Newspaper Page Text
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 15 No. 3
Thursday, January 20, 1977
$5 Per Year.
Marriage Ministry
The flight to Suburbia is one of the
great immigrations of our time. Both
white and black from cities throughout
the nation is a common occurrence.
They leave behind the inner-city, the
commerce, the slums and look for
greener pastures, larger lots and
respectable neighborhoods to raise a
family. We can’t blame them, the fear
that overshadows cities today drives
them out.
Suburbia is not a bad place to live if
it wasn’t so isolated. With all those
apartments and all those subdivisions,
you would think that good community
could easily be formed, and it is not.
Maybe it’s the larger lots, or the bigger
homes, or the fancier apartments, but
friends and neighbors are not easily
made in Suburbia. There’s a great
feeling of isolation. Young couples
moving into apartments or their first
home, may make friends through their
work, or their church or their bowling
league, but rarely through their
neighbors. There’s a certain fear,
mistrust, reluctance to get involved, to
knock on a door.
And so there is very little ministry to
marriage in our communities. In other
generations, the married couple was the
center of attraction. They were
admired, helped and gloriously
accepted. The rest of us, neighbors, the
people next door, ministered to them
and helped the unity take place. Not so
today, they make it on their own. And
the statistics relate the terrible toll, the
terrible failures.
Marriage needs ministry. And St.
John clearly shows what we mean in his
Gospel today. Jesus ministered to the
newlyweds. There was no wine. A
disgrace was at hand. An embarrassment
for them as they began their new life.
So he magically reversed their fate, he
worked his first miracle. He touched
their lives. We can imagine how
important they felt, how accepted they
felt and the lasting friendship they
made. It was a perfect ministry.
But not only did Jesus minister,
Mary did too. With a watchful
experienced eye she caught the
insufficiency and that was enough. She
ministered too. “They have no wine.”
All would be well.
Marriage needs ministry today. And
we can work miracles for it. All we have
to do is care. There are more than
enough attacks on marriage - so much
so that survival is considered a problem.
“Who needs it,” they are beginning to
say about marriage, “who needs the
hassle.” The travelling father, the
working mother, the contraceptive and
abortive Society we live in and accept -
all tend to weaken and destroy the
delicate unity that marriage preaches.
We don’t need any more attacks. We
don’t need the attitude of
non-acceptability. We need to be
ministers - stretching out our hand of
simple welcome and warmth wherever
and whenever we can.
A new life is not only always strange,
it can also be lonely and difficult to get
off the ground. Help is needed.
Community is not found or hatched or
grown. It is built by others. In this
world where machines have destroyed
the personal, human ministry is
needed. If there was more care, more
knowledge of the neighbor, more
human exchange, there would be less
barbed wire, less Security Guards and
less need for alarms.
Every human institution today needs
ministry. Whether it is youth, the poor
or the aged - we all need it. But none
greater than marriage and the family.
And we can all be of service without
any training. It is there to do.
EYEING THE GOAL -- Pastors and their chairmen were intent on the
proceedings as the goals of the Charities Drive were explained to them.
ARCHBISHOP DONNELLAN AND BOB LOISEL share a light
moment during the meeting initiating this year’s Charities Drive.
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Infant Baptism Reaffirmed
VATICAN CITY (NC) - Pope Paul VI has reaffirmed the traditional Catholic
practice of infant Baptism, calling it a “holy custom.” At the same time, the Pope
urged baptized adults to make a serious, formal study in their parishes of what their
Baptism should mean.
Missionary Ban Lifted
CAMPOS, Brazil (NC) - Reversing his earlier assertion that missionaries should be
banned from Indian villages as subversives, Interior Minister Rangel Reis said here he
favors “integration” of mission work with government plans. A flurry of protests had
met his declaration in December that the government was placing restrictions on
missionary work because some missionaries “were siding with subversive groups.”
