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PAGE 7—September 14,1978
Pope’s Writings As Cardinal Reveal Many Interests
BY JOHN MUTHIG
‘Dear Jesus,
“I’m under attack. ‘He’s a bishop and cardinal,’ they’re saying. ‘Yet he’s permitting
himself to write letters to everyone — Mark Twain, Penelope, Dickens, Marlowe and
who knows who else ...’”
VATICAN CITY (NC) -- The writer of those lines is now not only bishop but also
pope.
Pope John Paul I’s letters to the famous — or to the “Illustrissimi,” (Most
Illustrious), as the collection of letters is entitled — were written for the Italian
monthly, Messenger of St. Anthony, during the 1970s.
They are now being reprinted, issued on cassette tapes and photocopied for the
millions in Italy alone who would like to know better what the new pope is like.
“Illustrissimi” will tell them.
Its pages reveal their author as a poor, often hungry child who read voraciously. On
his reading list were classics by Charles Dickens and Mark Twain. Both of these authors
were singled out by the patriarch of Venice to receive “Illustrissimi” Letters.
The letters show Pope John Paul to be a pastor close to his flock and concerned
with very pastoral questions: how women should dress, the elderly, swearing, keeping
the faith, sexual love, adolescence.
There are 40 letters in “Illustrissimi.”
Recipients include 34 men (among them Hippocrates, G. K. Chesterton, Guglielmo
Marconi), four women (the two St. Theresas, Penelope, Empress Maria Theresa of
Austria), one bear (the bear of St. Romedius) and one wooden boy (Pinocchio).
The last of the series is a letter to Jesus.
Among the sensitive and practical thoughts the Venice patriarch offered readers of
the Messenger of St. Anthony are the following:
On bishops: “Some bishops are like eagles who soar with magisterial documents on
a high level. Others are like nightingales who sing the praises of the Lord wondrously.
But others are poor wrens who only chirp on the last limb of the ecclesial tree trying
to come out with some thought or other on vast issues.
“I belong to the last category.” (In a letter to Mark Twain.)
On abortion: “Have you heard the congresswoman? Liberalized abortion for the
advancement of women. But will it be real advancement? . . .
“In many cases, abortion frees more the woman’s partner - husband or not - from
nuisances and bothers, permitting him to give way to his sexual desires without
assuming related duties.
“It is a retreat rather than an advancement for woman vis-a-vis man.” (Letter to
Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni).
On his own empty stomach as a youth (to Pinocchio): “On certain occasions, an
egg, or even a pear, or even the peel of a pear represented for you a radiant shelter
from your hunger and deep want. It was the same for me.”
On keeping the faith as a youth (to Pinocchio): “On your journey toward
automony, you Pinocchio, like almost all youths 17-20 will butt up against the reef of
problems of faith.
“You will in fact breathe anti-religious objections like you breahte air, in school, at
the factory, in the movies, etc. If your faith is a heap of good fruit, there will be an
army of mice assaulting it.
“If it is a piece of clothing, a hundred hands will try to tear it from you. If it is a
house, the demolition men will try to dismantle it piece by piece.
“You have to defend yourself. Today as regards the faith we conserve only what we
defend.”
On how women should dress: “I think a woman must first try to please her parents,
brothers, sisters, and above all her husband. All these people want their woman to be
beautiful and elegant, but within a frame of modesty which makes her even more
beautiful and morally fresh.” (To Maria Theresa of Austria).
On women priests (answering a fifth-grade girl who asked why women cannot be
ordained): ‘“In this class I see boys and girls. Can you boys say that one man was the
father of Jesus? They answered: ‘No because St. Joseph was only foster father.’
“‘But you girls, can you say that one woman was the mother of jesus?’ They said
‘Yes.’ And I answered: ‘You replied correctly. Now think about this: If there is no
woman who is a popess or a lady-bishop or woman priest, that is compensated for a
thousand times over by the divine maternity.’” (Letter to Lemuel, an Old Testament
king in Proverbs, chapter 31)
On the energy crisis: “The break-neck race for propserity and the mad use of
non-essential things has compromised indispensable goods: air, pure water, silence,
inner peace, rest.
“We thought that the petrolium pool was like the bottomless well of St. Patrick.
Now we see suddenly that we are down to the last drops.
