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The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 56 No. 5 Thursday, January 30, 1975 Single Copy Price — 15 Cents
CATHOLIC LEADERS SAY
Church’s Role in Bicentennial
WALKING AROUND THE CAPITOL - Holding second anniversary of the Supreme Court decision
hands, leaders of the March for Life stride together which struck down most state restrictions on
past the east front of the U.S. Capitol after starting abortions. (NC Photo)
from the west side. The demonstration marked the
STUDY WORK OF CHURCH PEOPLE
Priests End Province Meeting
BY JOHN E. CONICK
CHARLESTON -- The expectations
required of priests are wide and varied
in the church today, Atlanta Province
Federation of Priest’s Councils delegates
heard at their 8th Annual meeting here
Jan. 20-23.
“The priest must preach hope, hope
that the world will get better; preach
humanity that needs to be perfected
through God; preach against absolutism,
instead search for new ways, new
developments,” said Fr. Seely Beggiani,
rector of Our Lady of Lebanon
Seminary in Washington, D.C.
Renewal and reconciliation of the
priesthood is important, according to
Bishop Walter F. Sullivan of Richmond,
Va.
“Renewal in priesthood must not be
done in a vacuum,” he said. “It is a
matter of change which cannot be
legislated and can’t be accomplished
unless the priest feels someone cares
about him as a person.”
“Reconciliation is a willingness to
take a step back and recognize the
humanity of each other,” he added.
A view from the pew on the
priesthood was given to the 40 delegates
and observers by a sister, a lay woman
and a member of a Black parish council.
Declaring that there is no typical
sister, Sr. Shirley Levesque, O.P., of the
Charleston Diocese Office of Religious
Education stated that sisters want to be
accepted as individuals.
“Trust us. We want to build up the
Body of Christ,” she said. “Our
communities are founded on support
and we support you in your roles.”
“To delegate is to trust,” said Mrs.
Walter West of Charlotte, N.C. “Do you
respect the laity’s priesthood? Caring
laity want to be part of the sharing.”
“A priest must be out of the office
and in the street with us,” said Thomas
Mosely of Greenville. “Social ministry
has made ministry from the pulpit
irrelevant. People are more concerned
with what is happening to them in daily
environment.”
From an historical point of view, Fr.
Robert Kinast of Atlanta, Ga., said that
the American church has had a history
of alienation until the 20th Century
“The role of the priest has been to
preserve a familiar church in an alien
society,” he said. “The expectations of
the past are not those of today; the
church is alien to us; we want the
church to be familiar to us; and the
priesthood needs broadening to include
women, Anglican and Luthem ministers
as equals.
Msgr. Colin A. MacDonald, Executive
Secretary of the National Bishop’s
Conference on Priestly Life and
Ministry Committee reported on its
current activities.
Fr. Reid Mayo, President of the
National Federation of Priest’s Councils
(NFPC) said the problems of the priest
are really the problems of the church.
In their business session, Fr. Ralph E.
Seikel of Savannah, Ga. was elected as
the province’s new representative to the
NFPC.
One of the province resolutions is
that the Atlanta Province sponsor a
workshop on pastoral ministry to
homosexuals. Another resolution was
for pastors and associates to study
pastoral practices for Catholics who
have divorced.
The Atlanta Provincial Council also
recommended that its diocesan affiliates
avail themselves of a workshop on rural
ministry co-sponsored by the NFPC,
The Glenmary Fathers and the National
Catholic Rural Life Conference.
“A priest is going to have to be a
prophetic and a mystic,” said Fr.
Beggiani of the future. “In the next
several decades there's always going to
be a need for a minister of
reconciliation who builds community,
who will need men and women finding
God from within themselves.”
To the priests in the South, Fr.
Kinast said they might well look at their
ministry as one to immigrants, those
who move from the North to the South.
The Catholic Church has grown in the
South not so much with converts but
due to the economic migration from the
North.
“Priests must lead by example,” said
Mrs. West. “We need a warm human
leader secure in himself.”
“There are no Blacks in the decision
or policy making roles,” said Mr.
Mosely. “There are no Black priests
here. Something is wrong when the
Catholic Church cannot motivate Blacks
to priesthood.”
“There’s no formula that fits every
priest,” concluded Bishop Sullivan. “It
is up to each individual to be his own
witness.”
WASHINGTON (NC) - “It is vital
that the Church be a sign of Hope,” said
Bishop James S. Rausch, general
secretary of the National Conference of
Catholic Bishops and United States
Catholic Conference (NCCB-USCC),
summarizing the reasons why the U.S.
bishops chose a national conference on
“Liberty and Justice for All” as the
main focus of the American Catholic
bicentennial observance.
The conference will “give us an
opportunity to express our Christian
convictions in American terms,” said
Archbishop Peter Gerety of Newark,
N.J.
Four leading U.S. prelates on the
NCCB Committee for the Observance of
the Bicentennial -- Archbishop Gerety,
Bishop Rausch, Cardinal John Dearden
of Detroit and Cardinal Humberto
Medeiros of Boston - were discussing
the bicentennial plans and hopes in a
round-table interview with NC News
here. They had just finished a day-long
committee meeting on the subject. Also
present was Dr. Francis Butler, director
of the bicentennial office at the
NCCB-USCC national headquarters
here.
