Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, May 1,1975
l lie Southern (. ross
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The Abortion Issue
Two separate - but related --
developments on the abortion issue
occurred rapidly last week. In one,
Bishop Leo T. Maher of San Diego said
that those Catholics in his diocese who
publicly oppose the Church’s teaching
on abortion must be refused
Communion. In the other, the U.S.
Commission on Civil Rights made
known its support of the right of women
to decide whether or not to have
abortions.
In its statement, the U.S. Commission
on Civil Rights urged Congress to reject
and repeal legislation that would
“undermine the constitutional right to
limit childbearing.” Moreover, the
commission said that abortion was
regarded as a woman’s right at the time
the constitution was written.
Such words are dumbfounding from
an organization that has been devoted to
ensuring rights for those least able to
speak up. Apparently, the commission
has concluded the unborn have no rights
as it completely ignores such a
possibility, simply asserting support for
the woman’s right as outlined by the
U.S. Supreme Court. The Human Life
Amendment would grant equal rights to
the unborn and we find it unbelievable
that the commission would dismiss this
issue so readily and quickly.
Just as quickly we will dismiss further
comment on the commission’s
statement.
Others would like to do the same with
fSishop Maher’s pastoral letter but it
deserves far more attention. Several
distinctions are necessary.
Number one, to fall under the
Priest-sociologist-author, Andrew Greeley,
manages to irritate almost everyone from time
to time. But he has a positive, valuable genius
for challenging all kinds of popular assumptions
- those general beliefs which most of us accept
because they are repeated so often, even though
we’ve never checked carefully to see if they are
really true.
I hope that Father Greeley, after he finishes
what he has to say about ethnic culture in
America, will turn his attention to the popular
assumptions about people of retirement or
pre-retirement age. It would be a rich field for
him to work.
In the meantime, I would like to offer a few
of my own challenges.
One underlying assumption, the idiocy of
which becomes apparent as soon as we look at
it, is the notion that personal worth,
effectiveness and dignity are substantially
reduced on the morning of our sixty-fifth
birthday.
Why 65? Simply because this is the arbitrary
age currently accepted by most industry as the
age of retirement. If our economy dictates the
necessity of advancing that age to 60, this
popular assumption will suddenly turn an
additional seven per cent of our population into
walking, breathing Edsels.
It is idiotic, but understandable - at least it is
if you accept the popular American fallacy that
personal worth, dignity and effectiveness are
determined by economic productivity.
For a society which professes to respect the
personal worth and dignity of every individual,
this inconsistency is just as bizarre and illogical
as the assumption that personal worth can be
gauged by skin pigmentation.
The damnable, insidious thing about this
notion is that it is so pervasive that even many
of the older men and women themselves accept
it. And if they begin to think of themselves as
being of diminished value, they are going to act
accordingly. As a result, they start feeling
worthless and begin to live less like persons,
more like vegetables.
The other side of the assumption is that all
pre-retirement people are somehow effective,
happy, talented and successful. We even put
bishop’s directive, a Catholic in his
diocese must actively and publicly
promote abortion. In doing so, the
bishop said, they have separated
themselves from the Church and are to
be refused the Eucharist. The directive
does not involve excommunication.
Number two, the National
Organization of Women (NOW) was
singled out as one local example.
Number three, the bishop explained
that if Catholic members of such groups
as NOW remain opposed to abortion,
they may still receive Communion in the
San Diego diocese. Thus it is not
membership but a pro-abortion stand.
It is a forthright statement in response
to a pastoral need in San Diego as Bishop
Maher sees it.
Bishop Maher explained that as bishop
he has a pastoral responsibility to speak
out clearly on moral issues, noting that
in past years he has restated the Church’s
call to respect human life at all stages.
He indicated that recent surveys showed
confusion among Catholics on the
Church’s teaching about abortion.
“It was to dispel this confusion and to
assist on the proper formation of
conscience that I issued my letter. . .,”
Bishop Maher explained.
“It was not my purpose to
excommunicate but to teach . . . The
Church is united in its belief in the
sanctity of human life. Those who would
reject so fundamental a belief separate
themselves from the unity of faith
symbolized in the Eucharist.”
this assumption on a scale, assuming that the
worth keeps increasing as we look at younger
people, down to an age of about 25 to 33.
But there’s a monumental blindness involved
here, even for industry. When we start thinking
about persons we have known, rather than
about age categories, it’s inescapable that at all
ages we see people whose lives are walking
disasters. We have known people with shiny
new doctorates whose values are so fouled up
that they couldn’t establish an affectionate
relationship with a beagle puppy.
We have seen high-salaried, “successful”
business executives, people at the high point of
their careers, who will spend evenings drinking
in a hotel room, anxious to tell anyone what a
mess they have made of their lives.
