Newspaper Page Text
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Vol. 61 No. 28
Thursday, August 7,1980
Single Copy Price — 15 Cents
brigade at the Niepokalanow Monastery near
Warsaw, Poland. (NC Photo by Chris Niedenthai)
MONKS’ BRIGADE - Brother Stainislaw
Jedrzes zak takes roll call for the monks’ fire
Msgr. P. J. O’Connor Dies
Msgr. Patrick J. O’Connor
spent 47 years of his life in the
priesthood. When ne aiea,
Friday, August 1, in Atlanta, he
had brought to Georgia one
priest for nearly each year of
his own service.
Msgr. O’Connor, the former
pastor of St. Thomas More
Church in Decatur, and a
former faculty member and
dean at the The Catholic
University of America, died at
Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Cancer Home at the age of 78.
He had retired as pastor in
1967, but after spending several
years at a mission on Grand
Bahama Island, returned to St.
Thomas More in 1972 and
made his residence there.
At the time of his
retirement, Msgr. O’Connor
spoke of his formula for
answering the church’s pressing
need for vocations. “If one
priest can get a young man to
follow in his footsteps, there
will be enough vocations,” he
said.
A native of Savannah, the
Monsignor had, at that time,
been instrumental in bringing
38 priests to Georgia, 10 in
Savannah and 28 in Atlanta.
Throughout a 20-year
association with Catholic
University, he had sought out
young men interested in the
priesthood, and seminarians,
and persuaded them to come to
Georgia. At one time, 60
percent of the priests serving in
Georgia, drawn from northern
states and Ireland, had come at
the urging of Msgr. O’Connor.
Since then the number has
increased to about 42 priests.
“This is one of the long
lasting gifts that he has left us
and that will extend beyond the
years of his own life,” said
Bishop Raymond W. Lessard of
Savannah.
A 1924 graduate of Catholic
University, Msgr. O’Connor also
taught about 3,000 priests
while on the faculty there from
1936 to 1956. During that
period he was a member of the
Msgr. P. J. O’Connor
School of Theology, dean of
men, procurator of the Catholic
Sisters College and university
director of The Alumni
Association. He also taught for
23 summers in the Preachers
Institute.
While in Washington, he was
appointed director of the
National Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception from
1950 to 1956,. the fourth to
hold the post. During those
years, more thaan $15 million
was raised to construct, the
main building of the shrine.
Msgr. John J. Murphy,
director of the National Shrine,
said Msgr. O’Connor “will be
remembered for his eloquent
sermons on the Blessed Mother,
for his sense of pilgrimage and
knowledge of Marian shrines
throughout the world.”
“The clarity of his Mariology
revealed in his preaching and
writing has contributed greatly
to the life and spirit of the
National Shrine,” he said.
Msgr. O’Connor returned in
1956 to Georgia as pastor of
the Shrine of the Immaculate
Conception in Atlanta. Two
years later he became pastor at
St. Thomas More, and served in
a number of archdiocesan posts
drawing upon his particular
expertise in the fields of
education and vocations.
Between 1958 and his
(Continued on page 2)
Vatican Document Says
A Major Redistribution
Of Priests Is Necessary
VATICAN CITY (NC) - The
Vatican wants a major
redistribution of the world’s
clergy.
In a document released July
22 by the Congregation for the
Clergy it ordered all bishops’
conferences to set up two
commissions: “one for the
better distribution of the clergy
and another for the missions.”
To highlight the problem of
priest-rich vs. priest-poor
countries the document gave
some current statistics. Among
these were:
- There are 16 priests per
100,000 Catholics in Latin
America, while North America
(the United States and Canada)
has 120 per 100,000.
- The 45 percent of the
world’s Catholics who live in
North America and Europe are
served by 77.2 percent of the
world’s priests. Another 45
percent of the world’s Catholics
live in Latin America and the
Philippines, but only 12.62
percent of the world’s priests
serve those areas.
- In terms of Catholic and
non-Catholic population, there
are two priests per 100,000
people in Asia, while there are
29 per 100,000 in North
America and 37 per 100,000 in
Europe.
The title of the new Vatican
document is “Directive Norms
for the Collaboration of the
Particular Churches Among
Themselves and Especially for a
Better Distribution of the
Clergy in the World.”
It was signed by Cardinal
Silvio Oddi, prefect of the
clergy congregation, and
Archbishop Maximino Romero
De Lema, congregation
secretary.
Its publication was ordered
by Pope John Paul II. It was
dated March 25, although it was
not released until July 22.
The document grew out of a
commission within the clergy
congregation which Pope Paul
VI instituted in 1967 to study
the problem of the poor
distribution of priests and to
formulate norms to correct the
situation.
One of the major past efforts
to distribute priests better was a
call by Pope John XXIII in
1962 for U.S. dioceses to give
10 percent of their clergy to
Latin America. His call led to a
few more U.S. missionaries in
Latin America, but nothing
near the scale he had intended.
Although the new Vatican
document is entitled “directive
norms,” it has few new norms
or laws aside from the order to
bishops’ conferences to
establish two commissions -
one of which (for missions)
already exists in all or virtually
all countries where the church
is well established.
It reaffirms existing laws
concerning various technical
aspects of the transfer of priests
such as incardination -- the
priest’s legal link to a specific
diocese as his home. It outlines
in detail the norms for a written
“convention,” or binding
agreement, outlining the terms
under which a priest is sent by
one bishop or religious order to
work under another bishop.
