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PAGE 2—August 7,1975
CHURCH IN CALIFORNIA 1776
Liberty And Justice For All:
American Catholics 1776-1976
CALIFORNIA MISSIONS -- Mission San Carlos, Carmel, Calif., as an
artist sketched it in 1839, with a Christian Indian village on a hill to the
right. The church, founded in 1770, was an early headquarters of the
state’s missions. (NC Photo)
New Catholic Catechism To Appear
HUNTINGTON, Ind. (NC) - Our
Sunday Visitor, Inc., (OSV) has
announced that it will publish a new
“definitive catechism” of the Church’s
official teachings, to be entitled “The
Teaching of Christ.”
OSV, the largest Catholic publisher
and printer in the country, said the
book is scheduled for release in January,
1976, and will appear in both hardcover
and paperback editions.
The new catechism will be a
“scholarly exposition” that “will answer
all the questions raised by the (Second
Vatican) Council,” OSV said.
The book, a result of collaboration of
17 theologians, is intended for religious
education teachers and for use in high
school and adult religious education
courses. It will have an annotated
bibliography, an appendix on Scripture,
on the Fathers of the Church, and on
the Church councils. It will also include
cross-references and an index.
One of the authors is Archbishop
John F. Wheal on of Hartford, Conn.,
who is chairman of the National
Catechetical Directory Committee of
the National Conference of Catholic
Bishops.
Also included in the list of authors
are Dominican Father Jordan Aumann
of the Angelicum University in Rome,
Father Johannes Quasten of the
Catholic University of America in
Washington, D.C., Bishop David M.
Maloney of Wichita, Kan., and Father
Donald W. Wuerl of the Angelicum
University.
Pleased Over Amendment Hearings
WASHINGTON (NC) - The U.S. Catholic Conference is “pleased” at the news the
House subcommittee on civil and constitutional rights will begin hearings on proposed
anti-abortion amendments, according to Bishop James Rausch, USCC general
secretary.
“I trust that an early date will be set for the start of the hearings and that they will
be full enough to permit a thorough exploration of this complex and urgent issue,”
he said. “Finally, it is my earnest hope that this new development will lead to the
prompt enactment of a constitutional amendment to protect the lives of the unborn.*’
No date has yet been set for hearings. The subcommittee has reportedly agreed to
hold four days of hearings sometime this fall.
Subcommittee chairman Don Edwards (D-Cal.) had previously refused to hold
hearings, claiming a majority of subcommittee members did not favor holding
hearings.
The Senate subcommittee on constitutional amendments will begin deliberations on
the proposed amendments after Congress returns from its summer recess in September.
FATHER MAYNARD GEIGER, O.F.M.
Several years ago I received a letter
from a gentleman in New York saying
he had heard that I had in the Santa
Barbara Mission Archive a copy of a
letter sent by Father Junipero Serra to
General George Washington. He
wondered if he could obtain a copy of
it.
I was amazed. Had such a letter
existed, it would surely have been
published long ago. On July 4, 1776,
Father Serra was sailing along the
Pacific coast between Monterey and San
Diego, totally oblivious to the events in
Philadelphia. Neither Father Serra nor
General Washington knew of the other
or of the other’s work.
The Atlantic and Pacific shores were
both populated by non-Indians in 1776.
But the differences between the two
colonial areas in political viewpoints,
religion and language, and the vast
physical separation by mountain ranges,
deserts and plains, would have justified
one in saying: Never the twain shall
meet.
Catholic Christianity in the present
state of California took root on July 16,
1769, when Father Serra planted the
cross on a hilltop above the harbor of
San Diego. Contrary to a commonly
held opinion, Spain did not come to
California primarily to plant the
Catholic religion. She moved in to
create a buffer state for what was then
known as New Spain (today Mexico)
against the threat of Russian aggression
from the north. In the process, however,
she also wished to implant the Catholic
faith among the natives and to civilize
them on the Spanish pattern. This work
was commended to the Franciscan
missionaries of the College of San
Fernando, Mexico City, who were
already laboring in Lower California
(the peninsula, which is still a part of
Mexico.)
