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PAGE 5—The Southern Cross, September 6,1984
American Personality Key As Major Superiors Meet
BY GRETCHEN REISER
ATLANTA (NC) -- The personality of the American
church was the focal point of discussion at the Aug. 19-24
Conference of Major Superiors of Men national assembly
in Atlanta.
The meeting, which drew almost 200 leaders from
men’s religious orders in the United States, also focused
on the influence of the American cultural experience
upon the orders.
Among resolutions passed by the assembly were ones
which expressed concern about the recent removal of the
imprimatur from two books published in the United
States, endorsed continued sanctuary by churches and
synagogues harboring Central American refugees, and
supported the establishment of regular meetings among
major superiors, members of religious orders and bishops.
In elections, Marianist Father Stephen R. Tutas, former
rector of the Marianist International Seminary in
Fribourg, Switzerland, and former superior general of the
order, was chosen president-elect of the conference. He is
scheduled to succeed Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father
Ronald Carignan after a year as president-elect.
Christian School Brother James Gaffney provincial for
the order’s Chicago province and president of the
Christian Brothers National Conference, was re-elected
CMSM vice president.
In the keynote address Aug. 20, Jesuit Father John
Staudenmaier told participants to act to bring modem
technology in line with religion.
“We must save our incense and spare the technology we
live with from idolatry,” said Father Staudenmaier, an
assistant professor of the history of technology at the
University of Detroit.
He said technology had been pulling away from
morality and values since the 17th century and was made
autonomous with the rise of the Industrial Revolution.
The assembly had a “much more serious kind of
atmosphere and discussion” than in previous years, said
Divine Savior Father Donald Skwor, conference executive
director. He said talks at the assembly brought about “a
striking recognition of the cultural crisis we are going
DCCW Leadership
Workshop Sept. 15
Valdosta will be the site of the second DCCW
Leadership Workshop, September 15, from 10:00 to 3:30.
The full agenda will cover all aspects of council work -
leadership, membership, public relations, duties and
responsibilities of officers and commission chairmen,
council structure, and areas of commission focus.
Round-table discussions will be held in the commission
areas of church, family, community, international affairs,
and organization service plus legislative information and
elected officers.
All women interested in the work of CCW are invited to
attend this learning and sharing workshop at St. John the
Evangelist Cafetorium at 800 Gornto Road, Valdosta.
The fee of $3.00 covers all materials; Lunch will be
served.
Please use the registration form provided and mail
immediately. Pre-registration is helpful in planning, but
last minute attendees are most welcome.
through” in the United States.
He described the crisis as a “debate between radical
traditionalists and post-modern populists.” The first group
wants “to go back to more classic (authoritarian) forms,”
he said, “as compared to those who are looking forward
to a new structure, a new form” which would be
“inclusive and holistic. ”
The assembly also continued a study begun last year on
the relationship between American cultural values and
religious life, he said.
In the future, Father Skwor said, a possible topic for
the conference would be to examine the United States’
multi-cultural nature and the gifts minority cultures offer
to the nation.
In recognition of such contribution, the assembly
participated in a Mass Aug. 21 at the Martin Luther King
Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change.
Auxiliary Bishop J. Terry Steib of St. Louis, one of 10
black U.S. bishops and homilist at the Mass, called Dr.
King a “drum major for justice” and challenged Christians
to follow the civil rights leader’s legacy.
“It is a cruel world, but its history is in the hands of a
just God. Its history is in our hands, we who profess to be
instruments of this just God,” Bishop Steib said.
After the Mass, a prayer service was held at King’s
gravesite, and conference leaders presented Coretta Scott
King, widow of the civil rights leader, an honorarium of
almost $5,000 for her work with the King center.
The resolution expressing concern over “the lack of
adequate consultation” between Rome and the American
DCCW Notes
By Gillian Brown
“I don’t think I am a prude, but. ...” is a good opener
for a lot of people who are in fact prudes and are about to
make prudish statements. All the same, I am going to use
that opening for this guest column for the DCCW NOTES.
I don’t think I am a prude but some of the “adult”
magazines on sale today are crude, sick, blasphemous and
offensive.
In February “Hustler” had a particularly tasteless and
unfunny article on the death of a well-known Cardinal.
With the former Miss America’s picture in Penthouse,
we sank to a new low in the nation’s moral value system.
