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The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 57 No. 16
Thursday, April 15,1976
Single Copy Price — 15 Cents
DIOCESAN COUNCIL OF CATHOLIC WOMEN
Convention Plans Nearing Completion
BY TICKI LLOYD
In keeping with the month of the
Diocesan Council of Catholic Women’s
Convention to be held on April 23, 24,
25 in Augusta at the Executive House, a
poem taken from poetress Nopi
Barnard’s booklet, “Augusta,” lends an
appealing opportunity for those
attending to indulge in a profound April
setting. Mrs. Barnard is truly the Poet
Laureate of Augusta.
Bishop Raymond W. Lessard of the
Diocese of Savannah will be present at
the 37th Annual DCCW Convention
which has as its theme: “Journey of
Faith -- Past -- Present -- and Future.”
Highlighting the convention is the
banquet set for 8 p.m. on Saturday,
April 24 in the Embassy Room. Bishop
Lessard will give the invocation, and
guest speaker is Father John Burke, 0.
P., Director of the Word of God
Institute, Washington, D. C.
The poem: “I love Augusta when she
turns her emerald face to the springtime
sun, and says to every resident and
visitor: “I am beautiful; I am yours,
enjoy me. I will fade, but just as surely
as tomorrow, “My beauty will return
with another April in another year. “I
am the spirit of springtime. I am the
beginning again of life.”
The Bishop will be the principal
celebrant of the Sunday Mass at 10
a.m. at Most Holy Trinity Church, and
will also address the gathering at the
11:45 a.m. brunch in the Embassy
Room of the Executive House. Guest
speaker at the brunch will be Sister
(Continued on page 7)
Bishop Lessard
Father John Burke, O.P.
AUGUSTA-APRIL 20
Workshop On Prison Ministry
Where is Georgia headed in the area
of corrections and prison reform? What
can interested citizens do to improve
our prison system and to reach inmates
with constructive programs of
assistance? These are two of the
questions which will be discussed at a
Prison Ministry Workshop to be held
Tuesday, April 20th, at St. Mary’s
Parish Hall in Augusta.
Georgia has the highest per capita
prison population in the United States.
There is an urgent need for certain
reforms throughout the system, and for
the active interest and concern of the
public at large. Mr. Ron Bonitatibus,
Director of the Augusta Social
Apostolate, describes the object of the
forthcoming workshop as being “to
familiarize the people of the Diocese
with these needs, and to give direction
as to how best they can get involved.”
ALLELUIA - That theme, a familiar Easter exclamation runs through
all the readings for the Feast of the Resurrection. Christians throughout
the world are preparing to celebrate Easter, the most joyous of feasts. (NC
Sketch courtesy of J.S. Paluch Custom Bulletin Service)
APRIL 24TH
Sr. M. Bernardine Dorr
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HEADLINE
HOPSCOTCH
To Mark Golden Jubilee
Mr. Paul Weston, Special Assistant to
Dr. Allen' Ault, Commissioner of the
Georgia Department of Corrections and
Offender Rehabilitation, will give the
keynote address at the workshop. Other
workshop leaders will be: Gene
Gnerrero, Georgia Representative of the
Southern Coalition of Jails and Prisons,
John Brown, Assistant Director of the
South Carolina Alston-Wilkes Society,
and panelists Fr. Clement Borchers of
(Continued on page 7)
Sister M. Julian Griffin
Protest Fate Of Prisoners
MIAMI (NC) - Some 1,000 Cuban exiles paraded through downtown Miami to call
attention to the fate of political prisoners in Cuba that they say is worsened by “a
conspiracy of silence.’ Then they prayed for the prisoners ~ some of them close
relatives - at a Mass offered by Father Emilio Vallina at San Juan Bosco church,
considered the first parish to welcome the long influx of exiles since the early 1960s.
Sister M. Bernardine Dorr, R.S.M.,
will celebrate her fifty years of service
to others as a Religious Sister of Mercy
on April 24. Rev. Joseph Buckley,
a Marist priest from New Orleans, will be
main celebrant of the Jubilee Mass to be
held at 4:00 p.m. in the Cathedral’s
Chapel of Our Lady. A public reception
will follow in Saint Vincent’s Hall
hosted by the Alumnae.
In her 50 golden years, Sister M.
Bernardine has touched the lives of
countless students and parents. Saint
Vincent’s Academy has been the chief
instructional beneficiary of her years of
dedication, as most of her years of
service centered around S.V.A. Mount
de Sales High School was also enriched
by her service.
Official Appointments
Irish Church-State Debate
DUBLIN (NC) - The issue of Church-state relations in the Republic of Ireland, a
major factor in the opposition of Protestants in Northern Ireland to a united country,
is central to a current public debate between the Catholic bishop of Limerick and a
member of the Irish government. Bishop Jeremiah Newman of Limerick recently
attacked Conor Cruise O’Brien, Minister for posts and telegraph, for a speech in which
O’Brien warned of the dangers of increasing sectarianism in the Republic of Ireland.
