Newspaper Page Text
Vol. 10 No. 22
Form 3579 to 202 East Sixth Street, Waynesboro, Georgia 30830
Thursday, June 1,1972
$5 per year
(EMtor'sf &Uep
J FATHER JAMES MACIEJEWSKI
I had the good fortune to go to Europe
in the Fall of 1970 in the company of Fr.
Matt Kemp and Fr. Tony Morris.
I considered a treasured experience of
that trip the opportunity to view the
three great sculpted masterworks of
Michelangelo: the David, the Moses and
the Pieta.
The statue of David stands proud and
very tall in Florence. Much bigger than
lifesize, it is a painstakingly faithful
rendering of the human body in marble. I
was awed by the craft and skill of the
artist.
Later I saw the statue of Moses one
early morning in Rome. It sits, off to the
side and almost forgotten, in a transept of
the Church of St. Peter in Chains. Moses,
in Michelangelo’s conception, is the
imperious law-giver, his face filled with
contempt for the idolatrous Jews.
As I beheld his disdainful countenance
I was all alone in the church, and I
remember thinking how casually these
Italians regard their art treasures.
And then I saw the Pieta. Nothing
before or after could compare. The son
Jesus - a dead body, limp and resigned
but not defeated, in the arms of his
mother. The mother Mary - young and
fragile and tender. I have never seen
anything from the hand of man so
serenely beautiful.
Unlike the experience of the David,
one was not drawn to thoughts of the
artist. Here the craft of the artist was
transparent. The contact with son and
mother was direct. The experience was
spiritual.
The thought that anyone would mar or
defile the delicate beauty of the Pieta
leaves a sick feeling in the pit of my
stomach.
Thank God that the madman was
stopped before he went too far.
Thank God for the optimism and skill
of those who believe they can restore the
statue to its original state.
Thank God that future generations will
not be deprived of that which has thrilled
and inspired the soul of mankind for 400
years.
Atlanta Archdiocese Again
Second Smallest In Nation
BY FATHER JAMES MACIEJEWSKI
Catholic population in the Atlanta Archdiocese grew from 56,000 in 1970 to 59,000 in 1971, but Atlanta
once again is listed as the second smallest archdiocese in the nation, according to the Official Catholic Directory,
just published.
Only the Archdiocese of Anchorage, Alaska, with 30,000 Catholics, is smaller.
The Catholic population of the United
States increased by 176,000, but the
number of priests and Catholic school
students nationwide continued to decline
in 1971.
The annual reference book lists the
total U.S. Catholic population as
48,390,000 or 23.3 percent of the total
population. Last year the directory
showed that Catholics had a slightly
larger share of the total population, 23.5
percent, with a total Catholic population
of 48,214,000.
Catholics continued to have fewer
babies, a trend that began in 1962 and
was interrupted only in 1970.
The number of adult converts dropped
to the lowest yearly total since 1940. The
directory reports 70,000 converts, or
5,000 fewer than in 1970.
In Atlanta, however, the number of
converts jumped from 268 in 1970 to
325 in 1971.
Other statistics indicate future growth
(Photo by James Brown)
THE CONTINUITY OF THE PRIESTHOOD is dramaticized here as Fr. Peter Dora,
just ordained, exchanges the greeting of peace with Fr. Michael McKeever, just retired.
Fr. McKeever said in last week’s BULLETIN: “Lovingly and prayerfully I step aside
and watch my brother priests as they continue their labors in spreading God’s
kingdom.” More pictures of Fr. Dora’s ordination on page 5.
Summer Schedule
As a matter of long-standing policy, the GEORGIA BULLETIN does not
publish in the second and last weeks of June, July and August. No edition of the
BULLETIN next week, therefore. We’ll be back in two weeks.
June Ordinations Set
For Atlanta Priests
Two young men will be ordained during the month of June for service
in the Archdiocese of Atlanta.
Michael Redden will be ordained in Ireland on June 10, after which he
will take up his duties as assistant pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul parish in
Decatur.
Paul Berny will be ordained by
Archbishop Donnellan in Buffalo, N.Y.
on June 17. Thereafter he will report to
i St. Jude’s parish in Sandy Springs.
for the archdiocese. The number of
Atlanta diocesan priests was up from 64
to 69, seminarians from 26 to 27.
Weddings increased from 670 to 820.
Funerals were down from 300 to 238.
Nationally, however, the number of
priests was down by 740, for a current
total of 57,421. The number of
seminarians was down 2,745, for a total
of 22,963. The number of nuns was down
6,731, for a total of 146,914.
Enrollment in Catholic elementary and
high schools also dropped sharply, but
enrollment in Catholic colleges increased
2,648 to a total of 428,853.
Fifteen dioceses reported no change in
Catholic population, 48 reflected
decreases, and 101 reported increases.
The largest increases were in Boston,
103,684; Los Angeles, 48,768; Detroit,
31,747; El Paso, 26,331; Youngstown,
26,216.