“We hoped that once the oil stopped we could count on nuclear energy, but they
tell us that production of this leaves dangerous radioactive wastes.” (Letter to Charles
Dickens)
On new morality: “Today a permissive morality is proposed. While admitting that
in the past we were a bit too rigid on certain points, youth mustn’t accept
permissiveness. Their Love must be with a capital L.
“Some propose completely liberalizing laws on contraception, abortion on demand,
free divorce, pre-marital sex, homosexuality, drug use.
“It’s a high tide, an advancing cyclone. Before it what can a poor bishop do?”
(Letter to St. Luke)
On change: “There are those who get an idea into their head, bury it there and
continue to guard it jealously all their lives without examining it or seeing what has
become of it after so much rain and wind and the stroms of events and changes
Life is a very different thing.” (Letter to St. Bernard)
; ^
Parish Festival Deaths: Beyond Understanding
DERRY, Pa. (NC) - The deaths of
seven members of St. Joseph Parish in a
helicopter accident are “beyond
understanding,” said Auxiliary Bishop
Norbert F. Gaughan of Greensburg who
added, “We can only turn to the Lord in
prayer.”
A helicopter scattering pingpong
balls with prize numbers suddenly
plunged into a crowd of several hundred
people at a parish Labor Day festival in
Derry, killing seven and injuring at least
19.
Father John Wilt, pastor at St.
Joseph’s, administered last rites in the
temporary morgue established in St.
Joseph’s Hall. He and other local parish
priests consoled family and friends of
the victims.
The injured were treated at Latrobe
Area Hospital for cuts and mutilations
inflicted by the whirling blades of the
downed helicopter. Ten were still
hospitalized the day after the accident,
six in critical condition.
All of the victims, except one, were
killed instantly by the helicopter blades.
The seventh victim, Mary Allison, was
crushed under the wreckage and died
several hours later in the Latrobe
hospital. Mrs. Allison’s husband Leo and
12-year-old daughter Mary Beth had
been in the helicopter, throwing
pingpong balls. They and pilot Pam
Nelson were uninjured.
The last day of the three day
fund-raiser at St. Joseph Church was
being held in the church-school complex
in the midst of the small western
Pennsylvania community. Eyewitnesses
said the church parking lot was covered
with blood and severed bodies after the
three-seat helicopter, a Hughes 269-C,
crashed.
Onlookers lined the church grounds
and sidewalks across the street while
state police and fire officials cordoned
off the area where the aircraft fell.
Bishop Gaughan said Sept. 5: “The
hand of the Lord has fallen heavily on
the parish of St. Joseph, Derry and the
local community. The tragedy that
occurred Labor Day is beyond
understanding. We can only turn to the
Lord in prayer, asking eternal rest for
those who died, and his kindness and
mercy for those who are injured and for
the bereaved.
“In a truly Catholic spirit and in the
name of Bishop (William G.) Connare,
we ask that prayers be offered in all
parish churches this Sunday for those
who died, for the injured and for the
relatives and friends of both. We ask
prayers also for Father John Wilt,
pastor, that he may be sustained and
comforted in the heavy burden of
counselling the grief-stricken and of
helping all to bear up under this loss.
Prayers are also requested for his
personal welfare, for he is of that
pastoral spirit which suffers along with
his parishioners.
“It is most difficult to understand
the ways of the Lord. Through prayer
the people of the parish and we may be
able to continue on.”
Orthodox Bishop Dies While Meeting Pope
VATICAN CITY (NC) -
Metropolitan Nikodim of Leningrad,
second-ranking prelate of the Russian
Orthodox Church, died of a heart attack
Sept. 5 during a private audience with
Pope John Paul I.
Metropolitan Nikodim, 48, was the
first of several top officials of
non-Catholic churches scheduled to
meet privately with Pope John Paul
Sept. 5.
The white-veiled prelate was received
by the pope in his private study at
about 10 a.m.
Once seated, he expressed
congratulations to the pope over his
election and told the pontiff that the
people of the Moscow Patriarchate were
praying for him.
As the pope expressed his thanks,
Metropolitan Nikodim slumped in his
chair and died.
Those in the study — the pope, a
Jesuit interpreter and Dutch Cardinal
Jan Willebrands of Utrecht,
Netherlands, president of the Vatican’s
Secretariat for Promoting Christian
Unity — said a prayer for him.
