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The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 57 No. 12 Thursday, March 18,1976 sin S le Copy Price - 15 Cents
Detroit Meeting To Cap 18-Month Effort
WASHINGTON (NC) - For the first
time in American Catholic history,
when some 1,200 bishops, priests,
Religious and laypersons meet for a
national conference this fall they will
each have an equal vote on a national
Church program.
The conference, labeled “A Call to
Action, U.S. Bishops’ Confrence on
Liberty and Justice for All,” will be
held in Detroit, Oct. 21-23.
It will cap an 18-month program of
grass-roots consultation of Catholics on
what the Church can and should do to
achieve liberty and justice for all
Americans.
Results of the three-day meeting will
form the basis of a five-year plan of
social action, which will be presented to
the National Conference of Catholic
Bishops (NCCB), the collective
policy-making body of the U.S. bishops.
Chairing the October session will be
Cardinal John Dearden of Detroit,
chairman of the NCCB Committee for
the Bicentennial.
According to the plan prepared by
Cardinal Dearden’s committee, each of
the bishops heading the nation’s
dioceses will be asked to submit the
names of eight persons to join him as
official delegates to the Detroit
conference.
A suggested model delegation would
consist of members of diocesan offices,
such as Catholic social service personnel
or representatives of pastoral planning
or adult education offices, parish
members who were active in the
grass-roots consultation program, and
persons such as the elderly, the poor,
and racial and ethnic minorities -
persons who have had direct personal
experience with injustice or with those
APRIL 23-24-25
concerns most prominently raised in the
consultation process.
A formula for sending larger
delegations has been designed to
accommodate dioceses with more than
one million Catholics. These are Boston,
New York, Brooklyn, Newark,
Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Los
Angeles and Rockville Centre, N.Y.
In addition, national Catholic
organizations will be invited to send a
delegate to the conference.
Provisions are being made for persons
wishing to serve as observers.
According to the plan, official
delegates will be convened in 13
regional meetings this spring for a series
of one-day orientation sessions on their
role in the Detroit conference.
i On March 10, the day that the plan
ior the Detroit conference was
announced, members of eight planning
committees were meeting in Washington
for the first time to plan how to
coordinate the grass-roots input into
cohesive working papers that will serve
as the basis of discussion at Detroit.
Those committees, headed by bishops
and consisting of theologians, social
scientists and other experts, will
summarize the responses that Catholics
across the country have given to the
liberty and justice program.
Delegates to the Detroit conference
will receive the committees’ working
papers in September.
The grass-roots consultation process
consisted of Liberty and Justice for All
programs in Catholic dioceses and
parishes throughout the country.
By March 10, the NCCB Committee
for the Bicentennial had processed
30,000 individual response sheets,
representing the reflections of an
estimated 350,000 American Catholics
on issues ranging from divorced
Catholics to shared responsibility in the
Church.
In some dioceses, as many as 60,000
Catholics were involved in parish
discussion programs and local forums.
The bicentennial program outlines were
translated into Spanish, and bilingual
programs were offered in some
locations.
In addition to the thousands of parish
discussions, congressional-style regional
hearings were conducted also last year
in Washington, Atlanta, Minneapolis,
Newark, San Antonio, Tex., and
Sacramento, Calif.
The record of the regional hearings
will be joined with the results of the
parish and diocesan consultations to
form the basis of the working papers
and the conference.
LENTEN MENU - This is the sacrificial meal suggested for the fourth
week in Lent for families participating in “Operation Rice Bowl”: Tuna
Fish Salad, Chocolate Pudding. The project is sponsored by the 41st
International Eucharistic Congress in an effort to help feed the world’s
hungry. (NC Photo by Robert H. Davis)
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MUSICAL INTERLUDE - A girl rests on a bank after school to
practice her flute. The warm sunshine, cool breezes and music are the
perfect combination for this early spring day. (NC Photo by Mimi
Forsyth)
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HEADLINE
HOPSCOTCH
No Serious Health Problems
VATICAN CITY (NC) - A Vatican spokesman “categorically denied” March 10
that Pope Paul VI has any serious health problems. Pope Paul himself raised the
question March 7 when he told crowds at his weekly Sunday Angelus talk that he was
entering a week of retreat to prepare for Easter and “for death, which for us cannot be
far off.”
Idaho Seeks To Limit Abortion Funding
BOISE, Idaho (NC) - The Idaho Legislature is considering two proposals which
would limit public funding of abortions. One proposal would prohibit the use of any
tax revenue to pay for abortion, abortion referral services or any other costs associated
with the procedure. The other measure, requiring doctors to report abortions to the
state Bureau of Vital Statistics, was amended to prohibit the Department of Health
and Welfare from paying for abortions unless the mother’s life is in danger or the
pregnancy resulting from rape or incest.
State Warns Against Election
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (NC) - The California state Agricultural Labor Relations
Board has warned anyone who might be planning a privately run representation
election for farmworkers while the board remains inactive that such an election would
not be recognized. The warning came March 3 after Cesar Chavez, president of the
United farm Workers of America, urged the Catholic bishops to conduct some
elections.
