Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 57 No. 23
Thursday, June 3, 1976
Single Copy Price — 15 Cents
Bishops Urge Festive Bicentennial Rites
WASHINGTON (NC) - Efforts to “create a special physical environment” with an
“unmistakably festive character” for July 4 liturgies in Catholic parishes across the
nation are being encouraged by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Suggestions for achieving this “special physical and visual environment” are
contained in a Bicentennial Liturgical Handbook published by the NCCB committee
for the bicentennial.
Meanwhile, the administrator of the American Revolution Bicentennial
Administration, John W. Warner, urges churches to join schools, fire departments,
universities, and individuals on July 4 in a simultaneous, nationwide bell ringing to
symbolize the ringing of the Liberty Bell in 1776.
Warner said the bell-ringing ceremony will be in conjunction with the ringing of the
Liberty Bell in Philadelphia at 2 p.m.
The National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception here will observe the
Independence Day bell ringing and a liturgical celebration of the “American
experience.” Various clergy, religious communities, lay organizations, ethnic
communities, and people of various nationalities and backgrounds will attend Mass and
offer devotions to Our Lady in prayer and song.
A Festival of Thanksgiving will follow.
Reaffirmation Of Ban On Sterilization
The Vatican document, dated March
13, 1975, was distributed by the NCCB
to the U.S. bishops last December “for
their information in relation to their
pastoral responsibilities” in connection
with health facilities, Bishop James S.
Rausch, NCCB general secretary, said.
Describing the document as “a
private response to the bishops’
conference,” Bishop Rausch said “it
never became public because we saw no
reason to make it public.”
WASHINGTON (NC) - A Vatican
document restating the Church’s
position that direct sterilization, even
when another pregnancy is considered
likely to result in mental or physical
illness, “remains absolutely forbidden”
has been released here.
The document by the Vatican’s
Doctrinal Congregation was a response
to inquiries by the National Conference
of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and was
released by the NCCB here after it was
made public at the Third European
Congress of Physicians’ Associations
meeting in London.
document said, “faithfully reflects this
doctrine which is to be held, and its
observance should be urged.”
The Vatican congregation said it “is
not unaware of the dissent against this
teaching from many theologians.” But
the congregation denied that “doctrinal
significance can be attributed to this
fact” by Catholics to justify actions
contrary to the official teaching of the
Church.
With regard to the management of
Catholic hospitals, the Vatican
document said that approval of or
consent to sterilization solely for
contraceptive purposes “is absolutely
forbidden.” It added: “Any cooperation
so supplied is totally unbecoming the
mission entrusted to this type of
institution and would be contrary to the
necessary proclamation and defense of
the moral order.”
The document added that the
“traditional doctrine regarding material
cooperation” with the proper
distinctions “remains valid, to be
applied with the utmost prudence, if the
case warrants.” It cautioned against
scandal and misunderstanding in
applying the principle of material
cooperation.
Bishop Rausch said that the NCCB
originally questioned the Vatican
concerning sterilization “because of
practices that were developing across
the country in various hospitals.” He
was unable to say, he added, to what
extent the practices were present in
Catholic hospitals.
40TH ANNIVERSARY ~ Bishop Raymond W. Lessard is shown offering
his congratulations on the 40th Anniversary of the Savannah Catholic
Hour to Ira J. Ryan, Grand Knight of Savannah’s K.C. Council 631 and
Hugh H. Grady, K.S.G. (r.) who has been General Chairman and
announcer for the program since it first went on the air.
Savannah Catholic Hour
Marks 40 Years On Air
On Sunday, May 30, the Savannah
Catholic Hour celebrated forty years
of Catholic radio broadcasting over
Station WTOC, Savannah, with the
Honorable Frank P. Rossiter, Savannah
Mayor Pro-Tern, as the anniversary
speaker.
The program is sponsored by the
Savannah Council 631, Knights of
Columbus, and has never missed a
Sunday on the air since it first started
on May 31, 1936. It is the oldest
Catholic radio program in the United
States.
The program was organized by the
Knights of Columbus with the approval
of the Bishop of Savannah, the Most
Reverend Gerald Patrick O’Hara, who
appointed the Honorable Hugh H.
Grady, K.S.G., as general chairman and
announcer. Grady conducted the
program from 1936 until 1957 when
William Oetgen, John Caterisan and
Thomas Buttimer volunteered to help as
committee members and announcers.
William Oetgen died after many years
of faithful service. John Caterisan
retired last year and Lewis Drawdy
volunteered to serve in his place. The
present announcers are Hugh Grady,
Thomas Buttimer and Lewis Drawdy.
For the last few years, the Savannah
Deanery Council of Catholic Women
under the chairmanship of Mrs. William
Broderick conduct the program on the
third Sunday of each month.
The program is broadcast over WTOC
every Sunday morning from 11:00 A.M.
to 11:30 A.M. WTOC has, over the
years, been most cooperative and
courteous in making available the use of
its facilities. The sponsors of the
program express their sincere
appreciation to the station management
with special thanks to Mr. Millard
Ganey, Mr. Ben Quick, and Mr. Thomas
Wells.
