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PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, August 5, 1976
Contradiction
“To be in favor of abortion and
against war is a contradiction. But to be
against abortion and to condone or
promote war is likewise contradictory.”
With these words Archbishop
Bernardin Gantin, vice president of the
Pontifical Commission for Justice and
Peace, explained the theme for the 1977
World Day of Peace.
The theme for the January 1
observance is: “If you want peace,
defend life.”
This clearly is not an ordinary
“watchword” or slogan for just another
annual observance of something or
other.
The World Day of Peace was
established in 1968 by Pope Paul and
each year has presented people with
practical challenges in search for
personal and world peace.
The 1977 theme is a comprehensive
one and therein is found its beauty. It
reminds us that action and involvement
are necessary elements in the quest for
peace. We must do more than wish for
peace or think peaceful thoughts. We
must do something - we must defend
life.
After all, that’s what peace is all about
- the promotion and defense of life in all
forms in all places at all times.
We can’t pick and choose. If we look
for beauty, dignity or gallantry in war,
we are not men and women of peace. If
we love and cherish guns, we are not
peaceful people. If we decide that
anyone, anywhere, must die because his
life is not “meaningful” by our
standards, we are killers.
So many people Eire able to
vehemently oppose the one while
accepting and even promoting the other.
How absurd. Or, in the words of
Archbishop Gantin: how contradictory..
Naval Affairs
The following editorial, entitled “Naval Affairs,”
appeared in the July 16 issue of The Tidings, Los
Angeles archdiocesan newspaper.
It was written by Al Antczak, managing editor.
Summer is here. Days are warm. School is
out. Casualness is the mood. Sand and surf
beckon. Maritime life begins. Vacation means
relaxation. Of everything? Modesty? Is there a
brave soul around who would defend the
proposition that modesty yet lives? Is there any
agreement anymore as to what constitutes
modesty? Does one dare discuss modesty?
The question is one that ought to be faced in
this era by everyone who laments decline in
customs, manners, etiquette and morality. All
big troubles start with little things. Modesty is
made up of many elements: good taste,
self-discipline, morality. Is a fashion tolerated
on the beach also to be tolerated on the street
or even in the parish church?
One thing is sure. A parish church is not
intended to be a navel observatory. Do bare
midriff and bare backs belong at Sunday Mass?
It is not a question of prudishness, honey, or
even of guarding against your ordinary,
standard pre-Vatican II Bad Thought. No, it’s a
matter of not subjecting the congregation to a
kind of rage that can charitably be ascribed to
thoughtlessness in the young and bad example
in the old. Much is said these days about a new
community spirit in the church. Somehow, the
recollection the community strives to attain in
church is not aided by navels, bareness cellulite,
be it incipient or advanced.
Now, lest some work up a blue fume about
how beautiful is God’s creation, we admit it
theoretically that. Conditions for display,
however, necessitate the innocence of the
Garden of Eden.
But that was a big sin and a long time ago.
The nearest thing to Eden accessible by your
million-dollar-a-mile freeway these days is
Disneyland. Lo and behold, Disneyland turns
out to have a dress code. It is spelled out,
specific, precise, demanding and authoritative.
Very simply: no proper dress, no admission
ticket.
One recent night was Grad Night at
Disneyland. Long ahead of time high school
seniors got a 200-word statement specifying
what was appropriate and inappropriate attire
for ladies and gentlemen. “The dress code is
enforced; those dressed inappropriately will not
be admitted.” Suits, coats, slacks and ties were
required for young men. For girls, separates,
bare midriff, jeans, jumpsuits, culottes, hot
pants or shorts, rubber thronged sandals, hiking
boots or tennis shoes were inappropriate. Just
no class.
Disneyland has no doubt that certain clothes
add to propriety and others do not. Apparently
the young people believe so too,
overwhelmingly. On Grad Night there were
thousands of graduating seniors there from 122
high schools from California, Arizona and
Hawaii. They were neat, proper and classy.
Does the parish church, the house of the Lord,
deserve less than Disneyland?
Strange Prescription
Rov. James Wilines
Somebody or something is always taking the
fun out of life by telling us, “We must . . .” The
law tells us, the body tells us, so does the
conscience. We must! We’ve got to! And
indeed, we must. A person can no more escape
from the obligations to self and to others than
he can walk off from his own legs. Just the
same, there is a way. to take the compulsions of
duty with a shrug or with a smile. It is an old
way: “Whoever shall compel you to go a mile
with him, go with him two.” (Mt. 5, 41) A
strange prescription, you say? Not so strange
when we remember the medical principle that
“like cures like.” That is the principle of
immunization which either prevents certain
diseases, or renders them relatively harmless by
injection of the “bugs” of the same disease.
