Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 2—The Georgia Bulletin, January 13, 1977
Church Aids Prisoners In San Quentin
SAN QUENTIN, Calif. (NC) - “It’s the
only freedom I am able to enjoy, but I
can’t guarantee I will always take
advantage of it.”
He was a young man in his early
twenties, attending Mass and sitting in the
rear pew of Our Lady of the Rosary
Chapel. He was dressed in his “Sunday
Best” of blue denims and heavy cotton
shirt to match. He is an inmate of this
maxi mum-security prison.
One of the largest jails in the country,
San Quentin has been glamorized in one
way or another by Hollywood from
Humphrey Bogart to the modern-day
Robert Wagner. Still, there is no real
glamor about it, even for the temporary
inmate from outside visiting the Catholic
chapel on a Sunday morning.
Long queues of family visitors are
already at the gate, and tight security is
exercised, with x-ray machines and body
searches. Before entering, hands are
stamped with a solution which reacts to
another electronic marvel at the departure
gate. If the stuff wears off before you
leave, you might never get out.
The full-time ministry to Catholic
prisoners at San Quentin is directed by
Father John O’Neill, who resides in a
rectory in nearby San Rafael. His
“parishioners” number around 500, from
all walks of life and from every ethnic
and racial group - although a majority of
them are of Mexican-American extraction.
“Catholics represent about a quarter of
the prison population of 2,100,” Father
O’Neill said, “and we average about 50 at
our Sunday Mass. It is not as bad as it
sounds, for Sunday is the only day when
the inmates are allowed to take it a little
easy. They are permitted to sleep in or
watch the football games, and they have
to be dedicated to come to church. There
also are all types of other peer pressures
involved which can inhibit attendance at
Mass.”
The liturgy is well planned, and outside
choirs from churches in the Bay Area are
invited each week to sing at the Mass.
The Sunday I visited, the choir was
from St. Finbar Church of San Francisco,
and the hymns were in Spanish. There
was also an added attraction from within
the parish walls - The Bells - five black
inmates, dressed in red choir robes, who
sang with all the professionalism and
harmony of the Mills Brothers.
After Mass, the visiting choir had a
get-together with the prisoner congregation.
New friendships were established, and for
some of the inmates, perhaps a new
weekly visitor to break the oppressive
isolation from family and friends.
The man, sitting alone in the back pew
- we’ll call him Joe - epitomized all the
misery and depression that so often
accompanies long incarceration. His was a
serious crime of violence and he makes
no excuses.
“I’m here to pay my so-called debt to
society, but I’m not sure that it really
makes any difference,” Joe said. “I had a
rough life outside and it’s rough in here,
but I survive - that’s all you can do in a
place like this.”
Does religion have any effect on his
present life and plans for the future when
he gets out?
“I don’t know,” Joe said. “I’ve been to
Mass more times since arriving here than
in the previous 10 years. I can’t even tell
you why I come, although I’ll admit it
gives me time to reflect on my life, and
what I intend to do with it. In the past,
my Catholic faith depended on the
insistence of my parents. I fought their
pressures. Now there are no real pressures
one way or the other, although some of
the guys might laugh at me for becoming
a ‘holy-holy.’
There are 65 men on Death Row at
San Quentin, and they are of special
concern to the priest and other clergymen
who serve the prison. Naturally, the
condemned men cannot attend Mass, but
they are permitted the services of the
chaplain at any time.
Father O’Neill has been the Catholic
Chaplain at San Quentin for about a year.
Before that, he was an associate pastor of
an inner city parish in San Francisco. He
notes the differences:
“This type of ‘parish,’ of its nature,
requires specialization. It is a totally
different world to that of the city . . .
The inmates, by necessity, have limited
freedom . . . They are confined in almost
every way . . . They are being punished
and need material and spiritual
rehabilitation.
“My job is to help them spiritually,
which can also assist in their eventual
material well-being... I am happy to be
here knowing that I am needed and
wanted. That is not always the case, even
outside the prison gates.
“Through the work of prison chaplains,
even some incorrigibles have found their
way back to loving God and their
neighbor, becoming useful citizens in a
new life on the outside. That’s what I am
here for.”
Couples Communication Program Begins
Catholic Social Services,
Inc., in conjunction with
the DeKalb County YWCA,
will sponsor the Couples
Communication Program at
the YWCA Center, 2362
Lawrenceville Highway,
Decatur, January 19 and
26 and February 2, 9, 16
and 23.
