Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 54 No. 44
Thursday, December 13, 1973
Single Copy Price — 12 Cents
ECUMENICAL BREAKTHROUGH
Catholics, Anglicans Agree on Nature of Ministry
BY JERRY F1LTEAU
WASHINGTON (NC) - The
ecumenical Anglican-Roman Catholic
International Commission (ARCIC)
released a statement of agreement Dec.
13 on “essential matters” of doctrine
concerning ministry and ordination in
the two communions.
The agreement by theologians of
both churches, a significant ecumenical
breakthrough, was accompanied by
strong cautions that the statement is not
the official position of either church,
does not change present ecclesiastical
discipline, and still leaves major
problems unresolved.
Among the major points of the new
BY GRACE T. CRAWFORD
Macon News
Staff Writer
MACON - When the Knights of
Columbus asked Sister Elizabeth Lynan
if they could help her in her work, she
took them at their word.
“Buy me a bus,” said the red-haired
Irish nun. “There’s nothing I need
more.”
After a brief pause and an
ever-so-slight raising of the eye brows.
Dewey Lamb, the K.C. spokesman for
Macon Council 925 said, “A bus. All
right Sister, I’ll bring this up at the next
meeting and we’ll talk about it.”
INSIDE STORY
Chatham MDs
Pg. 2
Medical Society
Pg. 4
Entertainment
Pg. 6
Cook’s Nook
Pg. 8
statement, which is to be called the
“Canterbury Statement,” are
fundamental doctrinal agreements by
ARCIC members concerning:
- The priesthood of Christ as unique
and unrepeatable.
- The “considerable diversity in the
structure of pastoral ministry” in New
Testament times, as well as distinctly
discernible ministerial functions in the
New Testament.
- The “full emergence of the
threefold ministry of bishop, presbyter
and deacon” in the first three centuries
of Christianity.
- The historical relation to Christ and
So they talked about it, and a few
days later, Sister Elizabeth, social
services coordinator for Macon’s three
Catholic parishes, was presented the
keys to a new mini bus: It seats six
passengers and innumerable children.
And that’s what is has been used for,
to a great extent — hauling children.
“Serve” is the inter-parish program
that fills Sister Elizabeth’s busy days,
and one phase of it is a weekly tutoring
session for underpriviledged children of
all faiths.
On Saturday mornings Sister
Elizabeth is out shortly after 8:30 a.m.
rounding up her young friends for their
classes in the basement of St. Peter
Claver Catholic Church. “It’s all done
by volunteers,” she said. Instructors are
adults from St. Joseph, St. Peter Claver
and Holy Spirit parishes, plus Mt. de
Sales High School students.
The same children often fill the new
bus for field trips provided by the
parishes, outings at nearby recreation
areas and playground, “and sometimes,
to the circus,” Sister said.
Transportation was a major problem
for the Serve program before the gift
from the Knights. Although some
acknowledge they were a little surprised
at the request from the coordinator,
they think it’s one of the best
investments they could make.
Sister Elizabeth also drives her bus
about the city collecting the sick and
the elderly for weekly clinics. Large
commission from Christ as essential to
the apostolic nature of ordained
ministry.
The “essential element” of
“responsibility for ‘oversight’” in the
ordained ministry, especially residing in
the ordained bishop, but shared in by
the priest and by the deacon who is
associated with the priest and bishop in
the ministry of word and sacrament and
assists in oversight. (The Greek word for
bishop is “episcopos,” which means
“overseer.”)
- The sacramental character of
ordained ministry, which is
“irrevocable” and “is not an extension
of the common Christian priesthood but
donations of clothing, food and
furniture for the poor are picked up in
the bus, and parishioners use it for
transportation to conferences and
meetings at diocesan headquarters in
Savannah.
Macon’s Serve program is one of
many in the diocese. It is part of The
Campaign for Human Development, an
effort by Catholics, world-wide,
according to Sister Elizabeth to begin
eliminating basic causes of poverty by
working with those who are trapped in
it, and those who knowingly or
unwittingly help cause it. “But it also
concerns itself with the poverty of
spirit, of mind, of love and friendship,”
she said.
The work with children is just one
phase of Serve. There are at least six
other current programs: A clothing
bank; the Upper Room, a center where
clothes for the needy are mended and
made, where sewing, handcrafts and
quilt-making are taught; an emergency
food and furniture bank; weekly visits
to women inmates in the Bibb County
jail, and a poster contest where Catholic
children show the desolation of poverty.
The program has attracted volunteers
from other churches, from clubs, civic
groups, and local high schools. In the
past year, according to parish records,
Serve has clothed and fed more than
8,000 needy persons, sheltered more
than 1,000* families, distributed over
$10,000 in emergency aid, renovated a
home for two elderly women, and
conducted a summer fun day for 60
underprivileged children.
belongs to another realm of the gifts of
the Spirit.”
- The “authority to preside at the
Eucharist and to pronounce absolution”
given to priests by their union with the
bishop in his responsibility for
“oversight. ”
ARCIC said its statement gives a
“new context” to the “issues raised by
the judgment of the Roman Catholic
Church on Anglican Orders,” a
reference to the 1896 declaration by
Pope Leo XIII that “ordinations
enacted according to the Anglican rite
have hitherto been and are invalid and
entirely void. ”
The Canterbury Statement, which
was made public around the world on
Dec. 13 with the permission of
authorities in both churches, was
accompanied by a careful warning that
“it is not a declaration by the Roman
Catholic Church or by the Anglican
Communion. It does not authorize any
change in existing ecclesiastical
discipline.”
