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Miss Lillian Remembers Pope Paul
BY MICHAEL MOTES
SPECIAL TO THE GEORGIA BULLETIN
Only two weeks before his death,
Pope Paul VI received Mrs. Lillian
Carter, mother of the President, in a
private, half-hour audience at his
summer residence at Castelgandolfo,
Italy.
Prior to the visit, Mrs. Carter had said
that the audience would fulfill “the
dream of my life.” She added at a press
conference in Rome on July 20, three
days before her Papal audience, “His
Holiness means as much to me as he
does to you Italians.”
Shortly after the death of the Holy
Father, we wrote to Mrs. Carter and
asked if she would share with our
readers her reflection on this event.
We requested a telephone interview,
which Mrs. Carter graciously declined,
as explained in the following
handwritten letter from the President’s
mother.
“As I entered the room, the Pope
entered from the opposite door with his
hands holding out toward me.
“He sat me down and sat on the
other side of the desk.
“I gave him Jimmy’s (the President’s)
letter and through the Monsignor, he
told me he’d wait and read it during his
rest period.
“In our conversation, I told him I
was on my way to Africa to the Sahel
drought area and asked for his prayer
for rain there.
“Once he raised both hands and said,
‘I am old and I am ready to go to the
arms of God.’ I told him: ‘Holy Father,
if you go before I do, will you tell him
about me?’ He smiled and answered, ‘If
you will do likewise if you go first.’
“I asked his blessing on a young
priest who is my friend and also on
some things I had brought for a
Philipino friend and the young priest
and other things.
“He blessed them and ME and a
strange thing happened to me!
“I felt that I was in the presence of
God - and as soon as I reached “The
Gambia” (Sahel district) it rained and
everywhere I went, it rained.
“I am not a Catholic, but I am sure
that this was no coincidence.
“I’m sorry I could not talk about this
by phone, as I get emotional when I talk
of this - my greatest experience.”
During the audience, Pope Paul
presented Mrs. Carter with a medal of
his papacy and a book on the Vatican
and Christian Rome.
Tint
The Land Of The Dream
And The Scream
We really thought that
Germany had given us enough
trouble. We really felt that the
bombardment was over; that the
hand of friendship had been
extended. The truce was in place.
That is, until the experience of the
insidious, unscrupulous
Mindbender.
Out of West Germany this
Kong type, three-and-a-half-mill-
ion-pound
monster escap
ed. Especially
designed to
torture the State
of Georgia, it
landed out there
west of Atlanta
on Interstate 20.
Standing 130
feet high, it
displays a look
o f innocence
that belies its
terror.
The trembling roller coaster
carriages warn your approach.
Foolishly you join the wide-eyed
ten-year-olds who scorn the
yellow, rising like dawn in your
eyes. The Six Flags front office
times the entire shellacking at
two-and-one-half minutes. They
are lying, of course. It takes a
lifetime of unforgettable agony
and unpardonable pain. Emerging
from the conspiracy with your
best manufactured grin in place,
you know that only the Grecian
Formula will return the color to
your greying temples. Never again!
But Six Flags, the playground
of the brave, has more in store.
You promise to keep your
curiosity in line. No more
bravado. But you fail. The dead
slow ascent of the Great American
Scream Machine tells you it is too
late. As sure as the monster climbs
skyward and gives you a
comfortable feeling of confidence,
you know he has treachery on his
mind.
Down you hurl, avalanching to
eternity. Your sins come before
you and sorrow for them has
never been this sincere. You don’t
meet your Maker on the first
drop, but the reprieve is short
lived. The second drop makes you
wish you had.
Putting the grin in place is
harder this time and really, it’s the
least of your worries. Locating
your meandering stomach is the
most problematic; settling it down
on a gourmet ration of Rolaids is
your only hope.
