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DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 57 No. 14
Thursday, April 1,1976
Single Copy Price - 15 Cents
PROPAGATION OF FAITH MEETING - Reverend Joseph C.
Otterbein, Associate Director of The Society for the Propagation of the
Fatih for the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia, is greeted by The Most
Reverend William W. Baum, Bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington,
D.C., and The Most Reverend Edward T. O’Meara, National Director of
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith at a recently held regional
meeting of Diocesan Directors in Washington, D.C. (Story on page 3)
HEADLINE
HOPSCOTCH
NFPC Hears Apostolic Delegate
HOUSTON (NC) - The apostolic
delegate in the United States called the
faith relationship of priests and bishops
the “most vital yet least tangible area of
development” in resolving problems of
priests’ senates.
Speaking during the annual meeting
of the House of Delegates of the
National Federation of Priests’ Councils,
Archbishop Jeain Jadot said that “the
faith relationship of priests and bishops
is based on their common ministry to
Christ in His sisters and brothers
through the sacrament that they share.
“We need to strive especially to
intensify this aspect of our life
together,” he said.
“We must also seek to improve the
quality of the human relationships
between a bishop and his priests, as seen
in the respect shown for one another
and the fraternal spirit that ought to
highlight all endeavor.”
“Finally,” he said, “all priests and
bishops have to be convinced of the
importance of senates and priests’
participation in them so that they can
become truly representative.”
Noting that Church members are the
“family of God,” the Belgian-born
prelate said that the responsibility of
preserving this family and making it
“grow and flourish belongs in a primary
way to priests united with their bishop.
“The relationship of priest and
bishop is at the core of the life of the
Church we serve,” he said. “It is
imperative that this bond be nurtured
and strengthened by every means
available.”
Recalling that the Second Vatican
Related Story Page 2
Council sought to improve this
relationship by establishing priests’
senates, Archbishop Jadot said that if
senates are faithful to the conciliar spirit
which gave them birth, “the bishop and
priest representatives will strive to be a
community manifesting faith and love
for God through prayer, a community
resolving its concerns in an environment
of healthy dialogue and trust.”
The representative of Pope Paul VI in
the United States, Archbishop Jadot
pointed out that “the record of Priests’
senates in their first 10 years has been a
mixed one, not only in the United
States but everywhere in the Church.”
The apathy of some priests and the
less than whole-hearted cooperation of
some bishops have sapped enthusiasm,
and even given rise to discouragement,
he said.
He noted that in some instances some
individuals endeavored to manipulate
senates for selfish purposes, and that in
their early days the focus of senates was
largely on their own material and
juridical problems.
“Looking back one sees that at all
levels - that of bishops, senates, priests
associations, and the NFPC itself --
excessive confrontation, pressure,
misunderstanding, and public
disagreement were often too prevalent,”
Archbishop Jadot continued.
“Despite such difficulties, a sense of
growing maturity is occuring within
priests’ senates. It is increasingly evident
that a greater spirit of mutual
understanding and consultation between
bishops and priests has become the
practice rather than the exception. This
gives us cause for hope.”
“From the material and legal, the
posture of priests’ senates has gradually
evolved to the consideration of pastoral
problems,” he said. “Questions of
diocesan, national and international
dimensions were exposed and are now
being studied and acted upon. The
NFPC has contributed significantly to
this effort.”
Expressing optimism, the archbishop
said that 10 short years from Vatican
Council II priests and bishops are
manifesting a real desire to dismantle all
barriers.
“You are men who are anxious to
work together to bring forth that
communion which is the Church. Such a
bond, finding its primary expression in
senates, will have to be build on a
foundation of prayer, of trust, of
honesty, of humility, of patience, of
productive dialogue, of scholarly and
professional study.
“As you face pressing pastoral
problems, as you seek to reveal the
reality of community to a large and
diversified 20th-century Church, as you
evangelize those of a materialist
orientation, you must do so with your
bishop,” the delegate told the 200
NFPC delegates and alternates.
“Although communion with your
bishop most immediately affects your
lives, you and I have a responsibility to
the Holy Father. Priests are the Holy
Father’s special concern. Much of what
I have said about priests’ senates are his
thoughts which he communicated to me
the last time that we met.”