Orders Recruiting Of Hispanics
WASHINGTON (NC) - President-Elect Jimmy Carter has sent a telegram to each of
his Cabinet secretaries directing them to recruit Hispanics for federal jobs and to work
closely with three of his transition aides on the matter. Carter sent the telegram after
receiving a letter from Hispanic leaders protesting the treatment of Hispanics by
Carter’s transition staff. One of the 17 Hispanic leaders signing the letter was Paul
Sedillo, secretary for the Spanish-Speaking for the U.S. Catholic Conference.
Law Affects Non-Profits
WASHINGTON (NC) - The Internal Revenue Service is telling all U.S. tax-exemp,
non-profit organizations about a new law which validates some technically illegal
Social Security payments and seeks to reclaim refunds of those payments possibly
totalling millions of dollars. The law, passed by Congress last fall, affects only those
nonprofits which paid Social Security taxes without filing the proper forms.
Reaction In Chile
SANTIAGO, Chile (NC) -- Recent assertions by former U.S. ambassador to Chile
Edward M. Korry, that the Kennedy Administration gave money to a Church group in
Chile for political purposes, have brought strong reaction here. Church officials, while
not commenting publicly, have privately objected to any suggestion that the Church
was involved in anything improper. A group of former Chilean government officials
has theatened to sue the ex-ambassador for libel for some of his statements.
Jews, Orthodox Protest
WASHINGTON (NC) - Jewish and Eastern Orthodox leaders and Americans United
for the Separation of Church and Church have protested the absence of a rabbi and an
Orthodox priest from inauguration Day prayer events. The only two clergymen
scheduled to pray at the swearing-in ceremonies of President-elect Jimmy Carter were
a Protestant, Methodist Bishop William Cannon of Georgia, and a Catholic, Archbishop
John Roach of St. Paul-Minneapolis.
$350,000 GOAL
Charities Drive Opens
The goal for the 1977 Archdiocesan Charities Drive is
$350,000. This is an increase of $50,000 over last year. This
announcement was made by Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan
at the initiation meeting on Wednesday evening, January 12.
The pastors of the archdiocese and their parish chairpersons
gathered at the Cathedral Center for dinner and a discussion of
the upcoming Drive. Father Jerry Hardy, Chancellor of the
Archdiocese, was the dinner speaker.
Commenting on the importance of the Drive, Father Hardy
noted, “Each year the archdiocesan budget is prepared in the
spring to begin the following July. However, the major funding
for the budget, such as the Drive, comes after the budget has
already been operating. Consequently the Drive is vitally
important as it provides us with money for programs and
projects already underway.”
Father Hardy outlined the program of special gifts during the
month of February with the General Share taking place on the
first Sunday of March, March 6.
This is the ninth Charities Drive to be held in the
archdiocese, the goal has risen in that time from $200,000 to
the present $350,000.
Archbishop Donnellan expressed his thanks to all who would
bring about the success of this year’s Drive. He especially
thanked the overall chairman, J. Wallace Winbome, who could
not be present due to his being hospitalized.
Each parish received its share of the goal and promotional
material for each member of the parish. The promotional
material for this year’s Drive includes a brochure which notes
that staff personnel are being prepared for program
development in the area of elderly care. This is the first time
mention of this has been made in the Drive material.
The pastors who worked with Winbome and the Chancery
staff to formulate the goals were Fathers Michael A. Morris,
James A. Miceli, Paul Berny, Noel Burtenshaw and Patrick
Mulhern.
The Drive officially kicks off February 1 with the Special
Gifts phase which runs until Drive Sunday, March 6.
KING CELEBRATION THEME:
6 A New Order For A New Age’
BY DR. ELLEN BURNS
The annual celebration of the
birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., was
held in Atlanta from January 13
through 16. The theme of the event was
“Full Employment: A New Order for a
New Age.” Dignitaries, entertainers, and
guests from all parts of the United
States were present for the occasion.
