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PAGE 2—The Southern Cross, May 15,1975
Bishop’s Action Backed by San Diego Catholics
SAN DIEGO, Calif. (NC) - Almost
28,000 Catholic adults here have
expressed support for the directive by
Bishop Leo T. Maher of San Diego
denying the Eucharist to Catholics who
actively and publicly promote abortion.
The president and officers of the San
Diego County Right to Life Council
presented to Bishop Maher three large
volumes containing 27,800 signatures
obtained from Catholics at Mass on two
previous Sundays.
“We applaud the courage of Bishop
Leo T. Maher for his recent statement
concerning the Church’s teaching which
protects innocent life and prohibits
abortion,” said the statement preceding
the signatures.
“We also agree with the measures to
be taken in dealing with those who
persist in calling themselves Catholics,
yet publicly support a pro-abortion
position.”
Bishop Maher’s original statement
said that anyone publicly admitting
membership in the National
Organization for Women (NOW) or
other organizations promoting abortions
must be refused the sacrament of the
Eucharist.
He later explained that his directive
did not mean that such persons were
excommunicated and said that if
Catholic members of NOW or other
such groups remain totally opposed to
abortion, they may still receive
Communion.
Bishop Maher said the 27,800
signatures corroborated the views
expressed in correspondence he is
receiving, which is running about 100-1
in favor of his stand.
“Unfortunately those opposed have
to stoop to very nasty terms in which to
express themselves, perhaps showing the
satanic influence which pervades this
matter,” he added.
He said that both the diocesan
priests’ senate and the Sisters’ senate
had expressed full support for his
action. He also said that Cardinal John
Krol of Philadelphia had written his
support and Cardinal Terence Cooke of
New York, recently his house guest in
San Diego, had expressed similar
support.
“It is very difficult to see how a
Catholic woman can belong to NOW,”
he said, “since so many of their tenets
are in conflict with the teaching of the
Church.”
In a reference to suspended Jesuit
Father Joseph O’Rourke, who has been
active in San Diego in support of
Catholics for a Free Choice and who has
protested the bishop’s action, he said:
“It shows the kind of support the
opposition uses when it has a priest who
no longer has faculties speaking
supposedly from a Catholic point of
view.”
Cult Members under Interdict
President Ford to Visit Pope
VATICAN CITY (NC) - Pope Paul VI will receive President
Ford at the Vatican on June 3. This was confirmed May 4 by
Frederico Alessandrini, the Vatican’s press spokesman.
The President will come to Rome following the NATO
summit meeting in Brussels May 29-30, and a visit to Madrid
and Salzburg, Austria, May 31 to June 2.
Mr. Ford will be the fifth American President to visit a pope
at the Vatican. President Eisenhower saw Pope John XXIII on
Dec. 6, 1959. Pope Paul VI received President Kennedy on July
2, 1963, President Johnson on Dec. 23, 1967, and President
Nixon on Sept. 28,1970.
This will be the President’s second visit with a Pope. While he
was a member of Congress he was received in audience by Pope
Pius XII.
Archbishop Jean Jadot, apostolic delegate in the United
States, met the Pope May 5, reportedly to discuss the
President’s forthcoming visit and to brief the Pope on Mr.
Ford’s plans.
WARNER ROBINS PICNIC - Over 150 attended the Sacred Heart
Prayer Community Easter Picnic at the Robins Air Force Base Picnic
Grounds. The Warner Robins Prayer Community shared prayer, songs,
games.
EDGARD, La. (NC) -- The pastor, a
nun and a housekeeper of St. John the
Baptist’s church here were found
murdered in the rectory May 7, the
apparent victims of robbery.
Father J. Alcide Clement, 47, Sister
Mary Patrick Harrington, 43 and Mrs.
Leah Lejeune, 58, were pronounced
dead at the scene by authorities.
Father Clement, a native of
Plaquemine, La., and pastor here since
June 1971, was shot in the back of the
head at close range, according to Dr.
S.J. St. Martin, coroner of St. John the
Baptist civil parish. Sister Harrington
was stabbed in the back of the neck
with a butcher knife-type weapon, and
Mrs. Lejeune’s throat was slit and the
knife was left in her wound, Dr. St.
Martin said.
Sister Harrington, a native of Antigo,
Wis., and resident of nearby Luling, was
to have been assigned to a new parish
May 16, Dr. St. Martin said.