Something of the same sort occurs when we
are forced to do something we dislike doing and
yet do it willingly. Indeed, do more than is
required, going that second mile. Thus we draw
the poison of the sting of necessity, by going
necessity one better. For example, two students
must study to pass exams. One says, “Okay, I’ll
study what the prof says, but just enough to get
by.” The other says, “I am here to study? Well,
believe me, I’m twice as willing to do so as they
are to make me.” Obviously, the sting of being
forced to do something is blunted When we are
more willing to bow to necessity than necessity
is to have us bow. The happiest of mortals are
those men and women who say of their duties,
“I want to. Let me.” And who mean every
word of it. Happiness is wanting to do what
you have to.
RESOLUTIONS: — Try doing your more
difficult tasks after a good night’s rest, at the
start of the day when full of energy, in the
company of others who keep us working, on a
time schedule to lend a sense of urgency. Plan
ahead when possible, to divide the task into
small segments so one can leave, and return
with repeated feelings of accomplishment and
time to relax, rather than a smothering
sensation and exhaustion from the magnitude
of the whole job at once.
SCRIPTURE: — Jesus said, “Let us go into
Judea again.” The disciples replied, “Rabbi, they
just tried to stone you there and you wish to go
back?” Jesus said, “I am glad for your sakes
that you may believe. Lazarus is dead and I
must wake him.” Thomas said, “Let us go, also,
that we may die with him.” John 11,1,16.
PRAYER: — Teach us, O Lord, to do your
will for You are our God. Amen. (Ps. 143,10)
The Southern Cross
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OUR PARISH
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“First I’ll tell my faults and then I’ll tell yours!”
Death Penalty?
Joseph Breig
The issue of capital punishment is one of the
gravest and most perplexing confronting the
American people.
The majority of the U.S. bishops are opposed
to the death penalty. In 1974, they issued a
joint statement against it.
When the Supreme Court, a few weeks ago,
upheld the capital punishment laws of some
states, Bishop Bernard J. Flanagan of
Worcester, Mass., objected, on the gound that
he doubts that the death penalty is a deterrent
to serious crime.
Right there, it would seem, is the crux of the
problem.
Of late, there is a tendency among some
people to talk as if abortion, capital
punishment and war could all be lumped into
one category. But that is a mistake.
Abortion is always gravely wrong, in every
situation and circumstance. Mind, I am not
talking about the subjective personal guilt, or
guiltlessness, of a frightened pregnant woman. I
am talking about objective truth.
dispense with the death penalty if other
punishments for vicious crime were severe, sure
and lasting. The trouble is that too often judges
or parole boards send criminals back to the
streets to kill or kidnap again. The public has
grown rather skeptical about the efficacy of
mere prison terms to deter grave crime. And the
crimes of violence mount.
Catholics should know that they are free to
make their own judgments about capital
punishment. The fact that a majority of today’s
bishops oppose it does not mean opposition is
an article of faith.
Francis T. Butler of the U.S. Catholic
Conference attacked the court decision
upholding capital punishment. He said it “can
only mean a further erosion of the value of
human life . . . Christ teaches us that we must
be bearers of his love and forgiveness to those
who are most alienated from our society.”
But if the death penalty protects innocent
lives, it is not an erosion of the value of human
life. And Christ expects us to love first the
victims of crime - not merely the criminals.
For You?
Rev. Joseph Dean
KftS
The Sioux Indians have a special religious
ceremony called “Vision Quest.” After tribal
prayers for purification for young people, a
youth or a maiden goes into some high, isolated
place. There the young person fasts, prays,
meditates, listening for a call from the Great
Spirit, or as we say, from God. The Great Spirit
may speak during this week of retreat, of
listening, of waiting in one of many ways:
through the wind, through some activity of fish
in the stream, through the patterns of the white
clouds against the blue of the heavens, through
one’s own conscience, or through any action of
God’s nature around and about the person.
Most of the time the youth receives a clear
message about direction of life, the way to
proceed, the solution to a problem. Or
sometimes in this vision quest, he may not
know how to interpret his experience or his
insight or the form that his call may take.
Then he goes to the holy man of the tribe for
prayers, for discussion, for guidance, for
counseling. At times you and I make fun of
such customs. But we should think twice about
the sincere efforts of people like the American
Indians who worship the same loving Father as
we do.
