Newspaper Page Text
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PAGE 7—The Southern Cross, October 2,1975
CLEMENC Y \
Board Members
Praise Program
s . >
BY JIM CASTELLI
WASHINGTON (NC) - Two priests
who served on the President’s Clemency
Board have praise for the program, but
continue to support unconditional
amnesty for Vietnam war resisters.
Holy Cross Father Theodore
Hesburgh, president of the University of
Notre Dame, and Msgr. Francis Lally,
secretary for Social Development and
World Peace for the U.S. Catholic
Conference, were two of the 18
members of the board, which ended its
term Sept. 15.
The board dealt with only those who
had been convicted of draft violations
or desertion from the military. The
Justice and Defense Departments dealt
with those facing charges on similar
, offenses.
-ii
The Clemency Board program was
'‘.quite fair, even quite generous,”
Father Hesburgh said. Forty percent of
the 15,500 men applying to it were
granted unconditional pardons; 50
percent were given alternate service
terms, mostly three to six months and
all less than a year; three percent were
•recommended for an upgraded discharge
and six percent were denied clemency.
Msgr. Lally described the program as
a success for those who applied to it,
but a failure because less than one-fifth
of those eligible applied.
Both priests agreed that more people
could have been reached if the eligibility
period had been longer and if more
money had been available for publicity.
The program was announced in
September 1974. The original deadline
- for eligibility was Jan. 31, 1975, but it
was extended for two months.
Father Hesburgh criticized church
groups, particularly the National
Council of Churches, and lawyers
groups, such as the American Civil
^Liberties Union, for “bad-mouthing”
the program.
These groups were strongly critical
because they favored unconditional
amnesty. Veterans groups opposed the
program because they opposed amnesty,
Father Hesburgh said, but in the end
were more cooperative than the church
and legal groups.
Historically, Father Hesburgh said,
the clemency program provided more
people with clemency sooner after the
end of a war than any other American
amnesty in the past. President Truman V
after World War II pardoned only 1,300
of 15,000 people reviewed, Father
Hesburgh said.
Discussing the types of cases which
came before the board, Father Hesburgh
said about half of the civilian
convictions were related to conscience
problems with the war. Among the
military, only about one percent were
related to conscience, he said. The rest
concerned hardship, family problems or
similar issues.
“The only group of people who were
jailed for their convictions were
Jehovah’s Witnesses,” Father Hesburgh
said. According to Msgr. Lally, they
accounted for half of those the board
felt were improperly denied
conscientious objector status.
Twenty-nine percent of those who
should have been granted CO status had
no religious affiliation, he said, and only
21 percent of the total were Catholic,
Protestant or Jewish.
Msgr. Lally cited other statistics
providing a profile of those who applied
to the Clemency Board:
- 84 percent of those in the military
were enlisted men, only 16 percent
draftees.
- 75 percent had been in uniform on
their 20th birthdays.
- 15 percent had a college education,
23 percent a high school education and
62 percent had only a grade school
education.
- 75 percent were white, 21 percent
black and three percent Hispanic.
Both Msgr. Lally and Father
Hesburgh signed a letter to the President
from a majority of the board members
defending the board and its chairman,
former New York Sen. Charles Goodell,
following an attack on Goodell by four
board members.
The “minority” report issued by
retired Marine Gen. Lewis Walt and
three others criticized Goodell for
liberal bias.
Msgr. Lally said he was not surprised
that a minority report was filed because
of differences that had existed on the
board.
But, he said, he was surprised at the
tone of the report. “I had always
believed that Marines, when they lost in
a fair exchange, did not cry. Apparently
some do.”
The minority was particularly critical
of considering for amnesty those with
unrelated felony convictions. Some
board members argued that it would
embarrass the president to sign a pardon
for such people.
“My reaction,” Msgr. Lally said,
“was that after the pardon he had
already granted, it would seem
impossible to embarrass the President.”
