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Pope John Paul II Strongly
For Latin Rite Priests In
Reconfirms Celibacy
Major Document
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VATICAN CITY (NC) -- Pope John Paul II has strongly reconfirmed celibacy fpr
Latin-Rite priests. In a major document he also indicated that he will not easily grant
laicizat'ons, dispensations from priestly life.
The document is a papal letter addressed “to all the priests of the church on the
occasion of Holy Thursday 1979.” In it the pope said objections raised against priestly
celibacy are based on criteria “whose ‘anthropological’ correctness and basis in fact are
seen to be very dubious and of relative value.”
The Latin church continues to wish “that all those who receive the sacrament of
orders should embrace this renunciation (of marriage) ‘for the sake of the kingdom of
heaven,’ ” the letter said.
In a shorter companion letter addressed to the world’s bishops, the pope stressed
“the brotherly communion of the whole of the church’s episcopal college or ‘body.’ ”
He asked bishops to intensify their unity with priests of their dioceses and urged
“every possible effort” to encourage new vocations to the priesthood.
Both letters were linked in their titles to Holy Thursday (April 12), the day on
which priests renew their promises to their bishops, and bore April 8 (Palm Sunday) as
the date of issuance. The letters were made public April 9.
In the 35-page letter to priests, the pope also placed strong emphasis on lifelong
fidelity to the priestly vocation.
“It is a matter here of keeping one’s word to Christ and the church,” he said.
He rejected laicization as an easy answer to a crisis in one’s vocation, but the words
of the text do not rule out all possibilities of granting laicizations. The pope did not
say what he will do with laicization requests, but his words indicated a tough line will
be taken.
Laicization is a papal dispensation freeing a priest from his priestly duties and
returning him to the lay state.
He urged priests to call on their resources of faith and prayer in moments of crisis
“and not have recourse to a dispensation, understood as an ‘administrative
intervention,’ ” when the issue is “a profound question of conscience and a test of
humanity.”
The pontiff opened his letter by calling all priests “my brothers by virtue of the
sacrament of orders.”
“For you I am a bishop, with you I am a priest,” he said.
He asked priests to re-read sections of Vatican II documents that highlight the
common priesthood of all Christians and the essential difference between this
priesthood and the ordained priesthood.
He emphasized church teachings that the priesthood is sacramental, hierarchical and
ministerial. The priesthood is a gift for the Christian community which “comes from
Christ himself,” he said.
Because of their “likeness to Christ, the good shepherd,” he said, “you priests are
expected to have a care and commitment which are far greater and different from
those of any lay person.”
While noting that priests are engaged in a wide variety of activities, he added that
‘ within all these differences, you are always and everywhere the bearers of your
particular vocation.”
“And this you can never forget; this you can never renounce; this you must put into
practice at every moment, in every place and in every way,” he said.
“The priestly personality must be for others a clear and plain sign and indication.
This is the first condition for our pastoral service,” he added.
The pope urged priests not to succumb to calls to be like other people.
“Those who call for the secularization of priestly life and applaud its various
manifestations will undoubtedly abandon us when we succumb to temptation. We
shall then cease to be necessary and popular,” he wrote.
He said that priests must be “close to people and all their problems.” But he
stressed that this must be done “in a priestly way.” Priests must be men of prayer and
witnesses to “the perspective of eternal salvation” in their service, he added.
The pope called celibacy “a heritage of the Latin Catholic Church, a tradition to
which she owes much and in which she is resolved to persevere, in spite of all the
difficulties to which such fidelity could be exposed, and also in spite of the various
symptoms of weakness and crisis in individual priests.”
He insisted that in treasuring the discipline of celibacy the church is not
downgrading the value of marriage or “succumbing to a Manichean contempt for the
human body and its functions.”
“Celibacy is precisely a ‘gift of the Spirit.’ A similar though different gift is
contained in the vocation to true and faithful married love,” the pope said.
He closed by entrusting all priests “to the mother of Christ, who in a special way is
our mother: the mother of priests.”
Referring to “the wonderful and penetrating dimension of nearness to the mother
of Christ” in the priesthood, he added: “I am referring especially to my own personal
experience.”
In the much shorter letter to bishops, eight pages long, the pope said, “the gift of
the sacramental fullness of the priesthood is greater than all the toils and also all the
sufferings involved in our pastoral ministry in the episcopate.”
