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Vol. 55 No. 5
Thursday, January 31, 1974
Single Copy Price — 12 Cents
UNDERSCORES VALUE OF PENANCE
“Christian Gentleman
PHILADELPHIA (NC) - “Cardinal
Newman once wrote an essay on what it
is to be a Christian gentleman. You look
up that essay and I think you’ll find all
the characteristics of John
Cappelletti-consideration, humility,
placing God before himself.”
Those were the words of Joe Paterno,
head football coach at Penn State
University, in praise of Cappelletti who
INSIDE STORY
Alaska Story
Opinion
Pg. 4
Charismatics
Pg. 7
Readers Reply
Pg. 8
has won the Heisman Trophy as the
outstanding college football player of
1973.
Cappelletti played at fullback under
Paterno for four years at Penn State. At
a banquet here to receive another
football laurel-the Maxwell Club Award
-- Cappelletti heard his coach speak
highly of him.
The Maxwell Club members each year
select someone they consider the most
outstanding football player.
“We’ve gotten away in this country
from the idea of respect for authority,”
Pg. 2 Paterno said. “But John got that respect
and love from his family and his schools
and he brought it to Penn State with
him.
“He’s quiet in the sense that he’s not
a loudmouth. But he has leadership
built in him. He has commitment to
principles. He won’t submit to peer
influence. Kids like him uplift your
whole football program.”
Cappelletti, explaining his football
prowess, said: “A lot of it is what you
are given by God. And then it’s what
outlook you take on things.”
“Football is a part of my life and a
better part. Since I’ve started playing
I’ve known I won’t stop until I’m too
old or too hurt. Once I get on that field,
all I can think about is football.”
But off the field, Cappelletti has had
some things on his mind that might have
destroyed other players but seem to
make him only stronger.
“I think of Joey,” John said of his
11-year-old brother who suffers from
leukemia. “I want to do well for him, to
help him and make him happier.”
“And I think of my parents. They
never pushed me but when I made the
team they were at every thing, always
involved.”
Joe Paterno tried to put things in
perspective for the overflow Maxwell
audience.
“Football is a game of emotion, a
game for people who want to get
together and get things done. It’s for
people who have enough guts to lose
themselves in something and after the
game love your enemy because he made
you reach up and be something you
could be. Sure somebody has to get the
credit, like John’s getting it. But
everybody knows all that went into it.”
According to the NCCB document
sent to the bishops, the current
canonical discipline of penance for the
United States, in addition to the general
character of the Lenten season, may be
summed up as follows:
a) “Ash Wednesday and Good Friday
are days of abstinence from meat and
also of fast, that is, limited to a single
full meal. With regard to Good Friday,
the teaching of the Second Vatican
Council should be recalled: ‘Let the
paschal fast be kept sacred. Let it be
celebrated everywhere on Good Friday
and, where possible, prolonged
throughout Holy Saturday, so that the
joys of the Sunday of the Resurrection
may be attained with uplifted and clear
mind’ (Constitution on the Liturgy, no.
110).
b) “The other Fridays of the season
of Lent are days of abstinence from
meat.
c) “The Fridays of the year outside
Lent remains days of penance, but each
individual may substitute for the
traditional abstinence from meat some
other practice of voluntary self-denial or
personal penance: this may be physical
mortification or temperance or acts of
religion, charity, or Christian witness.”
The document says the determination
of these few days of obligatory penance
- which may even be reduced in number
because of the occurrence of a holy day
of obligation or diocesan regulations -
should not be understood as limiting the
occasions for Christian penance.
WASHINGTON (NC) - The National
Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB)
has sent to U.S. bishops a document
clarifying the current canonical
discipline of penitential practices for
Lent.
The document, sent by NCCB general
secretary, Bishop James S. Rausch,
analyzes penitential practices and
underscores their spiritual significance.
The analysis, which was first
presented to the Catholic bishops at
their meeting here last November, was
approved by the NCCB Committee on
Pastoral Research and Practices.
Lent begins this year on Ash
Wednesday, Feb. 27. Easter Sunday falls
on April 14.
In 1966 Pope Paul VI issued an
apostolic constitution on penance in the
Church, which relaxed the Church
discipline of abstinence and fast. But
the primary intention was “entirely
different and more significant,” the
analysis sent to the bishops states.
