Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4—The Georgia Bulletin, December 2,1976
Editorial
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Beauty, Non-Beauty
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Ugliness is in the eye of the beholder.
This kind of thinking has become
basic to the type of life which is lived
around us. Perception is the key to the
whole thing. If people can be convinced
to see beauty everywhere, then we can
wallow in the most offensive ugliness
and hear no complaint from anyone.
Slogans of the day prompt us to close
our eyes to non-beauty and to see
instead only nice things: “Have a nice
day,” “Smile,” “Live in Joy.”
The reason that all this comes to mind
right now is that we find ourselves in the
middle of the annual celebration of
non-beauty - the commercial Christmas
season.
Only a few years ago the most serious
complaint about this season was the
tendency toward commercialism. The
cry was “Keep Christ in Christmas.”
Such innocent days, indeed! We can
no longer point a finger at the marketing
and advertising people. We can point it
at ourselves.
The integrity of the secular Christmas
has long been sold out. What we are
buying and selling now is our own
integrity. Without integrity, beauty
becomes non-beauty and non-beauty
becomes beauty. The next step is the
loss of the personal discernment of good
and evil..
Our Lady Of The Americas
Teresa Gernazian
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Over 400 years ago, the Western Hemisphere
was blessed with a special gift, direct from the
portals of heaven. Although I have written
about the miraculous Guadalupe painting
before, the story is especially fitting as our
Bicentennial year draws to a close and we
reminiscently count our blessings. Pope
Benedict XIV, after seeing the holy image, said:
“God has not done likewise with any other
nation.” Although the event took place near
Mexico City, at the time of its occurrence,
there were no boundaries; it was all just the
New World. And so this unique treasure is not
only for our Mexican neighbors but for all
Americans.
The story begins December 9, 1531 on
Tepeyac Hill near Mexico City. Juan Diego, a
middle-aged convert to the Faith, was on his
way to Mass. Mary appeared to him and spoke
livingly: “Know that I am Mary, the
Immaculate Virgin Mother of the true God for
Whom we all live. Creator of the World, Master
of Heaven and Earth. I desire a church to be
built in my honor on this spot so that all may
know of my love and compassion, of my desire
to help and protect for I am in truth your
merciful Mother - the Mother of you and all
the people of these lands, who will love me,
f N
Flip Quips
The timid, skeptical of swine flu shots,
says they’re for the birds, until the bug
takes hold ... by then they’re pigeons for
the carrier.
Unresolved, unconnected fatalities, one
at a Philly hotel, another at a swine flu
clinic shows there are legions who are
chicken about taking swine flu shots.
In this day of instant everything:
coffee, dinners and relief checks, it’s
startling how news of a swine flu case
starts an instant stampede to the flu
clinics.
Frank J. McArdle
trust in me and implore my aid. Go to the
bishop and tell him what I desire.”
The bishop did not believe the story and
when the Blessed Virgin appeared to him the
second time she bade him to go to the bishop
again. This time the bishop requested a sign. At
the third apparition, Juan told her of the
bishop’s request and she promised to grant a
sign the following morning. But Juan was
unable to come because of a sudden illness of
his uncle. The next day, December 12, when he
was on his way to Mexico City to bring a priest
to his dying uncle, Our Lady appeared to him
the fourth time. She told him his uncle was
cured and then asked him to gather some of the
roses growing nearby on a rocky hill. When he
brought them to her, she arranged them in his
mantle and told him to show them to the
bishop.
Juan obeyed and when he opened his mantle,
the roses dropped to the floor and the bishop
fell to his knees. There on the coarse garment
was a beautiful painting - Our Lady had left a
life-size portrait of herself. Today, 445 years
later, the painting is as fresh and beautiful as
ever. No scientist can explain it and in spite of
Satanic efforts many times to destroy it, it
remains intact.
In 1945 Pope Pius XII sanctioned the title,
“Queen of all the Americas” granting
permission for the feast and special Mass.
At Sacred Heart Church on Sunday,
December 12, at 6 p.m., a special concelebrated
Mass will take place in honor of Our Lady of
Guadalupe. Archbishop Donnellan will be
principal celebrant and both the English and
Spanish-speaking community are cordially
invited. Father Raimundo Solano, native of
Mexico, who has been serving the Spanish
community here for six years, recently
attended the dedication of the new basilica near
Mexico City in which the painting is enshrined.
He will participate in the ceremonies Sunday
and will read the story of the Guadalupe
apparition in Spanish. There will also be a
reading in English.
As we thank God for our nation’s many
blessings as the Bicentennial year comes to a
close, what a wonderful opportunity to give
him glory by honoring His Mother on this
beautiful feast.
