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Cardinal Pironio’s Lament
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(This story was written by Araceli Cantero, staff writer of the VOICE, Miami
archdiocesan weekly, after she interviewed Cardinal Eduardo Pironio as he changed
planes in Miami on his way to Rome.)
MIAMI (NC) -- Cardinal Eduardo
Pironio of Argentina looked tired and
pensive when I greeted him as he
changed flights at Miami International
Airport. He was on his way to Rome for
the funeral of Pope John Paul I and the
f' Oct. 14 conclave to elect a new pope.
The cardinal was deeply moved by
the sudden death of Pope John Paul
which again makes the Argentine
churchman a “papabile,” papal
candidate. His presence did not go
unnoticed at the airport with several
people stopping him.
“Aren’t you the Argentine cardinal?”
many asked shyly in Spanish.
“We expected you to be our next
pope. What about now?” they queried.
“There’s still some chance,” the
cardinal answered half-jokingly with a
certain tone of resignation. He said he
was far from eager to have the job.
Two years ago, in an interview with
the VOICE, Miami Archdiocesan
weekly, Cardinal Pironio complained
about the strains on bishops.
Today, he believes the same about
the papacy.
The cardinal seemed more relaxed
about a week earlier when he arrived at
Puebla, Mexico to prepare for the Latin
American Bishops’ Conference meeting.
He looked forward to several days rest
as the conference was scheduled to open
Oct. 12. (The opening was postponed
because of the death of Pope John Paul
I. A new date will be set after the
election of a new pope.)
At that time he was happy to be
“If a non-Italian had even attempted
any of the same changes in protocol, he
would have been crucified for it,” he
said. “But he was an Italian and he was
able to get away with it.”
The spontaneous style and casual
language did cause criticisms, said
Cardinal Pironio, because some weren’t
prepared to have God compared with a
mother and the soul with gasoline.
In his last audience with Pope John
Paul, Cardinal Pironio encouraged the
pontiff to maintain his simple pastoral
approach. But others were giving
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CARDINAL PIRONIO
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He Should Have Been
In Athens
Ian Smith, fading supremo of South
Africa’s Rhodesia, was in Washington on
Saturday. He had no right to be there.
On this lush autumn, color-filled day,
when it’s dreamy time down South, the
controversial Prime Minister should have
been, not in the unfriendly, unwelcome
capital, but rather in the Peach State of
Georgia. In fact, he should have been in
Athens, Georgia.
Not for one minute would we
question the
educational
background of Mr.
Smith. Nor do we
feel that Athens,
home of the
University, could
enhance its faculty
or tutorial
reputation by his
presence. We
simply feel that a
coveted, impossible
to get seat on the
fifty yard line in the football stadium
would have been worth the while of
Prime Minister Smith.
The game featured the annual
mayhem exhibition between Georgia
and the Rebels of Mississippi. Caught
too often in the steel vice-like grip of
those wild Rebels from Ole Miss,
Georgia was ready. Battered, bloodied
and bruised Mississippi was callously
sent back to Oxford, licking their
wounds, mumbling their obsenities,
waiting their day. Those Wonderdogs of
Georgia gnawed their breeches good and
the victory was honey, sugar sweet.
However, we would not simply have
had Mr. Smith witness the crunch of
bones and the gush of blood. He should
have been there, not to see the
victorious smiles of Georgia, he should
have been there to see the quarterback
of Mississippi. He stood tall, he gave the
fruitless commands, he was a left-hander
and he was black.
Fifteen years ago, this young giant
would not have been beaten on a field
of football conflict. He wouldn’t have
been there. He wouldn’t have been in a
Southern University and his efforts to
the contrary would have caused a riot.
In those days, just yesterday, wasn’t
it, politicians stood in school gateways
defying the onrushing “mixing.” Ole
Miss was principally nortorious. When
local law enforcement refused their
sworn duty, only the National Guard,
armed to the teeth, commanded by the
President, rescued the law of the land.
Qualified citizens, color be blind, had
the right to higher education. And if it
took the protective long arm of the
Constitution to conciliate them, so be
it. It was done.
For some years black students at Ole
Miss lived under the watchful eye of
Federal Agents. But time healed and
youthful acceptance scorned the bigotry
of jaded, nonsense-filled ways.
Humaneness is colorless. An era had
ended.
Black students not only fill the halls
of Ole Miss, the home of the
Confederate Rebel Yell, they are the
dashing heros of this football crazed
cradle. Last Saturday, Mr. Smith could
have learned a lesson at Stanford
Stadium. As it has worked for us, it can
work for him. Time is his only enemy.
As we sat watching the Georgia
victory, we were so glad that the Ole
Miss quarterback took his lumps. We
were so glad he got his bruises, that he
walked from the field defeated, crushed.
But we were so glad he was there.
Ian Smith should have been there
too.
“Who among us would want a
bishop’s role? We have become a sign of
contradiction and we often live as
crucified men. I think that today, too
much is demanded from the bishop,
often beyond justice. Little effort is
made to understand the mysterious
poverty of his human limitations,” he
said then.
finished with “the dangers of the
conclave.”
Before the last conclave, “journalists
would not leave me alone and I very
much needed time to pray,” he said.
During the pre-conclave sessions he
often escaped to a nearby Roman
basilica to pray and spent a whole day
in Assisi “where I tried to get St.
Francis on my side.”
Visits to Pope Paul’s tomb were also
frequent.
“If you are still my friend, please get
me out of all this,” he prayed to Paul
VI, the man who made him a cardinal.
“And he did,” Cardinal Pironio
added with a smile.
The cardinal described Pope John
Paul as a simple man of God and a very
pastoral pontiff with a style that helped
break many barriers.
different advice, said the cardinal.
