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The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 55 No. 34 Thursday, October 3,1974 Single Copy Price - 15 Cents
4th Synod of Bishops Begins in Rome
BY JAMES C. O’NEILL
VATICAN CITY (NC) - Pope Paul
VI opened the fourth world Synod of
Bishops Sept. 27 with a declaration that
the preaching of God’s word and the
progress of peoples work hand in hand.
Only one day after his 77th
birthday the Pope presided over two
meetings of this synod on
evangelization, preaching at a Mass for
the synod’s 207 participants in the
morning and delivering an address of
almost 3,000 words at the synod’s first
plenary session that afternoon. Despite
this long day, the Pope looked fit.
Speaking at the Mass in a strong, clear
voice, the Pope steered clear of specifics
and instead launched without preface
into a prayer to Jesus Christ.
“We might be tempted to make an
immediate analysis of the spiritual needs
of this world,” he prayed.
“We. prefer however to turn in the
WORSTER, Mass. (NC) - Father
Leonard Feeney, a Jesuit priest
excommunicated in 1953, and 29 of his
INSIDE STORY
Study For Priesthood
Pg. 2
Lay Advisors
Pg. 3
Socially Acceptable?
Pg. 4
DCCW Notes ^
Pg. 8
first place to you, to confirm in
ourselves this basic certainty: That the
very reality of evangelization comes
forth from You, Lord. Like a river it has
its source, and You, Christ Jesus, are
this source.”
Vested in red and speaking in the
Renaissance splendor of the Sistine
Chapel, the Pope declared: “Lord Jesus,
behold we are ready to go and preach
again Your Gospel to the world.”
At the plenary session that afternoon
in the streamlined synod hall, Pope Paul
quickly got down to specifics of
preaching the Gospel in the modem
world.
He noted that the participants in the
synod represented “ecclesial
communities spread throughout the
world.”
Stressing that he was awaiting the
results of their month-long
deliberations, the Pope picked out
“three notes” which he said seemed
essential to the debate:
followers have been reconciled with the
Church, according to Bishop Bernard
Flanagan of Worcester, Mass.
On Sept. 26 Bishop Flanagan
confirmed rumors that last spring he
accepted back into the Church most of
the members of Father Feeney’s
community, the Slaves of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary, at St.
Benedict’s Center, Still River, Mass.
He also confirmed that Pope Paul VI
personally accepted Father Feeney back
into the Church two years ago through
the intervention of Cardinal Humberto
Medeiros of Boston. The priest had been
excommunicated for preaching a literal
interpretation of the doctrine, “Out side
the Church there is no salvation.”
(Cardinal Medeiros, en route home
from Rome, could not be reached
immediately for comment. Other
archdiocesan sources declined to
comment immediately.)
The group of 23 men and six women
- The necessity of fulfilling Christ’s
mandate to teach the Gospel to all;
-- The universality of the Gospel
message for all peoples, tribes and
tongues;
- The goal of evangelization as
Christ’s mission.
Concerning the necessity to preach
the Gospel, Pope Paul said it was a
“binding duty, even almost menacing”
in its demands on Christians.
“Evangelization is not an occasional
or temporary labor, but a fixed task and
constitutional necessity of the Church.”
The universality of the Gospel
message demands that God’s word be
carried “to all men, without any barriers
of geography, race, nation, history or
civilization,” he said.
At this point, Pope Paul paused to
consider also the ecumenical aspects of
preaching the Gospel, including the
in Church
who followed Father Feeney “sought
and obtained reconciliation earlier this
year,” Bishop Flanagan said, “after we
had submitted their petition to the
Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith in the Holy See.”
Eighteen members of the community
have not been reconciled.
The bishop said he personally
accepted the 29 persons into full
communion with the Church in the
chapel of their home, the St. Benedict’s
Center.
The only condition set down in
receiving the men and women into the
Church, the bishop said, was that each
individual “make the usual profession of
faith according to the traditional
formula.” Each did so, the bishop said,
in his presence.
