Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

A 4 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 fcmiij . m HOPSCOTCH / . ‘ La 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 liras', 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.)