Newspaper Page Text
Vol. 11 No. 41 Form 3579 to 601 East Sixth Street, Waynesboro, Georgia 30830 Thursday, November 22,1973 $5 PER YEAR
Bishops Act on Eucharist, Labor Problems, Peace
(NC PHOTO)
ATLANTA ARCHBISHOP THOMAS DONNELLAN was at the
presiding table at last week’s annual meeting of the American bishops in
Washington. Archbishop Donnellan is treasurer of the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops. At left is Cardinal John Krol of
Philadelphia, president of the conference. In the middle is Archbishop Leo
Byrne of Minneapolis, vice president. The sister of Archbishop Byrne,
Sister Leo Christopher, is on the staff of Atlanta’s Saint Joseph’s
Children’s Village.
de Paul Collection Up $6,000
BY MARIE MULVENNA
The 1973 metro-area collection for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul
netted a final tally of $27,229.48, a mere $626 short of the society’s
$29,856 goal. In figures released this week by the archdiocesan chancery
office, the special collection, which was taken up September 30, was
almost $6,000 more than the 1972 collection.
Joe Flanagan, executive director of
the local society, said the group was
“tremdously pleased and grateful” at
the recent collection figures. Flanagan
said: “In view of the general economy
when everyone has had to tighten his
belt because of rising prices, we were
concerned our collection might remain
at the level of last year.” In 1972, the
projected figure of $30,000 fell $9,000
short of its goal causing a halt to the
expansion of several society programs.
The local conference is part of a
universal Church program designed to
aid the poor and needy utilizing a
variety of programs of help. “We are
tremendously pleased and heartened to
know our appeal for help was received
so well by our Catholic people. People
responded so very generously,”
Flanagan said.
Flanagan explained that while the
annual budget of the society included
plans for enlarged programs, “the goal
we reached will allow us to do more
than we had been able to do in the past.
The support of the people of the
archdiocese is deeply appreciated and
encouraging.”
Although the annual collection is
geared for the five county metro area,
contributions to the society were
received from a number of parishes
outside the metro boundaries. Among
those contributing were: Carrollton,
Lawrenceville, Cedartown, and the
Student Center at the University of
Georgia in Athens.
The breakdown of parish
contributions appears on page 7.
U.S. Bishops Elect
Delegates to Synod
WASHINGTON (NC) - Cardinals
John Krol of Philadelphia, John
Dearden of Detroit and John Carberry
of St. Louis, and Archbishop Joseph
Bernardin of Cincinnati were elected to
represent the U.S. bishops at the 1974
World Synod of Bishops in Rome next
vear.
Although the elections were
technically nominations - they still
must be approved by the Vatican -
Vatican approved was expected.
Of the four delegates selected this
year, only Archbishop Bernardin did
not attend the 1971 synod.
The World Synod of Bishops consists
of representatives of the world’s
bishops, who meet periodically in Rome
to consider major issues confronting the
Church and to advise the Pope.
(PHOTO by James Brown)
MAYOR SAM MASSELL presents the. key to the city to Mother
General Mary Angela of the Sisters of Relief for the Incurably Cancerous
Poor. The presentation took place at Sunday’s dedication ceremonies for
the new Our Lady of Perpetual Help home here. Archbishop Thomas A.
Donnellan presided. Mother Angela was the first superior of the Atlanta
home when it open in 1939. Since that time the cancer home has cared
for over 10,000 patients. Additional photos appear on Page 2.
(RENI Photo)
ATTENDING MASS AT THE NATIONAL SHRINE OF THE
IMMACULATE CONCEPTION during the annual bishops’ meeting in
Washington were Archbishop Joseph Ryan of Anchorage (left), Bishop
Charles McLaughlin of Saint Petersburg and Archbishop Donnellan.
WASHINGTON (NC) - The bishops
of the United States rejected
Communion in the hand, endorsed the
grape and lettuce boycotts, called for
congressional action against abortion,
and appealed for peace in the Mideast
and reform in the nation’s prisons.
