Newspaper Page Text
Thursday, January 20, 2000
The Southern Cross, Page 3
Pacelli Catholic High School, Columbus
and band wing. The Elena Amos
Arts and Science Center and
the Pacelli Viking Fitness
Center were other facilities
added to the school in 1989.
A co-educational high
school, Pacelli has about
300 students and is open to
students from various ethnic,
cultural and socio-econom-
Ritd H. DeLorme j c backgrounds in the
Columbus-Phenix City area.
Twenty-one credits are mandatory
for graduation and students often
graduate with as many as 25. The
curriculum includes business educa
tion, communications, fine arts, guid
ance, languages, math, physical edu
cation, religion, science and social
studies. Activities besides an array of
varsity and junior varsity sports
include, among others: campus min
istry, Teen Advisors (a peer counsel
ing groups) along with many others.
A staff made up of lay teachers and
one religious, Sister Grace Marie
Dillard, RSM, campus minister,
rounds out the well-balanced educa
tion offered by this excellent Catholic
high school which “endeavors to
admit students dedicated to seeking
an education and who are capable of
meeting the intellectual challenge that
it provides.”
A SCENE AT Pacelli in 1963 (left to right)—standing: Jim Wein,
George Henderson, David Scherman and Ronald Weisenfeld;
seated: Sister Mary Patricia, RSM, principal,
Father George James, moderator.
Devotion to Catholic principles is a
guiding factor at Pacelli as are the
following convictions: “belief in a
personal and loving God and Jesus
Christ as Lord and Saviour; belief in
the value and dignity of the individ
ual; belief that each person must be
aware of and respond to his ability to
the communities of which he is part.”
Pacelli High School is located on
Trinity Drive in Columbus.
Rita H. De Lorme is a volunteer in
the Diocesan Archives.
A relative latecomer among high
schools in the Diocese of
Savannah, Pacelli High
School was founded in 1958
in Columbus. Originally
called Holy Family High
School, it was later renamed
“Pacelli” in honor of the late
Holy Father, Pope Pius XII,
whose name was Eugenio
Pacelli. Students initially
attended this high school in a grade-
school building. Change came a year
after its founding when a new building
with better facilities and a larger cam
pus was completed. Further expansion
took place in 1961 when more class
rooms, a chapel and additional depart
ments were added. Pacelli’s first grad
uates received their high school diplo
mas on May 25, 1962.
Over the years, other additions and
changes enhanced the school. The
Pacelli Sports Arena came into exis
tence in 1981 because of the com
bined efforts of both the community
and the Pacelli Education Foundation.
Also in 1981, with the completion of
Saint Anne Church, the former
church building was transformed into
the school’s library and media center.
Additional renovation took place dur
ing the summers of 1986 and 1987,
and the Sports Arena took on a music
Pope, Christian
leaders ask forgiveness
for Christian division
By Cindy Wooden
Rome (CNS)
ope John Paul II opened the Week of Prayer for
Christian Unity kneeling in the doorway of a
Rome basilica, flanked by the head of the worldwide
Anglican Communion and by an Orthodox prelate.
“We ask Christ’s forgiveness for all which in the
history of the church compromised his plan of unity,”
the pope said during the January 18 service in the
Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls.
The service began with the opening of the basilica’s
Holy Door, the oldest in Rome. The bronze door at
Saint Paul’s was fused in 1070 in what was
Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire.
Anglican Archbishop George Carey of Canterbury,
England, and Orthodox Metropolitan Athanasios of
Helioupolis and Theira, a representative of the
Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate, joined Pope John
Paul in pushing open the door.
Then, departing from the Vatican’s script for the
event, the archbishop and the metropolitan dropped to
their knees, praying in silence on either side of the
kneeling pope.
Representatives of the World Council of Churches
and 22 Christian denominations participated in the
service and attended a luncheon afterward hosted by
Pope John Paul.
“We know we are still divided brothers and sisters,”
the pope said, “but we have placed ourselves with
decisive conviction on the path which leads to the full
unity of the Body of Christ.”
The pope walked more quickly and spoke with a
clearer and stronger voice than normal.
Resign
(Continued from page 1)
In recent months, Vatican spokesman Joaquin
Navarro-Vails has said the pope recognizes that
age and infirmity have placed some limits on his
activities, but that the pope has been the best judge
of what he should and should not undertake.
Vatican officials have pointed to the packed
schedule of jubilee-year events as evidence that
while the pope’s stamina may have slipped a notch
or two, he is still leading a vigorous papacy.
Bishop Lehmann’s remarks—misreported by the
Italian press as a request for the pope to step
down—provoked immediate controversy and a
rush to defend the pope by Roman Curia officials.
A flurry of denials and clarifications followed,
with everyone—including Bishop Lehmann—
agreeing that the 79-year-old pontiff was fully
capable of continuing in office.
“Even though the pope appears very tired, the
Holy Father is in the fullness of his mental faculties.
I don’t think the hypothesis of resigning has been
considered, not even recently,” said Dominican
Father Georges Cottier, theologian of the papal
household.
Cardinal Pio Laghi, a longtime Vatican official
who recently retired, said: “We have an excellent
Holy Father. I think a decision like resignation
cannot be suggested to the pope. It’s a decision
that would be his alone.”
The pope appeared to offer an unintentional
response to the debate when, speaking about the
elusive goal of world peace, he told diplomats
January 10: “God never asks us anything above
our capabilities, in the sense that he gives us the
strength to complete what he expects of us.”
But even at the Vatican, some acknowledged
that Bishop Lehmann, president of the German
bishops’ conference, had voiced what many peo
ple have privately wondered as they watched the
pope struggle through the first big Holy Year
events, frequently looking frail and unsteady.
Bishop Lehmann said that while he thought the
pope was at the “high point” of his pontificate, it
was not being disloyal to talk about papal resigna
tion as a future possibility.
“This is not an eternal assignment. It is limited
first of all by death, and then perhaps by other cir
cumstances. If a pope, having reflected and prayed
deeply, feels in conscience that he no longer has
the capacity to carry out the office, he could
decide to resign,” said one highly placed Vatican
source who asked not to be named.
Pope John Paul is being treated for a nervous
system disorder believed to be Parkinson’s dis
ease, a debilitating illness.
Canon 332 of church law stipulates that a papal
resignation be made freely and “duly manifested,”
which is generally understood to mean in writing
or in the presence of witnesses. Most experts
believe a papal resignation would have to be com
municated to the College of Cardinals, which
elects popes. But church law makes clear that no
one need accept a pope’s resignation in order for it
to be valid.
A sick pope can delegate much of his authority
to trusted aides. But if a pope becomes incapaci
tated without having previously delegated respon
sibility, no decisions that require papal authority
can be made.
Vatican sources, speaking privately, have sug
gested that Pope John Paul may have already
made provisions for any such eventuality. It would
even be possible, one source said, for the pope to
stipulate that if his physical condition were to
deteriorate to a certain point, it be considered
equivalent to an act of resignation.