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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 ft m? 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