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% i The Southern Cross DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER Vol. 56 No. 21 Thursday, May 22, 1975 Single COPY Wee “ 15 Cents Apostolic Exhortation Urges VATICAN CITY (NC) - In his second apostolic exhortation since Holy Year began, Pope Paul VI has asked Christians to “return to the sources of joy” by rejecting sin and by becoming “more present to God.” Warning that technological society cannot itself generate joy, Pope Paul asserted that Christian joy is gained only through “a human-divine communion, and aspires to a communion even more universal.” He continued: “In no way can it encourage the person who enjoys it to have a preoccupation with self.” Joy, he declared, “cannot be dissociated from sharing.” The Pope, in the exhortation dated May 9 and released May 16, said, “Common Christian Joy ... is not possible in truth except where the preaching of the faith is accepted in its entirety.” He made a “pressing appeal” to leaders of Catholic communities in insisting on the Sunday Mass obligation. “Let them not be afraid to insist time and time again on the need for baptized Christians to be faithful to the Sunday celebration, in joy, of the Eucharist.” The Pope said that Holy Year was a call also “to rediscover the meaning and practice of the Sacrament of Reconciliation,” or Penance. He then reminded priests and people that “the confessing of grave sins is necessary and that frequent confession remains a privileged source of holiness, peace and joy.” In a special reference to youth, the Pope said: “Youth will not fail the Church if within the Church there are enough older people able to understand it, to love it, and to open up to it a future by passing on to it with complete fidelity the truth which endures.” He said that the present world crisis, generating “great confusion” among young people, “partly betrays a senile and definitively out-of-date aspect of commercial, hedonistic and materialistic civilization which is still trying to present itself as the gateway to the future.” The Pope noted: “Even in its very excesses, the instinctive reaction of many young people against this illusion takes on a certain importance. This generation is waiting for something else.” The Pope told youth that by accepting the “joy of divine truth finally recognized in the Church,” they will insure their “own fulfillment in Christ, and the next historical stage of the People of God.” Speaking of the “attitude of expectation” for a new Pentecost which Pope John XXIII referred to when he called Vatican Council II, Pope Paul said: “We too have wished to place ourselves in the same perspective and in the same attitude of expectation. He explained: “So great are the needs and the perils of the present age, so vast the horizon of mankind drawn toward world coexistence and powerless to achieve it, that there is no salvation for it except in a new outpouring of the gift of God.” Then he prayed: “Let Him then come, the Creating Spirit, to renew the face of the earth.” The Pope addressed those “deeply involved in family, professional and social responsibility,” saying that the Holy Spirit wants to help them rediscover, purify and shape life’s daily joys which the burden of work often makes him overlook. He spoke also to “the world of suffering” and to “those who have reached the evening of their lives.” God’s joy, he said, “is knocking at the door of their physical and moral sufferings, not indeed with irony but to achieve therein His paradoxical work of transfiguration.” About those outside the Church, the Pope said: “By bringing their lives into harmony with the innermost appeal of their conscience, which is the echo of God’s voice, they are on the road to joy.” The Pope recommended as models of joy the Virgin Mary, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Therese of Lisieux and Blessed Maximilian Kolbe. Of the last, he said: “In the most tragic trials which have bloodied our age, he offered himself voluntarily to death in order to save an unknown brother. Witnesses report that his interior peace, serenity World and joy somehow transformed the place of suffering -- which was usually like an image of hell - into the antechamber of eternal life, both for his unfortunate companions and himself.” Blessed Maximilian offered his life for a fellow prisoner’s at Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp in Poland. In a press conference called May 16 to present the document for the Vatican, Dominican Father Raimondo Spiazzi of the Central Committee for the Holy Year said the exhortation is the first papal document of its kind dedicated to the topic of Christian joy. He said the document, entitled Gaudete in Domino (Rejoice in the Lord), was prompted especially by the speeches of bishops at last year’s international Synod of Bishops at the Vatican. He recalled that at that month-long meeting many bishops urged the institutional Church and individual Christians to demonstrate the joy of the Gospel. Asked why the Pope chose this time to write about joy, the priest pointed to the opening