Both Msgr. Lally and Father
Hesburgh said the President gave the
board no indication that he planned to
reopen the program or do anything else
about amnesty in the future.
Respect Life Program
(Continued from page 1)
the support and encouragement of other
family members. In the family unit each
individual -- male and female, old and
young, gifted and less advantaged -- is
accepted and loved because he or she
belongs to the family.
There are many today who reject the
family as useless or outmoded, but we
believe that the family remains the basic
social unit. The family can and will
adapt to the unsettling winds of change,
and will provide a base of stability and
support for its members.
The Respect Life program has singled
out some of the special dangers facing
families that maintain a strong religious
commitment and a pride in their ethnic
roots. We support these families in their
efforts to affirm and transmit their faith
and religious values.
On Sunday, Oct. 5, the program
focuses on unborn human life. In a
society that is increasingly callous in its
disrespect for the lives of those who are
defenseless and silent, we affirm again
the value and dignity of unborn human
beings. Abortion is the-wrong solution
to the problems that some women face.
And permissive abortion is a
contradiction of our nation’s
commitment to insure “life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness” to all human
beings.
By focusing on marriage and family
life in the 1975 Respect Life program,
we pay special attention to some of the
problems that disturb families. We
deeply appreciate the efforts of other
church agencies to promote greater
respect for human rights. The bishops’
bicentennial program has generated a
widespread discussion of human rights,
and the Campaign for Human
Development continues to respond to
particular needs of the poor and
disadvantaged. The Pro-Life Committee
is confident that the Respect Life
program will benefit from these efforts,
and will be a part of the Church’s
overall commitment to establish a
moral and social order that respects
human dignity and human rights.
Columbus Day Field Mass
I '■■■-•'■ •
Savannah’s Holy Family Council No. 5588, Knights of Columbus will hold its
annual Columbus Day Field Mass on the Council grounds on Saturday, October 11 at
5 p.m. All knights and their families are urged to attend.
Miss Mell Commended Student
#
Carol Patrice Mell, a senior at Savannah’s St. Vincent’s Academy, has been named a
; Commended Student in the Merit Program by the National Merit Scholarship
; Corporation. Patrice is among the 35,000 Commended Students named nationwide on
the basis of their high performance on the 1974 Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude
Test/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Commended Students represent less
than 2% of those who are expected to graduate from high school in 1976. Patrice is
the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Mell, III.
FIRST DEANERY ASSEMBLY -- Pictured are the approximately two
hundred persons who attended the first Deanery Assembly at the Church
of the Most Blessed Sacrament on Saturday, September 20. Bishop
Raymond W. Lessard is shown addressing the Assembly along with Mr.
Paul Ramee, Savannah Self-Study Steering Committee Chairman, and
Father Robert Howes, consultant to the Savannah Self-Study Project. This
Deanery Assembly is the first one of three that will mark a year of
evaluation and planning in the Savannah Deanery.
NBC’s Medical Story Stumbles Into Abortion Question
C
Last week’s (Thursday, September
25th) broadcast of MEDICAL STORY
was another plug for those who
advocate abortion-on-demand. Unlike
the celebrated MAUDE episode of two
seasons ago, this one was couched as a
melodrama presenting a short cut
version of both sides of the
controversial issue. As such, it will be
even more offensive for some than
Maude’s arguments for deciding on a
convenience abortion.
The plot revolves around a woman
who after five children wants to abort
the sixth. When she is refused as a
matter of principle by the doctor (Vince
Edwards), she tries to abort herself with
a pair of scissors, perforating the uterus
and almost dies. Edwards saves her but
takes no action to save the 24-week-old
fetus. A right-to-life group thereupon
has him arrested and the program
punchline as he is led off is that it is The
People vs. Neal (Edwards) that will'
decide the issue.