Bishops should renew their love for the priests “entrusted to you as the closest
collaborators in your pastoral office,” said the pope.
“Take care of them like beloved sons, brothers and friends,” he continued. “Be
mindful of all their needs. Have particular solicitude for their spiritual advancement,
for their perseverance in the grace of the sacrament of the priesthood.”
He reminded bishops of their unity with the priests in their diocese and their union
with the rest of the bishops of the world in the college of bishops.
The pope especially asked bishops to foster vocations.
“The full reconstitution of the life of the seminaries throughout the church will be
the best proof of the achievement of the renewal to. which the (Second Vatican)
Council directed the church,” he said.
The Southern Cross
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• DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
HL -
Vol. 60 No. 15 Form 3579 To: 601 E. 6th St. Waynesboro, Ga. 30830 Thursday, April 12,1979 Single Copy Price - 15 Cents
——- i^—■— J i - i
Carter Defends Positions On
BLESSING THE PILGRIMS - Pope John Paul II Square. The Palm Sunday observance was attended by
holds the traditional palm leaves and blesses pilgrims tens of thousands. (NC Photo)
waving olive branches as he walks through St. Peter’s
Work Progresses On Mission Statement
- ■■ -'-V W*< ■ ;■ ^ v ■ »?■’ ■■■• '•T ■ Y ;
Tax Credits, Human Rights
A Mission Statement for the Diocese
of Savannah has been the topic of
deanery level meetings of delegates to
the May Assembly of the Savannah
Diocesan Pastoral Council. Delegates
met during March to express ideas on
the statement which will come before
them for consideration next month.
Ideas surfacing at the deanery
meetings have been forwarded to Sister
Mary Laurant Duggan, C.S.J., Savannah
Chancery Administrator, who was
named Permanent Executive Secretary
of the Council at the February session
of the group’s Executive Board.
Sister Mary Laurant will provide a
compilation prepared from the delegates’
input which will be sent, along with an
agenda for the upcoming assembly, to
all delegates early in May.
The Mission Statement will be
considered again at the Macon meeting,
and following this final general
discussion, the actual writing of the
statement will be delegated to a drafting
committee to be headed by Father
Douglas Clark and Sister Grace Marie
Dillard, R.S.M.
The purpose of the proposed
statement is that it be a written
expression of the fundamental focus
and thrust of the diocese. It is intended
to be:
One or two paragraphs.
Broad and general - an umbrella for
more specific objectives and goals.
Inspirational - motivating to action,
not merely informational.
Bishop Raymond W. Lessard is
President of the Savannah Diocesan
Pastoral Council. Sister Mary Laurant
Duggan, C.S.J. is its Executive
Secretary. Mrs. Connie Thuente, of
Macon, is Council Chairperson. Michael
Johnson, of Albany, is Vice
Chairperson.
Other members are:
SAVANNAH DEANERY - Rev.
James Costigan, Sister Mary Bridgid,
R.S.M., William F. Hennessy, John
Jurgensen, Daniel Keane and Frank
Mathis, all of Savannah.
ALBANY DEANERY - Rev. Douglas
K. Clark, Sister Anita, A.S.C. and Mrs.
William Stone, all of Albany; Ronald J.
Foust, Americus; John Rowe, Cairo.
AUGUSTA DEANERY - Rev. Walter
Di Francesco, Sister Clara Francis,
C.S.J., Mrs. Mary Carter, Dr. Terrence
Cook and Edward Riley, all of Augusta.
COLUMBUS DEANERY - Rev.
Michael O’Keeffe, Sister Alma Woodard,
R.S.M., Clarence T. Cummings, Jr., Ray
Cunningham, Mrs. Chris Heyn and Mrs.
Seth Norris, all of Columbus.
MACON DEANERY - Rev. Msgr.
Marvin J. LeFrois and Mrs. Mary
Dembowski, both of Warner Robins;
Sister Grace Marie Dillard, R.S.M. and
Tom McCuniff, both of Macon.
STATESBORO DEANERY - Rev.
Clement -F. Borchers and Douglas
McCuster, both of Vidalia; Sister Jean
Therese Durbin, S. C., McRae; Peter
Peters, Swainsboro; Miss Cynthia
Strozzo, Brooklet.
VALDOSTA - BRUNSWICK
DEANERY - Rev. Frank Patterson and
Michael Alexander, both of Valdosta;
Sister Ruth Butler, C.S.J. and James
Eades, both of Brunswick.
