Newspaper Page Text
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SERVING GEORGIA’S 71 NORTHERN COUNTIES
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Vol. 8 No. 13
THURSDAY, MARCH 26,1970
—
Dear
BY HARRY MURPHY
The reorganized
Archdiocesan Pastoral
Council will hold its first
meeting April 11 in the St.
Joseph High School
Auditorium, thus giving
shared responsibility another
chance in North Georgia.
The former eight-member
council, created under the
late Archbishop Paul J.
Hallinan, foundered for one
reason or another and itself
recommended the formation
of the broader-based group of
some 55.
The forthcoming session
will be for organizing:
electing officers and
considering the type of
structure the new venture will
have.
Chairman Tom Kratzer
said the third of three
meetings with smaller groups
of the incoming members was
held Wednesday. “We’re
hopeful the new group can
take over and really get this
thing going,” he said.
There has been a renewed
interest all over the country
in pastoral councils and other
forms of shared responsibility
such as boards of education
and financial councils.
Last week, the first
National Conference on
Pastoral Councils was held at
Dayton, Ohio’s Bergamo
Center. “The goal of a
pastoral council is to enable
people of a diocese to learn
to think and work together as
the people of God,”
Archbishop Paul F. Leibold
of Cincinnati said in the
keynote address.
He told the 150 delegates
that pastoral councils are
needed because no channel
upward exists for bishops to
hear the authentic voice of
the laity.
Channels downward are
obscure, he added, and
consequently the Church
suffers a “massive and acute”
communications problem.
He said that diocesan
councils need a base of parish
councils which abound in
‘‘the enthusiasm,
understanding, interest, trust
and respect of pastor and
people.”
The good archbishop
thereby outlined what should
be one of the first tasks of
the new Atlanta pastoral
council: to see that a council
exists in each parish.
And to lessen some fears of
pastoral and parish councils,
he outlined some of the
things they are not:
“The councils are not lay
trusteeism, they are not the
laity taking over the Church,
they are not the giving of
power to a few demagogues,
and they are not designed to
harass religious and clerical
administrators.”
The councils came out of
Vatican II, he added, and “I
believe they are the work of
the Holy Spirit.”
The Bergamo conference
heard the results of a survey
which should point out to the
Atlanta Council some pitfalls.
It showed a low involvement
of women and young people
in pastoral councils around
the country.
Father William J.
Rademacher of St. John’s
University at Collegeville,
Minn., said, “Lay women
through baptism share
equally with laymen in the
priesthood of Christ.”
He also decried the absence
of young adults on the
councils and noted that a
large percentage of our
population is under 20 years
(continued on Page 8)
APRIL 16-18
Atlanta Province
Worship Congress
Program Complete
The program for the Congress on Worship to be held in Atlanta April 16-18 has
been announced by the Congress publicity chairman. Representatives from dioceses
comprising the Province of Atlanta are expected to number some four thousand.
Dioceses represented will be Atlanta, Savannah, Charleston, and Raleigh.
The Congress will open
with a Professional session on
Architecture and Arts,
conducted by noted church
architect, Robert Rambusch
at 2 p.m. April 16.
The opening plenary
session will be held at 8 p.m.
the same day under the
chairmanship of Bishop
Gerard L. Frey and Father J.
Paul Byron and will include a
multi-media presentation on
the theme “Reconciliation.”
The morning session at
9:30 a.m. April 17 will
feature an address by Father
Eugene C. Kennedy of the
Maryknoll. Father Ken
nedy is a psychologist-
teacher and much published
author. He will review the
Village Appeals
For Aid Sunday
The shrill voice of the telephone rings out. A
distraught mother, tense with emotion, pours out a
story of family discord. Financial worries, separation,
truancy, despair, ill-health: all have produced a
situation with which she can no longer cope. “Will
you help my child?”
Our Lord directed us,
“Ask, and it shall be given
you; seek and you shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened
unto you.” In this glorious
time of renewal, isn’t it
wonderful that there is a
Village of St. Joseph which
can respond with love and
professional skill to this plea?
This haven, founded close
to a hundred years ago in
Washington, Georgia, has
been a part- of the Atlanta
community almost three
years now. It has expanded
the original work of custodial
care alone to a comprehensive
approach toward complete
social and psychological
health for the boys and girls
as well as for their families.
The professionalism so
evident in the total care of
these children is becoming
well-known throughout those
groups who minister to
emotionally disturbed
youngsters. Nowhere are
these talents more obvious
than in the school, now
available to some day
students as well as to the
residents of the Village. Here,
patient, dedicated, and
creative teachers bring
educationally delayed but
intelligent young minds back
into the mainstream of
normal school life, while love
and social rehabilitation
return their spirits to bright -
eyed acceptance and hope.
Many of Jesus’ miracles
were concerned with making
whole the sick and the
tormented. With the Holy
Spirit very much in evidence
at the Village, this work
continues here today. But it
takes more than dedicated
works; it takes money to pay
for the professional skills and
the equipment necessary for
this task. At this time of joy
in the Christian world, will
you share your happiness?
Will you answer the call for
help? Will you open the door
of the future for our
children?
John Rhodes Haverty, M.D.
President, Board of Trustees
Village of St. Joseph
relationship between the
liturgy and the community.
