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Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Thursday, April 26,1979
$5 Per Year
Soupers
My grandmother was not an
irreligious woman. She was just not very
religious. The trot to Sunday Mass and
monthly Communion were practices
supremely sacred in her life. After that
the daily grind of rugged work financing
her husbandless children was her sworn
faith.
Strong, silent and miserly economic
with words, she rarely commented on
the human virtues or frailties of the
struggling human
race. The philo
sophy of minding
your own business
was one to which
she subscribed
most heartily from
one end of her
hard life to the
other. I always
believed that the
slogan, concisely
chipped into her
tombstone, would
have appropriately described her days.
However, one group consistantly
drew an irreverent outburst of ire.
Steamingly gasping for patience, she
would cross a road to avoid their
inevitable path. With eyes dimmed in
anger and face shadowed in frown, she
would contemptuously refuse to
recognize their passing existence. Her
silence would endure till a persistant
inquiry finally forced the reluctant terse
reply. “They are soupers.” No more
would be said.
Dungeon, fire and sword were the
traditional tormentors used to elicit
conversion by the Reform-ridden
government. But there were other
weapons in the arsenal. Church
desecration was one, exile ships loaded
with priests were others. Land
confiscation, family separation - all were
brutally imposed with little visible
success on an historically stubborn
populace.
Finally, in exasperation, at the turn
of the century the soup kitchens were
unleashed. Like manna, the warm
comforting, nourishing substance
descended into communities verging on
starvation. Just one generation away,
and still convalescing from the Great
Famine, family mouths watered as
doors to the delicacies were thrown
open. The banquet invitation was
warmly extended. “Take our meaty
soup — but first take our theological
tracts.”
Weakened in mind and body, fretting
for the hunger look on children’s faces,
some did. Their names and their
posterity were darkly emblazoned on a
community that would not forget. They
were bound together by a family fame
that nothing could change. They were
“soupers.”
It was one of the darkest chapters
written in the history of Evangelization.
But there were others. The torture racks
of the Spanish Inquisitors brought no
credit to the religion of Rome. The
despised and enchained Jewish pockets
carefully ghettoized throughout Europe
awaiting the boot of a brutal monster,
brought little glitter to a cowardly
combination of non-caring Christian
Churches.
And the beat goes on. The murderous
foolishness of warring Christians in
Ireland disgrace our creed. The onward
march of some Islamic lancers is
frightening and even the policy of first
class citizenship for Jews alone in Israel
is an unexpected provision in this day
and age. All are chapters, to be
forgotten, in the tome of
Evangelization.
To Evangelize simply means to tell
the Good News. Sixty million
unaffiliated Americans await that telling
and 12 million careless Catholics need
to be retold. To Evangelize those
sightless eyes means we vigoriously and
prayerfully carry the message and plant
the seed. A Higher Power alone can give
the increase.
Without taunt or threat, without
insult or injury, without sword or soup,
we bring the message of an infinite
loving God to a people who should and
could know Him.
That’s Evangelization.
Bright Future Ahead
For Catholic Schools
PHILADELPHIA (NC) - Despite “a drop in student enrollment and the closing of
some schools, the future of Catholic education looks very good,” said Father John F.
Myers, president of the National Catholic Educational Association, reflecting on the
NCEA convention April 16-19 which attracted an estimated 18,000 people.
“It has been one big celebration this week,” the NCEA president said of the 75th
anniversary convention. “The vibrant attitude of those attending the Philadelphia
meeting as well as the increasing support of a great percentage of parents, shows that
the national trend toward parochial education among Catholics is strong.”
The educators heard a variety of speakers, including Pope John Paul II on videotape,
emphasize the theme that Catholic education is too valuable to be allowed to diminish.
“The pope’s message was so powerfully strong that it is going to have a great effect
on Catholic education in this country,” the NCEA president remarked. “The Holy
Father makes it very clear that we must continue our great school system.”
In his message to the NCEA delegates the pope said, “The church needs men and
women who are intent on teaching by word and example. This is a great vocation, and
Schools
the Lord himself will reward all who serve in it as educators in the cause of the word
of God.”
Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan
Bishop Rene H. Gracida
LIMA
The Sisters Take Over
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Father Bill Hoffman is a priest of the Archdiocese of Atlanta currently
working as a Missionary of Saint James in Peru. He writes about a group of Missionary Sisters with
whom he has become associated. Next week, father Hoffman will tell of an unusual journey he
made with the Sisters to a remote area where people had not seen a priest in two years.)
t
The Missionaries of Jesus, Word and Victim is the name of a most interesting group
of ladies dedicated to the missionary work of the Church. In Spanish the letters
M.J.V.V. (Misioneras de Jesus Verbo y Victima) appear after their names.
Their story began when Bishop Frederick Kaiser found himself in the late 1950’s in
the small prelature of Caraveli in the Peruvian mountains, With only a handful of aged
priests and no seminarians.
Within a short time he had an inspiration: found a community of sisters to staff the
parishes without priests - to do everything a priest does except for the Mass and
confessions. These sisters would teach the Saving Word to overcome evil and live a life
of penance to expiate the sins of mankind.
Pope John Paul said that Catholic education “is above all a question of
communicating Christ, of helping to form Christ in the lives of others.”