BY GERARD E. SHERRY
(Sherry, executive editor of THE VOICE,
newspaper of the Miami Archdiocese, was
among a group of editors from the West Coast
and South invited to a White House meeting
April 6. Also at the briefing was Jesuit Father
Joseph O’Hare, editor-in-chief of AMERICA
magazine.)
WASHINGTON (NC) - Tuition tax
credits, prayer in public schools, human
rights, and Palestinian autonomy were
topics discussed by President Carter at
an interview in the Cabinet Room of the
White House with Catholic editors and
members of the general press.
The president denied reneging on
campaign promises to support tax relief
for parents of private school students.
“I have always been concerned about
the consitutional prohibition against the
mixing of church and state and pointed
out frequently during the campaign
what we had done in Georgia when I
was governor.
“We authorized a direct allocation of
state funds to the colleges of Georgia,
both private and public, on a per capita
basis, beginning, I think, with $400 per
student, increasing it while I was
governor to $600 per student,” Carter
said.
“So there are some elements of aid
to private colleges of which I strongly
approve. But to see a substantial
amount of very limited funds for
education going outside the public
education system, I thought and still
believe, has been in error.
“This would have been an extremely
costly proposal to the federal budget.
And my objection was on that basis and
not on constitutional grounds,” he said.
On the question of school prayer,
Carter said: “The Constitution, I think,
has been interpreted by the Supreme
Court in such a way that students
should not feel a constraint to pray
while they are in a public school. As a
Baptist, not as particularly a president, I
agree with that. I think that prayer
should be a private matter between a
person and God.
“There are constraints that are placed
on students other than ordering a child
to pray. If everyone else in the
classroom is engaged in public prayer
and doing it voluntarily, for a young
seven or eight-year-old child to demand
the right to leave the room is a difficult
question to answer.
“But in general, I think the
government ought to stay out of the
prayer business and let it be between a
person and God and not let it be part of
a school program under any tangible
constraints, either a direct order to a
child to pray or an embarrassing
situation where the child would feel
constrained to pray. It is a difficult
question to answer,” Carter said.
The president defended his human
rights policy in answer to critics of his
new lease base pact with the Marcos
government in the Philippines. The
critics allege the Marcos regime is
oppressive.
“We have made the human rights
issue arguments as strongly as we could
Reverend James J. Stevenson, pastor
of St. Francis of Assisi Church,
Folkston, marked the Golden Jubilee of
his ordination to the priesthood on
April 2. The formal observance and
Anniversary Mass was offered by Father
Stevenson on Sunday April 1 in the
I’olkston Church.
Father came to the Savannah Diocese
in 1974 at the invitation of Bishop
Raymond W. Lessard and has served the
Catholics of Folkston and St. Mary’s
since that time.
Father Stevenson was ordained a
priest on April 2, 1929 in St. John’s
Cathedral in Cleveland. His first
appointment was to St. Patrick’s Church
in Youngstown, Ohio. Among other
assignments Father was pastor of St.
Mary, Conneaut, for 17 years, helping
to form what is now St. Frances Cabrini
Mission which became a parish in 1955.
He was also Administrator of Little
Flower, Middlebranch, Ohio; chaplain at
St. Joseph Hospice, Louisville; assistant
at St. Mary Warren; St. Patrick
Youngstown and parishes in Cleveland
and Akron.
His final pastorate before his “official
retirement” in 1971 was at St.
Ambrose, Garrettsville, Ohio.
Father Stevenson was the guest of
honor at a dinner following the April
1st Mass. His sister Ann, of Cleveland,
joined the parishioners in the festivities.
possibly make them with the Marcos
government to the extent of even
straining our relations with the
Philippine government. This has been
done at the top level by me and also by
others who work in the State
Department itself.
“I don’t think that our displeasure
with meeting American-type standards
on human rights protection ought to
interfere with our consummating this
agreement,” Carter said.
The president extended his human
rights theme, saying “I think for us to
raise the banner of being deeply
committed to human rights has been
(Continued on page 3)
A brother, Father Michel Leo
Stevenson, who died in 1959, was
pastor emeritus of St. Angela Merici,
Fairview Park, Ohio.
FR. JAMES J. STEVENSON
Father James J. Stevenson
Observes Golden Jubilee