We confuse technical, timely knowledge with
basic skills and the wisdom to live life well. The
absurdity of this is that today there is nothing
that dates more rapidly than technical, timely
knowledge.
We find doctors, lawyers, scientists, business
executives who, when they are honest, confess
that their knowledge is already outdated 10
years after they finish their formal education.
At that time, they seem to face a dilemma of
degrading choices. Either they work so hard to
keep up with new information that their lives
become distorted or they live a life of pretense,
trying for some familiarity with the most
popular issues of their field, always fearful that
someone will discover how shallow is their real
knowledge of current information.
Of course, there are exceptions among
younger men and women. Arid there are
exceptions among older people, some of whom
are really diminished physically, mentally and
emotionally.
My anger, however, is directed against the
assumptions. It’s long past the time when older
people should start fighting back.
Personal worth, ability, wisdom are not
measured in inverse proportion to age. But this
society of ours is not going to believe it until
older people themselves come to believe it,
until they stop thinking of themselves as unable
to contribute to society, as unable to earn
income, as unable to change the laws which
turn them into social incompetents.
PRAYERS FOR HARVEST ~ This
Wisconsin farmland, being prepared for
planting, symbolizes what the U.S.
bishops are concerned about in
designating May 25 a National Day of
Prayer for a Good Harvest. Not only
farmers are involved in the day, “the
“You’ve got a cool room. I bet if more
people knew about this, they’d want to be
priests too.” This was one of the more quotable
comments made by one of our seventh grade
boys recently. We took advantage of the World
Day of Prayer for Vocations to bring our young
people, boys and girls, to the rectory or the
convent so that they might get a better glimpse
of where priests and sisters live.
In the process of talking with several groups
of junior and senior high boys, I realized again
how little they really know about the everyday
circumstances of my life as a priest. Since my
days pass quickly with regular involvement with
people, it’s easy for me to lose sight of the fact
that I am actually in contact with relatively few
of the 850 families who are in the parish where
I work. The vast majority of people still see the
priest on Sunday and that’s about it.
As a young boy growing up in Buffalo, New
York, I attended daily Mass and Catholic
schools. My uncle was a priest and so I was very
familiar with the rectory. It wasn’t a strange or
unusual place to me. I was very comfortable
there. Most of the young people in our dioceses
in the southeast don’t have nearly that sort of
regular, frequent contact with the Church. Most
do not attend Catholic schools. Necessarily
then, priests and sisters are a distant part of
their lives and experience.
I’m mentioning all this to emphasize the fact
that a call from God to serve his people doesn’t
happen in a vacuum. Many circumstances either
Of course you’re right. But you could be
wrong and therefore mistaken. An innocent
mistake can be as serious as one made
purposely. Of course you have your opinions.
But they could be “half-baked” and therefore
wide of the mark. It is good to walk the line
resolutely; but it is the line as you see it, and
you could be in error.
Of course you know what is best. But it is
best for you, and not necessarily for another.
Not even for another whom you love dearly,
and for whom you make decisions that govern
his or her life. “One man’s meat is another
man’s poison.” So what is “best?”
Of course you are sure of your facts. But
facts can be deceptive and you could be
deceived. Remember the four blind men and
the elephant. Each was right as to the facts but
entire world has a stake in food and
natural resources,” said Bishop James
Rausch, general secretary of the
National Conference of Catholic
Bishops. (NC Photo by Robert L.
Miller)
encourage or discourage people from viewing a
life in church service as a viable option for their
lives. Those of us who recognize the importance
of having people involved in specific forms of
Church ministry need to realize these
circumstances more fully.
Priests, sisters and parents must be the active
communicators about the nature and value of
religious life. We can’t go on presuming that
everyone understands everything about
contemporary priests and sisters. The shape of
ministry itself has undergone many outward
changes in the past decade to the point that
even those with a strong Catholic background
aren’t always aware of the focus and style of
priests’ and sisters’ lives now.
Activities connected with this year’s
observance of the World Day of Prayer
indicated that we may be moving into a period
of more positive attitudes toward
communicating the value of vocations in
ministry. Several parishes made a serious effort
to spend time with their young people through
various programs. So often, initial questions are
not at the level of working through the
theological import of ministry, but rather just a
sincere interest in some of the things that
priests and sisters do and the way we live.
When the whole Church demonstrates that
much willingness to let itself be known and
better understood, then we won’t have a
vocation crisis any longer because we will have
removed the barriers which grow in ignorance.
God’s powerful, loving presence with his
people, when clearly seen, will be all the
attraction that Church ministry for the future
will ever need.
wrong as to the interpretation. Moreover, no
one can know all the facts.
And of course you have the solution. But it
is your solution and thus well pleasing to you.
It could be unacceptable to another. What is it
that works? A workable solution must be the
composite of all solutions.
