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HEW Considering Funding Abortions As Family Planning
BY JIM CASTELLI
WASHINGTON (NC) - The Department of Health, Education and Welfare is
considering allowing states the option of funding abortions through Medicaid as a
means of family planning.
The proposal would reverse earlier proposed regulations which specifically excluded
abortion from family planning coverage. The federal government reimburses states
for family planning services to those eligible for Medicaid at a rate of 90 percent of
costs.
The original HEW regulations, issued in December, 1974, allowed states to be
reimbursed for abortions performed on Medicaid patients at the rate for medical
services, between 50 and 78 percent, varying from state to state.
The 1974 regulations were seen as an attempted compromise between strong
congressional prohibitions against the use of federal family planning and research
funds to promote abortion as a method of family planning and several court rulings
that Medicaid must pay for abortions as long as it continued to pay for maternity care
and childbirth.
HEW officials acknowledge that abortions are now being funded at the 90 percent,
family planning rate. Individual services are not itemized, they say, so that the total
amount billed by a state for either medical services or family planning will not reflect
just how abortions are funded.
HEW has estimated that Medicaid pays for about a quarter of a million abortions a
year.
HEW is also considering guidelines which would allow federal medical facilities to
disregard state abortion laws which are more restrictive than the guidelines laid down
by the Supreme Court in its January, 1973, abortion decisions. The Court basically
ruled against state restriction of abortions in the first six months of pregnancy.
The HEW proposal comes shortly after the Defense Department issued guidelines
allowing military hospitals to disregard restrictive state abortion laws.
A department spokesman said HEW Secretary David Matthews has not yet seen the
abortion regulation proposals.
Msgr. James McHugh, director of the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Pro-Life
Activities, called the proposed Medicaid regulations “a calculated effort to override
congressional intent” that abortion not be considered a means of family planning.
Msgr. McHugh said the proposals advocated states’ rights in allowing states the
option to have abortions reimbursed as family planning at the same time they
disregarded states’ rights concerning abortions performed on federal installations.
He also criticized the proposals as an effort to increase the number of abortions
performed in the United States and to increase the number paid for by the federal
government.
The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 56 No. 37
Thursday, October 23,1975
Single Copy Price — 15 Cents
250 Delegates Meet At Vatican
For Laity Council Consultation
MORTGAGE BURNING -- Bishop Raymond W. reduction program. As an expression of gratitude the
Lessard bums mortgage at banquet held by St. Teresa’s parish presented a check in the amount of $1,000.00
Church, Albany, on October 14. Looking on are Bill to the bishop to provide food for the poor. At the
Burgess and Fernando Colon. The parish was Banquet Fernando Colon, longtime parish treasurer,
celebrating its freedom from debt. St. Teresa’s recently was honored. (Additional photos on page 3.)
made the final payment in its “Giant Step” debt
SAYS LITURGY NOT CAUSE
Sociologist Reports On Attendance Drop
BOSTON (NC) - Changing Catholic
attitudes toward birth control, divorce
and papal authority -- not liturgical
changes - account for severe declines in
Catholic Mass attendance over the past
decade, a leading sociologist said here.
Dr.' William C. McCready of the
National Opinion Research Center
(NORC) in Chicago was reporting to a
convention of the Federation of
Diocesan Liturgical Commissions
(FDLC) on conclusions drawn from a
recent NORC study of changing
Catholic attitudes and practices.
He told the liturgical specialists
gathered here that, while Mass
attendance by Catholics in the United
States dropped more than 30 percent
from 1963 to 1974, almost none of the
decline could be attributed to the
liturgical changes that have taken place.
Analysis of the research data, he said,
showed no correlation, or only
insignificant correlations, between
declines in churchgoing and attitudes
toward a number of important changes
in liturgical and devotional practices:
Mass in English, guitar music at Mass,
the handshake of peace, distribution of
Communion by laypersons, or the
reduction of paraliturgical events such
as novenas.
On the other hand, McCready said, an
analysis of the data revealed some
significant correlations in other areas.
“About half of the decline in Mass
attendance can be accounted for by the
changing attitude toward birth control,”
he reported.
“About a quarter of the decrease in
churchgoing is accounted for by
attitudes toward divorce and another
quarter toward the Pope as head of the
Church.”
McCready’s full report, 40 pages long,
had been commissioned by the FDLC as
a followup to determine some of the
causes behind the Mass attendance
decline which NORC surveys had
revealed. He submitted the report in
writing and also spoke to the group,
summarizing and explaining the report.
He noted that in the decade between
(Continued on page 7)
VATICAN CITY (NC) - Bishops,
priests, Religious and laity met here in
an eight-day world consultation (Oct.
7-15) to review and project lay
participation in the life of the Church.
Suggestions and recommendations
from the some 250 delegates to the
consultation will be evaluated by the
Vatican’s Council for the Laity here
during the week of Oct. 20-26 before
being sent to Pope Paul VI for his
decisions.
Bishop Lucas Moreira Neves, vice
president of the laity council, told a
press conference Oct. 16 that the
consultation had been called for a
three-fold purpose: so that the Laity
Council could “take its bearings” 10
years after the Second Vatican Council,
to give a new stimulus to the council’s
renewal movement, and to intensify the
holy year’s stimulus for reconciliation.
During the eight-day meeting
questions were raised on the possibility
of ordaining women to the priesthood
in the Catholic Church.
