Newspaper Page Text
Southern Cross
Official Newspaper of the Catholic Diocese of Savannah
http://www.diosav.org
Vol. 81, No. 36 Thursday, October 18, 2001
$.75 per issue
Restored Pulaski
monument rededicated
By Father Douglas K. Clark
ells rang out from the Cathedral of
Saint John the Baptist, Saint John’s
Episcopal Church and City Hall. To the
slow cadence sounded by a snare drum, a
procession marched from the remains of
the Spring Hill redoubt, site of the Battle
of Savannah, to Monterey Square, where
“Taps” broke the hushed silence of the
gathered crowd.
Among the marchers were soldiers,
Revolutionary War re-enactors, cadets
from Benedictine Military School, Polish
and American dignitaries and Bishop J.
Kevin Boland and Monsignor William O.
O’Neill, rector of the Cathedral, escorted
by a Fourth Degree honor guard from the
Knights of Columbus.
The occasion for the extraordinary gath
ering in Savannah October 9 was the
rededication of the monument to Brigadier
General Count Casimir Pulaski, who fell
fighting on the American side against the
British in the Battle of Savannah on
October 9, 1779. Father Jeremiah O’Neill,
Sr., rector of the old Cathedral of Saint
John the Baptist spoke at the monument’s
original dedication on January 8, 1855.
The monument to the Polish hero of the
Revolutionary War has been restored at a
cost of nearly $1 million.
Events are planned for each of the next
three years, culminating in a solemn state
funeral for Count Pulaski in 2004, the
225th anniversary of his death. At the time
of his death, there was no Catholic priest
available to perform the funeral rites. A
Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrat
ed in 2004, according to Francis X. Hayes,
co-chair of Pulaski Jubilee 2004.
In the meantime, the remains, found in a
coffin inscribed “Count Casimir Pulaski,”
are being tested by comparing their DNA
with samples from his relatives, in hopes
of resolving a long-standing historical
debate over whether Pulaski was actually
buried in Savannah or at sea.
Ed Dotter, color guard commander of the
Maryland Society of the Sons of the
American Revolution, takes part in the
rededication ceremony in Savannah,
October 9. More photos are on page 12.
U.S. bishops’ president tells Bush military
By John Thavis
Rome (CNS)
n a letter to U.S. President George W. Bush,
the president of the U.S. Conference of Catho
lic Bishops said U.S. military action in Afgha
nistan was regrettable but necessary and called
for continued efforts to spare civilian lives.
The USCCB president, Bishop Joseph A.
Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston, said that after
the deadly terrorist attacks of September 11, it
was clear that “our nation and the world must
respond.”
“I commend the steps you have taken to for
mulate a response using diplomatic, economic
and humanitarian, as well as military means,”
Bishop Fiorenza said in the October 9 letter. A
copy was made available October 10 in Rome,
where Bishop Fiorenza was attending a synod of
bishops.
The letter came two days after the United
States began heavy bombardment of selected tar
gets in Afghanistan, whose ruling Taliban
regime is suspected of harboring terrorist
groups.
Bishop Fiorenza praised the president for try
ing to carry out a “wise, just and effective
response,” which was what the U.S. bishops’
conference had called for in the wake of the ter
rorist attacks.
“I continue to support your efforts to insure
that military action, while always regrettable,
will be designed and undertaken to avoid civil
ian casualties. As we seek to defend innocent
people, measures to avoid jeopardizing the lives
action was necessary
of other innocent people are both necessary and
important,” Bishop Fiorenza said.
Referring to U.S. airdrops of emergency food
supplies in parts of Afghanistan, Bishop
Fiorenza said the humanitarian efforts to help
the Afghan people were “especially welcome.”
He said he also appreciated the president’s
efforts to make clear that “this necessary
response is directed at those who use terror, as
well as those who assist them, and not at the
Afghan people or any particular religious
group.”
Bishop Fiorenza said that, in the wider con
text, he wanted to stress the urgency of finding a
just peace to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
which he said was of particular interest to the
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