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G. ALBERT LAWTON
NCCJ Award
Dear
Reader
BY HARRY MURPHY
“In my view, if you can’t
have amicable and good faith
race relations, then it’s time
to give up,” says an Atlanta
Catholic who will receive the
National Brotherhood Award
of the National Conference of
Christians and Jews (NCCJ)
here March 19.
The human race faces too
many other problems to get
bogged down in bad human
relations, contend G. Albert
Lawton, the native New
Englander who will be
presented-the award by the
Need’s Georgia region in
ceremonies at the Regency
Hyatt House.
He doesn’t advocate,
however, a “hands off’
policy on brotherhood.
“Criticism, if handled
properly, is not necessarily
destructive and harmful,” he
explains.
Lawton, who has adopted
Atlanta as his home for the
past 11 years, is chairman of
the Archdiocesan Finance
Committee and makes his
living in financial and
insurance circles. It’s
heartening for such a person
to feel that brotherhood is so
important.
The NCCJ says the award
is for “his unusual service to
the .. .Conference .. .and for
his contributions to civic,
religious and educational
endeavors.”
He was a member of the
now defunct St. Martin’s
Council, a Catholic interracial
group. A member of Holy
Spirit Parish, he’s married and
the father of three children.
Lawton is a director of the
Atlanta Symphony Guild and
St. Joseph’s Infirmary, an
NCCJ National board
member, trustee, and
co-chairman of the Georgia
Region.
The event’s principal
speaker will be Mrs. George
Romney, wife of the U.S.
Secretary of Housing and
Urban Development. She is
national chairman of Need’s
commitment for 1970,
“Brotherhood Begins with
Respect,” and has been a
leader in the conference’s
program of “Rearing Children
of Good Will.”
NCCJ President Sterling W.
Brown will present the award
to Lawton at the dinner,
which is a major fund-raising
event for the organization.
The NCCJ is a civic
organization dedicated to the
national ideal of building
“one nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.”
A high honor by an
outstanding organization for
a deserving Catholic, enough to
make an members of the
Church in North Georgia
proud.
Priest
Ordained
For Here
Joseph Anthony Sanches
was ordained a priest March 7
for the service of the Church
in the Archdiocese of
Atlanta.
Archbishop Thomas A.
Donnellan celebrated the
ordination ceremony at the
Church of the 'Guardian
Angel, the parish church of
the Sanches family, in
Allendale, New Jersey.
Rev. Eugene A. Walsh, S.
S., rector of the Theological
College of Catholic University
where Father Sanches is
completing his studies,
presented Father Sanches for
ordination. Rev. Joseph C.
Stockhammer, Pastor of the
parish, - assisted the
Archbishop. Father Jerry E.
Hardy served as master of
ceremonies.
Father Sanches, a
thirty-year-old native of New
York City, entered the
Archdiocese as a student in
August, 1963. He completed
his college studies at St.
Charles College, Catonsville,
Maryland and St. Mary’s
College, Baltimore, Maryland.
After graduation from St.
Mary’s, Father Sanches
entered Theological College
at Catholic University of
America.
While at Theological
College, where he will remain
until the end of the year,
Father Sanches distinguished
himself with outstanding
academic achievement. In
addition he was also
instrumental in the design
and development of the
College’s Pastoral Training
Program.
His contribution in this
latter area has been so
significant that the faculty of
the College requested that he
be allowed to remain an extra
year at the institution to
complete the development of
the Program. Archbishop
Donnellan granted the
request and Father Sanches
will begin his ministry in
Atlanta after the year is
completed.
In his homily at
Ordination, Archbishop
Donnellan quoted from St.
Paul’s letter to the Philipans
and went on to comment on
Paul’s message:
“Today, your ordination
day, through me, your
Bishop, God has spoken the
Creative Word that makes
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PARISHONERS HEAD FOR BASEMENT
It’s Where The Action Is
NOTRE DAME BOOKSTORE
Sr. Mary Schweers Tends
Church Basement Bustles
BY LEONARD TEEL
“I had determined that I was not going to cry at
the wall.. .because why shouldn’t I stand before that
wall rejoicing for God?”
The man talking about his night time visits to the
sacred “Wailing Wall”- in Jerusalem was an Atlanta
rabbi with a mustache and a frequent smile.
