Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, October 18,1973
Inadequate News Coverage
Two racially-motivated slayings of
Whites by Blacks in Boston two weeks
ago received banner headlines in
newspaper all over the country and were
duly reported on the nation’s network
television news programs. Both killings
were unspeakably brutal and inexcusable
crimes. Both had repurcussions here in
Georgia as well as in Boston. One did not
exactly have to eavesdrop on
conversation to hear them condemned in
patently racial terms.
But, while these killings were reported
in all their grisly details, other crimes in
Boston, involving serveral murders of
Blacks at the hands of Whites, and
including the slaying of a black youth by
Whites at a South Boston housing
project went unreported by the media
outside Boston. For them, no banner
headlines, in fact, no headlines at all. For
them, no doleful and regretful voices of
television network commentators.
While Boston’s mayor offered a
$5,000 reward for information about
black youths who forced a white woman
to pour gasoline on herself and burned
her to death, no rewards were offered
for similar information about the Whites
who killed Blacks.
The net result was a one sided and
distorted view of relations between
Blacks and Whites - one which saw only
a black community imbued with savage
hatred for the white community - when
the true picture was one of lingering
animosity among people of both races.
We don’t know how Georgia Catholics
reacted to news of the killings that were
reported, but we rather suspect that,
having been less than adequately
informed by the nation’s news media,
the reaction of some was one-sided and
unfair.
To them and to all who sincerely seek
an end to racial injustice and intolerance,
we recommend the words of Boston’s
Archbishop, Cardinal Humberto
Medieros, urging parents (and by
inference, everyone) “to be conscious of
the bad example they may set for their
children. Children must not be taught to
hate and fear. They must not learn or
reflect hatred and fear towards those
who are racially or culturally different.”
Muscle-Flexing
And The Gospel
Reverend John Reedy C.S.C.
For several months I’ve been trying to sort
out my evaluation of the effort to develop a
Catholic version of the Jewish Anti-Defamation
League. First, a few introductory observations:
The organization arises out of anger and
frustration over actions by courts, government
and public media -- actions which many
Catholics have regarded as unfair and offensive.
As citizens, they have every right to lobby and
protest to have their concerns heard.
Even if we recognize the unfairness and
offensiveness of some of these public actions
(decisions on abortion, school funding, the
episodes of MAUDE) it would be ridiculous to
equate the American Catholic experience of
prejudice and oppression with those of the
Jewish, the Black, the Spanish-Speaking and the
Indian communities.
With those preliminary observations, I fear
that such an effort, to the extent that it
achieves its own purposes, will conflict with the
basic purposes of the Church.
Years ago I heard Father John McKenzie say
that while Scripture scholars find relatively few
things in the Gospels that they can affirm with
absolute certitude, they were certain of Christ’s
teaching that the instruments for the
achievement of his Kingdom were NOT the
tools of power - military, economic or political
power.
Father McKenzie seemed to be saying that
the only Gospel-approved way of revealing the
Lord and preaching his message was the
“foolishness” of loving service, the “absurdity”
of winning hearts by the gentle acceptance of
hostility and persecution.
Put another way, the model for the Christian
citizen who would follow the crucified Christ,
is more likely to be Thomas More on the
scaffold than Cardinal Richelieu dominating the
policies of France.
This is a hard teaching, involving difficult
judgments. The Catholic has ethical obligations
as a citizen. He must be concerned, effectively
concerned, about his government’s respect for
life and human rights. He must be outraged
when welfare mothers are denied pre-natal care
until they authorize their own sterilization. He
can be legitimately concerned about public
structures which effectively deny parents their
right to have the education of their children
include a religious dimension.
My basic fear is that whenever Catholics,
organized as Catholics, begin to develop
political clout, the fundamental features of the
Church always become obscured.
More important, the face of the Lord, whom
we would reveal to others, becomes distorted.
It comes to resemble that of every other power
politician, every other manipulator of lives.
And that is idolatry . . .that is blasphemy!
*♦»$$ * sS
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In My Father’s House
Mary Carson
Some weeks ago I wrote about the things I
expect will be in “Mothers’ Heaven.” Last
night, as I crawled into bed, exhausted, I
realized there was something more I want in
Heaven . .. clean sheets on the bed every day.
I dozed off to sleep, and dreamed St. Peter
was standing there. He asked, “What makes you
think there’s only one Heaven?”
“I didn’t say that. I just listed little
happinesses that mothers would appreciate for
all eternity. I guess other people anticipate
different things.”
St. Peter said, “Just as people see God as a
perfected image of themselves, their idea of
Heaven is an extension of where they find
happiness on earth.”
