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PAGE 6-April 12,1979
ORTHODOX CELEBRATION - Cardinal Terence Cooke of New York
embraces Archbishop Lakovos, Greek Orthodox primate of North and
South America, during an ecumenical doxology marking the 20th
anniversary of the primate's enthronement in New York’s Orthodox
Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. Cardinal Cooke delivered the homily. (NC
Photo by Chris Sheridan)
Loan Guarantee Refused Youngstown Mill
BY JIM CASTELLI
WASHINGTON (NC) - The Carter
administration has refused to grant
$245 million in loan guarantees to a
church-backed plan to reopen a steel
mill in Youngstown, Ohio, under
worker-community ownership.
The Ecumenical Coalition of the
Mahoning Valley, a coalition of
Catholic, Protestant and Jewish groups
which supported the project, said it was
outraged because of the reason given for
the denial.
The coalition had requested a $17
million grant from the Department of
Housing and Urban Development to buy
the mill and $245 million in loan
guarantees from the Department of
Commerce to get it started.
Bob Hall, director of the Economic
Development Administration in
Commerce, said regulations prohibit the
use of more than $100 million in loan
guarantees for any one project. He also
questioned the economic feasibility of
the plan.
The coalition said it knew of the
$100 million loan guarantee limit in
September, but was told by Jack
Watson, a top presidential aide who said
he was speaking for President Carter,
that the figure then used — $300 million
— was not outrageous and could be
handled.
The coalition said all subsequent
discussions have involved the $300
million figure.
Watson said in September he had
“very little doubt that we can, between
the public sector and the private sector,
put together something that can work.”
Watson and Hall said the administration
had set aside $100 million in guarantees
for an acceptable project in
Youngstown.
In a letter to the coalition
announcing his decision, Hall left open
the possibility of EDA loan guarantees
for a smaller project.
The project involved the Campbell
Works which was shut down by the
Lykes Corporation in September 1977.
Some 5,000 people were put out of
work and about 4,100 are still
unemployed, according to Father
Edward Stanton of the coalition.
He said Youngstown faces other mill
closings that could put a total of 10,000
steelworkers out of work in the next
few years.
The coalition’s plan called for buying
the mill and reopening it within a few
months on a limited basis to employ
1,600 people. A second phase would
have added another 1,000 people two to
three years later.
Baltimore Meeting On Women’s Ministry
BY KATHLEEN E. KUJAWA
MARRIOTTSVILLE, Md. (NC) -
“Sober hope” and a “sense of realism”
characterized a two-day meeting on the
call to ministry, with an emphasis on
women, according to Mercy Sister
Patricia Smith, chairperson of the
steering committee for the meeting.
The March 23-24 meeting, convened
by Archbishop William D. Borders of
Baltimore in response to last
N ovember’s Women’s Ordination
Conference in that city, brought
together 32 persons, including four local
bishops, scholars and those involved in
ministry. They focused on the call to
ministry in general and women in
particular.
Sister Smith, academic dean at St.
Mary’s Seminary and University in
Baltimore, described the two days at
Marriottsville Spiritual Center as intense
and said the mood was “calm and
reflective.”
Differences on issues such as women’s
ordination were acknowledged and even
hotly debated, she said, but discussions
were balanced. “We did not shelve it or
act unrealistically in saying what can
be,” she added. “There was not time in
two days to resolve complex issues.”
Participants did conclude the
meeting, however, with agreement on
four points they felt should be
addressed by the church in Baltimore.
Archbishop Borders responded by
announcing he will appoint a team to
continue discussion of the issues in
parishes and institutions throughout the
archdiocese.
Asking for further study on how “our
understanding of Jesus opens up or
limits our understanding of the
possibility of women in ministry,
including the priesthood,” the group
said “a lack of dialogue” on the
question of women’s ordination has led
to a gap between “that teaching and the
lived pastoral experience of the church
(parishes), developments in theology,
Scripture, anthropology and the
understanding of equality and justice
for women.”
Discussions on women’s role in
ministry should consider the church’s
teaching, Scripture and tradition, as well
as equality, justice and the dignity of
the human person, the group said, in an
attempt “to strip away the fears, hunger
for power and prejudices which may
have conditioned some of our
conclusions and exclusions in ministry
in the past.”
The group also urged that women
involved in ministerial roles already
approved for them be “officially and
publicly” commissioned in those
ministries, and said failure to recognize
these approved roles harms the
“church’s consciousness of its mission in
the world” and gives too much
prominence to sacramental ministry at
the expense of social justice.
