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The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 55 No. 43 Thursday, December 5,1974 Single Copy Price — 15 Cents
Vatican Document Raps Abortion and Its Causes
BY JAMES C. O’NEILL
VATICAN CITY (NC) - The Vatican
has issued a Declaration on Procured
Abortion branding abortion intrinsically
evil and urging action -- including
political action - “to combat its
causes.”
The anti-abortion document of
almost 6,000 words, issued at Pope Paul
Vi’s orders by the Vatican’s Doctrinal
Congregation, declared that no Christian
BY DESMOND SULLIVAN
JERUSALEM (NC) - Delegates to an
international meeting of Conservative
Jews here have stated their
determination to win equal rights for
Conservative Jews in Israel.
The convention of the World Council
of Synagogues, the official world
conference of the Conservative branch
of Judaism, accused the government of
Israel of discriminating against
Conservative Jews and in favor of
Orthodox Jews.
The president of the World Council
of Synagogues, Samuel Rothstein of
New York, declared: “The Jewish
people have been the victim of bigotry
too long.”
He asserted that a small group of
politicians in Israel were denying
INSIDE STORY
Liturgy Meet
Pg. 2
'Know Your Faith'
Pg. 5
Entertainment
Pg. 6
Around The Diocese
Pg. 8
may “conform” to an intrinsically
immoral law.
“Nor can any Christian take part in a
propaganda campaign in favor of such a
law, or vote for it. Moreover, he may
not collaborate in its application. It is,
for instance, inadmissible that doctors
or nurses should find themselves obliged
to cooperate closely in abortions and
have to choose between the Christian
law and their professional situation.”
Of the “sorrows and miseries” cited
religious legitimacy to the overwhelming
majority of world Jewry. Conservative
Judaism claims to be the largest
movement of Jewish religious life.
Rothstein said the major issue was
whether Israel’s Orthodox rabbinate
should exercise worldwide control over
Jewry.
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
outlined the country’s political situation
to the convention.
Haim Zadok, who holds the two
posts of minister of justice and minister
of religious affairs, addressed the 500
delegates to the congress. He tried to
separate religious status from secular
legislation.
“From the religious point of view,”
Zadok said, “conversion is a Halachic
(concerning sacred jurisprudence)
concept and pertains to the religious
rabbinical domain.”
It was noted that he did not speak of
the rabbinical authorities of Israel, but
used the broader phrase “the rabbinical
domain of Judaism.”
Zadok formulated a principle of the
separation of the secular from the
religious:
“It is not for the secular legislature of
the state of Israel in interpreting the
(Halachic) concept for the purpose of
secular laws to give preference to one
trend in Jewish religious thought over
another.”
Participation of Jews outside of
Israel, he added, was necessary for
Jewish life in Israel.
“We are fully aware,” he said, “that
we cannot .succeed unless the leaders of
by pro-abortionists to justify abortion,
the Vatican document said:
“Every man and woman of feeling,
and certainly every Christian, must be
ready to do what he can to remedy
them . . . One can never approve
abortion; but it is above all necessary to
combat its causes. This includes political
action, which will be in particular the
task of the law. But it is necessary at the
same time to influence morality and to
do everything possible to help families,
mothers and children.”
Jewish life in the Diaspora join us in our
effort.”
No rabbi of Conservative Judaism is
allowed to exercise the ministry in
Israel, and all Jews must go to Orthodox
rabbis for marriage ceremonies.
Children of unorthodox marriages are
not recognized as legitimate, and
conversions to Judaism are not accepted
as valid unless performed according to
Orthodox rules.
Even during the week of the meeting,
Conservative Jews were forbidden to
hold a service in the Wailing Wall area,
the prime shrine of Judaism.
Because the Orthodox do not
recognize conversions to Judaism
carried out under Conservative rules,
they may limit immigration to Israel by
refusing to recognize non-Orthodox
conversions. Any Jew may immigrate to
Israel.
Minister of Tourism Moshe Kol spoke
of the need for recognition within Israel
of non-Orthodox rabbis. He recently
submitted to the government a list of 83
such rabbis for consideration.
Delegates to the council stated in
their final meeting two principles:
- The Conservative movement has
always been committed to Halacha (the
study of moral behavior in the light of
the sacred law), and conversions by
Conservative rabbis conform to these
rules.
- The immigration laws of Israel
should not be changed because “the
proposed changes would under one
guise or another, create dissension in
the Jewish world community.”
The Doctorical Congregation said it
had released the declaration (Nov. 25)
to show the “unity of the Church’s
thinking on abortion. It noted that
many bishops and Christian lay peopl
“especially doctors, but also parents'
associations,” have taken up arms
against a concerted “propaganda
campaign” in favor of relaxing current
laws against abortion.
The declaration insisted that the
Church is not indifferent to human
situations which lead to abortions, or
“to the weight of the sacrifices and the
burdens” which refusal to take part in
an abortion can impose.
“Heroism is sometimes called for in
order to remain faithful to the
requirements of the divine law,” it
declared. It added: “A Christian’s
outlook cannot be limited to the
horizon of life in this world.”
The declaration pointed out that
much has been achieved “in the service
of life” by modern medicine, and
expressed the hope “that such progress
will continue, in accordance with the
vocation of doctors, which is not to
suppress life but to care for it and favor
it as much as possible.”
Full Text On Page 7
The declaration was approved by
Pope Paul VI on June 28, 1974, and its
promulgation ordered. The Doctrinal
Congregation officially published the
final text Nov. 18, sending copies to the
world’s national conferences of bishops.