“The men and women were then
absolved,” he said, “of any canonical
censures which they might have
incurred” while members of the
religious community.
relation of Christianity to non-Christian
religions. The synod’s participants must
look at the “delicate and important”
question of ecumenism “which is being
studied now by the Church with the
most lively interest and brotherly
concern,” he said.
“Likewise, we cannot omit touching
in non-Christian religions. In fact, they
must no longer be considered rivals or
obstacles to evangelization but as zones
of lively and respectful interest and of
future and even already developing
friendship.”
Lastly, the synod must consider
the purpose of evangelization and the
Church’s commitment to it.
“It is possible to define better the
relations between evangelization as such
and all human efforts toward
development, which justly await the
Church’s help even though this is not its
specific mission,” he said.
“It is necessary to reaffirm clearly the
specifically religious purpose of
evangelization,” and not permit it to be
dissipated among strictly sociological or
political concerns, he warned.
The Pope hastened to add that the
Church’s mission to preach the Gospel
should not allow the Church to
overlook important problems of the day
such as “justice, liberation, development
and world peace.”
To forget such concerns “would be to
forget the lesson which comes from the
Gospel about the love of one’s suffering
and needy neighbor,” he declared.
“In reality the Church, following the
example and teaching of its Divine
founder, has never failed to promote the
improvement of peoples . ..
Neither opposition nor separation
exists between evangelization and
human progress, but rather a
complementary relationship.”
The Pope did not hesitate to touch
one highly explosive topic of the
forthcoming synod discussions.
Referring to the need to preach the
Gospel, Pope Paul said:
“It will never do to have recourse to
methods which are in open contrast
with the spirit of the Gospel. Neither
violence, nor revolution, nor colonialism
in any form will serve as means of the
Church’s evangelistic action.”
While there is need to consider new
ways of preaching the Gospel as
indicated by Vatican Council II, Pope
Paul said these must be sought out
“without adjuring the past or destroying
the values which have been acquired.”
In concluding the Pope recommended
to his brother bishops, “a healthy
optimism” as they discuss the problems
of evangelization in a world which has
often abandoned religion.
He said: “You must have confidence
in your effort because you are working
for the Church; confidence, above all, in
Christ who is with you, who lives with
you.”
Following the Pope’s address, the
synod began its regular schedule of
business with a report by the synod’s
general secretary, Bishop Wladyslaw
Rubin, on the interim activity of his
secretariat since the last synod of 1971.
That was followed by a general report
on the state of the Church today.
The following day, the bishops were
to hear from the five special reporters
on the problems of particular churches
in various parts of the world. Among
the speakers was to be Archbishop
Joseph Bemardin of Cincinnati, who
was assigned a report on the Church’s
situation in the United States, Canada
and the Pacific.
Bishop Alsoio Lorscheider of
Fortaleza, Brazil, gave the “panorama”
speech presenting an overview of
Church life since the 1971 synod.
Even now, the Second Vatican
Council is very often applied more in
external form than in its spirit,” told
the assembly participants.
Noting that the need for pastoral
action in line with the council’s
suggestions, the bishop asked: “Are we
CONCELEBRANTS AT SYNOD -- Pope Paul, Landazuri Ricketts of Lima, Peru, and Bishop Ladislaw
(center) concelebrates the opening Mass of the fourth Rubin, secretary general of the Synod. The September
Synod of Bishops with, from left: Cardinal Paul 27 morning Mass was followed by the meeting’s first
Zoungrana of Upper Volta, Cardinal Franz Koenig of plenary session. (NC Photo)
Vienna, Msgr. Virgilio Noe (in white), Cardinal Juan
Father Feeney Back
bishops sufficiently prepared to exercise
our functions in these times?”
and only wants to live on the periphery
of the institutional Church.
Although he said that signs of hope
were prevalent he added: “Maybe our
sense of creativity could be better. It
seems to be very urgent for us to find
new elements which could better serve
the salvation of man.”
Bishop Lorscheider presented a litany
of “signs of vigor” in the Church which
included development of pastoral and
priests’ councils, direct pastoral activity
by nuns, growth of small communities,
and efforts in some places to reintegrate
former priests into the life of the
Church.
