Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, January 31,1974
The Southern Cross
Busines Office 225 Abercorn St. Savannah, Ga. 31401
Most Rev. Raymond W. Lessard, O.O., President
Rev. Francis J. Donohue, Editor John E. Markwalter, Managing Editor
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Louis Cassels
The byline of Louis Cassels was
probably as familiar to most American
newspaper readers as anyone’s. His death
last week was a cause for genuine regret
among journalists.
It is no exaggeration to say that Louis
Cassels was a giant in his chosen
profession -- that of a religion news
writer. In fact, the growing importance
that the news media have attached to
religious news and analysis over the past
ten or twelve years is due in no small
measure to the competence and
dedication of Mr. Cassels.
He moved news of religion out of the
narrow confines of pulpits and
denominational periodicals and made it a
part of the general press. He took stodgy
press releases from pedantic clerics and
translated them into informative and
readable news.
No one knew better than Louis
Cassels how to treat the warts marring
church institutions. He saw them for
what they are -- unlovely growths on
something basically beautiful, the world
of religious Faith, and his writings
always tried to build up that world.
Unlike some other religious writers, he
never wrote in a destrictive vein.
Perhaps the greatest tribute to his
talent and dedication was his
appointment by UPI as senior editor of
religious news -- the first in the wire
service’s history.
He will be missed and the man or
♦woman chosen to replace him will stand
in his shadow for a long time.
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Unacceptable Apologies
Rev. James Wilmes
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“It is later than you think!”
This motto, once found on an old sun dial,
warns of a kind of delay for which sorrowful
apologies can never make up. It is often later
than we think to repair broken or strained
friendships, heal family rifts or melt the
coldness between rivals. It is often later than
we think to show the affection and
appreciation where these are richly due, yet
thoughtlessly witheld.
It is often later than we think to carry
through those spendid intentions or obey those
generous impulses, writing that letter, making
that call, sending along that small token of love.
In short, it is often later than we think to be
the kind of person, live the kind of life and help
build the kind of world we really want to do
someday.
is we who go! Therefore, if we would meet
these nobler appointments, hurry. It could be
very late. Too late. Do it now. Or at least on
Sundays, to make the day of rest truly such by
bringing joy to others.
RESOLUTION: Retire earlier to rise earlier
and pray in peace and quiet. Satisfy love
obligations with an immediate phone call or
postcard, expressing a sincere desire to do more
soon. Some substitute sign of conern is better
than complete omission, which is often the
result when we delay, in order to send the
“proper” note or gift.
SCRIPTURE: “Woe to you Pharisees!
Because you pay tithes on every herb and
disregard Justice and love of God. These things
you ought to have done, while not leaving the
others undone!” Lk. 11, 42
Neglect is usually excused with “I’m so busy,
I just don’t know where the time goes!” The
joker here is that time doesn’t go. Time stays; it
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PRAYER: Lord, help me excuse the neglect
of others as much as I expect them to excuse
mine. Amen.
Love Those Kids
Mary Carson
Several times in the past I have written
about some things my teen-agers do that drive
me wild. But every once in a while, they do
something I find very touching.
My husband has his office at home.
Yesterday afternoon work piled up which had
to be taken care of before he could quit for
the day. I was helping him finish, but it was
getting closer and closer to supper time.
The kids were hungry. I had planned on
having hot dogs that night, and asked one of
the girls to start heating them.
The frankfurters were ready . . .but my
husband and I were not finished working. I
told the kids to go ahead and eat without us.
We’d get a bite later.
Then, our 18 year old son stopped into the
office. “When will you and Dad be finished?”
“I don’t know . . .another hour or so.
Didn’t you kids eat?”
“Sure, we ate ... I was just wondering about
cleaning up?”
That puzzled me. It wasn’t his night for
dishes.
Twenty minutes later, he was back again.
“When will you be ready for supper?”
“I really don’t know. We have to finish
first.. .but what’s the problem?”
“Oh, nothing. You’ll find out.”
An answer like that gives me about as much
peace of mind as, “Get a good night’s
sleep . . .1 have something I want to talk to
you about in the morning.”
I headed for the kitchen.
He stopped me. “Don’t go out there. If you
need anything, I’ll get it for you.”
Another ten minutes, and he was back
again. “Can you work for another 40 or 45
minutes?”
That seemed to about match our
work . . .but didn’t answer what was going on.
Then I heard my fifteen-year-old daughter
telling the rest of the family, “You kids go on
upstairs now. Just let the two of us finish.”
The oldest boy, and the oldest girl were in
on it together . . .
We finished our work. “You can’t come
out yet. Give us another five minutes.”
Five minutes later we had the answer. We
found candlelight, and the table set with the
good china and silver. They had marinated a
steak and broiled it, baked potatoes . . .and
the piece de resistance . . .he had called his
girl friend’s mother to get her recipe for
spinach souffle, something I had never made.
