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PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, October 4,1973
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The Southern Cross
OUR PARISH
Confession
First?
Business Office 225 Abercorn St. Savannah, Ga. 31401
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Rev. Francis J. Donohue, Editor John E. Markwalter, Managing Editor
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Bread and Circuses
On a popular late-night talk show last
week, the show’s host and a professional
basketball super-star touched briefly on
the high salaries paid some athletes. The
observation was made that many people
think “no one is worth a million dollars
per year.”
The judgement of both host and guest
celebrity was that it’s nobody’s business
how much money somebody else makes.
It would appear that there are not
very many people who disagree with that
judgement.
Certainly, it’s true that John Doe has
no business poking around to find out
how much money his next door
neighbor made last year. But that really
has nothing to do with what some
people consider the “scandal” of
six-figure financial inducements dangled
before college athletes by teams in the
baseball, basketball and football
big-time, or the million-dollars-per-pic-
ture paid to some film stars.
Twenty thousand dollars per year isn’t
exactly chicken feed, even in today’s
inflated economy. Yet, at that rate a
person would have to work more than
forty-five years to earn what Elizabeth
Taylor commands to perform in just one
film, or what many of America’s star
professional athletes make in less than
five years.
History seems to indicate that just as
man’s body needs bread to survive, his
psyche needs circuses to be happy.
But, surely, something’s terribly out
of kilter when a society can see nothing
unseemly in rewarding its entertainers
with enormous sums of money for their
services, but doles out remuneration to
those who make society work in nickels
and dimes.
Many policemen and firemen, whose
lives are constantly on the line to protect
life, limb and property, are forced to
‘moonlight’ at second jobs in order to
make ends meet.
School teachers must keep up a
running battle with the people whose
children they serve in order to receive
wages they can live on.
Let any labor union seek higher pay
for its members and anguished cries go
up from millions of Americans about
how greedy union workers are.
Can you imagine the chaos that would
exist if all the garbage and trash
collectors suddenly quit and no
replacements could be found. Yet,
traditionally, these men are among the
lowest paid of public servants.
Now, we’re certainly not saying that
everybody ought to get the same wages,
regardless of the kind of work he does.
What we’re saying is that society
needs to take a long hard look at those
who serve its needs-those who provide
the ‘bread,’ that is, the food, shelter,
education and protection-and those who
provide the circuses, decide which of the
two needs is paramount, and then face
this question squarely:
Is it really true that “it’s nobody’s
business how much money somebody
else makes?
Life Is a Biennial
Mary Carson
The other night we had a cold snap, and
turned on the oil burner in our home. My
husband commented, “As much as I like the
warm weather, it does feel good to have the
heat up.”
He was right. And I wondered why it was so.
The best I could guess was the feeling of
closeness, security. His casual comment
prompted some radical thoughts, contrary to all
the poets and songwriters of generations.
Frequently, poets compare life to the
seasons . . . youth as spring . . . fading to the
winter of old age. But it seems to me there’s
more to look forward to than a frosty old age.
Suppose you start with my husband’s remark
about the warmth and security with the house
closed up for the cold weather. Then winter
becomes our early married years . . . our
children young . . . the comfort and warmth of
having them all in the house with us.
But they grow, and in spring set out on new,
independent lives of their own. The windows
are thrown open, the doors wide, welcoming
the freshness of new life, new vitality, new
vigor . . . life that we protected, and subtly
nurtured in the winter so that now it can stand
and grow on its own.
And so if they become independent in
spring, they begin to flower in summer. They
begin their life’s work. .
While the early blossoms are fading, they are
forming the seeds of their ambitions, their
goals . . . what they will give life; and what life
will give them.
As autumn comes, they mature. They take
this seed of hope, the germ of ideals and they
have a moment of control. They can let it be
scattered by the winds . . . blown away . . .
lost . . . forgotten. Or they can safeguard it,
protect and nurture it.
And what they do with those potentials will
determine the degree of security and
contentment in their winter.
But what happened to the parents of the
previous winter?
What will happen to us? The winter of our
family’s secure childhood is over. Our children
are in their springtime. My husband and I . . .
what happens to our lives now?
