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Vol. 8 No. 44
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Thursday, December 10, 1970
$5 per year
Dear
Reader
BY HARRY MURPHY
The Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception will
have an interesting event at
the 11:15 a.m. Mass Dec. 13
in an effort to reverse the
emphasis during Christmas
time on giving instead of
getting.
It is, as outlined in the
parish bulletin:
“At the Offertory, the
children will bring forth gifts,
which they themselves have
purchased from their
allowance, or money they
have earned doing chores. In
preparation for this event, a
few thoughts and suggestions
are offered below:
“Parents should encourage
their children to give and
teach them that Christmas is
the time for giving. The child
should choose the gift and it
should not cost more than $1.
and may be handmade.
“Gifts should be
gift-wrapped and a card
attached stating (if it is) for
boy or girl, and what age
- child. Gifts will be presented
by the children at the
Offertory after the collection.
“Adults may accompany
the children and others may
join in the procession to give
example. Gifts will go to
mentally ill and retarded
children at Gracewood
Hospital.”
The good Franciscans who .
staff the Shrine are to be
congratulated for this
attempt to remind children of
that basic Christian tenet that
it is more blessed to give than
to receive.
I have often been tempted
to play Santa Claus in a large
department store. After the
kids told me what they
wanted to get for Christmas, I
would ask, “What are you
going to give?”
The answer, if there were
any after the tots recovered
from their surprise, should be
interesting.
This is all wrapped up in
the same ball of wax which
prompted the late President
John F. Kennedy to plead in
his inaugural speech for
Americans' not to ask what
their country can do for
them, but what they can do
for their country.
Children must be taught
that they can’t continually
take joys and blessing from
their families without also
giving such things as
attending to chores and
helping their younger
brothers and sisters.
Farmers can’t just take
from the soil. They must
return to it care and fertilizer,
lest it become a wasteland.
The same with lumbermen
and trees.
Husbands and wives, clergy
and laity, society and citizens
must give as well as take from
each other, or selfishness will
rear its ugly head.
When he created the world,
Christ set up this system:
Sharing.
Birds take food and water
from nature, but they
contribute song, color and
insect control.
Even some lowly snakes
help to keep down rodents.
Life is a two-way street.
The sooner kids learn it,
the better.
The Shrine’s children are
off on the right foot.
Upped;
The Archdiocesan Board of Education has raised
the salaries of high school lay teachers and
recommended that parishes follow the same schedule
in their elementary schools.
Following is a letter sent to
all pastors, principals and
chairman of parish education
boards by Dr. J. Norman
Berry, Archdiocesan board
chairman, and Father Daniel
J. O’Connor, secretary for
education:
At its November meeting,
the Arch diocesan Board of
Education passed a proposal
received from Father Richard
Kieran, Director of
Secondary Education for the
Archdiocese,. raising the
salary schedule of lay
teachers in high schools of
the Archdiocese. A’ copy of
the new salary schedule is
enclosed. The board passed
the proposal because it felt
that Father Kieran was
realistic in calling the old
salary schedule inadequate
for hiring or retaining
qualified teachers.
After considerable
'discussion the board passed
an additional resolution
advocating this schedule
become mandatory for all
teachers of the Archdiocese,
both secondary and
elementary, effective the
school year 1971-72.
Essentially their reasons for
this action were as follows:
1. There should be no
distinction in the
Archdiocese ' between
elementary and secondary
teachers. All work the
same hours each day, all
work the same school
Deaconesses Plan
Shifts Into High
By ANNETTE WESTLEY
NC NEWS SERVICE
TORONTO, Ont. (NC) — The movement in favor
of having women as deaconesses in the Church is
moving into high gear across Canada.
A brief outlining the proposal is now pending
before the Canadian bishops and may be dealt with at
the next bishops’ executive council meeting.
A leader of the movement
is Mary Schaefer, a teacher of
art history here.
