom
military police may have “drafted” during a sweep
through the city in search of “volunteers” to defend
the city. (NC Photo)
NOVEMBER 8-10
U.S. BISHOPS DECLARE
Catholic Schools Needed
WASHINGTON (NC) - Declaring
that the “Catholic school effort will not
be abandoned,” the U.S. bishops
reaffirmed their support of Catholic
schools in the face of recent Supreme
Court decisions.
“Although some Catholic schools
have had to close in the past and others
may have to close in the future ,” the
bishops said, “efforts will continue to
make available to as many children and
young people as possible Catholic
schooling committed to educational
excellence and to moral and religious
values.”
The bishops noted that not all the
reasons which originally compelled the
establishing of the Catholic schools are
still applicable today. However, the
bishops added, “the fundamental
considerations which cause us to
continue the effort are as compelling
now as they have ever been.”
Noting that the aim of education is to
have children “grow into manhood
according to the mature measure of
Christ,” the bishops said that Catholic
schools are the best means to achieve
this goal.
State laws which would have
provided state aid to nonpublic schools
could have helped diminish the financial
crisis of the Catholic schools, the
bishops said. The June Supreme Court
decisions declaring those laws
unconstitutional “were unjust . . .and
disappointing. But they are a fact. We
must now live with that fact,” the
bishops declared.
“While efforts to find new,
constitutional methods of public
assistance will continue,” the bishops
stated, “it is clear that our planning for
Catholic schools must, for the present,
be based on our own efforts and
sacrifices.
“Parents, first of all, whose children
benefit directly from Catholic
schooling, must be prepared to continue
to shoulder their financial burden. The
Catholic community at large, at the
parish and diocesan levels, must
continue and increase its support of the
schools, which play such a vital role in
the educational mission of the Church.”
The bishops also recommended
making Catholic schools more useful for
other educational programs of the
Church, especially for children who do
not attend Catholic schools.
This can be done, the bishops said, by
giving a “clear explanation of the
distinctive goals of Catholic schools;
closer association with other nonpublic
and public schools; increased efficiency
of operation; professional, academic and
civic accountability; vigorous student
recruitment; wholehearted parental
involvement, full participation in the
search for solutions to the racial crisis in
American education.
“If the Catholic community is
convinced of the values and advantages
of Catholic schools, it must and will act
now.”
Unity Goal of Black Convention
NEW ORLEANS, La. (NC) - Unity in
the Catholic Church and among black
Catholics--not splintering the
Church-were cited as goals of the
National Black Catholic Convention
held on the campus of Loyola
University here.
Marianist Brother Joseph M. Davis,
executive director of the National
Office of Black Catholics (NOBC) and
Auxiliary Bishop Joseph L. Howze of
Natchez-Jackson, Miss., both denied any
intent on the part of the convention to
form a splinter group-within or outside
the Church.
Brother Davis showed irritation at a
press conference when the suggestion of
a split in the Church was. made and said
NOBC would help the black Catholics
to work within the framework of the
Church.
“I don’t know why the NOBC should
suggest that,” he said. “We have in this
country a Polish national seminary. And
in any large city you go into, you’ll find
Italian Catholic churches, and Irish
Catholic churches, and how have they
splintered the Catholic Church? What
the National Office of Black Catholics is
trying to do is to strengthen the
experience of black Catholics in the
Catholic Church and to find out what
we can do for our brothers and sisters
who are not Catholics.”
Bishop Howze said that unlike black
Methodists and Baptists who broke
away and formed their own churches,
black Catholics do not wish to break
away from the Church, but to become a
bigger part of it.
“We’re not trying to fight the Church
or to draw away from it,” the bishop
said. “We’re here to try to move toward
changes that will help to insure their
[blacks’] salvation within the Church. If
there’s one thing I would be
disappointed in, it would be that there
are so few blacks and even fewer whites
here at the convention.”
Bishop Howze, a Protestant convert
who became the third black bishop in
the history of the U.S. Catholic Church,
says there is a need for black bishops in
other parts of the country, too.
“I’m hopeful that the Church will see
and fulfill the need of black Catholics in
some of the larger areas of the
country-New York, Chicago.
“As for myself,” the bishop said, “it’s
hard to say what I’ve accomplished as a
bishop. I’ve been a bishop for five
months, and I’ve been on the road
three-fourths of that time.”
The convention, which had as its
theme “Forging Directions,” was the
first national black convention since
1894 when a convention sought ways of
bettering religous and social conditions
for blacks.
Groups taking part in the convention
here were 400 delegates from the
National Black Sisters Conference and
the National Black Catholic Clergy
Caucus, and the National Black Lay
Catholic Caucas.
Sub-themes included “Soulin’
Together in His Power,” “Crisis and
Vision,” “The Politics of God,” and
“Spirituality for a Revolution.”
HEADLINE
HOPSCOTCH
Cf!
Sav. To Host Worship Congress
BY REV. MICHAEL SMITH
“We Believe. Let us Pray,” is the
theme chosen for the fourth Catholic
Congress on Worship to be held at the
Civic Center, Savannah, Georgia, from
Thursday evening, November 8, through
Saturday noon, November 10.
The congress theme will be developed
in four major presentations. The first
lecture will be, “Believing in Jesus.” It
will consider what is involved and what
it means to make a personal act of faith
in Jesus.
