Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 7—The Southern Cross, October 11,1973
RECESS IS OVER AND IT’S BACK TO WORK. A Waycross 7 St. Joseph’s Academy rush back to class,
smiling Father Michael O’Keefe watches students at
CONSERVATIVE CATHOLIC WEEKLY
Bible Scholars’ Spokesman
Answers 44 The Wanderer”
WASHINGTON (NC) - Responding
to a challenge from The Wanderer, a
conservative Catholic newspaper
published in St. Paul, a spokesman for
the Catholic Biblical Association (CBA)
cited specific examples to prove that the
paper deserved the blast which the CBA
levelled at it earlier.
The controversy began near the end
of September when the CBA made
public a letter it had sent to the
Catholic bishops of the country,
charging that certain “fundamentalists”
in the Church “freely level against
responsible scholars charges of heresy
and perversion of faith.”
In a press release accompanying the
letter the CBA named the
independently owned Wanderer as of
the “fundamentalist” publications it
had in mind.
In an Oct. 4 editorial The Wanderer’s
associate editor, A.J. Matt Jr., called on
the CBA to substantiate its charges with
“specific criticisms of individual articles
published in the Wanderer.”
In a two-page statement replying to
the Wanderer’s challenge, the CBA’s
executive secretary, Father Joseph
Jensen, cited by author, date and page
number seven Wanderer articles which,
he said, “illustrate some of the points
raised in our recent letter to the
bishops.”
Father Jensen expressed surprise at
“Mr. Matt’s apparent unawareness” that
these were some of the articles referred
to. It should be “self-evident to
Catholics,” he said, that people are
usurping the Church’s teaching
authority when they “brand as heretics
men who regularly publish under the
Church’s imprimatur [official
permission to publish a book] and who
have received signal marks of approval
from Pope and bishop.”
Father Jensen labelled
“fundamentalism in its extremest form”
an article by Father John H. Ryder in
the Aug. 31, 1972, issue of the
Wanderer. According to Father Jensen,
the article calls Fathers William Heidt
and Barnabas Ahern “Modernist” for
interpreting the forbidden fruit in the
Book of Genesis symbolically rather
than literally. (Modernism was a heresy
condemned early in the 20th century.)
“This is fundamentalism in its
extremest form,” said Father Jensen.
“The works in question were published
with the imprimatur; Father Akern is a
former consultor of the Pontificial
Biblical Commission.”
“The New American Bible translators
are accused of ‘changes . . .that distort
or water down Catholic
teaching’ .. .when their renderings don’t
conform to the Vulgate,” said Father
Jensen, quoting from a June 21, 1973
article by Father Robert Burns, a
regular Wanderer columnist. The
Vulgate, St. Jerome’s 4th-century Latin
translation of the Bible, was accepted as
the standard translation for centuries of
the Church’s history.
Father Jensen also cited several
attacks on Father Raymond E. Brown,
the only American member of the
Pontificial Biblical Commission. Father
Brown, he said, “is called ‘ .. .an
apostasizing priest and a heretic’ who
‘has lost his faith (and) .. .is working to
destory our faith’; he is repeatedly
accused of the heresy of Modernism,”
Father Jensen cited articles by Wanderer
correspondents C.J. Robinson, Charles
Pulver and William Marshner.
He pointed out that Father Brown’s
works “regularly carry the imprimatur”
and appointments, such as Father
Brown’s to the Pontificial Biblical
Commission are, in the words of Pope
Paul VI, to be given only to those
considered “outstanding for their
learning, prudence and Catholic regard
for the magisterium [teaching
authority] of the Church.”
Father Jensen cited William
Marshner’s statement that “since Pope
John’s time the magisterium has been
increasingly paralyzed in its dealings
with biblical scholars” (March 15,1973)
as a clear example of attempts by the
Wanderer “to place itself above the
magisterium.”
“The Wanderer has slandered and
calumniated men who are devoted
priests, committed Catholics, and
meticulous sholars,” Father Jensen
concluded. “By all the rules of Catholic
moral teaching, Mr. Matt and his staff
(who hopefully have not embraced a
new morality) are bound to retraction
and restitution for damaging the good
names of others.”
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WAYCROSS SCHOOL
St. Joseph’s Observes Jubilee
NEW WING FOR CONVENT AT WARNER
ROBINS. On Sept. 30, Bishop Raymond W. Lessard
dedicated a new addition to the Sisters’ residence at
Sacred Heart parish, following a special Mass in the
parish church. (From right to left) Father Gerard
Murphy, Chancellor; Bishop Lessard, Sister M. Pius,
Sister M. Ursula, Sister M. Ignatius, Sister M. Kevin and
five unidentified members of a Fourth Degree Knights
of Columbus Honor Guard.
