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PAGE 2—July 15,1976
Burger Joins White And Rehnquist In Abortion Dissent
WASHINGTON (NC) - “I am not yet
prepared to accept the notion that
normal rules of law, procedure and
constitutional adjudication suddenly
become irrelevant solely because a case
touches on the subject of abortion,”
Justice Byron White said in dissenting
from the Supreme Court’s latest
abortion decision.
White was joined by Chief Justice
Warren Burger and Justice William
Rehnquist in his dissent from a majority
ruling declaring five provisions of a
Missouri law regulating abortion
unconstitutional.
White and Rehnquist were the only
two justices who dissented from the
January, 1973, Roe v. Wade and Doe v.
Bolton decisions which struck down
most state restrictions on abortion.
White made his comment in
discussing the majority’s ruling that a
section of the Missouri law banning
“saline amniocentesis” as an abortion
procedure after the first 12 weeks of
pregnancy is unconstitutional.
White argued that the majority’s
findings of fact on the matter were
incorrect.
The majority held that the ban on
saline amniocentesis was
unconstitutional partly because the best
available alternative abortion procedure,
the use of the drug prostaglandin, was
not easily available to women in
Missouri.
“There is simply no evidence in the
record that prostaglandin was or is
unavailable at any time relevant to this
case,” White said. Without such
evidence, he said, the court “cannot
properly strike down a statute passed by
one of the states.”
White said “the only other basis for
its factual finding which the majority
offers is another case ... in which a
different court concluded that the
record in its case showed the
prostaglandin method to be unavailable
in another state -- Kentucky -- at
another time -- two years ago.
“This case must be decided on its
own merit.”
In supporting the spousal consent
requirement in the Missouri law, White
said, “it is truly surprising that the
majority finds in the United States
Constitution ... a rule that the state
must assign a greater value to a mother’s
decision to cut off a potential human
life by abortion than to a father’s
decision to let it mature into a live
child.
“Such a rule cannot be found there,
nor can it be found in Roe v. Wade.
These are matters which a state should
be able to decide free from the
suffocating power of the federal judge,
purporting to act in the name of the
Constitution.”
White also supported the Missouri
parental consent requirement for
abortions for minors.
“Missouri is entitled to protect the
minor, unmarried woman from making
the decision in a way which is not in her
own best interests, and it seeks to
achieve this goal by requiring parental
consultation and consent,” he said.
“This is the traditional way by which
states have sought to protect children
from their own immature and
improvident decisions; and there is
absolutely no reason expressed by the
majority why the state may not utilize
that method here.”
White also attacked the majority’s
ruling that a section of the Missouri law
requiring doctors to make every effort
to save the life of an infant who survives
an abortion was unconstitutional
because the use of the word “fetus” in
the law could be interpreted as a
prohibition against abortion which
would be unconstitutional under the
Roe and Doe decisions.
The majority rule also ruled that a
sentence in the section ruling that
failure to try to save the life of a
“child” which survived an abortion
constituted manslaughter was not
“severable” from the part of the law the
majority said was unconstitutional.
“If this section is read in any way
other than through a microscope,”
White said, “it is plainly intended to
require that where a ‘fetus . . . (may
have) the capability of meaningful life
outside the womb’ (the language of Roe
v. Wade), the abortion be handled in a
way which is designed to preserve that
life, notwithstanding the mother’s desire
to terminate it.
“Indeed, even looked at through a
microscope, the statute seems to go no
further,” he said.
“If the pregnancy is to be terminated
at a time when there is no chance of life
outside the womb,” White said, “a
physician would not be required to
exercise any care or skill to preserve the
life of the fetus during abortion no
matter what the mother’s desires.”
“Since the state has a compelling
interest, sufficient to outweigh the
mother’s desire to kill the fetus” when
the fetus can live outside the womb, the
law is constitutional, White said.
“Incredibly,” White said, “the court
reads the statute to require ‘the
physician to preserve the life and health
of the fetus whatever the stage of
pregnancy,’ thereby attributing to the
Missouri legislature the strange intention
of passing a statute with absolutely no
chance of surviving constitutional
challenge under Roe v. Wade.”