chapters of the exhortation in which the Pope wrote that joy is particularly difficult to attain today. to Joy In that section the Pope asserted: “Technological society has succeeded in multiplying the opportunities for pleasure, but it has great difficulty in generating joy.” The Pope added: “Money, comfort, hygiene and material security are often not lacking, and yet boredom, depression and sadness unhappily remain the lot of many.” The Pope referred also to the sufferings of “so many starving people, so many victims of fruitless combats, so many people tom from their homes.” He said that such miseries may not be deeper than in the past but now “are better known, reported by the mass media -- at least as much as the events of good fortune -- and they overwhelm people’s minds.” Father Spiazzi underlined a phrase of the Pope’s asking that Christian communities become “centers of optimism where all the members resolutely endeavor to perceive the positive aspect of people and events.” He applauded also the Pope’s call to dissenters in which the Pope said: “Let the agitated members of various groups therefore reject the excesses of systematic and destructive criticism.” At a meeting which took place Friday, May 16, in the Chancery office of the Diocese of Savannah, a covenant was signed jointly by the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia, the Right Reverend Paul Reeves, and the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah, the Most Reverend Raymond W. Lessard. The covenant provides for increased cooperation and contact between the two dioceses. , 1. “Wp will nromotf serious dialogue between our two dioceses in the spirit of the national and international dialogues between our Churches. 2. “We encourage all our congregations to enter into covenant relationships with one another. Although we recognize that inter-communion has not yet been achieved by our churches, we strongly recommend common prayer together, study together (especially of the Canterbury and Windsor Agreed Statements) and social witness together. 3. “We will inaugurate a Prayer Cycle for the congregations of our two dioceses so that each day we can pray for one another in an ordered way. “May the Lord grant us to grow in love for Him and for one another, Amen.” THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS of the Catholic Church Extension Society (above) unanimously approved the dissemination and publication of a BY EXTENSION SOCIETY Statement of Accountability for donors. The action was taken at the annual board meeting April 25 in Philadelphia. Accountability Statement Issued In a precedent-setting move, the Catholic Church Extension Society has released a Statement of Accountability to inform donors and the public at large of the details of their income and expenses. (See enclosed statement.) The action was taken at Extension’s recent annual Board of Governors meeting in Philadelphia, Pa. Fr. Joseph A. Cusack, President of Extension, reflected the opinion of the Board of Governors when he said, “We respect the donor’s right to know. We feel that, as a fund-raising organization, we have an obligation of accountability to our donors. We hope that our action here will be well received.” A budget for distribution of funds to f >. INSIDE STORY 'By The Way* Pg. 2 Thesis Rejected Pg. 3 'Cook’s Nook’ Pg. 7 DCCW Notes Pg. 8 / the home missions was also announced and pegged at $3 million. Although not as large as the budget for 1974, it represents major mission assistance from the Extension Society which, since 1905, has been raising funds to assist impoverished dioceses in the Continental U.S. and protectorates. Extension has helped with funds to build religious buildings, educate seminarians, expand the campus ministry, and to support home missionary priests and religious. The Board of Governors heard a comprehensive summary of Extension’s activities for the past year from Fr. Cusack who reported that total disbursements to the home missions came to $2,593,346. That figure included $694,912 for building and repair, $275,027 for mission catechetical and religious education, $537,037 for priests and religious subsidies, $358,120 for campus ministry, $248,833 for seminarian education, $154,752 for special diocesan aid, $238,551 for Masses, $25,936 for liturgical furnishings, and $60,178 for important miscellaneous mission needs. In his report on fund-raising activities, Extension’s general secretary Mr. James Goedert, revealed that income during the past year was $3 million. This was on an approximate level with the $3.1 million average for the past four years and an encouraging performance when viewed in context with the troubled economy. Rev. Edward J. Slattery, Extension’s vice-president, delivered a special report entitled, “Meeting the Changing Needs of the Missions.” It outlined the changing priorities for a mission society brought about by Vatican II. Extension’s treasurer, Mr. Edward Mathieu, delivered a detailed assessment of the Society’s fiscal position. He observed that Extension was holding firm in an economy with many variables. Father