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Thursday, August 23, 1984
$10 Per Year
Catholic Schools Called Treasured Resource
WASHINGTON (NC) -- The value-oriented education
offered by Catholic schools makes them a “treasured
national resource among all American schools,” according
to U.S. Secretary of Education Terrel H. Bell.
“With their long-record of contributions to the national
goal of excellence in education, Catholic schools have
served as a pillar in the structure of quality education,”
Bell said in the September issue of Momentum, the
journal of the National Catholic Educational Association.
“They not only embody the principles of scholarship,
citizenship and social responsibility, they insist that these
principles become a part of the fabric of daily life,” he
said.
Roverse Ordination
Bell praised the high academic standards maintained in
Catholic schools and said that information provided by
the National Center on Education Statistics shows that “a
higher percentage of Catholic high schools offer courses in
math, science and languages than either public or other
private high schools.”
Furthermore, according to Bell, this academic
achievement “has not been done by skimming off the best
and the brightest students. Many Catholic schools serve
the inner-city poor, the educationally disadvantaged and
the handicapped.’'
Catholic schools contribute to educational diversity
through a student population that is made up of 19
percent minority and 10 percent non-Catholic students,
Bell added.
The September issue of Momentum, which has as its
theme “Excellence in Catholic Education,” includes
reports on two recent studies of Catholics schools — “A
Study of Effective Catholic Schools” conducted by the
Huron Institute and “A National Portrait of Catholic
Secondary Schools” conducted by Search Institute and
funded by the Ford Foundation.
The studies were released at the NCEA’s annual
convention last April in Boston.
Population Plan Not Endorsed
Saturday, Sept. 8
Bishop Raymond W, Lessard will ordain Michael
Roverse to the priesthood on Saturday, September
8, at Blessed Sacrament Church, Savannah. Clergy
of the Diocese will concelebrate. Friends and
well-wishers are invited to attend the ceremony
scheduled to start at 11:00 A.M. and to the
reception which will follow.
Michael Roverse, who completed his theological
studies at the American College, University of
Louvain, Belgium, has been undertaking a period of
deacon internship at St. Joseph’s, Macon.
He will celebrate his first Mass on Sunday,
September 9, at 11:15 A.M. at Blessed Sacrament.
All are welcome to attend these ceremonies and
the reception.
VISIT TO DACHAU - Some of those left to right) Janet Stolba, Josei Murphy, Mary
participating in a European Tour led by Father J. Anne Butler, Father Boland, Retta O’Hara, Fred
Kevin Boland, pastor of St. Anne’s, Columbus, Doyle and Carol Home. Sfee story on page 6.
visited the Nazi prison camp at Dachau. Pictured
MEXICO CITY (NC) -- The Vatican declined endorsing
the population plan of the International Population
Conference, which ended Aug. 14, because the plan
supports artificial birth control programs and other
policies objectionable to the Holy See.
The World Plan of Action adopted by the United
Nations-sponsored conference encourages methods of
family planning “that the Catholic Church finds morally
unacceptable,” said Bishop Jan Schotte, who headed the
delegation. Bishop Schotte is vice president of the Vatican
justice and peace commission.
Although the plan includes “ some valuable proposals
with regard to development, the important role of the
family, migration and aging” the Vatican also cannot
approve “those sections that assert for individuals,
including unmarried adolescents, the prerogatives that
belong to married couples in regard to sexual intimacy
and parenthood,” Bishop Schotte said.
The Vatican took the stand “in light of its
understanding of the nature of the human person, the
sacredness of life, marriage and sexulaity,” he said.
The Vatican also declined endorsing the plan developed
10 years ago at the last international population
conference, held in Bucharest, Romania, which
established the role of governments in population
planning.
Among its recommendations to governments, the
Mexico conference called for increasing funds to make
voluntary birth control methods and education more
widely available.
The conference also adopted a statement on
reproduction and the family which included sections
saying:
— All couples and individuals have the right to “decide
freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their
children.” To exercise the right they must have “access to
the necessary education, information and means to
regulate their fertility.”
— Governments are urged to ensure that adolescents
receive adequate education on the role, rights and
obligations of parents, and changing individual and
cultural values. That should include sex and family life
education.
— Legislation and policies on the family should not use
coercion or discrimination to achieve population goals.
The conference also said that governments should ’’take
appropriate steps to help women avoid abortion” as a
means to reduce maternal death and illness. It said that
abortion “in no case should be promoted as a method of
family planning.” A Vatican delegate, Msgr. James T.
McHugh, said that the delegation had pushed for the
abortion statement and considered its adoption one of the
delegation’s major successes.
The conference said that family planning should be
included as a “health measure in maternal and child health
programs. ” The goal should be to reduce births “too early
or too late in the mother’s life,” increase spacing between
births, lower high birth rates, and give “special
consideration” to the needs of mothers who have just
given birth, or who are still breast-feeding.
Appointments
Bishop Raymond W. Lessard and the Reverend
Francis Hassett, OMI, Provincial of the Eastern
American Province of the Oblate Fathers, have
appointed Father Francis Gorham, OMI pastor of
St. Paul’s Church, Douglas, effective September 1.
Father Gorham will take the place of Father William
O’Donnell, OMI who has been appointed as
Personnel Director of the Eastern American
Province and will take up residence in Boston.
Bishop Lessard has also announced the
appointment of Father Patrick McCarthy, pastor of
Saint Joseph Church, Waycross, as Vicar Forance
(Dean) of the Valdosta-Brunswick Deanery. He has
also reappointed Father Fred J. Nijem, pastor Saint
Teresa Church, Albany, to another three-year term
as Vicar Forane of the Albany Deanery and Father
Mark Sterbenz, SDS, pastor of St. Benedict Church,
Columbus, as Vicar Forane of the Columbus
Deanery for another three years.