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The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 56 No. 36 Thursday, October 16,1975 Single Copy Price - 15 Cents
Confraternity Of Laity Drive
This Sunday, October 19, is Confraternity of the Laity
Sunday in the Diocese of Savannah.
The annual campaign for funds will be conducted on a
door-to-door basis on that date. Parishioners of the various
parishes are requested to remain at home from 1 p.m. until
5 p.m. so that the workers will not have to make call-backs
the following Sunday.
Each wage-earner is requested to contribute at least
$30.00. Those especially blessed by God are expected to,
and must, give more if the drive is to reach its goal of
$150,000.00
Bishop Raymond W. Lessard, Bishop of Savannah, says
that this diocesan-wide effort offers the opportunity to all
of us to participate in supporting the programs of the
Church in south and central Georgia.
In a Special Confraternity Letter the bishop wrote:
“As we launch this year’s Confraternity of the Laity
Drive, I want to express a word of admiration and gratitude
for the generosity which our people have shown in the past.
I am certain that you will respond in the same generous
way again this year.”
‘Real Weapons Of Peace’
4
RELIEF FOR HAITIAN DROUGHT - A boy
whose hair is tinged orange from the effects of
kwashiorkora (a severe form of malnutrition) eats a
high protein blend of corn, soy and milk covered with
red bean gravy at a U.S. Agency for International
Development feeding station in Boucan Patriot, Haiti.
AIICI1STA.OCT. 31 THRU NOV. 1
He is one of 300,000 persons affected by a drought
that began nearly a year ago. Catholic Relief Services is
one of several private agencies which has joined the
U.S. government in sending food and emergency aid.
(NC Photo by John Metelsky, A.I.D.)
Charismatic Renewal
The 4th Annual Southeastern
Regional Conference on the Charismatic
Renewal in the Catholic Church will be
held at Bell Auditorium in Augusta,
October 31st thru November 2nd. Some
2,500 to 3,000 persons from a ten-state
area in the Southeast are expected.
The Conference will open on Friday
evening, October 31 at 7:30 p.m. with a
Prayer Meeting. Bishop Raymond
Lessard, of Savannah, will be principal
celebrant and main speaker at the Mass
to be held Saturday, November 1st at
8:00 p.m.
Conference
A special “Clergy Conference,” to be
led by Rev. George T. Montague, S.M.,
general editor of THE CATHOLIC
BIBLICAL QUARTERLY, will be held
beginning at 9:30 a.m., Friday, October
31 at Faith Village in Augusta. The
opening of the General Conference is
scheduled for Friday evening at 7:30
p.m. at Bell Auditorium.
Conference speakers .include Bishop
Raymond Lessard, Kevin Ranaghan,
Derek Prince, George T. Montague,
S.M., John M. Poole, Joel Kibler, Kerry
and Barbara Kohler and members of the
Alleluia community.
A number of workshops and seminars
will be held during the Conference.
Topics to be discussed include: Healing,
Prayer, The Christian Family, Children,
The Role of Women, Clergy and
Religious, Music, Prayer Groups,
Community and Leadership.
This year’s Conference will add
several special programs including a
Workshop on Christian Community.
Also included in the Conference will be
the showing of various films produced
by the major Canadian and U.S.
Television networks on the Charismatic
Renewal and a film covering the Rome
gathering in June of this year attended
by 10,000 Catholic Charismatics from
over 62 nations.
Details on registration and descriptive
brochures may be obtained by writing
Charismatic Renewal Conference, 2304
Norton Court, Augusta, Georgia 30906
or calling (404) 798-1882.
VATICAN CITY (NC) ~ “The Real
Weapons of Peace” has been chosen by
Pope Paul VI as the theme for World
Day of Peace observances next New
Year’s Day.
Announcing the Pope’s theme for this
eighth World Day of Peace, Vatican
spokesman Federico Alessandrini said
the Pope would draw attention to the
10 years that have elapsed since the
speech he gave before the United
Nations in New York on Oct. 4, 1965,
by urging all chiefs of state, religious
‘Noodle Priest’
Monsignor John Romaniello, M.M.,
who is known as “The Noodle Priest,”
will address the monthly meeting of the
Savannah Association of Priests.
The meeting is scheduled for Sacred
Heart Rectory on Tuesday, October 21
at 9:30 a.m.
Monsignor Romaniello is presently on
a speaking tour through the United
States, making clergy and lay groups
more aware of the extensive work
carried on by Catholic Relief Services,
the official aid and development agency
of the United States Catholic
Conference.
Monsignor Romaniello joined
Catholic Relief Services in 1957 and for
18 years served as Program Director for
this organization in Hong Kong. During
this time he ministered to the needs
of hundreds of thousands of refugees
who fled across the Chinese border into
Hong Kong.
