Newspaper Page Text
Vol. 10 No. 15 Form 3579 to 202 East Sixth Street, Waynesboro, Georgia 30830
Thursday, April 13.1972
55 per year
Papal Delegate
As U.S. Bishops’
The opening session of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’
meeting here in Atlanta got underway on Tuesday morning with 237
bishops in attendance at the Sheraton-Biltmore Hotel.
In extending the greetings of the Holy Father to the assembled bishops,
Archbishop Luigi Raimondi, apostolic delegate, observed: “Your meeting
takes place in Atlanta -- a city that has become the symbol of the
dynamism and vitality of the American people -- confident, determined,
idealistic and open to the future.”
Hails Atlanta
Meeting Begins
*********************
Fr. James Maciejewski Reports In This Issue On The First Day
Of The Bishops’ Meeting In Atlanta. A Further Report On The
Second And Third Days Of The Meeting Will Appear In Next
Week’s BULLETIN.
***¥¥*¥*¥¥¥*******¥*¥
A proud grandmother and a happy grandchild
First Communion
In Nursing Home
Cardinal John Krol, president of the
conference, said in his opening remarks
that the meeting here had “historic
significance” inasmuch as “the presence
of a select number of observers and
members of the news media is without
precedent in the 53-year history of the
Conference.”
The first day’s business touched on
many matters, much of it in the form of
committee reports that were accepted
without further action. Perhaps the most
extended discussion, and the only real
debate, concerned the question of
lowering the minimum age for married
deacons. The resolution as it came to the
floor read:
“Resolved: that the N.C.C.B. of the
U.S. request the Holy Father to grant
ordinaries the faculty to dispense from
deficiency of the 35-year age minimum
required of married men, so that such
married men who have indicated maturity
in their family relationships and
community responsibilities - even though
they be as young as 25 years old - may
be ordained permanent deacons.”
In support of the resolution Bishop
Walter Schoenherr of Detroit observed,
“Under the present set-up not even the
Lord Jesus could become a deacon.”
Most of the bishops who favored the
resolution did so in the interest of
strengthening the Church’s apostolate
among minority groups, in which
community leaders are often quite young.
Cardinal Lawrence Sheehan of
Baltimore said that the married diaconate
“seems to be important in cities with
large black population.” There, he said,
“the presence of a Negro married deacon
is very important for the Church.” He
noted that his own archdiocese has not
even one black priest, even though the
city is fifty percent black.
Other bishops, principally Cardinal
John Carberry of St. Louis, felt that
lowering the age to 25 was going too far.
An amendment was ultimately passed
by a vote of 148-89 which changed the
suggested minimum age to 30, rather than
25. Afterwards the entire resolution was
passed and will be forwarded to the Holy
See for approval.
In other business Cardinal Terence
Cooke of New York presented a draft
resolution of the Dignity of Human
Life which took exception to the recent
report of the Commission on Population
Growth and the American Future,
particularly that part of the Commission
report which endorsed
abortion-on-demand. Cardinal Cooke’s
resolution read: “Experience has already
taught us that our social problems -
poverty, disease, injustice and violence -
are not solved merely by population
decrease, but require a change of heart
and a re-ordering of priorities for the
entire nation.”
Cardinal Cooke was later questioned
closely by newsmen who inquired why
the draft resolution did not include a
mention of the escalation of the war in
Vietnam. The cardinal explained that
such a “modum,” or amendment, could
still be included before the final vote on
Thursday.
Later the same matter came up again
in a question posed by Ted Fiske of the
NEW YORK TIMES to Bishop John
Dougherty of Newark. Fiske asked:
“What is there about their psyche or
background that makes bishops react
forcefully and in a visceral way to an
issue like abortion or population control
but not, despite minor exceptions, to the
war issue, which at the present time
seems to involve some of the same life
issues?”
