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I Schism! Archbishop Lefebvre - Catholic Schism? BY FR. JEREMY MILLER, O.P. I think many of us have personally experienced schism. Do you know of a family, perhaps even your own, when a breach between grown brothers and sisters, or between elderly parents and a grown son or daughter has become so wide and embittered that no one talks to each other? Perhaps it is even more than cold silence. Perhaps there are hostile accusations. There are few things more painful than a wedding situation drawing relatives together, but blood relatives sit on opposite sides of the banquet room, refusing to break years of silence and suspicion. This is the simple meaning of this strange word from theology - schism! The bond of family communion is split and distorted and turned upside down. It hurts, and many of us have been hurt by it. My first instinct to the editor’s invitation to write something on Church schism was to draft something theological. But that does not really get at the pain of schism. Something more personal is required even when we are thinking about schism in the Church. I suppose we first met the word “schism” in a Church History book describing the breakdown in family unity of Eastern and Western Christians. 1054 A.D. is the usual date people use but the break was coming for some time before that. The Protestant Reformation in the 16th Century was a splitting off from the one “Western Christian family” but Roman Catholics always called that a “heresy” and not a schism. The difference was supposed to be that a group in schism broke from the unity of the Church but still retained orthodox beliefs while a group in heresy denied articles of the faith. I have never been able to appreciate that difference because when divisions occur in the Church there is always some point of doctrine at issue, a!'mg with political considerations. The pain of these things is that both sides think the other is wrong and is being unfaithful to Christ. The Eastern Orthodox think Roman Catholics are in schism and are “unorthodox.” Protestants thought Catholics had slipped into heresy and hence they “protested.” Family feuds are the most bitter. Arguments go back and forth, suspicions increase, and often there is violence. It is not my purpose here to analyze the doctrinal differences, the arguments as it were. The one family of Christ is split, and there is pain in that. Schism is happening today. The Episcopal Church in the United States has felt it within the last year, as laity and clergy has split from the larger family over issues like (Continued on page 3) Women Priests -- Episcopal Schism? g? ivi 'H&tl Rocky His town was Philadelphia. He owned it. The ruinous inner city was his paradise. But all it offered was the hopeless future it possessed. He wouldn’t accept it. Its warmth, its cheers, its companionable pride, these he took. But not its empty hope. Prize-fighting was his addiction. With a gambler’s dream of the big pay-off, he wallowed in that addiction. One day, some day, he would make it. With surging background symphonic bursts of harmony, the movie music sweeps us along, as we beg for the fulfillment of his ambition. The streets become Rocky’s personal training camp. Beating the asphalt into submission, he sweats his beat along the way of his cross. Ever upward, daily, he pounds. The steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum become his ascending throne. From its peak, the training session ends in dizzy exhaustion as Rocky concludes the ballet and becomes the center piece of panoramic iights-fiiied glory. Rocky got his chance. Realistically the movie makers gave him a goal. Not to win, but go the distance of 15 rounds. Sitting in his comer, you plead his cause. The unending battering breaks your heart. His goal never leaves him - the distance. Not the crown - the distance. Faltering, clinching, hanging on with fearless gut, he wins his loser’s dream. The distance - and in everyone’s heart - the crown too. Rocky, no doubt, the unforgettable Italian Stallion. But it’s all the stuff of movies, right? No real life drama here, right? Wrong. His town was St. Louis. His companions were all Dead End Kids. He scrapped with them, against them and for them. He became just that, a lean, mean scrapper. No distance, no crown was on his mind. Just survival. The Marine Corps was an easy academy for this rock-hard kid. But it still had a lesson to teach. Harness the fury. Make graceful with timing the natural roar of his street found talent. Leon Spinks waltzed through the Olympics on the attack. Dreams were disturbing his sleep. Not the distance, no - the crown. Ali, his idol, held it, owned it and as the most furiously graceful combination of his time, protected it. The dream was to take it away. He steps into the ring and it’s the music again. Not the Rocky concerto, but like it. It’s the hit-the-beaches Marine March. Something’s amiss with the prognostications. You feel it. It’s the old St. Louis days. Scrapping is his business and business-like he works. Like an outraged fly he punishes the sleepy spider. Relentless, ever stronger, unexpected and decisive, he makes the dream come through. The crown, yes and ironically, the distance too. The belt clings to Leon Spinks, just as it did to Louis, Marciano and Ali. For this allotted time, he is the World Champion. Welcome, Rocky, welcome! Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta Vol. 16 No. 8 Thursday, February 23,1978 $5 Per Year SADAT VISITS POPE -- Pope Paul VI greets Egyptian President Anwar Sadat at the Vatican. The two leaders discussed the Palestinian problem, the status of Jerusalem and other Mideast issues in their hour long meeting. It was the last stop on an eight-nation tour for the Egyptian president. Arcktisliop’s Office 756 West Peachtree Street, N. W. Atlanta, Georgia 30308 My Brothers and Sisters in Christ: During the past few weeks, you have been given a number of announcements regarding the 1978 Archdiocesan Charities Drive. They were intended to emphasize its importance and explain the services it helps to fund. May I take this occasion to thank you for your consistent support of this appeal in the past. .. and, now, a week before Drive Sunday, urge that you again demonstrate your spirit of generosity and sacrifice. Many of our archdiocesan projects of charity and evangelization depend on this Drive. Please be assured of my prayers for God’s blessing for your generous participation. Sincerely yours in Christ, Most Reverend Thomas A. Donnellan Archbishop of Atlanta VATICAN SUMMIT Sadat Visits Pope Paul VATICAN CITY (NC) - Pope Paul VI and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat discussed the Palestinian problem, the status f of Jerusalem and other Mideast issues for about one hour at the Vatican. In a formal speech to Sadat, Pope Paul laid down several key ingredients for an effective solution for the Middle East. “We are aware of the difficulty of attaining such a solution, which must necessarily comprise different elements,” said Pope Paul. He said that: A prospect of justice and security must be reconstituted for all the peoples of the Middle East (and we are thinking here also of Lebanon which has already paid such a high price by reason of the unresolved situation); “-- The legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people must be satisfied; There must be ensured for Jerusalem such juridical and factual conditions that the city should not continue to be a motive of strife between the parties, but that it become in accordance with its vocation a religious center of peace where the local communities of the three great monotheistic religions can live together in peaceful equality of rights and where Jews, Christians and Moslems of the region and of the entire world can meet and engage in fraternal dialogue.” A Vatican communique released after the meeting said that the talks were marked by “warm cordiality and reciprocal understanding.” Pope Paul has high respect for Sadat. At Christmastime, when the Egyptian president embarked on his peace mission to Jerusalem, the Pope publicly encouraged and praised him. The Pope and the president met privately for 25 minutes in the Pope’s private study. They were then joined by Archbishop Agostino Casaroli, secretary of the Vatican Secretariat for the Public Affairs of the Church, and three Egyptian officials for 25 more minutes of talks. The Egyptian officials were Sayd al Marei, president of the Egyptian People’s Assembly; Hassan Amed Kamel, chief of staff for Sadat; and Egyptian Ambassador to the Holy See Ihab Abdel Aziz Taher. Exchange of formal speeches followed for another 20 minutes. Sadat left the Vatican by helicopter at about 6:25 p.m. TWELVE KILLED IRA Bombing ‘Inhuman Deed’ BELFAST, Northern Ireland (NC) - Pope Paul has deplored the bombing of the La Mon House restaurant in Comber, County Down, Northern Ireland, as an “inhuman deed.” Twelve people died and 30 were injured by the bomb blast Feb. 17, which was attributed by police to the Provisional Wing of the Irish Republican Army. About 400 persons were in the restaurant, in the Protestant Castlereagh district just south of Belfast, when the bomb exploded. Witnesses said the restaurant was turned into an inferno within seconds, and then a second bomb exploded in the parking lot. Police described it as one of the worst atrocities in the history of the eight-year civil war. The Pope’s message, sent by Cardinal Jean Villot, papal secretary of state, to Bishop William Philbin of Down and Connor, said: “The latest in the tragic series of destructive acts that have brought affliction on the people of your uiocese and of neighboring dioceses has caused renewed sorrow and grief to the Holy Father. “Deploring the inhuman deed, he has directed me to give assurance of his prayers for the victims and their relatives while he asks God to move hearts so that peace and harmony may Catholic church in Down and Connor last Sunday - ‘The floodgates to every kind of evil are opened when people assume an authority that is above all moral restrictions.’ Editorial Comment-Page 4 be established in your troubled land.” Bishop Philbin issued a statement in Belfast, saying: “I can only recall the words from my lenten pastoral which were read in every “How can those responsible for the divine judgment of so many unprepared victims of their devilishness live the rest of their lives in expectation of how they will be received by the supreme judge we must all one day meet?” he asked. Monsignor Kiernan Investiture On Sunday, February 26, Monsignor R. Donald Kiernan, pastor of St. Jude’s Church, will be invested as a Prelate of the Melkite Rite. The ceremony will take place in St. Jude's and will be performed by the Most Reverend Joseph Tawil, Melkite Archbishop of Newton. The honor conferred on Monsignor Kiernan will carry the title Right Reverend Archimandrite. The Atlanta Monsignor is being honored for his long standing services to the Melkite Community in Atlanta. Present for the ceremony will be the Melkite Pastor of Atlanta’s St. John’s Church, Monsignor William Haddad. St. Jude’s Choir will sing the Mass scheduled for 6 p.m. and many of the local priests will concelebrate. A reception for Monsignor Kiernan will follow. Charities Drive Deadline — March 5