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The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 54 No. 32 Thursday, September 20,1973 Single Copy Price - 12 Cents
VSCC OFFICE ISSUES PAPER
Document Studies Penance-Communion Debate
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PARENTS HELP THEIR SON TO PREPARE for
reception of First Holy Communion while brother and
sister look on. At center of apparent confusion, which
occasioned the USCC study paper on preparation for
Penance and Holy Communion is the question of when
and in what context a seven-year old is ready to
experience God’s forgiveness in a liturgical form.
8 IN CHA THAM COUNTY
Sunday Schools for Retarded
Feeling a concern for the religious
education of the retarded, the Chatham
Association for Retarded Children two
years ago set up on the local level in
Savannah a Religious Nurture
Committee which is also functioning on
the state and national levels.
With Mrs. Wm. C. Broderick
Chairman, the following served on the
Committee at some time during the
two-year period: Mrs. David Peck,
Co-Chairman; Mrs. James C. Hatcher,
Secretary; Dr. Jack Blackstone, Rev.
Harry Bruen, Robert Doren, Mrs. Carl
M. Franklin, Rev. N. Robert Gill, Miss
Mamie Groover, James E. Hartz, Rev.
Stan Hill, Rev. Ervin Jennings, James
Lambert, Jonathan McDonald, Greg
Roberts, Rabbi A.I. Rosenberg, Mrs.
Helen S. Schroder, Rev. Tucker
Singleton, Mrs. Margo Timmons and
Mrs. Joan Young.
At the time the Committee began to
function there were already two Sunday
Schools in existance, Calvary Baptist
and Savannah Deanery (Catholic).
Now, at the conclusion of two years
of concentrated effort, the Committee
INSIDE STORY
Right of Privacy
Pg. 3
Fr. Reedy
Pg. 4
Book Review
Pg. 6
Chile, Church
Pg. 7
is able to announce that there are six
additional ones which offer religious
education for the retarded. These are:
Bible Baptist, First Bryan Baptist,
Memorial Baptist, St. John’s Baptist,
Sunset Park Church of Christ and White
Bluff Presbyterian.
Information concerning these Sunday
Schools may be secured from the above
churches or at the Retarded Children’s
Center and Pius X Center.
The Exceptional Children’s Sunday
School directed by Mrs. Broderick
began its fifth year Sept. 16 with a Mass
at St. Benedict’s parish hall, celebrated
by the Spiritual Moderator, Father Fred
Nijem. Registration followed the Mass.
Classes will begin on Sunday,
Beginning this week, THE SOUTH
ERN CROSS broadens its service to
readers by offering the comments of
one of the most experienced editors of
the Catholic press.
For the first time, Father John
Reedy, C.S.C., publisher of Ave Maria
Press, will present a weekly column to a
diocesan newspaper.
For seventeen years Father Reedy
served as editor of the now-defunct
AVE MARIA magazine. At present, he
directs a book publishing operation, a
book club and a printing plant; he also
edits the bi-weekly, A.D.
CORRESPONDENCE.
Of his new column, he says, “I’ll be
seeking the center. The past two
decades in the life of the Church have
been exciting, important and
frustrating.”
September 23, at Sacred Heart School
from 9:45 to 10:45 a.m. Teachers in the
Sunday School are: Mrs. Margaret
Bland, Mrs. Maribelle Bryant, Mrs. Rose
Miller, Mrs. Carolyn Moye and Miss
Rosalie Williams. The following young
ladies will serve as aides in the program:
Misses Kathy Banks, Claire Cliett,
Laurell Jost, Joan Kearns, Patty
Pennington, and Laurie Sweat.
This program is open to non-Catholic
as well as Catholic children from six to
twelve years, teenagers and young
adults. Registrations will be accepted on
Sundays while the classes are in session
or by calling Mrs. Wm. C. Broderick at
355-3287. Parents of exceptional
children are encouraged to take
advantage of this opportunity to secure
religious education for their children
and in many cases preparation for them
to receive some of the Sacraments.
Father Reedy lives and works on the
campus of the University of Notre
Dame in South Bend.
Father John Reedy
New Column Begins
BY JERRY FILTEAU
WASHINGTON (NC) - A “positive
pastoral approach” is the key to
resolving difficulties over the reception
of first confession before first
Communion, according to a U.S.
Catholic Conference offical who is
deeply involved in the issue.
Father Charles McDonald, whose
national office of Religious
Education-Confraternity of Christian
Doctrine (CCD) has issued a 35-page
study paper on first confession, said the
reason for the study was to provide a
positive focus on the issues surrounding
first confession before first
Communion.
The May 24 Vatican declaration
calling for an end to experiments that
delayed first confession until after first
Communion “came on the scene very
suddenly and unexpectedly,” Father
McDonald said.
The CCD official added that the staff
in the national office “saw that the
matter was rather complex . .. While we
were not able to make definitive
judgments or guidelines, we felt that we
could make a contribution to the
discussion in the way of a study paper.
“We worked about five or six weeks
on this paper,” he continued. “Diocesan
officials were very helpful - we wrote to
them and asked them to keep us
informed on what they were doing.”
Out of the consultation with diocesan
offices around the country and in
collaboration with specialists in Church
law, theology and religious education,
the CCD office produced a 35-page
study.
The first 15 pages are devoted to a
careful analysis of pertinent Church
documents and custom in order to
delineate precisely what is required by
the Church’s laws regarding Penance and
what is a matter of serious
recommendation and custom based on
serious pastoral considerations.