Vatican sources said that a doctor
had been called immediately, but
arrived in time only to certify the
metropolitan’s death.
Nikodim, metropolitan of Leningrad
and Novgorod, was well known in
Vatican circles.
He had attended part of the Second
Vatican Council as an observer and has
frequently visited Rome as head of
ecumenical delegations from Moscow.
He represented the Moscow
Patriarchate at both the funeral of Pope
Paul VI (Aug. 12) and the inaugural
Mass of Pope John Paul I (Sept. 3).
Until 1972 he had served as president
of the patriarchate’s Department of
External Affairs, a kind of foreign
ministry.
Later he was placed in charge of the
patriarchate’s ecumenical relations as
president of the Synodal Commission
for Ecumenical Affairs.
Pope John Paul immediately sent a
French-language telegram of condolence
to Patriarch Pimen of Moscow.
“Deeply moved by the death of
Metropolitan Nikodim which occurred
as he spoke with us, we express to Your
Holiness and to the Holy Synod of the
Russian Orthodox Church our
sentiments of deep grief,” read the
papal telegram.
“We assure you of our prayers for
the repose of the soul of this devoted
servant of his church and of this artisan
of deeper relations between our
churches.
“May God receive him into his joy
and peace.”
The The ruddy-faced, white-bearded
Metropolitan Nikodim had been seated
in the first row of the ecumenical
delegations at the inaugural Mass
celebrated by Pope John Paul at the
Vatican two days earlier.
He made a small bit of ecumenical
history less than three weeks before by
celebrating a Russian Orthodox prayer
service for the dead before the body of
Pope Paul VI as it lay in state before the
main altar of St. Peter’s.
The prelate, whose several heart
attacks made him look older than his
years, was born in Frolovo, near
Ryazan, about 100 miles southeast of
Moscow, Oct. 14, 1929.
Ordained a priest in 1949,
Metropolitan Nikodim served as eparch
of Jaroslav and later Minsk before
becoming metropolitan of Leningrad
and Novgorod.
In a statement after his death, the
Christian Unity Secretariat said that
Metropolitan Nikodim was very
interested in the steps toward renewal
taken by the Catholic Church and tried
to make them understood to Russian
Orthodox.
The secretariat said that he was
“open to any deepening of Christian
revelation which could contribute to
full unity of the churches.”
A few days before the Sept. 3 Mass,
Metropolitan Nikodim had venerated
the Holy Shroud, currently on public
exposition in Turin.
The Jesuit superior general, Father
Pedro Arrupe, who had dined with
Metropolitan Nikodim Sept. 3 and who
was his host during his stay in Rome,
said that the metropolitan was “richly
endowed with deep human gifts” and
had “unfailing faith and courage in
serving the interests of religion and the
cause of Christian unity.”
He was a man who “gave himself
without counting the cost literally up to
the last moment of his life,” said the
Jesuit leader.
■C"
KW;
DEATH FROM THE SKY - Rescue crews work to remove the dead
and injured from under a helicopter which crashed at a Labor Day picnic
at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Derry, Pa. The helicopter was dropping
pingpong balls with prize numbers when it crashed into the crowd killing
seven people and injuring 19. (NC Photo)
Priests Criticize Junta
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (NC) -
A priests’ team working in the slums of
Buenos Aires said policies of the
country’s military junta are making it
difficult for the poor to find housing.
Authorities want to raze several
misery villages — the local name for the
slums — without concern for the
thousands of families that will find
themselves without a place to go, a
report by the team said.
The report was signed by Fathers
Hector Botan, Miguel Angel Valle, Jorge
Goni, Jose Meisegeir, Jorge Vernaza,
Rodolfo Riciardelli and Daniel de la
Sierra. They have been working for 10
years on the Pastoral Team for Misery
Villages under the direction of Cardinal
Juan Carlos Aramburu of Buenos Aires.
Other priests working for the poor in
the metropolitan area and elsewhere
have fallen victims of anti-leftist squads
in recent times.
The report contradicted assertions by
the authorities that their moves only
affect some 280,000 persons. The
priests said a million people live in the
villages in makeshift lodgings. The total
population in Argentina is 26 million, of
which 8.9 million live in greater Buenos
Aires.