Father O’Keefe, was absorbed “by the
generosity of motion picture star,
Walter Brennan.
During its first twenty years, the
school outgrew its facilities and a new
wing was added in 1970.
Then, in 1972, the shortage of
Nun-teachers finally caught up with the
Waycross school and the Franciscan
Sisters were withdrawn. Many thought,
said Father 0‘Keefe, that the school
would not be able to re-open in the Fall.
But the people of Waycross were not
about to give up on the school they had
brought into existence. At a joint
meeting of the parish board and the
school board during the summer of
1972, it was decided that the school
would continue with a lay faculty.
In August of last year, the Academy’s
present headmaster, Mr. Donald
Buckley, and his wife Pauline arrived.
Father O’Keefe is proud of the record
of St. Joseph’s Academy graduates and
of the values imparted by the school.
“St. Joseph’s,” he said, “has always
adhered to Christian principles. It exists
to foster an education rooted in the love
of God and love for one’s fellow man,
and it has always been noted for its
concern for all students regardless of
race, color or creed. We wish it many
more happy birthdays to come.”
Filling out the faculty this year are
Mrs. Glenda Jones, Kindergarten; Mrs.
Pauline Buckley, 1st grade; Miss Helene
Purcell, 2nd grade and reading
coordinator for primary grades; Mrs.
Phyllis Steedley, 3rd grade and math
coordinator;
Mrs. Marcia Howard, 4th grade and
science coordinator for grades 1 to 4;
Mrs. Floretta Sims, 5th grade and
departmental work in junior high
grades; Miss Martha Costello, science
coordinator for grades 5 to 8;
Mrs. Elizabeth Miller, junior high
literature; Mrs. Martin Mickelsen,
French teacher for junior high.
THRIFT SHOP AT ST. MATTHEW’S, Statesboro, gets a face lift from
men of the parish and members of the Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity at nearby
Georgia Southern College. Fraternity brothers Jimmy Talkington, Cliff
Waldrop and Terry Sapp put the finishing touches to the sign while Bob
McCorckle, Bob Dannacher, John Vickery and Matt Bahelka ‘supervise.’
The first classes were begun in a
building next to the church with four
Francisan Sisters as teachers. Before
long the school was overcrowded, with
Catholic children in the minority.
They’re still in the minority.
Soon after this modest beginning,
construction started on the present
school facility. The initial costs of
$30,000 were met with proceeds from
spaghetti suppers, raffles and the sale of
concrete blocks.
Father O’Keefe noted in remarks at
Friday’s reception that tuition costs in
the early days of the Academy were
defrayed to some extent by bringing
“big name” dance bands to Waycross
and using the profits to ease the
financial burden on parents of the
students. Once, an opera was presented
as a fund-raising venture. It backfired,
however, resulting in a net loss of
fifteen hundred dollars. This loss, said
St. Joseph’s Academy in Waycross
observed its twenty-fifth anniversary
last Friday (Oct. 5) with a special Mass
at St. Joseph’s church followed by a
public reception in the school
auditorium.
Concelebrating the Mass were Bishop
Raymond W. Lessard, Father Michael
O’Neefe, St. Joseph’s pastor, and several
area priests.
St. Joseph’s Academy first opened its
doors in 1948. It was founded by
Father John Hillman, S.M. and 30
Waycross families. It was not, however,
an exclusively Catholic undertaking.
There weren’t enough Catholics in the
area to build and support a school all by
themselves and the academy never
would have come into being without the
active interest and support of men and
women of various denominations.
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Readers Reply
More on Pulpit and Politics
Editor:
In response to “Walked Out On
Watergate”, I would like Mr. Mathews
to know that I support him 101 per
cent.
There was a time when you could
enter any Catholic Church in the U.S.
and know that God was there - now
when you enter you have to look for
Him.
Two weeks ago, I made a trip to
Decatur, Georgia to return my daughter
to school. We literally “broke our
necks” to get there in time for Mass.
After witnessing the choir parade up
and down the aisles, and listening to a
discursive sermon, the ritual ended, and
I wondered if my soul might not have
been better saved had I “broken my
neck.” My first words when we were
out were “Thank God for the Cathedral
of St. John the Baptist”
After attending Mass in one parish for
over thirty years, I left. I gave my
actions a great deal of thought only to
come to the realization that I didn’t
leave my parish - it left me. My
daughters feel as strongly about this
subject as I , and we hope and pray that
the Cathedral doesn’t leave us.
If the New Church is going to put
more emphasis on politics and less on
religion perhaps many of us can find
more religion in our own back yard.
If indeed politics is the game, I’m for
President Nixon and all his associates
101 per cent.
Elizabeth J. Zittrauer
Savannah