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PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, May 29, 1975
Hooray!
Hooray for Plannfed Parenthood. The
abortion business is being streamlined.
Efficiency and professional standards are
the new watchwords in this venerable
industry.
In Washington, D.C. the local Planned
Parenthood office has drafted detailed
guidelines for outpatient abortion
clinics. Until now such facilities had
been totally unregulated.
The guidelines deal with such matters
as staff, equipment, anesthesia, record
keeping and fees. And they’re getting
tough about it too - Planned Parenthood
will no longer refer potential customers
to clinics which don’t meet their
exacting standards.
Hooray for Planned Parenthood will
be the plaudit of those selfless
proponents of abortion as a means of
birth control or as a polite way out of
an embarrassing situation.
They will be telling us how all this
protects the dignity of the once
oppressed-now liberated woman.
It won’t be too bad for the
abortionists either. Granted there will be
the initial investment in new and better
equipment, anesthesia, counselors, etc.
But in the long run this professional
image should really stimulate business.
This is being done, they will say, to
serve the needs of people. Who can argue
with such 'a beautiful example of
compassionate personal concern?
The only persons to suffer from such
professionalism are the little persons
who will be dispassionately,
professionally killed..
What One Person Can Do
Rev. Richard Armstrong
Jeremiah was a born loser. A “small-town
boy” who did not like the prospect of going to
Jerusalem to be God’s prophet, he went
because he would not say “no” to the God who
called him. But Jeremiah was not naive in
assessing the difficulties he would have to face
in the chaotic days preceding the carrying off
of the Jews into exile in Babylon.
Jeremiah was mocked, his honesty was
questioned, his effectiveness was nil. He was
thrown into a muddy dungeon, scorned by the
very people he was trying to save. From the
brink of despair, he complained to the Lord for
getting him into such a mess: “I am a daily
laughing stock, everybody’s butt.. . The word
of the Lord has meant for me insult, derision,
all day longg ... A curse on the day when I was
bom . . . Why ever did I come out of the womb
to live in toil and sorrow to the end of my days
in shame!” (Jeremiah 20:7-18)
Given an “impossible” task, berated and
betrayed, scourged, imprisoned, and forced to
witness the catastrophe he had predicted - the
destruction of Jerusalem and the exiling of his
people to Babylon (587 B.C.) -- Jeremiah was
an unparalleled loser, measured by this world’s
standards. But he never lost hope. He predicted
that God would not abandon His people, but
would lead them through harsh circumstances
to a new covenant of love.
Jeremiah knew that faith and hope enable a
loser to turn even defeat into success in the
long run. More than any other single biblical
person, he demonstrates that “failure of nerve”
may be the only real failure; that adversity does
not ruin us, because it is our own reaction to
adversity that ultimately determines whether
we succeed or whether we fail.
For a free copy of the Christopher News
Notes, “Eight Who Made a Difference,” write
to me, Father Armstrong, in care of The
Christophers, 12 E. 48th St., New York, N.Y.
10017.
Liturgical Children
Joseph Breig
The most important and heart-lifting results
of the reform of the liturgy, I believe, are yet to
come. In my judgment, we will begin to see the
effects as we watch children grow up who have
been taught and inspired by the liturgy in their
own language - a liturgy in which, in more
and more places, they are now actively and
intimately participating.
We must bear in mind that the new liturgy is
only a few years old. Really, it is in its earliest
infancy, if we look at it in the perspective of
the vast movement of the Church through the
centuries, and of Christ’s promise that the
Church will endure to the end of time.
Even this early, the new liturgy is producing
notable results among adults, who no longer are
passive onlookers in the worship of God in their
parish churches. The effects upon children, who
are more adaptable, teachable and
impressionable, surely will be far deeper and
wider.
In the course of our travels, we have seen
many evidences of the growing participation of
children in the Mass. A few years ago, I saw
children in one parish leaving their pews before
the consecration of the bread and wine, and
assembling around the altar. It was touching to
see larger children lifting smaller ones so that
they could watch the sacred action.
This year, we saw remarkable development in
the adapting of the liturgy to the little ones.
Children are singing the Mass with confidence
and vigor. They are fulfilling skillfully the
people’s part. They reverently carry to the altar
offertory gifts which, in many cases, they
themselves have made - banners, posters, art
objects and the like.
In some parishes, clusters of children stand
near the altar while the Mass proceeds, so that
they may take part more intimately with the
priest in the liturgy - in the “work” of adoring,
thanking and petitioning God, in and with and
through Jesus.