He continued, “God tries to provide the
happiness each person seeks. Remember, Jesus
said, ‘In My Father’s house there are MANY
mansions.’ Do you realize that God can’t make
one day without someone, somewhere, finding
something wrong with it? If they can’t be
content for 24 hours, how could God make just
one Heaven to provide eternal happiness for
everyone?
“Some people have a very light-hearted idea
of Heaven. Others see it as a long-playing
solemn-high funeral. Some picture it having
youth and vigor; others anticipate pious
propriety.
“They are all good people so God made
many mansions. Come, let me show you what I
mean.”
DROUGHT IN ETHIOPIA ~
Emaciated cattle gather around a water
hole in the Archdiocese of Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia, where a drought has
caused widespread loss of life.
Estimates put the total at more than
50,000 persons, according to one
newspaper account. A relief worker
helps bring water to the thirsty cattle in
this photo. Christian relief
organizations have been cooperating in
emergency efforts in the region since
May. (NC Photo)
The New Mideast War
Joe Breig
The outbreak of another war in the Middle
East is a bitter disappointment. I had hoped
that the new leaders of Egypt, after ousting the
Russians who had been getting a stranglehold
on the country, would get around to accepting
Israel’s long-standing offer to sit down and
negotiate for peace, with everything on the
table, and no pre-conditions.
That way - the way of negotiations - lies a
better future for all the people of the mideast -
the Arabs even more than the Israelis. For the
Israelis, despite their terrible difficulties and the
constant pressure from the surrounding
governments, have developed their little
country amazingly, and have prospered.
The Israelis have made for themselves a good
life. Not a luxurious life, not what we call the
affluent life, but a good and thrifty life. In
comparison, the Arab lands have remained
underdeveloped; and among their people
grinding poverty is widespread, while the oil
millions which could have lifted them out of
their illiteracy and suffering have gone for the
engines of warfare.
A negotiated peace with Israel, coupled with
all-around cooperation in applying modern
technology for the development of agriculture,
industry and marketing, could have made the
Middle East bloom - and can do so yet if the
Arab leaders will choose that route. But the
Egyptian and Syrian rulers have clung to their
mistaken notion that “Arab honor” required
the destruction of Israel. And of course the
St. Peter stopped at a gingerbread house
marked “Toddlers’ Heaven.” The clouds were
all made of ice cream.
At the “Children’s Heaven” there were trees
to climb, bubbling brooks, rolling green
fields . . . and no school bells or bed time.
At the “Teen-agers’ Heaven,” along with the
Seraphim and Cherubim, there was an extra
choir of angels ... the Endlessdin .. . with no
parents to turn down the volume.
The “Father’s Heaven” had checkbooks with
a bit left after the children were fed and
educated.
We came to a sign reading, “Public Penitents’
Heaven.” The clouds were made of steel wool.
Next was a sterile, ivory pyramid with a
glistening star on top . . . the “Conservatives’
Heaven.”
The “Liberals’ Heaven” was an infinite
expanse .. .no boundaries, no beginnings, no
ends. It was difficult to know it you were there.
communist countries have missed no
opportunity to take advantage of the situation
by fishing in troubled waters, by exchanging
armaments for oil money, and by trying to
seize control, one way or another, of the
Mideast which remains a crossroads of the
world, as it has been for thousands of years.
One of the tragedies of the Middle East has
been the fact that the United Nations has been,
when all is said and done, powerless to do
anything permanently useful. The veto power
of the Soviet Union, along with the votes of
the Arab nations and their allies, has seen to
that. Before the 1967 Six Day War, United
Nations peace-keeping forces were stationed
along the border between the Arab countries
and Israel. When the Arabs ordered them
withdrawn, they were withdrawn in a day. In
short, the United Nations cannot enforce its
decisions; it cannot protect peace; it can only
establish a small and temporary presence which
has no real authority because it has no power.
It cannot successfully order a ceasefire and
negotiations.
And so we have this sad situation in which
the Holy Land is constantly involved in war or
threatened with war. That is not the desire of
the hundreds of millions throughout the world
who hold this land sacred. It is not the desire of
the world’s Christians, or the world’s Jews, or
the world’s Muslims. It is the consequence of
the bad leadership of a few rulers. But sooner
or later there must be the negotiated and lasting
peace for which we pray.
Then he led me to two adjacent mansions
divided by a large glass wall. The residents o
each could see who was in the other house. An<
they all looked shocked. One was labelei
“Prophets” and the other “False Prophets.”
