Newspaper Page Text
Vol. 12 No. 27
Thursday, August 1, 1974
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Parish Joins Toccoa Centennial Celebration
OLD FASHIONED CELEBRATION. Parishoners at
Mother of Our Divine Savior Church in Toccoa
celebrate a centennial Mass. The town of Toccoa was a
hundred years in July, and the Mass was the only
official religious observance of the town’s birthday.
IN THE SPIRIT OF THE LAST CENTURY. Lou
Hackett, Leo Hornick, Father Ray Horan, Larry
Murray and Johnny Hornick are dressed for the
centennial Mass. Many citizens of Toccoa dressed in
the old fashioned style for the week long observance.
Population Year Success Depends on Rich Nations
LONDON (NC) - World Poplulation
Year and the forthcoming World
Population Conference in Bucharest will
be a failure unless the rich countries
change their attitudes and strategies for
tackling the population problem, said an
authoritative report issued here by the
Catholic Institute for International
Relations.
Millions of dollars are being spent in
publicity that overlooks or distorts the
real issues involved for a world whose
population at present growth is
doubling every 35 years, the institute’s
group of experts stated.
They added that if the rich countries
want to reduce world population
growth, they must help the people in
the poor countries to achieve a better
standard of life and so remove the
economic pressure for large families.
Poor countries must have greater
opportunities for trade, better prices for
their exports, more and better economic
aid particularly to raise the living
standard in the rural areas where most
people live.
At present an individual born in a
rich country consumes during his
lifetime 40 times as much in resources
as an individual in a poor country, the
report said. The richer 30 percent of the
Cathedral Choirmaster
Has Never-Ending Task
BY CHRIS STARR
“The most demanding aspect of parish life is its choir. The task is never
ending.”
In an interview, Hamilton Smith, music director for the Cathedral of
Christ the King, spoke enthusiastically about the work of the choir and his
directorship.
He emphasized that both should be an example of Christian
community in action. “This feeling has been built up over the years in the
Cathedral”, he said, “and I feel each member serves as a witness of what
community can mean.”
“Keeping others in the parish
informed about the ‘what and why’ of
changes is also important”, he said,
“and not allowing the music director to
dictate his likes and dislikes on others.
“This requires that parishoners
express their opinion about what goes
on in a parish. They should also be
careful to allow the director who is
qualified to make his own decisions. If
he is not allowed some license, very
often the music and worship becomes
geared to the lowest common
denominator.”
He called this a trap, when music
does not serve the function of a spiritual
expression, but becomes dull and
mediocre. Music, he said, should uplift
the mind of a believing people and help
them express their relationship to God.
As director of music for the
Cathedral, Smith is responsible for
choosing the hymns each week and
rehearsing the choir one night a week
and Sunday morning. The choir, he said,
should always stay within its skill level.
Most congregations fail to realize the
work that goes into the choir and even
fewer see a financial commitment to the
choir as important,” Smith said. “We
have been lucky here at Christ the King
because we get such wonderful support
from the administrator, Monsignor John
F. McDonough. Our efforts to help
revitalize the parish liturgical life have
been well received.”
Church music is “fully” part time for
Hamilton Smith. Besides his work as a
trust officer at an Atlanta bank, he has
helped other parishes by giving liturgical
workshops and diocesan-wide symposia
on Church music and the parish choir.
Smith also spent a summer studying
music at the Eastman School of Music
(Continued on page 8)
world’s population consumes 80 percent
of world resources.
The Catholic institute’s report
described World Population Year as
“essentially a rich countries’ event
within the United Nations” and added
that these same rich countries see its
main purpose as being to question how
the poor countries can reduce their
population rate growth.
“If the World Population Conference
concentrates on this issue to the
exclusion of the role and responsibility
of the rich countries in regard to their
disproportionate absorption and
consumption of the world’s resources
then a crucial opportunity to put the
population problem into its full context
will have been wasted. . .If the
conference does not face the immensely
complex causes of too rapid population
growth, solutions may be proposed
which will further obscure the real
questions,” the report said.
According to the report high birth
rates are found in societies with high
unemployment, poverty, hunger and
illiteracy. Low birth rates result when
these social problems are solved for the
majority of the people.
It criticized some governments of
poor countries -- perhaps under pressure
from Western exports - for
implementing population incentive and
penalty schemes which “crudely devalue
life.” It cited taxation on the number of
children, monetary rewards for
vasectomy and now talk of compulsory
abortions and sterilizations.
“The only long term solution to high
population growth rates must include
large scale measures for distributive
justice,” the report declared.
“It is undoubtedly to the rich
countries that the most important
message of World Population Year
should be addressed. What St. Ambrose
said in the fourth century holds just as
true today: The earth belongs to all, not
just to the rich, and until the rich
countries take measures to adjust world
trade to the needs of all, to spend less of
their resources on armaments and
defense, to find appropriate ways of
sharing their wealth, to discourage the
brain drain from the poor countries, we
have no right to hope or to expect that
solutions to the population problem can
be found.
“On the other hand World
Population Year will have achieved a
great deal if within the rich countries
citizens and governments now commit
themselves to the radical changes which
the situation clearly demands.”
Vatican Book Published
VATICAN CITY (NC) - A Russian firm has recently published a book on the
treasures of the Vatican museum as part of its series entitled “Museums of the World.”
The book, described by Vatican radio as a “very fine edition,” covers the Egyptian,
Greek and Roman collections, the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo,
Rafael, Botticelli and many other masterpieces as well as the major rooms in the
Vatican museum complex.
Xerox Reconsiders
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (NC) - The Xerox Corp. has agreed to withdraw from
distribution a booklet on population control after a Catholic civil rights group here
threatened legal action for alleged anti-Catholic statements in the booklet. Entitled
“Population Control,” the booklet contains a section on “The Pope’s Views on Birth
Control,” which the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights claimed defamed
Pope Paul VI.
Teachers Restricted
FRANKFORT, Ky. (NC) - The office of the Kentucky attorney general has again
stated that it is unconstitutional for publicly salaried teachers to teach nonpublic
school students on nonpublic school premises, whether the salaries come from state or
federal funds. However, the office also said that loaning books and educational
materials “appears to be consitutionally permissible.”
Baptism Recognized
GEORGE
Hamilton Smith
SYDNEY, Australia (NC) - The Catholic and Methodist Churches in Australia now
recognize each other’s sacrament of Baptism. As a result of the co-recognition, both
churches will now make baptismal records available to each other, are considering the
use of a common baptismal certificate and have recommended that parents be
adequately instructed in their responsibilities in instances of infant baptism.
Population Year
WASHINGTON (NC) - Jesuit Father Dexter Hanley has been appointed to the
National Commission for the Observance of World Population Year. Father Hanley is
currently serving as president of the University of Scranton, Pa.
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