Newspaper Page Text
Voi. 64 No. 36
Thursday, October 18, 1984
$10 Per Year
Two Bishops Respond
Bishop Unterkoefler
Among the many who have responded to the appeal for
funds to help repair the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist
are two bishops - one from a neighboring diocese, the
other a native son: Bishop Ernest Unterkoefler of
Charleston and Bishop Andrew J. McDonald, Bishop of
Little Rock, Arkansas.
In a letter to Bishop Raymond W. Lessard, Bishop
Unterkoefler said he had read in the THE SOUTHERN
CROSS the details of the deterioration of the Cathedral.
“In the light of friendship between the two dioceses,
Charleston and Savannah, and, I am sure, the need for
funds, I am forwarding to you as a gift a check in the
amount of $2,500 towards the restoration of your
Cathedral.” Bishop Unterkoefler wrote. “Along with this
To Cathedral's Need
come our prayers and good wishes.”
“From time to time we request a remembrance in the
prayers of the people of the Cathedral in an anonymous
way. I know this is very little, but it’s a symbol and a sign
of our concern for the sacred edifice and the travail of the
people in being unable to worship in the Mother Church
of the Diocese of Savannah.”
Bishop McDonald’s reflections about the Cathedral will
be found on page 5. With them, he sent a check for
$5,000 from the Diocese of Little Rock as a token of
concern. In addition he enclosed a check for $500 from
his personal funds, stating that he hoped to repeat his
personal gift for each of the next two years.
Bishop Me Donald
70-Hour Visit
Pope: "Create A New Dawn For The Church"
BY JOHN THAVIS
ROME (NC) - During his Oct. 10-13 trip to Spain and
Latin America, Pope John Paul II praised the region’s
missionary past, acknowledged the “tears and sufferings”
of its present and urged the church to take a greater role
in the future of its people.
The pope linked his dramatic call for Latin American
bishops to “create a new dawn for the church” with their
responsibility to defend the region’s estimated 100 million
poor. He skipped over a line in one speech which called on
A-
edral/Confraternity
To meet the urgent need posed by the
emergency repairs to the Cathedral of St.
John the Baptist in Savannah, this year’s
Confraternity of the Laity Appeal is
combined with the Cathedral Fund drive, for
a total target of $2 million.
To remind Catholics of the work that is
carried out by the Diocese year round, with
assistance from the Confraternity collection,
THE SOUTHERN CROSS is running a series
of articles on four top priorities: Spiritual
Renewal, Religious Education, Social
Ministry and Youth Ministry.
See page 3 of this issue for our Special
Report on Religious Education.
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the church to offer its support for the “social liberation of
the multitudes of the needy,” but a Vatican official said
the comment was still valid.
While he repeatedly emphasized the church’s
responsibility to be an effective social force, the pope was
careful to define the limits of that force. In the urgently
needed pastoral work, he said, there are rules which must
be followed.
To more than 500,000 people in Puerto Rico, the pope
stressed that the laity “must exercise its mission in close
contact with priests and bishops.”
Speaking later to priests, nuns and seminarians at a
university in San Juan, the pope told them never to use
the excuse of a “greater pastoral efficiency” to ignore the
directions of their bishops.
And to more than 100 Latin American bishops
gathered in the Dominican Republic’s capital of Santo
Domingo, the pope said that the Latin American church’s
work on behalf of the poor and the oppressed must follow
specific teachings of the universal church.
In his most detailed public comment on liberation
theology, which was born in Latin America in response to
widespread poverty, the pope told the bishops that they
and other Catholics must not consider the poor as “a class
in struggle.” Class struggle, one of the tenets of Marxism,
has been used by some branches of liberation theology in
explaining how Christ’s message should be understood and
applied in modern Latin America.
The pope’s trip, which included an overnight stop in
Zaragoza, Spain, was made to help inaugurate a
church-sponsored evangelization program leading up to
the celebration in 1992 of the 500th anniversary of
Christianity in Latin America.
But the timing of the visit gave the pope an
opportunity to underline the major points of the Vatican
document on liberation theology, released Sept. 3, as he
outlined the task of a “new evangelization” of the region.
The document, issued by the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, condemned forms of liberation
theology which “uncritically” use Marxist concepts.
Speaking to the bishops and about 100,000 people
during a Mass Oct. 11 at a Santo Domingo racetrack, the
pope insisted that work for the poor can never include
violence. In an apparent reference to Nicaragua, where
four priests hold posts in the Marxist-influenced
Sandinista government, the pope also warned that church
leaders should beware of bringing their people under
“programs of atheism.”
The church’s preferential option for the poor, Pope
John Paul said, is not “exclusive or excluding,” but is
open to all those “who want to leave sin.”
The pope made the individual the focus of his
comments on the social aspects of sin and liberation.
Liberation, he said, is liberation from sin, and social evil
begins in the individual human heart.
During a Liturgy of the Word celebration in Santo
Domingo’s Olympic Stadium Oct. 12, the pope told the
bishops to avoid the “seduction of ideologies” and social
models which “omit or contradict” the faith.
But the pope’s cautionary remarks about violence and
political ideologies did not eclipse his strong call for the
church to lead the fight for social justice -- through
emphasis of the moral and social dimensions of the
Gospel.
In fact, newspapers in the Dominican Republic
reported the pope’s Oct. 11 homily as an endorsement of
the church’s commitment to the poor. Most of them
(Continued on page 7)
DOMINICAN GREETINGS - Pope John Paul
II is mobbed by children upon his arrival in Santo
Domingo. (NC photo from UPI)
Official Assignment
Bishop Raymond W. Lessard and the Reverend
Frank Ruff, Superior of the Glenmary Home
Missioners of Cincinnati, have appointed Father
John Loftus as Temporary Parochial Administrator
of Sacred Heart Church, Lyons-Vidalia.
The appointment was effective October 15.