St. John civil parish sheriff, Lester J.
Millet, Jr., set robbery as the apparent
motive and said about $600 in church
funds were missing.
A fourth person, Leopold St. Pierre,
sexton at the church, was beat
unconscious in the same attack and was
treated at a nearby hospital where 27
stitches were required to close his
wound.
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Millet reconstructed the murder this
way:
The two suspects walked in on St.
Pierre while he was alone in the church.
When they asked for the pastor, St.
Pierre replied he did not know where to
find the priest. The two men then
attacked and beat him to the floor of
the church.
When St. Pierre regained
consciousness, about 20 minutes later,
he ran to the civil parish courthouse,
which is less than 200 yards from the
church, and alerted the people there. He
explained what had happened and asked
that deputies be sent to the church
because he feared something else might
have occurred. The sexton was taken to
the hospital and authorities raced to the
rectory.
WASHINGTON (NC) - Archbishop
William W. Baum of Washington has said
that the decision by the principal of a
local Catholic high school to present a
medal to Alabama Gov. George C.
Wallace “has not served the cause of
unity within the Church of
Washington.”
In a statement issued here after the
school had announced that it was
withdrawing the award of the medal but
retaining Wallace as the main speaker at
an annual Father-Son Banquet, the
archbishop said the original selection of
the governor “has caused deep pain.”
The original decision by Christian
Brother Charles Gresh, president of St.
John’s College High School, an
eighth-grade to 12th grade military
academy, to award the school’s annual
President’s Medal to Wallace for his
contributions to education brought a
storm of protest from local black
Catholics and led Washington
archdiocesan officials to consult with
Brother Charles about the decision.
Archbishop Baum was in Rome while
the controversy continued.
Father Clement was found in his bed
in an upstairs bedroom and Mrs.
Lejeune was found in another upstairs
room which she had apparently been
cleaning. Both are believed to have died
instantly. Evidence indicated the
suspects placed a pillow on the back of
Father Clement’s head to muffle the
sound of the gunshot.
Sister Harrington, a member of the
Sisters of Mercy of the Holy Cross,
visited churches in neighboring Reserve
earlier in the day and crossed on the
2:45 p.m. ferry to return to Edgard.
It is believed she was entering the
rectory as the suspects were leaving and
was slain in the hallway.
Sheriff Millet said he is offering a
personal reward of $2,000 for
information leading to the identification
and apprehension of the assailants.
The archbishop said that, insofar as
can be determined, the views of Wallace,
who has been an outspoken opponent
of racial integration, on race relations
“remain unchanged.”
“He has not publicly repudiated any
of his well publicized attitudes in this
regard,” the archbishop said. “These
views are fundamentally incompatible
with Catholic faith. I must then,
question the wisdom of a Catholic
institution choosing to honor a man
whose position in reference to Christian
teachings on social justice is
questionable at best, controversial at
least, and reprehensible at worst.”
Noting that the selection of Wallace
“caused offense and provoked
indignation among Catholics and
non-Catholics, black and white,” the
archbishop said these effects “were
neither foreseen nor intended by St.
John’s College.” He said the decision
not to award the medal, while retaining
Wallace as a speaker, “is a sincere effort
to resolve an extremely sensitive and
embarrassing problem.”
Honor Caused Pain to Church
LA CROSSE, Wis. (NC) - Bishop
Frederick W. Freking of La Crosse has
placed under personal interdict seven
persons who have been promoting a cult
of the Blessed Mother in Necedah, Wis.
The interdict means the seven cannot
receive any sacrament except Penance.
The action was taken, Bishop Freking
said, because of the refusal to obey
church authorities of Mrs. Mary Ann
Van Hoof and six other officers of For
My God and My Country, Inc., the
group incorporated to promote the cult.
Bishop Freking said that he had
personally given to the corporation’s
officers in June 1972 a letter warning
them that if they did not cease their
activities within a reasonable time, he
would impose canonical sanctions.
“The action was taken now,” he said,
“because a number of people have
moved into the small parish there and
caused great disunity and disruption.”
He said the local parish priest had
appealed to the cult promoters at the
beginning of Lent to cease their
activities.
“My silence was being exploited as
tacit approval,” Bishop Freking said.
A personal interdict is not
excommunication, he noted. Those
under interdict are still members of the
Church and can have the interdict
POPE PAUL:
removed, in this instance, by going to
the local pastor and telling him they
sincerely repent of their activities.
