Newspaper Page Text
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 16 No. 25
Thursday, July 6,1978
$5 Per Year
Pope Paul VI Reaffirms “Humanae Vitae”
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Leo
Father Leo McKenzie went to
Rome to become a philosopher.
He did. Summa cum laude he
graduated, kissed the
Mediterranean goodbye and
retraced his steps to Philadelphia.
Now for a bit of teaching, right?
Now for seminary seclusion, right?
Wrong.
The letter of appointment
assigned him to Westinghouse
Broadcasting Company in New
York until further orders. He was
out of the think tank into the
action. From the ground up, he
would learn the wonderful world
of Media. Again, he did.
Media is not what it used to
be. The glamor of Cronkite and
the adulation of Carson may have
been glimmering in the mind of
young Father McKenzie. But
that’s not what he got. What he
got shattered all his armchair ideas
of the living color world.
A twist of the wrist and the
end product flashes across our
screen. The ingredient of those
flashes reflects
the hard labor
factory of
endless preparat
ion and product
ion. Ideas were
conceived,
scrpits perused,
censors imposed,
film shot and
reshot. Then
endless editing
until birth, with
satisfaction, was
given the first thought, now
thoroughly purified. The program
is consumer-ready.
Leo McKenzie passed the
apprenticeship and took this new
skill back to Philadelphia. He was
ready, not for the hard benches of
academics, but for the hard
pavements of his city where the
everyday stories of the Church
slept, waiting to be titled and told.
The Church has always flirted
with the Media connection. Father
Coughlin was a forerunner.
Sunday afternoon was his while
on the dial. His silence was abrupt,
but timely, as radio prepared to
take second place. It was on to the
tube. Again the Church was ready.
This time, it was the
overnight sensation and the
searing talent of one undersized
bishop, Fulton J. Sheen.
Scattering prime time talent in all
directions, he mastered his
never-miss audience with deep
down teaching that was sheer
entertainment. With blinding eye
contact and dancing
Shakespearean diction, he became
for years the top choice of
Nielsen’s rating manual.
Now, they are gone. But Leo
McKenzie will tell you a new era
has come. Superstardom is not the
bread and butter need. It is
exposure. And the means is there.
One hundred million babies are
born each year while 50 million
additional TV receivers enter the
media market. If that combination
can learn “Coke adds Life” - and
they do - it can learn “the Word
became flesh.” Exposure is the
answer.
For three weeks at the
Institute for Religious
Communications in New Orleans,
this philosophy was programed
and preached.
And after all, in the very first
instance, Father Leo McKenzie is
a philosopher.
MARKING 15TH YEAR - Pope Paul VI seated in
his portable chair opens his arms to accept a bouquet
of flowers as he enters the Nervi Audience Hall to
attend his weekly general audience. As he ended the
OFFICIAL:
15th year of what he called his “fleeting and now
almost over papacy,” the pope implored mankind to
end the threat of “enormous and terrible nuclear war.”
See story on page 5.
New Parish Opens-Old One Grows
The continued growth in the number of Catholics in Cobb
County makes it necessary to consider two additional parish
centers from which to minister to the needs of the faithful.
Already existing parishes have grown beyond the point at which
those needs can be adequately met. For this reason it seems
appropriate at this time to establish one new parish and to
realign the boundaries of another relatively new one. After
consultation with the pastors of the area and the Archdiocesan
Consultors, I hereby establish a new parish in the area of Bishop
Lake Road in northeastern Cobb County. This parish will be
comprised of territory formerly contained within the
boundaries of Holy Family Parish.
The boundaries of this new parish are as follows:
On the South: starting at Holly Springs Road and moving
Eastward, the line formed by Post Oak Tritt to Murdock Road,
South to Sewell Mill Road, East to Johnson Ferry Road,
Southeasterly to Lower Roswell Road to the Fulton County
Line.
On the East: the Fulton County Line.
On the West and North: the line formed by Holly Springs
Road and Sandy Plains Road to Old Alabama Road.
The pastor of this new parish will be Father Thomas J.
Carroll, M. S., presently pastor of Saint Francis of Assisi in
Carters ville.
The other recently opened parish receiving additional
territory is The Transfiguration Parish which was opened in
1977 to serve the Kennesaw - Acworth area. Increased growth
to the East of this area has made it advisable to enlarge the
present boundaries to the East to include the Blackwell Road
area. The boundaries to the South and East will be a line
beginning at the intersection of Bells Ferry Road and Roberts
Road, South to Kurtz Road, East to Canton Road, South to
Sandy Plains Road, North on Sandy Plains Road to Old
Alabama Road.
Father Raymond F. Horan will continue as the pastor of
Transfiguration Parish with these enlarged boundaries. A new
site for the celebration of Sunday Mass will be designated in the
near future, while Father Horan will continue to live in the
Acworth area.
These changes are effective August 6,1978.
In all such new parish openings and realignments we can
read the sign of God’s continued blessings on His people as we
grow in number to make His Church more prosent in this, our
area, of His creation. It is for us to grow not only in numbers
but also in His image and likeness, so that the quality of our
presence be a blessing on His land and on all our brothers and
sisters. To that end I assure all those affected by this change my
continued prayers and best wishes.
Given this 3rd day of July, 1978.
Cf’ &
Archbishop of Atlanta
VATICAN CITY (NC) - In his first direct mention of “Humanae Vitae” (“On
Human Life”) in years, Pope Paul VI has restated the encyclical’s teachings on
artificial contraception.
In a major address on the eve of his feast day (St. John the Baptist, June 24),
Pope Paul told the College of Cardinals that “Humanae Vitae,” which restated the
church’s ban on artificial contraception, was a painful document to issue.
