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Vol. 11 No. 5 Form 3579.to 202 East Sixth Street, Waynesboro, Geor£ra30830
Thursday, February 1, 1973
$5 per year
FATHER RAPHAEL MCDONALD PICTURED during the 1971 flights from Cuba as he aids a refugee upon his
arrival in Miami.
BY MARIE MULVENNA
For some 3,500 Cubans, the
December resumption of one daily
flight out of Cuba spells one thing -
freedom. The air lifts are not a new
thing for Cubans wishing to flee the
country. Since the flights began in 1965
they have carried about 280,000 Cubans
out of their nation. The flights were
continued on a very regular schedule
until August 1971, then on a more
sporadic basis until last May when Cuba
halted the flights, contending not
enough people wanted to leave the
country.
One planeload of people left Cuba on
December 26, destination Miami. Four
of the refugees have since arrived in
Atlanta and two more are on their way.
Father Raphael McDonald, O.F.M.,
Atlanta director of the Resettlement
Division of the U.S. Catholic
Conference, shared some data with the
BULLETIN.
Father McDonald explained that the
recent resumption of the flights have,
for the most part, handled older persons
who are now joining members of their
families in this country. During the last
group of refugee air lifts Father noted
that most of the refugees were younger
persons seeking fresh starts, shelter, jobs
and assistance.
Father McDonald’s office handled
close to 1,000 refugees during the air
lift exodus from Cuba but he does not
anticipate more than a handful this
time. He said the flights are expected to
be stopped again very shortly and no
one has any idea when, or if, they
would again resume.
Father described the process involved
when the plane actually leaves Cuba
enroute to the U.S. The first job is
radioing ahead the passenger list which
is checked in Miami against a master list.
The moment the plane arrives the
federal government is on hand as well as
the health department which handles
needed inoculations. Father said the
refugees are then screened by
governmental personnel, and the refugee
then contacts one of four religious
organizations involved in the
resettlement process. The four groups
are: United States Catholic Conference,
International Rescue, H.I.A. (Jewish
Resettlement) or Church World Service.
The group selected by the refugee,
and in the case of most Cubans it is the
U.S.C.C., must then take quick
measures to assist them on their way to
join friends or relatives. As Father
explained, “We can’t keep them in
Miami forever.”
Relatives of the refugee are then
contacted and asked if they are willing
Father Hoffman Visits Via Tape
On January 16 Father Bill Hoffman visited with the St. Michael’s
Women’s Guild, Gainesville, via tape recording from Peru, where he is
serving as a missionary. George Hoffman (Father Bill’s dad) presented this
unique program and the 34 members attending the meeting were
thoroughly entertained as well as informed about the living conditions of
the Peruvian Indians in this mountainous area. A model church served as a
bank for donations in support of Father Bill’s work. Shown making the
first donation is Mrs. David Stamm, president of the guild. Awaiting their
turn are Father Thomas Kenny, pastor of St. Michaels, Guild member Mrs.
Lumir Sousek and Mr. and Mrs. George Hoffman. Mr. Hoffman and
Father Bill’s tapes are available to organizations in the diocese who might
be interested in hearing about and supporting this missionary work. He
may be reached at 1101 Enota Circle, Gainesville 30501, or
404-536-4940.
to receive the refugee. Surprisingly, the
answer is sometimes “no” and in that
case the U.S.C.C. must then call a
regional center, such as Atlanta, and ask
if they will accept the person or
persons. In that case, Father McDonald
said, the local office must find housing,
employment, furniture, etc. and make
every effort to help the person get
settled.
In Miami the refugee is given bare
necessities such as toiletries, some
clothing, food and shelter until he can
be sent on. Father stated that once a
refugee arrives in Atlanta he is brought
to his office in the Catholic Center
where he is given a small financial
amount to help him begin life again.
Father then counsels the newcomer on
sources of medical care, eligibility for
welfare and assistance from various
bureaus. The refugee would then be
taken to the St. Vincent de Paul Cuban
meeting to see what kind of help could
be given him - clothing, furniture etc. A
close contact is maintained between
Father’s office and the refugee. “Sort of
a helping link,” Father terms it,
explaining that very often the new
person has no idea where to contact a
Spanish - speaking doctor, dentist or
other professional.
Three of the four refugees who
arrived here in early January are living
with relatives and two more Cubans,
now enroute to Atlanta, will be joining
a daughter in Decatur.
The other Cuban refugee is staying
with friends in Atlanta, desperately
trying to locate her son whom she last
heard from in January 1971. Mrs. Maria
Sanchez is 62, a widow, and her son
Manuel escaped from Cuba in 1968.
Apparently he is her only living relative
and last word from him was from a
hospital in Port Chester, N.Y. Father
McDonald has already contacted
authorities in Miami to see if they can
trace the missing son and he has also
made other inquiries locally and in New
York in search of the young man.
“She doesn’t talk about anything
else,” Father says with the compassion
that typifies his dealings with the scores
of refugees who have passed through his
small office on West Peachtree.
Father comments a bit sadly on the
fate of other older people still remaining
in Cuba, saying there is really no all-out
effort on the part of officials to get
them out of Cuba. “The old and the
sick are pretty much forgotten about,”
he says, explaining that Castro still
hangs on to the workers and able bodied
younger men, even though the flow of
refugees continues. He said some 30,000
refugees from Cuba are now living in
Spain, flown there to await homes
elsewhere. Air fare for most of the
refugees in Spain has been paid for by
relatives in the U.S. and Father stated
most of the 30,000 would probably
eventually arrive in the U.S. to join
families and friends already relocated
here.
Father Kenny and parishioners hear tape from Peru.