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
DEADLINE: All material for publication must be received by
MONDAY NOON for Thursday’s paper.
Most Rev. Thomas A. Donnellan — Publisher
Rev. Peter A. Dora — Editor
Michael Motes Associate Editor
Member of the Catholic Press Association
Telephone 881-9732
Business Office U.S.A. $5.00
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Atlanta, Georgia 30308 Foreign $6.50
Postmaster: Send POD Form 3579 to THE GEORGIA BULLETIN
601 East Sixth Street, Waynesboro, Georgia 30830
Send all editorial correspondence to: THE GEORGIA BULLETIN
756 West Peachtree Street, N.W.
Atlanta, Georgia 30308
Second Class Postage Paid at Waynesboro, Ga. 30830
Published Weekly / except the second and last weeks
in June, July ana August and the last week in December
at 601 East Sixth St., Waynesboro, Ga. 30830
photomeditation
Photo and Text by Carl J. Pfeifer
(Copyright, 1976, NC News Service)
TAKING AIM
A young man,. . . muscles bulging . . . draws his bow taut . . . and takes careful
aim ... at a distant target . . .
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Advent -
A Time
To Hunger
Rev. Noel Burtenshaw
✓
Advent is a time to hunger. They are going to
tell you it’s a time to do a lot of other things.
They will tell you it’s a time to worry about
Christmas and gifts and “what am I going to get
for him or her.” They are going to tell you it’s a
time to warm up for the gaiety of Christmas.
But it’s really not. Advent is a time to hunger -
a time to ache - a time to yearn.
You might call these four weeks, the great
wait. That’s what it symbolizes. The Wait of the
Sinful People of God, lost in the wilderness of
their own sin and waiting for the merciful
surprise that God would send.
They were like us in so many ways. They
hungered for so many things. They hungered
for comfort - a decent place to live. They
hungered for peace - they were always at war.
They hungered for plenty - miserable crops
were a constant worry. They hungered for good
leadership - they were constantly crushed by
invaders. They hungered for all these things -
but most of all they hungered for the Lord.
They could have put up with any
inconvenience, any catastrophe, any act of
God. But they longed for the Lord and
hungered for his forgiveness and his mercy and
his redemption. That’s the Spirit that we have
to catch in Advent.
But there is so much against us. The count
down for shopping days left is going to start.
Our mind goes out to those who have to get
gifts - and our budget that must watch the list.
All of a sudden - Advent is in the background
and we are the poorer. We must catch the spirit
of the hunger of God’s people. The Lord is near
- the Lord is coming.
He is a model of concentration ... of harmony between body and spirit . . . Every
muscle . . . every nerve ... is mobilized ... to send that arrow straight to the target’s
center. . .
His singlemindedness . . . mobilizes the full potential ... of his mind and body . . .
The goal . . . the target . . . draws his whole being ... in a concentrated, tensely
peaceful movement.
The young archer . . . fully centered on his target . . . recalls Jesus’ challenge . . .
“Remember, where your treasure is . . . there your heart is also” (Matthew 6:21)
Your target . . . your treasure . . .draws your heart . . . mobilizes your potential for
good ... or for evil.
And St. Paul outlines that Spirit for us in his
letter to the Thessalonians. He says “May the
Lord make you overflow with love for one
another.” There can be no greater preparation
than a hunger for a spirit of brotherhood. I was
reading recently that the World Hunger
Organization of the United Nations has for
years asked leading Nations to put aside one per
cent of their gross National product to help the
hungry Nations of the World. Just one percent,
and it has never been done. So hunger exists
and Nations never get on their feet and they
look to Communism and they turn their backs
on us.
The archer’s goal is clear ... Is mine? ... Is yours? . . . What is my target? . . . What
are you aiming at in life? . . . Where is your treasure?
Jesus asks each of us over and over . . . what he asked his very first followers . . .
“What are you looking for?” (John 1:38).
They see their children go without and
endure suffering unnecessarily. All because
there is a void of compassion throughout the
world. We all ignore the central message of
Christ. “I was hungry, I was thirsty ... as long
as you fed them, you fed me.”
f
Called By Name
Georgia Carolina Ministry
Rev. S. R. Miglarese
Vocation Director
Diocese of Charleston
Jeremiah,
The Reluctant Prophet
The December 18th
Priestly Ordinations
In Columbia, S.C.
If the prophet Jeremiah balked and hesitated
at assuming the burdens of prophetic office, his
reluctance to do so was based not out of false
humility but a genuine sense of inadequacy to
measure up to the responsibilities of God’s call.
Yet he overcame his reluctance and responded
to God’s call with a generous dose of courage
and faith resting solely on the support and
strength of his God, not his personal resources.
