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The Southern Cross
i
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 56 No. 32
Thursday, September 18, 1975
Single Copy Price — 15 Cents
BALUSTRADE FRAMING - The balustrade high above St. Peter’s
Square frames the canonization ceremony Sept. 14 for Mother Elizabeth
Seton, first U.S. bom saint. In the background is St. Peter’s Basilica. (NC
Photo)
POPE PAUL presides over canonization ceremonies for Mother
Elizabeth Seton Sept. 14. At his side is Msgr. Virgilio Noe, master of the
pontifical ceremonies. (NC Photo)
Official Appointments
Bishop Raymond W. Lessard, of Savannah has announced the following
appointments:
FATHER MICHAEL RING, from associate pastor of Nativity, Savannah,
to associate pastor of St. Mary’s On-the-Hill in Augusta, effective September
28,1975.
FATHER FINBARR STANTON, from the faculty of Aquinas High School
in Augusta, to associate pastor of Blessed Sacrament in Savannah, effective
September 28,1975.
FATHER KEVIN BOLAND has been appointed to succeed himself for
another three year term as Dean of the Savannah Deanery.
Mother Seton Proclaimed Saint
VATICAN CITY (NC) - Pope Paul
VI, making Mother Elizabeth Seton the
first native daughter of the United
States to be proclaimed a saint, called
her living proof that the United States
can produce holiness.
“This most beautiful figure of a holy
woman,” he told the 15,000 Americans
in a crowd estimated at 120,000 in St.
Peter’s Square for the canonization
ceremony, “presents to the world and
to history the affirmation of new and
authentic riches that are yours: that
religious spirituality which your
temporal prosperity seemed to obscure
and almost make impossible.
“Your land, America, is indeed
worthy of receiving into its fertile
ground the seed of evangelical holiness.”
He described Mother Seton,
foundress of the Sisters of Charity in
the United States, as “wholly
American” (quoting the late Cardinal
Francis Spellman of New York).
Americans, the Pope said, should be
proud of her.
The Pope also referred to Mother
Seton’s “complete feminity.” He
described himself as pleased that her
canonization on Sept. 14 had fallen
within the UN-proclaimed International
Women’s Year. He noted that the
Women’s Year “aims at promoting an
awareness incumbent upon all to
recognize the true role of women in the
world and to contribute to their
authentic advancement in society.”
He said he was happy “at the bond
that is established between this program
and today’s canonization.” (In
conjunction with the canonization, the
Vatican had proclaimed Sept. 14
“Woman’s Day.”)
Pope Paul said that the Church was
extoling Mother Seton’s extraordinary
contribution as wife, mother, widow
and Religious by canonizing her.
The Pope added: “May the dynamism
and authenticity of her life be an
example in our day -- and for
generations to come - of what women
can and must accomplish in the
fulfillment of their role for the good of
humanity.”
At about 10 a.m. the Pope, seated
before the vast crowd in the strong
September sunshine, proclaimed slowly
and in a loud voice: “We declare and we
define that Blessed Elizabeth Ann
Bayley Seton, is a saint, and we inscribe
her in the catalogue of the saints, with
the mandate that members of the
Universal Church should venerate her in
the company of the saints with pious
devotion.”
The crowd burst into applause.
In a tribute to the Episcopalian
religion in which Mother Seton -- a
convert to the Catholic Church at the
age of 30 - had been reared, the Pope
praised it for “having awakened and
fostered the religious sense and
Christian sentiment” that showed
themselves early in her life.
In the name of the newly proclaimed
saint the Pope welcomed four emissaries
from the Episcopal Communion in the
United States at the canonization
ceremonies. He called their presence “a
presage of ever-better ecumenical
relations.”
He spoke of “her courage” in
entering the Catholic Church despite all
that that step cost her.
“And we are likewise pleased to see
that from this same adherence to the
Catholic Church she experienced great
peace and security, and found it natural
to preserve all the good things which her
membership in the fervent Episcopal
community had taught her,” the Pope
observed.
Again citing the piety her early
Anglican faith had fostered in her, the
Pope noted “that she was always
faithful in her esteem and affection for
those from whom her Catholic
profession had sadly separated her.”
The Pope delivered his address in
English.
Cardinal Jan Willebrands, secretary
of the Vatican’s Christian Unity
Secretariat, read the Gospel at the
canonization Mass. This was seen as an
added gesture toward the non-Catholics
at Mother Seton’s canonization.
In formally entering Mother Seton’s
name in the canon of the saints, the
Pope asked: “But what do we mean
when we say: ‘She is a saint?”’
Among the definitions of a saint he
gave was “a person in whom all sin - the
principle of death -- is canceled out and
replaced by the living splendor of divine
grace.”
After speaking of the mingling of
human but heroic virtue and mysticism
as the two disparate elements producing
holiness, the Pope declared:
“The science of sanctity is therefore
the most interesting, the most varied,
the most surprising and the most
fascinating of all the studies of that
ever-mysterious being which is man.”
Sister Hildegarde Marie Mahoney,
general superior of the Sisters of Charity
of St. Elizabeth, Convent Station, N.J.,
and president of the Federation of
Mother Seton’s Daughters, became the
first woman to read a lesson at a papal
Mass in the Vatican.
