Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 2—August 21,1975
MESSAGE TO BISHOPS:
People Are Hurting, Church Isn’t There
BY JERRY FILTEAU
ATLANTA (NC) - People are hurting - the poor, blacks, the Spanish speaking,
prisoners - and the Church simply isn’t there to help them, a wide variety of
spokesmen told the U.S. bishops Aug. 7.
The setting was Atlanta’s Civic Center, on the first day of a three-day
congressional-style hearing on “Liberty and Justice for All.” The hearing was the
fourth of six such events around the country, sponsored by the National Conference
of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) as part of the Catholic observance of the U.S.
bicentennial. The input from the regional hearings and similar parish discussions will
be brought together in a national convention on liberty and justice in 1976. This in
turn is expected to establish a major five-year social action agenda for the Catholic
Church in the United States.
Other hearings have focused on such issues as international justice, the world food
crisis, immigration, the Mexican-American, the Native American, the land -- all
legitimate areas of serious concern for justice.
But the Atlanta hearing was devoted to an issue that affects every American day by
day at the heart of his life - the family.
Cleo Lamkin, 32, a black prisoner at Georgia Industrial Institute, pleaded for basic
person-to-person love and concern as a key to prisoners’ dignity, self-respect and
rehabilitation. Lamkin (who was accompanied to the hearing by his warden, David
England) asked the Church to get people interested in prisoners as individuals, to
provide simple support systems such as arranging transportation for family members to
visit prisoners, and to carry that support through with jobs for ex-prisoners. From his
experience - “I am 32 years old and have spent 15 of those years in prisons” - related
the steady, inexorable deterioration of spirit as the prisoner waits day after day for
even the smallest indication that someone outside cares. “Just a letter, a card from his
family - this will motivate him to do good.”
Joseph Flanagan, executive secretary of the St. Vincent de Paul Society in Atlanta, ♦
asked why the society 7 - which he described as the only major lay organization devoted
to meeting the needs of the poor - is often ignored by bishops and pastors. “The
whole nation,” he said, “knows the position of the Church on state aid to (parochial)
education . . . and on the crime of abortion.” But, he asked, how many people have
heard preached the position of the Church that the right to private property is not an
absolute right, that “no one is justified in keeping what he does not need while others
are in need?”
Spokespersons for the Spanish-speaking noted the Anglo insensitivity to Hispanic
culture and religious attitudes. The stress that this creates in the family life of Hispanic
Americans, they said, is pervasive, particularly for first-generation immigrant families.
From a series of witnesses emerged a picture of current American practices attacking
family life and individual dignity among the Spanish speaking in the areas of jobs,
education, religious education, worship, and a general, all-pervasive cultural
insensitivity.
Blacks told the bishops of the continuing racism in the United States that magnifies
their problems. The eight percent-plus unemployment rate in the United States is
double for blacks, said Mrs. Ethel Mae Mathews, who works at Emmaus House, a
neighborhood center for the poor in Atlanta. And for black youths, she added, the
unemployment rate is 50 percent.
“It’s time that the Church . . . takes a decisive stand against racism,” said Mrs.
Althea Truitt of the Atlanta University school of social work. The Church is not just
an institution, she said, but it is ; people - and the people who make up the Church are
the same people who treat blacks as inferiors in daily life, in business, in education, in
the neighborhood.
Two brothers, Kim Tran and Loi Tran, natives of Saigon who have been students in
the United States for the past several years and are now working with the Catholic
Office for Refugee Resettlement in Atlanta, asked the panel whether the American
people are seriously willing to accept the Vietnamese refugees.
“We have two uncles, said Loi, “Uncle Ho Chi Minh and Uncle Sam . . . Uncle Ho
Chi Minh doesn’t want us, but does Uncle Sam want us?” Many of the offers of
assistance that he receives at the resettlement office, he said, may sound superficially
like acts of generosity - but they really amount to attempts by wealthy doctors,
lawyers and businessmen to find cheap labor.
