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The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 57 No. 44
Thursday, December 9,1976
Single Copy Price — 15 Cents
SURVEY REVEALS
'■ V
REFLECTIONS -- St. Mark’s Cathedral is mirrored
in the water covering Venice’s St. Mark’s Square. High
MSGR. HIGGINS SAYS
tides rolled in flooding the famed landmark.
Church Prepared To Dissent
MUNICH (NC) -- The institutional
Catholic Church in the United States “is
fully prepared to dissent, not from the
American political system as such, but,
when necessary, from the prevailing
political ethos and from specific
governmental programs in the field of
public policy,” according to a leading
U.S. churchman.
“In other words,” the churchman,
Msgr. George Higgins, secretary for
research of the U.S. Catholic
Conference (USCC), said, “the old
charge that the Church in the United
States was uncritically committed to the
American ethos is no longer valid, or, in
any event, is not as valid as it was or at
least appeared to be until a few
generations ago.”
Following the Second Vatican
Council, he said, the U.S. Catholic
Church has moved to take a more
positive role in shaping public policy.
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HEADLINE
HOPSCOTCH
Firebombings In Rome
ROME (NC) - Teenage gangs firebombed centers of a Catholic student organization
both here and in Turin Nov. 30 in an escalating series of extremist violence against
Catholic groups in Italy. In both cases a few of the extremists participating in the raids
were over 21. Many were reportedly 14 years old.
Religion ‘Not Naive’
VATICAN CITY (NC) -- Religion is not a “naive, mythical and outdated” way of
looking at reality, but rather an experience which broadens man’s vision, Pope Paul VI
declared Dec. 1. “Religion opens up vast panoramas to man,” the Pope told his weekly
general audience. “It broadens our thoughts to extend beyond the closed room of our
ordinary experiences.”
Active Church Role Urged
WASHINGTON (NC) -- Church agencies should take an active part in opposing
so-called “death with dignity” laws being pushed in various state legislatures, according
to an official of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB). Such bills
should be fought, said Msgr. James T. McHugh, director of the secretariat of the NCCB
committee for pro-life activities, not only because of “serious legal deficiencies, but
because they diminish the value of human life and relieve society - and the law - of its
responsibility to provide adequate legal protection for human life at every stage of its
existence and in every circumstance, even if the enjoyment of life is limited or
qualified.”
Letter Sent Archbishop
VATICAN CITY (NC) - In a candid private latter to Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre,
Pope Paul VI has accused the traditionalist prelate of adopting a “warped
ecclesiology” and of starting a “rebellion” in the Church. The Pope has also called for
a sweeping retraction from the French archbishop of accusations against the Pope and
an explicit affirmation of his acceptance of the new liturgy and all decrees of the
Second Vatican Council. Yet nowhere in the 15-page Latin letter, made public by the
Vatican Nov. 30, did the Pope threaten excommunication of the suspended
archbishop.
American Catholics, he said, “have
gone far beyond the point of explaining
that their religion does not conflict with
Americans and far beyond the point of
simply defending the Catholic faith and
the rights of the Church in the public
order.”
Msgr. Higgins made his comments in a
speech on the U.S. Catholic Church and
the public order before the Bavarian
Catholic Academy, an adult education
and conference center established by
the late Cardinal Julius Doepfner of
Munich.
Msgr. Higgins noted that the U.S.
bishops had been involved in a
controversy during the recent
presidential elections in which a
misperception was created that the
bishops were endorsing President Gerald
Ford because of his support for a states’
rights constitutional amendment to
restrict abortion. The Church is
nonpartisan, he added.
The controversy, he said, “will have
(Continued on page 2)
Youth Are Challenging
Beliefs At Earlier Age
WASHINGTON (NC) -- Young people
in the United States challenge religious
beliefs at an earlier age than in the past,
according to a study on religion and
America youth.
The study published here by the U.S.
Catholic Conference (USCC) also
concluded that parental religious belief
and practice is the dominant influence
on the religious belief and practice of
adolescents and young adults.
Entitled “Religion and American
Youth: With Emphasis on Catholic
Adolescents and Young Adults,” the
study was commissioned by the USCC
Education Department’s office of
research, policy and program
development. It was made by Father
Raymond H. Potvin, Dr. Dean R. Hoge
and Dr. Hart M. Nelsen, all sociologists
at the Boys Town Center for the Study
of Youth Development at the Catholic
University of America. The center
assumed the cost of the study.
“The main impacts of secular
intellectualism and experience with
different beliefs occur in high school
more often today than several decades
ago,” the study said. “Some research
has documented that the reported age
of first religious doubt has dropped an
average of two years since 1948.”
The study also noted a greater desire
among adolescents and young adults for
freedom and self-fulfillment, together
with less willingness to accept either
civil or religious authority.
The study focuses on two age groups:
adolescents between the ages of 13 and
18, mainly junior and senior high school
youth; and young adults between the
ages of 18 and 29. It attempts to
describe the religious attitudes, beliefs
and behavior of those two groups, to
explain changes in them and to make
projections for the future.
Describing the religious belief and
behavior of adolescents, the study
reported a decline from 83 percent in
1951 to 70 percent in 1975 of those
who believe in a personal God. The drop
was greatest among Catholics, from 88
percent to 68 percent. Among
Protestants, the percentage dropped
from 84 to 75 percent and among Jews
from 38 to 21.
