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ROLE CALL
People often ask me why I decided to be
come a priest. That’s a fairly easy question
actually: you have to think about it, but it's
not really too hard finding a reasonable
answer. When it’s all boiled down, you could
say it was because I wanted to do something
as beneficial as possible for as many people
as possible. That automatically sounds
somewhat I-centered. But anyone who doesn't
feel he has something of value to contribute
will never contribute anything; and not to
contribute is not to live at all.
A question which is much tougher to
answer is one that seldom comes up: "How
did you decide*..?” Ask any man how he de
cided to be or do whatever he is or does and
most will give basically the sane answer:
"I thought about it and things just fell into
place. It’s how they fall into place that I want
to talk about with you.
There are really Only two ways to make a
decision, any decision. We can force it and
try to cram a pre-set pattern into our minds
and wills (and suffer the accompanying emo
tional indigestion) or we can check all the
indications and watch the decision firm up
around us as we shape it from the stuff of
our own resources as persons. The first
way mentioned is like the man who tries
furiously and futilely to open a clam whose
shell just will not crack. Completely frus
trated, the man throws the clam down on
the beach and excuses his failure by saying
he never really wanted to open the thing
anyway. But in a few minutes, warmed
by the moist salty sand, the clam opens on
its own.
How we make decisions, how we make vo
cational choices depends on whether or not
we’re willing to face patiently the agony of
indecision and uncertainty. If we aren’t, then
we'll be like the man as he threw away the
clam. If we are willing to face this though,
then we can watch as our decision crystal
lizes and opens in front of us, just as the
clam did, when it got good and ready. Voca
tional decisions get good and ready too; like
clams, they can’t be rushed.
The point is simply that thequestion "How
did you decide...?” demands a strange pat
ience. Long years ago, God Used to knock
people off their horses to follow him. Not so
much today. Today he expects us to read
patiently the signs that fill Up the days and
hours of our own personal lives and to find
there an invitation to do something that will
count. Once we’ve done this, certain things
will fall out of the picture and others will
get stronger by contrast. Decision or choice
comes when a person has seen thewholepic-,
ture. and has honestly balanced off all the
plus and minus signs and experiences the
one thing that is absolutely essential: the
desire to be or to do. I am a priest be
cause 1 want to be one more than any of
the other things I know I could have been.
I am a priest because at one critical mom
ent after another I caught a glimpse of
all that I wanted to be as a person crystal
lized in the ministry. This started with
entering the seminary but it wasn’tfinalized
until much later. It took time to see it
(just as it did for you in your life), time
for it to unfold and grow and bend and shift
and reach wholeness. It couldn’t be rushed,
but it needed attention and thought and the
honest searching that has to be a part of our
lives if we are to live.
It’s not enough to wait for signs; we have
to search them out and put the pieces togeth
er as they fall into place. We have to be
willing to risk confusion and uncertainty.
But we have to do it in peace and calmness—
not with the fury of the man trying to open
the stubborn clam, but with the relaxed and
confident patience of the fisherman who has
felt nibbles from time to time and knows
that there are more to come until he makes
his catch. We are our catch. It just takes
time, and the strength to search asitpasses.
Father Jerry Hardy.
Archdiocesan Vocations Director
Priest-Civil R ights Leader
Is Honored In Milwaukee
MILWAUKEE (NC)~A Mil
waukee priest whose dramatic
civil rights activities have won
him national curiosity and of
ten local scorn was honored by
J7 v lFI
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NORTH DEKALB CENTEI
§3 PHjpNE.633-1980
a testimonial dinner here and
presented a $3,000 check to aid
his work with the NAACP Youth
Council. Another $2,000 was
pledged.
Nineteen religious and civic
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FOR FATHER MURRAY
Protestant, Jewish
Tributes Pour In
persons came to pay tribute to
the dinner and more than 1,000
persons came to pay tribute to
Father James E. Groppi, who
is currently facing facial trial
for breaking the curfew impos
ed on the city during recent
race riots.
The principal speaker, Msgr.
John J. Egan, director of the of
fice of urban affairs for the
Chicago archdiocese, said That
Father Groppi has been a "sym
bol and a fact of concern in a
desert of indifference, a voice
for the powerless when the pow
erful of the community were
deaf to the plaints of the poor.”
The days are over, Msgr.
Egan said, when a clergyman
can avoid secular involvement
and Father Groppi has been fully
involved with the poor and the
Negro.
“He listens and is trusted
and becomes a friend. He does
not possess the poor and pow
erless; he is possessed by
them.”
NEW YORK (RNS)—Protes
tant and Jewish leaders paid
high tribute to Father John
Courtney Murray, S.J., eminent
Catholic theologian who died
suddenly here of a heart attack
at the age of 63.