Cardinal Pironio predicted a long
conclave and “perhaps one with more
possibilities for a non—italian pope.”
But he frowned at the mention of his
name as a candidate.
“I’ve been given too much publicity,
but thank God others have more
following among the cardinals,” he said.
“What kind of pope does the church
need now?” I asked.
He paused briefly and answered:
“Someone simple and pastoral like John
Paul I. But he also must have the
theological depth and insight of Paul
VI.”
As he walked toward the departure
gate, Cardinal Pironio added: “Please
pray hard during these coming days.
Pray hard for all of us in Rome.”
CARDINALS PAY RESPECTS - At the solemn requiem Mass for Pope
John Paul I, 95 cardinals sit outside the entrance to St. Peter’s Basilica.
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Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 16 No. 36
Thursday, October 12,1978
$5 Per Year
;
FUNERAL IN THE RAIN -- A canopy protects the
altar and Cardinal Carlo Confalonieri, 85-year-old dean
of the College of Cardinals, during the Consecration at
the funeral Mass for Pope John Paul I in St. Peter’s
Square. Heavy rains in Rome did not deter thousands
of mourners from attending the rites. The plain cypress
coffin rests at lower right.
Does The Pope Do Too Much?
ROME (NC) - The sudden death of Pope John Paul I raises
the question of whether a modern pope really needs to do so
much, said a Jesuit official of the Vatican Secretariat for
Promoting Christian Unity.
“Does being chief pastor of the church mean he has to get
involved in all the details which the papacy in this century has
gotten involved in?” asked Jesuit Father John Long, a
department head at the secretariat.
“Every small Vatican appointment has to go across his desk,”
Father Long said, adding that, if the pope were not tied down
by such details, he could be more involved with the people of
his diocese, Rome.
Father Long was one of five U.S. priests who answered
questions from journalists at a press panel sponsored by the
public affairs department of the U.S. Catholic Conference Oct.
6.
Father Vincent O’Keefe, assistant superior general of the
Jesuits, recalled that at a meeting with U.S. bishops Pope John
Paul asked all those who were not bishops, including various
Vatican officials, to leave and began a question-and-answer
session. “Maybe this would have been moving over from style
into substance,” Father O’Keefe said, suggesting that the late
pope might have developed a more collegial form of church
government.
Jesuit Father Robert A. Graham, co-editor of the official
documentary series on the Holy See’s activities during World
War II, asked, “What about a coma?”
Father Paul Boyle, superior general of the Passionists,
recalled that a long illness of Pope Pius XII in 1955 occasioned a
discussion of what would happen should the pope become
irrational. “It was speculated that the cardinals could declare
him out of office,” Father Boyle said. “There’s nothing clear in
church teaching, however.”
Father Long said Pope Paul VI, when leaving on long trips,
left a document giving the cardinal camerlengo, or chamberlain,
any authority he might need if something unforeseen should
(Continued on page 6)
Farewell In The Rain
VATICAN CITY (NC) - As they had come in thousands to St. Peter’s Square for
Pope John Paul’s Sunday Angelus talks, people came in thousands to stand in the rain
and bid him farewell.
People from around the world expressed shock at the suddenness of the Pope’s
death and a sense that they had lost someone who had touched their hearts.
“I’m so sad about his death,” said Madeleine Kubak, a Chicagoan studying at the
Rome branch of Loyola University. She was one of the estimated 100,000 people in
the square for the funeral services.
“We were here for his coronation. It’s almost as if Pope John Paul reinforced my
faith in the church. I hope the new pope will be a John Paul II.” Her friend, Mary
Krakowski, another Loyola student from Chicago, said they were in Germany when
they heard about the death.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she said.
“I thought he brought more simplicity to the church. He seemed more liberal, more
open to the problems of the Catholic church,” added Miss Krakowski.
Two young men from a small town near Houston, Tex., who were touring Europe
also said they were shocked to hear of the pope’s death. One of them, Steve
Holzheauser, said they first thought people were still talking about the death of Pope
Paul VI. He praised Pope John Paul.
“A lot of people were excited about him. They thought he had liberal ideas and
(Continued on page 6)
Respect Life Day Set
The Archdiocesan Annual Respect Life Day, sponsored by the Pro-Life
Office, will be held on Saturday, October 14, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at St.
Pius X High School, 2674 Johnson Road, N.E., Atlanta. All adults and youth
are invited to participate in a public educational effort to inform, clarify and
deepen understanding of basic issues, to share in a pastoral effort addressed to
the specific needs of human life, to join in a public effort directed toward the
legislative, judicial and administrative areas so as to insure effective legal
protection for the right to life.
Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan will open the day talking about the
Church in the service of human life. William J. Cox, Executive Director of the
National Committee for a Human Life Amendment, Inc., Washington, D.C.,
will deliver the keynote address, “Congressional Accountability Through
Pro-Life Citizen Awareness.” He will also address morning and afternoon
workshops.
Mr. and Mrs. Tom VanderWoude will hold a workshop on “Natural Family
Planning - A Marriage Building Life Style.” “Aging As Life Enrichment” will
be the topic of a session conducted by Dr. Charles J. Karcher and Dr. Barbara
C. Karcher. A representative from Better Infant Births will direct a workshop
on “Health Care for the Poor.” Mr. and Mrs. Jay Bowman of Georgia Right to
Life will also host a workshop.
In addition, various service organizations will sponsor booths and displays.
The day will conclude with the Celebration of the Liturgy by Archbishop
Donnellan.
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Reservations are not necessary. The program is open to adults and youth.
For further information, please call the Pro-Life Office at 881-0956.