Frederick George, O.S.B. will be ordained a priest of The Order of Saint Benedict at Belmont Abbey Fr. Frederick George The covenant came about as a result of a two-day ecumenical conference held April 29 - May 1 at the Georgia Episcopal Conference Center near Brunswick. About sixty clergy, evenly divided between the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah, were present at the conference. During the two days, they studied two agreed statements produced by the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC). The content of the covenant follows: “In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. “The Lord Jesus Christ prayed that we His followers be one, as He and His Father are one. The present divisions that exist among Christians clearly are not what He wills for us. On 24 March 1966 the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury issued a common declaration in which they pledged ‘to inaugurate between the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion a serious dialogue which . . .may lead to that unity in truth for which Christ prayed’. “At the national and international levels this dialogue already has been pursued with most encouraging results. Moved now by the Holy Spirit, we, the bishops of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah, issue the following statement of intent: Cathedral at 10:00 a.m., May 24. The ordination will be conducted by Bishop Raymond W. Lessard of Savannah, Georgia. The following day at 11:30 a.m., Father Frederick will say his first Mass of Thanksgiving, also at the Abbey Cathedral. Father Frederick is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry George of Savannah. He earned his B. A. in Philosophy at Belmont Abbey College in 1970 and will receive his Master of Divinity Degree on May 21 from Saint Meinrad School of Theology in Saint Meinrad, Indiana. To fulfil the requirements of his pastoral semester, Father Frederick has been an assistant at Saint Michael’s Parish in Gastonia for the past year. He has also been active in the Abbey’s Campus Ministry Program. Ordination for Frederick George Priests’ Senate Meets The Spring meeting of the Priests’ Senate was held recently in Dublin with some of the more interesting matters discussed being the Permanent Diaconate, world resources, and divorced and remarried Catholics. Father Clement F. Borchers (Glenmary), Pastor of Sacred Heart Church, Vidalia, suggested men of leadership be found in rural areas and ordained as deacons after a certain minimal course of preparation. It was proposed and passed unanimously that a committee be appointed to study the need for the Permanent Diaconate in rural areas and the qualifications required for those who would exercise the diaconate. Father Borchers was made chairman of this committee with Msgr. D. J. Bourke, Father Joseph Dean (Glenmary), and Father Patrick Adams, O.F.M. The object of this committee will be not only research but to create an atmosphere of awareness among the priests of the diocese. The discussion on world resources came as a result of the recent convention of the N.F.P.C. in St. Petersburg. It was unanimously voted that each diocesan priest give ten per cent of his basic salary, that is of his cash salary, each month to some group catering to world hunger. During the discussion on divorced and remarried Catholics, it was stated that before the year is out, Bishop Lessard assisted by Fathers Nelson and Kenneally will draw up a symposium which would deal with: 1. canonical procedures 2. counseling of divorced Catholics 3. on the correct pastoral approach taking into account the theological and canonical background of the Sacrament of Matrimony. The next Senate meeting will be held on the day prior to the annual priests’ retreat in Savannah. HEADLINE HOPSCOTCH Blasts Ultra Left, Ultra Right VATICAN CITY (NC) -- Pope Paul, blasting critical Catholics of both the ultra-liberal and the ultra-conservative camps, has declared that their opposition inflicts “bitter wounds” on the body of the Church. Speaking May 14 to some 50,000 pilgrims in St. Peter’s Basilica and the Nervi audience hall after rain had forced him to cancel a single audience in the open air, Pope Paul told the pilgrims in Italian, English, French, German and Spanish: “The Church means a meeting. Thus it is meant to denote unity. We present a spectacle of unity resulting not only from a simultaneous presence but even more from the reasons, the sentiments, of the soul which unite us.” One Million Signatures OTTAWA, Canada (NC) -- Armed with one million anti-abortion signatures -- believed to be the most massive expression of public opinion in Canadian history -- pro-life forces are mounting an assault on Parliament and government to obtain protection for Canada’s unborn children. Their first objective is Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. They met him and some of his cabinet officials May 21 to present a comprehensive brief in behalf of the “40,000 innocent lives which are destroyed each year in Canadian hospitals.” SIGNED MAY 16TH Episcopal-Roman Catholic Covenant