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The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 57 No. 9 Thursday, February 26,1976 Single Copy Price - 15 Cents
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LENTEN MENU -- During Lent, families are urged
to prepare one sacrificial meal each week and offer the
money saved to help feed the starving people of the
world. (The program called Operation Rice Bowl is
ASH WEDNESDAY
sponsored by the 41st International Eucharistic
Congress.) The menu for the first week of Lent is:
Potato Soup, 1 Slice of Bread. (NC Photo by Bob
StraWn) ...
Operation Rice Bowl Begins March 3
U.S. Catholics Preparing
Rite Of Penance
PHILADELPHIA -- Operation Rice
Bowl (ORB) -- a unique, interfaith
program designed to help feed the
world’s starving -- will be launched
throughout the country on Ash
Wednesday, March 3.
Rice Bowls have been
distributed to all parishes in the
Diocese of Savannah.
American families are asked to pray a
common prayer, eat a sacrificial meal
and make an offering at their own
dining room table to feed the millions in
the Third World who exist on the brink
of starvation.
ORB is sponsored by the 41st
International Eucharistic Congress as
part of its program of spiritual renewal
and preparation leading to Congress
Week. The Congress is a worldwide
spiritual assembly of Catholics and
other Christians gathering in
Philadelphia Aug. 1-8. Overall theme is
“The Eucharist and the Hungers of the
Human Family.”
“Primary among man’s hungers is the
basic hunger for food, a necessity for
survival,” said Msgr. Robert J. Coll,
chairman of Operation Rice Bowl, who
conceived ORB last year in Allentown
in cooperation with Protestant and
Jewish clergymen there. The national
campaign this year is an outgrowth of
that effort in which more than
$100,000 was raised locally.
“We ask American families gathering
around their dining room tables to make
their tables an altar, to pray and to eat a
sacrificial meal,” said Msgr. Coll. “This
will lead them to experience the agony,
the pain of hunger. We ask them to
place their food savings into the
cardboard rice bowl that will be
provided through their parish or
congregation.”
The Congress recommends that the
restricted-diet meal be eaten each
Wednesday during the seven weeks of
Lent. Dioceses across the country,
however, may wish to designate another
day of the week for the sacrificial meal.
Each Sunday following the family’s
weekly Lenten sacrifice, the Congress
suggests monies saved from the meal be
placed in special rice bowls at local
Catholic churches and participating
Protestant and Jewish congregations.
The project has been adopted by
American Catholic Overseas Aid Appeal
which annually provides the basic
funding for Catholic Relief Services --
the official overseas aid and
development agency of the American
Catholic Bishops.
In most dioceses, 75 per cent of the
monies raised will be dispensed by
Catholic Relief Services for the overseas
poor. Twenty-five per cent will be used
to assist the poor and hungry here at
home.
The suggested menu for the family
meal on the first week of Lent is potato
soup and a slice of bread. The second
week the menu is macaroni and cheese
and vanilla pudding.
“The cost savings between this type
of meal and our normal four or five
course dinner will be quite substantial,”
said Msgr. Coll. “Through prayer,
through experiencing hunger, through
making this sacrifice, families will learn
an important spiritual lesson. We don’t
want your alms, we want your
understanding,” the priest said.
The total amount of money collected
during Operation Rice Bowl will be
announced on Aug. 2 during the 41st
International Eucharistic Congress on
the day designated as Family Day.
Focus of the day will be “The Eucharist
and the Hunger for Bread.”
LENTEN SACRIFICIAL MENU
1st Week - Potato Soup - 1 Slice of
Bread.
2nd Week - Macaroni and Cheese -
Vanilla Pudding.
3rd Week - Egg Salad and Toast - Rice
Pudding.
4th Week - Tuna Fish Salad -
Chocolate Pudding.
5th Week - Spaghetti and Tomato
Sauce - Jello.
6th Week - Creamed Peas on Toast -
Rice Pudding.
7th Week - Tomato Soup - Two
Crackers.
For New
WASHINGTON (NC) - As Ash
Wednesday approaches, Catholics
around the country are getting new
insights into the sacrament of Penance
or Reconciliation, and may begin to
receive the sacrament under the new
rite.
The reformed Rite of Reconciliation
-• the last of the major liturgical changes
following the Second Vatican Council -
does not become mandatory in this
country until the first Sunday of Lent,
1977.
But the Bishops’ Committee on the
Liturgy has recommended that
education for the changes begin this
Lent, and a number of bishops are
exercising their option to begin the use
of the new rite in their dioceses this
year.
Preparation for the new Rite is now
being carried out throughout the
Diocese of Savannah. No specific date
has been set for its introduction but it
will be some time after Easter.
When the new rite was published in
Latin two years ago, one of the first
questions that arose was, “Are they
going to abolish the confessional?” This
was brought up because the new rite
allows the establishment of small
confessional rooms where priest and
penitent sit together without a screen
between them.
But, reports that the confessional
would be abolished brought denials
from liturgical officials everywhere.
They even led Pope Paul VI to declare
emphatically in a public speech that the
confessional with a screen “must
remain.” In the new confessional rooms,
it is the penitent’s option to keep or
remove the screen.
Emphasis on the communal
celebration of Penance has also led
many to ask whether individual
confession is being abolished, or at least
is no longer required.
The new rite made no changes in
Church law in this regard. As before,
individual confession and absolution is
required for all those in serious sin. As
before, general absolution is allowed in
certain rare instances -- the case of
soldiers entering battle or that of a
missionary outpost that is visited only
rarely by a priest, or similar situations in
which the bishop considers it a pastoral
need. But those receiving general
absolution in such cases are required to
go to confession at the first opportunity
if they have committed serious sin.
