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Vol. 10 No. 40 Form 3579.to 202 East Sixth Street, Waynesboro, Georgia 30830
Thursday, November 16,1972
$5 per year
Ottor'* gUep
FATHER JAMES MACIEJEWSKI
It’s as simple as a bell, book and
candle.
What it’s called is MARRIAGE
ENCOUNTER - and it’s catching
on fast. Since it was introduced in
this country in 1967 (like the
cursillo it has Spanish origins),
over 17,000 couples have gone
through the program.
In Atlanta, six Marriage
Encounters have been held this
year at Ignatius House, and one is
planned for every month of 1973.
The purpose of it is to make
good marriages even better. What
is a “good marriage”? Father
Larry Hein, who has been the
spiritual director to Marriage
Encounter since its coming to
Atlanta, defines it as one in which
the spouses still love each other.
He explains that the Marriage
Encounter is an opportunity for
those spouses to strengthen their
commitment and deepen their
communication.
The most recent Marriage
Encounter in Atlanta took place
just last weekend. Eleven couples
gathered on Friday evening at
Ignatius House, along with two
other “leader couples” who had
flown in from New York City.
The couples spanned the age range
-- some in their early twenties,
others perhaps in their early
sixties.
Although the movement has
Catholic origins, the Atlanta
version is non-denominational.
One of the leader couples was
Jewish. A few others were
Protestant. Of the Catholic
couples attending, most were from
Fort McPherson, where Father
Jack Dougherty has strongly
promoted the movement.
What took place for the
weekend was not a Better World
retreat, or a cursillo, or a
sensitivity weekend or a prayer
meeting. Yet somehow it
incorporated elements of all of
them. The specific difference was
that almost all of the dialogue that
went on took place between the
individual husband and wife only,
in privacy.
Oh yes -- the bell, book and
candle.
The bell was used by Father
Hein to call the group together for
the several conferences that were
given by the leader couples.
The candle was put on a table
for the few simple religious
celebrations that took place.
But most important was the
book ~ a personal ruled notebook
that was used after each of the
conferences.
The conferences always ended
with a few questions, like, “What
is my spouse’s most endearing
quality?” or “What have been the
happiest moments in our
relationship?” or “What are my
reasons for wanting to go on living
with you?” Each couple then split
up and spent some time alone in
writing down answers in their
notebooks. Later they re-united to
exchange the books.
Writing is the key to Marriage
Encounter. Oral communication is
not nearly as effective, one of the
leaders explained. While one
spouse is talking, the other is
half-listening, and half-planning
his response. Writing, on the other
hand, affords an opportunity for a
full, free and uninterrupted
expression of feelings - so
important to the process of
communion in marriage.
The next Marriage Encounter is
scheduled for January 19. If
interested, write Father Larry
Hein at Ignatius House (6700
Riverside Drive NW, Atlanta
30328). Or call him at 255-0503.
TH4NK
MESSAGE FOR A HOLIDAY - “Thank God for
Life” is the theme illustrated by artist Eric Smith for
Thanksgiving, a U.S. holiday which some Catholics
observe as an unofficial holiday.
SUNDAY
Human Development Collection,
Thanksgiving Clothing Drive Set
BY MICHAEL MOTES
Sunday, November 19, will mark the
1972 Campaign for Human
Development collection across the
country and the beginning of the annual
Catholic Relief Services’ Thanksgiving
Clothing Drive.
The theme for this year’s Campaign
for Human Development (CHD) is
“Poverty is what happens when people
give up caring for one another,” taken
from Pope Paul’s plea to the faithful to
“ . . .break the hellish circle of
poverty.”
The CHD developed in 1970 when
the Catholic bishops of the United
States called for a nationwide program
to assist self-help groups combat
poverty.
Last year’s collection was $7.2
million. Funds amounting to $105,000
were used by the campaign to set an
educational program to teach America’s
Catholics what poverty really means.
“We want to get into their attitudes,
not just their heads,” said Frederick J.
Perella Jr,, assistant educational
coordinator for the CHD.
The Archdiocese of Atlanta allocated
funds totalling over $6,500 from last
year’s campaign to set up Project
AWARE, which Sister John Francis
Alwes writes about in this week’s
BULLETIN, a recreational summer
program at St. Paul of the Cross, a day
care center in Lumpkin County, a teeth
and eye care program in Dahlonega and
the Interfaith low-income housing
program in Atlanta.
Since November 1969, when the U.S.
Catholic bishops pledged themselves to
raising $50 million to fight poverty in
America, a total of almost $16 million
has been raised.
THE THANKSGIVING Clothing
Drive, which will run from Sunday
through November 25, will benefit the
needy overseas. Catholic Relief Services
has placed special emphasis on the need
for lightweight clothing, men’s trousers,
infant’s wear, bedding materials and
piece goods and remnants.
Clothing and other garments may be
brought to all Catholic churches in the
archdiocese during the week. After
processing by Catholic Relief Services,
the materials will be shipped overseas
for distribution to the impoverished in
some 70 countries.
Father Joseph A. Sanches, assistant
chancellor of the archdiocese, is
chairman of the drive.