In closing, Archbishop Jadot noted
that “our experience can be associated
with what Pope John once said to a
friend of mine: ‘In the practice of
collegiality, we are all novices.’
“The same can be said of priests’
senates and shared responsibility,” he
said. “We have to find our way by
means of trial and error. Priests and
bishops need to learn how to
accommodate themselves to one
another, to learn from successes and
failures in communications.”
Archbishop Dwyer Dies
OAKLAND, Calif. (NC) -- Archbishop Robert J. Dwyer, retired archbishop of
Portland, Ore., died March 24 at Providence Hospital here after a long illness. He was
67. Archbishop Dwyer, who was publisher-editor of the National Catholic Register,
was admitted to the hospital Feb. 17 for diagnostic tests and exploratory surgery.
New Guidelines Ordered
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (NC) -- A federal appeals court here has ordered that new
guidelines be worked out to ensure more equitable participation of nonpublic school
students in a federal education program. The appeals court ruling sustains a group of
nonpublic school students and their parents who contended that the Missouri
Department of Education had unfairly administered the Title I provision of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
LENTEN MENU - This is the menu suggested for the 6th week of Lent
for families participating in Operation Rice Bowl: Creamed Peas on Toast,
Rice Pudding. The program is being sponsored by the 41st International
Eucharistic Congress in an effort to help feed the starving people of the
world. (NC Photo by Robert H. Davis)
Study Addresses U.
S. Catholic Decline
NEW YORK (NC) - A new study,
“Catholic Schools in a Declining
Church,” co-authored by the
priest-sociologist Father Andrew M.
Greeley, blames the 1963 encyclical,
Humanae Vitae, for most of the decline
in American Catholic practices in the
last decade.
The encyclical reaffirmed Church
prohibitions of artificial contraception.
In a two-hour press conference at the
Princeton Club, Father Greeley
commented about the 483-page study,
published by the Sheed and Ward
subsidiary of Universal Press Syndicate:
“If I were a bishop, and saw this
information, I would consider it serious
enough to call a panic meeting.”
The study said that while Catholics
under 30 years of age are less devout
than those over 30, 80 percent of
decline in Catholic practices took place
among those over 30.
The study predicted that the trends
of the last 10 years would continue
unabated to produce a Church that is
“hardly recognizable” as the Church in
the post-Vatican II era. Only one-third
of American Catholics will attend Mass
each week, it said; 29 percent will find
themselves happy at the prospect of a
son becoming a priest; and only one
percent will be active in Church affairs.
With Father Greeley at the briefing
was one of the co-authors of the
$125,000 survey. He is William C.
McCready, associate director of the
Chicago-based National Opinion
Research Center (NORC) where Father
Greeley is program director. The third
member of the team is Kathleen M.
McCourt, senior studies director of
NORC.
Blaming the encyclical rather than
changes initiated by the Second Vatican
Council for what it said was erosion of
the Church, the study said:
“We must note that the encyclical
letter has been both a failure and an
organizational and religious
disaster... far from reasserting the
teaching authority of the Church and
the credibility of the Pope, it has led to
a deterioration among American
Catholics of a respect for both. Finally,
it seems to have been the occasion for
massive apostasy and for a notable
decline in religious devotion and belief.”
The study compared two NORC
national samples of American Catholics,
one taken in 1963 as the Second
Vatican Council progressed and the
other in 1974. The first was funded by
the Carnegie Corp., and the second by
the National Institute of Education.
The 1974 study is the first to have
used a “longitudinal design” and social
change computer analyses to measure
religious behavior and the effects of
religious education.
The findings showed that despite
dramatic declines in religious practices,
support for Catholic schools continued
high.
It said that 90 percent of American
Catholics favor continuation of their
school system, and 80 percent would
increase their annual contributions to
the Church to sustain the schools.
It contended that two-thirds of the
drop in Catholic school enrollment
resulted from failure of the Church to
build new schools in suburbs where
thousands of Catholics have moved in
the last decade.