The script by Larry Brody does try to
present various points of view,
principally the medical and legal
aspects. The moral problem that is at
the core of aborting a fetus is less fairly
presented. The best that can be said
here is that the drama at least presents
the issue as one that really matters and
one that involves principles and human
suffering of those who are faced with
this question.
With that said, however, one must
conclude,that this episode of MEDICAL
STORY fails to use this material as
anything more than an exercise in
topicality. Simply because the issues are
so important, one might have expected
a little deeper treatment than the rather
bland handling here. The various
arguments about when the fetus
becomes a human being are reduced to
simply a doctor’s gut feelings about it.
The hero (Edwards) will perform an
abortion at 12 weeks but not 24
because he feels that is a good place to
draw the line.
But it is not just lack of depth or
sensitivity to the question, that many
viewers will find objectionable. It is the
way in which the story is presented. Our
sympathies are manipulated in favor of
those who favor abortion since the
conscience-wracked physician who
TV Movies
USCC DIVISION FOR FILM AND BROADCASTING
A
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5 - 9:00 p.m.
(ABC) - THE LAUGHING
POLICEMAN (1973) - begins with a
brutal mass murder on a San Francisco
bus that quite accurately sets the tone
for producer-director Stuart
Rosenberg’s new detective thriller.
Loosely based on a Swedish novel by
Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall,
POLICEMAN concerns detective Walter
Matthau’s search for the machine gun
murderer and the reason for the
presence of Matthau’s partner on the
bus at the time of the killings. (B)
MONDAY, OCTOBER 6-9:00 p.m.
(NBC) - CHARRO! (1969) - This Elvis
Presley Western about a gang of outlaws
(led by Victor French) who smuggle a
golden cannon out of Mexico and elude
the “Federales” by casting suspicion on
our hero, is, if possible, a little more
mindless than what the patient viewer
has come to expect. (A-III)
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9-9:00
p.m. (CBS) - PAT GARRETT AND
BILLY THE KID (1973) - Were it not
for the finely etched performance of
James Cobum as Garrett, and the
slightly hazy but very appealing turn by
Kris Kristofferson as a paunchy Billy,
plus the uniformly excellent work of
such veteran character actors as Slim
Pickens, Matt Clark, R.G. Armstrong,
Jack Elam, Chill Wills and Luke Askew,
Sam Peckinpah’s return to the autumnal
West would be a total failure (B)
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10 - 9:00 p.m.
(ABC) - SWEET HOSTAGE - Made for
television. You’ve heard the old story
line: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy
gets girl? Well, here’s a novel and
slightly sick twist. The line for
HOSTAGE runs, boy meets girl, boy
kidnaps girl, boy gets girl. Martin Sheen
is the abductor with the heart of gold,
and Linda Blair is the abductee who
makes it throb. He’s weird, though, so
watch out for him. But you don’t have
to watch the film in order to know
that. . .
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11 -9:00
p.m. (NBC) - SHAMUS (1973) - Even
trimmed for TV, this rousing detective
thriller will present a seamy picture of
the life and hard times of a
down-at-the-heels private eye. Burt
Reynolds is the shamus, or gumshoe,
and he gives a hard-boiled and sly
performance that gives the otherwise
routine story a touch of class. (A-III)
1
Reject Rumors Pope Is Waning
VATICAN CITY (NC) - Pope Paul’s
78th birthday has been marked by the
usual flurry of rumors about his health
and by explicit denials from
authoritative Vatican sources.
“We can reassure everybody that the
Pope is well,” stated the Vatican City
daily L’Osservatore Romano.
“THE POPE IS WELL” ~ Pope
Paul VI is not only well, despite
rumors to the contrary, but also is
being invigorated by the Holy
Year, said ’’Osservatore Romano,
Vatican City daily. The newspaper
was responding to assertions in
Tempo magazine that the pope is
being killed by the heavy schedule
of Holy Year events. (NC Photo)
The newspaper, noting a
sensationalistic cover-story alleging that
the strenuous pace of Holy Year is
“killing Pope Paul,” called the story in
Tempo magazine “a child’s firecracker”
and anything but a journalistic scoop.