Thanks are also extended to
Monsignor Daniel J. Bourke and Father
John A. Kenneally for their valuable
advice and support during the past
several years.
Augusta Eucharistic Celebration
An Augusta Deanery Eucharistic Celebration will be held on Thursday,
June 17, at 7:30 p.m., at the Performing Arts Theater of Augusta College.
All parishes of the area will be participating with Bishop Raymond W.
Lessard as principal concelebrant of the Mass. Father Jerry E. Hardy,
Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Atlanta and former resident of Augusta, will
deliver the homily.
This celebration is being held in harmony with the 41st International
Eucharistic Congress scheduled for Philadelphia from August 1-8.
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HEADLINE
HOPSCOTCH
Fr. Arrupe Reelected
ROME (NC) - Jesuit superior general, Father Pedro Arrupe, has been elected to a
fourth consecutive term as president of the International Union of Superiors General
here.
Laos Bishop, Priests Expelled
VATICAN CITY (NC) - The Vatican daily newspaper has reported that the former
bishop of Pakse, Laos, and nine foreign-bom missionaries have been expelled by that
country’s Communist government.
Congressional Sentiment ‘Diminished’
CHICAGO (NC) -- Congressional pro-life sentiment has diminished in the past two
years, according to an official of the National Committee for a Human Life
Amendment. William J. Cox, Director of the organization, said here that “many
Congressmen and Senators are finding it easy to ignore our efforts because of a lack of
activity in their local districts.”
The Vatican document described
direct sterilization as any sterilization
which “of its own nature and condition,
has the sole immediate effect of
rendering the generative faculty
incapable of procreation.”
The document said that
“notwithstanding any subjectively right
intention of those whose actions are
prompted by the care or prevention of
physical or mental illness which is
foreseen or feared as a result of
pregnancy, such sterilization remains
absolutely forbidden according to the
doctrine of the Church.”
Sterilization of the reproductive
organs themselves “is forbidden for an
even graver reason than the sterilization
of individual acts,” the document
continued, “since it induces a state of
sterility in the person which is almost
always irreversible.”
Governments have no authority to
impose sterilization, it added, because
“sterilization damages the dignity and
inviolability of the human person.”
The document rejected “the principle
of totality,” which is used to justify
interference with organs “for the greater
good of the person.”
Sterility “intended in itself,” the
document said, “is not oriented to the
integrated good of the person as rightly
-pursued ‘the proper order of goods
being preserved’ inasmuch as it damages
the ethical good of the person, which is
the highest good, since it deliberately
deprives foreseen and freely chosen
sexual activity of an essential element.”
The article on sterilization in the
Ethical and Religious Directives for
Catholic Health Facilities issued by the
U.S. Catholic Conference Department
of Health Affairs in 1971, the Vatican
Nearly $26,000
Given To CRS
Two Savannah Diocesan
collections have realized nearly
$26,000 for Catholic Relief
Services.
A total of $13,767.53 was
donated to the Latare Sunday
Collection and an additional
$12,190.50 represents the proceeds
of Operation Rice Bowl in the
Diocese.
AMID THE MASSES -- Archbishop Joseph L.
Bernardin of Cincinnati, president of the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops, is surrounded by
thousands of worshipers as he distributes Communion
at the birthplace of Blessed Maria Theresa
Ledochowska in the Silesia region of southeastern
Poland. The outdoor Mass attracted tens of thousands
for the opening of a yearlong celebration honoring the
foundress of the missionary order to Africa, the sisters
of St. Peter Claver. (NC Photo)
Propagation Of The Faith
The greatest greeting for friends is “Vaya con Dios,”
Go with God. Since God works through people, pne of
the ways we go with God is through the works of
missionaries. As He works through the young Priest
accepting his mission cross to begin labors of charity in
a Mission Station with Clinic, School, Church, and
perhaps Orphanage, we go with Him with our prayers
and our contributions to the Propagation of The Faith.
Your help in the Special Collection this Sunday, June
6, enables you to Go With God, as a Convert joins Him
in Baptism in Asia, or as farm workers are assisted by
one of His Sisters in the Philippines, as an
undernourished child receives vitamins, as a leper
accepts the healing of Christ in a mission medicine.
The Apostles and their followers, awaiting in faith and
prayer, the Coming of the Holy Spirit of God, were
inspired on the first Pentecost to the most generous
acts of Charity in sharing all they had with others.
They shared their faith and their possessions to form a
perfect community. God went with them and
accompanied their works with His wonders. On this
Birthday of the Church, June 6, we may accompany
the Apostles of today and be with God at their side, as
they show themselves Witnesses for Him in works of
charity. By our sacrifice for the Propagation of the
Faith in this Sunday’s collection we may Go With God
to the mission fields and help in the wonders He
performs.
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