Four men (Thomas Morrison, Thomas Evatt,
Dennis O’Connell, Joseph Bean) of the Church
of South Carolina have been called by Bishop
Ernest L. Unterkoefler, the Bishop of
Charleston, to assume the onerous priestly task
of proclaiming the Gospel by Word and
Sacrament in service to the people of God in
South Carolina. To listen to them “chafing at
the bit” after eight to thirteen years of study
and formation they are more like Isaiah -
“Here I am, send me!”, than Jeremiah whose
immediate reaction to the Lord was, “You
must have the wrong man.”
Thanks be to God these young men are
anxious to begin proclaiming the Lord’s Word
and doing His Work, yet like Jeremiah may any
reluctance on their part, any lack of “being sure
of themselves” be an impetus to open
themselves in faith to the spirit of the Lord, to
put their whole trust in the God and Father of
Jesus Christ and place complete confidence in
God’s fidelity to their ministry.
Like Jeremiah, the priest dare not be sure of
himself except to say with Paul, “It is not
ourselves we preach, but Christ Jesus as Lord
and ourselves as your servants of Jesus’ sake” (2
Cor. 4:5).
Please pray that these men be worthy
ministers of the Sacraments and ardent but
gentle servants of the Gospel and that God will
raise up others like them.
ATLANTA - The recent Pastoral on Capital
Punishment issued by Archbishop Donnellan
and Bishop Sims contains this factual
statement: “First of all we acknowledge that
Christians of earnest conscience disagree on the
issue.” It is obvious that the letter writer and
columnist in the BULLETIN of November 18
infer that ‘the Christian of earnest conscience’
is and I quote: “Anti-Clerical, Anti-Pope and
Anti-Bishop” and “the ones without sin.” Of
course name calling and inferences are always
the stock in trade of those without facts or
they inject irrelevant subject matter or ask
inane questions such as “Was the Devil a
Conservative?”
Then we have the same feature writer who
pleads for human life - but what a one sided
plea. The article detailing events of a meeting at
an AME church in Macon states: “We talked
with mothers of young men on death row and
saw a movie about execution in our country.”
We who favor the death penalty also feel for
those mothers but we must not let our
emotions interfere with our intellect, our right
thinking. Would it not be more logical and
compassionate - the word so loosely bandied
about - for the writer and her group to talk to
the mothers, fathers, wives, etc. of the
murdered victims, many of whom were
butchered, stabbed, tossed out on the side of
the road or soaked with gasoline and then
burned beyond recognition, and visit a few
morgues to look at the victims not at some
propaganda film.
Anyone who puts a ‘Dr.’ in front of their
name should be better acquainted with right
thinking than to equate the pardoning of an
In Advent we show our hunger for the Lord
as we reach out to others. And we do it in
many ways, simple ways. We show our yearning
at home as we prayerfully and carefully give
prominence of the Advent Wreath. We show it
on the streets as we greet our friends - as we
help fill the kettle for the Salvation Army - as
we respond to the Empty Stocking Fund or as
we get ready to sponsor a hungry family for
Christmas.
We show it especially as we most earnestly
look at the Scriptures - Isaiah, Jeremiah, St.
Luke and St. Matthew. The satisfaction of all
hunger is there for us. The Lord is near. The
Lord is coming.
Advent is the Season of wait - the Season of
hunger. Don’t let it pass you by. Involve
yourself in it.
adulterous woman (as related in the Bible) with
a deliberate cold blooded murderer of an
innocent victim, a victim in well known cases
was butchered or had his brilliant brain blown
out - summarily and without compassion
placed face to face with his Judge.
What a biased and ridiculous statement to
say: “The application is obvious: (referring to
Jesus’ statement about those without sin
throwing the first stone) “The people without
sin hang the first prisoners or pull the first
switch.” What a vicious and uncharitable
judgement to apply to myriads of Catholics and
other Christians because they disagree with the
writer - even the Bishops, as noted, conceded
people of good faith wouid disagree. But it is
patent that those who loosely bady about the
word love and compassion mean it applies to
others not to themselves. But as Bishop Fulton
J. Sheen so aptly wrote: “Never has a nation of
people been so highly educated but with such
little knowledge of the truth.”
The very next sentence after the writer
condemns those who disagree, she writes
incongrously: “The Christian Church (note
these purported Catholics do not use the word
Catholic any more) is a church of sinners,
the church to help root out violence and
crime.” The only way one of these bleeding
hearts has advocated rooting out violence and
crime is by asking for the commutation of the
sentence of these violent criminals who act on
animal instinct so they can - as all statistics
show - go free to continue to prey on innocent
victims.
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Letters... Letters
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M.J. MAGUIRE, SR.