It is true that these people in the past did not
have the gift of faith that we have; they did not
have the knowledge and the sacraments and the
teaching of Jesus that the Great Spirit wanted
them to have. But Jesus lived and died, and
rescued all human beings. He wants to share His
divine life for all eternity with every man and
woman, every boy and girl. However, the Savior
placed His work in the hands of His disciples
and followers.
We are the ones who have been slow to bring
His truth and love and life to all people. In the
meantime, how can we say that our merciful
Father will not apply the merits of Jesus in
another way to people like American Indians.
We might refer to such mercy under the title of
Baptism of desire or we can point to the good
thief on the cross who had no formal
instruction, who was not baptized and yet who
was first to enter the paradise that Jesus
promises to all His faithful followers.
In any case the Sioux Indians who are now
Christians can still continue their tradition and
custom of Vision Quest. You and I do
something similar when we follow the example
of Jesus, going off from time to time to a quiet
spot for prayer, meditation, listening interiorly
to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit. Only
now, in listening to the flow of a breeze, or the
gurgle of a stream or the sound of thunder or
the chirping of a meadow lark, we have an
infinitely greater background to draw from: the
inspired word of God, the life and teachings of
the Son of God, the history of Christian heroes
and their religious experiences, and our
conscience formed and guided by the virtues,
doctrine, sanctity and example of Jesus in our
daily lives.
And if we are still doubtful about the results
of our vision quest, we don’t go to a pagan holy
man, but we can go to Christian pastors and
counselors steeped in the pattern of Jesus and
His ways. So we don’t knock the Sioux. We just
have a better opportunity to try our Vision
Quest and hear the Lord’s call more clearly,
more surely.
Abortion is always dreadfully wrong because
it is the slaying of the most utterly innocent of
all possible human beings. Nothing can justify
such slaying.
But there are circumstances which justify
war. It is hardly deniable that the war against
Hitlerism was necessary and right.
In such a war, killing is not an anti-life
action, but a pro-life action. It is an act in
defense of the lives, liberties and human rights
of innocent persons; of civilization; of
everything decent.
What One Person Can Do
Rev. Richard Armstrong
Can capital punishment be defended on the
same grounds, when resorted to for defense of
the same values? Can the death penalty be a
pro-life action?
The answer is “yes” if the death penalty does
in fact seriously deter criminals from
commiting such vicious crimes as kidnaping and
premeditated murder.
I suspect that it does deter them. I believe
the Lindbergh law halted a wave of cruel
kidnapings by frightening organized criminals
out of the filthy business of abduction for
ransom.
Maybe the best way to get the best answer
would be to ask the criminals - supposing they
would give an honest answer. Certainly there is
an old expression among them: “Nix - that’s
the chair” (or the rope, or the gas chamber.)
Nobody wants to be put to death.
Maybe, on the other hand, we could totally
PATSY TURNER, HOME MISSIONARY
Mrs. Patsy Turner, a Presbyterian home
missionary in the Kentucky hills, recently took
time out to celebrate her 100th birthday. Any
expectations of a retirement announcement
were ill-founded. She made none.
One of 12 children in a well-to-do Virginia
farm family, Mrs. Turner packed her Bible in
1910 and took off to do home mission work in
the Canoe, Kentucky, area, then a gathering
place for moonshiners, gamblers, gunslingers and
“sinners of all kinds,” she recalls. She parlayed
a $500 donation into enough money to build
the Canoe Presbyterian Church in 1925 - then
three others later on. In 1929, she built a
school and taught there. Local children started
attending public schools in the 1940’s.
But “Miz Patsy” has spent most of her life
on the move, a legend in the hill country, where
she goes along the creeks and into the hollows
ministering to the sick and those in any kind of
need. “1 walk, l ride," she says, “1 get to people
who need me and the Lord in any way I can.”
While her husband, a merchant, was living, he
supported her missionary work wholeheartedly.
Their four children, all adopted, haven’t been
able to persuade her to let up now and come to
live with one of them. “I’m not alone,” says the
centenarian, “God and I live in that house on
the hill.” And she has work to do. Gn Sundays
alone, with the help of a young friend who
drives, she teaches at one church at 10 a.m.,
another at 1 p.m. and a third at 3 p.m.
Mrs. Patsy Turner speaks from personal
experience, she says, when she gives spiritual
encouragement. “I’ve seen miracles.” Perhaps
the greatest miracle is herself.
For a free copy of the Christopher News
Notes, “The Time of Your Life,” send a
stamped, self-addressed envelope to The
Christophers, 12 E. 48th St., New York, N.Y.
10017.