WASHINGTON (NC) -- Guardianship procedures or a constitutional
amendment protecting the life of the unborn are the best legal resources
available to counteract the U.S. Supreme Court decisions which nullified
most state abortion laws, according to a legal expert here.
Under the court decisions as they now stand, however, “a state could in
effect allow the destruction of the fetus right up until it is entirely out of
the womb,” Martin McKeman, Jr., general counsel for the National Right
to Life Committee, told NC News.
On Jan. 22 the Supreme Court
handed down two major decisions on
state abortion laws. It ruled
unconstitutional a Texas law, which
allowed abortion only to save the life of
the mother. In a parallel decision it
ruled unconstitutional certain sections
of Georgia’s law as unduly restrictive of
the woman or her physicial.
In its opinion on the Texas law, the
court said:
-“For the stage prior to
approximately the end of the first
trimester (three months), the abortion
decision and its effectuation must be
left to the medical judgment of the
pregnant woman’s attending physician.
-“For the stage subsequent to
approximately the end of the first
trimester, the state, in promoting its
interest in the health of the mother,
may, if it chooses, regulate the abortion
procedure in ways that are reasonably
related to maternal health.
to include a woman’s constitutional
right to abort a deformed fetus even in
the eighth or ninth month. “All the
woman has to do is claim mental
anguish,” he said.
In the light of the high court’s norms,
said McKeman, the most feasible way of
protecting fetal rights would be the
establishment of “guardianship
procedures.”
“Failing guardianship, or perhaps in
conjunction with it, is the possibility of
a constitutional amendment,” he said.
“A child can have the right to
inheritance or to property from the
moment he is conceived,” argued
McKeman. “If you can’t take away his
right to property, you can’t take away
his right to life.”
ABORTION DECISION
He added that the court “appears to”
rule out life as a right in this context.
McKeman charged that the court was
“inconsistent” in its ruling. “Justice
(William) Douglas, who was in the
majority on this, is the same man who
said a few months ago that suit should
be able to be brought on behalf of the
wind, trees, or the ocean,” he said.
“Certainly the fetus, which is a living
organism by any standards, should have
the same rights.”
McKeman said the drafting of a
constitutional amendment would
require a great deal of legal expertise.
“In general, it would have to take a
form that would say the fetus is
recognized as a legal person with basic
human rights from the moment of
conception.” he said, “This would mean
it has the rights to life and to due
process. ”
He suggested also that the court
could possibly reverse itself. “It has
demonstrated an ability to go overboard
and later return and tighten itself up,”
he said. “It has demonstrated its ability
to do this more in the past five years
than it did in the previous 180.”
-“For the stage subsequent to
viability the state, in promoting its
interest in the potentiality of human
life, may, if it chooses, regulate, and
even prescribe, abortion, except where
it is necessary, in appropriate medical
judgment, for the preservation of the
life or health of the mother.”
Humane Vitae Dissenters
Attack Supreme Court
Under the new norms, said
McKeman, in the first three months of a
pregnancy the state has no regulatory
power-“it is up to the physician to
determine what constitutes good
medical procedure.”
WASHINGTON (NC) - The U.S. Catholic theologians who created a
furor in 1968 by publicly dissenting from Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul Vi’s
encyclical banning artificial contraception, issued a statement here
attacking the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision.
In its decision the Supreme Court said it could not assume that the
fetus was a human being deserving protection under the law before it
reached the stage of “viability’’-the stage of development at which the
fetus is able to live outside the womb.
The theologians’ statement said:
“In the light of the recent decision of
the Supreme Court on abortion laws, we
Roman Catholic scholars, many of
whom disagreed with some of the
practical conclusions of the papal
encyclical Humanae Vitae on artificial
contraception, affirm our conviction
that individual human life is present
before the time of the viability of the
fetus. We, therefore, strongly urge
others to accept this understanding and
to act in accord with it.”
Father Charles E. Curran, professor
of moral theology at the Catholic
University of America and spokesman
for the signers, told NC News that the
statement was aimed primarily at the
moral question involved.
Father Curran said that the scholars
felt “an obligation to speak out on this
issue in disagreement with the apparent
moral reasoning of the court.”
He said its purpose was “to show that
a representative group of American
Catholic theologians agreed that human
life is present before the time of the
viability of the fetus.”
Most of the signatures on the
statement belong to theologians who are
generally considered “liberal” or
“progressive.”
Asked why the theologians felt
obliged to speak out when practically
every bishop in the country had already
blasted the court’s abortion decision,
Father Curran said: “Frankly, I think
we have more credibility among some
groups in the country than the bishops
have at present.”
Over 50 theologians signed the
statement opposing the Supreme
Court’s decision.
Among the signers were: Sister
Margaret A. Farley, Yale University
Divinity School; Monika Hellwig,
Georgetown University; Daniel C.
Maguire, Marquette University; Father
Richard P McBrien, Boston College;
Jesuit Father Richard A. McCormick,
Bellarmine School of Theology,
Chicago.
During the second three months, he
said, “the state has a right to make laws
determining procedural safeguards for
the life and health of the mother-what
in effect amounts to good hospital
techniques for performing the
abortion.”
“The court said abortion may - be
outlawed from about the seventh month
on,” said McKeman. “It left this up to
the states. But under this decision a
state may also say ‘there are no
restrictions,’ even during the seventh,
eighth and ninth months of pregnancy.
He pointed out that under the ruling
states may not forbid abortion when it
is considered necessary for the “life or
health” of the mother. “ ‘Health’ here
includes both mental and physical
health.” said McKeman.
He said that the court’s statement on
the “life or health” of the mother even
in the final stages of pregnancy seemed
How to Fight Abortion Now?
Flight from Havana
Brings Four Refugees
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