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Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 15 No. 1
Thursday, January 6,1977
Words
Eliza Doolittle was so sick of
men. And she was sick of the
experiments they engineered. She
was tired of their constant nagging
words. The darling of “My Fair
Lady” vehemently knew what she
wanted and it wasn’t their words.
“Words, words, words,” she
fumed stamping her feet, “I’m so
sick of words.” Words were a
problem long before Eliza and
long after her too. John Steinbeck
wrote that as a child “words were
devils and books were my
enemies.”
The air and the world are so full
of words, but I suppose that’s all
we have. Some over use them,
some under use them. Some have
never learned to use them. But
they are all we have. There is just
no other way to get the thought
outside the mind.
Words are passports to the
trivial and to the exotic. When A1
Jolson opened his minstrel mouth,
in that historic silent age movie,
“The Jazz Singer,” and sound
came out, words were reborn.
Those words opened up an arena
of entertainment and
communication undreamed of in
the history of this planet. When
the great pens moved on paper,
when Dickens, Shakespeare,
Faulkner, Lawrence and all the
rest wrote, they opened up worlds
of such utter enjoyment, that
generations of lives were changed.
When the daily newspaper
became part of the breakfast
table, a new drug entered the life
of the family. We now need James
Reston, Art Buchwald and Bill
Buckley. Where are we going
without Peanuts, yesterday’s
stocks and a sly eye on “Dear
Abby?” Words, we need them,
they are our constant and usually
faithful companion.
The GEORGIA BULLETIN is a
word collection that we send your
way with many missions. We hope
a few at least are accomplished.
W’e hope it inspires you, because it
contains our faith. We hope it
informs you - your television
won’t. We hope it intrigues you,
we do have some new ideas. We
hope it entertains you, you need
to relax. We hope it stimulates
thought, we need your interest.
We hope it brings you closer to
your fellow Georgia Catholics
because that’s it’s greatest mission.
Words are the main source of
communication in the world. And
the over used psychiatrist couch
tells us that communication is
what the world needs now. So
each week we send our words
your way. They come to your
home perhaps in whispers, perhaps
in shouts but hopefully influential
in their message of the Church and
Christ the Lord, whom St. John,
in his Bulletin, calls “the Word
made Flesh.”
SCHOOL ON WHEELS -- Franciscan Sister Ruth square mile area in southwestern Georgia. Among her
Marie Hensler travels 25,000 miles annually in her stops is Plains, home of President-elect Jimmy Carter,
motor home as religious coordinator for a 10,000
Savannah Nun Is Coordinator In Plains
ALBANY, Ga. (NC) - One of these
days when he’s back home in Plains,
Jimmy Carter may look out a window
and see a van driven by a nun passing
through town.
That van is a home, classroom,
theater, library and office for its driver,
Franciscan Sister Ruth Marie Hensler.
She drives it 25,000 miles a year in the
10,000-square-mile Albany deanery in
southwest Georgia in her job as religious
education coordinator. She serves about
1,500 Catholics in the area. Plains is on
her route.
The major emphasis of Sister
Hensler’s program is teacher training
and preparation. She visits each of her
more than 50 teachers each month and
also encourages their attendance at
diocesan workshops.
Sister Hensler also visits lapsed
Catholics and encourages return to the
sacraments, providing whatever
instructions are necessary. She also
meets with groups of parents and trains
them to assist in preparing their children
for the sacraments.
Sister Hensler and the six priests who
serve the 10 churches or parish centers
and two stations where Sunday Mass is
regularly celebrated plan the program
for each year.
“My goal is to strengthen the faith of
the Catholics living in this area so they
can make the Church more present in
this extensive territory where our
Catholic witness is limited,” said Sister
Hensler, the only nun in the area.
“When I first began my mission work
I tried to have each of my instructors
meet with me at a central location,”
said Sister Hensler. “Although this was
more convenient for me, it was difficult
for my teachers so I began to visit their
homes or other places where meetings
could be held on an individual basis.
“Initially I traveled the territory by
car, but I found it difficult to store my
classroom aids and I had no real place to
meet with my instructors,” she said.
When it became apparent that Sister
Hensler needed a different means of
transportation, the Savannah diocese’s
department of Christian formation
received money from the Extension
Society to buy a mobile home. The
Chicago-based Extension Society is an
organization dedicated to serving home
missions in the United States and its
protectorates.
The van provides storage for teaching
materials, a sleeping area, kitchen
facilities and a table that will seat four
comfortably.
Sister Hensler has also outfitted the
vehicle as a library.
“My instructors and the parents of
some of the students had been
requesting use of some of my texts and
brochures, but I never really had a way
to fill their requests. Now I am able to
carry along a good selection of books
and lend them as needed.”
Sister Hensler also worked out a
system for previewing audio-visual
materials with instructors. “I simply
pull the shades on the windows, set up
my projector in the rear of the van, pull
down the screen installed above the
driver’s area and my van becomes a
theater.”
The nun can also sleep overnight in
the van when she is not able to return to
her home in Albany, giving her some
break from a schedule which can keep
her on the road 12 hours a day.