U. S. Serrans Urged To ‘Turn World On To Spiritual Life’
CHICAGO (NC) - Declaring that the
“real problem in the Church is the
problem of spirituality,” the director of
the University of Notre Dame’s Center
for Human Development urged
members of Serra International to “turn
the world on to the spiritual life.”
If that happened “it wouldn’t be long
before we’d be experiencing a different
world” said Father Vincent Dwyer. “I
wish I could ignite you to see what you
can do to change the world.”
Father Dwyer was a keynote speaker
at the 34th convention of Serra
International, a 12,500-member
organization which fosters religious
vocations and trains Catholic lay
leadership. Some 1,500 members from
throughout the world attended the
convention here in late June.
The priest said that the message of
the Second Vatican Council was to
renew spiritual life. He said Serra clubs
can become the vehicle to unite the
whole Church, “to bring it back to a
spiritual renewal.”
“Young people are thirsting for
spirituality,” he said. “To whom do
they go? Do you feel confident if your
son or daughter came to talk to you
about transcendental meditation or
prayer? Could you really handle that?”
Father Dwyer scored seminaries for
failing to train students in spirituality
and he recommended that they place a
greater emphasis on mystics and the
saints.
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, retired
head of the Rochester, N.Y., diocese,
urged Serrans to influence seminary
policy decisions and commended them
for their financial support of seminaries.
“You are not just sheep to be sheared,”
he said.
“Strive to become members of a
consultative board for your seminaries,”
he advised. Laity should do this, he said,
because they are paying for the
seminary and because they have an
interest in what kind of priests will staff
their parishes.
In another address, Robert N. Lynch,
former president of the National
Committee for Human Life
Amendment, Inc., and a seminarian in
Phoenix, Ariz., urged the Serrans to
“speak out on abortion as the
opportunity warrants.”
“The din of these anti-abortionists
has all but been drowned out by the
deafening silence of the Catholic
majority and by the disproportionate
cries of some in the Church who agree
1,000 Priests At Charismatic Meet
STEUBENVILLE, Ohio (NC) -
Bishop Paul Anderson of Duluth, Minn.,
sees it as a matter of geometric
progression: In six years, every priest in
the nation, give or take a few hundred,
will attend the National Conference for
Priests on Catholic Charismatic
Renewal.
A year ago, at the first charismatic
priests’ meeting, he pointed out,
attendance was 550. This year, the
official count is 1,050. If it continues to
nearly double every year, by 1982 all
58,000 U.S. priests might be registered,
he said, in a talk at the conference here.'
Actually, this year’s attendance figure
is not strictly American. It includes an
unspecified number of priests from a
dozen foreign countries also.
The freewheeling, hand-clapping
assembly has been billed by its
organizers as the largest gathering of
priests in the United States.
“We don’t want any priest to feel
uncomfortable because he doesn’t
choose to express himself in the way
many of us do,” said Third Order
Franciscan Father Michael Scanlan,
organizer of the five-day meeting and
president of Steubenville College.
Expressing himself enthusiastically
did not seem to be a problem for one of
the speakers, Bishop John King Mussio,
74, of Steubenville. The bishop, warmly
welcomed by the priests, took off his
coat and joined in the singing and
hand-clapping at the meeting.
The bishop, who brought laughter
when he said he “just barely recovered
from last year,” struck a more serious
note in his talk when he cited the need
for “Spirit-filled priests” to meet the
challenges of today’s world.
The bishop was followed by a central*
figure in the charismatic priest
movement, Dominican Father Francis
MacNutt of St. Louis, who urged
openness to the Spirit for healing.
Early in the meeting, members of an
orientation team talked with several
hundred priests who had not been
personally involved in charismatic
renewal.
Before noon each day, white-garbed
priests marched in liturgical procession
from the college chapel to a large tent
for Mass.
After activities ended at 10:15 p.m.
daily, hundreds of priests huddled
before the Blessed Sacrament in the
chapel until after midnight.
Small prayer groups met daily, and in
some cases more often during the week.
A few groups formed a year ago here
reported that they were still meeting on
a regular basis.