The king of Spain and under him his
American yiceroys controlled the
Church in all external affairs -- a
situation totally alien to our subsequent
national tradition of complete
separation of Church and state. ^And
missionaries had to conform to this
arrangement. The governors were also
military men. The Franciscan superior
in California lived at Carmel near
Monterey, close to the governor’s
headquarters. Each mission was guarded
by a corporal and five soldiers, one of
whom was in charge of the mission’s
economic affairs.
By the end of December, 1776, seven
missions had been founded: San Diego,
July 16, 1769; San Carlos,
Monterey-Carmel, June 3, 1770; San
Antonio, July 14, 1771; San Gabriel
near present Los Angeles, Sept. 8,1771;
San Luis Obispo, Sept. 1, 1772; San
Francisco, Oct. 4, 1776 and San Juan
Capistrano, Nov. 1, 1776. There were
no civilian settlements, but three
presidios were founded along with the
missions of the same name at San Diego,
Monterey and San Francisco.
From the very beginning there were
misunderstandings and conflicts
between the missionaries and the
military. By 1772 these reached the
point that Father Serra was forced to
return to Mexico to obtain from the
new viceroy, Antonio Maria Bucareli y
Ursua, a freer hand for the missionary
enterprise. He presented 32 points, most
of which were granted, and as a result,
the missionaries had full control of the
Indian converts except in high criminal
cases.
Money from the Pious Fund, a fund
established by the Jesuits in Lower
California but after their expulsion in
1768 taken over by the government,
was used for mission expenses in both
Upper and Low’er California. The fund
provided 1,000 pesos for the
establishment of each mission and 350
pesos a year for the salary of each
missionary. The missionaries’ salaries
were used to purchase items needed by
the convert Indians. Ships brought
supplies from Mexico each year for the
presidios and missions. At times cattle
and other animals were driven up to
Upper California from Lower California.
The early mission buildings were
crude frontier establishments. The
churches, living quarters, work shops,
storage rooms were built of unhewn
timber with thatched roofs and hard
dirt floors. Soon adobe began to replace
the wood-and dirt structures. These
early missions stretched along 600 miles
of coast from San Diego to San
Francisco. The principal road
connecting them was called El Camino
Real. Until the converted Indians could
be taught the various trades, buildings
could be erected only in the simplest
fashion.
USCC Committee Asks Focus On Economic
BY JIM CASTELLI
WASHINGTON (NC) - The U.S.
Catholic Conference Committee on
Social Development and World Peace
has approved a proposal to develop
position papers on economic issues for
consideration by the nation’s Catholic
bishops at their next general meeting in
November.
The committee voted at its
semi-annual meeting to let the USCC
Office for Social Development work on
position papers on the major areas of
economic planning, full employment
and tax reform.
In a background presentation to the
committee, Dr. Francis Butler, USCC
associate secretary for domestic social
development, criticized both the
The Daughters of Charity
invite the public to j*oin them in honoring
the canonization of their foundress
(Gflizabeth. ^nn jSeton
at one of the Eucharistic Celebrations in the
Chapel, St. Joseph’s Provincial House
Emmitsburg, Maryland
on Sunday, September 14, 1975 ,
Time Principal Celebrant
9 AM .... Bishop Joseph H. Hodges, diocese of Wheeling/Charleston
11 AM Bishop Michael J. Begley, diocese of Charlotte, N. C.
1 PM Bishop Walter F. Sullivan, diocese of Richmond, Va.
3 PM Bishop Ernest Unterkoefler, dioceSe of Charleston, S. C.
5 PM Bishop F. Joseph Gossman, diocese of Raleigh, N. C.
7 PM Bishop T. Austin Murphy, archdiocese of Baltimore
Veneration of the relic after each Mass.