The Italian magazine had put out the
cover-story in its issue dated Sept. 26,
the Pope’s birthday.
“The Holy Year, even though it
makes tough demands on a man who is
already old, is not only not killing him
but, we think, is invigorating him,” the
Vatican newspaper observed.
The success of Holy Year is what is
invigorating the Pope, L’Osservatore
Romano continued. This success “has
gone far beyond the most optimistic
hopes,” it asserted.
Tempo’s cover depicted a chagrined
Pope and bore the legend: “The Holy
Year is killing him - alarm in the
Vatican over the Pope’s health.”
The Vatican newspaper countered:
“We have not heard these worried
rumors. But sometimes those at a
distance know more about such things
than those on the inside.
“For this reason we hastened to make
a quick check at high levels. The result
was that not only is the rumor
unfounded, but also it is not even
making the rounds.”
/
For proof of the Pope’s health, the
paper continued, “One need only look
at him.” The Pope participated in the
canonization of Mother Elizabeth Seton
Sept. 14 “without tiring, with strong
voice and with vibrant spirit.”
On Wednesday, Sept. 17, it
continued, the Pope presided vigorously
at a general audience in St. Peter’s
Square where the temperature was 95
degrees Fahrenheit in the shade.
Beytagh Construction Co.
RESIDENTIAL
REMODELING
LIGHT COMMERCIAL
1537 Montgomery Crossroad
EL 4-3556 — Savannah, Ga.
made the decision not to save the
6-month-old fetus is a “good guy.” The
pediatrician who felt he was wrong for
not trying to save the fetus is also a nice
person but somewhat emotional and
trying to force her views on people.
Lastly, the right-to-life group really
gets the business as the heavies in the
piece. Dane Clark is suave but nasty as
he tries to threaten the hospital
administration. The protestors get some
good lines about the growing
indifference to life, but they are
presented as wild-eyed fanatics in the
equation of abortion with murder. One
has to question whether this kind of
depiction is thought of as being fair to
the dramatic balance of the question, let
alone representative of the opponents of
abortion.
This program is not the end of the
world and shouldn’t be blown out of
proportion. It is, however, another
example of how easy it is for
commercial television to take the easy
road of dealing with hokum instead of
the difficult task of being an instrument
of enlightenment. The program had the
potential of helping American ,-ociety
understand one of the central issues of
our time and the reasons for honest
disagreement. Instead of a rational
presentation of the issues that cause so
much emotion, we got some emotional
melodrama that will only add heat to
the misunderstandings of what is
involved.
Amos^
Seafpock,
Inc.
The FRESHEST seafood
caught daily by our own fleet
processed & sold at our dock
Fresh Shrimp In Shell
Fresh or Frozen Shrimp
Peeled and Deveined
2 and 5 1b. Packages
Fresh Fish
Whiting - Flounder - Trout
Live Crabs
Inspected by Georgia
Department of Agriculture
Ambos Seafoods on the Docks
River Drive
Thunderbolt, Georgia
Monday through Saturday
9 to 5:30
Phone: 912/354-5222
Natural Family Planning Seminar
"A Natural Family Planning Seminar on the Billings Ovulation
Method will be held in Savannah the weekend of October 18-19, 1975, at
the Holiday Inn at 1-95 and Rt. 204. For motel accommodations, contact
the Holiday Inn direct. To register for the Seminar, which is open to
everyone, return the registration form as soon as possible."
(REGISTRATION FORM)
REGISTRATION FEE: $10.00 individual
$15.00 husband/wife couple
MAIL TO: Mrs. John J. Burns
308 Oxford Drive
Savannah, GA 31405
I wish to register for the Natural Family Planning Workshop, Oct. 18-19:
NAME ' •
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ORGANIZATION (IF ANY) REPRESENTED
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