Earlier in the day an expert on family life called in by the Bishops’ Bicentennial
Committee testified that American family life is hurting at the core, and that this
results from a complex set of factors which have created serious anxiety among
people.
The expert, Dr. Murray Bowen, is clinical professor, department of psychiatry, at
the Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D. C., and chairman of the
family division of the medical department of psychiatry, Medical College of Virginia in
Richmond.
He told the bishops’ panel he is convinced that the people in the United States are
going through a period of moral regressions, in which they are becoming more and
more prone to reacting to anxiety situations instead of basing their actions on
principles and beliefs.
He outlined several factors which, he said, have contributed to this situation: The
population explosion, the lack of new frontiers for physical expansion, the rapid
depletion of raw materials necessary to maintain people’s current lifestyle.
The result, Dr. Bowen said, is deterioration of the moral level, of action, which
affects every level of life - the individual, the family, the community, and the nation.
Admitting that he had no quick or easy solutions to the current dilemma, Dr. Bowen
suggested that the Church could help to counteract the tendency toward moral
regression by an emphasis on beliefs and principles.
- On the basis of years of clinical experience, Dr. Bowen said, the basic social unit
within which the trend can be reversed is the family.
Bp. Rausch Pledges Fight
Against Immigration Bill
^ “ ;—
Atlanta Bicentennial Hearings
<. *
ATLANTA (NC) - The U.S. Catholic
Conference (USCC) will wage a “full
lobbying effort to defeat” immigration
legislation now pending in Congress
because it fails to provide full amnesty
for illegal aliens as supported by the
USCC.
BICENTENNIAL HEARINGS -- Above, four panelists for the U.S.
bishops take on different poses of listening at Tidy Creek Campgrounds,
Ga., as they enter their eighth hour of hearing testimony on the needs of
American families. Below, during an interlude in the testimony a group of
Jehovah’s Witnesses from Athens, Ga., sing gospel songs. The hearings two
days in Atlanta and one day at Tidy Creek Campgrounds, were part of
bicentennial observance “Liberty and Justice for All” sponsored by the
U.S. bishops. (NC Photos)
Bishop James S. Rausch, general
secretary of the USCC and of the
National Conference of Catholic
Bishops (NCCB), explained the effort
by the bishops’ national offices Aug. 7
at a hearing in Atlanta on “Liberty and
Justice for All” sponsored by the NCCB
as part of the American Catholic
observance of the Nation’s bicentennial.
The bishop said he had sent a memo
out to the USCC offices in which “I
instructed the staff to work with the
Senate and House (of Representatives)
to work against the legislation as
proposed.”
The current legislative proposal,
which was recently approved in
committee, “does not provide the
avenues needed” to deal equitably with
an estimated 8 million illegal aliens now
in the country, Bishop Rausch told
more than 100 persons gathered for the
hearing.
The House Judiciary Committee has
approved a bill granting “amnesty,” or
allowing regularization of immigration
status, to illegal aliens in residence in
the United States before June 30, 1968.
The bill also imposes penalties on
employers who “knowingly” hire illegal
aliens.
A similar bill has twice passed the
House, but no action has been taken by
the Senate.
The USCC has supported amnesty for
illegal aliens living in the United States
before Jan. 1, 1975, if they had been in
continuous residence since March 19,
1974. Msgr. George Higgins, USCC
secretary for research, has explained
that as of that date all Social Security
card holders had been cleared by the
Social Security Administration
regarding their right to employment.
USCC officials termed the June 30,
1968, cut-off date for amnesty as
“harsh.” The USCC supports using the
Social Security card as proof of legal
eligibility for employment.
Bishop Rausch, who was a member of
the panel of bishops, priests and lay
persons listening to testimony on liberty
and justice issues facing the Church
today, stated the USCC position at a
question-and-answer period following
testimony on the needs of
Spanish-speaking people by Mr. and
Mrs. Heman Machicado.
