Newspaper Page Text
$
i
V
i
PAGE 7—February 10,1977
Methodists-Catholics Report Converging Views
LONDON (NC) - Further steps
toward agreement between Catholics
and Methodists have been recorded by
the Catholic-Methodist Joint
International Commission in a report
published here Jan. 27.
The report announces considerable
consensus on the Eucharist, more
agreement than disagreement on the
sanctity of marriage, a certain amount
of agreement on ministry, and a growing
sense of cooperation and shared
understanding between Catholics and
Methodists.
The report, “Growth in
Understanding,” was presented to the
World Methodist Council at its meeting
in Dublin, in August, 1976, but was not
published until five months later.
It was preceded by a report of the
first Catholic-Methodist Joint
International Commission in 1971, after
which the second commission was set
up.
Following the second commission’s
report in Dublin, the World Methodist
Council warmly commended the report
to its member churches for study and
called for the setting up of a third joint
commission for further dialogue.
On the Eucharist, on which the
commission took as its basis the
Anglican-Roman Catholic International
Commission (ARCIC) agreed statement
of 1971, the report noted a
“considerable degree of consensus” and
expressed a hope “that further
developments in eucharistic worship and
doctrine in both Churches in the next
few years will reveal an even greater
resemblance and thus bring closer the
union for which we all pray.”
On ministry, where the commission
similarly takes the ARCIC agreed
statement of 1973 as its basis, the
report notes that, of a number of
differences between Methodists and
Catholics, some are “differences simply
of form or emphasis or language.” It
goes on:
“It remains to be seen whether at
those points where the differences seem
to be substantial they are indeed so. The
crucial examples are the threefold
ministry” - of bishop, presbyter or
priest, and deacon - “and the apostolic
succession. Methodists are not in
principle opposed to the ministry’s
being in the threefold form or in the
historical succession. But they do not
consider either of these to be necessary
for the Church or for the ministry. (In
fact all Methodists preserve a form of
ministerial succession and most
Methodists have a threefold form of
ministry.)”
The report also stresses that in a
world where traditional Christian views
on the sanctity of marriage are being
severely challenged and widely
disregarded “this widespread rejection
of the Christian understanding and
practice of marriage serves to emphasize
that what differences remain between us
- e.g. on the possibility of divorce and
remarriage, and on ways of regulating
conception - are far outweighed by
what we hold in common.” Common
witness to “the centrality of marriage in
God’s purpose for human community”
is thus seen as “an urgent necessity.”
On mixed marriages, which the
report notes are often spoken of as
“posing a ‘problem’ in terms of
doctrine, ecclesiastical policy and
pastoral care,” the report says, “they
are in fact a problem to those marrying
only if they belong to the small
minority within a minority, that is those
who are not only church members but
also take the responsibilities of
membership seriously.”
Those seeking guidance “should be
welcomed for their faithful concern and
not chided for posing a problem,
especially since they can hardly be held
responsible for the division between our
Churches which is the underlying cause
of the problem,” the report says.
In general, while noting that the
balance sheet of its activites since 1972
is an uneven one, the commission
concludes:
“What is remarkable is that wherever
Roman Catholic-Methodist discussion
and cooperation takes place at all, the
available evidence suggests that the
experience is a positive one. We hear
nothing of tensions, frustrations and
flagging interest, but much of growth in
understanding and sympathy.”
The commission was a small one with
five on each side. The cochairmen were
Bishop Michael Bowen of Arundel and
Brighton, England (Catholic), and
Bishop William R. Cannon of Atlanta
(Methodist).
The other Catholic members were:
U.S. Paulist president, Father Thomas
F. Stransky, New York; Jesuit Father
Michael Hurley, director of the Irish
School of Ecumenics, Dublin; Msgr.
Charles Moeller, secretary of the
Vatican Secretariat for Promoting
Christian Unity; and Canon William
Purdy of the staff of the Vatican’s unity
secretariat.
The other Methodist members were:
Bishop Prince A. Taylor Jr., of
Princeton, N.J., the Rev. Dr. Lee F.
Tuttle of the World Methodist Council
headquarters, Lake Junaluska, N.C.; the
Rev. Raymond George, president of the
Methodist Conference of Great Britain
1975-6; and the Rev. Dr. Jose Migues
Bonino, of Argentina.
MASSACHUSETTS
Parental
Consent Law Is Upheld
BOSTON (NC) - The Massachusetts
Supreme Court has upheld a state law
requiring unwed minors to seek parental
consent for abortions but allowing them
to appeal to Superior Court when such
permission has been refused.
Dr. Mildred F. Jefferson, a Boston
surgeon who is president of the National
Right to Life Committee, praised the
court action as a “landmark decision.”
William Baird of the Parents Aid Society
branded the rulings as a “disgrace” and
said it would be appealed.
The court’s interpretation of the
1974 law indicates that parents of
‘Don’t Worship Nation’
WASHINGTON (NC) - Warning that
“in effect, many of us worship our
nation,” President Jimmy Carter told
the 25th Annual National Prayer
Breakfast that America must be more
humble as a nation.
