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A Cardinal Comes To Town
BY MICHEL MOTES
Cardinal Humberto Medeiros of
Boston will be the special guest of the
Society of St. Vincent de Paul at their
national convention scheduled in
Atlanta September 28 through October
1.
The schedule announced for the
Cardinal is a busy one, beginning with a
key-note address he will make to the
delegates at a general session of the
convention on Friday, September 29, at
10 a.m. His topic will be “The Spiritual
Direction of the Society.”
Following the address by Cardinal
Medeiros, Dr. Noah Langdale, President
of Georgia State University, will discuss
“Urban Problems That Face the Poor.”
Cardinal Medeiros will be honored at
a reception for all Vincentians at the
Hyland Center on September 29 at 6
p.m. The following morning at 10, he
will chair a meeting of the Spiritual
Directors of the Society. All priests of
the archdiocese have been invited to
attend the meeting.
At 5:30 p.m. September 30, Cardinal
Medeiros will be the principal celebrate
at Mass at the Shrine of the Immaculate
Conception, another function to which
all diocesan priests are invited.
Joseph Rousast of Paris, France,
President General of the Society of St.
Vincent de Paul, will be the featured
speaker at convention banquet on
Saturday, September 30, at 8 p.m. at
the Sheraton-Biltmore Hotel, setting for
all business sessions and workshops of
the national convention.
A native of Arrifes, South Miguel,
the Azores, Cardinal Medeiros came to
the United States in 1930 and became a
U.S. Citizen ten years later. He was
educated at the Catholic University of
America and at the Gregorian University
in Rome.
He was ordained in 1946 and was
appointed Bishop of Brownsville, Texas,
20 years later. On September 18,1970,
he was appointed Archbishop of Boston
and installed on October 7. The late
Pope Paul VI elevated him to the Sacred
College of Cardinals in 1973.
THE GEORGIA BULLETIN will
feature an in-depth interview with
Cardinal Medeiros in the near future.
Convention Chairman John Halligan
and Joe Flanagan, Executive Director of
the local host group, have planned a
total of 15 workshops for the
conventioneers.
For those who would like to see
some of the area’s special attractions,
several tours have also been planned for
the hundreds of visiting Vencentians
and their families.
One tour that will undoubtedly
prove popular with out-of-staters is a
day-long excursion to Plains with a side
trip to the late President Roosevelt’s
Little White House at Warm Springs.
Other destinations for viators include
Stone Mountain, Callaway Gardens and
a jaunt around the city’s finest
residential areas.
Those not participating in the
convention but who like to travel are
invited by the Vincentians to join any
tour group.
Topics for the workshops include
“Role of the Spiritual Director,” “The
Vincentian as a Spiritual Person,”
“Effective Roles of the Senior Citizen in
St. Vincent de Paul,” “Continuing
Education in Vincentianism,”
“Development of a Council President,”
“The Conference in Parish Life,”
“Family Visitation,” “Vincentian
Concern for Prisoners, Parolees and
Their Families,” “Legal and Social
Problems Encountered by Vincentians,”
“Socio-Political Responsibility of the
Society” and “Ozanam in the Modem
World.”
Cardinal Medeiros
This week we are pleased to offer a special supplement on Pope John Paul I. We
hope you enjoy this tribute to the new pontiff.
The Brothers
Of St. Vincent
I remember them well. With
clockwork precision, once each week,
they came down the street together.
Their steps were quick and decisive.
They were obviously men with a
mission.
Vol. 16 No. 33
Thursday, September 21,1978
$5 Per Year
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
The kids, playing on the dusty
streets, fighting the oncoming darkness,
knew them as “Brother.” The childish
“hello Brother” was always answered
with a nod or a wave or a friendly pat.
But their strides
were not broken,
their direction
never changed,
their speed never
lessened. They
were Brothers of
St. Vincent on
their weekly
pilgrimage to the
tenements.
The Dublin
tenements were
proud Georgian structures. Rising six or
seven stories high, they were the original
dream-mansions of titled colonists.
They had the look and the feel of
Victorian splendor. But that splendor
would come to an end as the 20th
century began.