The remainder of your day is
spent trusting nobody. You watch
- and time - the carousel endlessly
before faith in the artificial
broncos surfaces. You expect the
pond of dolphins to unvail itself as
the deep dark home of Jaws. And
the Kiddie Komer is totally
by-passed with deep-down feelings
that in truth it is the Wild
Kingdom. The Great Gasp hovers
two hundred feet above the park.
The drop is visual paralysis.
Participation, you know, would
not be Great - but rather a Gasp
that would truly be your last.
Forget it!
Six Flags Over Georgia has
served over 22 million brave souls
in its short history. No doubt
many of them will return next
year to savor the gorgeous expanse
of floral greenery, the hopeful
flow of youthful enjoyment and
the suspenseful grip of
unsuspecting terror.
But not you. A return to the
agony of an annual summer
sunburn will provide drama of
sufficient height.
The Dreams and the Screams
are for the more daring and the
less timid.
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 16 No. 31
Thursday, September 7,1978
$5 Per Year
Pope John Paul I Launches His Pap
ORIENTATION - Archbishop Jacques Martin, left, prefect of the
apostolic household, talks with Pope John Paul I as they stroll through the
Vatican with members of the papal household. Others include from left,
an unidentified valet, Msgr. Dino Monduzzi, who arranges papal audiences
and Msgr. Juliusz Paetz, special assistant to the pope.
rTHE CATHOLIC
VATICAN CITY (NC) - Surrounded
by royalty, ranking churchmen and
hundreds of thousands of spectators,
Pope John Paul I formally launched the
church’s 263rd papacy.
The ceremonial inaugural Mass Sept.
3 climaxed a week of mass meetings and
private colloquies for the man whose
election as pope on Aug. 26 came as a
complete surprise to Vatican-watchers
and who has already said many times
that he never expected to be chosen.
The new pope’s pontificate quickly
took on the marks of simplicity which
had characterized that of Pope Paul VI
and humanness which was Pope John
XXIII’s hallmark.
At the solemn Mass Pope John Paul
chose to be symbolically invested with
papal power through the imposition of
the pallium - a simple strip of white
cloth with black crosses - and not by a
coronation with the papal tiara.
He thus broke with many hundreds
of years of papal tradition.
Also missing from the solemn,
lengthy rites were the papal portable
z throne and the triple admonition, “Thus
passes the glory of the world.”
In their place the new pope chose to
highlight the ceremony by praying
silently and alone at the tomb of St.
Peter before walking out to the crowds.
After the imposition of the pallium
the pontiff received a formal sign of
BY MICHAEL MOTES
Changing from her long, black
“work clothes,” the Honorable Judge
Dorothy Robinson of the State
Court of Cobb County dons jogging
attire to relax after a day on the
bench.
A relatively newcomer to the
popular form of exercise, Judge
Robinson is quickly mastering the
technique and has become so
proficient since beginning last
February that she was the proud
recipient of the coveted tee-shirt
awarded to those who completed the
July 4th Peachtree Road Race.
“You don’t get much exercise on
the bench,” Judge Robinson says.
“Since I began jogging I have never
felt better but have gained eight
pounds! I feel that the more I run
the more I have to eat.”
But additional weight is no
problem for the svelte judge, who is
the first woman in the state to hold
the position of judge of a court of
record. She was appointed to her
position by then Governor Jimmy
Carter in 1972. Two years later she
was elected to a full four-year term
by receiving over 70 per cent of the
votes in a county-wide election. She
is unopposed for re-election in this
year’s race.
A native of New York, Judge
Robinson attended Catholic schools
there and first became interested in a
career as an attorney while in high
school.
“I had a wonderful Dominican
nun who taught a law course that I
really enjoyed,” she recalls. “Sister
suggested that I might enjoy
following law as a profession and I’ve
been studying it ever since, although
my first college training was in
accounting.”
... The Judge
Judge Robinson received her Juris
Doctor Degree from St. Louis
University School of Law in Missouri
and also holds a B.B.A. Degree from
St. John’s University in New York.