What has changed under the new rite
is:
- The emphasis on the prayerful
attitude of both priest and penitent in
the rite.
- The emphasis on the sacrament as
an act of reconciliation between the
penitent and God.
- The emphasis on Scripture in the
rite. In the new rite there is an
invitation to the penitent to trust in
God, which may be in words from
Scripture. There is also an option for a
scriptural reading that proclaims God’s
mercy and calls persons to conversion.
The prayers make better use of
Scripture.
SERIES A T CA THEDRA L
Bishop Raymond W. Lessard will
deliver a series of sermons at Savannah’s
Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. His
subject will be the renewed Rite of
Penance.
The series will begin on March 3 - Ash
Wednesday and continue thru April 18 -
Easter Sunday. The bishop will speak at
the Noon Mass on Ash Wednesday and
at the 10 a.m. Mass on Sundays.
This series is intended to be a part of
the preparation currently being carried
on in the Diocese for the introduction
of the new Rite of Penance. No specific
- The emphasis on the communal or
social aspects of sin and reconciliation.
This occurs in the new rite in several
ways - the various options for
communal celebrations, more emphasis
on the social aspect of sin in the
examination of conscience and
confession of sins, and explicit mention
in the absolution formula of the
“ministry of the Church” through
which God grants pardon and peace.
Since the rite for receiving the
sacrament is new, many people are
faced with the fear that they will not
know what to do. In fact, the changes in
procedure are relatively few, and for the
penitent there are only three prayer
responses to learn: two “amens” and
one “his mercy endures forever.”
The new rite begins with the sign of
the cross, saying, “In the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.”
The priest then says a few words
inviting the penitent to trust in God,
and the penitent answers, “Amen.”
At that point a Scriptural passage
may be read by the priest, but this is
optional.
The penitent then confesses his sins,
and the priest offers any counsel or
advice he considers appropriate, urges
the penitent to be sorry, and proposes
an act of penance which the penitent
date has been set for the introduction of
the new Rite in the Savannah Diocese,
but it will be some time after Easter.
The schedule and titles of the
sermons will be as follows:
Mar. 3 - Ash Wednesday: THE CALL
TO CONVERSION.
Mar. 7 - 1st Sunday of Lent: THE
WORD OF GOD AND PRAYER.
Mar. 14 - 2nd Sunday of Lent:
ENCOUNTER WITH THE CHURCH.
accepts to make satisfaction for sin and
to amend his life.
The priest then asks the penitent to
express his sorrow with a prayer of
contrition, and the penitent may use his
own words or any of the several
recommended prayers to do so. The
shortest of the recommended prayers is,
“Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy
on me, a sinner.”
The priest extends his right hand or
both hands over the penitent and says
the words of absolution, ending,
“ .. .and I absolve you from your sins in
the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.”
The penitent answers, “Amen.”
The priest says, “Give thanks to the
Lord, for he is good.”
The penitent answers, “His mercy
endures forever.”
The priest concludes the rite with a
short dismissal prayer, telling the
penitent to go in peace.
In communal celebrations, the
penitents gather beforehand for a
communal liturgy of the word including
appropriate prayers, song, readings, a
homily, a common confessional of
sinfulness and examination of
conscience. Then there is individual
confession of sins and the giving of a
penance and absolution. After those
who wish to receive the sacrament have
gone to confession, the people gather
for concluding prayers together.
Mar. 21 - 3rd Sunday of Lent: THE
REALITY OF SIN.
Mar. 28 - 4th Sunday of Lent: THE
HEALING POWER OF CHRIST
JESUS.
Apr. 4 - 5th Sunday of Lent:
RECONCILIATION AND GROWTH.
Apr. 11 - Passion (Palm) Sunday: A
HUMBLE AND CONTRITE HEART
Apr. 18 - Easter Sunday: THE NEW
CREATION.
t
V.
Government Administers Schools
BOGOTA, Colombia (NC) - Two-thirds of the schools run by the Church in
Colombia’s mission territories are being transferred to government administration, a
government spokesman said. The transfer is called for by Colombia’s concordat with
the Vatican, ratified in mid-1973, giving government more control over the 3,652
Church-related schools in Colombia.
Billings Method Recommended
VATICAN CITY (NC) - The Vatican daily newspaper, L’Osservatore. Romano, said
that the ovulation or Billings method of natural family planning is morally permissible,
and medically can be recommended highly.
Soviet Methods Criticized
VATICAN CITY (NC) - Vatican Radio, expressing solidarity with Soviet dissident
Leonid Plyushc Feb. 15, criticized the Soviet practice of sending dissenters to mental
hospitals for “cures.” Jesuit Father Pasquale Borgomeo, director of Radio Domenica,
noted in editorial comment on his Sunday news broadcast that the Soviet
mathematician Plyushc had “escaped from the lethal cures of the Russian mental
hospital.”
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HEADLINE
HOPSCOTCH
a
A Reminder
Ash Wednesday (March 3) and Good Friday (April 16) are days of
abstinence from meat and also days of Fast. The Fridays of Lent are days of
abstinence from meat.
The law of abstinence applies to Catholics who have completed their 14th
year. The last of fast applies to those who have completed their 21st year and
have not completed their 59th year. The sick and infirm are not obliged to
abstinence and fast.
NEW CONFESSIONAL -- In a mock-up of a “reconciliation room” for
a Boise, Idaho television program, Father Andrew Schumacher administers
the sacrament of Penance to Mrs. James J. Coughlin. This scene shows
that the penitent has the option of being behind the screen or facing the
priest. (NC Photo)
Bishop To Speak On New Rite Of Penance