Bishop Newman said O’Brien’s remarks were an “insult” from a “self-declared
agnostic.”
Still Hope For Rhodesia
LONDON (NC) -- There is still hope for an orderly transfer of power in Rhodesia
where black nationalist guerrillas are seeking to overthrow the white minority regime
of Prime Minister Ian Smith, a Rhodesian Catholic bishop said in an article published
here. “There is still much good will and there is no solid reason for believing that an
immediate transfer of power would necessarily involve the chaos and disorder which
the pessimists predict,” said Bishop Donal Lamont of Umtali, Rhodesia, in The Tablet,
a Catholic weekly magazine.
A native of Augusta, Georgia, Sister
M. Bernardine is the daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. Victor J. Dorr. She graduated
from Saint Mary’s Academy in Augusta
and entered the Sisters of Mercy at
Saint Vincent’s in 1924.
Bishop Raymond W. Lessard has announced the following changes:
REVEREND GERARD A. MURPHY, pastor of St. John the Evangelist,
Valdosta to assume the post of Diocesan Comptroller, effective July 1,1976.
REVEREND J. PATRICK MCCARTHY, associate pastor of St. John the
Evangelist, Valdosta, as pastor, St. Joseph’s Church, Waycross, effective July
1, 1976.
REVEREND RICHARD C. KEIL, S.T., Temporary Administrator, St.
Joseph’s Church, Waycross, effective April 12, 1976.
After completion of one year of
novitiate she was called upon to teach
little ones in the convent grade school.
REVEREND WILLIAM O’NEILL, pastor of Holy Family Church,
Columbus, has been named the new Diocesan Scout Chaplain.
On March 25, 1926, Sister M.
Bernardine took her first vows in Saint
Vincent’s Chapel and began her
apostolate as a professed Sister.
In the early 1930’s, he was sent to
the Catholic University in Washington
to complete her studies and in
subsequent years did graduate work at
Saint Louis University and Laval
University in Quebec.
Sr. M. Bernardine Dorr, R.S.M.
Sister M. Bernardine has held posts of
responsibility in the Sisters of Mercy,
serving as superior and principal of Saint
Vincent’s and serving at many Provincial
Chapters of the Province of Baltimore.
Vatican Writer: Resurrection Is Real
VATICAN CITY (NC) - The actual bodily resurrection of Jesus has been defended
against modern Doubting Thomases by the Vatican’s weekly magazine.
Msgr. Arialdo Beni wrote in L’Osservatore della Domenica: “There exists a real link
between the dead body of Christ sealed in the tomb and the glorified body.”
The monsignor quoted from St. Luke’s account of the disciples who met the risen
Christ on the way to Emmaus to show that Jesus’ body is not merely a Spiritual
entity, although it is different from the bodies of individuals living today.
Some modem theologians have suggested that Christ lived on in only a spiritual way
after the resurrection or in some other form short of what the Church has taught
about the risen Christ.
“Christ did not rise to life in the manner of Lazarus or the son of the widow of
Naim, but rose to another life, to another world of blessedness and total glorification,”
he said.
Msgr. Beni rejected the theory that the Gospel writers and Apostles invented a story
about the bodily resurrection of Jesus to explain a mysterious truth that they could
not understand.
Then he quoted from St. Luke’s account: “The disciples’ eyes were impeded from
seeing Him .. . and then their eyes were opened.”
He maintained that, if they had tried to invent a story, they probably would have
chosen Old Testament models in which the divine appeared to man in such forms as
that of a voice or of a dream.
“Therefore,” Msgr. Beni concluded, “theories about a miraculous but purely
spiritual body, or about something which only appeared to be a body, or about a
literary trick used to manifest a mysterious truth cannot be conceded unless the texts
are altered.”
THE PASSOVER MEAL, Seder Supper was celebrated by Rabbi Alfred
Goodman at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Columbus on Thursday
evening, April 1st. This was the third time the Passover was celebrated in
this parish since it was begun 7 years ago. Father O’Keeffe, Our Lady of
Lourdes Pastor, noted that Catholic celebration of the Passover is in
keeping with a decree of the Vatican Council of 1964 calling for “real
Dialogue” between the two faiths. “This is building bridges between
Christians and Jews.” The 120 celebrants included church members and
visitors from South Columbus United Methodist Church, Rose Hill Baptist
Church and the First Christian Church. Pictured, left to right: Rev.
Michael J. O’Keeffe, Rabbi Alfred Goodman, Mrs. Norma Byrd. Back to
camera: Mrs. Jose (Nilda) Cardona. (Photo by Columbus Ledger)