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DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 56 No. 33
Thursday, September 25,1975
Single Copy Price — 15 Cents
Subcommittee Votes Down Constitutional Amendments
MARTYRS COMMEMORATED - Vietnamese
children receive First Communion from Archbishop
Joseph McGucken of San Francisco on the feast of
Vietnamese martyrs, the first Sunday in September, at
Camp Pendleton, Calif. In the background is chaplain
Father Joseph Devlin, who works among the refugees
after having helped displaced Vietnamese in their own
country before the Communist takeover. (NC Photo
by A1 Antczak)
Pope Reaffirms Opposition To Euthanasia
BY FATHER THOMAS DONLAN, O P.
VATICAN CITY (NC) - Pope Paul
VI has reaffirmed the Church’s
opposition to euthanasia, and has called
upon doctors to support life to the very
last.
Addressing 1,000 delegates to the
Third World Congress of the College of
Psychosomatic Medicine Sept. 18, the
Pope said:
“Concerning the value of each human
person, we wish to remind you that it is
the physician’s duty to be always at the
service of life, and to assist the
individual to the very end, without ever
accepting euthanasia or renouncing the
very human duty to help a person to
end his days with dignity.”
Speaking in French to delegates from
more than 50 countries of five
continents, Pope Paul recalled the
teaching of Pope Pius XII on the use of
pain-killing drugs.
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HEADLINE
HOPSCOTCH
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Refugees Have Abortions
SAN DIEGO, Calif (NC) - By Aug. 28, 46 Vietnamese women from the refugee
tents at Camp Pendleton Marine Base near San Diego had abortions in hospitals and
doctors’ offices in this city. The abortions were paid for by the federal government as
part of a “family-planning counseling” program offered the refugees, according to
Frank Mason, a southern California area representative of the U.S. Department of
Health, Education and Welfare (HEW).
Bishops Blast Bill
SALISBURY, Rhodesia (NC) -- The Rhodesia Catholic Bishops’ Conference has
denounced legislation that would empower the government to halt criminal
proceedings against a government minister for actions “in connection with the
suppression of terriorism.” The bishops called the bill “a denial of justice,” and said it
“endangers the future of this country.”
Pope Pius XII, the present Pope
noted, said in 1958 that such drugs
could be used prudently by competent
people, “but never so as to diminish
personal responsibility or against the
rights that are proper to a human
person.”
Noting the importance of family
support for those afflicted with
psychosomatic ills, the Pope called upon
the delegates to stress the role of the
family for the physical and moral well
being of individuals.
Wants Agriculture Policy Changes
VATICAN CITY - Cardinal Maurice Roy of Quebec, president of the Vatican’s
Council for the Laity and the Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace, has called
for major changes in the world’s agricultural policy, including better distribution of
land ownership and fair tax systems for farmers. Addressing about 200 participants in
the International Catholic Rural Association Congress Sept. 15, Cardinal Roy
proposed: a fair share of technical, health, religious, communications and educational
services for rural dwellers; renewed attention to the life of rural families, including
“the emancipation of women from unacceptable forms of slavery” and the inclusion
of women in managerial positions in agricultural production; development and
encouragement of agricultural associations unions and cooperatives; a better
distribution of land ownership; a tax system that takes account of the “real revenue”
of rural people, as well as a financial system that considers the “long-term needs and
risks of agricultural production.”
Irish Bishops Advocate Excommunication
BELFAST, Northern Ireland (NC) - Tw r o bishops, one Catholic, the other
Protestant, have suggested that those who use armed violence in Northern Ireland be
excommunicated from their churches. Speaking at the reopening of a church in
Lurgan, County Armagh, which had been bombed in November, 1973, Church of
Ireland (Anglican) Bishop Robert Eames of Londonderry said that “those who
deliberately go out to commit sectarian murder are outlawing themselves from the
Christian church.” Bishop Eames’ views were similar to those expressed earlier by
Catholic Bishop Peter Birch of Ossory in the Republic of Ireland, who said that
members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the outlawed organization that has
been waging guerrilla warfare to unify Ireland, “had excommunicated themselves” by
their actions. Bishop Birch said he would favor official excommunication of IRA
members.
He cited “especially the most
vulnerable - the infant, the aged and the
sick, which is to say, of all those who
are not productive, who are abandoned
by a mentality not based on a true
conception of man nor on the Christian
spirit.”
The Pope continued: “Family life,
according to uninterrupted Christian
tradition, is one of the principal hopes
for the future of mankind.”
He noted that anxiety is a factor
common to psychosomatic troubles and
all other illnesses. Anxiety arises from
psychosocial situations and from the
strange insecurity and doubt which we
each bear within ourselves, he said.
The Pope urged delegates not to
ignore in their research “the possibility
that faith in God may bring a remedy to
human anxiety.”
He added:
“The sure knowledge that a father
loves us and that there is hope for our
life is already an indication and a
response.”