To the suggestion that many
Catholics might prefer an observance
with more emphasis on American
Catholic history, rather than the
committee’s primary focus on a
Catholic critique of American life,
Cardinal Dearden, chairman of the
committee, replied:
“In recent years our people have
come a long way in seeing social justice
as a mission of the Church.”
He said that in his own travels around
the country and in his own archdiocese
over the past several years, “one thing
that really struck me was the heightened
awareness of the need for justice.”
“This has been a developing pattern,”
said Archbishop Gerety, chairman of
the committee’s subcommittee on
justice, “particularly since Vatican
(Council) II. Everywhere you go, it’s
very, very noticeable.”
Cardinal Medeiros, who heads the
bicentennial subcommittee on liturgy,
stressed that the conference on liberty
and justice should not be viewed as an
exercise in negative criticism of
American systems or structures.
“We are holding a celebration,” the
Boston Cardinal said. “The question is,
what are we celebrating?
-- “We do celebrate the past, but we
also see its shortcomings and learn from
them.
-- “We also celebrate the present, but
we also learn from its shortcomings.
- “And we are also celebrating the
future. From the bicentennial we should
draw courage from the past and hope
for the future.”
Archbishop Gerety pointed to six
regional “hearings” that will be held
around the country over the next year
to view issues of liberty and justice from
various perspectives and provide input
for the 1976 national conference in
Detroit.
“The technique of the hearings,” he
said, is to investigate the liberty and
justice themes and “see how we measure
up to the aspirations of our country.”
The prelates said that during their
committee meeting they had set the
final dates for the national conference
as Oct. 20-23, 1976.
They also amended the original
timetable for parish consultations, they
said, at the suggestion of the diocesan
bicentennial coordinators. Originally
scheduled to begin in January, 1975,
the parish consultation process has been
moved back to begin in September,
coinciding with the beginning of the
1975-76 school year.
“The diocesan coordinators are in a
unique position to tell us the timetable
that is best for them,” Bishop Rausch
commented.
Butler noted that the timetable
f \
INSIDE STORY
Ford Hears Rausch Pg. 2
Life in Music Pg. 6
Housing Rules .Pg. 7
Cook’s Nook Pg. 8
y *
‘Sign of
changes will not affect dioceses or
parishes that have already established a
parish consultation program. He said the
deadline for feedback from the parishes
to the national office has been delayed
to Feb. 1, 1976, because the diocesan
coordinators felt this would enable
them to get a more extensive response.
The responses from the parish
Hope’
consultations -- which will take place in
schools and through adult education
programs and workshops - will be
collated and analyzed at the diocesan
level. The resulting reports of the
diocesan coordinators to the national
office will serve as a basis for the 1976
national conference and the five-year
program for the Church’s social
(Continued on Page 2)
SIGN OF HOPE STRESSED - Planners of the American Catholic
bicentennial observance discuss the event during a round-table interview
with NC News in Washington, D.C. On top row (L to R): Dr. Francis
Butler, Bishop James Rausch. Bottom row (L to R); Cardinal Humberto
Medeiros and Archbishop Peter Gerety. Bishop Rausch, general secretary
of the U.S. Catholic Conference and National Conference of Catholic
Bishops, said, “It is vital that the Church be a sign of hope,” and thus
chose a theme of liberty and justice. (NC Photos by Thomas N. Lorsung)
£
HEADLINE
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HOPSCOTCH
Consultation-by-Mail
WASHINGTON (NC) - An extensive consultation-by-mail with Catholic scholars
throughout the United States is now underway as part of the process of preparing the
Catholic bishops’ planned pastoral letter on moral values in society. The ad hoc
committee of bishops responsible for drafting the pastoral has sent invitations to the
members of six national Catholic scholarly societies to submit their ideas and
recommendations for the pastoral. Membership in the six groups totals about 8,000.
The invitations have gone to the membership of the Catholic Theological Society of
America, the American Catholic Philosophical Association, the College Theology
Society, the Catholic Biblical Association, the Canon Law Society of America, and the
American Catholic Historical Association.
Pentecostal Congress
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (NC) - The 1975 International Congress on the Charismatic
Renewal in the Catholic Church will be held in Rome, May 16-19, it was announced
here. Ralph Martin, chairman of the congress, said the meeting, which coincides with
Pentecost, is expected to draw more than 10,000 charismatics from more than 50
countries.
Woman Ambassador
VATICAN CITY (NC) - With a reference to the International Women’s Year and to
the pride she felt in her unique appointment, the first woman ambassador to the Holy
See presented to Pope Paul VI, Jan. 23, her credentials as representative of Uganda.
Miss Bernadette Olowo, who doubles as Uganda’s ambassador to West Germany, told
Pope Paul: “In this International Women’s Year for which Your Holiness has expressed
good will, allow me to say that I feel a particular sense of satisfaction to have had this
rare opportunity of making a humble contribution in the development of society .. .
“I am also certain that all other women, especially those from my beloved country
share with me the great honor and pride that Your Holiness has deigned to receive