Monsignor conceived the idea of
making noodles from the flour donated
by the U.S. Government which were
distributed to the refugees. He had 17
stations in operation. As a result of this
successful undertaking, Monsignor
Romaniello gained the title, “The
Noodle Priest.”
For 23 years prior to joining CRS,
Msgr. Romaniello served as a
Maryknoller in China. In 1938, he was
appointed Prefect Apostolic of the
Kwangsi Prefecture. During World War
II he had over 5,000 refugees under his
care in the city of Kwelin until it fell to
the Japanese in 1942.
He then served as civilian chaplain
with the United States 14th Air Force
for the remainder of the war. In 1945,
he returned to Kwelin to help the local
people reconstruct their devastated
homes and reestablish small businesses.
However, he was eventually expelled
i
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authorities, Christians and men of good
will to implement peace in his Day of
Peace message.
“Peace is gaining ground but so is
violence,” said Alessandrini. But he
maintained that peace would prevail.
However, he cautioned: “As is every
other struggle by mankind against
sickness, misery, injustice, sin so the
battle for peace can be won only with
special weapons.”
To Address
from China after being held under
“house arrest” for two years.
Catholic Relief Services was
organized in 1943 to serve the needy
and underprivileged peoples of foreign
lands, without regard to race, creed or
color. Since that time, CRS has become
the largest voluntary agency of its kind
in the world, now maintaining branch
offices in 68 countries. Last year alone,
CRS’ world wide programs reached an
estimated 10 million impoverished
people around the globe.
100 ATTEND
Alessandrini said the Pope’s message
would point to such weapons for peace.
“Let us not use wrong weapons such
as atomic terror, passive acceptance of
injustice, cowardice, violence and, above
all, the arms race,” he said.
Alessandrini said the Pope’s appeal
would emphasize the “moral strength of
law, respect for agreements, the
effective application of recent charters
for the rights of man and the rights of
peoples.”
Msgr. Romaniello
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, Statement Response
WASHINGTON (NC) - Responses of various Catholic women’s groups to the
reaffirmation of the Church’s ban on women priests by the head of the U.S. bishops’
conference range from acceptance of his statement as one voice in debate on the issue
to outright rejection of it. Sister Dorothy Donnelley, president of the National
Coalition of American Nuns, called the statement by Archbishop Joseph L. Bernardin
of Cincinnati, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB),
“nothing but a canonization of history.” She added: “If the Holy Spirit seems to be
calling and giving gifts for ordination of women, what reason do we have to restrict the
action of the Holy Spirit?”
‘Don’t Forget Elderly’
NEWARK, N.J. (NC) - A priest reminded President Ford at a Republican
fund-raising dinner here not to forget the elderly poor. The priest was Msgr. John P.
Hourihan, pastor of St. John’s Church, the oldest church in the state. Located in a
crumbling area on the outskirts of the business district, the parish now serves
t commuters and transients. Msgr. Hourihan was asked to give the invocation at the
dinner at the Robert Treat Hotel, a block away from the rectory. In asking the
President not to forget the elderly poor, he said, he was acting on a promise made to
an aged woman he met that afternoon.
Religious Sisters
Prayer Weekend
Approximately one hundred religious Sisters representing fifteen of the nineteen
orders serving in the Diocese of Savannah and two Episcopalian Sisters participated in
a prayer weekend, October 10-12 at St. John’s Center, Savannah. Bishop Raymond W.
Lessard was the principal speaker and celebrant at the exercises which began Friday
evening and concluded with a Sunday morning liturgy.
The weekend, which was sponsored by the Senate of Religious of the Dioceses, had
as its theme, “Religious in Ministry -- Prayerful, Powerful, Positive.” Bishop Lessard
developed the theme in several conferences speaking of “Prayer, the Dialogue of
Faith” and “Power, the Exercise of Hope.”
Friday evening the Sisters gathered for Vespers and a social get-together. Other
experiences shared over the weekend included a reconciliation service, shared prayer,
tapes, and discussions on women in ministry. On Saturday evening a special liturgy in
honor of Our Lady was held.
The prayer weekend was the first of a series to be sponsored by the Senate of
Religious in its effort to offer opportunities for spiritual renewal and growth, to
strengthen the lines of communication and to increase the feeling of solidarity among
the religious of the Diocese.
Sister Mercedes Sullivan, R.S.M., president of Senate, indicated that tentative plans
are in the making to engage Father Edward Farrell, a noted author on prayer and the
spiritual life, for a fall meeting.
PRAYER WEEKEND - Sister Benedicta, of the Episcopal Convent of
St. Helena, Augusta, and Sister Mary Gerald Wells, Vicar for Religious of
the Diocese of Savannah, present gifts to Bishop Raymond W. Lessard
during Liturgy at Prayer Weekend for Religious Sisters. (Additional
photos on page 3.)
Priests Of Savannah Area