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SYNOD STUDIES S. AFRICA INVESTMENTS
PAGE 3—November 29,1973
Church of England Nixes
Divorce
BY ALEXANDER MCGREGOR
LONDON (NC) - The Church of
England’s General Synod voted at its
meeting here Nov. 7 against relaxing its
present discipline barring divorced
persons from a second marriage in
church.
Position
A minority of about one-third of the
synod’s members voted for the change,
and the signs are that this minority may
well grow over the next decade or so to
become a majority.
At issue before the synod, which is
the central governing body for English
Evaluate Canadian Catechism
LONDON, Canada (NC) - The first
concrete step toward the evaluation of
the Canadian Catechism is being taken
by the bishops’ Evaluation Committee.
In the next few weeks, the committee
will mail out questionnaires to various
persons and groups across
Canada-teachers, parents, priests,
religious education directors and school
trustees--in an effort to obtain a
grassroots consultation on the catechism
program.
The task of the committee is to
determine the doctrinal, catechetical
and pedagogical strengths and
weaknesses of the program.
Father Edward Keyserlingk,
executive director of the Divine Word
Center here and chairman of the
committee, said that “anyone at all who
is familiar with the catechism is
welcome to fill out a questionnaire and
return it to us.”
“Once the questionnaires are
returned,” Father Keyserlingk says in a
letter accompanying the questionnaires,
“they will be analyzed as to what you
the respondents perceive to be the
major strengths and weaknesses, and
these, along with our observations and
suggestions will be reported to the
bishops in the spring.
MAKING CIDER IN SCHOOL -- Apple cider was the reward for a little
firsthand learning when pupils from St. Francis School in Portland, Ore.,
operated a cider press at school. Fourth and sixth graders joined in the
effort, learning about gears, inertia and leverage while squeezing several
bushels of apples. (NC Photo by Jim Signor)
Resolution
On Abortion
(Here is the text of the resolution on a
right-to-life constitutional amendment
approved by the National Conference of
Catholic Bishops Nov. 13 during the bishops’
annual meeting in Washington.)
On repeated occasions since January
22, 1973, offices of the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops have
expressed opposition to the Supreme
Court’s rulings on abortion. Abortion,
the destruction of a living human being
in the womb of its mother, is morally
wrong. No law or judicial opinion can
change the moral judgment. We are
convinced that the decision of the
Supreme Court is wrong, and must be
reversed. The only certain way to repair
effectively the damage perpetrated by
the court’s opinions is to amend the
Constitution to provide clearly and
definitively a constitutional base for
legal protection of unborn human
beings. A number of constitutional
amendments have been introduced in
Congress, but to date, no definite action
has been taken.
We wish to state once again, as
emphatically as possible, our
endorsement of and support for a
constitutional amendment that will
protect the life of the unborn. We urge
Congress to conduct hearings and move
with all deliberate speed to pass a
pro-life amendment. We reaffirm the
statement of the NCCB Administrative
Committee of September 18, 1973.
At the same time, we remind our
people that the passage, of the
amendment will require concerted and
continued efforts on their part to
convince the Congress and the American
people of its absolute necessity.
Specifically, we urge public information
programs and petitions to state
legislators to memoralize Congress in
behalf of a pro-life amendment. In all of
this, well-planned and coordinated
political organization by citizens at the
national, state and local levels are of
highest importance. Our system of
government requires citizen
participation, and in this case, there is a
moral imperative for political activity.
Thus, we commend and encourage
pro-life groups that have already
initiated programs of political action to
bring about congresstional action on a
constitutional amendment. We urge
continued and unified efforts directed
toward convincing the Congress to hold
hearings at the earliest possible date. We
especially invite the collaboration of
other religious leaders in pursuing a
pro-life constitutional amendment.
Finally, we wish to make it clear
beyond doubt to our fellow citizens
that we consider the passage of a
pro-life constitutional amendment a
priority of the highest order, one to
which we are committed by our
determination to uphold the dignity of
the human being and by our conviction
that this nation must provide protection
for the life, liberty and pursuit of
happiness for all human'beings, before
as well as after birth.
Change
Anglicans, was not just the desirability
of change in itself but also whether a
moral consensus for or against change
exists in the Church.