Archdiocese Gives
Emphasis to Prayer
BY FATHER JAMES MACIEJEWSKI
A renewed interest within the Church in prayer was reflected this week
in an announcement of a series of seminars on prayer, to be conducted
throughout the Atlanta Archdiocese over the next five months.
The series, called “Possibilities for
Prayer,” will be under the joint
sponsorship of the archdiocesan Pastoral
Council and the Office of Relitious
Education.
According to Chancellor Father Jerry
Hardy, the program is “an effort to add
a relective dimension to our daily lives,
so that we find God more readily where
he is and allow him to find us where we
are.”
Specifically the program hopes to
deepen an understanding of prayer “as
the integrating force in the daily life of
the North Georgia Christian in the
70’s.”
For each of five straight evenings in
seven different locations, a main talk
will commence the seminar at 7:30,
followed by open discussion and a
“prayer experience.”
The program gets underway on
Monday, November 27, at St. Philip’s
Church in Jonesboro. Location of the
other six centers will be found on page
six.
Subjects and speakers are the
following:
Monday: PERSONAL PRAYER .. .
Father Jerry Hardy and Sister Priscilla
Klatt.
Tuesday: BIBLICAL PRAYER . . .
Father Bob Kinast.
Wednesday: PENTECOSTAL
PRAYER . . . Father Pat McCormick.
Thursday: SECULAR PRAYER .. .
Father Peter Fink, S.J.
Friday: LITURGICAL PRAYER . . .
Archbishop Thomas Donnellan.
Two States Reject
Abortion Change
(NC) - Voters in Michigan and North Dakota rejected by wide margins
ballot propositions which would have altered laws in both states to permit
abortion on demand.
Thus, 19th-century statutes in both
states allowing abortions only if the
mother’s life is endangered will continue
in effect, although a court in Michigan
has said it will rule later on the
constitutionality of the current law.
The Michigan ballot proposition,
providing that a woman could receive an
abortion for any reason up to to the
20th week of pregnancy in approved
medical facilities, was rejected by
almost a 2 to 1 margin. With 73 percent
of the vote tallied, there were 1,466,912
“No” votes and 929,755 votes in
support of the proposal.
The voters’ rejection of the liberal
measure was a reflection of a change in
sentiment for the ballot proposition in
the state. Groups supporting the
proposition had been forecasting victory
until the week before election day,
when newspaper polls in the state
suddenly indicated voter feelings for the
measure had altered and that the
proposition was in jeopardy. A
controversy has raged in Michigan for
the past several months over the abortion
issue.
Voters in North Dakota showed even
greater aversion for the abortion
proposition on their ballot. The measure
would have permitted an abortion for
any cause up to the 20th week of
pregnancy in an approved medical
facility for a woman who has lived in
the state at least 90 days before the
operation.
With 1,334 out of 1,759 precincts
reporting, the vote for the proposal was
45,736 while the vote against the
measure was 138,180 - a 3 to 1 margin.
Like the Michigan statute, the North
Dakota abortion law dates from the
19th century.
The leaders of the forces opposing
the abortion ballot proposals in both
states indicated Protestant support of
Catholic-led campaigns against the
measure contributed significantly to the
proposals’ defeat.
The Voice of the Unborn
organization in Michigan said one reason
for the proposition’s defeat was the
stronger than expected campaign
directed by Protestant churches in the
rural areas of the state.
Massell Chairman
For Bible Week
NEW YORK - Atlanta’s Mayor Sam Massell has been named chairman
of the Mayor’s Committee for the 32nd annual interfaith National Bible
Week, November 19-26, Dr. Paul W. McCracken, national chairman,
announced recently.
Mayor Massell, the first Jewish
chairman of the committee, will be
writing to some 2,000 mayors across the
nation urging them to declare the week
of November 19-26 at Bible Week in
their cities, and to issue proclamations
regarding the importance of Bible
reading and study.
Bible Week is sponsored by the
Laymen’s National Bible Committee,
Inc., an independent, non-sectarian
organization of lay people of all faiths.
Cooperating organizations are the Greek
Orthodox Archdiocese Department of
the Laity, the Jewish Committee for
National Bible Week, the Division of
Christian Education of the National
Council of Churches and the U.S.
Center for the Catholic Biblical
Apostolate, U.S. Catholic Conference.
Mayor Massell is a director of the
U.S. Conference of Mayors and is
president of the National League of
Cities. He had served on the board, or as
an officer, of 45 different organizations
during his business career in real estate
and as vice mayor and president of the
Board of Aldermen of Atlanta.
LEARNING A LESSON -Teri Ergish.a sixth-grader
at St. Veronica School on Chicago’s North Side, hangs
a sign on a mutilated statue of Christ, expressing a
lesson her class derived from an act of vandalism.
Father John J. Hurley, assistant pastor of the parish,
and Teri’s classmates look on. Father Hurley said the
statue’s hands were broken off when it was toppled
from its stand in an outdoor shrine at the school,
According to the priest, the damaged sculpture serves
as a graphic illustration of the need for Christians to
use their hands for Christ's work. He said the statue
would not be repaired, that its message is clearer as is.
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