“A possible future ordination of
women is always raised at such
meetings,” said Bishop Moreira Neves.
“It is a perennial and came from
Africa, Europe, the Americas and
elsewhere. But this question was not
within the competence of the council.”
A delegate confirmed to NC News
Service that ordination of women was
widely advocated by delegates of every
ethnic group and geographical area.
Africans, especially, were vocal in
calling for women priests.”
“But over and above the cry for the
priestly ordination of women was a call
for a ‘formal lay ministry’ in which lay
people would be invested in certain
functions within the Church,” he noted.
These functions, said this informant,
would be in addition to the present lay
functions of acolyte and lector. He said
requests were made for creation of the
ministries of musician and catechist --
both to be formal ordination-type
ministries.
“It would also be open to the local
episcopal conferences to inaugurate
other lay ministries which they might
consider appropriate for the area,” he
said.
At the press conference, Bishop
Moreira Neves noted: “How to deal
with Marxist tendencies is a question
that arises daily from those in areas
affected. The Church tries to approach
this with its clear teaching on universal
justice, equality and humanity one
towards the other.”
A Congress delegate said that Latin
American delegates tried repeatedly to
get the congress to urge the Church to
intervene on political levels. This was
rejected by the majority of members.
“There was a very strong Latin
American tendency to say that the
Church had missed out on the great
socio-economic movements and that the
Church should intervene politically,”
this delegate reported.
“However, an Irish delegate insisted
on the theme of ‘render unto
Caesar . . .’ and this was generally agreed
upon, meaning that the Church had no
business mixing in politics,” he said.
This source stated that a “Third
World liberation theology was
mentioned by a number of Latin
Americans, some of whom were even
militant, but was not supported by the
Africans.
“The tenor of the African
representatives was: teach U!> how t,o
pray, how to educate, how to
understand the issues at stake and our
simple family-life - which is the greatest
apostolate in Africa.”
Mass Obligation Explanation
Attendance at Mass on Saturday evening in order to fulfill the Sunday Mass
obligation does not at the same time fulfill the obligation to attend Mass on a
feast day of obligation that happens to fall on that Saturday.
This decision was arrived at by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy in
1970 and was approved by Pope Paul VI.
It means that Catholics cannot fulfill the double obligation of attending
Mass on Ail Saints Day (a Saturday this year) and Sunday by attending one
Mass on Saturday evening.
All Saints’ Day is Nov. 1.
A
HEADLINE
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HOPSCOTCH
, .... -J
Sister Lucia In Portugal
LISBON, Portugal (NC) - Reports first started at Fatima that Sister Lucia dos
Santos, the only survivor of the three children who described the apparitions of Qir
Lady there in 1917, was transferred from her convent in politically-troubled Portugal
to Spain are not true. Sources at her Carmelite convent in Coimbra, some 40 miles
north of Fatima, said Sister Lucia, now 68, has never left Portugal.
German ‘‘Church Tax’
BONN, West Germany (NC) -- A survey recently conducted by Catholic authorities
in Frankfurt reveal that the majority of those who leave the Church do so because of
the high church taxes here. West Germans registered with a particular denomination
face a “church tax” amounting to 10 percent of their personal income tax. Of those
questioned, half named the high tax rate as the primary reason for leaving the Church,
while a fourth voiced personal objections to church policy and a fourth said they
simply lacked faith.
Ask Aid For New York
LEVITTOWN, N.Y. (NC) - Members of the Holy Name Societies of New York have
been urged by their regional vice president to petition the President and Congress to
grant federal aid to ease New York City’s fiscal crisis. “Failure on the part of the
President to provide these funds may result in foreclosure of homes, business
bankruptcies, and cause many big corporations and the financial district to move to
other states, leaving behind many residents unemployed and making New York a ghost
city,” said John P. Kilbride, national association vice president of the New York State
Holy Name Societies.
Unrest In Philippines
MANILA, The Philippines (NC) - The underground Civil Liberties Union (CLU) has
described the majority of Catholic bishops in this country as subservient to the martial
law regime of President Ferdinand E. Marcos. The censure of the bishops by the CLU
is a 100-page pamphlet assessing three years of martial law in the Philippines was
clandestinely distributed Oct. 1 and has since enjoyed the status of a best-seller. The
CLU, which went underground when martial law was imposed by Marcos on Sept. 21,
1972, also claimed the conservatism of the bishops was hurting the credibility of the
Church’s efforts to get martial law lifted. However, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference
of the Philippines is on record as having demanded that President Marcos end martial
law and restore democratic processes in the country 7 .
Commission Criticized
MILWAUKEE, Wis. (NC) - The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights has
criticized the U.S. Civil Rights Commission for holding that a fetus is not legally a
person and therefore not protected by the 14th Amendment. A report by the Civil
Rights Commission in April opposed passage of any constitutional amendment
“designed to deny the right to terminate a pregnancy” and said such an amendment
“would infringe upon the fundamental liberty to limit child-bearing without the due
process required by the Fourteenth Amendment.” The report said the unborn, at least
until viability, are not persons in the constitutional sense, whereas women are. The
League contended that the state did not have to establish the existence of a person to
justify legal restraint on any activity. “Dogs, cats and baldheaded eagles are not
persons nor do they have constitutional rights, yet that does not mean that the state
cannot forbid their slaughter,” the League said.