Bishop Dougherty responded in terms
of the “socio-cultural character of the
American Catholic community,” which
he said is here as the result of fairly
recent immigration. Further, he said,
“social justice or morality has not had the
same long development that personal
morality has had.” Strong emphasis on
social morality only began in the last
century with Pope Leo XIII, he added.
In other action on the first day, the
bishops gave the green light to
development of a national catechetical-
directory, a set of guidelines for religious
educators. The directory is to be
completed before the end of 1974.
Also the bishops heard a report from
their ecumenical committee in which
possible membership in the National
Council of Churches was discussed. “The
NCC is ready to change its structure so as
to have a place fot the Roman Catholic
Church,” said Bishop Charles Helmsing,
committee chairman, but he said he could
not predict how soon this might occur.
He said that some serious questions
remained to be resolved.
The same committee announced an
invitation to participate in Key 73, a
nationwide campaign for 1973 being
sponsored by conservative evangelical
churches. Bishop Helmsing hailed this as
“a great movement throughout the U.S.
to return to Christ” and he said that
Catholic participation could present the
“true image of the Church as deeply
interested in evangelism.”
The bishops also heard their Liaison
Committee report overtures from Dr.
Eugene Bianche, a former priest now
living in Atlanta. Dr. Bianche,
representing the Society of Priests for a
Free Ministry, asked that “the Church
offer some opportunity for a useful
ministry for priests who have been
lawfully dispensed from the obligations
of the priesthood.” According to
Archbishop Thomas McDonough, who
gave the report, “this group continues to
seek from the Church a sign of hope that
some efforts may be made to take
advantage of their training and apostolic
zeal.” They ask why their society “has
such a bad image with the bishops.” The
report was received without comment.
One former priest, wearing clerical
garb and a pectoral cross, picked the
Biltmore briefly, and then disrupted a
press conference by passing between the
bishops and newsmen waving a placard.
He was excused after being allowed to
make a statement. He had no connection
with the Society of Priests for a Free
Ministry.
A happy occasion for any Catholic
grandmother is her grandchild’s first
communion.
On April 3 eight-year-old Christopher
Scherer received first communion. With
the cooperation of Fr. Eusebius Beltran,
Christopher’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. E.J.
Scherer, planned the service in the
chapel of the Briarcliff Haven Nursing
Home, where Christopher’s grandmother,
Mrs. Rose McCloskey, is a resident.
Thus Mrs. McCloskey, who is 78, had
only to walk a few feet from her room to
the chapel for the service.
After the Mass, Mr. and Mrs. Scherer
gave a reception for about 100 friends
and relatives in the Briarcliff Haven
dining room. -JJM
Divided
Views
Archbishop Donnellan
Speaks Out Twice
Atlanta Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan twice took the floor on Tuesday to
address the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
In his first intervention Archbishop Donnellan spoke in favor of the
resolution to lower the minimum age for married deacons. He said:
“I would like to speak in favor of the resolution because I’m one of the
bishops who has applied for a dispensation (from the present law) and it has not
been granted although the Holy See has indicated a willingness to dispense for a
period as high as 19 months.
“The man for whom I applied is married, completely mature and certainly
measures up to all qualifications, and would aid the work of the Church here
substantially. We have a long wait under the present regulations if we wanted to
ordain him a deacon.
“I do think the resolution expresses the maturity necessary and leaves to the
judgment of the local ordinary whether or not it is advisable in his particular
diocese.”
In Tuesday afternoon’s session, Archbishop Donnellan again addressed the
assembly, this time on the subject of federal aid to Catholic schools. He said:
“I would like to go on record that in seeking such aid we are certainly in
favor of safeguards in any legislation to prevent assistance to efforts to evade or
avoid integration. A good many private schools have been set up with this in
mind. I know this is a concern of Bishop McManus (Chairman of the Education
Committee). I think it would be well if we make clear in our efforts that we are
aware of this danger.”