Further, in some parishes children are acting
as commentators, cantors and lectors. They are
reading the scriptural passages from the
sanctuary. (And isn’t it odd that there is some
reluctance to let girls serve as acolytes, seeing
that they stand at the lectern and read the
Scriptures to the congregation?)
I cannot see how such intimate participation
in the liturgy can fail to bring about profound
effects in the minds and souls of our children -
especially when I think back to my own
childhood, when we knelt wearily in the pews
while the priest, his back tc us, offered the
Mass in a tongue meaningless to us.
We were mere spectators. Indeed, we were
hardly even that. Certainly we were not
spectators in the warm, participatory sense in
which people at a baseball or football game are
involved in the action, cheering for their team,
rejoicing in victory, sorrowing in defeat.
Although we tried to project ourselves into
the liturgy, as we were urged to do, the Mass
for children in my childhood was a remote
affair in which we felt only a sort of imaginary
part. The change today is downright startling;
and I expect it to bring about great things as
the years pass.
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“AH lecterns are being recalled for a safety check.”
The Holocaust
And Vietnam
John Reedy, C.S.C.
I’m sure that someone has made the
comparison, but I haven’t come across it - the
comparison between the tragic suffering of the
people of Vietnam and the holocaust
experienced by European Jews under the Nazis.
The similarity is strongest, of course, in the
extent of the human suffering. Some of those
terrible pictures of physical and emotional
suffering in Vietnam evoked memories of the
horrors filmed in places like Dachau and
Auschwitz during the final days of World War
II.
(I feel sure that there exists a massive
collection of film from Vietnam which was
judged to be too strong for airing on television,
for publication in general newspapers. That
documentation, if distributed, would probably
bring us even closer to the ghastly,
unforgettable scenes from the prison camps of
Germany and Poland.)
But consider the difference of American
public reaction to the two experiences.
As my memory recalls the reaction to the
slaughter of European Jews, there was a deep,
widespread, paralyzing recognition of a
monumental evil, a suffering rarely matched in
recorded history.
On one level, the instruments of this evil
could be identified and isolated - particular
officials of the Nazi government, particular
agents among the administrators and staffs of
the camps. But I have a distinct recollection of
feeling somehow corrupted by living as part of
the human race at a time when such horrors
took place.
There were other reactions, of course, I recall
hearing comments which further sickened me.
“Yes, it’s bad, but many of those Jews brought
it on themselves. Look how much power and
influence they had accumulated in Germany.”
(It they had all that power, why couldn’t they
change the policies?)
But with most people, that was not the
reaction. They knew that nothing could be
done to erase the horror, but the sense of being
somehow implicated in it remained, whether
the reaction was logical or not. This sensitivity
probably made the difference in providing
enough international support for the
recognition of the state of Israel. I think it
probably underlies a large part of Israel’s
continuing support in this country.
Now, facing another people whose physical
suffering has to be seen as somewhat similar,
our public reaction thus far is quite different.
As I see it, there is regret for a human
tragedy, embarrassment and anger that our
national effort and sacrifices were such a
failure... and, most of all, a relief that the
fighting has finally come to some kind of an
end.
My guess is that the majority of our people
would support substantial humanitarian aid if
they could be confident that it would reach the
people in need. But the voices opposing the
resettlement of refugees in this country
probably reflect a widespread sentiment among
many who remain silent.
Why the difference in response?
Part of it, of course, can be explained by the
reflection of Jewish suffering in the lives,
thoughts and words of the American Jews who
are our friends and neighbors. Through them,
the horror was personalized, brought close to
us.
Another difference was the visibility of real
villains among the Nazis and their deliberate
pursuit of outrageous policies. In Vietnam, the
issues were more ambiguous. Destruction of
people was not carried out for its own sake; it
was always seen as an unavoidable consequence
of military objectives. Leaders were judged to
be ineffective, insensitive or politically corrupt,
but only the radical peace groups saw them as
deliberately vicious.
However, what bothers me most about this
response to Vietnam is the thought that it
validates a common charge made by the peace
movement - that our nation’s general reaction
to the sufferings of Asiatics is infected with a
strong strain of racism.
“They are not like us, in language, customs,
and history.” We don’t have large visible
portions of our population rooted in the
cultures of Asia. Because Asiatics are different,
their experience of agony is somehow farther
removed from our sensitivity. Their suffering is
somehow, less human.
I fear this is true. I hope it is not. If it is, this
form of inhumanity may stand as one of the
most severe judgments on our nation’s dealings
with the people of Southeast Asia.