We are in our second spring . . . hardier than
the first . .. more adaptable . . . more
compatible. And having surmounted the
struggles of the first spring, the second is more
beautiful. Though not as youthful, we still have
the vigor of growth . . . growth together in
harmony, with the inter-personal relationship
that strives for mutual benefit . . . the increase
of love that results from greater knowledge of
the other.
We still have our “second summer” to
anticipate ... a fuller, richer blossoming than
the first summer can ever acachieve ... a
development far beyond anything we could
have known possible that first year. For the
best seeds of biennials . . . the most worthwhile
ideals and ambitions . . . take two seasons to
develop.
Rather than resenting the loss of our youth,
I’m looking forward to these years for they
should see the accomplishment of those early
dreams.
Our “second summer” will have the wisdom
of experience, the strength of maturity, the
flexibility of survival, and the joy that we did
it . . . together.
But summer must end, and in the second
autumn the ripened fruits will be harvested.
And we will begin our third winter in a new
life, a new home, peaceful, and serene . . . for
all eternity.
For this, we were born.
For this, we lived . . .loved.
And for this, someday, we must die.
, fee ,
OConncH
Of Loss... And Gratitude
Reverend John Reedy C.S.C.
I have the feeling that a big hole has just
opened in my life.
Within the hour I learned of the death of a
man who had become very important to me in
these years of transition and confusion.
He was my religious superior until a couple
of months ago -- understanding, trusting,
compassionate and encouraging,
As an older man whom I admired, whose
goals and values I shared, he was something of a
father-figure to me. Because I served on his
staff, he opened himself to me in some of his
doubts, worries, and disappointments - in his
humanity.
He was a friend, not as an intimate
companion (there was too much difference in
age, experience, personality for that) but
through deep mutual affection and respect.
Most of all, he was, in my eyes, a priest for
these times and needs.
There’s no danger that anyone will write one
of those unbelievably pious biographies of this
man. His limitations were too obvious for that.
But he was a GOOD man in his recognition
and remorse over those limitations, especially
when he feared they might leave scars on
others.
I would have been less impressed -- certainly
less fond - if there were no visible weaknesses
with which I could identify.
He was also thoroughly a priest in his
dedication and values. There was a constancy
about his belief and principles. He was open to
new insights, willing to listen to the most
bizarre, half-baked theories. But he had enough
self-confidence to tell even the most
fashionable propagandist that he thought he
was wrong.
Nor was he reluctant to say the same thing,
with respect and honesty, to high Church
officials.
Some of my associates in the Catholic press
knew what it was to be “left turning in the
wind,” but this man never once backed off,
from anyone, in giving me support to do the
things he had assigned me to do.
He was responsible for a wide variety of
institutions, some of them very large.
But I remember a remark he made to me
early in his administration. He said, “Somebody
had to look after money and institutional
problems, but somehow this kind of problem
can always be solved in one way or another. I
am much more concerned about the problems
of the men.”
This was his agony during these years. He
had to deal with religious who were troubled,
confused . . . who were seeking answers to their
problems by leaving the priesthood and the
community.
For some, he realized that the decision was
right, and he was not scandalized. For many, he
thought they were simply transferring their
problems into a new seat of circumstances.
With them, he was always troubled that there
might have been something more he could have
said that would have helped.
It’s hard for men, especially priests, of my
generation to speak of their love for another
man, but there’s no other word to describe my
regard for him.
And it seems to me that such a response
toward a religious superior in these times says
much about the man.
What Hit Me?
Reverend Joseph Dean
Recently I was reading a booklet from the
U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Conference. It was about
evangelizing in the modern world. As a member
of the Glenmary Missioners I have always been
interested in evangelical work. But three lines in
this booklet hit me, almost physically it
seemed, as something really new in the field, as
something that called for action right now.
I would like to share these lines and tell what
action was taken. “The life of faith is only
nourished and only grows in the community,
especially in today’s secularized society. This
shows that it is necessary that there should arise
and develop communities of every kind in
which the individual members may
communicate their faith to one another and
test and increase that faith. At the same time
these communities should spread the faith
outside themselves and communicate and
confirm it.” (Evangelization in the Modern
World, U.S. Catholic Conference, page 14.)