The educational program
is designed to teach
couples how to
communicate more
effectively. Specific skills
are taught which enable
the couples to develop and
modify their relationship in
directions they themselves
choose.
F. R.
Reid
MOONEY'S OPTICIANS
475 PEACHTREE, N.E.
Phone: 876-3053
Any couple can benefit
whether married, engaged,
or dating seriously. Average
communicators can become
effective communicators in
the small group sessions.
Groups consist of five to
eight couples who meet for
four three-hour sessions.
Readings, lectures,
discussions and exercises
teach a variety of specific
skills. A common
framework is provided by
the book, “ALIVE &
AWARE,” and short
lectures to help couples
understand and choose
effective communication
patterns. Exercises provide
practice in using the skills
with feedback from other
couples and the instructors.
The Couples
Communication Program
(formerly called Minnesota
Couples Communication
Program), was developed by
Dr. Sherod Miller, Dr.
Elam Nunnally and Dr.
Daniel Wackman at the
Minnesota Family Study-
Center, University of
Minnesota, in cooperation
with the Staff of the
Minneapolis Family and
Children’s Services. They
are now instructing
counsellors in the skills
throughout the United
States. Their book, ALIVE
& AWARE, will be
available soon in local
book stores.
Instructors for our
program are Mary Ellen
DuVarney, a caseworker for
Catholic Family Services
and her husband, Ray
DuVarney, who is a
physicist at Emory
University. They were
trained by Dr. Elam
Nunnally.
The Du Varneys have
conducted several groups in
the past year. They will be
glad to teach the program
in the parishes. Please let
us know if you would like
to have this program
presented in your parish or
if you would like to
sponsor a lecture on the
topic of communication.
You may reach Mary Ellen
DuVarney at 881-6702 for
more information.
GATHER WITH ATLANTA
ALUMNI -- Dr. Robert Kaffer and
other officials of Southern
Benedictine College were recent
guests of the school’s Atlanta
Alumni Association. The group
includes (left to right) Jack F.
Lenz, Atlanta; Michael Knight,
Cullman; Joseph S. Franey, SBC;
Dr. Kaffer; Jack Egan, Stone
Mountain; Sister Roberta Schmidt,
SBC, and Jim Troy, Marietta,
President of the Atlanta Alumni
Association.
Creating Community
BY DR. ELLEN L. BURNS
It is a beautiful
coincidence that the
Vatican Motu Proprio on
the establishment of a
Papal Commission on
Justice and Peace and the
proposal by our new
ambassador-designate to the
United Nations for a Peace
Academy are in the news
this past week. Officially
now we seem to be
working toward the
institution of peace through
justice. How positive this
approach compared with
the defensive attitude of
continual military buildup!
Tied in with this
philosophy of peace-build
ing is the adoption of a
simple life-style. We all
have to make our
contributions to peace.
Recently
received
“Toward a
Beatitudes”
Shakertown
was sent
Campaign
Justice in
am passing
its entirety:
this office
a copy of
Church of the
inspired by the
pledge. This
to us by the
for Global
Philadelphia. I
it on to you in
“Recognizing that
Christ’s Gospel of love,
liberation, justice and peace
is either promoted or
obscured by the life-style
and manner of exercising
power in Christian
communities and gatherings,
“And that Christ calls
his people to a spirit of
profound repentance and
love, to put apathy behind,
and to participate fully in
the ongoing responsibility
of God’s loving community,
“We pledge ourselves to
accept God’s claim on our
personal and corporate lives
and to encourage our
church communities in
these directions:
“1 - To be poor in
fact, adopting new and
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radically simpler lifestyles,
refusing to increase our
affluence until all other
persons and human
communities have essentials.
“2 -- To be poor in
spirit, renouncing
identification with worldly
wealth and power, thus
nurturing our obedience to
the spirit of the living
Gospel.
“3 -- To preach, teach
and practice Gospel
simplicity within our
church institutions, urging
the church to use its
resources to bring justice
to the hungry, poor and
oppressed.
‘‘4 -- To develop
co-operative and
participative patterns of
living, sharing, working and
relating.
“5 - To take up Christ’s
role of humble service and
gentle love in leadership
and decision-making, and to
resist abusive power
relationships.
“6 - To work for
ending racism, sexism and
age and class discrimination
in our church communities,
so that through loving and
non-violent action the
church can effectively
contribute to healing these
sins in the world.
