Newspaper Page Text
t
i
i
PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, July 3,1975
The Southern Cross
Business Office 225 Abercorn St., Savannah, Ga. 3 1401
Most Rev. Raymond W. Lessard, D.D., President
John K. Markwaltcr, Managing Fditor
Second Class Postage Paid at Waynesboro, Ga. 30830
Send Change of Address to P.O. Box i 0027, Savannah, Ga. 31402
Published weekly except the second and last weeks
In June, July and August and the last week in December
At 601 P. Sixth St., Waynesboro, Ga. 30830
Subscription Price $3.60 per year by Assessment Parishes Diocese of Savannah Other $6 Per Year ar
Learning From History
OUR PARISH
06
” \ small n mu >u in email in I lie Church bullet ion
"ould have been better.*'
School Problems Grow
With New Regulations
John Reedy, C.S.C.
Text of a talk delivered on the Catholic Program
over Savannah’s station WTOC by Rev. John A.
Kenneally, Chancellor, Diocese of Savannah.
To study the history of the various
civilizations that have preceded our own can be
very fascinating. All the famous civilizations of
the past are now gone, they no longer exist.
The Babylonian, the Persian, the Greek, the
Egyptian and the Roman civilizations have
become chapters in history books rather than
living realities in our own time.
I think that we can ask the question why did
these great civilizations disappear? Thousands
of books have been written by very learned
men on this subject, giving very complex
reasons for their disappearance. They point out
various political, social and ethical reasons as to
why they disintegrated. In this short space, one
cannot do justice to such a vast topic and
examine all the facets that I have just
mentioned.
However, most commentators agree that
there is a common factor among these
civilizations that have contributed to their
eventual downfall. It can be broadly described
as “disintegration from within.” Even a cursory
glance through history books give ample
evidence of this. A slow collapse of moral and
spiritual integrity was a major contribution to
the destruction of these societies. We must be
careful though, not to accept this solution in a
facile fashion and conclude that all societies
which suffer from a lack of spiritual and moral
integrity will eventually disappear.
Nevertheless, we must be willing to learn
from history and try not to repeat the mistakes
of the past. Apparently, the Roman civilization
did not take the lessons of history too
seriously, and they paid the price. There is also
the possibility that one could become too
pessimistic in one’s approach to the decay of
these civilizations, and have a jaundiced eye
with regard to our own civilization. I, for one,
would not like to fall into that trap. If there is
anything that the study of history teaches us, it
is that man is very slow to accept the warnings
of history, and use them for his own growth
and benefit. Those who have gone before us did
not learn from history when the Second World
War loomed over us. Will the experience of Viet
Nam be of any use to those who come after us?
We must not ignore the lessons of history.
The question whether or not the same can
happen to our civilization must not only be
asked; it must be faced and analyzed.
I honestly believe it cannot be refuted that a
real moral and spiritual stagnation has invaded
our society. Stagnation is the prelude of decay.
One has only to be observant to note this fact.
Permit me to address myself to two areas in
which I think this phenomenon is apparent.
The first could be termed the area of the
sacred. A loss of the sense of the sacred is an
established fact, by and large, within the
totality of society. To be sure, there are many
who venerate and respect the sacred, but they
are fast becoming the target of secularists who
promote the value of secular and material
things and who frown on the useful value of
anything sacred. The sacred is being slowly
buried under an avalanche of material reality.
The simple ability of wonder and awe in the
face of beauty in art, poetry and music is
becoming more increasingly difficult all the
time, especially for the younger generation.
Unfortunately, the world is no longer seen
primarily as God’s creation, but as something to
be exploited for its riches. The current
economic situation, brought about by the oil
crisis, bears this out. Apparently, the Dow
Jones Industrials contain the rise and fall of
many, not only in Israel, but throughout the
world, instead of the Gospel and good news of
Jesus Christ.
Please do not misunderstand me. I have no
axe to grind with regard to business and profit
making as such. However, when it becomes the
be all and end all of many, at the expense of
the Gospel, then I have to comment. We need
business and commerce to survive, but it must
not become our God.
