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DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 57 No. 1 Thursday, January 1,1976 Single Copy Price 15 Cents
“CIVILIZATION OF LOVE WILL PREVAIL”
ope Closes Holy Year With A Bold Forecast
CLOSING THE DOOR - The Holy Year of 1975
comes to its conclusion as Pope Paul VI closes the
bronze door to St. Peter’s Basilica symbolic of the
jubilee year. The door will be sealed with bricks until
BELMONT ABBEY CEREMONY
the next Holy Year. Behind the Pope stands Msgr.
Virgilio Noe, master of pontifical ceremonies. (NC
Photos)
Abbot Jude Receives Blessing
BELMONT, N.C. - Abbot Jude G.
Cleary, O.S.B., fifth Abbot of Belmont
Abbey Nullius, received the Abbatial
Blessing in the Abbey Cathedral on
Friday, December 19. The liturgical rite
of blessing was conferred by Archbishop
Donnellan in the presence of the
Apostolic Delegate in the United States,
the Most Reverend Jean Jadot. The
ceremony was attended by Abbot
Martin Bume, President of the
American-Cessinese Federation of the
Order of St. Benedict, who delivered the
homily.
The service began with a reading of
the papal mandate by The Very
Reverend Peter Stragand, O.S.B. Seated
before Archbishop Donnellan, Abbot
Jude responded to a series of questions
about his responsibility to the monastic
community and to the Church.
Following the litany and prayer rite by
the archbishop, he received the miter
and ring, the seal of fidelity, and a
golden staff, the symbol of office as
shepherd.
Archbishop Jean Jadot, representing
Pope Paul, read in part: “Today, the
Holy Father wishes to acknowledge the
service, past and present, of the
Benedictine Monks to the Church and
all the people of the South ... He
realizes how well Belmont Abbey,
adapting itself to the post-conciliar age
under the leadership of Abbot Walter
Coggin and Abbot Edmund McCaffrey,
has confined its Benedictine Apostolate
of prayer and service in response to the
signs of the times.”
Abbot Jude officiated as Principal
Celebrant of the Mass. Escorted by the
Rev. James Solari and the Rev.
Sebastian Doris, he moved through the
Church and blessed the assembled
guests. The Mass concluded with his
pontificial blessing from the Cathedra.
Savannahians and others who
attended Abbot Jude Cleary’s Blessing
Ceremony: Bishop Raymond W.
Lessard, Father Ralph E. Seikel, Father
Aelred Beck, Father Terence Keman,
Sister Mary Comile, Sister Mary
Graciana and Father Andrew Doris.
Abbot’s Brothers and their families:
Mr. & Mrs. Bernard T. Cleary and
children, Gregg and Elaine; Mr. & Mrs.
William O. Cleary and daughters,
Chanelle and Lynette.
Cousins: Mrs. William A. Muller, Mrs.
Mary Ann Muller Avila, Miss Julia
Muller, Miss Teresa Muller, Mr. & Mrs.
William C. Broderick, Sister Mary Daria,
Mrs. Joseph E. Russell, Mr. Charles
Fischer.
Friends: Mr. & Mrs. Dallas L.
McClellan and Karl A. Holman. Cousins
from outside of Savannah: Mr. and Mrs.
Charles J. Broderick, Miss Bonnie
Broderick, and Miss Gearin Broderick of
Charleston, S.C.; Mrs. Elizabeth Cleary
Ray of Atlanta; Robert G. Reynolds of
Jonesboro; and Captain Charles Chauss
of Fort Benning, Ga.
»
Former Savannahians who attended:
Sister Camille Collini and Miss Eleanor
Collini of Statesboro.
Sister M. Julian Griffin
Named To Advisory Council
Sister Mary Julian Griffin, V.S.C., Diocesan Vicar for Social Affairs, has
been chosen for membership on the U.S. Bishops’ Advisory Council.
I ■
The appointment will make her one of sixty widely representative persons
from around the country who serve on the Council and through its
deliberations give advice and recommendations to' the National Conference of
Catholic Bishops’ Administrative Committee and the United States Catholic
Conference Administrative Board.
In his letter notifying Sister Julian of her nomination, Bishop James
Rausch, General Secretary of the NCCB/USCC, described the three-year term
of service as “an exciting opportunity to be intimately involved in a relatively
new body for sharing of the decision-making process of the Church.”
It is believed that Sister Julian will be the first person from the Diocese of
Savannah to be invited to serve on the Advisory Council. Membership will
involve basically two weekend meetings a year, one in February and one in
September.
ABBOT JUDE CLEARY,
O.S.B., kneels before Archbishop
Thomas Donnellan for the prayer
rite during the ceremony of
Abbatial Blessing.
VATICAN CITY (NC) - When the
small, frail, 78-year-old Pope Paul VI
pulled shut huge bronze doors to end
the Holy Year, 150,000 people braved
sub-freezing weather in St. Peter’s
Square to hear him predict in a strong
and vigorous voice, “The civilization of
love will prevail. ..”
Some 330 million television viewers
in 41 countries watched the Pope utter
those brave words on Christmas Eve,
and a mass beyond reckoning heard
them on the radio.
The Pope had earned the right to
prophesy so boldly: “The civilization of
love will prevail over the anxiety of
implacable social struggles, and it will
give the world the longed-for
transfiguration of humanity, that, at
last, is Christian.”
This Holy Year, which ended up
attracting 8 million pilgrims, had not
been an instant success and seemed to
justify the doomsayers who criticized it.