During the rite of canonization,
which began after the Kyrie of the Mass,
four women joined the pro-prefect of
the Congregation for Saints’ Causes in
formally asking the Pope to canonize
Mother Seton.
Ines Amanrich, daughter of the
French Ambassador to the Vatican, told
the Pope, 23 cardinals, more than 100
bishops and the crowd that Mother
Seton “is a Christian woman for our
time.” She spoke in French.
A Uruguayan mother, Mrs. Lidice
Maria Gomez de Carraquiry, spoke in
Spanish about the new saint’s example
as a mother.
A widow, Mrs. Gina Faggino, said in
Italian: “It was God above all to whoui
Mother Seton turned” after the death c f
her husband.
Sister Catherine O’Toole, superior
general of the Sisters of Charity of
Halifax, Nova Scotia, said that as a
Religious foundress Mother Seton
offered a “true pattern for her Sisters,”
while she endured “abject poverty,
miserable health and the hurt of unjust
interference in her apostolate.”
At the end of his sermon, the Pope
addressed the more than 8,000 Sisters in
the congregations tracing their
foundation to Mother Seton. He said he
hoped that they would be faithful to
their vocations, and that “their fervor
and their numbers may increase.”
During the Mass, Cardinal Lawrence
Shehan, former archbishop of Baltimore
and one of eight who concelebrated
with the Pope, became the first priest to
mention St. Elizabeth in a oanon of the
Mass. Mother Seton made her first
Religious foundation in Baltimore.
Seton Relatives
Names of additional direct descendants of St. Elizabeth Seton, living in the Diocese
of Savannah, have been received by THE SOUTHERN CROSS.
In addition to those listed in last week’s issue, the following are descendants of
America’s first native-born saint:
Mrs. Betty Claffey, Miss Elmore Craig, Mrs. Ameila Spinks, Miss Isabelle Craig, and
Miss Marian Seton Craig, all of Augusta.
Saint Mary’s Home Marks Centennial
The many friends of St. Mary’s Home
gathered Sunday, September 14, with
the children and Sisters of Mercy, who
staff the Home, to officially mark its
100th anniversary.
Included in the gathering were many
former residents of the Home. “Quite a
number came from out of State,” said
Sister 'Monica Hundertmark, R.S.M.,
Superioress of the Home.
Bishop Raymond W. Lessard, of
Savannah, was the principal
celebrant of the Centennial Mass and
was homilist for the occasion.
In his homily, Bishop Lessard
described the celebration as “a festive
and historic occasion that calls us to
look at the past with joy, but also, to
reflect as we consider the future.”
In recalling the past, the bishop said
we must do so with admiration and awe
- admiration of the work that has been
accomplished by His creatures, surely,
but awe for the wondrous works of God
(Sirach: ‘And now, bless the God of all,
who has done wondrous things on
earth . . .’)
Quoting Ps. 113: “Blessed be the
name of the Lord forever,’ the Savannah
bishop said we must be filled with
gratitude, praise and thanksgiving --
“thanksgiving to God and to His
instruments here on earth: the Religious
Sisters of Mercy, their staff -- past and
present -- and those who support their
efforts: board members, friends of the
Home, St. Mary’s Guild and the Home’s
many benefactors throughout the state
of Georgia.”
Bishop Lessard singled out for special
gratitude the children of St. Mary’s
“because it is they who have provided
us the occasion to give witness to the
Lord, to give expression to our Christian
life and to make Christ present in our
diocese.”
“Our past enables us to look to the
future,” the bishop said,^“it permits us
to examine again our ultimate goal.”
He used the quotation ‘God the
Father predestined us thru Christ Jesus
to be his adopted sons ... He has given
us the wisdom to understand fully the
mystery, the plan he was pleased to
decree in Christ, namely, to bring all
things in the heavens and on earth into
one under Christ’s headship.’ (Eph. 1)
He said that we must remember that
this goal is rooted in a divine calling and
the mystery of our adoption as children
of a common Father.
“Such an examination of the ultimate
goal,” the bishop continued, “calls us to
a rededication, a recommitment to
render Christian witness to that
command, ‘that you love one another
as I have loved you.’ (John 15) It is this
divine imperative which is at the core of
Christian Gospel, at the heart of
Christian living and that is especially
needed today because of the following
dangers:
“The danger of ‘politicizing’ where
the demands of social charity become
the object of a political ballgame rather
than the unending responsibility of each
and everyone of us, regardless of social
or political partisanship.
“The danger of the utilitarian ethic
which mandates social concern and
action, only because it is useful. The
danger is that with this mentality, the
very object of our concern and action
might be judged less than useful, indeed,
useless and that these useless citizens
become things to be avoided, if not to
be eliminated -- a real danger today!”
Bishop Lessard noted that “it was a
happy coincidence that the Centennial
of St. Mary’s Home was being marked
on the canonization date of Mother
Elizabeth Ann Seton, whose whole life
was characterized by social compassion.
Her whole life was a visible expression
of the Gospel mandate “love one
another.” .. . The sincerity of her
all-embracing love, its universality and
(Continued on page 7)
ALTAR WAS PLACED on porch for Outdoor Mass marking Centennial of St. Mary’s Home, Savannah.
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