The second lecture, “The
INSIDE STORY
Broken Marriages
Pg. 2
Mary Carson
Pg. 4
'Know Your Faith’
Pg. 5
Book Review
Pg. 6
Prayerfulness of Jesus” will focus on the
one in whom we believe. It will consist
of a Bible-based reflection on the
prayer life of Jesus. The aim of the
lecture will be to undergird the church’s
calling to be a prayerful people because
she is following the way of the prayerful
Jesus.
Lecture three will delve into the field
of Church history. Entitled “The
Church at Prayer,” it will investigate the
many and various concrete forms the
church’s prayer life has taken through
the centuries. It will show how the
Church has always fulfilled her calling
to be a people of prayer, but in many
different ways through the centuries.
The closing lecture will attempt to tie
together the whole work of the congress
by analyzing and evaluating what is
needed to vitalize the prayer life of
the Church today. “The Church at
Prayer Today” will be an effort to give
congress participants a definite sense of
what to do as they leave to carry on
their service of nuturing the church’s
life of prayer.
Fr. Alfred McBride will give the first
and third talks. Msgr. Warren Holleran,
the second; and Bishop Rene Gracida,
the third.
Ten workshops will complete the
congress program. Aiming more at the
practical side of things, the workshops
will try to show HOW the Church today
can fulfill its calling to be a people of
prayer. The areas to be covered include:
“Using Music to Foster Prayer,”
“Charismatic Prayer,” “Family Prayer,”
“Prayer within the Protestant
Tradition,” “Celebrating Baptism and
Penance Prayerfully,” “Praying the
Bible.” Also, “Using Audio-Visuals in
Prayer,” “Renewing Traditional Forms
of Prayer,” “The Dance as Prayer,” and
“Environments that Help Us to Pray.”
The congress is sponsored by the
Catholic bishops of Georgia, North and
South Carolina. It is the fourth such
congress to be held. The others were in
Charlotte, Greenville and Atlanta.
MRS. MARY TEOLI
Mrs. Mary J. Teoli, mother of Father
Robert J. Teoli, pastor of St. Matthew’s
parish Statesboro, died August 4 in New
York after a short illness. She was 76
years of age.
Mrs. Teoli was known to many
hundreds of people in Savannah Beach,
Thunderbolt, Albany and Statesboro.
Since 1960 she had served as
housekeeper for Father Teoli during his
pastorates in those cities.
A Mass of the Resurrection was
celebrated at St. Matthias church in the
Glendale section of Queens, New York,
where she had been a parishioner for
Brother Davis said unity is important
to black Catholics and only through
that unity can they become a force in
the decision-making processes of the
Church.
“We’re trying to show black Catholics
the need for them to have a bigger voice
in the Church,” he said, “and I find this
clearly related to the doctrines of
Vatican II. We must make this become
workable; we have to develop the
machinery to make it work. I guess if
you tried to define what we’re looking
for, you’d have to do it in broad terms.
What it is, is some real form of power in
the control in the diocesan process.”
many years on August 8. Burial was at
St. John’s cemetery in New York.
Mrs. Teoli is survived by three sons,
Father Teoli; Alfred, a resident at
Columbus, Ohio; William, of Asbury
Park, N.J.
She is also survived by two daughters,
Mrs. Marian Cerro and Mrs. Ann Gibson,
both of New York.
Members of Mrs. Teoli’s family asked
that contributions be made to St.
Mary’s Home in Savannah in lieu of
flowers or other remembrances.
Priest’s Mother Dies
Nun Leads Parish
MILPO, Peru (NC) - The “priest” in this high Andean village is a nun, and male
parishioners have been asked to accept the fact and cooperate. Sister Anna Josephine,
an Italian missionary, was appointed pastor of Milpo. Her vicar, Father Angel Ubiale of
Yanacancha parish, said the scarcity of priests in the area made necessary this
arrangement. Sister Anna distributes Communion and performs marriage ceremonies
and baptizes. She leads prayer services but does not say Mass. In seeking the
cooperation of the male population, who had sought a priest, Father Ubiale reminded
them that in Africa and in areas of Brazil nuns have carried out some priestly duties
for many years.
Election Change Rejected
PARIS (NC) - A Melkite-rite archbishop objected to participation by Eastern-rite
patriarchs in the election of the Pope on the grounds that such participation “would
consecrate” a “centralization that today constitutes the greatest obstacle to Christian
unity.” Pope Paul VI has indicated that he may allow Eastern-rite patriarchs to
participate in the election of the next Pope. At present, only cardinals can participate.
In an article in a French Catholic magazine, Archbishop Elias Zoghby of Baalbek,
Lebanon, said that the Eastern Orthodox churches and western ecumenists can only
oppose participation by patriarchs as “a new affirmation of Roman centralization.”
Korean Christians Unhappy
WASHINGTON (NC) - A group of Korean Christians have sent out of Korea “a
declaration in the name of the Korean Christian community” condemning the regime
of President Park Chung Hee. The declaration accused Park of using the military and
the intelligence network to oppress the Korean people. “The regime in Korea is
destroying freedom of conscience and freedom of religious belief . ..” it said. “There
is interference by the regime in Christian churches” worship, prayer, gatherings,
content of sermons and teachings of the Bible.”
Pickets Freed
FRESNO, Calif. (NC) - Seventy-six priests, nuns and seminarians were among
almost 300 persons released from Fresno County jails after spending 14 days in jail on
charges of violating picketing injunctions. The release was the climax of a legal struggle
which had been going on since mass arrests took place in late July on the picket lines
at farms struck by the United Farm Workers Union.