The Machicados, natives of Bolivia
and leaders in the Movimiento Familiar
Cristiano (MFC -- the Christian Family
Movement for the Spanish speaking),
had testified that immigrant
Spanish-speaking families face serious
problems in the United States not only
because of language barriers, but
especially because of American
insensitivity to the cultural differences
of the Spanish speaking.
The couple, who now live in the
Boston area, had said the problems of
integration and assimilation are
especially difficult for those who are in
this country illegally, because their
status forces them into closed ghettos
out of fear of discovery, prevents
educational advancement, and usually
forces them to take jobs at or below the
minimum wage.
The Spanish speaking make up the
largest single group of illegal aliens in
this country, they said.
Bishop Rausch asked the Machicados
if they agree with the USCC stance on
the pending legislation. Hernan
Machicado said that he agrees
completely, that only a bill
incorporating full amnesty for illegal
aliens will resolve the current situation.
The bishop later told NC News that
one of the chief USCC concerns is that,
if a bill is passed without an adequate
amnesty provision, it could result in the
break-up of many family units by the
deportation of one family member -
and thereby make already difficult
situations even worse.
He said the USCC cannot support
ATLANTA (NC) » The year 1976
may mark a “new crossroads” for the
Catholic Church’s social justice policy in
the United States, according to Bishop
James S. Rausch, general secretary of
the National Conference of Catholic
Bishops (NCCB). i
The reason, he said, is the U.S.
Catholic bicentennial observance,
“Liberty and Justice for All,” which is
geared to establishing a comprehensive
social action program for the Church in
this country.
Bishop Rausch told NC News during
an NCCB-sponsored regional hearing on
liberty and justice in Atlanta Aug. 7-9:
“A number of bishops have told me
that they are beginning to see this
(program) as another 1919, a new
crossroads in social action.”
In 1919 the Catholic bishops in the
United States issued a major document,
“Bishops’ Program of Social
Reconstruction,” which called for social
policies still considered revolutionary at
the time, such as minimum wage laws
and old age and health and
unemployment insurance.
“Some of the items on that agenda
were not realized in federal law until
1938, ‘39 or ‘40,” Bishop Rausch
added.
According to many observers, a great
deal of the Church’s social policy in this
country today can be recognized as
legislation that does not meet the
minimum amnesty requirements
outlined by the USCC earlier in
testimony before the congress.
having its origins in the bishops’ 1919
statement. Some of the leading social
actionists in the U.S. Church today still
speak fondly of Msgr. John A. Ryan,
architect of the 1919 policy, as their
chief mentor and inspiration.
The 1975-76 bicentennial observance,
“Liberty and Justice for All,” will
culminate with a national convention in
Detroit in October 1976. The
convention is expected to emerge with a
major statement establishing the
directions and priorities for Catholic
social action over the next five years at
least.
Preceding the convention there will
be a nationwide consultation of
Catholics at the parish and diocesan
levels this fall and winter, as part of an
attempt to discern the real needs of the
people.
The other major segment of the
observance preceding the convention is
a series of six regional hearings in 1975,
of which the Atlanta hearing was the
fourth. Earlier hearings took place in
Washington, D. C.; San Antonio, Tex.
and St. Paul, Minn. The next hearing
will be in Sacramento, Calif., in
October, and the last .one will take place
in Newark, N. J., in December.
The hearings have focused on
injustices and needs in particular areas --
family life, land ownership and use,
minority groups, food, international
affairs, the aged, the poor, the working'
person, immigrants, farmers, urban
dwellers, prisoners, and numerous
similar topics.
1976 Viewed As Turning
Point For U.S. Church
Canon Lawyer Says, ‘Family Number One Disaster Area In Our Nation’
ATLANTA (NC) - “The family is the number one disaster area of our nation,” a
leading canon lawyer told a panel of U.S. bishops and their advisers Aug. 9.
And the Church, he told them, is not giving justice to the casualties of marital
breakups.
The lawyer, Father John T. Finnegan, president of the Canon Law Society of
America and a professor at Pope John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Mass., was
testifying at a three-day regional hearing on “Liberty and Justice for All,” which is
part of the national Catholic observance of the U.S. bicentennial.
Striking chiefly at injustices to divorced-remarried Catholics, Father Finnegan told
the panel that the Church in this country is seriously inadequate at every phase of
marital life: marriage preparation and premarital counseling, support for married life
and family life, and pastoral and legal care for divorced Catholics.
At the same time the priest noted strong positive trends within the Church in those
areas and urged bishops to do all they can to promote and encourage those
developments.
He also noted the severe practical difficulties of trying to provide full justice for all.
At one point, for example, Father Finnegan charged that most bishops in the
country have “largely ignored” their “grave obligation in conscience” to provide
adequate professional staffing for their diocesan marriage courts. One result, he said is
that a person seeking a marriage annulment may receive it in one diocese but not in
the next - a situation “creating the confusion of ‘geographic morality’ and a divisive
pluralism.”
But on the other hand, the priest noted, it has been estimated “that it would take
$20-30 .aillion by the American bishops to make the tribunals (courts) function in a
manner required by law and as needed by our people.”
* «
“Even if this money was available, should it be so allocated?” he asked.
Father Finnegan began his presentation by noting that there is a flood of factors
today that make it difficult for Christians to live a full, healthy Christian marriage
commitment.
The official teaching authority of the Church and recent legal developments in the
Church have been moving in the direction of viewing marriage primarily as a covenant
of love rather than a legal contract, he said, but pastoral practice has not kept pace.
He cited u recent study in wnich “it was estimated that 57,000 marriages (of
Catholics in the United States) in 1972 were probably entered into invalidly”
according to the Church’s understanding that a permanent commitment is required for
a valid marriage.
Because of the divorce mentality in the United States, he said, “the problem is
massive,” and it requires a major commitment to marital permanence by the Church
not only in education but also in “life and witness.”
Other significant social factors that affect young people’s attitudes and can affect
the validity of marriages, he said, are the widespread “Contraceptive mentality” and
the idea of “open marriage.”
“The juridical presumption in favor of the validity of marriage is pastorally sound,”
he said. “Our people need the assurance that something happens, something
definitively has occurred, on the wedding day. However, the Church must realize
herself as a ‘community of mental health’ where this societal contagion is filtered out
and our young people are able to grow and develop” to a point where reality backs up
the legal presumption.
But under the present circumstances, the legal expert said, there are in fact a large
number of divorced persons who have a legal right to a declaration by the Church that
their former marriage was invalid and they are free to marry again.
He praised the bishops for their solidarity last year in appealing to maintain easier
court procedures for resolving marriage cases.
But even with the easier procedures, Father Finnegan said, the diocesan courts are
unable to do their job. He said:
“The statistics are unnerving: 25 percent of American tribunals have members with
no degree in canon law and would most likely be unaware of the advances in canon
law and .. . jurisprudence; 30 percent of the tribunals have no full-time personnel; 54
percent have one man or less; only 26 percent meet the minimum standard set by the
Code of Canon Law; 71 percent say their greatest need is lack of adequate staffing;
only 10 percent of the dioceses . . . claim the bishop’s support as their greatest asset.”
In addition to being unable to provide legal services, he charged, the Church is
unable to provide adequate pastoral and counseling services to resolve marriage
problems short of divorce or to care for divorced Catholics. As a result, he said,
divorced persons “are dispirited and walk away from us in droves with the impression
that we are hard-hearted, self-righteous, and the Church of the Perfect Response
Only.”
Father Finnegan called on the bishops of the country to take a step in increased
pastoral care by lifting “the automatic excommunication . . . for those Catholics who
remarry after divorce.” This excommunication, he said, is “found only in the United
States, and is not part of the universal discipline of the Church . .. For all its good
intentions originally, it has become harsh and vindictive and a counter-sign to the
Church’s call to mercy and forgiveness.”
He also called on the bishops to make full use of advanced marriage jurisprudence in
every diocese, to participate more fully in the current process of revising the Church’s
marriage law, and to place on their agenda “for many years to come” the development
of pastoral care and marriage support programs.
i