His listeners were not Jewish, but Catholics
gathered on a Sunday morning after Mass in the new
Religious Education Center beneath Sacred Heart
Church, 335 Ivy St. NE.
Rabbi Sydney K. Mossman’s talk about “Man’s
Struggle with God” was one of the various activities
which the parish sponsors in the Center which until
recently was a basement where old pews were stored.
“You see,” explains Sister Anne Russell, the
director and one of the life forces in the Center,
“everything that happens in the parish happens down
here, except for the liturgy.
“It gives people someplace to be, which is
important for the community ...”
She recently told parishioners in a mailing: “You
don’t have to be Irish to come to the Pot Luck
Supper (March 14), just an alive member of Sacred
Heart Parish.”
On the March calendar of events Sister Anne
stroked a large “Join Us” and listed all the events,
including sewing for the poor and the return of Rabbi
Mossman for the Passover Meal on March 25.
As conceived by the pastor, Rev. John Mulroy, the
Center is intended to be a place for action in the
inner city. Convinced that many persons are idle
because they have no opportunites for action, Rev.
Mulroy got rid of the unused pews and had the
basement renovated at a cost of about $40,000,
which has been paid.
On a recent tour, he demonstrated the degree of
planning that went into the center. Showing off the
robe room, he pointed out that the short closets were
for the children’s choir gowns. The kitchen is
adequate for meals and the coffeemaker is tapped
regularly for after - Mass gatherings. Two pink and
white piggy banks are set on the coffee table for
anyone who wants to contribute.
On the recent Sunday morning, Rabbi Mossman
arrived early. Upstairs in the church the visiting
Methodist choir from across the street was still
singing. Sister Anne greeted the rabbi. Coffee was on
the table.
To one side of the Center, behind sliding glass
panels, Sister Placide Regan and Sister Mary Bernard
Schweers were tending the Notre Dame Bookstore
which is open every day.
Next to the bookshop in another glass partitioned
office, two men and two women counted the Sunday
donations to the Archdiocesan Charities Drive. After
the second Mass, they had gone $24 over their quota
of $9,000. (Eventually they counted up $11,040.50.)
The chairman of the parish drive, Royce Mitchell,
said the office in the Center was an improvement over
the room in the rectory where he used to count the
money. And, he said, “You don’t have to answer the
door and the telephone.”
Next to them was Sister Anne’s office where she
writes the calendars with her set of broad-stroked
markers of many colors.
“Here I am,” said Rabbi Mossman as the talk
began, “addressing you immediately after a divine
service. You have just come from your own search for
God.”
In his own search, he said, he went to the “Wailing
Wall” ~ the ruins of the old temple -- sometimes at
midnight or 12:30 in the morning when the place was
quiet.
“I wanted to stand in front of that wall and just
talk to him-not always seriously.” He smiled.
“I said, ‘With me, God, you’ve got to have a sense
of humor.’”
“Man’s struggle,” he said in conclusion, “is man’s
struggle to attain faith. Faith, as we shall talk about
next week, is something that has to be renewed every
morning.”
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NEWS BRIEFS
Ask Reinstatement
SEATTLE (NC) — A priests’ board of inquiry, investigating
the suspension of a seminarian disciplined for recruiting go-go
dancers for a prison performance, has recommended that the
student be reinstated immediately. James Pattenaude, the
suspended seminarian, expressed surprise at the board’s
decision. He is a second-year theology student at St. Thomas the
Apostle Seminary in nearby Kenmore. Archbishop Thomas A.
Connolly, who disciplined the seminarian, said he would
comment on the board’s report after he has read it. The prelate
had not issued any statement as of March 10.
Seek Open N.C.C.B. Meeting
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (NC) — The religion writers of the nation’s
general press have called upon the U.S. Catholic bishops to open
to reporters the business sessions at their semiannual meetings.
Religion Newswriters Association (RNA) voted unanimously at
its annual meeting here (March 8) to ask the bishops to “open
all plenary business sessions to accredited reporters” when the
National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) meets in April
in San Francisco-as well as at future meetings. The RNA
membership of about 100 includes fulltime religion writers on
the reporting staffs of daily newspapers, wire services, and
national weeklies and news magazines.
Priest, Nun
Lose Parent
The father of a priest
and the mother of a nun
stationed in the Atlanta
Archdiocese have died
suddenly.