The story is told of a certain busy executive
who keeps an hour glass before him on his desk,
which he or his secretary turns over punctually
as the sand runs out. When asked the meaning
or purpose of this heirloom amidst the wizardry
of modem gadgets, he points to the tirfy grains
of sand silently passing from the upper bowl to
the lower, one at a time. And so, he adds, slip
by the sands of time, one by one; never more,
never less. And with them the cares, difficulties
and responsibilities that make up the day.
There is a moral here for those who consider
themselves overburdened by the loads they
carry. When things get hot and heavy, they see
themselves as standing in the center of a
barrage, with tasks and problems and troubles
descending on them from every side at once.
Yet this common picture is quite unreal.
Nobody suffers so cruel a fate, no matter how
crowded his life or how heavy the pressure. The
actual situation is quite different, as the
analogy of the hour glass suggests.
True, the hours are crowded and often heavy
with crisis. But they come one at a time. And
so do the problems they bring. The day itself,
and the week, may present you with many
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‘Called
By
Name’
By Rev. John P. Coffey
PRAYER: COMPONENT
OF VOCATION DECISION
All through our adolesence we try many
images, fads and other things to find out who
we are, to gain an identity. Once we discover
that we are persons with a history of past,
present and future and that things do not make
a person but rather add to or detract.from one’s
personhood, we have established our identity.
We must then decide what we want to do and
what we plan to become. This is the greatest
and most important decision that we will make.
The question that has to be asked here is
this: how do we come to some certutude about
what we want to do and what we hope to be???
All of us have heard the expression, “God, Our
Father,” note that I said that ALL OF US have
heard this expression - but how many of us
have come to know God as Our Father through
faith? This is where the integration of one’s life,
both physical and spiritual comes into play. We
constantly seek out parental advice as to what
we should do or be; this we should do. However
is it not also important for us to consult God,
Our Father as well, in such a significant matter?
In the years of my priesthood, a good
number of people have mentioned to me that
they at one time had thought about being a
priest. I have to wonder though how many of
them ever PRAYED about what they should do
with their lives. Thinking is one thing; praying
is another.
For most of us, praying is very hard, very
difficult. The main reason for this is that God is
not physically present to us to speak with as we
are so accustomed to do with our fellow human
beings. Therefore we often experience what
seems to us a lopsided relationship with God
because it seems to us that we are doing all the
talking. This makes us wonder if God is
listening, and after we have vocalized what we
wanted to tell God we become annoyed with
the silence that follows. We find ourselves
frustrated and we abandon our prayer because
of this silence, not realizing that God in His
own time will speak to us. Not always will we
be able to accept immediately His answer to
our prayers.
This became evident to me as a seminarian. I
began my seminary studies with a great number
of men, but only a few of these continued to
ordination. It was with great satisfaction and
real peace of mind that the others had
withdrawn from studies for the priesthood.
This feeling of peace and security about their
decision resulted from the fact that they had
learned through sincere prayer, through
conversation with God that they had not really
been called to the priesthood. Intimacy with
God in prayer reveals His truth to us.
Prayer helps us to establish a relationship
with God which is not unlike our human
relationships. This relationship with God is
developed in the same way that our human
relationships develop. If we do not
communicate with one another, there is no
relationship between us except the fact that we
know each other’s name. But once we begin to
share with each other we begin to know what
the other person feels and thinks, we learn
really to know that person. How often have we
sized someone up so quickly and later found
out that the person was anything but what we
had first judged him to be. Our relationship has
grown in proportion to the extent to which our
communicating with each other has developed.
So also it is only through a gradual deepening
of our relationship with God that we will come
to know what He expects of us. We learn to see
God as our Father, who will never ask us to do
anything that is beyond our capacity to do.
However, our certitude as to what we are now
and what we hope to become can only come
from God through frequent and intimate
conversations with Him in prayer.
Rev. James Wilmes
tasks and many responsibilities. But always, one
at a time, single file; never a mass attack.
Overburdened men and women should
remember the hour glass and its way of life,
whenever that terrible sense of pressure
threatens to drive them to distraction. They can
keep their heads and their health by narrowing
their concerns to that point where doing one
thing at a time and facing one problem at a
time, is enough to see them through.
RESOLUTION: Repeat often the adage:
“Do what you are doing.” That is, live this
present minute to the fullest rather than waste
it, allowing it to slip by while worrying about
the next crisis which cannot arrive any sooner
than the time assigned. By working hard to use
the present moment well, the coming crisis
usually resolves itself.
SCRIPTURE: Set your hearts on your
Father’s kingship over you, His way of holiness,
and all other things will be given you as well.
Do not worry about tomorrow. It will take care
of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its
own. Mt. 6,34.
PRAYER: Lord, teach me to work hard but
also to “Let go. Let God!” Amen.