Clergy are invited to concelebrate. Notice of the intention to participate,
stating the preferred time, would be appreciated. Please address the Plan
ning Committee, St. Joseph’s Provincial House, Emmitsburg, Md. 21727.
Participating clergy are requested to bring their own albs and cinctures.
SHRINE TOURS • SHRINE CENTER • GIFT SHOP
Parking available at the shrine. It would be appreciated if pilgrimage and
charter bus groups would notify the Shrine Center of approximate arrival
time.
Light refreshments will be sold in the Student Center.
Administration and Congress for their
handling of the current economic
recession.
Both arms of the government, he
said, have focused attention on
questions related to inflation, the size of
the federal deficit and whether or not
increased government borrowing will
hurt recovery by “crowding out”
borrowing by private industry.
In so doing, Butler said, the
Administration and Congress have paid
inadequate attention to the human
problem of unemployment.
Calling tolerance of high
unemployment rates a “tragedy,” Butler
said, “Congress, while arguing against
the human cost of the Administration’s
policy, has no comprehensive alternative
plan for alternative recovery.”
Butler said it could be expected that
public debate would continue to focus
on the inflation vs. recession argument,
and that, in the process, “a valuable
moment for basic economic reform will
be lost.”
He said reform was needed in three
major areas:
- Economic planning. Congress, he
said, is considering a proposed Balanced
Growth and Economic Planning Act
which is aimed at establishing long-term
economic goals and recommending
policies “that will match goals and
resources, paying particular attention to
the attainment of the objectives of full
employment, price stability, balanced
economic growth, equitable distribution
of income and balanced regional and
urban development.”
-- Full employment. Butler said the
Hawkins-Humphrey full employment
bill now being considered by Congress
would improve on the 1946
Employment Act by mandating that
“the goal of full employment may not
be sacrificed in the interest of any other
economic goal.’’ The
Hawkins-Humphrey bill treats a job as a
matter of right. It would set up a federal
board to recommend ways to use
monetary and fiscal policy and other
means to create jobs and achieve full
employment.
- Tax reform. Butler said “tax reform
has now become almost a pre-condition
for returning our country to economic
health,” but that “a concerted effort on
the part of our policy-makers in this
area is unlikely.”
The Indians of these missions were
nomadic peoples with no literature or
agriculture. They lived from the bounty
of the land and the sea alone. Most of
the time men went about entirely
naked. There were six distinct languages
spoken between San Diego and San
Francisco.
The missionaries attracted the Indians
from the native villages to the mission
settlements by kind treatment and gifts.
They gave rudimentary instruction in
the Catholic faith before Baptism. There
was daily Mass and instruction and the
feasts of the Church were colorfully
celebrated.
At the missions the Indians built their
traditional huts. Only later could they
be induced to build adobe houses with
tile roofs after the Spanish manner.
Simple woolen clothing was provided
for them along with three regular meals
a day, supplemented by food of their
choice obtained by hunting, fishing and
seed gathering.
The missionaries attended also to the
spiritual needs of the soldiers and their
families, for no diocesan priests had
been supplied by the government. A
doctor at Monterey was the sole
physician in the area. By the end of
1776 at San Deigo 461 Indians had been
baptized and 115 Christian marriages
performed. By the end of 1776 the
mission had 498 livestock and a
developing agriculture. The other
missions gradually developed along the
same lines.
The great Anza expedition of
1775-1776 brought soldiers and families
from Sonora, Mexico to found Presidio
San Francisco and later the civilian
pueblo of San Jose. Most of the 177
persons in this expedition remained in
Upper California.
Exact statistics on the Catholic
population in California by the end of
1776 are unavailable, since two mission
registers are no longer extant. But
available evidence suggests that the total
number of Catholics by that time, both
Indians and Spaniards, was about 1,900.
When the American Revolution began,
California was still pure mission
territory with only seven years of
missionary work behind it.