I don’t think I had all the ingredients in the
house. He must have gone out and shopped.
They even had a celery and olive tray . . .and
hot coffee cake for dessert. They had taken
care of every detail.
As soon as we were settled, they said to call
them when we were through. They’d come
clean up the kitchen again. And the two of
them went upstairs with the other children,
leaving us with a most delicious candlelight
dinner . . .all to ourselves.
They had eaten hot dogs themselves,
cleaned up the kitchen, then cooked dinner
for us.
They’re great kids!
From the time they were safe around the
stove, I had been letting them cook whenever
they wanted to. There were some disasters,
and it had been a mess at times. But there
were enough successes to keep trying, and to
build their confidence.
The dividends are now returning.
They’re good cooks. But the
thoughtfulness, to have done all that on their
own, is one of the great joys of my marriage.
OUR
PARISH
((
“It seems to me you could find a
Latin Mass closer to home.”
Disagreeing
Without Being Disagreeable
Reverend John Reedy C.S.C.
One problem about writing for publication is
the unpleasant fact that there are a number of
people you’ve never met who are floating
around out there nursing a backlog of hostility
toward you.
As long as you don’t meet them, there’s no
problem. But it’s disconcerting to be
introduced to someone, expecting the usual
get-acquainted conversation, only to be hit by
an unmistakable wave of hostility.
A number of years ago I poked some fun at
one of those unsolicited mailings which
presented me with a plastic dashboard statue of
Our Lady. Personally, I don’t like plastic
statues of any kind; the material just strikes me
as inappropriate to the notion of reverence.
However, this particular mailing caught my
attention because of the gaudieness and
gimmicky schmaltz of the mailing tube. The
colors were bright and noisy; the print shouted
at you. Clearly, a return contribution would
not generate surprise.
The effect was about what you would get if
the ad man for a hustling discount house
designed the invitation to a bishop’s ordination.
After publication, I received a couple of
critical letters offering character references for
the priest who mailed the statues, telling me
that I was putting down a good work,
suppressing devotion, encouraging reckless
driving.
At a press convention several months later,
one of my friends, a priest of another religious
congregation, seemed inordinately anxious to
have me share a table with him.
As soon as I sat down, my grinning friend
introduced the priest who was sitting next to
me. It took a moment for me to establish the
link, but it was the mailer of statues.
The discussion was civil and guarded, but it
was evident that I was never going to reach the
top in this man’s popularity poll. My efforts to
treat the matter lightly went over like an
elephant learning ballet.
Similar meetings have occurred through a
period of 20 years, and they’ve always surprised
me. Part of that surprise, I suppose comes from
my impression that I am a fairly affable person
who doesn’t go around kicking puppies and
growling at infants.
But also, there’s the assumption, which
underlies all of my published comment, that
you can disagree on issues, policies and
principles without hostility and personal attack.
I can’t claim that I’ve never written a
personal criticism, but they have been
extremely rare.
The lesson I have learned is that
disagreement on principle is seldom received
that way by the person whose principles you
are debating.
At this point I have accepted that reality.
Though I still try to maintain the distinction, I
simply assume that from time to time I am
going to be hit with a blast of hostility from
persons for whom I feel no antagonism.
Probably nothing can change this situation,
but it is regrettable because it represents a
distortion of reality. On the level of thought, all
of us would acknowledge, “Certainly, we can
disagree without being disagreeable. Differences
of judgment do not imply personal animosity.”
But when we are dealing with strongly-held
convictions, it’s hard to maintain that
dispassionate point of view.
These thoughts come to mind as we go into a
new year which promises to provide an unusual
abundance of issues on which differences will
occur. In politics, economics, even religion,
issues and trends are coming to a head; tensions
are increasing; conflicts in judgment are
inevitable.
If we are going to maintain any civility, to
say nothing of the charity we profess, all of us
will have to make a serious effort to remind
ourselves, in moments of tranquility, that
honest, good people can arrive at differing
judgements. . . that the resolution of these
differences depends on our ability to separate
our emotional commitment to convictions from
our efforts to arrive at reasonable judgments for
the welfare of the community.
Think only of Watergate and the energy
shortage. This effort won’t be easy, but the
alternative leads to corrosive bitterness and
contempt for those who lack the votes or the
muscle.
And that would be the path back into the
jungle.
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What One Person Can Do
Reverend Richard Armstrong
(CHRISTOPHER NEWS NOTES)
Several years ago, Pasquale Mancino began
teaching cerebral palsied children in New
Haven. Dissatisfied, he felt that conventional
classes for such children required far too little
of them. Lacking muscular coordination, the
cerebral palsied youngster usually spent his
time in school just sitting.
That was when Mancino began a series of
inventions that were to revolutionize the
teaching of handicapped children. He designed
said built special headgear with a device
permitting youngsters to actively point to
things by moving their heads.