A proposal to establish whether such
a consensus exists by referring the
question to the Church’s 43 dioceses for
their opinions was narrowly defeated.
The Church of England thus retains
its present discipline, under which
divorced people may not be allowed to
remarry in church but may, with the
bishop’s approval, be readmitted to
Communion along with their new
partners.
Anglican Bishop Ronald Williams of
Leicester put forward two major reasons
for retaining the present discipline -
There is not sufficient evidence of a
consensus in favor of change. (The
bishop admitted that in the long term
Anglican opinion is probably moving in
that direction);
--The effect on society at large. By
accepting the remarriage in church of
divorced persons, the Church would
encourage ordinary unsophisticated
people “to think that marriage is an
experimental state to be terminated
with the full approval of the Church if
and when this seems a desirable course.”
Advocating the relaxation of the
present discipline, Anglican Bishop
Robin Woods of Worcester asked: “Are
we concerned to uphold marriage as an
institution, or are we to try and help the
individual?”
Christian forgiveness, he said, implies
“not a life-long hardening of the broken
situation” when a former marriage has
been recognized as dead “but the
possibility of a new life and therefore
the possibility of a new marriage.”
A vicar’s wife, Mrs. J.M. Maryland of
Sheffield, said that under its present
discipline the Church is offering full
forgiveness and a new start “for any sin
except matrimonial failure.”
In other action, the Church of
England’s General Synod threw its not
inconsiderable financial weight behind
the campaign to use British investments
in South Africa to improve the
conditions of black workers there and
to end that country’s apartheid policy
of strict racial segregation.
Passed by an overwhelming majority
of the synod Nov. 9 was a motion
advising Anglican institutions and
individuals with shares in firms with
South African interests “to bring
whatever pressure is possible to bear on
them to work toward the closing of the
gap between their white and their black
employees.”
The motion expressed the synod’s
belief that “no funds controlled by any
part of the Church of England should be
invested in any firm which disregards
the social and economic interests of any
of its South African employees.”
And an amendment committed the
Church to supporting the British
Council of Churches’ proposal for a
common instrument to carry out
research, to provide information and to
coordinate the Churches’ efforts in that
field.
The heads of the Church’s two major
financial bodies--the Church
Commissioners, whose investments have
a book value of over $720 million and
are used mainly to pay the stipends of
the Anglican clergy, and the Central
Board of Finance, which invests a little
over $108 million on behalf of the
Anglican dioceses and other Church
bodies-both promised a review of their
investment policies in the light of the
synod’s discussion.
The maintenance of the present
structures of white supremacy in South
Africa depends largly on the outside
world’s investment and trade, said the
Rev. Paul Oestreicher, the South
London vicar who introduced the
motion.
“Britain is South Africa’s largest
investor and trading partner,” he went
on. “That is the source of much of our
wealth, wealth gained at the price of the
serfdom of others. Whether we are
shareholders or not, we all benefit
materially and suffer spiritually in
consequence.”
British investments can play “a major
role in liberating black Africans from
the indignities of apartheid,” said the
Dean of Norwich, the Very Rev. A.B.
Webster. British firms with South
African interests, he said, could be
“pace-setters, cells of health in this very
unhealthy society.”
A clergyman who has lived and
worked in South Africa-Canon A.H.
Attwell of Carlisle-said that big business
is “the only body powerful enough and
rich enough to challenge the South
African government and the whole
system of apartheid.”
HIGH SCHOOL ELECTIVE - Holding hands with
her pupils as they sing “Here We Are All Together”
Maryjo Flamm teaches third graders in a CCD program
at St. Martin parish in Cincinnati. A senior at Mother
of Mercy high school, she is practice teaching as part of
an elective course called Teaching Religion to Children.
The course uses the U.S. Bishops’ basic teachings
document as a text along with a book on the
psychology of religious development. (NC Photo by
Anne Bingham)
POPE PA UL:
Church Wants to Help Burundi
VATICAN CITY (NC) ~ Pope Paul
VI told Burundi’s new ambassador to
the Vatican that the Catholic Church
wants to help all the thousands of
victims of tribal warfare that has torn
that African country apart.
The Pope received the credentials
Nov. 15 of 35-year-old Burundi
Ambassador Adolphe Binagana
and said: “Faith and piety are
inseparable in the search for justice,
peace and charity. The Church of
Burundi desires to work for the
POSTAL RATE DILEMMA
WASHINGTON (NC) - James A.