Defendants Sharply
On Airing Antiwar
HARRISBURG, Pa. (NC) - The decision not to present any defense case at the trial of the Harrisburg Seven
was hotly debated among the defendants and was reached by the closest possible vote - 4 to 3 - one of the seven
said here.
Although the decision to close the trial without presenting any case for the defense may have helped the
defendants ultimately to win, it has been criticized by some members of the anti-war movement. A Harrisburg
defendant, who asked not to be identified, summed up this criticism:
THE OTHER FIVE
Lesser known than Fr. Phil Berrigan and Sr. Elizabeth McAlister are these other members of the Harrisburg 7. They are, left to
right: Mary Scoblick, Fr. Neil McLaughlin, Eqbal Ahmad, Fr. Joseph Wenderoth and Anthony Scoblick. None of them were
convicted on any count.
“We failed to grasp the opportunity to
affirmatively tell the jurors and the
American people what we are about.”
Other trials of war resistors, including
the Chicago 7 and the Catonsville 9,
included the efforts by the defense to
“turn the courtroom into a classroom for
the American people,” to use the trial as
a public platform for presenting the ideas
of those who oppose the government.
The decision on whether to use this
technique in Harrisburg was settled by
the defendants, with Fr. Philip Berrigan,
Sr. Elizabeth McAlister and Eqbal Ahmad
outvoted 4 to 3 by the others, the
unidentified defendant said.
On April 5 Fr. Berrigan and Sr.
Elizabeth were found guilty on seven
counts, all of which related to smuggling
letters in and out of Lewisburg Federal
Prison, where Fr. Berrigan has been
serving a six-year sentence for destroying
draft records. His conviction could add as
much as 40 years to his sentence.
The defense never denied the charges
on which Fr. Berrigan and Sr. Elizabeth
were convicted. Instead, defense efforts
were concentrated on fighting the first
and most spectacular point of the
indictment - that Fr. Berrigan, Sr.
Elizabeth and five co-defendants had
conspired to kidnap presidential aide
Henry Kissinger, blow up the heating
systems of federal buildings in
Washington, D.C., and raid various
Selective Service offices.
Ten of the 12 jurors rejected this key
charge. They also refused to accept two
charges that the letters between the priest
and the nun had “threatened”
kidnapping.
Hearings will be held May 2 on a
charge by defense attorneys that Fr.
Berrigan and Sr. Elizabeth have been the
victims of “selective prosecution.”
Defense lawyer Ramsey Clark, former
U.S. Attorney General, said his research
indicates that no one has ever before been
prosecuted in a federal court on charges
of smuggling letters in and out of prison.
The law on “contraband,” according to
Clark, is intended to apply to drugs and
dangerous weapons smuggled into
prisons, not correspondence.
Another defense attorney was even
more emphatic in a statement to the
press.
“There has never - never, mind you -
been a single prosecution for smuggling
letters in and out of prison in all the
decades that law has been on the books,”
said Jesuit Father William Cunningham.
“That sort of thing is always handled
with administrative punishment within
the prison. And the statute is so vague
that it’s unconstitutional.”
Lynch would not say whether the
government plus another prosecution on
the conspiracy charge, but one of the five
prosecutors (all Catholics, like six of the
seven defendants) told newsmen that
conspiracy had been “the key
count . . .the heart of the matter.”
“It’s not likely they are going to retry
the case when the jury vote was 10 to 2
for acquittal,” said defense attorney
Thomas Menaker.
Summing up the attitude of the
defendants, Eqbal Ahmad, a Pakistani
Moslem scholar and the only defendant
who was not a present or former Catholic
priest or nun, said it was “a stunning
defeat for the government.”
“The government took a year and
more to prepare this case,” he said.
“They brought two indictments, spent
millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money,
called 64 witnesses, selected one of the
most conservative trial sites in the
country, and had a jury that was locked
up for two months.
“And all they could get were
convictions of smuggling letters -
something that happens almost every day
in federal prisons. I call that a stunning
defeat for the government.”
*
%
)