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The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 56 No. 7 Thursday, February 13,1975 Single Copy Price — 15 Cents
INJUDICIARY COMMITTEE TESTIMONY
Catholic Conference Backs Gun Control
Cheatham E. Hodges, Jr., of Augusta,
Executive Secretary of the Georgia
Catholic Conference, was among those
advocating the passage of strict handgun
control before the Special Judiciary
Committee of the House of
Representatives during the Georgia
Saint Meinrad Seminary, St. Meinrad,
Ind., was host for the 10th annual
“Conference for Bishops, Religious
Superiors and Vocation Directors”. The
conference began on February 3 and
concluded February 5.
This conference is held at St. Meinrad
each year to discuss with Bishops and
vocational personnel the latest trends
and developments in seminary
education and pastoral formation, as
well as to incorporate their thoughts
and ideas in future programs. This year’s
conference dealt with questions
concerning Black and Hispanic
Vocations and Apostolates, Seminary
General Assembly hearings on handgun
legislation held in Atlanta on Feb. 4.
Hodges prefaced his address to the
General Assembly by citing FBI
Director Clarence M. Kelley’s message
to all law enforcement officials as
Leaves of Abscence, Theological
Education, Mid-Life Vocations and
College Seminary Recruiting.
Among the participants attending the
Conference were 14 bishops, three
religious superiors and 26 vocation
directors and spiritual directors. 30
diocese, archdioceses and religious
communities were represented.
The opening session on Monday
evening, February 3 was chaired by
Very Rev. Hilary Ottensmeyer, O.S.B.,
President-Rector of Saint Meinrad
College. This session included a
welcome to Saint Meinrad by Rt. Rev.
printed in the current FBI Law
Enforcement Bulletin.
Quoting Kelley, Hodges stated, “I
advocate two proposals to keep
handguns from those who intend to use
them wrongfully. First, it is essential
Gabriel Verkamp, O.S.B., Archabbot of
Saint Meinrad Archabbey, and a
keynote address by Most Reverend John
Quinn, S.T.D., Archbishop of Oklahoma
City.
In his keynote address, Archbishop
Quinn said that “ . . .it is heartening to
see the positive and energetic spirit of
St. Meinrad and other seminaries in
coming to grips with the important
issues of priestly formation in our
times.”
He noted that “A large portion of
this conference deals in one way or
another with the question of numbers
and of recruitment: Black vocations,
vocations among the Spanish-speaking,
mid-life vocations, vocations among
college-age students. The first menace is
superficiality. The second is numbers.
We must be conscious of the
ever-present peril of losing our head in a
crisis time and sacrificing standards for
numbers. The Church has a grave
obligation to promote vocations to the
priesthood, to invite and encourage. We
have failed to do this as we should have
among the Black and Spanish-speaking
and also among those in mid-life. But
we will only have the numbers we need
to do the work which Christ entrusts to
his Church when the screening programs
(Continued on Page 2)
that there be adequate local, State and
Federal regulations pertaining to
handguns, and it is imperative that these
regulations be strictly and vigorously
enforced.
“Second, I strongly urge at least
mandatory minimum sentences -- stiffer
penalties for those persons convicted of
a crime where a handgun is used. Only
persons who can meet the provisions of
local, State and Federal regulations
should be lawfully able to possess
handguns. Violaters should face the
stern penalties enacted by concerned
legislators supported by an enroused
public.”
The text of Hodges’ address follows:
“We are faced with a serious
consequence of attacks on persons from
all walks of life. The safety of a person
is seriously threatened when these
things happen. These attacks occur
when people fail to realize that they
have the obligation of respecting other
people. Society succeeds in promoting
the common welfare of its members
only to the extent that the common life
of its members is ruled by order and
peace.
“We must accept, that peace and
order are gained through the practice of
justice; and justice tells us that everyone
has both rights and obligations. Rights
are those thing: that any person can
expect simply because he is a person.
An obligation is the duty of all men to
respect the rights of others. We cannot
separate one from the other.
“So long as any one person refuses to
respect these fundamental principals
men have the right to join together and
write laws to protect the health and
welfare of society. A good handgun
control law is the obligation of society.
The safety and well being of everyone
must be the first concern of society
since society has the only means of
establishing laws.
“Vigorous public support is needed
to establish realistic handgun controls.
Arguments against handgun controls are
that sportsmen and wildlife people
should not be restricted because of
criminal abuses, and that the ‘Rights of
people to keep and bear arms’ is an
inviolable guarantee under the
constitution.
“Are sportsmen impaired because the
handgun is registered? Is the right of
any person violated when he is robbed,
wounded or put to death by the use of a
handgun?
“When we speak of ‘Constitutional
Rights’ we must remember that
embodied in those constitutional rights
are the higher more precious rights,
human rights or natural rights. They are
the rights embodied in the entire
Constitution and human rights are not
to be restricted by the indiscriminate
concern for any other selected right.
“The Declaration of Independence
declares stoutly the natural rights of
which I speak and from that
‘Declaration,’ war and all its hardships
were endured so (hat an undisciplined
oppression could be suppressed. It was
suppressed and the Constitution of the
United States was drawn up around
those natural rights to discipline all
men.