The bishops took the actions as they
considered a wide variety of social and
Church issues at the annual meeting
here Nov. 12-16 of their two national
organizations, the National Conference
of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and the
U.S. Catholic Conference (USCC).
During the meeting the bishops also
issued a pastoral letter on Mary, entitled
“Behold Your Mother,” which they had
approved last spring at regional
meetings. (Related story, page 3.)
The generally quiet meeting was
marked by arrests of demonstrators, a
sit-in at the office of the bishops’
general secretary and by minor
demonstrations at the bishops’ Mass in
the Shrine of the Immaculate
Conception and in their own meeting
room.
One issue with a potential for
controversy-the Vatican decree ending
educational programs that placed
preparation for first Communion before
first Confession-was handled quietly in
the bishops public meeting. While there
was no vote, the bishops seemed to
agree with an Education Committee
report which said that while the
programs must end, the Vatican did not
say that any child could be forced to go
to confession before making his first
Holy Communion.
While that discussion was restrained,
the bishops decided go into an executive
session to discuss the manner in which
the decree was issued. Some bishops had
complained last spring that the Vatican
decree was issued arbitrarily. The
bishops refused to talk about their
secret discussions.
On the last day of their meeting the
bishops unexpectedly approved
resolutions supporting the grape and
lettuce boycotts of the United Farm
Workers of America and called for free
and secret union elections for farm
workers. Although many individual
bishops had supported the UFWA
boycotts for some time, this was the
first time the entire U.S. hierarchy had
taken such a stand.
The bishops were told that the action
was necessitated by the breakdown of a
tentative agreement between the UFWA
and the rival Teamsters Union.
Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Donnelly of
Hartford, Conn., said the Teamsters had
reneged on a promise to get out of the
fields.
The most intense public debate in the
five-day meeting came when the bishops
considered a proposal of their Liturgy
Committee in favor of seeking Vatican
permission to allow Catholics in this
country to receive Communion in the
hand.
The proposal was defeated by a vote
of 121 to 113, a result that showed
Communion in the hand had lost
support since the bishops had originally
voted on it in 1969. Then, 54 percent
favored it, but the practice was not
started because a two-thirds majority
was required.
In an action marked by unanimous
agreement, the bishops backed the
passage of a constitutional amendment
that would “repair effectively the
damaged perpetrated” by the U.S.
Supreme Court’s abortion ruling of last
Jan. 22.
The resolution did not give the
bishops’ support to any specific
anti-abortion amendment now before
Congress, and Cardinal John Krol of
Philadelphia, NCCB/USCC president,
said that the bishops are seeking “an
amendment with the best possible
language.”
At the same time the bishops
declared their support of the 1974
United Nations Population Year while
warning against immoral forms of birth
control and calling consideration of
population problems “within the larger
context of man’s total relationship to
the entire human family.”
In a resolution on the Middle East
worked out with the aid of experts on
both sides of the question, the bishops
called for an Israeli withdrawal from
occupied Arab territories, guarantees for
the continued existence of Israel, and
recognition of the rights of Palestinian
Arabs.
The bishops urged that a 1967 United
Nations resolution be used as a “basis
for negotiations” to end the Middle East
conflict and they asked for an
“international guarantee” of access to
Jerusalem.
A statement on prison reform
approved by the bishops condemned
abuses and suggested a long list of
reforms.
“Society has a right to protect itself
against lawbreakers and even to exact
just and measured retribution,” the
statement said, “but the limits of what
is reasonable and just are far exceeded
in too many penal institutions.”
The bishops pastoral on Mary
restated basic teachings concerning her,
called for renewed Marian devotion, and
asked for ecumenical study of doctrines
involving the Blessed Virgin.
The pastoral was written “to setaside
completely the report that Vatican
Council II had deemphasized love and
devotion to Mary,” Cardinal John
Carberry of St. Louis told the bishops at
their Mass in the Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception here.