This convention, it says,
must be worked out by mutual
agreement among the three
principals - the sending bishop,
the priest and the receiving
bishop - and each is to have a
written copy of it.
But aside from such specific
issues, the new document
consists mainly of general
guidelines of policy and
orientation.
It specifically rejects a strict
numerical approach to the
issue, saying that “the problem
of a better distribution of the
clergy is not resolved simply
with the numerical method.”
The document calls for a
“new revision of strengths and a
restructuring of traditional
frameworks” in the church to
meet changing social
conditions.
As examples it cites “the
transmigration of people into
industrial regions; urbanization
with its consequent
depopulation of other zones;
the general problem of
migrants, both for reasons of
work and for political motives;
the so widespread phenomenon
of tourism for more or less long
periods.”
The document said the
uneven distribution of priests
around the world has been
aggravated by sharp drop in
vocations in the late 1960s and
the 1970s and by the large
number of priests who left the
active ministry in that same
period.
It viewed redistribution as
only part of the solution,
stressing that more priestly
vocations and a renewed
missionary awareness
throughout the church are the
more basic issues.
Clergy and Catholic editorial
writers welcomed the
document, but they pointed
out difficulties involved.
“I think it’s a good idea,”
said Auxiliary Bishop Walter
Schoenherr of Detroit, who was
archdiocesan delegate for the
clergy from 1968 to 1977.
“After all, we are a world
church. But in light of the
human implications involved, I
think it would be difficult to
implement.”
Bishop Schoenherr pointed
out that most priests in the
United States have adjusted to
an urban metropolis and have
roots there. He also noted that
the proportion of priests to
Catholics has diminished in the
United States. “About 10 years
ago, for instance, Detroit had
one priest for every 500
families. Today that’s more like
one priest for every 1,500
families.”
He added: “We have an
(Continued on page 2)
Official Appointments
Bishop Raymond W. Lessard has announced the following
appointments:
MONSIGNOR DANIEL J. BOURKE as Diocesan Moderator of
the Legion of Mary.
SISTER VIRGINIA ROSS, C.S.J. as Diocesan Superintendent of
Schools.
Savannah’s Blessed Sacrament Twins With Hinesville Catholics
Hinesville, Georgia, is a small
community which has recently
begun to grow because of the
expansion taking place at
nearby Fort Stewart.
There has always been a
small number of Catholic
families in the Hinesville area
and Catholic services have been
provided to the community in a
variety of ways over the past
number of years. As far back as
the early 1960’s, priests from
Blessed Sacrament Parish used
to take turns in going to
Hinesville on a Sunday morning
to celebrate Mass in the local
Episcopal church.
For the last number of years,
through the kindness of the
Reverend Dan Lott,, the
Catholics of the Hinesville area
have been using the First
Presbyterian Church on late
Sunday afternoons for the
celebration of Mass. Hinesville,
which is situated in Liberty
County, is part of the parish of
St. Joseph’s, Jesup. St.
Christopher’s, Baxley, is also
included in the same parish.
The present pastor is Father
Gerard A. Murphy. You can
well imagine that he is rather
busy on the weekend as he
makes the journey from JesUp
to Baxley to Hinesville and
back to Jesup for the purpose
of celebrating the Eucharist for
these different Catholic
Communities. Because of their
growth over the past number of
years, the Catholic community
of Hinesville has deeply desired
to have its own facility.
On July 14th, contractors
began to prepare the ground for
a building project which will
provide space for the offering
of Mass and also classroom areas
for the religious education of
the fifty to seventy-five
children who are part of the
Catholic Community.. The new
Church has been named for St.
Stephen, the first martyr.The
A
eighty families that go to
make-up the community are
very enthusiastic about the
prospect of having their own
parish center.
This past March, aware of
the growing needs of one of its
sister parishes in the Diocese,
Savannah’s Blessed Sacrament
Parish Council unanimously
passed a resolution to
financially assist the Catholics
of Hinesville in constructing
their new facility. Blessed
Sacrament has pledged over the
next five fiscal years to give a
donation of $5,000.00 per year
amounting to. a total gift of
$25,000.00. The
Hinesville Catholic community
and Blessed Sacrament Parish
also agreed to carry on other
types of exchange programs like
the mutual exchange of
invitations between parish
councils to various social events
so as to deepen the relationship
(Continued on page 3)
Groundbreaking For St. Stephen’s
Approximately 150 people gathered at the
site on Woodland Drive on Sunday evening,
August 3rd, for the official groundbreaking
ceremonies to mark the beginning of
construction of the new St. Stephen’s Parish
Center in Hinesville.
The gospel reading from Luke, describing
the man who dug deep to build his house and
laid the foundation upon rock, aptly prepared
the way for the groundbreaking. Before turning
over the soil, Bishop Lessard asked for God’s
blessing on all those who had worked or
contributed to providing the site on which the
church would be built. “Today may they
rejoice in a work just begun,” he said in his
words of blessing. “Soon may they celebrate
the Sacraments in your temple, and in time to
come may they praise You forever in heaven.”
Assisting the Bishop with the ceremonies
were Father Gerard Murphy, Pastor of St.
Joseph’s parish, Jesup, which has responsibility
for the Hinesville mission, and the new Fort
Stewart Chaplain, Father Hubert Wade. Among
the many members of the Hinesville Catholic
community who took part were David Koval,
Parish Council President, and Guy Wells, who
has put in much time coordinating the
construction work on the project.
A buffet supper followed the
groundbreaking ceremonies.