“A sense of communion that we
can have under God throughout the
world,” he said, “ought to convince us
that we are not superior, that we ought
to constantly search our national and
individual consciousnesses and strive to
be better, which doesn’t mean more
powerful and autocratic, but more filled
with love and understanding and
compassion and humaneness and
humility.”
“Sometimes it is easier for us to be
humble as individuals than it is for us to
admit that our nation makes mistakes,”
Carter said.
“We as individuals - and as a nation
- insist that we are the strongest and the
bravest and the wisest and the best,” he
said. “In that attitude, we
unconsciously, but in an all-pervasive
way, cover up and fail to acknowledge
our mistakes and in the process forego
an opportunity constantly to search for
a better life for a better country.”
Carter said “it is hard for us to
translate the concept of the President of
the United States into genuine servant.”
But, he said, if the nation’s leaders
turn to God, “the ultimate source of
goodness and kindness and humility and
love ... we can indeed be strong enough
to admit our sinfulness and our
mistakes.
“We can indeed be constantly
searching for a way to rectify our errors
and let our nation exemplify what we as
individuals ought to be in the eyes of
God.”
The National Prayer Breakfast is
attended by public officials, diplomats
and religious leaders.
Zing Taken Out Of Mass
WAUKEE, Iowa (NC) - Parishioners have been getting a real charge out of receiving
Holy Communion in St. Boniface Church here and in St. John’s, Adel, but the pastor
has put a stop to it.
A combination of cold, dry weather and low humidity and warmth in the carpeted
churches has created ideal conditions for building up static electricity. Many people
received an electric shock if the pastor, Father John Clarke, touched them when giving
out Communion.
In order to stop jolting the communicants, Father Clarke put a piece of pipe in a
large candlestick in the middle aisle with a sign urging: “Touch metal with bare hand
prior to Communion to ground static electricity.”
The system has worked, to the relief of Father Clarke, who said: “The so-called
new theology has been telling us the sacraments are ‘encounters with Christ.’ Vv'e just
wanted to make sure it isn’t a shocking encounter.”
NCCB-USCC
The U.S. Supreme Court forbade the
law’s implementation while the case was
pending in the state court.
unwed minors (under 18) must be
consulted about an abortion but must
act in the best interest of the minor. If
parents refuse to consent to an
abortion, according to the court, the
minor may appeal to Superior Court for
a “speedy hearing” to determine
whether an abortion would be in her
best interest.
A federal district court here in April,
1976, declared the state law
unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme
Court vacated the ruling and directed
that the district panel present the state
Supreme Court with some appropriate
questions concerning the law and its
implementation.
The Massachusetts Supreme Court
indicated that its opinion would not
become effective for 20 days, after
which time the federal district court
could determine whether a further ban
against implementation could be
ordered.
State Attorney General Francis X.
Bellotti lauded the court’s opinion as
upholding “the primacy of the family
unit.” He said that he would continue
to defend the statute before the higher
courts if necessary.
According to the state court’s
interpretation of the law, parental
consent is required in every case where
an unmarried minor seeks a
nonemergency abortion. If parents are
unavailable, according to the court,
their consent is not required.
The court noted that it was
deliberately avoiding any formal ruling
on the constitutionality of the statute
which was enacted by the legislature
under the title of “an act to protect
unborn children and maternal health
within present constitutional limits.”
The court added: “We think it is
clear as well that, from its title, the
legislature intended to pass an act which
was constitutionally acceptable and
even more important, to save as much
of the statute’s purpose as it could if
any explicit statutory provision could
not survive constitutional attack.”
FARM LABORERS OUT OF WORK -- A migrant They will be granted emergency unemployment pay as
mother carrying her baby is among several hundred a result of President Carter declaring Florida a disaster
jobless migrant farm laborers outside the federal area. (NC Photo)
building in Miami calling attention to their plight.
Emergency Aid For Fla. Migrants
WASHINGTON (NC) - Florida
migrant workers put out of work by the
frost that swept most of the state,
killing off important citrus fruit crops,
will receive up to $38 million in
emergency unemployment pay.
The emergency benefits will pay a
minimum of $64 a week and a
maximum of $82 a week. Benefits are
determined by taking half of the average
annual weekly wage up to the point the
frost began.
Estimates of the number of migrants
in Florida range from 25,000 to
100,000. Migrants in the 35 counties in
the southern three-quarters of the state
will be covered.
They will receive the aid because
President Jimmy Carter declared the
state a disaster area after such action
was requested by Florida’s Gov. Ruben
Askew.
Migrant workers are generally
excluded from state unemployment
programs because they are not residents,
according to John Coleman, a
spokesman for the Federal Disaster
Assistance Administration.
But they are eligible to receive
emergency funds if they are out of work
as a result of a disaster, he said. Migrants
are eligible, Coleman said, as long as
they were contracted and ready to work
when the frost hit.
Coleman said he expected the
emergency unemployment program to
move in full force by about 10 days
after the disaster declaration (Jan. 31).
He said employment office officials
would work at a number of migrant
locations throughout the state to get
workers registered.
The aid extended to the Florida
migrants is the same type of aid
extended five days earlier to frozen-in
watermen in Maryland and Virginia now
unable to fish in Chesapeake Bay.