They cited his keen scholar
ship, humanitarian spirit and
contributions to religious lib
erty, ecumensism and inter
racial justice.
Some of those immediately
available for comment were
associated with Father Murray
in ecumenical work. Others
were.his friends and colleagues
in scholarly pursuits.
Dr. Samuel Miller, dean of
the Harvard University Divinity
School, Cambridge, Mass.,
said:
"All of us who have been re-
la ted to developments in recent
religious history are indebted
to Father Murray for his
statesmanlike interpretations
of the church and its place in
the Western world. We will
greatly miss his congenial, in
cisive comments, and particu
larly his very gracious per
sonality.”
Speaking on behalf of the Na
tional Council of Churches,
Dr. David R. Hunter, deputy
general secretary, called the
Jesuit "a practicing theologian
who made heroic contributions
to our understanding of reli
gious liberty in a pluralistic
society.”
' "More than perhaps any ot
her religious leader of our
time,” Dr. Hunter said, "he es
tablished vital communications
across faith lines.”
Father Murray's contribu
tions to interreligious relations
was also noted by Rabbi Marc
Tanenbaum, director of the
American Jewish Committee's
Interreligious Affairs Depart
ment. He recalled that the Je
suit priest had chaired a sec
tion at a conference on Judaism
and Christianity held at Wood-
stock (Md.) College in 1966 un
der sponsorship of the C atholic
school and the Committee.
"The sudden death of Fat
her Murray leaves his many
friends and admirers in the
Jewish community and among
all men of goodwill in sor
row and bereavement,” Rabbi
Tanenbaum said.
"His untimelypassingleaves
us all bereft of the warm living
presence of a unique aristocrat
of the intellect and an authen
tic religious humanist,” he add
ed. "Father Murray's brilliant
scholarship and penetrating in
sight have enriched profoundly
our understanding of democra
tic pluralism, religious liberty
and ecumenical and Jewish-
Christian relations.”
Rabbi Tanenbaum said that
"the religious and scholarly
communities, indeed thehuman
community, will forever be in
Father Murray's debt as much
for his active leadership in
causes dedicated by interracial
justice and civic betterment and
Jewish-Christian understand
ing as for his monumentalcon-
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FATHER MURRAY
tributionto the lifeof the mind.
"In the perspective of Jewish
tradition, he is to be regarded
aS a *high priest* in keeping
with the teaching that a non-Jew
studies Torah is to be equated
with a high priest in Israel. May
•his soul be linked immortally
with the bond of life through the
loving memory of his friends
among the household of the
people of Israel.”
Dr. Will Herberg, professor
of Judaic studies at Drew Uni
versity Theological Seminary,
Madison, N.J., called Father
Murray "one of the most emi
nent Christian theologians of
the century,” and said that his
work on thequestion of church -
state relations "has been of
vast importance.”
Dr. Herberg himself recog
nized for his cogent insights
on the inter-action between
church and state, said the death
caused "a great personal
grief,” and was a loss to the
whole world.
From Distrust
To Open Dialogue
BUENOS. AIRES (NC)~Pope
John XXIII and the Second Vati
can Council have changed the
‘‘atmosphere of distrust" be
tween Catholics and those of
other faiths into "an open dia
logue,” Father Yves Congar,
O.P., said here.
The French theologian spoke
to, the Christian Family Move
ment and other lay groups on
“The Church in the World Fol
lowing the Ecumenical Coun
cil."
ARTHUR A. FESSENDEN, JR.
a member of the Cathedral of
Christ the King Parish was
chosen along with nine other
youths, to represent the city of
Atlanta in the United States
Youth Games in thefield of bas
ketball. Besides basketball,
bowling and track and field are
included in the Youth Games.
Eighty-two youths from Atlanta
were chosen to represent our
city in New York, where the
games were played.
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THE GEORGIA BULLETIN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 1967
l . '
Fr. Murray, Scholar, Expert
On Church-State Dies At 63
(FROM PRESS REPORTS)
NEW YORK —A requiem
Mass was celebrated in St.
Ignatius church here for Father
John Courtney Murray, S.J.,
one of the world’s leading ex
perts on Church-state rela
tions. Burial was in the grave
yard of Woodstock College in
Maryland where the 63-year-
old scholar was a long-time
teacher of priests of the So
ciety of Jesus.
Father Murray died (Aug.
16) in a cab in New York City
while en route from the home
of his sister, in Queens, to Man
hattan. The driver took him to
Whitestone General Hospital
where he was pronounced dead
on arrival of an apparent heart
attack. The body was then tak
en to Queens- General Hospital
where an autopsy was perform
ed.
Through his whole life of
teaching writing social action
and dialogue, Father Murray
took- it as his objective to re
concile the ancient traditions of
his Church with the demands of
a pluralistic American society.