Then he added special writing or typing
attachments. Slings and special furniture were
designed, tried out in Mancino’s classroom and
shared with other teachers.
“For most of the youngsters, just to strike a
typewriter key became a great feat,” he
explains. “None of them had ever done anthing
expressive in their lives. Our problem in the
beginning was that no one really believed the
children would learn. Hadn’t every known
technique been tried, only to fail?”
Now, solid achievements are seen daily.
Some children are learning to eat by themselves
for the first time.
Said one mother, “We know our children will
never run a mile or become great scholars, but
we see a slim chance that the time may come
when they can contribute some small measure
to society, instead of being completely
dependent on it.”
Dissatisfaction with the frustrations of one’s
job are commonplace in almost every career or
profession. But dissatisfaction, coupled with a
heartfelt determination to do what we can to
change or improve the conditions can be a
blessing not only to ourselves but to many
around us. Pasquale Mancino did it. Why not
you and I?
Life
Forms
Matter
Joe Breig
From time to time, I have heard it alleged
that the Scriptures have nothing to say to us
concerning the beginning of human life. For
some of the quotations that follow, I am
indebted to a man whose address is a
penitentiary in a midwestem state.
Psalms 139, III: “Truly you have formed my
inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s
womb . . . My soul also you knew full well; nor
was my frame unknown to you, when I was
made in secret...”
Jeremiah 1, 4-5: “The word of the Lord
came to me thus: Before I formed you in the
womb I knew you; before you were born I
dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I
appointed you.”
Job 31, 15: “Did not He who made me in
the womb make him? Did not the same One
fashion us before our birth?”
Ecclesiastes 11, 5: “Just as you know not
how the breath of life fashions the human
frame in the mother’s womb, so you know not
the work of God which he is accomplishing in
the universe. ”
Genesis 1, 27-28: “God created man in his
image; in the divine image he created him; male
and female he created them.”
Luke 1, 41-44: “When Elizabeth heard
Mary’s greeting, the baby leapt in her womb.
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and
cried out in a loud voice: Blest are you among
women and blest is the fruit of your womb. But
who am I that the mother of my Lord should
come to me? The moment your greeting
sounded in my ears, the baby leapt in my
womb for joy.”
Perhaps the most profoundly instructive of
all those passages is Ecclesiastes: “Just as you
know not how the breath of life fashions the
human frame in the mother’s womb ...”
Today, we do know, thanks to such modem
sciences as genetics and microbiology. We can
watch the new image and likeness of God
growing and developing.
In the past, some people have mistakenly
speculated that perhaps the body might be in
the process of formation for some time, and
then “God breathes a soul into it.” They had it
backward. The life that is present forms matter
into a body for itself. With conception, life is at
work “fashioning the human frame.”
A New Kind
Of Holy Year
Rev. Joseph Dean
The Jubilee Year of 1974-75 has already
begun. Pope Paul is calling for three new
approaches to this event which occurs every 25
years.
1. The focus will be on the local Church
rather than on Rome .. . Already local bishops
are setting up committees to plan diocesan and
parish programs.
2. The focus will be on all men, rather than
on Roman Catholics alone. .. Pastors
everywhere have been asked to involve
Christians of other denominations, and
unbelievers as well, “because this Holy Year
will be directed toward the world that the
Church wishes to serve.”
3. The focus will be on the interior renewal
of all men and on reconciliation, rather than on
triumphal, external events . .. Pope Paul refers
to the Jubilee Year as a movement designed for
“the conversion of hearts,” designed as a
“breakthrough on the plane of humanity
imbued with the life-bringing Spirit,” and
“expressed in the spiritual and corporal works
of mercy.”
Already the emphasis on the works of mercy
is pointing up the need for more prayer, study,
humble service, and deep, spiritual renewal,
both personal and social.
Some of Pope Paul’s remarks touch familiar
and understandable areas: “The essential
concept of the Holy Year is the interior renewal
of man, of the man who in his thought has
realized that he is so extroverted that he no
longer fully possesses communication with
himself, of the man who so amuses himself and
has so many ways to gain pleasure that he soon
feels bored and disillusioned.”
But other remarks are not familiar anymore,
and make us wonder how we can make them
understandable or how we can translate them
into the reality of our daily lives. For instance,
Pope Paul states how man’s reconciliation with
God, with men, and with himself, can be
effected, namely, through “faith and
repentance, through expiation and penitential
practices, through the authentic tradition of
Christian asceticism and through practices such
as local, diocesan, and national pilgrimages.”
In the past fifteen years such concepts have
become strangers to many of us. Could it be
that expiation and asceticism can begin to have
meaning again as we start performing and
experiencing the works of mercy with their
reaction on us and on our needs to be able to
continue these activities of mercy and
compassion?
(Next week . .. What are these works of
mercy?)