Recommended reading: “The Life
and Times of Fray Junipero Serra,” by
Father Maynard Geiger, O.F.M. (2
Vols., Washington, D. C., Academy of
American Franciscan History, 1959).
(Father Geiger has been archivist-historian
at the Santa Barbara Mission Archive-Library
in California since 1937.)
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LIFE IN MUSIC
By The Dameans
At Seventeen
I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty
queens
and high school girls with
clear-skinned smiles
who married young, and then
retired
The valentines I never knew
The Friday night charades of youth
were spent on one more beautiful
At seventeen, I learned the truth
And those of us with ravaged faces
lacking in the social graces
desperately remained at home
inventing lovers on the ’phone
who called to say “Come dance
with me”
and murmured vague obscenities
it isn’t all it seems at seventeen
A brown-eyed girl in
hand-me-downs
whose name I never could
pronounce
said “Pity please the ones who serve
They only get what they deserve”
The rich-relationed hometown
queen
marries into what she needs
A guarantee of company
and haven for the elderly.
Remember those who win the game
lose the love they thought they
gained
in debentures of quality
and dubious integrity
Their small-town eyes will gape at
you
in dull surprise when payment due
exceeds accounts received at
seventeen
To those of us who knew the pain
of valentines that never came
and those whose names were never
called
when choosing sides for basketball
It was long ago, and far away
The World was younger than today
and dreams were all they gave for
free
to ugly duckling girls like me.
We play the game, and when we
dare
to cheat ourselves at solitaire
Inventing lovers on the ’phone
Repenting other lives unknown
that call and say “Come dance with
me”
and murmur vague obscenities
at ugly girls like me, at seventeen.
(by Janis Ian, (c) 1974
Mine Music Ltd. and
April Music, Inc., ASCAP)
It’s a magical age; for
free-spirited life, for romance in a
world of unlimited possibilities.
Most of the ads carry pictures of it.
Many try to help you return to it,
and a whole magazine is named and
dedicated to preserving the culture
of it; the magical age of 17*
Even with all this attention Janis
Ian can remind us: “It isn’t all it
seems at 17.” If we are honest we
know that there is a lot of myth
wrapped around that period of
one’s life. Underneath it all is a lot
of pain. The pain of living “at 17”
is so accurately described by Janis
Ian that it must be the result of
first-hand experience. -That
experience is one of real rejection
and isolation simply because a
person is an “ugly duckling.” For
one “at 17,” whose whole
relationship to the world seems
based on personal appearance, that
experience can be hard and cruel.
There is almost a quiet bitterness in
the way that Janis recounts “the
valentines I never knew,” or “those
whose names were never called.”
There are even the fantasties which
try to cope with the situation by
“inventing lovers on the ‘phone.”
All of this pain derives from what is
“the truth” at 17; namely, “that
love was meant for beauty queens.”
Perhaps this “truth” came to be
because the beauty queens were the
most readily accepted, the most
sought after and even “married
young.” This seems to indicate that
beauty is the basis of love. That kind
of truth can only be true “at
seventeen,” when one has seen little
else of love. At any other time, it is
a mere deception.
Even the beauty queens
themselves eventually deny the
validity of this as a truth of love.
For sometimes, “those who win the
game, lose the love they thought
they gained.” They are led to
wonder whether they were ever
really loved for the person that
they are and not just their
attractive appearance.
The truth is that real love is given
to you for who you are and not
how you look. For many, however,
they are not sure who they are, “at
17.” Thus there is the temptation
to believe that beauty is truth when
it comes to love. Yet only time will
be able to let you know who you
are. And so, real love may only
come with time. That’s true
whether you have a “ravaged face”
or a “clear-skinned smile.”
So how you handle being
overlooked or getting too much
attention “at 17” may help
determine who you are later on,
and how you are loved. It’s not
clear from this song whether Janis
Ian ever learned that. I pray that
you will, unless, of course, you
wish to live your whole life “at
seventeen.”
(All correspondence * should be
directed to: The Dameans, P. O. Box
2108, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70821)
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