Newspaper Page Text
Gejorgiu
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 15 No. 2
Thursday, January 13,1977
$5 Per Year.
BY
FATHER NOEL
BURTENSHAW
Life Game
Joe South is a Georgia boy
and he writes and sings songs.
In 1965 he wrote his best
seller “The Games People
Play.” It was a simple song
about the everyday games we
play with one another. We act
and pretend until we “never
say what we mean, never mean
what we say.” But that’s life
and our everyday games are a
part of it.
We live in a world of games.
The hottest hours on television
are the Game Hours.
Nail-biting, mesmerized record
audiences watch as hopeful
participants reach for the right
song or the right number or
the right price. The winner is
bedecked with fortune, the
loser, a simple round of
applause. So the game is
played. We are so en trailed
with this streak in Society that
we extend it liberally. We have
even extended it to life itself.
So life has become a game.
Some are allowed to have it,
others are not. The law of this
land says that individuals are
guardians of life. They may or
may not permit its existance.
The woman dominates the life
of her child. Her word is law
as we balance the delicate
existence of the unborn. Will it
be welcomed into the wide
walk of society or banished
into the incinerators of our
hospitals? She, says the law, is
judge and jury. And there is
no public defender.
But there’s another side to
the game. We have dozens of
civic groups, some with the
blessings of Government, telling
us how to preserve life. The
Red Cross wants our blood to
“Save A Life.” The March of
Dimes wants our money to
banish Birth Defects. And you
have the law itself which plays
both games. It gives the woman
“the okay” to abort, but
decides to prosecute an accused
Atlanta killer on two counts
when the victim turns up dead
- but pregnant. The stakes are
very confusing in this game of
life.
What we learned in central
Europe 30 years ago (wasn’t
that just yesterday) has been
forgotten. To undermine the
existance of life in one, is to
do so in us all. They started
with the so-called merciful
elimination of the weak and
ended up putting eight million
Jews in ovens. And it wouldn’t
have stopped there. It never
stops there, when the “master
race” is the goal. Where will it
end for us? Who knows the
potential destruction when a
monster is loose.
We will closely consider these
points during Respect Life Day
in our Archdiocese on
Saturday, January 22. The
Archdiocesan Council of
Catholic Women are sponsoring
this day and it should give us
all a little frantic time to
think. If only to remind
ourselves of the sacred gift of
life, we should attend. If only
to remind ourselves that our
voice may be the last defensive
protest, we should attend. If
only to remind ourselves that
we are guardians of the
defenseless unborn, we should
attend.
It is a unique opportunity to
stand and be counted as we
play our brand of the game.
Adams
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AOR (CULTURE
THE CARTER CABINET ~ With the
appointment of Joseph Califano as Health,
Education and Welfare Secretary, President-elect
Jimmy Carter has completed his cabinet. The 11
appointees are: Secretary of State Cyrus Vance;
Treasury Secretary W. Michael Blumenthal; Defense
Secretary Harold Brown; interior Secretary Cecil
D. Andrus; Agriculture Secretary Robert Bergland;
Commerce Secretary Juanita Kreps; Labor
Secretary F. Ray Marshall; Health, Education and
Welfare Secretary Joseph Califano; Housing and
Urban Development Secretary Patricia Roberts
Harris; Transportation Secretary Brock Adams; and
Attorney General Griffin Bell.
Atlanta Workshop To Study Celibate
The psychology of the celibate
person will form the main emphasis
for the two-day workshop to be
held in the auditorium of St.
Joseph’s Infirmary in Atlanta the
weekend of January 29-30, sponsored
by the southeastern region of the
National Sisters Vocation Conference
(NSVC).
Sister Treva Heinberg, OSB, a
clinical psychologist, will conduct the
opening day of the workshop which
will be devoted to psychological
testing. Topics will include “Available
Test Instruments: Pro & Con,”
“Choosing an Instrument” and “How
Does One Judge a ‘Suitable’
Candidate?” There will be
opportunity to examine samples of
various test instruments.