“The General Assembly is now being
asked to enforce that discipline. They
are being asked to carry out the
obligation of society as society’s law
makers by passing a strict handgun
control law.
“As Executive Secretary of the
Georgia Catholic Conference, I ask the
legislature to pass a handgun control
law. I further ask this committee to
specifically recommend House Bill No.
249. This bill puts the responsibility
where it should properly rest and that is
with the ‘Seller’ and the ‘Buyer.’
“The shocking facts of the lack of
handgun controls are inconceivable.
Some actual facts can bring this reality
to us. These figures are current Federal
Bureau of Investigation figures through
November, 1974.
“In 1974, 132 local, State, and
Federal law enforcement officers were
killed; 128 were killed by firearms, 82
were handgun killings; 52 were killed in
Southern states alone; four were killed
in Georgia. In 1973, 131 law officers
were killed; 124 were killed by firearms;
90 were handgun killings; eight Georgia
policemen were killed in 1973 from use
of the handgun.
“The FBI further reports that in the
period from 1964 to 1973, 858 law
officers were killed; 613 were handgun
deaths. In 1973, 19,510 murders were
committed in the United States; 53
percent of these were murders inflicted
by the use of a handgun.
“To speak of the tragedy reported by
these figures does not tell the entire
story. There are many other statistics
which have been presented to you and
to the public which show attacks and
deaths inflicted upon individuals.
Individuals who are guaranteed their
human rights. It is these people to
whom we are all responsible and for
whom a strict handgun law must be
enacted.”
INSIDE STORY
Response to Greeley Pg. 2
Bicentennial Hearings pg. 3
Life in Music Pg. 6
Religion in Russia Pg. 7
< /
CONVENT SITE. This two-story structure located across the street
from the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Savannah is slated for
renovations turning it into a convent for the Sisters of St. Francis who
staff the Cathedral school, according to the Very Rev. Lawrence A.
Lucree, Cathedral Rector. A cinder-block extension will also be added to
the rear of the structure to provide needed room, he said.
HEADLINE
HOPSCOTCH
ft
Vatican Exhibition
VATICAN CITY (NC) - Pope Paul VI has opened a special Vatican exhibition of
documents connected with the 25 Holy Years thus far declared by the Church of
Rome. They went on exhibition Feb. 7 in an apartment off the Vatican’s secret
archives. These documents range from the original bull issued by Pope Boniface VIII
for the first Holy Year of 1300 to the bull of indiction signed by Pope Paul for the
present 1975 Holy Year.
Bishop Expresses Regrets
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (NC) -- Bishop Louis E. Gelineau of Providence has expressed
regret for “the hurt caused” by remarks made by a priest concerning the military rites
of taps and rifle volleys at burial of veterans. Press reports said that the priest, Father
Richard Desaulniers, 31, assistant pastor at St. Joseph’s Church in Woonsocket, told
family and friends at the graveside service for the late Ernest P. Picard that “whatever
follows after I make the sign of the cross has nothing to do with the Christian rite.”
Ministry of Catholic Press
WASHINGTON (NC) - The Catholic press offers a unique ministry of
evangelization, Bishop James Rausch told a group of Catholic editors and press
personnel here. The bishop, who is general secretary of the National Conference of
Catholic Editors and the U.S. Catholic Conference, was speaking informally at a dinner
during the annual meeting here of the Catholic Press Association-NC News Service
(CPA-NC) Liaison Committee, Feb. 6-7. He said he would like to see the day when
“we bishops can lay our hands on the people in the press” to invoke the Holy Spirit to
bless their “special ministry.” Such a laying on of hands, he said, “would not be just a
recognition of merit, but a sending forth to bring Christ to the people.”
Program Disapproved, Approved
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (NC) - Cardinal John J. Carberry of St. Louis has disapproved the
use of the “Becoming a Person” sex education program in the archdiocese’s parish
grade schools and schools of religion. In a letter to clergy, Religious and laity of the
archdiocese, Cardinal Carberry said the “Becoming a Person” program had been
reviewed by the Archdiocesan Theological Commission and found “seriously
deficient.” Two days before the cardinal’s letter was published, Bishop George W. Ahr
of Trenton, N.J., in a pastoral letter, told the people of his diocese that he had
authorized the use of the “Becoming a Person” program in schools and Confraternity
of Chrisitan Doctrine classes “under the direction of the Diocesan Office of Education
and the Diocesan Office of Religious Education, in consultation with the Family Life
Bureau.”
'.y-£y.
IN LENIN’S SHADOW - An unidentified
Lithuanian church stands in the shadow of a statue of
Communist hero Lenin, symbolic of the position of
Church members who are under constant scrutiny
from authorities in the Union of Soviet Socialist
ST. MEINRAD SEMINARY
Republics. As effort by Soviet secret police to
eliminate an underground Catholic journal has drawn
worldwide attention to Lithuania. See editorial on
Page 4. (NC Photo by KNA)
Bishops 9 Vocation Directors Meet