That’s when the tenements were
bom. As the colonists found greener
pastures, the evil eye of landlordism
pounced on the abandoned gold mines.
Into these lavish castles of splendor, the
working classes were herded. Back
rooms, front rooms, upstairs and down,
every square inch became a nest,
spawning family members of usually
large proportions. Without privacy,
without essential facilities and often
without the necessities of life, the
dreadful tenement, inner-city curse,
took root.
The Brothers of St. Vincent stepped
in. They received their fanatical spirit
and their mission from the Parisian
jet-setter, Frederic Oznam. He founded
the Society as an outreach to the slums
of Paris in 1835. It spread like wildfire.
Within a few years, it had flowed into
every country in the world. Each week,
sometimes each day, these men of
Oznam left comfort, profession and
business to follow his instructions. And
those instructions were specific;
alleviate poverty with bread and shelter.
But also, visit the poor in their homes.
No mail order charity, if you please.
The ritual was always the same. Into
the dark hallway where servants once
stood at attention they stepped. A
knock on the first door. They were
welcomed and casually undisturbed that
the one room was kitchen, dining room
and bedroom for the family of six. Yes,
they would have a cup of tea, but no,
they could not delay. How were the
children? Did they have needs for the
approaching winter? Without show or
ceremony the voucher was left. The
local grocer would honor it next
morning. They were gone, fading into
the creeking staircase that would take
them into the destitution of another
floor. The ritual would be repeated. The
caseload would be completely served.
Next week, they would.be back.
The brilliant, engineering genius of
Frederic Oznam worked. Not only has
his idea destroyed powerful pockets of
poverty, it has built bridges. It has
intermingled the classes, creating trust
and hope, understanding and patient
acceptance. The Society verges on the
actual creation of the classless state -
not in the name of Marx, but rather in
the name of Christ and His Apostle of
the poor, St. Vincent de Paul.
As the Brothers of St. Vincent meet
in convention next week, may their
often unheralded glorious past intensify
their most needed efforts in the future.
And finally, I wonder if those kids
still say, “Hello Brother.”
ACCORD - President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin embrace as U.S.
President Jimmy Carter applauds during a White House
ceremony Sunday. Egypt and Israel committed
themselves after the Camp David summit to
agreements which represent a major effort for peace in
the Middle East. (NC Photo)
rTHE CATHOLIC
....On The Go!
Officially, the title is Business
Manager, but a job description of the
position would entail requirements
for secretarial skills, accounting and
bookkeeping prowness, bill-collecting
subtleness, receptionist’s poise, file
clerk know-how, advertising panache
and public relations expertise.
She’s Betty Bredemus Motes and
if you’ve called the GEORGIA
BULLETIN office during the last five
years to place an ad, report a missing
paper, ask what date Easter falls on
in 1982, complain about a bill,
request a copy of a news story that
appeared 10 years ago or just to say
you like the publication, then you’ve
dealt with Betty.
At the office of our diocesan
newspaper Betty’s primary job is to
handle the billing of the
advertisements. But before an
advertiser can be charged, the ad
must be checked for accuracy in
wording, size and proper placement
and a tearsheet (a copy of the page
on which an ad appeared) must be
mailed to the customer.
From time to time, Betty also
becomes an advertising salesman for
the BULLETIN. The most recent
example was the special supplement
on the work of the St. Vincent de
Paul Society.
With the limited budget of both
the newspaper and the Society, funds
V
had to be raised to pay for the cost
of this BULLETIN “extra.” Betty
spent countless hours on the
telephone with potential advertisers,
explaining the great work of the
Vincentians and soliciting financial
support through advertising revenue
to pay for the annual insert to the
weekly publication.
She easily raised more than
enough to allow the organization to
pay the high cost of printing the
eight-page account of its numerous
facets of philanthropic deeds.
Betty Motes
But Betty’s professional
background is about as far removed
from office work as Singapore from
Smyrna, and her activities away from
her desk as numerous as workday
responsibilities.
One of her first loves has always
been the theater. But unlike many
high school girls who dream of
standing ovations as the curtain falls
on their performance, Betty set out
to work in the entertainment field
and made quite a success of it.