The second area of comment is related to the
first: it is the lack of respect for life in all its
stages - from conception to death. It strikes me
as pathetically absurd to see laws draughted to
protect beagles and bald eagles from
destruction while, conservatively speaking,
millions of abortions are performed yearly in
this, as well as many other countries
throughout the world. Surely, there must be
something wrong with our sense of proportion.
I, personally, have no animosity towards
beagles or bald eagles, and I am glad they are
protected by law. However, it pains me to see
the highest court of this land not only make it
more difficult for unborn human life to survive,
but to give arbitrary decision to other human
beings in deciding whether it should survive or
not. I suppose my greatest pain is one of
frustration over not being able to speak
eloquently on behalf of unborn life, and also
knowing that there is no easy solution to such a
problem.
Now, we are beginning to experience
difficulty at the other end of the spectrum of
life - death. Euthanasia, mercy killing, death
with dignity and death without dignity are
some of the phrases used in discussing this
issue. But really, no matter how nicely it is
stated in language or ideology, euthanasia is the
act of terminating human life. Naturally,
eloquent arguments can be put forward both
for and against mercy killing, but it does not
eradicate the basic question of respect for
human life in all its stages and forms - whether
embryonic, deformed physically or mentally or
just plain old. Che is tempted to say that
abortion and mercy killing exist for
convenience sake; not for the convenience of
those who die, but for those who live. If that is
the case, then we are in bad shape.
Can we, as followers of Jesus Christ, His
Church do anything in such a situation of moral
and social apathy, if not disintegration? I firmly
believe that there is. Our first responsibility is
not to close our eyes to the problems at hand
and wish they would go away. It is not as easy
as all that, I regret to say. We must see them
exactly as they are: problems that must be
faced. Problems that must be faced in the spirit
of the Gospel; a spirit that has hope, that is not
easily intimidated by social or other pressures.
Our faith in the promise of Jesus that he would
be with us all days must not be shaken by what
seem to be hopeless odds.
The Gospel ethic is not a vague, do-good
type of thing. It is most specific in the words of
Jesus when he said: “Love one another as I
have loved you.” Remember, if you think that
this statement is an “all you need is love” kind
of thing, where Jesus’ love for mankind led
Him! That speaks for itself. Unless we as a
community and as individuals are convinced of
this, then our society could become, in the
future, a chapter in history books along with
the Greek, Roman and other civilizations that
have sunk into the past. Not a very happy
prospect as you can imagine. We can become
the kingdom, the civilization, of God in a
greater and more perfect way than we are now,
but it is up to us. The choice is ours.
Like most situations in life, we have an
alternative in this regard. We can, as individuals
and as a Church do something to preserve and
strengthen the moral and spiritual integrity of
our society. The choice is ours, there is no force
involved. Once, when I was attending university
college in Ireland, I was accused of being
brainwashed by one of my fellow students who
styled himself as an agnostic. My response to
him was one of thanks. I mentioned that since I
was brainwashed, one could presume that I had
a brain that could be washed. I concluded by
saying, could the same be said for you?
We are all products of our environment, we
are conditioned people. We can be conditioned
by the spirit of the Gospel, or conversely, by
the spirit of the world. The former ensures our
future, the latter ensures our destruction.
Priests sacramentally share as collaborators in
the apostolic ministry of their Bishop in the
service of Christ, the preacher, priest, and
shepherd. The Second Vatican Council’s Decree
on Priestly Formation indicates that “the entire
training of the students should be oriented to
the formation of true shepherds of souls after
the model of Our Lord Jesus Christ, teacher,
priest and shepherd.” (No. 4.)
A seminary is a place where men prepare
themselves for such apostolic ministry in
community. The seminary should primarily be
a Christian community, an embodiment of the
meaning of Church. Thus the experience of
building up the body of Christ, becoming aware
of the mystery that binds us together as Church
is crucial to the formation of those who would
be ministers of Community. A man who wishes
to be a minister of the unity Christ prayed for
and died for must first experience it as a lived
reality.
r— S
Next Issue July 17
The Southern Cross does not publish
the second and last weeks of June, July
and August.
