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PAGE 3—January 3,1974
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CATHOLIC EVENTS, 1973 -- 1. Holy Year
preparation opens in Rome; 2. Pope confers biretta on
new cardinals; 3. Cardinals Shehan and Knox at
Eucharistic Congress; 4. Pentecostal meeting
PERSONALITIES, 1973 - 1. Actress Beatrice
Arthur as Maude, whose abortion decision ignited
controversy; 2. Vice President Gerald Ford with
Cardinal Cooke; 3. Juan Peron returns to power; 4.
Vice President Agnew, who later resigned, at inaugural;
5. Cardinal Mindszenty visiting New Jersey; 6. New
Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop Jadot, arrives; 7. 10th
participant at Notre Dame; 5. Bishop Rausch starts
first religious news wire in Washington; 6. Catholics
lead in anti-abortion fight; 7. Bishops meet regionally
in spring. (NC Photos)
anniversary of Pope Paul’s coronation; 8. Father
Marquette voyage re-enactment ends; 9. Cesar Chavez
opens new boycotts; 10. Apostolic Delegate
Archbishop Raimondi becomes an honorary chief; 11.
President Nixon and Soviet Party Chief Brezhnev meet
in “era of detente.” (NC Photos)
NATIONAL EVENTS, 1973 - 1. John Dean faces
the Watergate committee, probing government
corruption; 2. Sculpturer Harold Balasz and monument
made of POW bracelets; 3. Skylab crew exercising in
space; 4. Ectopic pregnancy symbolizing Supreme
NATIONAL-INTERNATIONAL STRIFE - 1.
Books are burned in Chile after military takeover of
government; 2. Floods in the Midwest cause
widespread damage; 3. Vietnam war is over for
Americans as prisoners return; 4. Death in the Mideast
Court abortion decision; 5. Burning candle symbolizing
energy crisis; 6. 10th anniversary of President
Kennedy’s death; 7. Grandson salutes casket of
Lyndon B. Johnson, one of two former presidents to
die. (NC Photos)
as Arab-Israeli war breaks out; 5. Boy inspects British
soldiers’s rifle in strife-torn Northern Ireland; 6.
Indians take over church at Wounded Knee, S.D.; 7.
Child gets precious drop of water in Africa where
drought and famine took many lives. (NC Photos)
JV.C. INTERVIEW
Cardinal Shehan Sees Vigorous Church
BY A.E.P. WALL
BALTIMORE (NC) -- Cardinal Lawrence Shehan, 75 years old, a priest for more
than half a century, sees vigorous movement ahead for a Church that chose not to
become a museum.
In a year-end interview in his study, a spacious but fully utilized room in the rectory
of the Basilica of the Assumption in downtown Baltimore, the white-haired archbishop
spoke of his personal sensitivity to the great changes that have taken place in Catholic
life during the past decade.
It was about 8:15 on a cloudy morning. The cardinal had, as usual, offered the 7
a.m. Mass in the Basilica for a congregation numbering about a dozen, most of them
regulars. The Mass started a few minutes late because the sexton had misread the dial
of his clock, and he had the keys that open the doors and that disengage an alarm
system.
When Cardinal James Gibbons presided over Baltimore’s historic Cathedral of the
Assumption - now the co-cathedral and a basilica -- nobody thought about burglar
alarms. But changes have come, and after breakfast (the cardinal began with lemon
juice, a coddled egg, brown toast) I asked about the “revolution’’ in the Church.
“Pm very sensitive to the great change,” Cardinal Shehan said as he turned out all of
the lights in his study, except for a single lamp on his desk, speaking in an aside of the
energy crisis and the need to conserve on electricity. “I’d rather speak-of a great
change than of a revolution. Certainly the change was necessary.
“The change in the liturgy was absolutely necessary. The Church would have
become a sort of museum piece if that had not taken place.
“The changes in the liturgy have all been good.
“Some mistakes were made in the way they were brought about; the suddenness,
for one thing. We were unprepared. All of us were unprepared.
“Practically all of us at the Council (the Second Vatican Council) realized that once
changes in the liturgy were proposed, they were inevitable. The use of the vernacular,
for instance, was long overdue.
“But we were not prepared for the rapidity of the change, or the extent of it. The
first decision didn’t contemplate anything like it.”
Last month the U.S. bishops voted down a proposal to allow Communion to be
received in the hand, a practice that is common in some other countries. I asked the
cardinal what he thought about it.
“I see no objection at all,” he replied. “Opponents mention all sorts of abuses that
might follow from Communion in the hand, but anyone who wants to abuse the
Eucharist can abuse it under present circumstances. I’ve seen no evidence of abuse of
the Eucharist in this archdiocese.
“Many young people feel there’s something more natural about receiving
Communion in the hand. Ordinarily, you feed only babies in the mouth. I don’t
think,” Cardinal Shehan added with a chuckle, “that’s what Christ had in mind when
He told us to become like little children.”
The idea of resolving problems in the most natural, relaxed way - as long as
essential teachings of the Church are not compromised - seems to many observers to
be characteristic of Baltimore’s cardinal. He has not simply weathered the changes in
the Church; he has been quick to provide the pastoral leadership that translate change
into advantage.
He scoffs at labels, and will have no part of them. But those close to him see
Cardinal Shehan as a social progressive, a theological conservative and a skilled
administrator who is always conscious of his role as pastor. His personal influence
extends well beyond the borders of either his archdiocese or his nation.
He had confidence in the growing role of the laity, a change he ranks with liturgical
changes in its significance for the future of the Church.
“This has been more gradual than the changes in the liturgy, and it also has been
more difficult,” Cardinal Shehan said.
“Here we are, eight years after the Council ended, and only last month did we get
our Archdiocesan Pastoral Council really organized. It failed at first, partly because it
was appointed.
“It is headed toward success now because we first insisted that all parishes organize
parish councils. Then we established 12 regional councils, which elected members of
the archdiocesan council. I have the right to appoint four members, and I appointed
.four women.”
That led to the next question: Are we likely to see the ordination of women before
long?
“Personally,” said the cardinal, “I don’t see it. I think Our Lord taught not merely
by word but by action and example. We look at the Last Supper as the time of
establishing the Eucharist and establishing Holy Orders. There were no women present,
not even His mother or any of the women who served Him so faithfully. It seems to
me that He taught us something by that.
“Some say the absence of women reflected the social structure of the times, but
that is not true. His mother, and the women who accompanied Him, played a very
important role in His life. ”
In answer to the next question, Cardinal Shehan said he does not expect to see a
married clergy in the Latin rite during the next century.
“I admit the possibility of it,” he said, “but I think it is extremely unlikely.”
The cardinal thinks there may be an upswing coming in priestly vocations.
“We’re getting more mature people for admission to the priesthood of the
archdiocese.
“I don’t think we will ever go back to the old system of taking boys in any number
from grade school for a junior seminary, or minor seminary as we used to call it.
“Most vocations will come from high school or college students.
“In Baltimore, we have had our number of losses, our priests applying for
dispensation, but we have kept up with our parish personnel needs pretty well through
ordinations. ”
And that has happened, he said, in the face of an improved retirement system. The
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