Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 2—The Southern Cross, September 13, 1984
Canadian Trip Has Humble Beginning For Pope
BY AGOSTINO BONO
QUEBEC (NC) - Saying that he did not bring answers
to all spiritual and social questions, Pope John Paul II set
out on a 12-day visit to Canada Sept. 9 with an appeal to
Canadians to join him in seeking the answers.
It was an unusual, almost humble beginning for a papal
trip.
“My word does not claim to furnish an answer to all
your questions, or to replace your searching,” the pope
FATHER EDWARD J. SLATTERY, left,
president of the Catholic Church Extension
Society, welcomes Father Anthony J. Brankin to
the Society with a history of the 80-year-old
home mission organization. Father Brankin will
serve as vice-president of Extension which raises
funds for more than 80 U.S. dioceses.
BLESSED
ARE
THE PEACEMAKERS
said in a speech at the airport shortly after arriving from
Rome.
“I would like my words to be an act of sharing. The
sharing of a brother in faith. The sharing of a pilgrim, a
witness to the lives of the men and women of today. The
sharing of a man aware of the spiritual crisis of the times,
concerned with justice; of a man confident too in the
possibilities of the human heart once it has been
transformed by the love of God.
Extension
Chicago Priest Appointed
To Home Mission Post
CHIC AGO-A priest from the Chicago Archdiocese has
been appointed to help the Catholic Church Extension
Society with fund-raising efforts for the American home
missions, according to Very Reverend Edward J. Slattery,
president of the national organization.
Father Anthony J. Brankin, 35, a native of Chicago,
will serve as vice-president of the 80-year-old Extension
Society which raises funds for needy home missions across
the United States and in American protectorates from
Puerto Rico to Guam.
The son of a retired Chicago police captain, Father
Brankin has served in two parishes on Chicago’s
ethnically-mixed south side where he was born and raised.
In 1981 he went to Rome for two years of doctoral
studies at Angelicum University and the Roman Academy
of Fine Arts. He is finalizing his dissertation on the
“Theology of Art according to Pope Paul VI” as part of
those studies.
b EyTAQk
CONSTRUC no*
C (>*SpA*V
233-2872
P.O. Box 2222*
Savannah, Ga. 31403
True peace flows from a spirit at peace—a soul that knows the all-
embracing love of God.
The poor of a Manila slum know that Sr. Alphonsa is counted
among the “children of God,” for they have known His love
through her. Even in the daily struggle to survive, she helps lead
them to the peace that passes understanding.
You can help too, by supporting the Church in the developing
world through the Propagation of the Faith.
The Society for
THE PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH
The central organization for the support of
the Church’s worldwide mission work.
Yes! I want to help bring God’s love and peace to the world’s poor and
suffering. Enclosed is my gift for the mission Church:
□ $2,400 □ $1,200 □ $600 □ $300 □ $150 □ $75 □ $30 □ $10 □ Other $
□ I will send a monthly donation when possible.
rr ; \
erne Foods Since 1937
7 th & Reynolds
At the Levee
Augusta, Ga.
Name
Address
City
State
Zip
Please ask the missionaries to remember the following intentions at Mass:.
I
Photo: Missio 9/84
Send your gift to:
The Society for
THE PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH
Mission Office
Diocese of Savannah
P. O. Box 8789
Savannah, Georgia 31412
J5 5L
for a stay
to be remembered
THE
ULTIMATE
in luxury & comfort
202 Newly
Decorated Rooms
Color TV o Hi-Fi o Music
Guest Dialing in each room
Free Parking o Swimming
Pool
Restaurant and Lounge
All Major Credit
Cards Honored
(912) 233-3531
RAMADA®
INN
DOWNTOWN
201 West Oglethorpe
Savannah, Georgia
Formerly
Downtown Motor
Formerly
Downtown Motor Inn V/
j V V
“I would like to speak to you about the issues of our
times, concerning culture, the community, technology,
the family, sharing and justice.
“Brothers and sisters, friends already, let us travel
together,” the pope said.
Later, in a homily at the first Mass of the trip, Pope
John Paul noted that the Catholics of the French-speaking
region, the cradle of Canadian Catholicism, must find “a
new culture that will integrate the modernity of America
even while preserving its deep-seated humanity.” a
This humanity “doubtlessly derives from the fact that"
your culture was nurtured by Christianity,” he said.
His homily was a plea for Catholics not to divorce faith
from culture but to make it “illuminate culture” and
“give it its savor” amidst the “changing times” of
America.
“You are being called at the present time to a new
missionary effort,” he said.
The pope focused on the need for Catholics to make
their faith mold cultural values in modern industralized
societies where the church is only one of many
institutions exerting influence in society. ^
“You realize that your traditional culture
characterizing a certain type of ‘Christendom’ has
shattered. It is henceforth open to a variety of currents of
thought: it must answer innumerable new questions,” he
said.
“Science, technology and the arts take on a growing
importance; material values are present everywhere. At
the same time there is a greater concern for fostering
human rights, for peace, justice, equality, sharing,
freedom.
“Faith will ask culture what values it promotes, what
destiny it offers to life, what place it makes for the poord
and the disinherited with whom the Son of Man is^
identified, how it conceives of sharing, forgiveness and
love,” he said.
The pope coupled this with a plea for Catholics to
deepen their faith if they are to mold culture.
“Your faith must become active and strong; it must
become always more personal, more and more rooted in
prayer and in the experience of the sacraments,” the pope
said in a country where weekly Mass attendance ranges
from 30 to 50 percent of the professed Catholics.
Pope John Paul recalled Quebec’s 450 years of Catholic a
history and said that “you will be careful not to allow a"
gap, a discontinuity, to grow between the past and the
future.”
The outdoor Mass site was the stadium of the
University of Laval, named after Canada’s first bishop,
Francois de Laval, who arrived in Quebec in 1639.
“Here began the evangelization of Canada,” Pope John
Paul said. “It is from here that the seed first sown began
its immense growth.”
In his journey the pope was scheduled to trace that
growth with an itinerary following the spread of
Catholicism from Quebec east to the Atlantic coast and
then west to the Pacific Ocean. I
Much of Canada’s Catholic population is still
concentrated in French-speaking Quebec, where 5.6
million of the 11 million Catholics live. The total
Canadian population is 25 million.
Catholicism came to Quebec in 1534 when French
explorer Jacques Cartier landed in Gaspe, Quebec, planted
a cross and claimed the land for France. The French
eventually were forced out of Quebec by the English, but
the province has maintained its French identity.
QUEBEC MASS -- Accompanied by
Archbishop Louis-Albert Vachon of Quebec,
Pope John Paul II arrives for a Mass at Laval
University in Quebec City. (NC photo from UPI)