The Mass was marked by a minor
incident when two women rose and
began reading a leaflet criticizing the
bishops for meeting in the Statler Hilton
Hotel. The women were escorted from
the Shrine by police.
At the hotel itself, police made six
arrests of other members of the protest
group-arrests that the bishops said were
initiated by the hotel, not the bishops.
The protesters contended that the
bishops should have stopped the arrests.
In a separate incident about 30
persons occupied the office of Bishop
James S. Rausch, UCCB/USCC general
secretary, in a protest over the way the
bishops distribute anti-poverty grants.
The protest ended peacefully with a
promise that a committee of bishops
would meet later with the protesters.
The bishops also sent a list of
requests for liturgical changes to the
Vatican for approval. One proposal
would create two new lay ministries in
the United States - catechist and
minister of music.
The ministries would be open to
women as well as men and would
involve the formal installation of certain
persons who are deeply involved in
music and religious education programs.
The bishops heard conflicting reports
on the strike at the Farah
Manufacturing Co. clothing plant in El
Paso, Tex. A statement presented on
behalf of the company claimed its
employes were satisfied and did not
want a union. Bishop Sidney Metzger of
El Paso said working conditions are
poor at the plant, and he challenged the
company to allow an election.
At the end of Bishop Metzger’s
report, a company supporter who had
press credentials from NATIONAL
REVIEW magazine, shouted an
objection but was quickly escorted from
the meeting room.
In addition, at the meeting the
bishops:
- Heard report that seminaries
frequently deviated from the bishops’
1971 seminary guidelines.
-Learned that there are now more
than 400 permanent deacons, most of
them married men, in the United States.
-Declared that the United Nations
Declaration on Human Rights was “a
testament of vital importance to the
global family.” Those words were in a
resolution passed marking the 25th
anniversary of the UN declaration.
-Agreed to help fund an international
Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia in
1976—if the Vatican selects that city as
the site of the Congress.
-Designated days on which plenary
indulgences may be obtained by
Americans during the coming Holy
Year.
-Heard Bishop Mark Hurley of Santa
Rosa, Calif., warn that technological
innovations threatens basic human
rights, including the right to privacy.
-Announced that justice in the world
would be the theme of Catholic
participation in the celebration of the
200th anniversary of the United States
in 1976.
-Were praised by observers at the
meeting-lay, religious and cierical-for
most of their actions but chided by the
observers for their rejection of
Communion in the hand.
--Presented comments on
“Evangelization in the World,” the topic
of the 1974 Synod of Bishops. The
comments were responses to a Vatican
study document sent to the bishops in
preparation for the synod.
-Received two reports on priestly life
and ministry - “Priestly Ministry” and
“Research and Scholarship” and voted
to allow their distribution but did not
vote full approval of the contents of the
reports.
FATHER EDWARD J. DILLON, presiding judge of the Metropolitan
Marriage Tribunal of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, has been named
honorary Fulton County Police Department Chaplain by the Fulton
Board of Commissioners. Father Dillon, (third from left) is shown
receiving his official badge from Atlanta Police Chief John Inman.
Flanking the two of them are (left) Monsignor Donald Kiernan and (right)
Goodwyn “Shag” Cates, Chairman of the Fulton Board of Commissioners.
Cates holds a resolution, passed by himself and fellow Commissioners,
Charlie Brown and Milton Farris, citing Father Dillon.
Bishops Praise
Dehhie Schellman
Debbie Schellman of Atlanta, the only woman in the United States to have
been appointed to a papal commission to study the role of women in the
Church, received high praise at the meeting of U.S. bishops in Washington.
Archbishop Leo Byrne of Minneapolis, in discussing Miss Schellman’s
appointment before the assembled bishops, said:
“We were asked to send a young and unmarried girl, and we chose Miss
Schellman. Some of the women of the United States were upset that one
unmarried, 20-year-old girl would be representing all of the women of the
country. But our bishops’ committee met with her last night and we were
profoundly impressed with her.”