While there has been “no change”
over the years surveyed in Catholic
(Continued on page 7)
Report Draws Response From Bishops
The controversial study, “Catholic
Schools in a Declining Church,” should
be taken seriously but cannot be used to
judge the authenticity of Catholic
teaching, according to leaders of the
U.S. Catholic Heirarchy.
“Ethical values cannot be arrived at
by counting noses,” said Archbishop
Joseph L. Bernardin, president of the
National Conference of Catholic
Bishops, in response to the study.
Bishop William E. McManus,
Chairman of the USCC Education
Committee, said that Fr. Andrew
Greeley’s book “cannot be normative
on what is right or wrong in the
Church’s teaching on doctrine and
morality.” But, he added, such research
“can be helpful to Church leaders who
want to be informed about both success
and failure in gaining the Church’s
membership’s acceptance of doctrine
and moral position.”
The new study claims that
widespread opposition to the Church’s
prohibition of the “the pill” for birth
control purposes rather than the
liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican
Council, has caused the decline in Mass
attendance.
Here are the comments of
Archbishop Bernardin and Bishop
McManus:
Archbishop Bernardin:
“In response to inquiries which the
National Conference of Catholic
Bishops has received concerning the
study, Catholic Schools in a Declining
Church even before its publication, I
wish to make the following brief
comments.
“First, the study says a great deal
concerning the teaching of the Catholic
Church as expressed in the encyclical
letter, ‘Humanae Vita’. Catholic truth is
(Continued on page 7)
U.S. Congress Pressed For ‘Right To Food’ Resolution
WASHINGTON (NC) - Twenty-eight of the nation’s top religious leaders have
signed an “Appeal to Congress” asking for support of a pending resolution declaring
the “right to food.”
The resolution would have no binding power, but would represent a statement of
principles to guide future policy decisions.
The resolution would declare that every person throughout the world has the right
to a “nutritionally adequate diet.”
The “Appeals to Congress” said the right to food derived from the right to life
expressed in the Declaration of Independence. “Without food to sustain life, that right
is made meaningless,” the appeal said.
Those signing the appeal include Archbishop Joseph Bernardin of Cincinnati,
president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB); evangelist Billy
Graham; Claire Randall, general secretary of the National Council of Churches;
Archbishop Iako.os, Greek Orthodox archbishop of North and South America; and
Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum, director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish
Committee.
The right to food resolution was developed by Bread for the World, a Christian
citizens’ lobby concerned with hunger issues.
The resolution was introduced by Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-Ore.) a Bread for the World
Board member, in the Senate and by Rep. Donald Fraser (D-Minn.) in the House.
Bread for the World estimates that some 200,000 letters supporting the resolution
have reached Congress since its introduction in mid-September.
Hearings on the resolution are expected in the Senate subcommittee on foreign
agricultural policy, the House subcommittee on international resources, food and
energy and the House Agriculture Committee.
“The resolution before Congress does not commit our nation to massive food
handouts,” the “Appeal to Congress” said. “Rather it recognizes the responsibility we
have, in cooperation with other nations, of enabling hungry people to produce more
food and to work their way out of hunger.
“Such efforts require some commitment of our resources, to be sure. But the costs
are far cheaper than war and much less than the cost of continued human misery.
“Substantial gains against hunger will not be quick or easy or cheap,” the appeal
said. “But they are not beyond reach. They will require exceptional efforts on the part
of rich and poor nations alike. And they will exact some sacrifice from all of us.
The alternative, however, is a broken world that we do not want our children to
inherit.”
The “right to food” resolution would require that the right to food become “a
cornerstone of U.S. policy” and a “fundamental point of reference” in determining
policies in the areas of trade, assistance, monetary reform, military spending and “all
other matters that bear on hunger.”
Concerning domestic hunger, the resolution says, “we seek to enroll in food
assistance programs all who are in need, to improve those programs to insure that
recipients receive an adequate diet and to attain full employment and a floor of
economic decency for everyone.”
Concerning world hunger, the resolution calls for increased food assistance and
increased aid for self-help development programs, until such assistance, including aid
given through private voluntary agencies, reaches one percent of the Gross National
Product.
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