As a member of the State Trial
Judges and Solicitors Association,
she regularly attends seminars at the
University of Georgia.
It’s certainly a priviledge to have a
judge in the family, but the
Robinson household boasts two.
Judge Dorothy is the wife of Judge
Hugh Robinson, Jr., a U.S.
Backruptcy Judge for the Northern
District of Georgia.
Illustrating her quick sense of
humor, Judge Dorothy points out,
“Hugh is the JUNIOR judge in the
family, having been appointed in
January 1976.”
Her husband was a former partner
in the law firm of Green, Buckley,
DeRieux and Jones and for several
(Continued on page 6)
Judge Dorothy Robinson
obedience from each cardinal. But even
that gesture turned into a fraternal
exchange as the new pope smiled, kissed
and spoke with each cardinal.
The smiling face and friendly way of
the former patriarch of Venice
dominated earlier meetings as well that
first week.
Right after his election Aug. 26, it
was the smile on his face that most
struck the crowds in St. Peter’s Square
and millions around the world who saw
the new pope’s first appearance on their
television sets.
The next day he thrilled those in the
square when, coming out on the
balcony for the Sunday Angelus, he
abandoned the usual formal greeting to
the crowd and spoke informally, telling
amusing anecdotes about himself and
explaining the name he had chosen.
“I don’t have the wisdom of heart
that Pope John had,” he commented.
“Nor do I have the preparation and
education of Pope Paul VI. But I have
their job, and I must seek to serve the
church.”
On Wednesday, Aug. 30, the new
pope startled Vatican officials by
tossing away the formal talk prepared
by Vatican speechwriters for his
meeting with the College of Cardinals.
In an off-the-cuff speech, the pope
pleaded: “The world must see us
united.”
He told the cardinals that he was
used to a pastoral ministry in small
dioceses and to dealing with the poor,
workers and youth.
He confessed simply that he knew
nothing about the Roman Curia - the
central bureaucracy at the Vatican that
administers church affairs - and that the
first thing he did as pope was to consult
the Annuario Pontificio (Vatican
yearbook) to see how the Holy See is
organized.
On Friday, Sept. 1, Pope John Paul
held a relaxed meeting with nearly
1,000 journalists from around the world
on hand for the conclave and related
events.
(Continued on page 8)
THE LATE POPE PAUL VI conferred the pallium, a simple strip of
white cloth with black crosses, on Archbishop Donnellan of Atlanta in
1969. Pope John Paul I broke Papal tradition when he accepted only the
pallium and not the Pontiffical triple tiara at the Solemn Mass he
celebrated on September 3 to mark the beginning of his reign.
Audience For U.S. Bishops
VATICAN CITY (NC) -- If all goes as planned, a group of about 60 American
bishops, including Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan of Atlanta, will be among the
first churchmen to have a private audience with Pope John Paul I.
The bishops had been scheduled to make their official five-year visits (called “ad
limina” visits) to the pope and the Vatican Sept. 21.
The Vatican has not yet indicated whether the visit will go on as planned.
Forty-five of the bishops are already in Rome attending a month-long theological
consultation, a seminar on theology and Scripture presented by Rome-based experts.
The consultation participants were scheduled to be among the thousands of prelates
and lay people at the solemn Mass Sept. 3 at which Pope John Paul I was to celebrate
the beginning of his papal ministry.
“We hope to get a definite response from the Vatican within two weeks on w'hether
the ad limina visit is to take place,” said Father Harry Benjamin, director of the
continuing education programs run by Rome’s North American College.
The bishops attending the consultations were to make their ad limina visit along
with the bishops of Region XII (the Northwest) of the National Conference of
Catholic Bishops.
An ad limina visit is a trip made by all bishops in charge of dioceses, once every five
years, to report on the state of their dioceses and to pray at the tombs of Sts. Peter
and Paul.
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