Coleman said about 1,400
applications have come in from
Maryland and Virginia. About $1.25
million will probably be spent on
unemployment aid in Maryland and
about $750,000 in Virginia, he said.
Migrant workers put out of work by
the frost may also benefit indirectly
from disaster relief for growers and
small businesses.
James Rausch Reflects On
Bishop
WASHINGTON (NC) - During the
seven years he worked for the Church
bureaucracy - the last four as the U.S.
bishops’ top administrative officer -
Bishop James Rausch said he has at
times “puzzled” over the way Catholics
at the grassroots level are often unaware
of important statements made by the
bishops on key issues.
Now, he said, he’ll have the chance
to see just what happens to those
statements when they reach the local
level.
Bishop Rausch, General Secretary of
the National Conference of Catholic
Bishops and the U.S. Catholic
Conference, has been named to head the
growing Phoenix, Ariz., diocese. His
installation is tentatively set for March
25.
In a telephone interview from
Minneapolis, where he attended an
ordination, he said he was pleased the
bishops have taken strong positions on
housing, full employment, health care
and the aged and have dealt with
“sensitive” issues such as the human
rights situations in Chile, Brazile, South
Africa and Panama.
But, he said, “I’ve at times puzzled
over how what is done so well at the
national level fails to be adequately
communicated to our people.”
“I’m not being critical of this,” he
said, “but I’ve puzzled over to what
extent the fault is at our level and what
extent the fault is at the local level.
“Have we failed to propose the kind
of educational materials that are needed
and appeal to people at the local level?”
he asked.
He said he hoped that when he works
at the local level he can have a
“significant input” at the national level
about such materials.
Talking about the local Church,
Bishop Rausch said, “I’ve repeatedly
told the staff and others that Church
does not happen at the national level, it
happes at the local level. I’m genuinely
looking forward to the action that takes
place at the local level.”
“The more complex the issue,” he
said, the more likely the bishop’s
positions are not known at the local
level. Social issues, he said, are generally
complex.
That is why, he said, the bishops
have tried to develop their foreign
policy positions around the concept of
“human rights” - “you can demonstrate
the denial of human rights.”
But Bishop Rausch said the bishops’
positions on a wide variety of issues
have become better known over the past
year, partly because of the bishops’
bicentennial program and partly because
of the visibility of the bishops during
the presidential election campaign.
The election, Bishop Rausch said,
came at a bad time for the bishops in
terms of their organization over the
issue of a constitutional amendment to
restrict abortion.
“We were not able to move far
enough in terms of dialogue with the
Catholic community and public officials
to have as significant an impact as I had
hoped in 1976,” he said.
He said he was involved in “informal,
private dialogue” that was “opening
doors” with public figures on the
abortion issue. He intends to continue
such dialogues in his new position in
any way possible, he said.
Bishop Rausch indicated he would
regret not being able to work with the
Carter Administration “to see what
support we could give and what
dialogue we could have when we
disagree.”
Asked to name what he regards as his
major accomplishments in office,
Bishop Rausch listed five items:
The increase in “shared
responsibility” within the Church. He
cited the growing influence of the
bishops’ Advisory Council, which is
made up of priests, Religious and laity.
He also praised the work of members of
the bishops committees and the
NCCB-USCC staff.
- The staff has been “professionally
strengthened in a way that will serve the
Church very well,” he said. He noted,
for example, that in 1970 the bishops
had only two people working on
international social justice issues. They
now have a larger staff. Bishop Rausch
also said the domestic issues staff has
been improved.
-- “It’s rather an accomplishment,”
he said, that the NCCB-USCC was able
to increase services but stay within its
budget.
- He said a spirit of “community”
had been formed at the NCCB-USCC
headquarters in Washington.
- He said he was “very pleased that
we as a bishops conference, the bishops
as the teachers of the Church, have
begun a serious dialogue with scholars in
order to determine how they can closely
Tenure
collaborate in the mission of the
Church.”
Bishop Rausch said his biggest
disappointment has been “the
sometimes very unfair interpretation of
our efforts - people who wrote or
talked about what was going on without
talking to the right person, whether
myself or someone on the staff, who
could have explained what we are doing.
A lot of misunderstanding could have
been avoided.”
Bishop Rausch said the Church will
face three major new issues in the
coming years:
Implementing the major
recommendations of the Call to Action
Conference, the grand finale of the
bishops’ bicentennial program. But he
noted the bishops do not have
jurisdiction to implement some of the
recommendations.
- “The continued growth in close
cooperation between bishops and priests
and bishops and the people so that we
can have truly a post-Vatican II
Church.”
- Strengthening “credibility that the
Church is concerned about human
needs” and wants to help “where
deprivation exists, whether that
deprivation is spiritual or economic.”
These people are eligible for
long-term, low-interest loans through
the Department of Agriculture,
Coleman said.
He also said the Internal Revenue
Service can advise people who have
suffered a loss due to the frost how to
figure it in their income tax returns.
HEADS UNIVERSITY - Jesuit
Father John J. LoSchiavo has
been elected 25th president of the
University of San Francisco. (NC
Photo)