Doyle, executive director of the
Catholic Press Association (CPA), has
asked the federal government to prevent
postal rate increases scheduled for Jan.
4, 1974, because of the “clearly
damaging effect” on the nation’s
non-profit press.
In testimony prepared for the Cost of
Living Council of the Economic
Stabilization Program, Doyle said that
non-profit publications generally are the
least able to cope with rate increases.
Non-profit publications are not able
to pass along these heavy increases to
advertisers and readers, because
advertising rates in volume are the
lowest for these publications. They also
have the most restrictive circulation
market, he said.
Doyle represented the approximately
250 publisher members of the CPA. He
was joined in testimony by the
Associated Church Press, which is an
organization of Protestant and
Orthodox publications; the Evangelical
Press Association, and the American
Jewish Press Association.
Doyle told the council that these four
organizations and their member
publishers total more than 500
publications with estimated total
circulation of 50 million copies.
“We plead for your help by
preventing this increase because of the
clearly damaging effect it will surely
have on these users of the mails - the
happiness and the fuller development of
all the inhabitants of the country and
we too stand beside this human
project.”
Tribal warfare between the Tutsi and
Hutu tribes in Burundi has claimed
thousands of victims and forced
thousands of Hutu tribesmen to flee the
country.
The new ambassador assured Pope
Paul that peace has been restored in the
nation’s religious non-profit press,”
Doyle said.
Doyle submitted cost figures worked
up by two CPA member publishers. He
said the figures show that the January
increases will result in an immediate rise
of 12 to 15 percent over present postage
rates for non-profit publications. He
said that rates for these publications are
already 150 to 200 percent above rates
of July 1972.
To show what the increase would
mean in dollar totals on an annual basis,
Doyle cited estimates made by the
Catholic Post, diocesan weekly of
Peoria, Ill.
The Catholic Post said that its annual
postage bill in 1971 was about $10,000.
By 1981, under the presently scheduled
set of increases, it would be $50,000. At
the end of the 10-year phase-in period
under the new schedule (if it is allowed)
the Post’s bill would be $65,000.
The $65,000 figure represents a 30
percent increase over increases already
scheduled and a 550 percent raise from
1971, Doyle pointed out.
“These, then are the effects of the
proposed rate increases,” Doyle said.
“We have testified before the Congress
and before the Postal Rate Commission
to the effect that the onerous rate
increases levied on non-profit
publications will certainly drive some of
them out of business. We have no reasc"
to change that gloomy prospect now.”
country, thanks in part to the efforts of
the local Catholic Church. He also
expressed the hope that the Church and
the Vatican would continue to assist the
reconstruction of the country.
Pope Paul replied: “Like your
bishops, we too have experienced keen
distress over the events which have so
profoundly disturbed the life of your
countrymen. We have wanted to offer
our help, both spiritual and material, to
all the victims and to make our
contribution, with all means at our
disposal, for the reestablishment of
peace.”
At the end of June, the bishops of
Burundi issued a statement saying that
policies in use in the country stressed
ethnic and tribal differences and
militated against national unity.
The bishops called on Christians
throughout the world to help the people
of Burundi achieve national unity.
A mid-June report reaching Tanzania
from eight Catholic priests working near
the Tanzania-Burundi border said that
Tutsis were still continuing the killing of
Hutus.
Although the Hutus, predominantly
Christian, are 85 percent of the
population, the tall, better educated
Tutsis (or Watusis) generally hold the
top positions in government, the
military and even the Church.
The ruling Tutsi tribe blamed the
Hutus for a revolt that broke out in
April 1972. A group of Hutu rebels,
armed with axes and machetes, killed
about a thousand Tutsis at that time,
but the predominantly Tutsi army
quelled the revolt in about 10 days.
The rebels apparently hoped that
many other Hutus would rise against the
Tutsi, but they did not.
Continual massacres of the Hutus by
Tutsis have been reported since that
1972 revolt. It has been estimated that
about 300,000 Hutus have been killed
since the rebellion.
Intertribal warfare between Hutus
and Tutsis has been going on also in
neighboring Rwanda, where the
Catholic bishops have appealed for
peace and charity among the people.
Dire Predictions for Press