During the first three months, a paltry 1
million pilgrims trickled into
Rome.Once the Pope asked, “I wonder
if they will come?”
Then the flood-gates opened. More
than 7 million came in the following
nine months. They came from all over
the world. They spoke every language
Known on earth. They came by every
means known to man. On the day the
1 >pe canonized Mother Seton, two
r ?rims dropped from the skies by
’ parachute.
Even at the end, he spoke of courage
and of joy, and not just in words. In
the enclosed space of the pavallion of
St. Peter’s Basilica, he got up from his
chair, two hovering monsignors nearby
to aid him with his painfully arthritic
knee. He waved them aside and pulled
shut the two gigantic bronze holy-
portals, while his breath made clouds in
the cold air.
The doors were twice the height of
“II Nostro Paulino” (“Our Little Paul”),
as the Romans call him familiarly. But
he-pulled them closed by himself, with
determination. The next day they wen
bricked up, to be opened at the next
Holy Year in 2000 A.D. (
Then, after a prayer for unity and
peace in the Church, he stood and
waited while 20 cardinals and 100
archbishops and bishops formed a
procession, together with the superiors
of religious orders, and preceded him
out of the basilica’s porch onto St.
Peter’s Square for the Midnight Mass.
At the Mass, 200 priests gave
Communion, but they were not
sufficient.
Everybody sang the old, familiar
Gregorian chants in Latin, which is the
“vernacular” of Vatican City.
After Communion, there were about
10 verses of “Adeste Fideles.” After the
first two verses, the throng left them to
the choir and joined in the chorus.
So, the Holy Year ended with the
“Ite, Missa Est.” Yet another symbolic
gesture remained. The Pope lit a bronze
lantern after the last blessing and gave it
to two young Italians. They took it to
the Catacombs of St. Callixtus, where it
will burn as a reminder of the faith
shared between the Christians of the
first centuries and those of the
twentieth.
Those who had persisted in belittling
Mass In Honor
Of Mother Seton
EMMITSBURG, Md. (NC) - The last
of four official celebrations
commemorating the canonization of
Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton will be
held at the Daughters of Charity’s St.
Joseph Provincial House here Jan. 4.
Composer Robert Grogan’s ‘Carillon’
Mass in honor of Mother Seton, with
string and brass sections, will be sung at
the opening liturgy by the 45 member
choir of St. Joseph’s Church in
Mechanicsburg, Pa. Archbishop William
D. Borders of Baltimore will be the
principal celebrant.
the Holy Year against mounting
evidence of its success must be credited
with perseverance.
Two days before the closing, the
doctrinnaire left-wing Rome daily, II
Messaggero, criticized virtually
everything about it, from the way
Bishop Raymond W. Lessard was in
Rome for the closing of the Holy Year.
Vatican coins are sold to the charges in
boarding-houses run by Sisters for less
affluent pilgrims.
This was done in the drab prose that
characterizes the poor losers who speak
for the “workers’ paradise” throughout
the world. But not even the script-writer
of the communist-line press can make 8
million pilgrims disappear into thin air.
The unassailable fact remains: on
Christmas Eve of 1975, a man of 78
who calls himself “old” and who
surprises everyone by his vigor, and
who, for 650 million Catholics, is the
Vicar of Jesus Christ, ended a Holy Year
which must rank among the religious
events of this century. He ended it with
a bang, and not a whimper.
HEADLINE /‘C
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HOPSCOTCH
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March For Life
WASHINGTON (NC) -- Hoping for a constitutional amendment to restrict abortion,
thousands of pro-life advocates are expected to take part in the third March for Life
here Jan. 22 to mark the anniversary of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court abortion
decision. Each year since the Supreme Court struck down most state laws restricting
abortions, thousands of pro-life supporters have gathered in Washington, Jan. 22 to
protest the ruling.
Baptists, Catholics On Abortion
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In two separate meetings recently Catholic and Baptist leaders in the
United States agreed to cooperate more fully on issues of common concern and issued
a brief statement on abortion expressing disagreement on approaches to the issue but a
common “Strong affirmation of the sacredness of life.”
Pay Under Protest
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (NC) - Some 350 taxpayers in this area have paid their 1975
property taxes under formal protest, because the money is. used in part for the support
of public schools only. Additional payments under protest are expected by the
deadline for taxes on Dec. 31, according to officials of Citizens for Educational
Freedom (CEF), a group active in the cause of nonpublic schools children.
Cardinal Willebrands To Utrecht
UTRECHT, The Netherlands (NC) - Pope Paul VI has appointed Cardinal Jan
Willebrands, president of the Vatican Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, to
succeed Cardinal Bernard Alfrink as archbishop of Utrecht, it was announced here.
“State Of Church Address”
VATICAN CITY (NC) - Pope Paul VI, in his annual “state of the Church address,”
asked Israelis to “recognize the rights and legitimate aspirations” of the Palestinians.
Speaking of the “still serious and unresolved” Middle East problems, the Pope said:
“Even if we are well aware of the tragedies not long past which have compelled the
Jewish people to seek a secure and protected fortress in a sovereign, and independent
state of their own - and in fact, precisely because we are aware of this -- we would like
to ask the children of this people to recognize the rights and legitimate aspirations of
another people who themselves have suffered for a long time, the Palestinian people.”
SECOND DEANERY ASSEMBLY -- Pictured are some of those in
attendance at Savannah Deanery Assembly held Dec. 13. (Story on page
3.)