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The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 55 No. 41 Thursday, November 21,1974 Single Copy Price 15 Cents
CHD Aids Over 500 Self-Help Projects
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WASHINGTON (NC) - American
Catholics, through the Campaign for
Human Development, provided about
$5 million dollars this year to aid more
than 500 self-help economic and social
development programs in every region
of the United States.
The Campaign for Human
Development (CHD) is the U.S.
Church’s four-year-old anti-poverty
program.
A collection will be taken up Nov. 24
in Catholic churches throughout the
United States to finance next year’s
CHD projects.
“Annual collections for the poor will
not eradicate poverty in America,” said
Father Lawrence J. McNamara,
executive director of CHD, “but they
may introduce some hope into
despairing lives. The campaign serves as
a symbol of what can be done. It makes
us all a little less poor.”
Begun by the Catholic bishops in
1970, the CHD, through four national
collections, has awarded a total of $20
million to a variety of programs -- from
consumer action agencies to the
creation of rural irrigation systems.
Initial grants from the campaign have
enabled many self-help community
programs to later qualify for more than
$5 million dollars from federal, state, or
private foundation sources.
“The collection is one means by
which the Catholic Church can aid
people struggling for justice, dignity and
opportunity in their immediate
communities and throughout the
nation,” Father McNamara said.
The Campaign for Human
Development gives top priority to
projects that hold out a promise of
getting at the root causes of poverty by
effecting institutional change.
Its emphasis is on encouraging
long-term cooperation and coordination
of efforts among diverse groups of
people and not on handouts that might
benefit a few persons temporarily
without lasting results. -
INTERFAITH THANKSGIVING - Rabbi Akiva Brilliant of Emanuel
Center, Mount Vernon, N.Y., shows Franciscan Father Bede Ferrara the
Jewish holy book which will be used at an Interfaith Clergy Thanksgiving
Service No. 24 at the Center. Father Ferrara, president of Interfaith
Clergy of Mount Vernon, said the group sets an example of “fraternal
understanding and love.” (NC Photo)
HEADLINE
HOPSCOTCH
u*
Anglican Marriage Study
BUS DONATED IN HONOR OF SEXTON.
Cathedral Day School in Savannah received a gift of a
new school bus recently from a former parishioner
honoring Mr. Harold Monson, sexton of the Cathedral
for more than 40 years. In upper photo, Monson (r.)
and Father Lawrence Lucree, Cathedral Rector place
plaque over driver’s seat. The plaque reads, “This Bus
Given to Honor Our Good Friend Harold Monson.”
Bus donor asked to remain anonymous.
COMMEMORA TES VA TICAN DECREE
Unity Service at Cathedral
An ecumenical service
commemorating the 10th anniversary of
the Decree on Ecumenism adopted by
Vatican Council II will be held at the
Cathedral of St. John the Baptist
November 24th at 7:30 p.m.
Participating will be leaders of the
Baptist, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist,
Roman Catholic and United Church of
Christ communities in Georgia.
Father Lawrence A. Lucree, rector of
the Cathedral, will issue the greeting and
call to Prayer. Leading the congregation
in the confession of sin will be Dr.
James P. Wesberry, Recording Secretary
of the Baptist Convention of the State
of Georgia.
INSIDE STORY
Bicentennial
Pg. 2
'Know Your Faith’
Pg. 5
Entertainment
Pg. 6
Hospital Heliport
Pg. 8
Scripture readings will be given by J.
Thomas Coleman, Chairman of the
Chatham County Commissioners and
Savannah Mayor, John Rousakis.
Responding to the readings will be Rev.
Jackson P. Braddy, Coordinator of the
Georgia Interchurch Association and
Rev. Gerald S. Troutman, Secretary of
the Southeastern Synod of the Lutheran
Church in America.
Rev. Karlton C. Johnson,
Stewardship Secretary of the Southern
Region of the Stewardship Council of
6 Increase
WASHINGTON (NC) - In a letter to
President Gerald Ford, Bishop James S.
Rausch, general secretary of the
National Conference of Catholic
Bishops and the U.S. Catholic
Conference, has urged an increase in
American food aid at least to the $350
million level.
The text of the letter follows:
I write to request urgently that you
accept the recommendation of the U.S.
delegation at the UN Food Conference
by increasing the allotment of funds for
Title II of the P.L. 480 Program to at
least 350 million dollars.
Along with Cardinal Krol, I believe
the United Church of Christ will give
the Gospel reading. Bishop Paul Reeves
of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia will
deliver the sermon and Bishop Richard
Allen Hildebrand of the Sixth Episcopal
District of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church will lead the Litany of
Unity. Bishop Raymond W. Lessard of
the Roman Catholic diocese of
Savannah will give the Solemn Blessing
and dismissal.
A reception will follow at St.
Vincent’s Hall. The public is invited.
Food Aid 9
we are placing before you a proposal
which is supported by the vast majority
of the 50 million Catholics in the
United States. Many of them are hard
pressed economically; some indeed are
undernourished in our own land; but
none wish to forget or forsake those
who face starvation and death in other
lands.
The problem of conscience posed for
us as a nation by the food crisis is clear
and compelling. If we fail to prevent
Mass starvation, we fail not in
generosity but in elementary justice and
human decency. We cannot afford this
burden spiritually, psychologically or
politically in our country today. Please
act so that we can face the world and
ourselves with good conscience.
RAUSCH URGES FORD
In most of the groups the poor
themselves have a dominant voice in the
planning of self-help projects.
In addition to its funding aspects, the
Campaign for Human Development
performs a year-round education
function. A special educational
component of the campaign prepares
research and resource material, teaching
aids and audio-visual packages for use in
elementary and secondary classrooms,
parish organizations, adult education
courses, liturgical services and social
action workshops on the local level.
“These are designed to convey the
urgency and complexities of poverty
and injustice in all dimensions,”
according to Father McNamara,
LONDON (NC) - The General Synod of the Church of England has called for a
fresh examination of the Christian doctrine of marriage and of its own discipline in the
light of changes in British divorce law. For the present, however, the present discipline
was confirmed. That states that divorced persons cannot be remarried in church but
can, at the bishop’s discretion, be readmitted to communion after a second marriage.
Children of God Report
ALBANY, N.Y. (NC) -- A report on an international religion movement, the
Children of God, issued by the attorney general of New York state, includes testimony
of sexual abuse, rape, brainwashing, solitary confinement and demands that members
agree to kill their parents. The attorney general said, however, that no action could be
taken against the movement because of the constitutional guarantee of freedom of
religion. The group claimed to have the blessing of the Pope. A spokesman for the
archdiocese of New York, Msgr. Eugene V. Clark, denied that the Pope had given his
blessing to the movement.
Dissent in San Diego
“The poor and the non-poor can be
brought closer together. We are now
receiving applications (for funds) from
coalitions of people not previously
associated with one another, such as
urban ethnics and blacks, or persons of
modest and lower incomes, who have
come to realize they suffer the same
kinds of fears and anxieties. So, giving
through the Campaign becomes a
process of reconciliation and social
change.”
Evaluations for funding are
determined by a CHD national
professional staff, by local diocesan
CHD committees (25 percent of all
funds collected are earmarked and
dispersed from the local level), and by a
40-member national committee of
bishops, priests, Religious, laymen and
laywomen. Members of the national
committee are representatives of all
major ethnic and racial communities
and are chosen for their experience in
working with and for the poor.
SAN DIEGO, Calif. (NC) - A large number of Catholics in the San Diego diocese
disagree with the Church’s traditional teaching on birth control and divorce, according
to summaries of views expressed at “speak-up” sessions held in parishes last winter and
attended by more than 20,000 persons. Summaries of reports from the sessions
indicate that many catholics use artifical means of birth control and not all of them
consider it matter for confession. “A considerable number of people stated that
divorce laws should be reevaluated and perhaps changed to take account of individual
extenuating circumstances.” the summaries said.
Vatican to Give $100,000
ROME (NC) - The chief Vatican delegate to the World Food Conference announced
here Nov. 12 that, by decision of Pope Paul VI, the Holy See will contribute $100,000
to any fund the conference may set up for the development of farming. The delegate,
Archbishop Agostino Ferrari-Toniolo* said that the money would go to the conference
for “whatever formula will be adopted to intensify aid to rural development.”
Bethlehem Seeks UN Aid
JERUSALEM (NC) - Israel’s increasingly outspoken desire to annex Bethlehem has
prompted Bethlehem Mayor Elias Freij, a Greek Orthodox, to propose that the United
Nations put the town of Christ’s birth under its protection. Freij urged that Bethlehem
and other areas of the West Bank be demilitarized and made UN protectorates for a
five-year period. At the end of this period, he added, a plebiscite could be held to
determine the future of the area.
BULLETIN!!
Archbishop Joseph L. Bernardin of
Cincinnati was elected President of the
National Conference of Catholic
Bishops (NCCB) and the United States
Catholic Conference (USCC) at
balloting last Tuesday (Nov. 20).
U.S. Delegates Praised
WASHINGTON (NC) - The contributions of the U.S. delegates to the world Synod
of Bishops in October were “significant and outstanding,” Cardinal John Krol of
Philadelphia told the American bishops Nov. 18 during their annual meeting here. In a
report on the synod the cardinal repeated earlier statements that the 1974 synod was
the best yet, and he rapped media reports of division between the Pope and the
bishops as “regrettable” and “incredible” distortions of what happened.