Charles Henry Herbert,
father of Rev. Leo P.
Herbert, assistant pastor of
St. Anthony’s Parish, died
in an accident in Ireland
March 8. Father Herbert
has returned to Ireland for
the funeral.
Mrs. Alice Cauley,
mother of Sister Rosemary
Cauley, G.N.S.H., who is
in charge of religious
education at the
Cathedral, died while
visiting her daughter here.
Mrs. Cauley’s remains
have been taken to her
home in Buffalo, N.Y.
Atheist President?
Mayhe Next Century
IOWA CITY, Iowa (NC)~
Could an atheist be elected
president of the United
States?
Not today, observed Prof.
James McCue, a Catholic lay
theologian who is a member
of the University of Iowa’s
School of Religion.
McCue maintained that
despite the American
principle that church and
state should be kept separate,
he said that in practice the
United States has had an
“established religion.” And in
some ways, he noted, religion
has been stronger here than in
some European and Latin
American countries usually
thought of in that
connection.
The professor pointed out
that in those countries,
atheistic communists
commonly run for public
office and are elected. But he
added that serious American
candidates-for city council or
the White House-are quick to
cite their religious affiliation.
McCue said that in spite of
the stong religious consensus
that has marked U.S. History
up to the present, he believes
“revolutions” happening in
many phases of American, life
have made disenchanted with
the country’s religious as well
as political institutions.
McCue predicted that as
the 21st century approaches,
the need to be even “vaguely
religious” will decline as a
requirement of being
“American.”
Stress Need To
Communicate
At NFPC Meet
SAN DIEGO Calif. (NC) Three chief speakers at
the third annual National Federation of Priests’
Council’s meeting here stressed need for
establishment of real communication between
bishops and priests if the present tensions within the
Church are ever to be alleviated.
Bishop Alexander Carter, of t
Saulte Ste. Marie, Ont.,
former president of the
Canadian Catholic
Conference, the keynote
speaker, declared “my own
conviction is that the real
priority should be given
personal communication.”
Father Joseph Fichter,
Harvard University
sociologist, said “the most
important answer to the
current problems that comes
out of our research surveys
centers around the concept of
communication, collegiality
and co-responsibility.”
Father Patrick O’Malley of
Chicago, retiring NFPC
president, said his group had
been in the forefront of
“opening up communications
between every segment of the
Church, and outside the
Church, as well. We must
study the art of
communication, use what the
sciences teach us, be the
sounding board of those
voices which cannot be
heard.”
Bishop Carter said:
“I have seen hard-boiled
professional journalists, radio
and TV experts change a
whole attitude in the space of
an hour when they confront a
real-life bishop or a panel of
bishops who are willing to
meet them on their own
ground, answer their
questions simply and
honestly without evasion-in a
word just be themselves.”
“One of the great causes for
a breakdown in many places
in bishop - priests*
relationships is the almost
total lack of knowledge of
one another. I say this with
all sincerity acknowledging
that very often, though not
always, it has been the fault
of us who are bishops.
Properly understood, there is
a great truth in one of G.K.
Chesterton’s typical remarks:
‘It is not familiarity that
breeds contempt, it is
unfamiliarity.’ Be that as it
may, I welcome this
opportunity to compare
notes with you.”
The bishop told the
members of the federation,
“we have much to leam by
mutually comparing our
experiences, achievements
and failures in various
experiments designed to put
into practice the promise that
Vatican II offered to the
Church and to an interested
world.”
^$250,000^
$242,500
March 1,1970
Feb. 27,1970
97%
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Feb. 20,1970
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Feb. 13,1970
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Feb.6,1970
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Charities Drive Thermometer
Fund Drive Inches Toward Goal
This week the Chancery reports that 97 percent of the Charities
Drive had been collected from the parishes throughout the
Archdiocese. The amount on hand is $242,500. In one week
since Drive Sunday, the amount has grown by 3%. It is expected
that before the end of this week, the total amount will have
come from the parishes. The over-all goal for the Archdiocese
this year was $250,000. Archbishop Donnellan has urged those
tyho have not yet participated to do so through their parishes
this week so that the Charities Drive for 1970 can be completed.
The Archbishop again expressed his gratitude to all who worked
so hard during this annual one day cash drive.