He had been a professor of
theology at Woodstock College,
a Jesuit seminary in Maryland,
since 1937. He was twice a
visiting professor of philosophy
at Yale University.
Father Murray served as a
peritus (expert) during the Sec
ond Vatican Council, as a con
sultant to the Vatican's Secre
tariat for Promoting Christian
Unity and the Secretariat for
Non-Believers, and as anasso-
ciate editor of America, nation
al Catholic weekly.
In January, 1966, he became
the director of the John La-
Far ge Institute, a center for
interreligious discussion on
controversial topics of common
concern.
The Jesuit theologian’s wide-
ranging interests all had a com-
■ mon center in his devotion to the
ideals of Order, mutual respect
and justice in relations among
men. This interest expressed
itself in public activities which
dealt with interracial justice
Sought
‘Ge
nuine
Community 9
NEW YORK, N.Y. (RNS)--
Dr. Sterling W. Brown, presi
dent of the National Conference
of Christians and Jews, said
here that Father John Courtney
Murray, S.J., "exemplified in
his scholarship and his per
sonal relations the spirit of
true Catholicism, a univer
sality of thought and practice.”
"It is with a deep sense of
personal loss and sadness that
I learned of the death of Father
Murray,” Dr. Brown said.
His statement continued;
“Long before the interre
ligious dialogue became popu
lar, F ather Murray was in
search of genuine community
among all religious groups.
"We in the National Confer
ence of Christians and Jews join
with all men of goodwill in
mourning the loss of this great
champion of religious liberty,
ecumenical progress and in
terracial justice. A great spirit
has been lost, not only to the
Roman Catholic Church, but to
religious groups everywhere
who believe in the brotherhood
of man under the fatherhood of
God.
"Father Murray’s keen con
cern for freedom of conscience,
reflected in the Religious Lib
erty Dscree of the Second Vat
ican Council, stands as his
monument. While we mourn his
death, we salute hisuniquecon-
tribution to man’s relationship
to man.”
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and church-state relations, the
promotion of dialogue -- in
cluding dialogue between Chris
tians and Communists.
In a cover story on Father
Murray in its Dec. 12, 1960
issue, Time magazine said,
"His lifelong subject of study
has been the interaction of
America andCatholicism; some
critics in his own faith have
occasionally held him to be
more American than Catholic.”
A more positive expression
of a similar idea was stated,
during theSecond VaticanCoun-'
cil, by Auxiliary Bishop Walter
Kampe of Limburg, Germany,
who hailed his "concern about
civil rights and, specifically,
religious liberty” as the
"American contribution” tothe
Council and praised Father
Murray as an "internationally
known... eloquent and learned
exponent of this doctrine.”
His book, We Hold These
Truths, explored philosophical
ly and theologically the basic
ideas on which the American
republic is founded. A Con
tinuing concern with this sub
ject is reflected in the cause to
which he devoted his public
statements most frequently in
the last months of his life —
selective conscientious objec
tion.
This principle, which F ather
MUrray called "incontestable,”
holds that American citizens
have the right to be excused
from military service if they
object to a particular war in
which their country is engaged.
He appealed to "traditional
American political doctrine on
the rights of conscience” to
support this position and noted
that the individual, following his
own conscience, must recog
nize "that the state, too, has
its conscienc which informs
its laws and decisions.”
The individual, he said, "still
stands within the political com
munity and is subject to its
judgment as already declared.”
Concern for freedom of con
science and for the relation of
the individual to the community
was reflected equally in the last
public statement which brought
Father Murray into the news
before his death. He served as
a consultant to a committee of
the Episcopal Church which had
been appointed to consider the
present theological situation,
with particular attention to the
nature and proper treatment of
heresy.
Father Murray, the only
Roman Catholic consulted by
the committee, called attention
to the distinction "between ad
venturous answers, which may
well be mistaken, and harden
ed positions which deserve to
be called errors.”
A passage quoted bythecom-
mittee is probably the last
statement by Father Murray
published during his lifetime.
It summarizes effectively his
optimistic and open-minded at
titude on the questions facing not
only his own Church but Chris
tianity generally in the present
period of rapid change and re
newal:
"Today there are abroad all
sorts of tendencies, currents of
thought, climates of opinion.
And many uncertainties attend
the necessary business of a re
newal of the personal struc
tures of conscience and the fur
ther business of a reform of the
objective expressions of the
Christian faith.
"We all live in an unbelieving
world. And a ‘credibility gap’
has opened between the doc
trines and structures of the
church and the sheer experience
of the world as it is. The truths
of the church and the forms of
her life are supposed to inter
pret the experience of human
life and to give it some saving
structure. But is this happen
ing? Many say no, not without
reason.
"This answer seems to have
lain behind John XXIII’s dis
tinction between the ‘substance’
of Christian faith and the
‘forms’ of its expression.
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