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PAGE 3—December 19,1974
At Home Retreats Incorporated in New York
LAKE RONKONKOMA, N.Y. (NC) -
At Home Retreats, a movement which
has been growing in the Rockville
Centre diocese like the mustard seed
which is its symbol, has been
incorporated to insure that it will not
turn into “some kind of underground
church movement,” one of its founders
said.
Mrs. Dot Horstmann, who, with
Cenacle Sister Mary Sullivan, began
conducting At Home Retreats two and a
half years ago, said that increased
demand for such retreats had brought
problems. Individuals not trained by
Mrs. Horstmann and Sister Sullivan had
begun to conduct home retreats not in
conformity with their ideas.
“There just were certain things we
wanted to preserve about our home
retreat,” she said. “And we wanted to
protect people, so that somebody who
had heard about the At Home Retreat
would get what she’d planned on.”
Incorporation, she explained,
required formalization of the training
process and approval by Father William
Hughes, diocesan vicar for Religious,
and by Sister Sullivan’s superiors in the
Congregation of Our Lady of the
Retreat in the Cenacle, whose chief
work has always been retreats.
“Clearing through channels assures
that it isn’t some kind of underground
Church movement, and that it’s not
going to turn into that,” Mrs.
Horstmann said. “And somebody
coming in can be sure that it’s geared to
the spiritual - that it’s not going to be a
bunch of people playing sensitivity
games.”
Becoming a non-profit corporation
also means that At Home Retreats can
solicit and accept funds. “We can’t
expect the Cenacle or any Religious
community to subsidize us,” Mrs.
Horstmann said. “With the financial
state they’re in, many of the Sisters
doing this work need to earn a stipend.”
\
In addition to the Religious of the
Cenacle, members of three other
congregations of Sisters are working or
training to work in At Home Retreats.
As the number of those who have
experienced At Home Retreats has
grown from about 50 to more than 150,
some changes have been made.
“Because each retreat is so personal
and there are always different people
involved, each retreat is at least
somewhat different from the others,”
Sister Sullivan said. “And we try to use
films and records and things that are
contemporary.”
The biggest change has come in the
form of retreats for married couples,
given by Mrs. Horstmann and her
husband, Harry, with Sister Sullivan.
Previously, only women had made the
retreats.
But the essence of the At Home
Retreats has remained unchanged. The
retreats are given to small groups (seven
to eleven) by a team of Religious and
laity. The group meets for about two
hours each week during a 13-week
period, either at the home of one of the
lay leaders or at the homes of
retreatants. Each retreatant is expected
to spend at least 15 minutes daily in
prayer and meditation. The format is a
modified version of the Exercises of St.
Ignatius Loyola, the classic guide for a
directed retreat.
The' traditional concept of a retreat
has included physical and mental
withdrawal from day-to-day
responsibilities and distractions, to
concentrate solely on the spiritual. But
many people, including mothers with
small children, cannot put aside their
responsibilities for a weekend or even an
entire day, Mrs. Horstmann said.
At Home Retreats, by situating the
weekly meeting and daily prayer at
home, in the midst of distractions,
teaches the retreatants “to find Christ
in everyday activities, because that’s
what everyday spirituality has to be,”
Mrs. Horstmann said.
“And it lasts,” she added, pointing
out that 10 of 11 women who were
involved in the first At Home Retreat
two and a half years ago were present at
the recent incorporation celebration
here.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Involvement in Behavior Programs Hit
BY JIM CASTELLI
WASHINGTON (NC) - The federal
government is “heavily involved” in
behavior modification programs - many
experimental, including psychosurgery -
that may violate an individual’s
constitutional rights, according to a
Senate subcommittee report.
Despite growing interest in such
programs and “important and
MELKITE ARCHBISHOP
BY JAMES C. O’NEILL
VATICAN CITY (NC) - The Vatican
has expressed “deep pain and grief” at
the conviction of Melkite-rite
Archbishop Hilarion Capucci,
patriarchal vicar for Jerusalem, by an
Israeli court on charges of smuggling
arms to Palestinian terrorists.
The Syrian-born Archbishop was
sentenced Dec. 9 by a court in
Jerusalem to 12 years in jail for arms
smuggling. He was spiritual head of
4,500 Melkite-rite Catholics, mostly
Arabs, living in or near Jerusalem.