Participants praised Archbishop
Borders for his leadership and openness
in convening the meeting, but some
women agreed with the assessment of
Sister Aquin O’Neill, a theologian from
Loyola College, who said “the goal of
the meeting is too modest.” Sister
O’Neill gave the homily at the meetings
closing Mass.
A Blind Man
Margaret Mohler, a member of the
Task Force on the Status of Women in
the Church and the Women’s Ordination
Conference, hailed the meeting as
“legitimizing discussion’” of the issues.
Father Robert Leavitt, a theologian
from St. Mary’s Seminary, said: “We are
conscious that while he (the archbishop)
probably could guess in advance where
we differ with him and the church on
this issue, he nevertheless gave us the
freedom to dialogue about our views.”
Sister Smith said the reflections of
the local church resulting from the
Marriottsville meeting and the later
parish-level discussions can be fed into
the Vatican for use in future
decision-making. “We are not used to
communication being a two-way
street,” she said, adding that this is
nevertheless possible, “especially if we
have a responsible position researched
by the local church.”
The archbishop noted that the
meeting helped to break down
stereotypes that scholars, bishops and
ministers have of one another, adding
that everyone left Marriottsville “with
different perspectives.”
Sister Smith said the two-day meeting
“is a very important” if “limited step.”
Dancing
Before The Lord
BY FATHER JOSEPH M. CHAMPLIN
A deep, grateful joy naturally filled
the hearts of God’s chosen people as
they witnessed their deliverance from
slavery under Pharoah by the freeing
waters of the Red Sea.
Those delivered persons needed to
express that inner gratitude in an outer
way, to use their bodies as well as their
minds or hearts for praising the Lord.
We thus read in Exodus 15:
“The prophetess Miriam, Aaron’s
sister, took a tambourine in her hand,
while all the women went out after her
with tambourines, dancing; and she led
them in the refrain: ‘Sing to the Lord,
for he is gloriously triumphant; horse
and chariot he has cast into the sea.”
That tradition of dance as a part of
Jewish worship continued in their
history. Each year at Shiloh, north of
Bethel, these believers gathered for a
feast of the Lord. The book of Judges,
Chapter 21, alludes to some form of
liturgical dance in verse 21: “When you
see the girls of Shiloh come out to do
their dancing...”
Dancing as an expression of grateful
joy and delightful praise occurs again
later in the time of David after he had
slain the Philistine. “Women came out
from each of the cities of Israel to meet
King Saul, singing and dancing, with
tambourines, joyful songs, and sistrums.
The women played and sang: ‘Saul has
slain his thousands, and David his ten
thousands.’” (1 Samuel 18,6)
The most classic instance, however,
occurred as David led a procession
returning the Ark of the Covenant to
Jerusalem.
“David and all the Israelites made
merry before the Lord with all their
strength, with singing and with eitharas,
harps, tambourines, sistrums and
cymbals.” (2 Samuel 6,5).
“Then David, girt with a linen apron,
came dancing before the Lord with
abandon, as he and all the Israelites
were bringing up the Ark of the Lord
with shouts of joy and to the sound of
the horn.” The text describes King
David as “leaping and dancing before
the Lord.” (2 Samuel 6,14-16).
We can see how the Old Testament
writers viewed dancing as an appropriate
expression of joy and praise by its
juxtaposition in the following quotation
from a famous section of Ecclesiastes:
“A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance.”
(3,4).
Psalm 149 takes this tradition of
joyful dancing — both within and
outside of a liturgical context — and
makes it into something of a command
or a directive:
“Sing to the Lord a new song of
praise in the assembly of the faithful.
Let Israel be glad in their maker, let the
children of Zion rejoice in their King.
Let them praise his name in the festive
dance, let them sing praise to him with
timbrel and harp.” (1-3).
Dancing in the liturgy certainly has
not been a common element of Roman
Catholic worship in the past century.
However, we hear or read of more and
more occasions at which interpretative
dance is now finding its way into
worship.
Our American bishops have given a
stamp of approval to the concept in
their booklet, “Environment and Art in
Catholic Worship.” Paragraph 59
contains this reference:
“Processions and interpretations
through bodily movement (dance) can
become meaningful parts of the
liturgical celebrations if done by truly
competent persons in the manner that
befits the total liturgical action.” It adds
that “there should be concern for the
quality, the gracefulness, and the surety
of this movement.”