Among problems, he listed the
need for greater creativity and more
flexibility in the liturgy and more
concern for the “third man of the
Church” who seeks to identify with
people living on the margin of society
Bishop Rubin, in his report on
activities of the synod’s secretariat over
the past three years, said the secretariat
had recommended that synods be held
at three year-intervals instead of the
two-year intervals initially established.
The present synod is the first to be held
three years after its predecessor.
He added that a technical change in
synod procedure has been adopted so
that participants now will vote “with
respect for the opinion” of the
episcopal conferences they represent.
The former language of synod norms
read that participants were to reflect the
“common judgment” of their
conferences. Bishop Rubin said that the
former language somewhat impeded
bishops from changing their mind on
hew to vote during a syhodal debate on
the subject.
NOBC Vocations Chief
As of September 1, 1974, the
Reverend Kenneth C. Stewart, OFM,
Cap., assumed the newly created
position of National Vocation Director
for the National Office for Black
Catholics.
His office, the Department of Church
Vocations — Ministerial, Religious and
Volunteer Service, waj established a? a
step towards realizing one of the goals
of N.O.B.C., as presented in its Black
Catholics Concerned annual collection.
Through Father Stewart’s efforts,
N.O.B.C. will begin parish-centered
recruitment programs and develop
programs and materials to interest Black
Youth in serving God’s people.
Fr. Stewart hopes to encourage
people who have contact with Black
Catholics -- mainly parish men - to seek
out and encourage these men to
seriously consider and request
information on ministry in the church.
This means all ministries, including
readers, deacons, priests and so on.
In addition Father Stewart would like
to see developed a “ministry of elders”
comparable to the positions held in
Black Protestant churches.
Father Stewart, a Capuchin, is a
native of Washington, D.C. After
attending public and Catholic grade and
high school here, he entered St. Felix
Friary (Huntington, Ind.), and later St.
Mary’s Seminary (Crown Point, Ind.),
and St. Anthony Seminary (Marathon,
Wise.).
He made Solemn Religious Vows in
Father Stewart
1963 and in 1965 was appointed
principal of St. Francis School in
Milwaukee’s inner-city. Ordained in
1967, Fr. Stewart was appointed in
1970, Pastor of St. Boniface Parish, in
Milwaukee. Thus he became the first
Black Pastor in that city. In 1973 he
was appointed to Queen of Angels
Retreat Center in Saginaw, Michigan.
Father Stewart is a member of the
National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus
and was, until his appointment at
N.O.B.C., Chairman of the Black
Catholics Concerned Campaign in
Saginaw.
A HEADLINE
HOPSCOTCH ^
Liturgy Training Faulted
WASHINGTON (NC) - The liturgical education offered in U.S. Catholic seminaries
is deficient, a study made jointly by a Catholic research organization and the U.S.
Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy has found. The study concluded that in the
seminaries “theology is insufficiently related to practical piety as expressed in the
liturgy and pastoral preparation is insufficiently related to the priestly task of
presiding over and interpreting the liturgy.”
Episcopal Bishops Charged
NEW YORK (NC) - Formal charges have been brought against four Episcopal
bishops who ordained 11 women priests in a July ceremony in Philadelphia. The
charges, brought by four other Episcopal bishops, accuse the ordaining bishops with
failing to receive proper recommendations for ordinations from the appropriate
committee of each woman’s home diocese and of acting without the approval of the
bishop of Pennsylvania. Those charged were retired Bishop Edward R. Wells II of West
Missouri; resigned Bishop Robert L. DeWitt of Pennsylvania; retired Bishop Daniel
Corrigan, former head of the domestic missions for the church’s national executive
council; and Bishop Antonio Ramos of Costa Rica.
Archbishop Resigns
JERUSALEM (NC) - Melkite-rite Archbishop Joseph Raya of Acre, Israel, has
resigned and left Israel over what he termed interference by higher Church authorities
in the affairs of his diocese. The archbishop, head of Melkite-rite Catholics in the
Galilee area, said he preferred “to sacrifice myself” rather than hurt the Church by
airing his grievances or hurt his conscience by keeping silence. About 5,000 people
signed a petition saying they would refuse to accept any other bishop.