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> v The Southern Cross DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER Vol. 57 No. 46 Thursday, December 23, 197 6 Single Copy Price — 15 Cents Christmas 1976 My dear friends in Christ, Once more, our celebration of the holy feast of Christmas invites us to reflect on the mystery of Christ, the story of the Son of God who at a certain moment in history reached out from eternity to join us on our human pilgrimage. In faith, we know that He chose to take on our humanity so that “his sinlessness might cover our sins.” Still, as we look at the world about us today, indeed, as we look at ourselves, we are tempted to ask if He really did accomplish that mission. In shame, we confess to our abiding selfishness and pride, because -- let us admit it frankly -- we are still filled with wickedness. In similar honesty, we acknowledge the persistent presence of evil and suffering in the world, the increasing breakdown in public and private morality, the burgeoning phenomenon of violence and terrorism in our local neighborhoods and in the world community, the growing assaults on human life itself at its every stage. As we behold these disturbing realities, we are tempted in a moment of despair to join the unbeliever in asking, “Where then is your God!” For if God, through His Son, really did become one of us and by His life and death did work out our peace and reconciliation with God and with each other, then why is it that sin and evil, that guilt and hate still abound so much to this day? The response of the Christian during this holy season is to proclaim in confident praise and joy, “Go, tell it on the mountain, our Jesus Christ is born; the Lord, Emmanuel, God-is-with-us, is his mighty name!” Yes, He who alone is good has made known to us through His beloved Son His immeasurable generosity and love. Instead of showing hatred or vengeance, He is patient and merciful, giving His own Son “as the price of our redemption, the holy one to redeem the wicked, the sinless one to redeem sinners, the just one to redeem the. unjust, the incorruptible one to redeem the corruptible, the immortal one to redeem mortals” (Diognetus). It is not, however, that we have been made holy and good and just in a single event in time as the birth of Christ at Bethlehem. It is rather that in that historical moment, our loving and gracious Father opened an era of holiness, making it now possible for us to be holy and good and just. The price of salvation has been paid by the One who took on our likeness, and our sinfulness can now be covered by Him who alone is sinless. For us now to enjoy the benefits of salvation, we must put on the likeness of God, made known to us by His Son, Jesus Christ. Christmas is commonly seen as a celebration of love, when we gratefully recall the love which God has shown us through His Son and when we are again called to respond in love to Him and to each other. It is a correct as well as challenging understanding of the meaning of the Christmas mystery, but it is one we can grasp only in faith. Otherwise, our celebration will be little more than the tinsel and plastic of our decorated trees and attractively wrapped gifts, or even the once-a-year gestures of good-will to our neighbors. The more specific point I want to make, however, in this letter of greetings is that an essential and equally important aspect of the mystery of Christmas is that its message is one of hope. It is a message of promise that assures us that, while not all is well and good, it can be; a message of promise that guarantees that, while not all of us are yet holy and good, we can be, because the King who is our peace has come and “has made salvation possible for the whole human race and taught us what we have to do . . . while we are waiting in hope for the blessing which will come with the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:11-13). My dear friends, in sending you this affectionate and heartfelt Christmas greeting, I pray that the celebration of this feast will be for all of you a moment of peace and love and blessedness. But even more, I pray that in the mystery of Christ’s birth you will be renewed in your hope that these precious gifts will be made perfect and enduring in your lives, “for the glory of God . . . through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (Rom. 5). I Devotedly yours in Christ, aJ^ Bishop of Savannah Peace Day Message Denounces Abortion, Arms Race WASHINGTON (NC) - “If you want peace, defend life,” Pope Paul VI told the people of the world in his 10th annual message to mark the World Day of Peace celebrated by Catholics on Jan. 1. Pope Paul denounced “the false and dangerous program of the ‘arms race,’ of the secret rivalry between peoples for military superiority,” and called abortion a “crime against life” and “a blow at peace.” The Pope’s message for the 1977 World Day of Peace was made public here by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB). Pope Paul said that “if, in defiance of logic, peace and life can in practice be dissociated, there looms on the horizon of the future a catastrophe that in our days could be immeasurable and irreparable for both peace and life.” He added: “Hiroshima is a terribly eloquent proof and a frighteningly prophetic example of this.” If “peace were thought of in unnatural separation from its relationship with life, peace could be preferred, at the expense of the oppression or suppression of others,” the Pope said. “Is that peace?” Although peace and life “are supreme values in the civil order” and are “interdependent,” they have often been in conflict in human history, the Pope noted. Even today this conflict Message Text On Page 2 imposed as the sad triumph of death,” the Pope said, quoting the words of the Roman historian Tacitus: “They make a desert and call it peace.” “Again, in the same hypothesis, the privileged life of some can be exalted, can be selfishly and almost idolatrously “continues to desecrate and stain with blood many a page of human society,” he said. “The key to truth in the matter can be found only by recognizing the primacy of life as a value and as a condition for peace. “The formula is: ‘If you want peace, defend life.’ Life is the crown of peace. VERY REV. CONAN FE1GH OSB Saint Vincent Registrar Named New Headmaster At Benedictine If we base the logic of our activity on the sacredness of life, war is virtually disqualified as a normal and habitual means of asserting rights and so of insuring peace.” Denouncing the arms race, the Pope said that, even if war does not break out, “how can we fail to lament the incalculable outpouring of economic resources and human energies expended in order to preserve for each individual state its shield of ever more costly, ever more efficient weapons, and this to the detriment of resources for schools, culture, agriculture, health and civic welfare. “Peace and life support enormous burdens in order to maintain a peace founded on a perpetual threat to life, and also to defend life by means of a constant threat to peace,” Pope Paul said. Warning that such a concept of international relations “must one day be resolved in the ruination of peace and of countless human lives,” the Pope praised “the effort already begun to reduce and finally to eliminate this senseless cold war resulting from the progressive increase of the military potential of the various nations, as if these nations should necessarily be enemies of each other . . .” “But it is not only war that kills peace,” Pope Paul continued. “Every crime against life is a blow to peace, especially if it strikes at the moral conduct of the people, as often happens today, with horrible and often legal ease, as in the case of the suppression of incipient life, by abortion. “The suppression of an incipient life, or one that is already born, violates above all the sacrosanct moral principle to which the concept of human existence must always have reference; human life is sacred from the first moment of its conception and until the last instant of its natural survival in time,” Pope Paul said. This means, he continued, “that life must be exempt from any arbitrary power to suppress it; it must not be touched; it is worthy of all respect, all care, all dutiful sacrifice.” “If we wish progressive social order to be based upon intangible principles, let us not offend against it in the heart of its essential system: respect for human life,” the Pope said. “Even under this aspect peace and life are closely bound together at the basis of order and civilization.” Reviewing the “hundred forms in which offenses against life seem to be becoming normal behavior,” the Pope cited “individual crime . . . organized to become collective; to ensure the silence and complicity of whole groups of citizens; to make private vendetta a vile collective duty, terrorism a phenomenon of legitimate political or social affirmation, police torture an effective means of public power no longer directed towards restoring order but towards imposing ignoble repression.” “It is impossible for peace to flourish where the safety of life is compromised in this way,” Pope Paul stated. “Where violence rages, true peace ends,” he continued. “But where human rights are truly professed and publicly recognized and defended, peace becomes the joyful and operative atmosphere of life in society.” LATROBE, Pa. - Very Rev. Conan E. Feigh, O.S.B., Registrar at Saint Vincent College, has been appointed prior of the Benedictine Priory and headmaster of Benedictine Military School, Savannah, Georgia, effective January 3, 1977, according to an announcement by Archabbot Egbert H. Donovan, O.S.B., of Saint Vincent Archabbey. In his new position, Fr. Conan will head the Benedictine monastery and supervise a 500-student military high school there. A native of Carrolltown, he is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Feigh of Flick Ave., Carrolltown and attended St. Benedict Grade School there. A graduate of Saint Vincent Prep, Seminary and College, Fr. Conan also attended The Pennsylvania State University where he earned a master of education degree in 1969. He received the master of divinity degree at Saint Vincent in 1974. A member of the Benedictine Order since 1951, he was ordained at Saint Vincent in 1957 by the late Bishop Hugh L. Lamb of Greensburg. Fr. Conan has served as assistant pastor at Saint Bruno, South Greensburg; Sacred Heart, Saint Mary’s; and Sacred Heart, Jeannette. He was named director of guidance and placement at Saint Vincent College in 1965, acting registrar in 1970, and registrar in 1971. He was a member of the College Board of Directors from 1970 to 1975 and served as an elected member of the Archabbey Council of Seniors since 1967. He has been a member of the Greater Latrobe Chamber of Commerce, Middle Atlantic Placement Association, and the Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. Fr. Conan will replace the Very Rev. Aelred J. Beck, O.S.B., who has held the position since November 1967. A former academic dean and director of development and public relations at Saint Vincent College, Fr. Aelred will return to Saint Vincent for reassignment. A mm HEADLINE HOPSCOTCH Very Rev. Conan E. Feigh, O.S.B. ‘Not Heart Of Christmas’ VATICAN CITY (NC) - Santa Claus and Christmas trees are nice, but they are not at the heart of Christmas, Pope Paul VI said at a general audience here. The real meaning of Christmas, the Pope declared, is found only at the “enchanting scene of the manger.” Candle Warning WASHINGTON (NC) - The Consumer Product Safety Commission has warned consumers and religious groups about the “potentially harmful” effects of candles with lead-core wicks, used primarily in church votive lights. “In view of the known harmful effects of lead ingestion and the growing concern over amounts of lead in the environment from a variety of sources, the continued use of lead-core wicks in candles may be unwise,” the agency said.