His talk will be followed by
responses on CATHECHE-
TICS by Miss Christiane
Brusselman, a professional
catechist from Belgium;
LITURGY by Father
Clement McNaspy, liturgy
expert and associate editor of
the Jesuit magazine
“America;” ECUMENISM by
Dr. Ted Runyon, and
SOCIAL ACTION by Dr.
Benjamin Mays.
Congress delegates will
take part in various
workshops scheduled for 2
p.m. April 17.
Evening sessions that day
will take place at 8 p.m. and
10 p.m. with the 10 o’clock
session being “An Experience
in Community.”
The Congress on Worship
will close at noon on April 18
with a celebration of the
Eucharist, following a 9:30
a.m. session at which Mr.
Rambusch will exlore “The
Environment in Which We
Worship” and Father
McNaspy will conduct a
presentation of “Music in
Celebration.’’
Registrations for the
meeting, are beginning
to stack up, according to Mrs.
Dotsie Holmes, Atlanta
Archdiocesan council of
Catholic women
representative.
The women of ACCW have
taken up the task of
registering Congress
participants and also assigning
hotel accommodations, when
such are requested. Over four
thousand persons from the
three state area, Georgia,
North Carolina, and South
Carolina are expected to
participate.
Further information may
be obtained by contacting the
Congress at 404/237-5093 or
by writing to P.O. Box
52532, Atlanta, Georgia
30305.
COLUMBUS, OHIO - Four of Ohio’s six Catholic dioceses have joined the Ohio Council of
Churches. At a news conference announcing the ecumenical step are, from left: the Rev. Carlton
Weber, executive director of the Council; Bishop Francis Kearns, United Methodist Church, and
president, Ohio Council of Churches; and Bishop Clarence E. Elwell, Bishop of Columbus. (NC
Photo)
$5 per year
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Cedartown Cutie Busses Bernard Buttercups
Fran Kelly, daughter of Mrs. Lillian A. Kelley of Cedartown,
Ga. pays a smiling hello to the first buttercups to arrive on the
NEWS BRIEFS
Pope Invokes St. Joseph
VATICAN CITY (NC) —St. Joseph must today be invoked
more than ever as protector of the Church which is now
“tormented, threatened, suspected and rejected,” Pope Paul VI
said (March 19) on the feast of St. Joseph. The mesage was
given from his widow overlooking St. Peter’s Square. The Pope
said that St. Joseph must be asked to continue benefiting “the
mission of the Church which is the mystical body of Christ” just
as he watched over Christ during the Saviour’s infancy.
B.C. Efforts Rapped
LOS ANGELES (NC) — Evangelist Dr. Billy Graham told a
TV audience here that government involvement in birth control
efforts had neglected “spiritual guidance” and urged that the
government stay out of birth control programs. The prominent
Protestant preacher added that the government had no place in
the bedroom, which he called the proper preserve of a man, his
wife and God. Dr. Graham also said that birth control and sex
education programs supported by other governments had
deprived man-woman relationships of their human aspects.
Moynihan On Violence
WASHINGTON (NC) — Daniel Patrick Moynihan, counselor
to President Richard M. Nixon, criticized the rise of violence in
America and a growing demand for instant social perfection.
Moynihan said that he was disturbed “at what seemed to be a
trend that, if society is not going to become perfect quickly, it
had better be destroyed quickly.” Speaking to delegates to a
conference of Lie National Jewish Welfare Board here,
Moynihan pointed out that the youngsters killed in an explosion
in New York’s Greenwich Village were making bombs “not to
blow up buildings, but to blow up people.” He urged that young
people work to elect Congressmen rather than seek violent
means to change society.
St. Bernard College Campus near Cullman, Ala. She is a senior
majoring in education.
Archbishop Gives
Easter Message
Let us proclaim the Mystery of Faith. Christ has
died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again. The most
important event of Holy Week is its culmination on
Easter Sunday. The Resurrection of our Lord and
Saviour confirms and sets the seal on the promise of
loving remembrance that is Holy Thursday, and the
sacrifice of the Crucified Christ that is Good Friday.
When we are assailed by
our own fears and doubts it is
well, to recall the first Easter,
and the misgivings and
failures of those who were
closest to the Redeemer.
They could not comprehend
all they saw and heard, even
when they saw and heard the
Son of God, but the fact of
the Resurrection confirmed
their faith as it confirms ours.
“God so loved the world
that He sent His only
begotten Son, and the Son so
loved us that He gave Himself
for our salvation.” The
Christian knows that the
work of redemption by Christ
is the fulfillment of the
mystery of salvation
prefigured in th6 Exodus.
God has spoken to man,
revealing to those who believe
in Jesus Christ the eternal
message of our risen life. We
pass through a time of trial,
but, like Christ, we will rise
newborn after death.
To us it is given to spread
the life of the Risen Christ in
the world through the
mystery of our human love.
The resurrection must be a
purposeful and individual
spiritual experience. In giving
witness to Christ and the life
He has given us, where we
find no love, we put love. The
pattern is a simple one and as
clear as these words of Christ:
“If you love me, you will
keep my commandments.
“By this shall all men
know that you are my
disciples, that you love one
another.”
+ Thomas A. Donnellan
Archbishop of Atlanta