The reader may not particularly like this
suggestion; he may dislike it. For it points up
the uncomfortable truth that the mind plays us
tricks. And the trickiest play of all is to justify
ourselves at any cost, giving myself the
advantage of the best light. We are capable of
infinite self-deception. This is the mind at the
mischief of rationalizing. This means finding
perfectly plausible reasons whereby we may go
on believing what we want to believe. It is all
right if you know what you are doing. But just
don’t fool yourself.
(The Long Island Catholic)
Older People Need
To Fight Back
John Reedy, C.S.C.
Called by Name
Rev. John S. Adamski
Vocations Director — Archdiocese of Atlanta
Priests and Sisters:
Today’s Mystery People?
Don’t Fool Yourself
Rev. James Wilmes
Agression
Ignored
Joe Breig
My feelings about the Vietnam situation -
about the silence of the United Nations in the
face of another naked aggression from North
Vietnam, and about the let’s-do-nothing
attitude of the U.S. Congress -- were well
expressed by Mayor Norman Floyd of
Altamonte Springs, Fla.
Let us first recall what the Hanoi government
of North Vietnam promised in signing the
cease-fire agreement after being brought up
short by the American mining of Haiphong
harbor and the bombing of military objectives
in North Vietnam.
The Hanoi government pledged to hold
sacred the right of the people of South Vietnam
to determine their own future without
interference from the North; to respect the
right of the South Vietnamese people to make
their own decisions in democratic elections; and
to refrain from attempting to “impose any
political tendency or personality on the South
Vietnamese.”
Those were among terms of the cease-fire
agreement with Hanoi - rearmed by Red China
and Soviet Russia - cynically violated in its
massive reinvasion of South Vietnam. From the
United Nations we heard not one syllable of
protest or condemnation of this cruel
aggression; from Congress we heard for the
most part allegations that America, the most
powerful nation on earth, no longer had any
responsibility for helping a people resist
military aggression.
Mayor Norman Floyd of Altamonte Springs
was an army captain, and later a major, with
the U.S. forces in Vietnam. He spent a year
helping the people in the South Vietnamese
province of Tay Ninh to organize local
governments - to set up orderly societies for
orderly and peaceable living. Now he has seen
those areas overrun by the North Vietnamese
invaders with their tanks and heavy weapons
supplied by the two huge communist-controlled
nations - Red China and the Soviet Union.
“I hate to listen to the news or pick up a
newspaper any more,” Mayor Floyd said. “It’s
a bad situation. It will be a crying shame if
somebody doesn’t come to their aid. This is
shaking my belief in mankind.
“I feel a deep personal loss. I left many good
friends there in Vietnam -- Americans and
Vietnamese. This is the real thing that tears me
up. Everything they died for, and what we
worked to build, is going back to what it was
before.”
The “bad scene” has shaken Mayor Floyd’s
faith in mankind. I am similarly shaken, first
because Congress refused to help President
Ford to do anything to help the South
Vietnamese except for flying out a few orphans
and others. I am shaken, second, in my
longtime support of the United Nations as
being a necessary forum for today’s world. I am
deeply shaken; for if the United Nations simply
turns its back on naked aggression, simply
ignores the cruel butchering of a peaceable
people, then I am no longer firm in my belief
that America should support the UN. The only
possible argument I see at this moment for
American membership in the UN is that the UN
might be worse without us than it currently is
with us.
What
One Person
Can Do
Rev. Richard Armstrong
ALEXIS DEVEAUX, WRITER
What can a teenager do if she’s a sensitive,
thoughtful “loner” growing up in the inner
city? Alexis Deveaux became a writer.
For most of her life, Alexis lived on W.
114th St. in Harlem, surrounded from her
babyhood by noisy garbage trucks, junkies,
welfare - all the sights and sounds and smells of
poverty. But she saw more than that. She saw
poetry, too, in the street scenes, in the spirit of
the people around her. A shy child, who seldom
talked to anyone, she longed for
self-expression. As a sixth grader, she began to
write.
A French teacher noticed her talent,
befriended her and introduced her to the
poetry and plays which were to inspire her.
“She made me want to explore myself in
writing,” Alexis says, “to probe everything in
me and to express it all.”
After six years of writing, Alexis broke into
print. Harper & Row published “na-ni,” a book
“for children of all ages, including adults.” In
August, 1973, her first novel, “Spirits in the
Streets,” was published by Doubleday, and her
first play, “Circles,” was performed in March of
that year. She is now working on a second play
and another children’s book.
Alexis writes about the burden of poverty in
the ghetto, but she also writes about the beauty
there. “The people are good people,” she says.
“They’re strong. They survive. Even without
dreams, they survive. If I can only get one
person a year to listen I’ll continue to write
about such things. At least one person will
know that we have to deal with each other.”
Each of us has a God-given talent of some
kind, through which we can reach those around
us. And if we use the ability to reach even one
person a year, our efforts are worthwhile.