The statement also warned that the
commission has “not yet broached the
wide-ranging problems of authority
which may arise in any discussion of
ministry, nor the question of primacy.”
“We are aware that present
understanding of such matters remains
an obstacle to the reconciliation of our
churches in the one Communion we
desire, and the commission is now
turning to the examination of the issues
involved,” the ecumenical group said.
Despite such cautious disclaimers, the
statement nevertheless represents major
progress in the drive for reunion
between the two churches.
According to Jesuit Father Herbert
Ryan of Woodstock College, New York,
an American member of ARCIC, the
joint statement represents “total and
unanimous agreement” among the
commission members “on all essential
points of doctrine” regarding the nature
of the ministry and ordination of
bishops, priests and deacons.
ARCIC first began its work in
January 1970 under the joint
chairmanship of Catholic Bishop Alan
Clark of Elmham, England, and
Anglican Bishop H.R. McAdoo of
Ossory, Ireland. Started by Pope Paul
VI and Anglican Archbishop Michael
• Ramsey of Canterbury, the
international commission is the official
dialogue group for the two churches.
It conclusions, however, have only
the authority of the theologians who are
members of the commission. ARCIC
presents its conclusions to the officials
of the two churches for their
consideration, and possibly for their
eventual approval.
The central focus of the statement on
ministry and ordination is the
Eucharist:
“To proclaim reconciliation in Christ
and to manifest His reconciling love
belong to the continuing mission of the
Church,” the statement says. The
central act of worship, the Eucharist, is
the memorial of that reconciliation and
nourishes the Church’s life for the
fulfillment of its mission. Hence it is
right that he who has oversight in his
church and is the focus of its unity
should preside at the celebration of the
Eucharist. Evidence as early as Ignatius
shows that at least in some churches,
the man exercising this oversight
presided at the Eucharist and no other
could do so without his consent (Letter
to the Smyrnaeans 8:1).
“Oversight,” the statement says, is a
responsibility that “involves fidelity to
the apostolic faith, its embodiment in
the life of the Church today, and its
transmission to the Church of
tomorrow.”
The term “priest” is not applied to
the New Testament ministers, but
“Christians came to see the priestly role
of Christ reflected in these ministers and
used priestly terms in describing them,”
the statement says. Because of this and
the eucharistic president’s “sacramental
relation to what Christ Himself did in
(Continued on Page 2)
Photo by Mike Windham Courtesy Macon News
SISTER ELIZABETH, TWO KNIGHTS FRAMED BY WINDOW OF NEW BUS
James T. Shaheen (c) and Henry Hall Jr. Helped Raise Funds for Bus
Bus Helps Macon Project Work
MADRID (NC) -- Two Spanish missionaries said here that they have personal
knowledge of massacres by Portuguese troops in the African territory of Mozambique.
The priests, who had just been released after two years in prison in Mozambique, said
that they talked to survivors of the massacres and helped to bury some victims. Earlier
reports of Portuguese atrocities were based in part on a report complied by the priest
fathers Alonso Valverde and Martin Hernandez.
Massacres Denied
UNITED NATIONS (NC) - A priest who is a member of Portugal’s United Nations
delegation denied reports of the massacres of 400 persons by his country’s troops.
Father Joaquim Luis dos Santos said that fewer than 20 persons had been killed in an
incident at Wiriyamu in the Portuguese territory of Mozambique. The priest, who
works in Mozambique, said that troops did kill some civilians after they had been fired
on by guerrillas.
CENTENARIAN LIKES BOOKS - Sister Mary Rosaline Doyle, who
celebrated her 100th birthday Dec. 1, says “If you want to live 100 years,
select good books and devote much time to reading; for books will teach
you how to live a good, practical life.” She has directed a patients’ library
for 23 years at St. Francis Hospital, Trenton, N.J. (NC Photo by John
Leone)
HEADLINE
HOPSCOTCH
Portuguese Atrocities
Moslems Hostile?
ROME (NC) - Three more missionaries have been expelled from Sabah, a state in
Malaysia that was formerly known as North Borneo. Thirty-four leaders have warned
that the Moslem government of the largely Moslem Sabah is discriminating against
Christians. However, the government has accused the missionaries of meddling in
politics. About one-fourth of the population is Christian.
Melkite Refugees^
WEST NEWTON, Mass. (NC) - Melkite rite Catholics in the United States began
seeking support for a petition urging Israel to respect the rights of Palestinian refugees.
Archbishop Joseph Tawil, head of the rite in this country, complained that
Palestinians, including Melkite rite Catholics, “are still languishing in refugee camps”
25 years after the founding of the modem state of Israel. The petition was circulated
in connection with the 25th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on Human
Rights.
Catholic-Jewish Relations
DAYTON, Ohio (NC) - Participants in the first National Workshop on Catholic
Jewish Relations heard Rabbi Irving Greenberg, a scholar from New York City, call on
Jews to rethink their opposition to aid for nonpublic schools. Father John
Pawlikowski, an interfaith leader from Chicago, called on Christians to back Israel’s
desire for security within defensible borders. Father Edward Flannery, the U.S.
bishops’ expert on Catholic-Jewish relations, warned of an upsurge of anti-Semitism in
the face of the Arab oil embargo.