The next mansion was apparently under
repair, but all the residents were working on the
foundation. There were so many of them, in
fact, they were in each other’s way, unable to
get anything done. And not one of them
noticed they hadn’t provided for windows . ..
or that their roof leaked.
St. Peter commented, “Even up here, God
can’t get them to work with the people down
the street. The other gang in the next mansion
has the roof and windows. But, this makes
them happy . . .”
As we walked further, we came to another
mansion. It wasn’t ornate, more rambling and
comfortable.
St. Peter commented, “It’s strange, but some
people never even dream this mansion is here.”
The people inside were smiling with joy . . .
even laughing. And as I woke up I could still
hear that beautiful, melodious sound . . .
Why Don’t
You Go
■Bh To Church?
Reverend Andrew M. Greeley
Copyright 1973, Inter/Syndicate
•....
There is an extremely important special
report in Mike McAuley’s Thomas More
newletter, Overview. Entitled “What can we tell
the children,” it raises the question of what
Catholic parents can say to their children who
attend parochial schools when they ask, “Why
don’t you and mom ever go to church?” (And
there is an increasing number of parents who
don’t.)
The answer is not very satisfying even to the
anonymous author. He doesn’t know what he
believes, but he still wants his children to
believe something and to have some sort of
religious training. He summarizes his problem in
the following crucial paragraph:
“However .. .it would seem that you’re
going to have to get your own head together
first. You’re going to have to know what you
believe and how to verbalize it. But given the
present state of theology, and the odds against
you soon achieving this ordered understanding
of your faith seem incredibly great. Not only
would the theologians have to arrive at some
sort of consensus, you would have to be
convinced that they were right. For you not
only want to have answers, you want to be able
to believe them. Furthermore, there would have
to be new myths, new liturgies, new nuances to
your lifestyle which could convey these beliefs
to your children. Yet, such developments don’t
seem probable or possible within the few years
that you have before your children reach
adulthood.”
I don’t accept the author’s position at all.
Indeed I think that it is intellectually,
religiously and morally flabby. It is a
week-minded attempt to cop out from religious
responsibility. But it is still the position of a
considerable number of moderately
well-educated Catholics, and it is a position that
must be taken seriously if only because so
many people subscribe to it.
The first thing that has to be said is that the
author is kidding himself if he thinks the
parochial schools can make up for religious
deficiencies in the family environment. The by
now hoary findings of THE EDUCATION OF
CATHOLIC AMERICANS make it clear that
the schools are worthless if there is not mutual
reenforcement going on between family and
school.
In addition, the statistically sophisticated
work of William McCready has recently
demonstrated that it is the father’s religious
behavior that is important. Indeed it is so
important in affecting the religious behavior of
children that almost nothing else matters.
The more serious weakness of the argument
of the “troubled father” (to use the name
Overview gives him) is that he equates faith
with theology. There never was a theological
consensus in most periods of the Church’s
history, and there is not likely to be one again.
The “deep freeze” of the post-Tridentine
Church was mostly historical accident. If he
waits until the theologians reach a consensus he
will quite literally wait till Judgment Day.
But faith does not follow theology, it
precedes it. It is not an acceptance by the
intellect of a certain number of systematic
propositions arranged in a neat rational pattern.
It is rather the commitment of the total human
person to the word of God as revealed in Jesus
-- a word of hope and joy and love. What
Christianity is in essence is not complex or
elaborate or difficult to understand at all. It is a
simple, clear, quite explicit message. It is either
true and we live it to the fullest that we
possibly can, or it is false and we damn it as
superstitious nonsense.
If it is true, we band together with other
Christians so that we might sustain each other
in living it. We strive to find ways to articulate
the meaning of its symbols in rhetoric that can
be understood in our time and place (which is
what theology is about). If it is false, we get the
hell out and bring our kids with us.
The early Christians did not say, “We have to
wait for Augustine and Aquinas to put the
intellectual house in order.” They believed and
lived and then theologized.
It is so easy to live in the delightful limbo
between faith and unfaith. You can have the
consolations of believing some of the time and
none of the challenge of believing all the time.
And you can scapegoat the old Church for its
rigidities and the theologians for their slowness
in elaborating new systems. You don’t have to
search and decide for yourself. You can even
write agonized pieces about your dilemma.
You don’t even have to bother finding out
what the essence of the Christian message is.
You can continue in your pleasant confusion
about what order and hierarchy is appropriate
for various propositional statements about
doctrine. And when someone (like me) comes
along and tells you that you don’t seem to
know what the essence of the message is, you
can always blame your Catholic education.
Just so long as you can blame something or
someone else, you are free from responsibility
of your own.
And then life is so nice. It is always nice to a
child.