But he emphasized that the “more serious scientific studies” have confirmed the
validity of the encyclical’s teachings.
“Humanae Vitae,” he told the cardinals June 23, “was a painful document of our
Pontificate, not only because the issue was serious and delicate, but also - and perhaps
even more important because there was a certain climate of expectancy among
Catholics and in the wider sphere of public opinion which anticipated that changes,
relaxations or liberalizations of the church’s moral doctrine and teaching on marriage
would be made.
“It seems to us,” continued Pope Paul, “that the decade which has passed since its
promulgation is sufficient enough time to evaluate better — after the confirmations
which have come from the more scientific studies — the significance of the decisions
which we then took ‘coram Domino’ (before the Lord).”
The pope said that the 10th anniversary of “Humanae Vitae” is “an opportunity
to reaffirm the important principles which in the wake of the just ended council we
pronounced with more careful formulation: the principle of respect for the natural
laws ... and the principle of aware and ethically responsible parenthood.”
The pope’s ban on artificial contraception was issued in July, 1968, after a papally
appointed commission urged revision of church teaching on contraception.
The encyclical caused a storm of controversy among the laity, theologians, priests
and bishops.
Sociologists have stated that in the United States much of the decline in Mass
attendance since the Second Vatican Council can be traced to dissatisfaction over the
encyclical, the last one to be issued by Pope Paul.
In his address to the cardinals, the pope called for an ehd to the “dissident
criticism (in the church) which goes well beyond the church’s healthy need continually
to purify herself.”
He insisted that the church is “vital and alive, even though for some time and
from people not only outside of the church, cries have been raised by those who like
to stress the church’s ills and to advance the idea that she is in agony and fatal
decomposition.”
The pontiff said that the church is under attack “both in countries which try to
suffocate religious freedom and in lands where that very freedom which is guaranteed
to the church is used by some of her adherents to change the nature of her creed and
undermine her institutions.”
The pope stressed the healthy signs of church life, including the generosity shown
by the laity in their willingness to take church responsibility after the council and the
growth of small Christian communities and prayer groups.
He said that prayer groups yield “vitalizing oxygen” for the church.
He also praised “those many theologians and Christian thinkers who strive to
prevent the construction of a perilous ditch between the traditional faith and the
fragile, often ambiguous cultures of our time.”
The pope urged involved Catholics to ask whether they are completely loyal to
the true church in their Christian apostolates.
He said that all must ask themselves: “Is the church’s message, doctrine and
authentic tradition the hinge of my theological research, my preaching, my religious
education lessons?
“Or is it rather a metter of a religious ideology which I have invented, or a
personal opinion?”
K.C. Names State Officers
The Eugene Whitney Council 6514
recently hosted the 76 th Annual
Meeting of the Georgia State Council
THE CATHOLIC
The Photographer
BY MICHAEL MOTES
“We’re in a happy business
because the people we meet are
happy when they come to us. They
look and feel their best and that is
the way we portray them,” says Van
Buren Colley, nationally recognized
as one of the country’s top
photographers and the
unquestionable dean of Atlanta’s
professional shutterbugs.
With the exception of one week
of professional training, Colley is
self-taught in his art. This year marks
his fortieth anniversary as a
professional photographer, portrait
artist and restorer of old
photographs.
In 1938 the native Georgian sold
his first photographs, those of the
children of a friend. At the time, and
for several years thereafter, Colley
was an employee of the Atlanta Post
Office. He worked at the post office
during the day, “moonlighting” as a
photographer during the evening
hours.
His position at the post office is
responsible for his life being saved at
the beginning of World War II.
Serving in the Naval Reserves, Colley
was aboard the ship Reuben James.
His vessel and two others were off
the coast of Norfolk, Virginia, when
they were radioed to sail to
Savannah.
Because of his position as a
government employee at the Atlanta
Post Office, Colley was classified as
“Strategic Manpower” and released
from his Navy duties. He was the
only person aboard the Reuben
James to receive such a classification.
Enroute to Newfoundland to serve as
a guide ship, the Reuben James
struck an ice berg and sank. All
aboard perished in the sea.
In 1946 Colley opened the
studio he has occupied ever since in a
charming old house on Tenth Street
in Atlanta. Still not financially
established in his new field, he
continued to work at the post office
for several more years, reversing his
former hours by serving Uncle Sam
at night and photographing clients
during the day.
(Continued on page 5)
Van Buren Colley
Knights of Columbus in Athens. Among
the many highlights of the meeting was
the election of officers to serve the
State for the Fraternal Year which
began July 1. John E. Thorstad of
Council 677 in Augusta was elected to
head the Knights in the State of Georgia
as State Deputy.
John had previously served at the
State Council level as a District Deputy,
State Program Director, State Advocate,
State Treasurer, and State Secretary. In
his local council he served in a variety of
offices including Grand Knight in 1970.
Also elected to sene during the
coming fraternal year are the following:
State Secretary - John Sedor of Warner
Robins; State Treasurer - Stanley F.
Wojek of Rome; State Advocate -
Donald Laird of Savannah; State
Warden - Lewis C. Thibodeau of
Atlanta.
Installation of the newly elected
officers will be held at the 10:00 a.in.
Mass celebrated by Archbishop
Donnellan in the Immaculate Heart
Church of Atlanta on July 23.
A highly contested and eagerly
sought after honor, the selection of the
Outstanding Knight of the Year from
among nominees of all councils, was
concluded with the selection of William
T. Jordan, Jr. of Council 6517, Sandy
Springs for that recognition.
At the meeting, recognition was
accorded four recent council additions
to the Knights of Columbus roster in
Georgia. Council 6918 in Thomson,
(Continued on page 6)