Synod Says No To Euthanasia
LONDON (NC)'- Any idea of legalizing euthanasia was firmly and unanimously
rejected by the General Synod of the Church of England during its four-day meeting
here (Feb. 24 to 27). The synod also voiced concern over the state of the British
nation, and called for the introductions of proportional representation for
parliamentary elections.
New Resettlement Office
A new Diocesan Resettlement Office for Vietnamese refugees has been
opened in Savannah. The office is located at 300 Drayton Street on the third
floor. For assistance please call Nancy Jackson, co-ordinator, at 234-9800
between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Augusta Scene Of Annual DCCW Convention
Mrs. William A. Kempton, DCCW
president, has announced that Augusta
has been chosen as the site of the 37th
Annual Convention of the Diocesan
Council of Catholic Women on April 23,
24, 25.
The unique Executive House, hotel
and convention center, will be
convention headquarters.
In keeping with the Bicentennial
Year, the convention theme is:
“Journey of Faith - Past, Present and
Future”.
Committees of the Augusta Deanery
Council are hostesses for the event
which promises to promote interest on
all levels.
Mrs. Kempton will preside at the
convention sessions. Rev. Msgr. D. J.
Bourke is Spiritual Moderator, and Mrs.
Richard M. Bowles is serving as General
Chairman. She will be assisted by Mrs.
Frank Mulherin and Mrs. Joseph Green.
Augusta, settled in 1735 as a fortified
village for Indian trade, was named in
honor of the Royal Princess Augusta,
mother of King George III of England.
The city, situated on the Savannah
River, proudly claims an abundance of
Fr. John Burke, OP
Banquet Speaker
historic landmarks that glow with the
grace of charm today as well as
yesterday. Augusta boasts of the past
while reveling in the present.
Moss beards the branches of the trees
in this “Garden City”, and bushes are
filled with clouds of blossoms in the
spring. Conventioneers will experience a
certain spirituality as they enjoy world
famed hospitality.
The Saturday evening banquet guest
speaker will be Rev. John Burke, O.P.,
M.A., S.T.D.. a Dominican priest.
Father Burke is Executive Director of
the Word of God Institute in
Washington, D. C.
The Word of God Institute, dedicated
to revitalization of biblical preaching,
was established in 1972. With emphasis
on Bible and Bible sharing, the Institute
has designed a multi-level approach to
embrace every segment of the church.
Its main purpose is to channel the ideas
and creative energies generated by the
National Congress on the Word of God.
Father Burke previously served as
Coordinator of the National Congress
on the Word of God. This unique event
in the life of the church was held at the
National Shrine of the Immaculate
Conception to celebrate the power of
God’s word to bring peace and
happiness to all who hear it in faith.
Prior to becoming a Dominican
priest, Father Burke was an associate
director in television, working with such
celebrities as Jimmy Durante, Danny
Thomas, Ed Wynn, Jack Haley, and
others.
During the Korean war he served in
the army as a radio broadcast specialist
in psychological warfare and was
television director for the Public
Information Officer at EUCOM
Headquarters in Germany.
A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the
Catholic University of America, Father
Burke received the degree of License in
the Sacred Theology from the
Dominican House of Studies in
Washington, D.C. He subsequently
received the Master of Arts degree in
drama and the Doctor of Sacred
Theology from the Catholic University
of America.
Previous to his becoming Executive
Director of the Word of God Institute,
Father Burke was an assistant professor
of drama at the Catholic University of
America, and director of the
University’s Institute for Pastoral
Communication and Liturgical
Celebration and its world-renowned
Preacher’s Institute. He was also theatre,
film and television critic for WTOP, a
Post Newsweek station in the Nation’s
Capitol.
Father Burke was a member of the
FCC’s National Committee on the Full
Development of Instructional Television
Fixed Service. He also served as project
director for the Joint
U niversity-Archdiocesan Washington
Television Project.
The film, “Chimbote”, written and
directed by Father Burke, was made on
location in Peru, and was released
nationally on television.
The deadline for pre-registration by
mail is April 9. Since you will not want
to miss this interesting convention,
please send your registration by April 9
to Mrs. Albert A. Rice - 423 Kemp
Drive, Augusta, Georgia 30904 - phone
404-737-6343.
Additional information will be
forthcoming in future issues.
FOR GUATEMALA - Students from St. Joseph School, Macon, (1. to
r.) Patrice Slocum, Tony Schwalm, Anne Farmer and Michael
O’Shaughnessey, present their pastor, Father John Cuddy, with a check
for $1,162.00 as Sister Mary Edward Cassidy, principal, looks on. The
money was collected by the school students during February for the
children of Guatemala. Some of the projects used to raise the money w ^re
a Walk-a-Thon by the sixth grade and a bake sale by the eighth. All
students donated “sacrifice” money to the cause.