As an optional service available to
participants, NSVC has arranged with
Psychological Resources in Atlanta
for a battery of tests which can be
taken by the participants by mail
prior to the workshop. The tests will
be sent to the participant who will
complete them and return them to
Psychological Resources.
Sr. Treva Heinberg
BvimtilNS
National Vocations Council
WASHINGTON (NC) - A National Catholic Vocation Council (NCVC) has
been formed to bring together national organizations working for religious
vocations. Archbishop John R. Roach of St. Paul and Minneapolis, chairman of
the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Vocations,
announced formation of the council. NCVC expands the work of the National
Center for Church Vocations which was founded in 1969.
Bishops Speak On Parent’s Rights
ROME (NC) - Poland’s bishops have warned the nation’s Communist system
not to try to snatch away from parents their responsibility in the education
and rearing of children. In a pastoral letter read in all Polish churches Jan. 2,
the bishops declared, “No socio-political system can claim to substitute itself
for parents in carrying out the task of educating and rearing children.
Cardinal Submits Resignation
TURIN, Italy (NC) -- Cardinal Michele Pellegrino, Italy’s most progressive
cardinal and champion of workers in this auto-manufacturing city, told
worshippers here Jan. 1 that he has turned in his resignation to Pope Paul VI.
Cardinal Pellegrino, 73, cited age and bad health as the reasons behind his
request for early retirement.
At the workshop a sealed envelope
containing a detailed analysis of
significant factors will be returned to
each individual participating in the
testing program. These test results
will include not only the statistical
profiles but a narrative evaluation
which will highlight such factors as
the general psychological profile,
vocational interests, barriers (if any)
to vocational functioning,
motivational patterns and special
assets and/or liabilities.
Sister Genevieve Sachse, OSB,
Region 5 Chairperson for NSVC and
director of the workshop stated:
“Since those attending this portion
of the workshop are involved in the
counseling and evaluation of the
candidates for ministry we are
recommending that such persons put
themselves in the candidates’ shoes
and take the tests, not only for the
experience of being a test subject
and the personal knowledge to be
gained, but also to have a
‘take-home’ sample of the service
and information which will be
available after the workshop; Sister
Treva will also be available for
private consultation regarding the test
results.”
Sister Treva Heinberg is presently
the Expert Witness for the Marriage
Tribunal and Associate Director of
the Permanent Diaconate program for
the Diocese of Birmingham. Alabama.
She has an extensive background in
psychological testing as Director of
Counseling and Testing for Cullman
College for six years. She has also
done the psychological testing for
her own community and has served
as psychometrist for the Cullman
County Schools. She holds a masters
degree in theology and has served on
the Formation Team of the
Benedictine Sisters of Cullman,
Alabama, as well as having been
elected or appointed to many other
positions of leadership in her
community and the Benedictine
Federation.
Dr. M. McNeill, a clinical
psychologist in private practice, will
present the general program for the
workshop on Sunday, dealing with
such topics as “Psychology of the
Person,” “Sexuality of the Celibate”
and “Celibacy: Defenses and Coping
Mechanisms.” Dr. McNeill, a lay
(Continued on page 8)
MARSHALL MCLUHAN:
Church Role Defined
CHICAGO (NC) - The Catholic Church “is indestructible, even as a human
institution,” but needs to “shake up our present population” said Marshall
McLuhan, communications specialist and author of “The Medium Is the
Message.”
The opportunities for the survival of the Catholic Church “are a heck of a
lot better than those of the United States or any other secular institution,”
McLuhan said in an interview published here in the January issue of U.S.
Catholic. “Even in the secular sense, the Church has at least as much survival
potential as any existing political or social institution, because, after all, it is
not unaided at all times - even on the secular side - by supernatural means.”