On Dec. 10, the Vatican press office
stated: “The Holy See has learned with
deep pain and grief of the
condemnation of Archbishop Hilarion
Capucci, as it has also shown its lively
concern over the entire controversial
affair.
“The affair hurts and saddens one of
the glorious Catholic communities of
UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. (NC) -
Cardinal Terence Cooke of New York,
speaking at commenorative ceremonies
for U Thant, called the former secretary
general of the United Nations “a man of
peace” and prayed that his work might
endure.
The cardinal presided at a Mass for
Peace Dec. 5 at Holy Family Church,
near the United Nations, immediately
following a ceremony in memory of U
Thant, who died Nov. 26 in New York.
The ceremony was arranged by Msgr.
Giovanni Cheli, the Vatican’s permanent
observer at the United Nations.
Participants from the world
organization’s headquarters included the
present secretary general, Kurt
Waldheim, and representatives of most
delegations.
immediate questions of constitutional
rights,” the government is going ahead
“without a review structure fully
adequate to protect the constitutional
rights of the subjects,” the report said.
Behavior modification is defined by
the Department of Health, Education
and Welfare as “the systematic
application of psychological and social
principles to bring about desired
the East, the Melkite Church, in which
Archbishop Capucci has carried out his
functions as a bishop for years and as a
pastor in a region in which, amid the
most varied historical vicissitudes, the
figure of the heads of religious
communities has traditionally been
surrounded by respect and esteem. ”
The Vatican press office statement
was carried on the same day by Vatican
Radio and in L’Osservatore Romano,
the Vatican daily newspaper.
It noted that Archbishop Capucci is
“the ordinary of Catholics who live in
Jerusalem and in the Holy Land, places
which are very dear to the veneration of
believers and in which the presence of
Catholics is the object of the lively
interest of the Holy Father.”
The Melkite-rite Archbishop could
have received a maximum sentence of
35 years. He contended that he had been
the victim of a frame-up.
Cardinal Cooke recalled that almost a
decade ago, Pope Paul VI journeyed to
New York and to the United Nations.
“It was the man we honor this
morning who received him,” the
cardinal said.
“They became close friends, because
both were dedicated to justice and
peace in this world. In a message for the
World Day of Peace issued during the
last year that U Thant served as
secretary general, the Pope reminded us
that true peace must be founded on true
human brotherhood.
“U Thant was a man of peace. His
life, his work, was a reminder to us to
look for a world where justice and peace
are found in the hearts of men and in
the seats of governments. We mourn his
passing, and condole with his family.
May he rest in peace, and may his work
endure.”
changes in or to prevent development of
certain ‘problematic’ behaviors and
responses.”
This can mean anything from a
simple “gold star” type reward for
desired behavior to psychosurgery,
operation on the brain to alter behavior.
Activities supported by government
agencies include these plus use of
convulsive drugs and electric shock as
“negative” reinforcement, intensive
encounter group sessions, isolation and
brainwashing.
HEW, the Veterans Administration
and the Justice Department through the
Bureau of Prisons and the Law
Enforcement Assistance Administration
are the agencies most heavily involved in
behavior modification programs,
according to the report.
The 651-page report, entitled
“Individual Rights and the Federal Role
in Behavior Modification” was prepared
by the Senate Judiciary Committee’s
subcommittee on constitutional rights,
chaired by Sen. Sam Ervin (D-N.C.).
The report will be studied by the
National Commission for the Protection
of Human Subjects of Biomedical and
Behavioral Experimentation established
by the National Research Act. The
commission will conduct a two-year
study of the implications of biomedical
and behavioral advances for ethics and
human rights.
Among the subcommittee’s findings:
- In cases of experimentation on
prisoners and others who are
institutionalized, courts have defended
the rights of privacy, and some courts
have even ruled that no involuntarily
detained person can give the “informed
consent” necessary to participate in an
experiment.
The Department of Health,
Education and Welfare has inadequate
guidelines for the protection of subjects
of experiments and does not even know
the full extent of such projects which it
is funding.
Despite claims by the Law
Enforcement Assistance Administration
that it would cancel funding of medical
research, chemical therapy,
psychosurgery and behavior
modification techniques, cancelation
was delayed.
- The Veterans Administration, with
no review by any higher authority,
considers psychosurgery “therapy,”
while all other government agencies
consider it an experimental practice.
The VA admitted to performing
psychosurgery on five patients in one
year, according to the report.