BY JIM CASTELLI
WASHINGTON (NC) - The Senate
subcommittee on constitutional
amendments has defeated six separate
proposed constitutional amendments
which would restrict abortion.
Subcommittee chairman, Sen. Birch
Bayh (D-Ind.), said that it was highly
unlikely that the full Judiciary
Committee would take further action
on any of the amendments, which he
said were probably dead for this session
of Congress.
Shortly after the subcommittee vote
on the amendments, Bayh introduced
an “alternatives to abortion” package of
legislative proposals. These include a
In commenting on the
subcommittee’s actions, Cardinal
Terence Cooke of New York, chairman
of the Bishops’ Committee for Pro-Life
Affairs, said: “At least one carefully
worded compromise proposal was not
clearly rejected, but failed to be
reported out because of a tie vote.
America’s unborn children deserve
better than a tie vote. There is ample
reason to believe that this setback is
only temporary.”
Msgr. James McHugh, executive
director of the pro-life activities
committee, said there would be a
“complete reevaluation” of the vote and
the amendments. He said the committee
would take “a close look” at the
Burdick proposal.
Editorial On Page 4
Senator Bayh
‘.. .no right to impose ’
One source within the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops -- U.S.
Catholic Conference said there was “a
good chance, or at least a reasonable
chance,” that the bishops would
support something close to the Burdick
amendment.
That amendment was formulated by
John Noonan, a Catholic professor at
the law school of the University of
California at Berkeley.
Another source, asked to rate on a
scale of one to 10 the chances of the
bishops backing a Noonan-type
amendment, replied, “better than five.”
Sources said the bishops have
previously been under pressure to
support amendments which came
closest to traditional Catholic morality;
that is, amendments which defined the
fetus as a legal person from the moment
of conception or fertilization. Any
other position, some people believe,
represents a compromise of the
Church’s moral position.
But USCC-NCCB sources believe the
bishops could successfully support a
Noonan-type amendment if it were
made clear that they were doing so
because it was the best they could hope
for in a pluralistic society and within
the framework of the Constitution.
Cardinal Cooke
.unborn deserve better’
The bishops have been reluctant to
support a simple states’ rights approach
as they oppose the states’ rights
approach in other areas, particularly in
civil rights.
The Noonan amendment, according
to one source, would avoid this problem
by affirming a particular value -
protection of life -- and not setting a
precedent for dealing with other issues
at the state level.
Msgr. McHugh
.complete reevaluation’
national network of “life support
centers,” legislation prohibiting
discrimination by health-insurers based
on sex or marital status, support for an
expanded federal role in child care,
support for flexible working hours,
support and adequate funding for
existing federal programs that meet the
needs of teen-age mothers.
Bayh said this was “about the best we
can do given the difficult Pandora’s Box
of overturning” the 1973 Supreme
Court decision on abortion.
Ravh said that while he personally
believed that life was present before
viability, he did not believe it was right
to impose his and other people’s
opinions on those who did not share
them.
The subcommittee defeated the
“human life amendments” offered by
Sens. James Buckley (Cons.-R.-N.Y.)
and Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) by 5-2. This
defined “person,” as used in the
Constitution, as beginning with
fertilization. They defeated a states’
rights amendment offered by Sen.
William Scott (R-Va.) by 5-3. An
amendment offered by Sen. Quentin
Urdick (D-N.D.) using the wording of
Prof. John Noonan of the University of
California in a more extensive states’
rights amendment covering euthanasia
and other life-related issues was
defeated in a tie vote of 4-4.
Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.)
offered the Buckley amendment adding
an exception for rape and incest. This
was defeated 6-1.
The committee defeated by voice
vote a version of Sen. Scott’s
amendment which would have barred
abortions except as otherwise protected
in the Constitution.
According to reports, U.S. Catholic
bishops may change their strategy on
constitutional amendments concerning
abortions.
The switch would involve abandoning
more restrictive amendments in favor of
a modified state’s rights amendment,
such as the Burdick amendment which
came closest to passage by the Senate
subcommittee.
The subcommittee voted 4-4 on an
amendment, offered by Sen. Quentin
Burdick (D-N.D.), which would
empower the states to “protect life,
including the unborn, at all stages of
biological development, irregardless of
age, health or condition of physical
dependency.”
The amendment was introduced by
Burdick at the request of the National
Committee for a Human Life
Amendment. William Cox, the
committee’s executive director,
described the amendment as a “fallback
position,” or the “minimum acceptable
language” that the committee could
accept.
The committee is funded by
individual contributions from U.S.
bishops and others.
Cox said the committee will continue
to press for an amendment that will
define the unborn as legal persons from
the point of conception (the Buckley
amendment) or fertilization (the Helms
amendment) as its first choice.
AUTUMN SCENE - Two young girls on an autumn stroll through
Samuel Lewis State Park in Pennsylvania find an unexpected treasure -- a
lean-to of branches stacked against a tree - which immediately becomes a
playhouse. (NC Photo)