McLuhan, 65, professor of English and director of the Center for Culture
and Technology at the University of Toronto, converted to Catholicism in his
mid-20s. He is the author of “Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man,”
in which he contended that new technologies create new environments.
Technological changes, such as the invention of the printing press, have
affected the history of the Catholic Church, he said.
“Improved written communication made possible the development of a huge
Roman bureaucracy, transforming the Roman pontiff into a chief executive.
Further improvement in travel and communication brought the pontiff into
more immediate personal relation to his subjects. Today, even the president of
the United States need not govern from Washington, D.C.
“What, therefore, is called the de-Romanization of the Roman Church is
simply its electrification. When things speed up, hierarchy disappears and global
theater sets in.”
McLuhan continued: “The pope is obsolete as a bureaucratic figure. But the
pope as a role player is more important than ever. The pope has authority.
After all, if there were only three Catholics in the world, one would have to
be pope. Otherwise, there would be no Church. There has to be a teaching
authority or else no Church at all.
“You cannot have goals in an acoustic, nonvisual world. You want a role;
you don’t want a goal. The Catholic Church has a role - salvation.
“The visual Church is goal-oriented. Its objectives are bigger collections,
bigger missions, bigger everything. There is no need for institutional buildings at
all. Everything can be performed in private places. At the speed of light you
cannot have executives. You cannot have hierarchy. The job yields to roles,
and a role consists of multiple jobs.”
One of the jobs of the Church is “to shake up our present population,”
McLuhan said. “To do that you’d have to preach nothing but hellfire. In my
lifetime, I have never heard one such sermon from a Catholic pulpit. You
know there is one brimstone sermon in (James) Joyce’s, ‘A Portrait of the
Artist as a Young Man.’ A very great one in my judgment. It brought a lot of
people into the Church, including Thomas Merton (the late Trappist monk and
author).”
Contending that the Church is being too soft and accommodating, McLuhan
said:
“The attempt to adapt, say, rock music to the liturgy is very ineffective.
There are many reasons for that probably. In that department 1 see nothing
but failure.
“What they promulgate seems to be very badly suited. For example,
costumes were never so important in the history of the Church as now. The
Church is going to private dress at a time when all the kids want to get into
costume. They don’t want private dress. They want costumes.”
Commenting on his experience in raising a family during the period before
and after the Second Vatican Council, McLuhan said: “I raised a family of six
kids in that period -- in the 50s and 60s - and they all left the Church
except one. One out of six remains. Maybe some will come back some day.
But there is a great disproportion between what the kids learned in the
Church, what they experienced, what their needs are.”
The degree of literacy in the Catholic Church “is not much, that is, within
(Continued on Page 8)
Respect Life Program Speaker
Rosemary Anton Meyer, President
of the Board of Directors of the
National Committee for a Human
Life Amendment, will be the
keynote speaker at the Respect Life
Day program at Immaculate Heart of
Mary Church on Saturday, January
22.
Mrs. Meyer, who currently
practices law on a part-time basis in
Phoenix, Arizona, is scheduled to
speak on euthanasia at 9:30 a.m.
A graduate of Arizona State
University College of Law, Mrs.
Meyer later taught consumer law
there. She formerly attended
Georgetown University Law Center.
She is actively involved in
volunteer legal work for Birthright
and Arizona Right to Life, currently
serving as president of the latter.
In 1975 she received the Alumnae
Citation awarded annually by the
College of Saint Teresa Alumnae
Association to a lay and a religious
graduate of the college.
She maintains an active
public-speaking schedule and last year
addressed the Arizona Right to Life
Convention, National Right to Life
Convention in Boston and the
California Pro Life Conference,
among other gatherings.
The local Respect Life Program is
sponsored by the Archdiocesan
Council of Catholic Women.
Archbishop Donnellan will close the
program at 3 p.m. by delivering the
homily at a concelebrated Mass.
11| m
Rosemary Anton Meyer