‘‘7 - To proclaim
prophetically the need for
a just world distribution of
power, wealth and natural
resources.
“8 - To accept the
cross, and the joys and
pain of discipleship, ready
even to be persecuted for
justice.”
Mother Seton, recently-
canonized, was recognized
more for her style of
simple living than for her
ability to work miracles.
One of her sayings was:
“Live simply that others
may simply live.” Her
wisdom is borne out in the
world of today.
‘Christian Unity Week’
Observed January 18-25
GARRISON, N.Y. (NC) - The hope that Christians
around the world are to celebrate during the 1977 Week
of Prayer for Christian Unity is Jesus Christ, “who offers
the possibility of a renewed, transformed creation,” the
director of the Graymoor Ecumenical Institute said here.
“It is Jesus who is the first and last hope of
Christians,” said Atonement Father Arthur F. Gouthro,
institute director, in a statement issued for the 70th
annual Unity Week observance Jan. 18-25.
The theme for the 1977 observance, “This hope does
not disappoint us,” taken from the fifth chapter of St.
Paul’s letter to the Romans, was selected by the institute,
which has headquarters here, and the Faith and Order
Commission of the National Council of Churches of Christ.
Despite conflict within churches and instances of
oppression and violations of human rights around the
world, the progress of dialogues between Christian churches
and the role of Christian churches in contemporary peace
movements are reasons for hope, Father Gouthro said.
“Dialogues between the Christian churches, though slow
and tedious, are progressing steadily,” he said. “There is
now greater willingness to negotiate and to discuss once
forbidden topics. Even where strong disagreements among
the churches remain, there is an eagerness to maintain
friendly relations all the same.
“In contemporary peace movements, moreover, the
Christian churches are playing a significant role. In
Northern Ireland, for instance, the churches are part of a
peace movement where once they were intent on shedding
blood, both Roman Catholic and Protestant. Leaders of
the churches have also taken aggressive, prophetic stands
against systems of tyranny and oppression in countries
where until only recently they were considered part of
those very systems.”
But these reasons “do not form the essence of Christian
hope,” Father Gouthro said. Jesus Christ is that hope, he
continued.
“Jesus announced a kingdom or reign which is still to
come, and his followers celebrate that promise of a new
future with confidence because Jesus goes before them. In
their hope, therefore, Christians will be neither disillusioned
nor disappointed.”
Family Planning Workshop
A weekend workshop on Natural Family
Planning will be presented at Holy Spirit
Church, Northside Drive and Mt. Paran
Road, January 29 and 30. John Kippley,
executive director of the Couple to
Couple League (CCL) will present the
workshop.
The CCL teaches a system of gathering,
recording and interpreting facts about
what is happening within a woman’s body.
As a woman becomes fertile and then
infertile in each cycle, certain body signs
occur. By recognizing these, the properly
informed couple can plan, delay or avoid
a pregnancy accordingly. The program also
teaches that type of breastfeeding which
usually provides an extended period of
natural infertility.
More and more young people are
attracted to this method because of a
growing discontent with indiscriminate pill
use. They are looking for methods of
conception control which do not violate
their bodies.
John and Cathy Bloodworth, a local
teaching couple, became interested in
Natural Family Planning when they
wanted to start their family. After the
birth of their daughter, Cathy used “Total
Breast Feeding” because she wanted to
breast feed her baby and had the added
benefit of an extended period of natural
infertility. The Bloodworths are now
happily awaiting the arrival of their
second child in the spring.
Natural Family Planning is taught
locally by a certified teaching couple in a
series of four monthly meetings.
Attendance at the meetings plus reading
the CCL manual comprises the usual
instruction process. Private counseling is
available whenever needed with a certified
teaching couple.
Because instructor Kippley will be
coming to Atlanta from Cincinnati, the
January workshop will be given in one
weekend with two morning and two
afternoon sessions.
To attend the January workshop or
future workshops pre-registration is
requested. A donation of $20 per couple
is requested from those who can afford it.
This includes a manual, thermometer,
charts and one year membership in the
Couple to Couple League. It is required
that couples read the book “The Art of
Natural Family Planning” before attending
the sessions.
Registration for Natural Family Planning Workshop
Name
Address
Telephone
$5.00 pre-registration accompanying registration will cover cost of book. Send to:
Natural Family Planning Program, 756 West Peachtree,
Atlanta, Georgia 30308. Telephone 881-0774
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