The immediate reaction to that statement
was this: Our mission parish in McRae, Georgia,
contacted a group of six families in Augusta
who have banded together to form a evangelical
lay witness team. Two of the families came over
130 miles the following week-end to work out a
program with the members of the parish, as
community to community. They will come one
week-end a month to put into action, on a local
level, what the Catholic Bishops are
recommending on all levels, namely, “This life
of faith is nourished and grows only in
community today.”
For more information Mr. and Mrs. Dale
Clark, may be contacted at 2321 Norton Court,
Augusta, Ga. 30906.
Joe Breig
There was really no need for the fuss and
confusion that followed upon the Vatican
decree calling for a closing out of the
experimenting with first Communion before
first confession for children.
We are speaking, of course, about the
Western (Roman) Church, in which Pope St.
Pius X ordered that children must be given
Communion upon attaining sufficient use of
reason to realize that after the consecration in
the Mass, Christ is personally present under the
appearances of bread and wine.
In phasing out the experimenting, the
Vatican was not rejecting the pastoral and
psychological opinions which hold that young
children are incapable of grave sin, or at least
do not in fact commit such sins.
Neither was Rome saying that children may
not receive first Communion without
confessing first. Of course they may.
The Vatican merely directed that children
should not be prepared for, and admitted, to,
Communion without also being instructed for
the sacrament of Penance and being given an
opportunity to confess if they so desire -
although they must never be forced or coerced
to confess.
Rome’s basic concern was to protect the
right of every youngster to go to confession
before first Communion if such is the child’s
wish. That right, the Vatican felt, had not been
adequately protected -- indeed, was being
infringed - in experiments which delayed the
opportunity for confessing until a year or
more after first Communion.
One cause of confusion was a widely
published news item quoting an unnamed
“Vatican spokesman” as saying, “The order of
the sacraments has been restored to confession
and then Communion. What could be clearer?”
Maybe it was clear, but it was greatly
oversimplified. The Holy See, for example, has
never interfered with the centuries-old practice,
in some oriental Catholic * rites, of giving
Communion to infants immediately after
Baptism, and as often thereafter as their parents
present them for the Eucharist. Obviously,
these babies may receive Communion many
times before they are old enough to have any
consciousness whatever of sin.
When all is said and done, the Vatican simply
said that children in the Western Church, like
older Catholics, must be free to receive the
sacrament of Penance before first Communion
if they so wish. And it is understood that
confession is never strictly obligatory -
although highly to be recommended -- unless
mortal sin is present;
It seems to me, by the way, that most
; children will want to go to confession as a
matter of devotion and counselling if they are
wisely instructed in the sacrament as being a
great source of grace and a conversation,
though the priest, with Christ who died for
them. It is like an athlete consulting with his
coach, or a student with a teacher, about how
to improve . . .in this case, spiritually.
■E<5,3 He Asked
Reverend James ^ilmes
Many of us must confess that there is a secret
joy in seeing someone get “What’s coming to
him” as a result of his own actions. We wish no
man ill, we glory in no man’s misfortune; yet
there is a sneaky, furtive pleasure to be derived
from seeing someone (who has asked for it)
“hoist on his own petard.”
Shakespeare coined this phrase, and we have
to understand that “hoist” means “shot
sky-high,” while “petard” is old French for an
explosive device like a bomb or a mine.
The engineer who was “hoist on his own
petard” suffered in his own person what he had
planned to inflict on others. It was “poetic
justice” - the kind that poets can create, but
which too rarely happens in real life.
When it does, we need not fear we are
morbidly evil, if we feel good about it,
providing no real tragedy is involved. The
occasional hoisting of would-be petardists
reassures us that there is a Power somewhere,
balancing the scales. This is a good lesson for the
sufferer, and a warning reminder for the
observer, too!
RESOLUTION: Prove your secret joy is not
invective or revenge or hatred by praying for or
doing good to them as St. Paul advises in Rom.
12, 20. Trust Jesus; “Judgment is mine,” and
never try to “get even.”
SCRIPTURE: “If a servant says, ‘My master
delays his return,’ and begins to beat other
servants and get drunk, then the master will
return on a day he does not expect and make
that servant share the lot of the unfaithful.’”
Lk. 12,45.