Nearly 100 groups of six to 12 priests
could be seen at various stages of the
conference in the wooded campus area
in silent prayer, sharing experiences,
praying over one another, and singing.
“To me,” said one of the Midwest
priests attending his first such
conference, “it is obvious that the Holy
Spirit has chosen this time and this
place and these thousand priests to
effect their spiritual renewal and to
show the nation that the priests are in
fact assuming their rightful leadership in
today’s sometimes unsteady Church.”
Publish Priestly Formation Program
WASHINGTON (NC) - The revised Program of Priestly Formation adopted last
November by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB), has just been
published here.
The program is a document containing the norms that govern diocesan and religious
order seminaries in the United States. It is intended to help seminaries implement the
decrees and spirit of the Second Vatican Council, which also called for periodic
revisions of such programs.
Prepared by the NCCB Committee on Priestly Formation in collaboration with the
Conference of Major Superiors of Men, the first program was approved by the Vatican
Congregation for Catholic Education for the 1971-6 period.
A revised program, drawn up after an extensive two-and-a-half-year consultation
process, was approved by the NCCB at its general meeting last November and by the
Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education in March. The program has been
approved for a five-year period.
AUXILIARY BISHOPS ORDAINED ~ The Newark
Archdiocese ordained three new auxiliary bishops and
welcomed a fourth in a rite witnessed by 2,000 clergy
at~Sacred Heart Cathedral in New Jersey. Archbishop
Peter L. Gerety was principal consecrator for Bishops
Robert F. Garner, 56, Joseph A. Francis, 52, and
Dominic A. Marconi, 49. Bishop Jerome Pechillo, 57,
was formally welcomed into the archdiocese. Pictured
from left to right are Bishop Pechillo, Bishop Marconi,
Archbishop Gerety, Bishop Francis and Bishop Garner.
(NC Photo by D. J. Zehuder.)
with the (Supreme) Court who lose no
opportunity to say so,” he said. “Where,
then, are our prophets?”
Citing a survey which he said showed
that the majority of Catholics do not
know or are split on when life begins,
Lynch said that it is “hard to prophesy
and arouse a Catholic community that is
either unaware or disbelieving that
abortion takes a life.”
Lynch said his survey discovered a
“vast middle ground of American
church-going Catholics, perhaps as many
as 80 percent of them, who are both
apathetic and misinformed on the
issue.”
He asked the Serrans to join the U.S.
bishops’ political offensive against
abortion and to educate their
communities to the scientific, medical
and moral aspects of abortion.
“Return home, therefore, resolved to
answer the prophetic call - the vocation
to help the nation return to a sense of
national purpose firmly rooted on
unchangeable moral principles,” he
concluded.
Father Philip J. Mumion, director of
the office of pastoral research and
chairman of the Senate of Priests in the
New York archdiocese, told the Serrans
to review their objective of attracting
men and women to the Religious life.
“The ministry of the Church belongs
to more than priests and Religious,” he
said. “The ministries of priests and
Religious involve more than works
within the ecclesiastical structures.”
“In part,” he continued, “I would
suggest the need to expand your
concerns to include the myriad forms
and persons of ministry and not just the
Church world of the ordained priests.”
He suggested that Serrans try to
“encourage parishioners to reflect on
the moral dimensions of work or public
policy,” and move out “beyond the
boundaries of Church institutions to a
community need, regardless of their
church affiliation.”
In his homily at the opening Mass of
the convention, Archbishop William E.
Cousins of Milwaukee,
bishop-moderator of Serra, spoke of
Christ’s promise to remain with
Christians through the Eucharist.
“Never can there be a greater
participation in the joy of faith” than
through the Eucharist, he said. This is of
particular concern for Serrans, he said,
because of their devotion to preserving
the priesthood.