The rest of the study paper is
concerned with principles of pastoral
practice and religious education, and
practical suggestions for religious
education and liturgical celebration of
Penance.
In one sense, Father McDonald said,
the second aspect of the paper is the
more important. “The real issue lies in
whether or not we can find catechetical
and liturgical ways of making the
sacrament of Penance meaningful to the
child.”
If this happens, he said, parents who
were enthusiastic about delayed
confession will be able to find the same
positive values in earlier confession.
“But,” he added quickly, “the
(Continued on Page 2)
2 NEW POSTS CREATED
Fr. Boland Named Vicar General
In appointments announced by
Bishop Raymond W. Lessard late last
week (Sept. 14), Father J. Kevin Boland
was named Vicar General of the
Savannah Diocese. Father Boland, who
is pastor of Blessed Sacrament parish,
Savannah, also served as Vicar General
under Bishop Lessard’s predecessor,
Bishop Gerard L. Frey.
Bishop Lessard also announced the
creation of two new diocesan posts,
appointed Deans for the Albany and
Columbus Deaneries, and named a new
Director of Catholic Cemeteries.
Assigned to the newly created
diocesan posts are Father Liam Collins,
Delegate for Charismatic Renewal; and
Father Robert Teoli, Coordinator of
Pro-life Activities.
Father Herbert J. Wellmeier is the
new Dean of the Albany Deanery and
Father Edward Frank will head up the
Columbus Deanery.
Father Lawrence Lucree succeeds
Monsignor Daniel J. Bourke as Director
of Catholic Cemeteries.
Vicar General
On June 15th, Bishop Lessard sent a
letter to all priests of the diocese asking
them to submit “suggestions and views
on the man among you whom you
consider most suitable for the position
of Vicar General.” It was these
suggestions and views, the bishop said
which led him to appoint Father Boland
to the position.
In his June 15th letter, Bishop
Lessard had described the role of Vicar
General as “the bishop’s first and
immediate structural link with the rest
of the diocese” and a priest who is
ready and qualified to share with the
bishop many administrative and pastoral
functions.
The Vicar General must also, said the
bishop, “act as a spokesman to the
bishop for the various sectors as well as
individuals in the diocese, faithfully
making known their needs and their
desires.”
The position of Vicar General is not
“primarily a desk job,” he declared, but,
since one of his primary tasks is to
maintain an “on-going living contact
between the chief pastor and the others
in the community, he could render a
more effective service were he more
actively present in the pastoral life of
the diocese.”
Father Boland, a priest since 1959,
has held many diocesan posts and
pastoral assignments. He served assistant
pastorships at St. Mary’s-on-the-Hill,
and the Cathedral of St. John the
Baptist. He was a member of the faculty
of St. John Vianney Minor Seminary in
1961 to 1965.
After serving as pastor of St.
Michael’s, Savannah Beach from 1967
to 1968, he was named Chancellor of
the diocese, a post he held until 1972
when he became Administrator of the
Diocese upon the transfer of Bishop
Frey to the diocese of Lafayette, La.
Fr. J. Kevin Boland
Father Boland also served as Rector
of the Cathedral from 1970 to 1972
when he was assigned to his present
pastorate at Blessed Sacrament parish.
Albany Dean
The new Albany Dean, Father
Herbert J. Wellmeier is pastor of St.
Teresa parish, Albany. A graduate of the
Pontifical College Josephinum, he was
ordained in 1956 and has held parish
assignments in Savannah, Savannah
Beach and Augusta. His pastorates
include St. Michael’s, Sav. Beach; Sacred
Heart, Augusta and Most Pure Heart of
Mary, Savannah. He is a charter member
of the Priests’ Senate of the Savannah
diocese.
Columbus Dean
Father Edward Frank, the new Dean
of the Columbus Deanery has been
pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes parish
there since 1970. His previous
assignments have included pastorships at
Jesup and Waycross and assistant
pastorships in Savannah and Macon.
Father Frank was ordained in 1956
and, like Father Wellmeier is a graduate
of the Pontifical College Josephinum.
He served as assistant on the Diocesan
Marriage Tribunal from 1957 to 1964.
(Continued on Page 2)
HEADLINE
HOPSCOTCH
a
Experiments Banned
WASHINGTON (NC) -- The U.S. Senate approved by a vote of 88-0 a sweeping
measure banning experiments on live fetuses before or after abortion. The ban would
cover research funded by the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare
(HEW). The Vote came on an amendment proposed by Sen. James L. Buckley (R.,
N.Y.) for inclusion in the Senate version of the Public Health Services Act of 1974.
The Senate also approved an amendment by Sen. J. Glenn Beall Jr. (R.-Md.) to
prohibit psychosurgery, or behavior modification by brain surgery.
'Superstar’ Memo
WASHINGTON (NC) - In a memo sent to dioceses throughout the nation, the U.S.
bishops’ Secretariat for Catholic-Jewish Relations says that “important portions” of
the film Jesus Christ Superstar “defame and depreciate Jews and Judaism.” The
memo, intended for use in discussing the film in parishes, recalls the Second Vatican
Council’s warning against “hatred, persecutions and displays of anti-Semitism, stated
against the Jews.”
British Jail Blasted
CORPUS CHRISTI, Tex. (NC) - Bishop Thomas J. Drury of Corpus Christi has
called the Long Kesh internment camp used by the British army in Northern Ireland a
“notorious hell-hole.” Bishop Drury said that on a recent trip to Ireland he visited
Long Kesh and “was shocked and outraged by the obscene conditions of the camp;
but I was deeply impressed and edified by the spirit, courage and dignity of the
POWs.”