“Priests, seminarians and
lay people are talking more
freely about having
deaconesses in the Church,”
she said. “In the past such
discussions would become
argumentative.”
Also active in the
movement are Sisters Bernard
Malone and Sabina Majeau,
members of the Faithful
Companions of Jesus
community.
“The climate of opinion is
shifting' towards 1 the
ratification of women being
admitted to the ministry of
the Church,” Sister Bernard
said. “And there is no
theological reason why
women cannot share in the
ministry of the Church.”
The movement has two
aims -- to emphasize how
service of the Church may be
widened by women deacons,
and to inform the bishops of
Canada that women believe
they have a personal vocation
to the diaconate.
Miss Schaefer said in talks
with a number of bishops
across Canada, she found the
concensus was that women
should make their desires
known. She expressed hope
the bishops now will direct
the movement into the
“ready to be explored” area.
“Very few women have the
opportunity to preach the
Gospel, particularly to people
of their own age and at the
educational level of mature
persons,” said Miss Schaefer.
“Religious -women should
have that option -- they may
teach theology but that’s not
the same. It’s the direct
witness in the preaching and
the liturgical participation
that would attract certain
women,” she continued.
She underscored this
point: “Since there is a lack
of priests, a deaconess could
play a definite role in the
service of the Church.”
Miss Schaefer said Bishop
Remi de Roo of Victoria,
B.C. chairman of the bishops’
committee of diaconate, has
assured the proposal is
“under consideration,” but
cautioned the proponents to
“go slow.”
“The work of a deaconess
could have a definite place in
the missions,” said Sister
Sabina, speaking from
experience. “Sister Bernard
and I spent sometime on an
Indian Reserve at Chipewyan
Lake in Northern Alberta
where we had to fly by bush
plane to visit the Indians.
Oblate Father Paul Hemou
was unable to visit all the
missions so he consecrated
the host and gave us the
faculty to distribute as long
as we were there.”
Sister Bernard said .the
problem of financing a
candidate for deaconess work
- room, board, seminary
training - should rest with
the hierarchy and the
chancery office. “I don’t see
why it would be any different
from the current seminary set
up,” Sister Bernard said.
“There is a possibility that a
deaconess could work part
time, as has been suggested
for men. deacons.”
Collect
$27,063
The Campaign for
Human Development
netted $27,063.06, the
largest amount received in
any extra-archdiocesan
collection.
One-fourth of this
amount will be kept in the
Archdiocese for local
anti-poverty projects.
Further information on
the use of these funds will
be proviced at a later date.
A break-down on the
amount collected will be
found on page 7.
7
T eachers’
May Be
calendar. Over five years
ago the Archdiocese
eliminated the discrepancy
in salaries between
religious teachers on the
elementary and secondary
level.
2. It is most important
for the development of
any educational program
that there be stability of
staff members. Such a
desirable stability can only
tie maintained where there
are the following factors:
a. An adequate
beginning salary
b. Yearly increments in
salary
c. Adequate fringe
benefits
At the present time the
Archdiocese has only the
last. Consequently, many
of our elementary schools
suffer far too large a
turnover on their staff
than good educational
practice can allow.
3. Most important, the
salaries we are presently
paying our elementary
teachers are unjust. There
is a minimum RECOMM
ENDATION of $5,300.
Many of our parishes give
no increments to staff
members who have served
in the school for many
years.Ineffectwe are asking
our lay teachers to donate
at a minimum of $2,000
worth of service to our
children each year. By any
standpoint, this is unjust,
and by Catholic social
teaching, it is intolerable.
The Archdiocesan
Board realized that their
support for this
recommendation would
undoubtedly raise the
tuition of all our schools
substantially. We feel,
however that the majority
of the parents supporting
our schools would accept
the increase if it was
properly explained to
them. First of all it is not
an unreasonable increase.
It still leaves our schools
$1,000 behind the public
school salary schedule.
