Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4
The Southern Cross
May 14,1981
Handguns
The news report that Pope John
Paul II had been shot stunned the
world. It was unbelievable that anyone
would want to assassinate this pilgrim
of peace who had traveled throughout
the world begging for a halt to violence.
Again it was the handgun that was
used in this latest attempt to snuff out
the life of a prominent world leader. In
just six short weeks, we have seen this
instrument used twice -- first on
President Reagan, now on the pope.
It would seem that enough violence
and destruction have been done by
these instruments of death to convince
the world that their control is
imperative. There are millions of these
guns, just waiting for someone to use
them in a family quarrel, or to be
concealed in a jacket, by a crazed
person, and used to kill a world figure.
Should these guns be banished? If
they were perhaps, in years to come,
such events as the one which took place
in St. Peter’s Square may not be
repeated.
It is time for serious consideration.
We doubt there will be, for people just
don’t want to come to grips with
unpleasant problems. When will we
act? Now - or will it take more
assassinations to make us admit that
handguns are killers.
~ JEM
Rev. Nicholas J. Quinlan
When Father Nicholas J. Quinlan
died last Friday, the diocese lost a true
pastor.
Father was not one to seek
attention. He went about his business
quietly. He was always available for
counsel and was particularly devoted to
youth.
Father Quinaln saw a need for
special ministry to the sick and their
families. For many years, he was
Chaplain at the Veteran’s Hospital in
Augusta and, following his retirement,
he was a familar figure at St. Joseph’s
Hospital. Father never really retired,
for he kept busy visiting those confined
and ill.
May God grant eternal rest and
peace to Father Quinlan, a priest who
was so devoted to his fellowman.
-JEM
Morality Of Hunger
Strikes Debated
BY JOHN MAHER
NC News Service
The hunger strike “to the death” by Bobby
Sands, an inmate at the Maze prison near
Belfast, Northern Ireland, has raised the
question of the morality of hunger striking.
In a statement made after Sands had been
fasting for more than 50 days Cardinal George
Basil Hume of Westminster, England, said
fasting to death is the moral equivalent of
suicide and is unacceptable to Catholics.
“That’s a terrible statement to make,” said
Redemptorist Father Sean McManus outside
the British embassy in Washington. Father
McManus, who began a water-only fast on
April 24 in solidarity with the hunger-striking
prisoners in Northern Ireland, is the national
director of the Irish National Caucus, a
Washington-based organization seeking the
unification of Ireland. Now a U.S. citizen,
Father McManus is a native of County
Fermanagh in Northern Ireland.
Father McManus said the morality of
hunger strikes has been debated in the church
for centuries. He defined suicide as
deliberately taking one’s own life out of
despair.
“Sands did not want to die,” he said. “He
would have come off the hunger strike if he
were given a pair of pants and a shirt.” The
priest was referring to the demand by the
prisoners that they be allowed to wear civilian
clothes brought to them by their relatives or
friends.
He said the British government has reneged
on an agreement made to end a hunger strike
last December by 33 prisoners in Northern
Ireland. The government is allowing the
prisoners to wear civilian clothes issued by
prison authorities, but not clothes brought in
by relatives.
Father McManus argued that Sands did not
intend to die. The prisoner’s intent in fasting,
he said, was to compel the British government
to give better treatment to prisoners in
Northern Ireland.
Aboout 500 prisoners have been
protesting for several years the decision made
by Britain in 1976 to do away with political
status for prisoners in Northern Ireland. Many
of the prisoners are members of the
Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), and
outlawed guerrilla organization fighting to
end British rule in Northern Ireland. The
hunger strike last December and the hunger
strike by Sands and three other prisoners now
are a continuation of that protest.
The British government’s position is that
those convicted of crimes related to political
disagreements in Northern Ireland are
common criminals and that giving them
special treatment would confer a sort of
legitimacy on the IRA.
The convicts contend that they were
politically motivated to do the acts for which
they have been imprisoned. They also say
they were convicted in special juryless courts
operating under procedures not used in
ordinary courts in Britain.
Two prominent Catholic theologians
disagreed with Father McManus on the
morality of the hunger strike.
Jesuit Father Richard McCormick, Rose F.
Kennedy professor of Christian ethics at
Georgetown University’s Kennedy Institute,
said “I don’t see how a hunger strike to the
death for a cause can be justified. Everything
I’ve read in the Catholic tradition is against
it.”
Father McCormick prefaced his remarks
by saying he was not making a judgment on
the state of Sands’ conscience, but was
commenting only on the objective moral
quality of a hunger strike to the death.
Even if a hunger strike were effective in
advancing the cause for which it is
undertaken, he said, it could not be justified.
“When you consider what’s going to
happen (in Northern Ireland) - everyone’s
predicting a bloodbath - it’s going to be
ineffective and counterproductive,” the
Jesuit theologian said.
In an article on hunger strikes in the New
Catholic Encyclopedia, Dominican Father
Cornelius T. Kane, associate professor of
theology at the Catholic University of
America, noted that the aim of the hunger
strike is usually to protest one’s own situation
or the social and moral conditions of others
and to bring attention to grievances.
He also pointed out that the hunger striker
may intend to fast to death, to fast for a set
period of time, or to decide on continuing as
events develop.
“The complete hunger strike undertaken
with the idea that it will terminate in death
from starvation is a direct act of suicide,”
Father Kane wrote. “Whatever be the ulterior
motives for the complete fast, it involves the
intentional taking of one’s own life. It cannot
reasonably be argued that the striker in this
case intends not his own death, but the
promotion of his cause, because he does in
fact directly will to bring about his own death,
though he intends this as a means rather than
as an end.”
Father Kane said that the hunger strike for
an indeterminate time short of what would
certainly cause death could be justified. Fora
proportionately serious reason, a person can
risk death, he said, but a hunger striker would
have to stop fasting when continuation would
be certain to cause death.
77le Southern Cross
(USPS 505 680)
Most Rev. Raymond W. Lessard, D.D., President
Rev. Joseph Stranc
Director, Department of Communications
John E. Markwalter, Editor
Please send P.S. Form 3579 601 E. 6th St., Waynesboro, Ga. 30830
Send News Items to 601 E. 6th St., Waynesboro, Ga. 30830
DEADLINE: All material for publication must be received by
MONDAY NOON for Thursday’s paper.
Subscription Price $8 Per Year
Business Office 225 Abercorn St., Savannah, Ga. 31401
Second Class Postage Paid at Waynesboro, Ga. 30830
Published weekly except the second and last weeks
In June, July and August and the last week in December
At 601 E. Sixth St., Waynesboro, Ga. 30830
THE CHURCH: REFLECTIONS
POPE JOHN PAUL II greets Father Diocesan Director of the Propagation
Joseph C. Otterbein, Savannah of the Faith at recent Vatican meeting.
Propagation
of the Faith
Rev. Joseph C. Otterbein
Diocesan Director
P. O. Box 8789, Savannan, Ga. 31412
Friday, April 24, 1981 was a memorable
and historic day. It was the day the Holy
Father received in audience almost 100
priest directors of the Society for the
Propagation of the Faith from all over the
United States. Early that morning we were
told Pope John Paul would receive us
between 12:30 and 1 p.m. There was an air
of excitement and the busses took us at 1
o’clock to the Vatican. We trugged up 227
steps to the Clemetine Hall where we
awaited the Pope’s arrival in muffled silence.
As the time drew near, attendants checked
the microphones, the lights etc. Finally the
Holy Father walked in. Everyone rose and
stood in absolute awe. Then as if
consciousness had been regained, a loud
applause broke from the crowd as the Holy
Father ascended the steps of his throne.
After the clapping died down, Monsignor
McCormack, the National Director from
U.S. addressed the Pope, expressing
appreciation for the audience and assuring
him of continued support for the work of
the Missions.
His Holiness expressed his “deep esteem
for the special mission” entrusted to these
directors by their Bishops. “In a word, I
thank you for the partnership in the gospel;
for your sustained efforts in making the
name of Jesus ever better known and loved
at home and abroad:
His words could not help but inspire and
motivate those present:
“But over and above the valued assistance
you give the local churches, you are in a
position to make a stupendous contribution
to your own people. As diocesan directors,
of the Society for the Propagation of the
Faith, working with your Bishops in
America, you can create a missionary
mentality at home, enriching your own
communities with the great truths so
forcefully proclaimed by the Second Vatican
Council. The pilgrim church is missionary,
missionary by her very nature. By
concentrating on this essential characteristic
of the Church of Christ and on the concrete
consequences of this truth, you are offering
new horizons to the faithful.”
Then came the words we would wish to
proclaim from the mountains! “In the very
act of giving, your local churches receive
abundantly just as Jesus predicted. Give and
it shall be given unto you, good measure,
pressed down, shaken together running over
thru a practical realization of the missionary
nature of each local church. The local
churches themselves become truly strong
and authentically prosperous materially
being conscious of the need to adopt
supernatural means to fulfill their missionary
role. The local communities become
communities of prayer and intercession.”
The appeal of the Holy Father to the
directors I would pass on to all of us in the
Diocese of Savannah that we may reach the
“new horizons” of world needs Pope John
Paul II speaks of.
Pray for the Missions; sacrifice for them!
God bless you.
Light
One
Candle
Father John Catoir
JOY - GOD’S HANDCLASP
Billy Sunday, a peppery old tent preacher
of days gone by, once said, “The trouble
with many young people is that they have
just enough religion to. make themselves
miserable.”
I think he is right. In fact, I spent a few
years gathering material for my book,
“Enjoy the Lord,” precisely to try to
emphasize the joy in our faith. “We are
Easter people and Alleluia is our song,”
wrote St. Augustine.
It’s so easy to be joyless, to get down on
yourself and everyone else. Reasons abound
for discouragement and gloom, but with a
little effort you can begin thinking joyfully,
and God’s grace does the rest.
Abraham Lincoln put it this way: “A man
is about as happy as he makes up his mind to
be.” I’m sure lots of people would say
Lincoln was deluded, but I agree with him.
When you have the basic building blocks
of joy - and everyone has who truly believes
in the loving God revealed by Jesus - the rest
is merely organization. How you select the
data for that computer you call your brain is
largely your own doing.
Take your most pressing problem and
look at it in terms of eternity. Even if things
are really bad, it will pass. Look back just
five years and you’ll discover the problems
which most pressed you then have almost
vanished from memory. But your soul
remains.
Knowing that God really loves you, that
His power and strength are available to you,
is a joy beyond words. Reject those negative
feelings. Commit the past to His mercy, and
the future to His loving providence. Live in
the here and now, and claim joy as your
constant companion.
Your union with God depends more on
His love for you than it does on your love
for Him. Don’t doubt His good taste.
If you’re worried about past sins, stop.
Forgiveness is part of God’s love. If you’re
sorry and willing to try to do better, ;
forgiveness flows in abundance; enjoy
forgiveness.
If fear strikes you for some reason, reject
it. With a loving God, you really have
nothing to fear, not even your own
weakness. He is with you in all
circumstances; enjoy His love.
Joy is Hie infallible sign of the presence of
God. It may take you a little while to get the
hang of it, but you will. No matter what
kind of personality you have, joy is in your
future. “Rejoice, again I say, rejoice.” (Phil.
4:4)
For a free copy of the Christopher News
Notes, “Who Is Jesus Christ?” send a
stamped, self-addressed envelope to The
Christophers, 12 East 48th St., New York,
NY 10017.
The Federal Budget Process
By Jim Lackey
WASHINGTON (NC) - With all the drama
and all the high stakes that seemed to be
involved, the debate in the House of
Representatives during the first week of May
over the federal budget may have looked like
the last inning of the last game of the World
Series.
But in reality the first votes on the
Reagan administration’s budget proposals -
while still crritically important - were only
the initial steps in the long and complicated
process that leads to enactment of a new
12-month blueprint for federal spending
next September.
Since the votes are only the beginning
rather than the end of the budget battle, the
church groups which have been expressing
concern over the fate of such federal
programs as food stamps, Medicaid and legal
services for the poor are also only at the
beginning rather than the end of their efforts
to see that some of those programs are
maintained.
What makes these initial votes so
important but at the same time so
preliminary is the intricate federal budget
process, established by Congress in 1974 in
an attempt to gain control over what had
become an un tempered melange of
appropriations bills enacted each year.
Stripped to its bare bones, the process
begins each January when the president by
law submits his budget proposals to
Congress. President Jimmy Carter submitted
his shortly before leaving office, but it was
only a matter of weeks before President
Reagan proposed his first budget, a
document calling ‘ for sharp spending
reductions from the Carter plan.
The next major step is the decision by the
House and Senate budget committees on
overall spending targets for the new fiscal
year which will begin Oct. 1. These come in
the form of resolutions establishing an
overall budget figure - in the case of the
Reagan budget, $695.3 billion - and telling
each House and Senate committee how
much money will be available for federal
programs under their jurisdiction.
This year, the Senate Budget Committee
pretty much went along with the president’s
proposals, but the House Budget Committee
chaired by Rep. James R. Jones (D-Okla.)
approved a resolution calling for spending
which, while still short of the Carter plan,
added funds for some programs Reagan
seeks to cut.
Once the House and Senate approve the
budget resolutions, the various committees
must decide just exactly how to spend the
money they have been told will be available
for federal programs under their jurisdiction.
That’s where the next set of battles will
be talking place all over Capitol Hill as
various interest groups and various
congressmen with their own pet projects
jockey for the limited amount of money
each committee has been told it can
authorize for spending in fiscal year 1982.,
While the initial budget documents approved
by the House and Senate include itemization
of where money should be spent or cut, each
committee is free to make its own
adjustments as long as its meets its individual
spending target.
For instance, the agriculture committees
in theory could approve additions to the
Reagan proposal for food stamps, but would
have to make further cuts in some other
program under its jurisdiction, such as food
for world hunger, to meet its overall
spending target.
The committees at this point also have the
important job of not only deciding how
much money is to be spent per program
under their jurisdiction but also how to
change the law to bring the budget within
the spending target. In food stamps, for
example, the committees are considering a
number of changes in eligilibity, purchase
requirements, deductions, and other
proposals which will be subject to intense
debate over what is the most “humane” way
to save money in the program.
Later a second budget resolution -
sometimes bigger than the first when
Congress realizes it cannot live with the
stringencies it tried to impose on itself in the
original budget resolution - must be passed
as well as the various appropriations bills
that actually dispense the funds to the
federal agencies that run the programs.
Through it all there are dozens of places
where changes can still be made, where
victories can be won or lost, or where federal
programs can be saved or scratched.
“Oh, my dad and I piay hide and seek a lot
except he calls it ’get lost 1 !”