A conference on Full Employment
was held Thursday, January 13 at
Ebenezer Baptist Church. After words
of welcome from Ben W. Fortson Jr.,
Secretary of State, and from Wyche
Fowler, President of the City Council,
Mrs. Coretta Scott King urged the
participants to make Full Employment
their single most important priority.
Prompt action is needed, Mrs. King
said, to vitalize the economy through
jobs, because high unemployment
“threatens family security, the
monetary base of the nation, peace,
housing, and is contributing to the high
rate of crime.” Mrs. King called for
governmental action to provide
education and training for jobs as well
as for funds to stimulate private and
public enterprise. She emphasized that
unemployment is a moral issue, since it
is the root cause of so many ills in our
society, and that the disregard of the
problem would be a “reprehensive
evasion of responsibility” on the part of
the American people.
Augustus F. Hawkins, co-author
and sponsor of the Hawkins-Humphrey
Equal Opportunity and Full
Employment Bill of 1976, urged the
support of Georgians for this piece of
legislation as it comes before the next
Congress. He emphasized that small
economic growth indicators are not
sufficient to bring about recovery from
the recession. They should not “deter
action or long-term planning for full
employment,” he said, and suggested
that general economic policies and
manpower programs be planned
together and that tax cuts be tied to job
creation through expanding
opportunities.
Following the keynote speeches of
Mrs. King and Representative Hawkins a
panel of six outstanding leaders showed
the relationship between full
employment and health, education,
housing, the arts, and crime. David
Livingston, president of the Distributive
Workers of America, District 65,
reminded the crowd that Martin Luther
King’s dream of freedom and a decent
job were part of a single package. „
Dr. Peter Bourne, a psychiatrist for <
the National Abuse Center, stated that <r
studies show that unemployment is $
“psychologically crippling” and that it
leads to drugs, poor health, and to
suicide.
Dr. Robert L. Greene, an educator
from Detroit, reported that in June
1976 the rate of unemployment for
youth in his city was 55 per cent for
males and 62 per cent for females. He
called for quality education to improve
job opportunity, but “hungry children
cannot learn to read,” he said, “their
parents need jobs, too.”
Leon Weiner, president of the
National Council on Housing, suggested
that if 100,000 new homes were to be
built in America, 200,000 construction
workers could find jobs. He believes
that the double goals of decent housing
and full employment could be partially
met with better planning for housing.
Ossie Davis, a Georgian and
Broadway playwright, director and
actor, told of the contribution of the
theater and the arts to the economics of
a community. In New York City the
theater is a $168 million business
annually. He proposed a Broadway in
every major city as a stimulus to the
economy. Davis was the first of several
speakers who indicated that
unemployment is a class struggle; the
upper and middle classes are not usually
the unemployed, he said, but rather the
poor who need jobs the most. One
observer, John Boone, an Urban Affairs
Director from Boston, said that crime
causes poverty.
Ramsey Clarke, former US
attorney-general stated the reverse.
“Poverty is the mother of crime,”
Clarke said. He stated that the first
emancipation freed no one, because to
be free one has to be economically
emanicapted. He urged that somehow
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Our new series FOCAL POINT starts with this issue. It will highlight civic and
Church affairs in North Georgia. We begin today with the Minority Leader of the
Georgia House, Representative Michael J. Egan and his expectations for this
session. Representative Egan is a parishioner at the Cathedral.
FROM THE MOUTHS OF BABES can come some very inspiring
thoughts. Such was the learning experience of those who attended a
recent Children’s Liturgy at St. Philip Benizi Church in Jonesboro. The
theme of the Mass, “Christ Is The Light Of The World, A Light To Be
Found In Each of Us,” was symbolized by the use of various illuminated
stars throughout the service. The pre-Communion age children offered
some charming and surprisingly realistic insights into what this Light
meant to them. Two of the youngsters explain their views to Father Paul
Berny, associate pastor.
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