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DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 56 No. 43
Thursday, December 4,1975
Single Copy Price — 15 Cents
WANTA RENT A KID? - He’d be a little short for
the lawnmower or the kitchen sink but this preschooler
seems to be on the lookout for “renters.*' While his
mother visited Seattle’s St. Vincent de Paul Society the
youngster found a “Rent-A-Kid” sign and stood at the
exit. Asked whether he was available for work he
replied that he had to learn to read first. “Rent-A-Kid”
is a Seattle job-finding organization. (NC Photo by Kay
Lagreid)
Savannah Deanery Assembly Set
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The second Deanery Assembly, a
mid-point for the massive Savannah
Deanery Self-Study, has been scheduled
for Saturday, December 13. Blessed
Sacrament Parish, 1003 East Victory
Drive, will host the Deanery-wide
convocation beginning at 9 a.m.
According to Paul Ramee, chairman
of the sponsoring Self-Study Steering
Committee (SSSC), the session will
focus on parish goals and objectives and
total faith education. Also highlighted
will be the operation and mission,
present and future, of the Deanery
Pastoral Council.
Leading up to this Assembly, Mr.
Ramee noted, have been and continue
to be, open town hall meetings of the
various parishes of the Deanery in which
goals and objectives are being
formulated and the total education
picture is being studied and analyzed.
“On December 13 we will have an
opportunity to compare notes, so to
speak,” Mr. Ramee stated.
The Assembly will culminate several
months of extensive work at both he
regional and parochial levels since the
initial Deanery Assembly, September
20. At that Assembly the course for
individual parish self-studies was charted.
While the Steering Committee,
commissioned over a year ago by Bishop
Raymond Lessard, has administered and
concentrated on a regional approach to
the Self-Study, parish councils
throughout the Deanery have become
involved in a process of parish planning.
Each council has worked through its
own special committees
communications, education and
Deanery. At the same time, school
boards and CCD teachers have been
involved in a review of faith education
and in a consideration of possible future
improvement.
All these workers, along with all
those who have come to the open
meetings to make their contribution to
parish planning, have thus become part
of a “Self-Study cadre,” points out the
Rev. Fred Nijem, executive director of
the SSSC. “As a result,” he said, “our
people are gaining a greater sense of
oneness in the Church as well as a
realization that solutions to perceived
problems rightly should come from he
grassroots rather than being imposed by
any elite or outside body.”
IS MAI IPS
Mass Of Resurrection
For Sr. M. Bernadette
Sister Mary Bernadette, age 95, died
on November 17, at Mt. de Sales
Convent in Macon.
Twelve priests, two of whom were
her nephews, concelebrated the Mass of
the Resurrection for Sister Mary
Bernadette Kennington, R.S.M. on
November 18 at St. Joseph Church.
Sister Mary Bernadette, a native of
Bolingbroke, Ga., was a graduate of Mt.
de Sales Academy in Macon. She
entered the novitiate of the Sisters of
Mercy at Mt. de Sales on August 3,
1902, and made her religious profession
on February 4,1905.
During her earlier years of service as a
Sister of Mercy, Sr. M. Bernadette held
administrative positions in the convents
and parochial schools in Macon and
Columbus and at St. Mary’s Home for
Girls in Savannah. She continued
teaching for many more years in Macon,
and a sizable number of St. Joseph
parishioners attest with gratitude her
influence on their lives.
But Sr. M. Bernadette is best known
and loved for her devotion to the poor
and to the sick. During the days when
the Sisters went out “two by two,” Sr.
M. Bernadette gave many a young Sister
of Mercy her introduction to the
practice of the spiritual and corporal
works of mercy.
She is survived by a sister, Mrs.
Kenneth Shealy of Dothan, Alabama,
and many nieces, nephews, grandnieces,
and grandnephews.
He urged all Catholics interested in the
future of the Church locally to attend
the December 13th Assembly.
As the study approaches the halfway
mark, the Rev. Robert G. Howes,
consultant to the SSSC, views the work
already completed as encouraging, but
the task ahead as a formidable
challenge. “I am encouraged by the
progress to date, but if anything we
need to multiply our prayers and our
efforts as we continue on,” asserted
Father Howes, a member of the
Executive Committee of the National
Pastoral Council and a recognized
authority in the field of pastoral
planning.
Commenting on the upcoming
Deanery Assembly, Father Howes stated
that “Vatican II calls on Catholics to
engage in a ‘common effort to attain
fullness in unity.’ Additionally, Bishop
Lessard seeks from the Self-Study both
a ‘sharing of gifts’ and a ‘new
Pentecost.’ This second Assembly will
certainly further each of these purposes.
“It should loose a new dynamism in
the Spirit as delegates post and compare
results of parish planning to date. It
should give new confidence for the
future, and it should aid greatly in
developing a kind of esprit de corps
from which both necessary change and
progressive continuity in the Church in
Savannah can take healthy root.”
Looking past the December Assembly
and what will lead up to the scheduled
completion of the work of the Steering
Committee in late spring, Mr. Ramee
explained that the SSSC through its
own committees - Deanery, education,
special projects, finance and
communications -- will be reviewing all
work and ideas committed to date.