Following her studies at the
University of Minnesota, the alma
mater of her father, the late Wendell
Bredemus who served as a star
football player during his college
days and returned to the field as
coach in later life, Betty enlisted in
the United States Air Force and was
assigned to Special Services.
During her two-year hitch, she
toured the country starring in
numerous productions for the delight
of those in the service of Uncle Sam.
“This was a great experience and I
enjoyed every minute of it,” Betty
recalls. “But I probably learned the
most about acting when I worked
with Ranee Howard.”
(Perhaps that name isn’t very
familiar to many, but he’s the
actor-director father of Ron Howard
(Continued on page 3)
J
VATICAN CITY (NC) - The Vatican is very interested in the Camp David
agreement but must study it further before commenting, said a Vatican spokesman
Sept. 18.
“The Holy See has followed the Camp David meeting with great interest and is
following and examining its results with equal interest,” said the Vatican spokesman,
Father Romeo Panciroli,
Vatican diplomats in the United States and the Middle East are gathering further
information on the Camp David accord and on the reaction to it, he said.
In his first general audience (Sept. 6), Pope John Paul I expressed hopes that a “just
and complete” peace agreement would stem from the Camp David summit.
Such an agreement, he said, would have to resolve the problems of the Palestinians
and the status of Jerusalem and guarantee the security of Israel.
Archbishop’s Comment
The following telegram was sent by Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan to
William A. Gralnick, Southeast Area Director of the American Jewish
Committee, at the conclusion of the Camp David meeting of President Jimmy
Carter with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President
Anwar Sadat:
“The people of the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta rejoice with you over
the renewed prospect of peace in the Middle East. We offer our humble
prayer that God will bless the noble efforts of Mr. Begin and Mr. Sadat and
that the final deliberations of the great nations which they lead will bring
about a just and lasting peace.”
Under Pope Paul VI, the Vatican pushed hard for a peace agreement in the Middle
East.
Pope Paul was especially interested in assuring a “special status, internationally
guaranteed,” for the historic shrines and ancient sections of Jerusalem.
At first he had called for internationalization of the entire city. But he later backed
off to a more vague and flexible formula for preserving Jerusalem as a religious center
and point of dialogue.
The late pontiff also defended vigorously the rights of the Palestinians and of other
non-Jewish religious and ethnic groups to live in Palestine on a par with the Israelis.
Where Pope John Paul stands regarding Israel is not entirely clear.
The Vatican daily newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, printed three stories in its
Sept. 18 issue on the Camp David meeting.
The paper said that the announcement of a peace agreement “crowned the hopes of
those who have followed the 13 days of meetings with trepidation.”
“According to the first reactions, these 13 days will go down in history for having
definitely affirmed the desire for peace of all men of good will,” said the Vatican
daily.
The paper also said that the announcement “immediately made Carter’s stock soar
in Congress, even among Republicans.”
Father Fitzpatrick Dies
Father John F. Fitzpatrick, a
missionary priest with the Redernptorist
Fathers, died September 15. For the
past eight years he had been stationed at
Sacred Heart Church in Griffin and
served as priest-in-charge of the Catholic
Missions in Barnesville, Thomaston and
Forsyth.
Father Fitzpatrick was born June 16,
1913 and was ordained to the
priesthood on June 19, 1938. He spent
his early years as a professor at St.
Mary’s College in North East, Pa.
During World War II, Father
Fitzpatrick served in the U.S. Army as a
Chaplain. Following his discharge, he
worked in the Mission Field of
Paraguary, Puerto Rico and the Virgin
Islands.
He also taught in the Seminary of the
Holy Redeemer in Ponta Grossa, Brazil,
for a number of years before returning
to the United States to work in Florida
and Georgia.
A Mass of Resurrection was
conducted for Father Fitzpatrick on
Sunday, September 17, at the Andrew
Dillion Funeaal Home in Forsyth. Burial
was at St. Mary’s Cemetery in
Annapolis, Md., on Wednesday,
September 27.
Fr. John F. Fitzpatrick