“It was a call upon the Catholic
people to become aware of the call to
deeper conversion of soul and to do
greater penance,” the analysis says. “In
particular, he (Pope Paul) stressed
individual and community responsibility
to perform not only the traditional acts
of physical penance but above all prayer
and charity.”
In the 1966 document Pope Paul
enumerated the penitential times in
Church discipline: the season of Lent as
a whole and, as individual days of
penance, Ash Wednesday and all the
Fridays of the year.
Ash Wednesday and Good Friday
were to be days of abstinence from
meat and of fast; all the other Fridays
were to be days of abstinence from
meat. But it was left to the episcopal
conferences to transfer these days, if
necessary, or, if they wished, to
substitute other kinds of penitential
discipline.
WAYCROSS PASTORS AT UNITY SERVICES. Participating in
services marking the annual “Day of Prayer for Christian Unity at St.
Joseph’s Catholic Church were (1. to r.) Rev. John Gilmore of Grace
Episcopal, Rev. James Chester of First United Methodist, Rev. Basil
Osipoff of Gilchrist Park United Methodist and Rev. Michael O’Keefe of
St. Joseph’s. (Photo courtesy of Waycross Journal Herald)
ST. JOSEPH’S WAYCROSS
In the United States the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops did not
transfer the penitential days - which
remain as Ash Wednesday and all the
Fridays of the year. The conference did,
however, alter the canonical disiepline
on the Fridays outside Lent.
While commending abstinence on
these days, the bishops left to individual
Catholics the choice of other acts of
prayer and charity to express the spirit
of penance.
Unity Service Held
Pastors from four Waycross area
churches and members from six
participated in an Ecumenical Service at
St. Joseph’s Church, Waycross, Jan.
23rd. The service marked the annual
Day of Prayer for Christian Unity.
Pastors taking part were Rev. James
Chester of First United Methodist
Church, Rev. John Gilmore of Grace
Episcopal Church, Rev. Basil Osipoff of
Gilchrist Park United Methodist Church,
and Rev. Michael O’Keefe of St.
Joseph’s.
In addition to members of these four
churches, members of Kettle Creek
Methodist and Brooks Methodist
Churches also participated in the
service.
According to Rev. 0‘Keefe, “this
Unity service was a tremendous success.
The church was packed to capacity.
“For some years, now, St. Joseph’s
and Grace Episcopal have shared Unity
services and held inter-church worship
services such as the Stations of the Cross
during Lent. Now members and pastors
from Methodist Churches in the
Waycross area are participating. And we
all mean it from the bottom of our
hearts when we pray as Jesus did, ‘that
they may be one, Father, as you in me
and I in you’.”
HEADLINE
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V
HOPSCOTCH
Fr. Boland to Rome
Father J. Kevin Boland, Vicar-general and pastor of Savannah’s Blessed Sacrament
parish, will be a participant at the Institute for Continuing Theological Education in
Rome this Spring. He will leave for Rome on Tuesday, Feb. 26 and return to Blessed
Sacrament in June. The Institute is sponsored by the U.S. bishops. Father Boland’s
attendance is part of an ongoing policy of the Savannah diocese to up-date the
theological training of its priests.
Father’s Rights
WASHINGTON (NC) - The Supreme Court has announced that within a few weeks
it will decide whether to hear arguments on the issue of what rights a prospective
father has over an unborn child. A federal court in Florida struck down parts of a
Florida law requiring a woman to get her husband’s consent or - if she is unmarried
and under 18 -- her parent’s consent before having an abortion.
Louis Cassels Dead
AIKEN, S.C. -- (NC) - Louis Cassels, United Press International senior editor and
prize-winning religion editor, died Jan. 23 here at the age of 52 from an apparent heart
attack. The author of numerous magazine articles and more than half a dozen books
on religion and ethical problems in the U.S., Cassels was the first wire service reporter
to write regularly and in depth on religious news of interest to every faith. Cassels, an
Episcopalian, achieved fame for his reporting on the Second Vatican Council. (See
editorial on cage 4).
NCCB Document Clarifies Lenten Practices
COACH AND STAR -- Football coach Joe Paterno
of Penn State University and John Cappelletti, star
fullback at the school, hold the Maxwell Club award
presented by the group in Philadelphia. Paterno
described Cappelletti as a true Christian gentleman in
the definition of Cardinal Newman. (NC Photo by
Robert S. Halvey)
HEISMAN TROPHY WINNER