Pieta Restoration Starts;
Officials Voice Optimism
Redden was born in 1945 in
Ballinasloe, County Galway. He has
prepared for the priesthood at St.
Patrick’s Seminary, County Tipperary.
Berny was born in Buffalo in 1947. He
holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from St.
John Vianney Seminary and a Master of
Divinity degree from St. Meinrad School
of Theology. He is the son of Mrs. Walter
Berny and the late Mr. Berny, who died
in March.
- JJM
Paul Berny
Michael Redden
Atlanta Seminarians
Oppose Vietnam War
VATICAN CITY (NC) — Without minimizing the difficulties involved,
officials here predicted two days after the hammer mutiliation of
Michelangelo’s Pieta that the inimitable sculpture would eventually look
the same as before.
Work started at once. It could take three years to complete, they said.
Scaffolding was erected May 23 barring access and blocking the view, after
two days in which thousands of visitors came to see the scarred statue.
The greatest skill will be needed for the
madonna’s left eye, which was struck a
glancing blow that shattered the eyelid
and scraped the eye itself.
Francesco Messina, a well known
Italian sculptor, was quoted in
L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO as
suggesting that a small piece of marble be
taken from the statue’s base and inserted
into the damaged eye after rounding and
shaping it.
“By following attentively the orbit of
the right eye, it is possible to execute the
work perfectly,” Messina said.
But Bishop Giovanni Fallani, head of
the Vatican Commission on Monuments
and Arts, said the damaged eye may not
be as badly marred as first feared. He said
a clearly visible dark spot turned out to
be a mark left by a blue lacquer coating
nn fho hummoi 1
vsijl ti>v nuimiivi .
According to visitors in the church at
the time, a bearded man leaped over a
low marble railing of the chapel, jumped
on a table in front of the statue and
began flailing away with a mason’s
hammer. In the rain of blows on the
figure of the Virgin the assailant smashed
the left arm of Mary above the elbow,
severely damaged the nose and pulverized
the central part of the left eye. Other
blows struck the head and veil before the
attacker was dragged down by visitors
and guards.
Fortunately most of the twin-figure
statue was untouched, including the
delicate and unforgettably beautiful
features of the face and head of the dead
Christ.
L’OSSERVATORE reported that
Laszlo Toth, the 33-year-old Hungarian
emigre who inflicted the damage, struck
as many as 10 blows in an effort to
decapitate the madonna. Fifty fragments
flew off. The Vatican daily quoted one of
Toth’s interrogators as saying:
“He had been thinking about this for a
long time. He said the Mother of God
does not exist and that he had a mission
to destroy the madonna.”
Art experts believed that, because the
Pieta is priceless, the Vatican would
spend whatever it takes to restore it.
Vatican officials have not discussed the
probable cost. Bishop Fallani said the
Pieta was not insured, nor to his
knowledge are any other of the Vatican’s
works of art.
“The damage is not beyond the normal
but the statue is,” remarked the Vatican
Museum director, Deoclecio Redig de
Campos.
De Campos noted that “for 400 years
while the statue has been in St. Peter’s
there have been madmen but this never
happened before. The climate of violence
today makes these outrages more
possible.”
(NC Photo)
PIETA BEFORE ATTACK - This is the Pieta, Michelangelo’s
famous sculpture of Mary and her crucified Son Jesus. A
violent attack on the statue by a demented Hungarian
geologist severely damaged the Virgin’s left eye and nose and
hacked off the left arm above the elbow. Vatican art experts
believe the damage can be completely restored.
Two Archdiocese of Atlanta
seminarians have signed an anti-war
statement issued at St. Mary’s Seminary
College in Baltimore. The Atlanta signers
were Chris Mussell, a senior, and Rick
Allen, a junior. They were among 136
signers.
The statement read:
“Again our attention is refocused on
the war in Indochina. That the death and
destruction are immoral and that our
forces and weaponry should not be in
Indochina are no longer questions. What
we the undersigned members of St.
Mary’s Seminary College wish to
emphasize is that the time for healing is
here and we pledge ourselves to that
effort.
“We have witnessed the futility of
military might and the ravages of fear and
hate; now we begin the healing of lives
torn by that fear and hate. This healing
involves the directing of our congressmen
and presidential candidates to channel
our money towards the needs of
society-building and away from
war-making. This healing involves a
pledge we must all make; and that is, the
building of faith and understanding in
each other.
“If we cannot break out of our
myopia, if we cannot have faith in
ourselves and in one another, if we
cannot stop hate-making and begin
peace-making we will perish. The time for
healing is here.”
Mussell is a member of Sts. Peter and
Paul parish in Decatur; Allen is a
parishioner of Christ the King Cathedral.
One other Atlanta resident, Patrick Frate,
signed the statement. Frate, however, is
studying for the Archdiocese of
Baltimore. .. jjj^
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