Moreover, it would still
leave our tuitions far
below the rates of other
private schools in the
Atlanta area which are
now close to $1,000 on
(Continued on Page 8)-
NEWS BRIEFS
Greater Laity Role
VATICAN CITY (NC) - The Vatican is considering allowing
laymen more spoken participation in some church services.
Three Vatican agencies are in the process of producing, for
papal review, a directive that will allow a laymen to lead the
congregation in prayer, offer meditations and comment on
sacred scripture outside Mass. Generally, modem litrugical rules
allow the laymen to read certain parts of scripture in liturgical
functions, including the Mass, but up to now do not permit the
laymen to preach about or comment on the scriptures.
No Birth Control
MEXICO CITY (NC) -- Mexico’s new president, Luis
Echeverria Alvarez, vowed here that the state will institute no
birth control programs during his term of office because “The
Mexican people will not accept coercion or intervention in
matters that pertain to the liberty of the human person.”
“Population growth is not a menace but a challenge to the
creativity of our nation,” President Luis Echeverria Alyarez said
in one of his first addresses to the Mexican people.
Bible On Tape
NEW YORK (NC) -- The American Bible Society has issued
the New Testament and Psalms in the King James Version on
cassettes, it was announced here at the organization’s annual
advisory council meeting. The society last May issued the first
cassette version, “Good News for Modern Man,” the New
Testament in the society’s Today’s English version.
Life In The Seat Of Wisdom
Second Sitting
Jesus’ birth.
The theologian resumed his thoughts about
The apostles and the early Christians
couldn’t quite get over Jesus
and all he had done to their lives.
Neither could the Romans,
except they didn’t like what had been done, -
and sought to rid themselves of this unexpected burden
by relieving enough Christians of their lives.
It didn’t work.
Most of His followers believed that
Jesus would come right back,
so there wasn’t much sense hanging on to life.
When Jesus didn’t return as anticipated,
the Christians reasoned that His first coming ,
had shown this life to be a burden anyway
and the better to be rid of it.
Thus spoke Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp
to a generation of persecuted Christians.
Other attacks were mounted against Jesus’ meaning:
one crowd said that He was a mirage, his body a phantom;
another said that He was only a man, having nothing of divinity about Him.
Tertullian handled them with a whole new vocabulary,
and Irenaeus put them all down with the first system of theology.
So it went on,
mistaken theories were countered by individual theologians,
or whole Councils,
until the meaning of Jesus’ coming for the early Church
was hammered out.
Jesus was the Word, through whom all things were intelligible;
Jesus’ humanity was the summary of each man’s earthly progress;
Jesus is the revealer of divine wisdom and the model of the good life;
Jesus is the restorer of fallen human nature.
For everybody, Jesus was the Mediator
between a transitory, sinful world
and the eternal, perfect realm of heaven.
No one explained Jesus’mediation more consistently,
more thoroughly, or with more massive intellectual power
than St. Augustine.
The most famous of his formulations
was the image of two Cities.
One was easy to discern,
peopled by those who sought their own glory
and fulfillment in this life. .
The other was composed of the elect,
chosen in Christ and made capable,
through Him,
of reaching the City of God.
This convenient division was almost immediately misused,
making the Church the City of God
and the Empire the City of Man.
There was no way to God outside His City, the Church.
Christ reigned in heaven; the Church reigned on earth.
This notion persisted up, to the time
a portly, unorthodox Dominican monk
shook the European establishment
and regained Augustine’s original insight.
Access to God’s Kingdom was indeed through Christ-in-the-Church,
but access to Christ demanded more than motions.
Nothing was automatic for Thomas;
the person had to consciously enter God’s activity,
in order to unite himself with Christ.
Not so for the Thomists. W
They quickly replaced the living Lord
with actions-correctly-performed.
So it went, ,
with many advents and comings of meaning
being celebrated in the insights of men,
only some of which led more lightly
into the birth-night of understanding
where the Jesus who came,
and mediated,
and promised to return
could be recognized.
The theologian paused again
to consider the Lord whose birth
he kept trying to explain: