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Vol. 8 No. 46
Dear
Reader
(Reprinted from Columban
Fathers magazine story entitled,
“Fr. Martin Dempsey’s Christmas
Present. 'J
“A Christmas present for
you, Padre.” The old woman’s
hand trembled a little as she
reached out to present her
gift.. .three small speckled
eggs.
“The best present of all,”
Father Martin Dempsey
replied. He knew the old
woman had made her way 12
miles through driving rain over
slippery Philippine mountain
trails to come to Midnight
Mass.. .and to bring her
beloved padre a pinascohan
(pin-as-coh-han).
He was reluctant to take
even that small gift, for he
knew it would made a meal for
the poor woman’s family
living in a one-room hut. But
he dared not refuse; the
woman would never forgive
such an insult.
Even the poorest, he
reflected, have a right to give
out of their poverty. And he
remembered another
gift.. .just a single egg.
The old man was sick and
all alone. Father Martin found
him in a tiny, grass-thatched
hut. He had lost the use of his
legs and had to crawl to get
around. His children were
gone away and he had only
Legion of Mary members to
help him.
Anointing him, Father
Martin gave him the
Sacrament of the Sick and
promised to bring him
Communion.
The next day, the
missionary said, “I found the
old man sitting on his stool at
the window with a wonderful
look on his face. It’s very hard
to describe . . .joy or
happiness seem so
inadequate .. .He was waiting
for His Lord and his
expression glowed.”
After receiving
Communion, the old man
wanted to give Father Martin a
gift. It took a long time, but he t
finally came up with an egg. “I
knew it was too great a
sacrifice,” Father Margin said.
“And I finally managed to
persuade him that the egg
would never survive the
horseback trip I had to make
to the next barrio (village).”
When he was a boy growing
up in Dublin, Ireland, during
World War II, Martin Dempsey
never dreamed that he would
ever look on an egg as other
than something to eat. ...that
he would ever call three small
eggs the best Christmas
present of all.
But he did dream of one
day going to some far-off land
as a missionary to bring God’s
word and Christ’s love to
people who knew Him not.
Because they devote
themselves solely to the
foreign missions, he decided to
join the Columban Fathers.
Always intensely active,
Martin found the busy
seminary life not busy enough
for him. He spent a good deal
of time on his hobby of
photography.
Once he gave up three days
of his Christmas vacation to
process 3,000 prints of
ordination pictures so that
they could be sent to the
newly ordained missioners
right away.
Upon being asked why he
didn’t wait until after
vacation, he replied simply:
“There’s a time for
everything and this time it’s
now! The new priests need
their pictures while they’re
still home with their families
and friends.”
“Now” always seemed to
be the right time for Father
Martin. Eight years ago,
(Continufea on Page 8)
A rchbishop Donnellan 9 s
1970 Christmas Message
The story of Christmas deals with the love of God
and the value of Man as the dear child of God. What has
revealed the love of God among us is that the Father has
sent into the world His only-begotten Son, so that
being made man, He might by His Redemption give life
to the entire human race, and unify it. At Christmas we
celebrate the fact that, for reasons beyond our
understanding, strangely and wonderfully, God gave to
men the best that He Had. “God so loved the world as
to give His only-begotten Son.” Stumble and falter as
we may, we can never be completely afraid again. We
can be sure of God’s love, for He has given us His dear
Son. In God’s sight no one of us is lost or hidden in the
millons of men. He sees us and loves each of us as if
there were no one else.
Christ was bom in a stable, bleak and barren. Mary
and Joseph had little to give Him, but no one was
happier or wealthier than they. Jesus lived with them.
He wqs the life and light of their world and from Him
canre the love and laughter of their Christmas.
We may not have wealth or wisdom. But since the first
Christmas we have a right to light and life, the clear
light and the full abundant life that only Christ can
give. To give us life, “the Word was made Flesh” and
from then on the world is filled with joy on Christmas
Day.
Most Reverend
Thomas A. Donnellan
Archbishop of Atlanta
13 Die In New York
ALBANY, N.Y. (NC) — Thirteen women have died in New
York as a result of abortions sjnce the state’s new abortion law,
regarded as one of the most liberal in the country, went into effect
last summer. The statistics on the number of deaths - occurring in
the period from July 1 to Oct. 31 - were reported here by the New
York State Health Department, which noted also that 34,175
abortions had been registered during the first four months under
the law. Abortions in New York are permitted ilegally'during the
first 24 months of pregnancy. All the deaths occurred in New
York City, and five of them were in hospitals.
Confidence In Family
WASHINGTON (NC) — The Family Life Directors of the
nation’s Catholic dioceses have expressed confidence in the
modern American family’s ability to adapt to the changing social
conditions of the 1970s. In a public statement prepared for the
Dec. 27 observance of Holy Family Sunday, they noted that some
observers have proclaimed the end of the family as it has
traditionally been known. “Others have relegated family life to a
position of irrelevance,’ the statement said. “But the family is
neither ended nor irrelevant. Rather, we believe it can serve as the
cutting edge in man’s effort to adapt to new life styles, new
demands and new roles . . .“We reaffirm our own confidence that
the American people have both (he ability and the will to build a
better world. Moreover, we believe that the vitality of family life
will contribute much to achieving justice and peace in our
society.”
Bishop Baumgartner Dies
AGANA, Guam (NC) - Bishop Appolinaris Baumgartner of
Agana, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., died here Dec. 18. He was 71.
Bishop Baupigartner, a Capuchin, was bishop of Agana since
1965.
Diocesan Seminary
Rolls Level, But
Many Others Close
DETROIT (NC) — Enrollment declines in the nation’s diocesan seminaries seem to
be leveling off, according to an annual survey conducted by the National Conference of
Diocesan Vocation Directors.
At the same time, high
school seminaires are “closing
at an alarming rate,” said
Father Edward Baldwin,
national conference president
and director of vocations for
the Detroit archdiocese.
Father Baldwin made the
statement in a memorandum
accompanying the survey
results. The priest told NC
News he based this remark and
his analysis of other seminary
trends on discussions with
diocesan vocation directors at
the conference’s recent
national meeting.
The national conference
survey - conducted by Father
Joseph T. Hughes, vice
Life In The Seat Of Wisdom Mill I
Fourth Sitting
First, there was Darwin:
man was not created like the Bible said;
history happened by chance;
the future was open-ended.
Next, there was Marx:
man has been inhibited by religion;
history moves by economic forces;
the future is in the hands of the laborers.
Then, there was Einstein
(and all the lesser brains)
who proved repeatedly how absolutely relative
everything is in the universe,
and, Freud added convincingly,
in man’s psyche as well.
Suddenly,
under a barrage of explosive discoveries,
the old stability and assurance in a fixed and orderly world
vanished.
Everything became relative, in flux, tentative and absurd.
The moral catastrophe of two world wars,
culminating in ah atomic mushroom
left man limp with the staggering prospect
of putting his own order and direction into the chaos of life.
Doubt, questioning and insecurity about the future perdured.
In this new age,
Jesus has a new meaning.
Many find confirmation for their personal perplexity
in the belief that Jesus struggled with His own identity as senior.
Some despair of ever knowing the real Jesus,
since He is shrouded in the interpretation of the first Christians.
But this very ambiguity is Jesus’ strength for still others, for
by being mysterious, elusive, and inevldent to our analyses,
He keeps us questioning,
and in questioning, groping toward development and progress.
For visionaries like Teilhard, He is the one who will put it all together,
somehow,
at the end.
For reformers like Rung and Ruether, He’s the one who keeps us
restless and dissatisfied with anything static;
For critics like Metz and Berrigan, He’s the one who makes us
call political and social orders to account;
For systematic thinkers like Rahner and Schiltebeeckx,
He’s the one who provokes new insights into philosophical reflection;
For spiritual writers like Evely and Merton, He’s the one who
confronts our inner, honest selves with more probing questions still.
For ail,
He is a catalyst, a question, a figure
that can’t quite be reduced to'the confines of our comprehension,
or strung out on the framework of our dogmatics.
He is disturbing, and allows us
to take nothing for granted,
to settle for nothing less than our whole selves,
to accept no vision short of his own, ,
to believe in no time but the futured now,
to live in no other world than the secular,
to serve no other God than the one who became man.
His very hiddenness is His revelation;
our unsureness about Him is our security;
His meaning is clearest in His absence;
ourfaith.iadeepestinitsdoubt. . , , . ... ..........
Sinking back In his chair, the theologian glanced at his calendar
and noted that it was Christmas Eve.
And so it would always be, he thought... , ,
For the Jesus of Bethlehem would always be coming to birth anew in
mens’ quests to understand him and his life.
But he knew there would come a time and a season
when men would look not so longingly to the future for his coming
because they would somehow realize that he had come and stayed
and was in fact among them—Emmanuel.
He wondered if it would be so this Christmas...
He rose quickly from his chair for it was time to celebrate.
president -- shows 2,187
students accepted into high
school seminaries in 1970
compared to 2,228 students in
1969. The figures for first year
college seminarians are 1,485
students for 1970 and 1,644 in
1969. One hundred and
twenty U.S. dioceses
responded to the survey.
The survey shows
enrollment drops, Father
Baldwin said, but it also
indicates seminary
enrollments are stabilizing,
since “the decline has not been
as radical in the last year or
so.”
Although the number of
first year high school
seminarians has only dropped
by 41 according to the survey,
Father Baldwin said many
high school seminaries across
the nation are closing. The
reason the survey does not
indicate this, he said, is that
nearly the same number of
seminarians are being housed
and taught in fewer diocesan
centers. Many neighboring
dioceses are combining
seminary programs, he said.
Father Baldwin noted Some
vocation directors were
concerned with the apparent
trend of closing high school
seminaries because regular
high school systems in some
areas do not provide adequate
educational preparation for
boys interested in entering
college seminaries.
Analyzing trends in college
seminaries, Father Baldwin
said some experiments on that
level “have already proven to
be disastrous.”
One example, he said, is the
older seminarian who is
“thrown in with the general
liberal arts student” at a
Catholic or secular college. If
the seminarian has a strong
priestly figure to identify with
and goal reinforcement from
other seminarians, this
approach usually works,
Father Baldwin said. Without
this king of reinforcement, he
said, a student may decide
against the priesthood.
“Another format is
becoming apparent,” Father
Baldwin said. “Many college
students are showing deep
interest in the priesthood but
are determined not to enter
the seminary system until the
completion of their college
career.”
In order to insure that these
students are prepared to enter
first year theology -- the
normal course of study after
graduation from a high school
seminary - some vocation
directors are advocating (
college pre-seminary programs
for potential seminarians.
Another emerging trend,
Father Baldwin said, is that
many first year theology
students are asking to study
theology outside the seminary
system.
“Although this is highly
recommended in some
quarters,” he said, “there is
No Paper
Next W eek
There will be no edition
of The Georgia Bulletin
Dec. 31. Publication will
resume with the Jan. 7
edition.
need of a clarification of the
type of theology they will
study.”
Due to the strength of the
ecumenical movement in the
U.S., Father Baldwin said,
Catholic seminarians might be
ordained “with a background
rich in Protestant theology
and poor in Catholic
theology.”
Negroes 9
Seminary
Coming?
WASHINGTON (NC) -
Members of the new board of
directors of the National ,
Office for Black' Catholics
(NOBC) approved the
establishment of a black
Catholic seminary program in
Atlanta.
The program, which would
be located at the
Interdenominational
Theological Center at 671
Beckwith St. SW, will have to
be approved by the nation’s
bishops before it goes into
effect.
The board also affirmed a
Nov. 20 decision by the
NOBC’s interim board
rejecting a $150,000 fund
offer by the bishops.
(Continued on Page 6)
Youths Say
Let. Down
By Church
WASHINGTON (NC) -
The Catholic Church lets 5
down its children-tums them
off and neglects
them--according to four of the
many Catholic youths here as
delegates to the White House
Conference on Children.
These are not just idle
charges by a few teenagers.
The spokesmen include the
national presidents of the
Catholic Youth Organization
(CYO) and its young adult
federation plus an
archdiocesan CYO president.
They claim the Church is
not only not listening to its
youth, but failing to
communicate with them.
Case in point: Non§ of
these youths-who should be
most informed about the
Church if they are to lead
others in religious
endeavors-had heard of the
Campaign for Human
Development. Yet, the current
campaign is the most massive
anti-poverty, educational and
fund-raising effort ever
launched by the U.S. bishops.
For that matter, before
their involvement, none had
heard of the White House
Conference on Children which
has been held once a decade
since 1909 to recommend to
the president guidelines for
children. The youths were sent
to it this year, Dec. 13-18, as
handpicked representatives of
Catholic organizations.
As the youths worked side
by Side with 4,000 delegates
(Continued on Page 2)