Though most people do not purchase Penthouse, each
time magazines of this type are sold we
establish a lower threshhold in terms of what is
acceptable. And whether or not our children see them,
they are going to live in a society shaped by what is
tolerated in our mass media
Like it or not, there are signs of a degeneration in other
media of communication. Pornography is channeled into
homes via cable television in some areas of the nation.
Movies often feature explicit scenes of sex, nudity and
drug use while profanity and violence are common fare.
Even the day time soap operas, which a lot of children
watch in the summer, are too often a dreary succession of
bedroom scenes in which the subliminal message seems to
be that promiscuity is OK.
REGISTRATION FORM SAVANNAH DCCW
Leadership and Commission Workshop
Saturday, Septmeber 15,1984
St. John the Evangelist School Cafetorium
800 Gornto Road, Valdosta, Ga.
NAME:
ADDRESS:
CITY: ZIP:
Mail to:
Mrs. Ann Marie Bahmann Endow $3.00 fee
1400 Iola Dnve Make checks to Valdosta-Brunswick Deanery CCW
Valdosta, Ga. 31602
(912) 244-5800
hierarchy in the Vatican’s recent withdrawal of the
imprimatur from two books was introduced by Paulist
Father Wilfrid F. Dewan, president of the Paulist Fathers
and Brothers. The two books which lost their
imprimaturs, “Christ Among Us” and “Sexual Morality,”
were published by Paulist Press.
Father Dewan said the action removing the imprimaturs
typified a difference between American culture,
characterized by “openness and directness,” and a
tendency by the church hierarchy in Rome “to operate
somewhat secretively without much consultation.”
The resolution endorsing the work of churches and
synagogues opening their doors to Salvadoran and
Guatemalan refugees fleeing Central American violence
was overwhelmingly approved, even though the superiors
were told church involvement “means perhaps violating
the law.”
The conference also endorsed regular meetings for
dialogue among major superiors, Religious and bishops,
such as those which have been part of the work of the
commission on religious life, headed by Archbishop John
R. Quinn of San Francisco. The resolution urged that the
meetings “be initiated where they have not yet taken
place, and that these meetings continue, be extended and
improved where they have already begun.”
Other resolutions endorsed the positions of the
National Conference of Catholic Bishops regarding
abortion, nuclear and conventional war and capital
punishment, and urged the American bishops to include in
their forthcoming pastoral letter on the economy “how
the militarization of the economy hurts the poor” at
home and overseas.
In the “Bible Belt” we are not plagued with the
problem “eablepom” as much as other places are. In St.
Louis, Mo., for instance, one reader of the National
Federation of Decency’s Journal said movies featuring sex
and violence are regularly seen on HBO, Cinemax, Eros,
the Pleasure Channel, and something called “Bluemax” - a
channel which shows XXX movies between midnight and
6:00 A.M.
What can be done about the increase in pornography?
At a recent conference on the “illegal sex industry” in
New York, hosted by Morality in Media, representatives
from different dioceses met to consider the problem. One
of their actions was to praise the President for recent
tightening up of the enforcement of anti-obscenity laws
already on the books.
However, the whole question of pornography and
Moral Values start at the local
level. . .with the family, the school and the
obscenity comes down to community standards in terms
of what is acceptable and what is not. And it starts right
at the local level with the family, the school and the
church. Porn can only thrive where there are buyers. The
pom publisher or producer is not out to weaken the
nation’s morals but to make money.
The problem is that counter measures can become
repressive. There are groups who will organize boycotts
and picket lines against anything that contains a mention
of sex/violence -- yet if this were the standard most of the
great works of literature would have to be banned,
including Shakespeare and the Bible.
The best weapon in our arsenal is the use of common
sense. Families choosing programs or films with care can
go for quality. Parents who tell their children there are
still a few moral absolutes at least give them a framework
to use in making their own judgments. Those who form
groups to discuss what is helpful to the community and
what is not will have a sense of strength in working
together. Inter-faith groups have more clout than does one
denomination working alone.
A reasonable approach to a movie theatre’s manager or
to the owner of a bookstore, simply stating that certain
types of fare are not welcome * is more effective than a
picket line, which often draws more attention to the
movie or magazine the picketers want to remove. Support
for city ordinances protecting the public against the more
obvious instances of pornography can be a help to those
responsible for the conduct of the community. A study of
the issues of freedom of speech vs. protection of civil
rights may be helpful in deciding where the line is to be
drawn between what is acceptable and what is not.
Let’s not be prudes. But let’s not forget how to
recognize evil when we see it, either.