The text was made public a week later
at a press conference held at the Vatican
Nov. 25 by Msgr. Philippe Delhaye, a
Belgian who is secretary of the Vatican’s
International Theological Commission.
The document had been drawn up by
the International Theological
Commission under the authority of the
Doctrinal Congregation.
The declaration was issued the day
before the French parliament was due
to open debate on revision of existing
abortion laws, and only shortly after the
U.S. National Conference of Catholic
Bishops authorized a demand for
assurances from vice-presidential
nominee Nelson Rockefeller that he
would not promote “a personal
viewpoint on permissive abortion.”
The document consists of an
introduction and five additional parts
dealing with: abortion seen in the light
of faith; in the additional light of
reason; a reply to some objections;
morality and the law; practical
conclusions.
In its opening paragraph the
declaration made the point: “One
cannot but be astonished to see a
simultaneous increase of unqualified
protests against the death penalty and
every form of war, and the vindication
of the liberalization of abortion, either
in its entirety or in ever broader
indications.”
The document pointed to a
difference between “ethical pluralism”
and “ideological pluralism.” It described
ethical pluralism as the notion that a
change in existing laws against abortion
“would violate no one’s conscience, for
each individual would be left free to
follow his own opinion, while being
prevented from imposing it on others.”
The declaration dismissed this
“ethical” approach to pluralism by
pointing to a “great difference”
between the opinion and action.
“Action affects the interests of others
more quickly than does mere opinion,”
it said.
“Moreover, one can never claim
freedom of opinion as a pretext for
attacking the rights of others, most
especially the right to life.”
The Doctrinal Congregation said that
in the document it “proposes to recall”
the Church’s teaching on abortion “in
its essential aspects to all the faithful.”
The document continued: “It hopes
that all the faithful, including those who
might have been unsettled by
controversies and new opinions, will
understand that it is not a question of
opposing one opinion to another, but of
transmitting to the faithful a constant
teaching of the supreme Magisterium,
which teaches moral norms in the light
of faith.
“It is therefore clear that this
Declaration necessarily entails a grave
obligation for Christian consciences.”
After stating the importance of its
authority, the document examined the
question in the light of the constant
teaching of the Church from the earliest
centuries.
It declared: “The tradition of the
Church has always held that human life
must be protected and favored from the
beginning, just as it is at the various
stages of its development.”
It traced the Christian stand against
abortion - as opposed to the pagan
Greek and Roman laxness -- from the
first century down to the Second
Vatican Council and Pope Paul VI, who
declared in December 1972 that the
teaching of the Church regarding
abortion “has not changed and is
unchangeable.”
ECUMENICAL SERVICE AT CATHEDRAL of St. John the Baptist on
Nov. 24 marked the observance of the 10th anniversary of the
promulgation of the Vatican Council Decree on Ecumenism. Here, Rev.
Jackson P. Braddy, Coordinator of the Georgia Interchurch Association
(in pulpit) gives response to a Scripture reading. Others (1. to r.) are
Bishop Richard Allen Hildebrand of the Sixth Episcopal District of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church; Bishop Raymond W. Lessard; J.
Thomas Coleman, Chairman of the Chatham County Commissioners; John
Rousakis, Mayor of Savannah.
HEADLINE
HOPSCOTCH
I'
Abortion Ban Dropped
WASHINGTON (NC) - An amendment prohibiting the use of federal funds for
abortions that are not needed to save the mother’s life has been dropped from an HEW
appropriations bill. House-Senate conferees dropped the provision after the Senate
approved the amendment and the House rejected it. Current HEW statistics indicate
that federal funds pay for between 222,000 and 278,000 abortions annually.
Blitz Issues Apology
WASHINGTON (NC) - Secretary of Agriculture Earl L. Butz issued a public
apology for repeating a joke on Pope Paul Vi’s views on birth control. The joke
brought calls for Butz’ resignation, but President Ford, while rebuking Butz for his
comment, said the seriousness of the offense did not warrant resignation. Butz, in a
reference to the Pope, was quoted as saying in an Italian accent: “He no playa the
game; he no makea the rules.”
New Catholic Weekly
HUNTINGTON, Ind. (NC) -- Our Sunday Visitor is introducing a new national
Catholic weekly that will include the regular Our Sunday Visitor national edition as a
magazine supplement. Dale Francis, former editor of the National Catholic Register, is
executive of the new Our Sunday Visitor news edition, which starts appearing Dec. 8.
Francis said that the new paper will attempt to cover all the news and give readers a
clear picture of what is happening in the Church today. Francis said that the news
edition will develop its own coverage in coming weeks and that the first-year aim is a
circulation of 100,000, which would make it the largest circulation national Catholic
newspaper.
Bishop Vincent Waters
Of Raleigh Diocese Dies
The Most Reverend Vincent S. Waters, age 70, Bishop of Raleigh, North
Carolina, died at his home on Tuesday, December 3, of an apparent heart attack.
His death came on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the diocese.
The bishop’s funeral will be held on Saturday, December 7th.
OPENING OF THE HOLY YEAR OF delegations from parishes in various cities of the
RECONCILIATION officially began in the Diocese of diocese. Principal celebrant of the Mass was Bishop
Savannah with the celebration of a special Mass of Raymond W. Lessard. Priest in the pulpit is Father
Reconciliation at the Cathedral last Sunday at 11:30 Lawrence A. Lucree, Cathedral Rector,
a.m. Attendance was swelled by the participation of
BY ISRAEL
Conservative Jews Charge Bias