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A 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 ! | '4 I H f st > ” gu* i =**4 He V ‘ CtreowL 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.