Bishop Freking said he has given the
pastor authority to absolve them.
The promoters of the cult appealed
to Archbishop Jean Jadot, apostolic
delegate in the United States, Bishop
Freking said. The apostolate delegate
notified them that the local bishop was
within his authority in taking the
action, the bishop said.
The Queen of the Holy Rosary,
Mediatrix of Peace Shrine in Necedah
has been promoted since the first
alleged apparitions of the Blessed
Mother in 1950. Public functions such
as recitations of the Rosary have been
held there on the basis of the supposed
apparitions or revelations to Mrs. Van
Hoof.
The Diocese of La Crosse first
investigated the matter from 1950 to
1955 and concluded that the alleged
visions and revelations of Mrs. Van Hoof
were false in that they had no
supernatural origin.
In 1955, the late Bishop John P.
Treacy of La Crosse prohibited the all
public and private religious worship in
connection with the shrine and declared
the claims regarding supernatural visions
to be false.
The diocese set up another
commission in 1969 to study the cult.
In its report in 1971 to Bishop Freking,
the commission expressed agreement
with the conclusions of the original
investigation.
The commission said that Mrs. Van
Hoof’s testimony contains
contradictions; that her life gives no
evidence of the spiritual impact that
true revelations and apparitions should
have on her; and that the content of her
messages and instructions manifests “a
spirit antithetical to Christianity,” such
as questionable accusations against
leaders in Church and state.
Local observers have characterized
the cult promoters as having an
ultra-traditionalist mentality in Church
matters and a “John Birch mentality”
on political matters.
The shrine has attracted as many as
1,500 persons coming in buses on
certain occasions.
FATHER CHARLES E.
CURRAN, the noted Moral
Theologian, led the Diocesan
Theology Seminar held in
Savannah on May 9th and 10th.
Close to 200 people, including
priests, sisters and lay teachers,
attended the seminar, which was
sponsored by the Department of
Christian Formation. Father
Curran is a professor at the
Catholic University of America.
105 CANDIDATES were
confirmed by Bishop Lessard in
the Inter-Parish Confirmation
Mass concelebrated by the Bishop
and Macon’s priests on April 28,
at Saint Joseph’s Church.
56 were young teenagers and 49
were adults. The picture at the left
shows Robert R. Nichols, one of
the 105 being confirmed,
sponsored by his wife and oldest
son. The Bishop’s chaplains are
Father Michael Delea and Father
John Cuddy. (Photos by Don
McCunniff)
ROBBERY SAID MOTIVE
Trio Murdered in La. Rectory
Christian Must Pray
VATICAN CITY (NC) - Christian life
cannot exist without prayer, Pope Paul
VI told about 50,000 pilgrims in four
separate audiences May 7.
In his second audience, held in St.
Peter’s Basilica for Italians, the Pope
saluted the memory of Cardinal Jozsef
Mindszenty, former primate of Hungary
who died in Vienna, May 6. The Pope
said that the Hungarian cardinal was
“zealous in faith, fierce in sentiment,
immovable in what seemed to him to be
his duty and his right.”
In his main talk at the audiences, the
Pope told the crowds that to be faithful
Christians “we need prayer, the help of
divine energy which brings a remedy for
our littleless.”
Without prayer, the Pope said, there
can be no Christian life.
To the third International Students’
Basketball Championship group, he said,
“We are happy to greet young people.
You know that all during our
pontificate and even long before we
have always been the friend of youth.
We are deeply interested in your sports
events and in all your upright
activities.”
The audiences were held in the
audience hall, St. Peter’s Basilica and
the Courtyard of St. Damascus instead
of outside in St. Peter’s Square, where
all large audiences in the spring and
summer had been scheduled to take
place. Vatican sources said that officials
are trying to avoid a recurrence of the
situation at a recent outdoor audience,
when scores of people required medical
assistance after standing for hours in the
hot Roman sun.
The Pope called prayer “not only an
obligation but an art, an art of high
quality.”
He reminded the audience crowds
from around the world that the Holy
Year must be for them a “very serious
thing” even though many of the
external practices of past Holy Years
have been simplified. He said that the
Holy Year should be a time to make use
of the sacraments and a time of
conversion, “which should rectify the
conception, the direction, the conduct
of our life.”
The Pope gave greetings in English to
several groups.
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