Our next issue will be dated July 17th.
S 4
The new government regulations aimed at
sexual discrimination in schools strike me as
being a mistake, but it’s going to take some
space to explain why.
Certainly it’s not because I defend the
limitations imposed on women by the social
structures of our past (and present); in spite of
some weird positions and some weird people in
the women’s movement, I see this new
sensitivity as one of the most important human
developments in our times.
Nor is it because I have any sympathy for the
moans of the athletic establishment which feeds
off the high pressure sports programs of high
schools and colleges. It’s long past time for such
programs to be scaled back to the needs of the
schools rather than being designed for the
enthusiasms of middle-aged sports freaks.
My judgment grows out of several years of
activity in trying to work with a public school
administration to achieve greater openness to
the concerns and wishes of the various groups
served by the school.
It’s damnably difficult -- not because the
school administrators are callous and
unconcerned (most of those with whom I have
Despite the flurry of changes within the
Church in the post Vatican II Era, the basic-
system of seminary formation has maintained a
continuity with the tradition of the past.
Emphases and structures change - spirit, goals
and values remain. Predominance of rule and
sterotyped life style have given way to personal
accountability for the formation of one’s life
style, and a system of inter-personal
relationships supportive of organic growth.
Nonetheless, the basic reality - vital community
of faith and shared love - a deep experience of
the body of Christ - remains the most formative
influence into which the candidates for
priesthood are initiated. The virtues of
community: maturity, personal growth in
Christ, shared responsibility, openness to others
and their ideals - these remain the fruit and
final goals of seminary formation.
Thus the seminary is not a like-minded group
of men living together as anonymous tenants in
an apartment complex, an aggregate of
individuals living together for convenience. It is
a Christian community composed of students
who - responding to the spirit of Christ - are
forming themselves for priestly service, and of
priests who - as faculty - work to stimulate and
evaluate their growth. It is in such a community
as this that those called to be ordained
ministers of the Church are to experience,
build, and grow within the communion of
Christian faith, hope and love, which is the
Church. Hopefully solid mature men of faith
will emerge from our seminaries prepared to be
pastors of God’s people.
dealt are more concerned and more dedicated
than those of us who are outside the system.)
The heart of the difficulty, as I see it, lies in
the fact that public schools, even in
modest-sized communities, are huge,
cumbersome bureaucracies locked into
inflexibility by an incredible web of regulations
coming from federal, state and local
governments.
The school administrators themselves know
that their institutions are in serious trouble,
faced with increasing public criticism,
diminishing confidence. They know that some
of the existing conditions call for radical
adjustment, but how do you radically
reorganize a huge bureaucracy like the defense
establishment... or the automobile
industry ... or the Catholic Church? The first
priority of most of these school administrators
is to keep the massive machine from breaking
down, and that consumes a lot of time and
effort.
As a result, there is an understandable
tendency for the educators to isolate
themselves within their establishments. They
see themselves as the professionals. Outsiders
don’t understand or appreciate their
difficulties. These outsiders concentrate on
specific details without recognizing how the
changes they propose would affect the rest of
the machine.
Now, HEW, under a mandate of the 1972
law against sexual discrimination, slaps on a
whole new set of requirements which will make
demands on every school in the country which
is supported by federal funds.
In spite of the good intentions, I see such
regulations as simply adding greater rigidity to
school bureaucracies which are already far too
inflexible, far too insensitive to the particular
communities which they serve.
The parents and students in the local schools
need a greater ability to work out some of their
own priorities with their own school personnel.
Some communities will see equal athletic
programs for girls as being an important need;
others, while recognizing the desirability of
such programs, might well see other needs as
more vital to their local schools.
From my own experience, it seems to me
that the greatest need of the schools is a
rebuilding of confidence and communication
with the various segments of the communities
they serve, and that relationship is not going to
be helped by a continuing multiplication of
regulations from Washington and from the state
capitols.
This position does not mean that I am
joining George Wallace’s campaign to abolish
most of the federal government. There are some
needs that would not be dealt with if the
impetus did not come from Washington.