PUERTO RICAN FESTIVAL ~ Cardinal Terence
Cooke of New York and Bishop Ricardo Surinach,
auxiliary of Ponce, Puerto Rico, lead the
concelebration of a Mass marking the Puerto Rican
festival of San Juan Bautista in New York’s Central
Park. In the photo at right, Bishop Surinach (left) and
Cardinal Cooke exchange the kiss of peace. (NC
Photos)
NECROPHILICS-BIOPHILICS 9
Archbishop Sees Abortion Divisions
BOSTON (NC) - Archbishop Fulton
J. Sheen, speaking at the National Right
to Life convention here, said the
abortion issue has divided people into
two categories: “Biophilics, the lovers
of life, and necrophilics, lovers of
death.”
The former national director of the
Society for the Propagation of the Faith
and retired Bishop of Rochester, N. Y.
addressed about 2,500 persons in the
civic auditorium.
“We are the lovers of life,”
Archbishop Sheen said.
Outside the convention hall, Bill
Baird a militant crusader against birth
control laws and anti-abortion
legislation, staged a demonstration with
a small group of his followers. They
were met by a pro-life group led by the
St. Alphonsus young adult choir of St.
Louis, who sang “All We Ask is to Give
Life a Chance.”
Cardinal Humberto Medeiros
presented Archbishop Sheen to the
cheering audience as “a great man of
God . . . with one of the greatest minds
and hearts in America.” He called upon
people of good will everywhere to be
defenders of the “unalienable right to
life” guaranteed by the U.S.
Constitution.”
Archbishop Sheen told the audience
that the predominant question in the
abortion issue is not “when” the child is
conceived. He said the problem is
“who” conceived the child.
“Persons beget persons and, “as a
matter of fact, life is even more
important than love. Love means
sacrifice. Erotic love cannot be
compared with life.”
Utilizing the histrionic skills that won
him national fame on the Life is Worth
Living telecast, Archbishop Sheen
recalled the “wisdom of Solomon” in
relating some abortion dilemmas.
“Picture this. A woman is married to
a syphilitic man. A child is born dead;
the next child is deaf and blind; the
third, tubercular. She is again pregnant.
Should she have an abortion? If she did
then Beethoven would not have been
born.”
The archbishop posed another
dilemma. “Overpopulation; No housing;
Lack of money; and the father is
unknown. Should this woman have an
abortion? She would have killed
Christ.”
Dr. Mildred Jefferson of Boston’s
University Hospital, who was re-elected
president of the National Right to Life
Committee, shared the platform with
Archbishop Sheen.
Doctor Jefferson, the first black
woman to graduate from Harvard
Medical School, warned in her brief
remarks of “numerous efforts” to block
the voices of pro-life advocates. She
said, “It is time to place children on the
endangered species list “of
environmentalists.
In another session French geneticist
Jerome Lejune gave a scientific answer
to Archbishop Sheen’s question of
“when and who” in the abortion
problem.
“It is not matter of ‘When does man
begin?’ The answer to that is so simple.
Man’s life begins from the moment from
the first division. All the rest of life to
the last day is just an amplification of
that first event.”
He added “the real question is
whether people want to respect that
human beginning.”
Dr. Lejune is director of the Hospital
des Enfants Malades in Paris, the world’s
largest medical service specializing in
mongoloid children. He discovered the
cause of mongoloidism (a form of ,
mental retardation). f
“In France” Dr. Lejune said, “the
campaign to liberalize abortion was
focused on preventing the birth of
mongoloids. My patients were really
endangered.”
In another workshop, Father Charles
Fiore, director of the Illinois Right to
Life, described plans for the
organization to place referendum
questions on the ballot in several states
during the 1978 congressional elections.
He cited two proposed questions: “1.
Do you favor taking of unborn life? 2.
Do you favor passage by Congress and
ratification by the states of the
constitutional amendment to assure that u
no human life born or unborn and of
whatever age or condition be taken
without due process?”
Father Fiore contended that the
public opinion polls and others
subscribed for by political candidates
are burdened with questions whose
phrasing discourage a pro-life stance.
Dr. Carolyn F. Gerster of Scottsdale,
Ariz., was re-elected to a second term as
the right to life unit’s chairman of the
board of directors.
The four day convention has 1,600
Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and
Jewish participants registered. Its
sessions included workshops and ^
seminars held in religious, civic, medical
and science centers throughout the city.