Alternative solutions to Deanery
problems will be dialogued and
preferences outlined. In time, these
preferred solutions will be expanded
with specifics so that they can be
incorporated in a final Deanery pastoral
plan for presentation to the third
Deanery Assembly in May, 1976.
Meanwhile, parishes will review their
tentative goals and objectives and
present them to the Bishop and the
SSSC for consideration in April. After
that they will be finalized for blessing
by the Bishop at the May Deanery
Assembly.
Fair Income Policy Guidelines
Set By Catholic Charities’ Head
INDIANAPOLIS (NC) - The
president of the National Conference of
Catholic Charities (NCCC) has outlined
guidelines for a “national fair income
policy” to guarantee a minimum income
for every American.
Testifying before a regional hearing
of the White House Domestic Council,
NCCC president Rashey Moten said his
organization “is concerned that we
move toward welfare reform out of a
desire to secure justice for our citizens
and not out of a single-minded desire to
save money.”
“To us,” according to Moten, who is
also director of Catholic Community
and Family Services for the diocese of
Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., “any
welfare reform must be encompassed in
a social policy which will bring us a full
employment economy and which will
meet the fair income needs of all
persons in our society.”
Moten outlined seven basic principles
for a fair income policy:
- A fair income “must be available as
a matter of right. . . with need as the
sole criterion of eligibility.”
- “A fair income must be sufficient
to insure that participants have a decent
and dignified income.” Moten suggested
two possible standards: the Bureau of
^^abof statistics’ Lower Living budget,
$9,198 for a non-farm family of four,
and one half of the median income,
which would equal about $6,000 a year
for a family of four.
- “A fair income must be available to
all individuals and families, including
persons who are employed but do not
receive adequate income.”
“Studies already undertaken,” Moten
said, “indicate that supplemental
income programs do not usually act as a
disincentive to work. They only do so
when benefits are too sharply reduced
as work-related income rises, so that a
small increase in income causes a very
large drop in benefits.”
- “A fair income is one which
provides for the differences and changes
in the cost of living.” All income
transfer programs, Moten said, should
be updated every six months by the
Consumer Price index for that time
period.
“A fair income program must provide
for freedom of participants to manage
their own income and participate in
meeting their personal and employment
needs.”
- A fair income program must be part
of “a broader economic independence
program which would assure
employment programs and auxiliary
services to assist persons to develop
economic independence and personal
initiative.”
“In looking to the future,” Moten
said, “the whole question of how a
person receives money for his livilihood
requires a new approach. New criteria
have to be adopted to estimate the value
of a person and establish new
definitions of just what work is and how
a person makes a contribution to
society. The whole relationship of
human need and income distribution
should be examined.”
In particular, Moten said, current job
availability and future manpower
training programs “must be brought
together to reduce the number of
people in sub-standard jobs which do
not pay an adequate family income and
offer no hope of such pay.”
- “A fair income policy must not
discriminate against persons or families
because of race, ethnic background, sex,
age, marital status or family size.”
CHURCH FIRE -- A charred, broken crucifix stands amid the rubble of
Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine Church in Brooklyn, N.Y., which was
completely destroyed by fire recently. The fire was labeled suspicious, and
fire marshals are searching for four boys said to have been seen fleeing the
building. The shrine was once the site of pilgrimages for the sick. “We
hope to rebuild,” said Father Edward Smith, shrine administrator (NC
Photo by Ed Wilkinson)
HEADLINE Z*’
HOPSCOTCH ,V
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Ordination Study Sought
VATICAN CITY (NC) - The papal commission on women has asked the Vatican for
further theological study of the question of ordaining women, according to the head
of the commission. But Archbishop Enrico Bartoletti conceded that such a study
would not change the practice of ordaining only men. He said what “we can hope for ’
from such a study “is to see why ordination is not being granted.”
4 Death In Rome' Trial
ROME (NC) - The prosecutor in an Italian criminal case against American author
Robert Katz has asked that he be sentenced to 16 months in prison for slandering the
memory of Pope Pius XII. Katz’s book, “Death in Rome,” and a movie made from it,
contend that Pope Pius XII knew of a machine-gun slaughter of 335 Italians by the
Nazis, but failed to try to prevent it because he feared retaliation against Catholics in
Germany or in Nazi-occupied countries or against the city of Rome.
Juan Carlos Lifts Fines
MADRID (NC) - In one of his first decisions as king of Spain, Juan Carlos I lifted
fines against priests for homilies considered subversive under anti-terrorist laws. Some
of the priests were in jail, unable or unwilling to pay. Officials said that the pardon,
issued Nov. 25 to celebrate the installation of Juan Carlos, could be extended to cover
full amnesty for other political prisoners, excluding those held on charges of terrorism.
Ask Right To Prayer
PRISON CHAPLAIN - Bishop
Joseph A. Durick, retired head of
the Nashville See, has started work
as a prison chaplain. (NC Photo)
WASHINGTON (NC) - More than 200 people, including about 50 children, paraded
into the U.S. Supreme Court building here Nov. 24 to present a legal brief asking the
high court to reverse its 1963 ban on prayer in public schools. The demonstrators were
under the leadership of Rita Warren, a long time “right-to-prayer” advocate from
Brocton, Mass.
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