However, I doubt very much that this is true
of the general pattern of sexual discrimination.
Our society is changing and the schools will
reflect these changes.
But the principle of subsidiarity is still a
pretty good one. It’s best that necessary
changes originate at the lowest level at which
they can be achieved.
These observations won’t change any of the
regulations; let them stand simply as an
expression of compassion for the local school
officials who will be bound by these
regulations.
Called by Name
Rev. S. R. Miglarese
Vocation Director
Diocese of Charleston
Seminary Formation Today
Women
Priests?
Joe Breig
This is my second column on the topic of
Pope Paul’s summons to the entire Church to
enter into a profound study of God’s designs
for women in “social life and in the life and
mission of the Church.”
As I noted, Pope Paul cautioned against
simplicism in this deep question; against
attempts to solve an immensely important
problem with one Gordian-knot sword-stroke.
He emphasized that what we need is to discover
the right roles of both women and men, so that
together we can make progress to “a
harmonious and unified world according to the
design of the Creator.”
Pope Paul reminded us of the Second
Vatican Council’s teaching in this matter.
Vatican II, he said, stressed solemnly “the right
and the duty of all the baptized - men and
women -- to take part in the mission of the
Church as responsible members of the people of
God.”
He quoted this sentence from the council’s
“Apostolicam actuositatem, No. 9” - “Since in
our times women have an ever more active
share in the whole life of society, it is very
important that they participate more widely
also in the various fields of the Church’s
apostolate.”
Note that in that statement, Vatican II
recognized that the role of women in the
Church has been very largely conditioned by
sociological factors. The Church has had to wait
for society to awaken to the exalted Christian
reverence and admiration for womanhood; the
Church has had to wait for Christian truths to
leaven, slowly, the mass of human society.
In our day, said Pope Paul, many groups are
promoting this leavening. The “living tradition
of the Church” is gaining more and more
recognition.
He pointed to the example of Christ’s
attitude toward women.
Christ’s attitude was more than a novelty in
the time in which he lived; indeed, it was one of
“boldness in relation to the customs of his
time.”
How could it be otherwise, seeing that God
had conferred on Mary, through whom he
entered into our human family, a dignity,
honor and grace greater than those of all other
creatures combined, human and angelic?
At this point in his talk to the Vatican
Commission on the Role of Women in Society
and in the Church, Pope Paul uttered the
remarks which led to misleading newspaper
headlines alleging that “Pope says women can
never be priests.”
To begin with, how could Pope Paul, short of
a special divine revelation which of course he
did not claim - how could he possibly know
that women could “never” be ordained?
In due time, God will disclose to us whether
the priesthood for women is his will; but he has
not yet disclosed it. Sooner or later, we will
have an infallible decision on the point; but the
infallible decision has not yet come.
In my next column, I will conclude my
discussion of this matter.
Chain
Of Duty
Rev. James Wilmes
Charles Kinsley once wrote, “Thank God on
awakening every morning that you have
something to do which cannot be avoided.” To
some this will seem a strange reason for
thankfulness; but think it over. It is good to be
bound by a sequence of duties, and not have to
decide afresh each moment what to do next.
The moment decides for itself when it comes, if
we are faithful.
The need to rise at a fixed hour every
morning, to be on hand at a certain place
during part of the day, to assign regular times
for the care of our persons or for chores around
the house, is the saving of us. This chain of
obligations, about which we so feelingly
complain at times, keeps us healthy-minded and
happy-hearted in spite of our complainings. For
it is a silken chain.
On the other hand, the unoccupied person
who is free to do as he or she pleases, is very
apt not to be pleased with doing anything. So
stop complaining about the “rut” you are in, as
though these routine duties were deep gullies
out of which there is no climbing. Actually
most of them are tracks which guide us with
the least effort through the day’s work and the
night’s relaxation, and we’d be badly off
without them.
Yes, give thanks for the tasks which you can
neither evade nor avoid and still maintain your
integrity. And remember that the most
important of these are the routine
responsibilities nearest at hand. Other good
things may follow in our quest for happiness;
but they never precede!