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VOL. 6, NO. 17
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
THURSDAY, APRIL 25,1968
Archdiocese Supports Equal Housing Opportunity
The Archdiocese of Atlanta has
joined more than 50 metropolitan
Atlanta organizations and individuals as
co-sponsors of the Atlanta Metropolitan
Committee on Equal Opportunity in
Housing.
“The objective of the conference will
be primarily educational, “Father Noel
C. Burtenshaw, chancellor and a
member of the executive committee,
said.
“THE SUBJECT of equal
opportunity in housing is one on which
most people have strong feelings, but
very little knowledge and experience.
“The conference will seek to bring
those of different background and
viewpoints around the table to discuss
the problems. It’s purpose is to have
Atlanta people talk to Atlanta people.
“We expect this dialogue and
interchange will establish necessary
communication and provide some
answers to the housing problems facing
greater Atlanta.”
With the announcement of the
committee’s formation was the
appointment of Mrs. Kathleen Wood as
executive director, with offices at Room
248, 50 Seventh Street, Atlanta.
FORMAL announcement of the
committee followed by days the signing
by President Lyndon B. Johnson of the
civil rights bill which contains open
housing provisions.
“To begin to fulfill its purposes,”
Mrs. Wood said, “we have established
six areas of work.” It is the Committee’s
plan to: (1) Analyze all available
information concerning open housing in
the Atlanta metropolitan community,
since there can be no equal opportunity
in housing unless there is open housing.
(2) Analyze property depreciation,
deterioration resulting in blighted areas,
and the effect of blighted areas on the
economic development of the
metropolitan community.
(3) Create a climate whereby existing
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 2)
Churches
Failing
Retarded
Why is it that the government
has so often led the churches in
the area of aid to the mentally
retarded?
This was a question posed
during a session on religious
nurture and mental retardation at
the Southeastern Regional
Conference of the National
Association for Retarded
Children.
At the NARC conference in
Atlanta last weekend, the Rev.
Fred Henry, NARC religious
nurture committee chairman,
accused the churches of
depersonalizing the retarded.
He said, “If we do not bring God
into the lives of the retarded, we
cannot say we have helped them
to live effectively. The key
person in religious nurture is the
pastor.”
The Rev. Mr. Henry, who
served on President Kennedy’s
religious resources committee,
recalled that the President asked
the committee why churches
with their vast resources and
trained personnel had not
become involved with the
mentally retarded. During the
past four years, the Rev. Mr.
Henry has conducted interfaith
seminars for clergymen on the
spiritual needs of the mentally
retarded.
Answering those who find
religious nurture of the retarded
difficult, he said, “All of those
people are forgetting one thing.
Can’t we make religious nurture
of the retarded person-centered
and not curriculum-centered?”
The Rev. John R. Haynes,
director-developer of the Atlanta
Baptist Assembly, presented the
Protestant perspective of religious
nurture. He said that many
pastors do not welcome the
retarded because they do not
understand them.
Father Richard A. Kieman,
spiritual director to exceptional
children in the Atlanta
archdiocese, said, “Very many of
, our clergy and laity regard a
special program for the religious
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 2)
THIS SEVEN-foot figure of a man on bended knee looking up to heaven is a
dominant feature of the Baptist Pavilion at San Antonio’s HemisFair ‘68. The
modem sculpture was fashioned from discarded portions of churches around
the world. Sponsors of the pavilion are the San Antonio Baptist Association,
Baptist General Convention of Texas, and Southern Baptist Convention’s Home
and Foreign Mission Boards. The exhibit includes file restored historic Eagar
home, where the first Anglo-American was bom in San Antonio. (RNS Photo).
TO HANDLE DISPUTES
Bishops Urged
To Consider
Mediation Board
ST. LOUIS (NC) - The administrative committee of the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops has recommended that the Spring
meeting of the U. S. Catholic bishops here consider establishing a
board for the arbitration or mediation of disputes between
individuals or organizations within the Church in this country.
The recommendation is on an
agenda approved Monday by the
committee for consideration by
the general meeting scheduled to
continue through Thursday.
Other items on the
recommended agenda included:
-Election of a chairman of the
Committee on the Liturgy and of
a member of the administrative
committee.
—Consideration of a joint
pastoral based on the Vatican
Council II Constitution of the
Church in the Modem World.
During its sessions, the NCCB is
scheduled to hear reports on the
Catholic University of America,
Washington, D.C.; guidelines for
priests’ senates, with the
recommendation that the bishops
address themselves to the
relationship there should be with
a national association of priests’
senates, councils or associations;
a proposal that a bishops’
committee on the permanent
diaconate be established.
Other reports will concern:
priestly formation; distribution
of clergy, with a suggested
procedure for putting a national
program into effect; liasion with
the major Religious superiors for
men and women; the liturgy; a
committee on pastoral research
and practices; an in-depth study
on the life and ministry of
priests; the missions, and
doctrine.
In sessions of the United States
Catholic Conference, the agenda
for the bishops included: a report
by the Social Action Department
on racism, incorporating a
comprehensive list of suggestions
of what the bishops feel they can
do to remedy racism and poverty
and discrimination resulting from
it; a report on the Booz, Allen &
Hamilton research study on
reorganization of the secretariat;
reports on Catholic education
and on election of a member of
the administrative board without
portfolio.
The agenda also lists Houston,
Tex., as the site of the 1969
Spring meeting of the bishops
and recommend that meeting
choose the site for the 1970
Spring sessions.
This is the first meeting of
America’s bishops since Bishop
Joseph L. Bernardin of Atlanta
was named general secretary of
the United States Catholic
Conference and the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops.
INSIDE
Today’s Bulletin has a lot of
discussion about priests, their work,
the need for them and their problems.
Msgr. Joseph Cassidy discusses his
career as a Catholic chaplain at
Central State Hospital at Milledgeville
on Page 3.
On Page 6 Pope Paul stresses the
need for vocations.
A French priest-psychiatrist (Page
8-9) says the discussion of celibacy is
only a symptom of troubles facing the
“priestly class.”
Half of America’s Negro priests
(Page 11) charge the institutional
Church is “white, racist.”