The decline in weekly attendance at
religious services was also greatest
among Catholics, from 81 to 55
percent. Among Protestants, the
percentage dropped from 68 to 43 and
among Jews from 35 to 10.
The study also reported declines in
recent years in the percentage of
adolescents who believe in life after
death, regard the Bible as God’s word
and pray daily.
In various areas of moral judgment
Priest From Vietnam
In Savannah Diocese
Reverend Tran Minh Quang, a
Catholic priest and refugee from
Vietnam, is now in the Savannah
Diocese.
Father has signed a three year
contract with the Diocese to minister
primarily to the needs of refugees.
In April of last year Father Quang,
along with another priest, escaped from
Vietnam by boat. He was sent to a
refugee camp at Fort Chafee, Arkansas
and later resettled in Loiusiana.
Father Quang will be in residence at
Sacred Heart Church in Savannah, but
will travel throughout the diocese saying
Mass in his native language and
ministering to the spiritual needs of the
hundreds of Vietnamese living here.
On Sunday December 12 Father
Quang will celebrate a Mass for the
Vietnamese at 3:00 p.m. at Blessed
Sacrament Church in Savannah. A
reception will follow in the Blessed
Sacrament School gynasium.
Father Quang was born in Ninh Binh,
North Vietnam in 1943. When the
Communists took control of the north
in 1954, his parents moved the family
to Saigon. It was in Saigon, at the age of
twelve, that Father Quang entered Phat
Diem Minor Seminary. In 1963 he
entered Saigon Major Seminary for
seven years of study for the priesthood.
Father Quang was ordained in 1970
and was assigned to Kim Thuong, a large
parish of 4000 Catholics, in the city of
Long Khanh. For three of the five years
he was there Father was principal of
Saint Monica Catholic High School and
taught classes in catechism and French.
and behavior, the study noted
significant increases in the percentages
of adolescents who consider sexual
relations before marriage to be all right
in some circumstances and increases in
the use of marijuana or other drugs, in
suicide, truancy, running away from
home, fraud and theft. The percentage
of assaults, however, dropped by half.
The study reported the relationship
of various factors to religious and moral
belief and practice. It found that belief
and practice declines among adolescents
as they grow older.
The researchers recommended
adapting programs to the adolescent,
who feels the need to question
previously accepted beliefs. “If such
personal confrontation with religious
truth is encouraged, the decline in
religiousness as the adolescent grows
older may be arrested to some extent,”
they said.
The study also found that being
enrolled in religion classes make a
significant difference in the degree of
religious belief and practice.
“A major factor which influences the
religiousness of youth is their parents’
orientation to religion,” the study said.
It noted the finding that parent-child
relationships and parental images are
important in the formation of concepts
of God. “Parents influence their
children’s religion overtly by
socialization and indirectly by the way
they relate to their children,” it said.
In the section on young adults, the
study reported findings that among all
college students, the percentages of
those who believe that extramarital
sexual relations, having an abortion,
homosexual relations, and premarital
relations are wrong declined between
1969 and 1973. The percentages of
those who welcomed more emphasis on
self-expression and sexual freedom
increased, while the percentage of those
wanting more respect for authority
decreased.
The s^udy reported on a survey of
students at a Catholic college which
found increases between 1961 and 1971
from 17 to 82 percent who said it
was all right to date non-Catholics with
marriage intentions, from 17 to 70
percent who said it was all right usually
not to say evening prayers, and from 6
to 75 percent who approved heavy
(Continued on oage 2)
Early Deadline Notice
Due to an early publication date for our Christmas Week issue, all material
for inclusion in the December 23 SOUTHERN CROSS must be in our office
by noon Friday, December 17.
ST. VINCENT’S CANDLELIGHT SERVICE - Pictured above are the
soloists who will perform in the annual Christmas Candlelight Service to
be presented at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist on Sunday,
December 19 at 8:00 p.m. The singers are: Erin McGinn, Shellie Fogarty,
Dianne McDonald, Nancy McClellan, Linda Williams, Jeanne Hoffman and
Deborah Michael. The public is cordially invited.
r
Fifth Annual Christmas
Candlelight Service
On Sunday evening, December 19th at 8:00 p.m. one hundred young voices will fill
the Cathedral with “Noels” and “Alleluias” for the Christmas season. It will be St.
Vincent’s Academy’s fifth annual carol concert from the sanctuary of the Cathedral.
The two choruses, the Chorale and Les Chanteurs, will sing both traditional and
modern carols interspersed with the scriptural narration of the Christmas story.
Therese Oetgen and Jeanne Hoffman will narrate.
Monsignor Felix Donnelly, rector of the Cathedral will lead the congregation’s
participation in singing the familiar carols. Near the close of the program all lights will
be extinguished while all sing “Silent Night.” One candle, symbolizing Christ, the
Light of the World, will remain lit and from this light all individual candles will be lit
as the Choruses begin Handel’s “Halleluah Chorus.”
Featured in this year’s program will be Susan Thornton, Reatte McNeal, Miriam
Dingle, Debra Michael, Linda Williams, Erin McGinn, Nancy McClellan, Monica
Rowland, Caron Fleming, Theresa Rousseau, Shellie Fogarty, Dianne McDonald and
Cathy O’Donnell.