Last Sunday, in a pioneering
breakthrough for our parish, two junior
high school ballet dancers developed
what they termed a liturgical expression
of thanksgiving after Communion.
With “Day by Day” from a record
piped through our public address system
as accompaniment, the girls truly
danced before the Lord. They had
choreographed this on their own and
executed the movement with great
seriousness and reverence.
The congregation was absolutely still.
I also detected tears here and there from
persons moved by the event. At the
conclusion, spontaneous applause broke
out, a sign at Holy Family Parish that
people both approved and had been
touched spiritually by this experience.
(Copyright (c) 1979 by NC News Service)
NRLB Decision 4 To Help Churches’
WASHINGTON (NC) -- A U.S. Catholic Conference official has said the Supreme
Court ruling that Congress did not give the National Labor Relations Board
jurisdiction over church-run schools will help the churches fight “unjustified and illegal
government regulation.”
George Reed, USCC general counsel, said the decision was “highly significant”
because it restricts efforts by government agencies from regulating church-run
elementary and secondary schools without “an affirmative intention of the Congress
clearly expressed.”
THE TEACHING,
CONCERNED CHURCH
BY JANAAN MANTERNACH
One day Jesus and his disciples
walked into the village called Bethsaida.
Some people called the town Bethesda.
It was across the Sea of Galilee from
where Jesus lived. But the people of
There he could be alone with the blind
man. But the people of Bethsaida were
curious. They followed Jesus and the
blind man. They stood at a distance
from them, but close enough to be able
to see everything. They wanted to
watch what Jesus would do.
Children’s Story Hour
Bethsaida had heard much about Jesus.
When they saw him in their town, they
were excited.
A group of them brought a blind man
to Jesus. They begged Jesus to touch
him. They had heard how Jesus could
heal people with a word or a touch.
They hoped Jesus would do the same
for this blind man who was their friend.
They wanted their friend to be able to
see.
Jesus looked at the blind man. He felt
for the man who could not see
anything, not even the friends who led
him around. But Jesus did not want to
cause a big scene. He knew some people
tended to get so excited about a cure
that they missed what the cure said
about God’s love for them.
So Jesus took the blind man by the
hand. He led him out through the village
gate and into the field outside the town.
Once outside the town, Jesus turned
to the blind man. Neither said a word.
Jesus placed saliva from his mouth onto
his fingers. Then he reached out and
touched the blind man’s eyes. The man
looked puzzled. Jesus asked him, “Can
you see anything?”
The man opened his eyes. He looked
around slowly. He seemed to be able to
see the people moving about in the
distance. He stared at them. His face
showed his excitement. “Yes,” he said,
“I can see something. I see people. But
they look like walking trees!”
Jesus realized the man could not yet
see plainly. His sight was coming to him
only gradually. So Jesus stretched out
his hand and touched the blind man’s
eyes a second time. Then the man
shouted, “Now I can see clearly, I can
see everything perfectly.”
The blind man was so excited that he
could not contain himself. He looked
around and around, this way and that,
amazed at all there was to see. He stared
at the people. Then at the trees. The
sheep and camels fascinated him. And
the flowers. There was so much color —
the blue sky, green leaves and grass,
yellow field flowers, clothes of every
imaginable color. It was all so new and
exciting to him.
Jesus was happy for the man. He was
glad the blind man could now see. But'
he did not want people to miss the
point. He did not want people to look
on him as a magician or miracle worker.
He wanted them to see God’s love and
care in this striking cure.
So he told the man not to tell anyone
what happened to him. Jesus even asked
him not to go right back into the city.
But the people had seen what happened
and were very excited.
What surprised Jesus’ disciples was
that the man only gradually was able to
see. He did not come to see clearly all at
once. Jesus reached out and touched
him twice. Only the second time did he
see plainly. The disciples found this
curious.
What they did not realize was that
they were like the blind man. They, too,
were only gradually coming to see Jesus
as he really was. And, in that, they are
not very different from us.
(Copyright (c) 1979 by NC News Service)
JANAAN MANTERNACH WRITES,
“Once outside the town, Jesus turned
to the blind man. Jesus placed saliva
from his mouth . . . and touched the
blind man’s eyes. Jesus asked him, ‘Can
you see anything?’ ‘I see people. But
they look like walking trees!’ (NC
Sketch by Barbara Sahli)