Much of the growth in behavior
modification research has been spurred
by the growing interest in predicting
and reducing violent behavior, the
report said.
Conviction Pains Vatican
Called ‘Man of Peace’
HOLY DOOR - Tourists examine the bricked-up Eve in an internationally televised inauguration of the
Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica during a tour of the 1975 Holy Year. (NC Photo)
Vatican. Pope Paul VI will open the door on Christmas
Ford Urged to Adopt Food Plan-Meet with Bishops
WASHINGTON (NC) - Bishop James
Rausch, general secretary of the
National Conference of Catholic
Bishops and the U.S. Catholic
Conference, has urged President Gerald
Ford to adopt the legislative policies
supported by the bishops’ in their
pastoral plan of action concerning the
world food crisis.
He also asked the President to meet
with several bishops to discuss the food
situation.
The requests came in a letter hand
delivered to the White House on Dec. 9.
The letter was delivered at a time
when the President was considering
suggested options for the future
direction of American food aid overseas.
State Department officials were
reportedly pressuring for the use of
food aid for political purposes. The
bishops, in the pastoral plan, said
government must “resist efforts to use
food as a political and strategic
weapon.”
. Bishop Rausch sent the President a
copy of the pastoral plan that was
approved unanimously at the bishops’
annual general meeting, Nov. 18-22.
Claiming a “particular urgency,”
Bishop Rausch highlighted two
recommendations of the plan in the
letter - an immediate increase in food
aid and support of a legislative policy
that “addresses the food problem in the
context of justice.”
“In addition to the immediate action
options available to the Executive
Office,” Bishop Rausch said, “it is
respectfully suggested that serious
consideration be given to incorporation
into your upcoming State of the Union
message the essence of the public policy
and legislative program enumerated” in
the bishops’ plan.
“Furthermore,” he continued, “we
feel that the American public will react
responsibly to a national call to modify
their consumption habits and thereby
release additional food supplies for
humanitarian purposes.”
“Because these matters are of such
monumental importance,” Bishop
Rausch said, “may I suggest that a time
be designated when several members of
the Catholic hierarchy might meet with
you for further discussion and
elaboration.”
The legislative policy in the bishops’
pastoral plan includes:
- Increased agricultural and technical
assistance to help poorer nations
increase their food production;
-- Changes in U.S. trade policies to
provide just prices to developing
countries, and trade preferences;
- Protection for farmers, consumers
and workers affected by a change in
policies to help ease the food crisis;
- “Modify the operation of the free
market system, especially the impact of
the large corporation, when it stands in
the way of justice.”
Following is the text of Bishop
Rausch’s letter:
In view of the urgency and
seriousness of the world food crisis, the
U. S. Catholic bishops approved at their
meeting this past November, a pastoral
plan of action.
Although the plan received wide press
coverage, I am taking this occasion to
send you a copy of the full text.
Furthermore, several points in the
bishops’ plan are of particular urgency
and I therefore highlight them at this
time:
1) Urge immediate release of
substantial quantities of food to relieve
the frightful conditions of hundreds of
thousands of people suffering from
starvation and malnutrition;
2) Support a national legislative
program which addresses the food
problem in the context of justice.
It is the intention of the bishops to
support legislative initiatives
enumerated in the seven points detailed
on pages three and four of the
enclosure. They further intend, as noted
in the plan, to assist American Catholics
to be more informed about the food
crisis, to encourage them to be more
just, and to urge them to follow more
appropriate patterns of consumption,
and in all ways to be more responsible
with the abundance God has provided.
In addition to the immediate action
options available to the Executive
Office, it is respectfully suggested that
serious consideration be given to
incorporating into your upcoming State
of the Union message the essence of the
public policy and legislative program
enumerated in the enclosed plan.
Furthermore, we feel that the
American public will react responsibly
to a national call to modify their
consumption habits and thereby release
additional food supplies for
humanitarian purposes. It is for this
reason that the bishops’ pastoral plan
addresses this aspect of the problem by
urging “the whole Catholic community
... to join with us in observing at least
two days a week as days of fast.”
These are indeed trying times both
here and abroad, and the U. S. bishops
are solicitous of the heavy burdens
resting upon your office and the
challenges and responsibilities facing the
American public.
Because these matters are of such
momentous importance, may I suggest
that a time be designated when several
members of the Catholic hierarchy
might meet with you for further
discussion and elaboration.
May the blessings of this holy Advent
season be yours.