B\J LUt i t\5
t
Says “No Discrimination”
WASHINGTON (NC) - A top aide to President-elect Jimmy Carter says there is no
discrimination against Catholics, Hispanics or persons opposed to abortion in hiring
people to serve in the Carter Administration. The aide also said he had reprimanded a
transition staff volunteer who had suggested a Hispanic Catholic woman, Graciela
Oliverez, “should be thought about very carefully if she is being considered for a job
that will in any way concern abortion and related subjects” because she is a “strong,
active right-to-life supporter.”
Soundings
FATHER
NOEL BURTENSHAW
Beatification For Matt Talbot?
VATICAN CITY (NC) - In a surprise announcement, Pope Paul VI said Dec. 22
that he hopes to beatify .reformed Irish alcoholic Matt Talbot “either this coming year
or the year after.”
Talbot, known as “the saint in overalls,” began drinking heavily by the time he was
13 and was a seemingly hopeless alcoholic at age of 28 when he took the pledge. From
then until his death in 1925 at age 59, the Dublin laborer led a life of deep prayer and
extreme self-denial.
In October, 1975, Pope Paul approved a decree on Talbot’s “heroic virtues,” one of
the first steps toward beatification.
The postulator for Talbot’s cause, Father Dionysius McDade, told NC News that “at
least one miracle, attributed to the intercession of Talbot alone, must be found before
he can be beatified.”
(Continued on page 8)
“Age Of Woman Upon Us”
I OUISVILLE, Ky. (NC) - “We can say with assurance that the age of woman is
upon us and we will never again be the same. All of the previous forms of service are
not enough. Woman wants to accomplish more, to serve more fully.” This statement is
part of a lengthy study on the role of women in the Church in the archdiocese
published in a 12-page supplement of The Record, archdiocesan newspaper.
No Conflict Seen
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (NC) - The first American Catholic bishop to work full
time for a state government said here his tenure “has been good for the Church and
good for” California. Bishop Roger Mahony, auxiliary of Fresno, said he did not see
any conflict between his role as a bishop and as chairman of the California Agricultural
Labor Relations Board, created last year to implement the nation’s first law governing
unionization of farm workers.
$5 Per Year.
NEW YEAR MESSAGE:
‘Life Means Love’
ROME (NC) - Pope Paul VI began the new year and the Church’s World Peace Day
celebrations Jan. 1 with ringing condemnations of abortion and liberalized abortion
laws.
In the presence of Rome’s Communist mayor and diplomats accredited to the
Vatican, Pope Paul issued one of the strongest and frankest attacks of his reign against
those who seek abortion and against laws which permit them to do so.
At a televised New Year’s Day Mass in modern Regina Apostolorum (Queen of the
Apostles) Church here, Pope Paul asked rhetorically, “can we remain silent . . . about
the legalization of abortion, its acceptance and protection in several countries?
“Is the life that at its very conception springs up in the mother’s womb not really
and truly human life? Does it not need every care, every love, seeing that this
embryonic life is defenseless, yet already inscribed in the divine book of the destiny of
humanity?
“Who could suppose that a mother would kill her offspring or let It be killed? What
drug, what legal gilding can ever deaden the remorse of a woman who has freely and
consciously murdered the fruit of her womb?”
Teresa Gernazian previews the ACCW Respect Life Program to be held
January 22 at Immaculate Heart of Mary in her column on page 4.
The Pope’s words at the morning Mass were based on the theme he had chosen for
the celebration of the Jan. 1 World Day of Peace - “If you want peace, defend life.”
In Italy, the question of abortion has taken on particular urgency in January
because the Italian Chamber of Deputies (lower house of parliament) is expected to
vote soon on a proposed liberalized abortion law.
Within minutes after returning to Vatican City from the Church in the southern
suburbs of Rome, Pope Paul again spoke about abortion to crowds gathered for the
Angelus in St. Peter’s Square.
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n
“It is a sacrosanct obligation,” the Pope declared from his apartment window
overlooking the square, “to have an important and sacred concept of what human life
is - especially human life about to be born, life which is the most innocent and most
mysterious, life which is newest and most in need of protection and assistance.”
The Pope urged Catholics to extend protection and help to “every other human life
as well, especially to the poor and suffering.”
He said that “the peaceful life and order of society, good social relationships and
peace in its fullest and most radical sense rest on the observance of respect for life.”
The real basis of respect for life, he concluded, is “love, the ‘agape’ which Christ has
taught us and which must be at the roots of human feelings, made superhuman
precisely by faith and charity.”
During the morning Peace Day Mass, held in the mother church of the Pauline
Fathers and Sisters, the Pope gave his formula for attaining world peace.
(Continued on Page 8)
NEWSOME TWOSOME -- These two Atlanta priests are heading into
new jobs. Father Peter Dora (right) is preparing to enter the Monastery of
the Holy Spirit in Conyers and Father Noel Burtenshaw is preparing to
assume Father Dora’s old position as editor of the GEORGIA BULLETIN.