The report also contended that the
slum conditions cannot be eliminated
unless jobs are provided for these
families. The misery villages are
constantly fed by thousands of jobless
farmworkers an others coming from the
provinces and from the neighboring
countries of Bolivia and Paraguay,
attracted by the industry in Buenos
Aires. Even those few who find
employment end up in the slums
because of the low wages paid to them
and the impact of inflation, the report
said.
Recent regulations by the Ministry of
Economy have resulted in soaring rental
prices. The regulations, which aimed at
balancing costs for apartment dwellers
and home owners, “have also swollen
the slums as ejections in the city
multiplied,” the priests said.
The report was also critical of forced
transfer of whole villages, often with the
use of trash trucks and after
intimidation of leaders.
‘Key ToYocations Is Respect For Confession’-Cardinal Knox
BY MSGR. JOHN P. FOLEY
VATICAN CITY (NC) - The church
will not get vocations to the priesthood
and religious life if the sacrament of
penance is not given its true place, the
prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation
for Sacraments and Divine Worship said
in an interview.
Australian Cardinal James Knox,
commenting on reports on ceremonies
at which general absolution was given to
large numbers of Catholics, said, “It is
important to remember that individual
confession is an ecclesial act. By the
power of Christ and in the name of the
church, sins are forgiven.
“While community penance services
with individual confession and
absolution have much to recommend
them, all Catholics should remember
that every confession is an ecclesial act.
“Where would any of us who have a
vocation to the priesthood be without
the sacrament of penance?” the cardinal
asked. “Would we have had a vocation
in the first place? Would we have
persevered during our training? Would
we have persevered or progressed after
ordination without the grace and the
guidance received through the
sacrament of penance?
“The church is effective at any given
moment in proportion to its sanctity,”
Cardinal Knox said. “The sanctity of
the church is in proportion to the
sanctity of its members. When the
church develops rapidly, it is because its
people are holy, and its people are holy
when they avail themselves of the
sacraments according to the mind of the
church. The experience of St. John
Vianney, St. John Bosco, St. Francis de
Sales and many others shows what good
can come from the apostolate of the
confessional and what holiness can be
stimulated and fostered by individual
confession.”
Alluding to Vatican directives on
making confession available to children
before they make their first
Communion, Cardinal Knox said, “How
can children resolve any problems they
have before they make their first holy
Communion if they do not have the
opportunity to go to confession?
“Sometimes,” he said, “children can
be warped for life if they do not have an s.
opportunity to present a problem that is
troubling them to a priest in confession
before they make their first holy
Communion. If children think that their
problem is a serious moral matter when
it isn’t, the priest can enlighten them. In
all cases, the attitude of the priest is
most important. If he is kind and
fatherly, children will have no fear
throughout their lives in going to
confession.”
Commenting on the 41st
International Eucharistic Congress in
Philadelphia in 1976 at which he had
been the personal representative of the
late Pope Paul VI, Cardinal Knox said,
“The eucharistic congress in
Philadelphia came at a very important
moment in the history of such
congresses. It gave a special stimulus
through its theme, ‘The Eucharist and
the Hungers of the Human Family,’ to
the purpose and meaning of eucharistic
congresses.
“The impact of Philadelphia’s
congress has been fairly widely felt,” he
said, “and it was an excellent
preparation for the centenary of
eucharistic congresses which will be
marked at the 42nd International
Eucharistic Congress in Lourdes
(France) in 1981.
“Perhaps each city where a
eucharistic congress has been held could
have some special commemoration to
mark the centenary and to re-evoke the
spirit of each congress.
“It was very edifying to see the
devotion of the people in Phiadelphia,”
he said. “It was particularly inspiring to
see the enthusiasm of young people who
participated in the SIGN (Service In
God’s Name) program.
“I am happy to hear that the
program is continuing, because in every
society, no matter how prosperous,
there are people who are lonely and
suffering, to whom young people can
bring great joy and consolation,” he
added. “The young people also find
that, when they are helping others, they
are really helping themselves. Such a
spirit of generosity should result from a
fervent and fruitful reception of the
Eucharist.”
The cardinal prepared small gift
packets of rosaries, medals and Vatican
stamps for Franciscan Sister Eleanor
Cecilia of Philadelphia, who coordinated
the Eucharistic Renewal Program which
followed the congress, and for the man
who had driven the float on which the
Blessed Sacrament was carried at the
congress.
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