Cardinal John Krol of Philadelphia opened the convention by telling the educators,
“The time has come to re-evaluate what appears to have been an unconscious drift
nationwide to stop building Catholic schools.” The cardinal defended the cost by
stating that “Catholic school graduates will repay the investment in their education
and formation by generosity to works of the church.”
In the convention’s keynote address, Jesuit Father John Powell thanked the
teachers and expressed the hope that “Catholic educators would realize that what they
are doing is most meaningful and valuable to the kingdom of God.”
“Sharing the Light of Faith” was the theme for the 1979 convention, as the
recently published National Catechetical Directory, from which the theme was taken,
was the subject matter for many talks.
At the April 17 general session Norbertine Father Alfred McBride told the educators
that the new directory is such an important document “that it will have far-reaching
consequences for the rest of this century and beyond.”
Not since the Council of Baltimore in 1884 have the bishops of the United States
issued a document on religious education of the stature and prospective of “Sharing
the Light of Faith,” the executive director of the National Forum of Religious
Educators said.
Prior to a recommitment ceremony April 18 in which the teachers rededicated
themselves to their vocation, Bishop Thomas J. Murphy of Great Falls, Mont., called
for the church to recognize and ritualize the teaching ministry.
“The central core, the heart, and the focus of Catholic education today is the
teacher,” Bishop Murphy said, “and I believe there is a need and obligation for the
church at a parish and diocesan level to recognize and appreciate the ministry of
teaching in the church today.”
Zacherie J. Clements, associate professor of education at the University of Vermont,
told his audience April 19 that “teachers must treat students as individuals who have
something good to offer because the children are God’s creations, and God don’t make
no junk.”
Superintendent of schools in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Donald J. Reitz, told
teachers that his office has established an Archdiocesan Court of Equity. He said this
provides a place where a teacher can take a grievance without going to the time and
cost of civil court appeals.
“A teacher now has a place to go when he has a contract dispute without the
expense of hiring a lawyer, while still having all the protection of the law developed by
the tribunal,” he said.
Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan’s afternoon address April 19 closed the convention and the
New York Democrat told the educators that Catholics must “become a shade less
patient with government officials who fail to keep promises of getting aid for parochial
schools.”
PILGRIMS AT ST. PETER’S - A crowd estimated
at more than 250,000 fills St. Peter’s Square Easter
morning to receive the “urbi et orbi” (to the city and
to the world) blessing from Pope John Paul II.
PRO-LIFE
Optimistic Progress Predicted
The National Conference of Catholic
Bishops’ Committee For Pro-Life
Activities met with diocesan Pro-Life
and Respect Life Coordinators last week
in Atlanta’s Stadium Hotel. The meeting
was one of five regional meetings being
held across the country; the meetings
serve diocesan coordinators each year in
assessing their programs. The meeting
was well attended, primarily by
representatives of the southeastern
dioceses, but also drawing a few
snowbirds from the North, such as
Wisconsin, Massachusetts and Kentucky.
Atlanta was well represented by
Archdiocesan Respect Life Coordinator,
Mary Ellen Hughes, and by Pro-Life
Coordinator, Kathryn Buckley, by
Father Edward J. Dillon, the Director of
both offices, and by Archbishop
Thomas A. Donnellan, who also serves
on the Bishops’ Committee for Pro-Life
Activities. Also attending was Bishop
Rene H. Gracida of Pensacola-Tallah-
assee.
The primary theme of the meeting
focused on the National Conference of
Catholic Bishops’ Pastoral Plan For
Pro-Life Activities. The Pastoral Plan
was formulated in 1975, and instituted
thereafter in dioceses throughout the
country. It focuses attention on the
pervasive threat to human life arising
from the present disrespectful attitudes
toward human life today. In directing
their attention to the sanctity of human
life, the Bishops hope to generate a
greater respect for the life of each
person in society. In the Pastoral Plan,
the Bishops express their confidence
that greater respect for human life will
result from continuing the public
discussion of abortion and other threats
to life, and from effort to shape this
country’s laws so as to protect the life
of all persons, including the unborn.
Thus the Pastoral Plan seeks to
activate the pastoral resources of the
(Continued on page 3)
And so in 1961, Bishop Kaiser started the community with the help of a sister
loaned from her order. Now, 18 years later, there are some 40 postulants, 70 novices
and some 100 professed sisters. Soon the Sisters M.J.V.V. will open missions in Bolivia
and Argentina, and one more mission in Peru. Their most serious problem is the lack
of experienced sisters to headup the missions.
The sisters live in groups of about eight in the most abandoned areas of the
mountains. They baptize, teach, officiate at marriages, distribute Holy Communion,
have Sunday services, assist the dying and at least half of the sisters have had training
(Continued on page 3)
ON SATURDAY, May 5, at 4 p.m. the Home &
School Association of St. Pius X High School will
present their “Summer Sportscast” fashion show at
Lord and Taylor on the mall level. The show will
feature St. Pius students as models. Local sports
celebrities will talk on their respective fields. They will
be available for answering questions and signing
autographs. Refreshments and door prizes will add to
the fun. Tickets are S3 and may be obtained from any
St. Pius student or at the door. The student selling the
largest number of tickets, over 25, will be presented a
Lord and Taylor gift certificate. Committee members
working on the show include Pauline Hoch (left),
Carole Schlenke, Barbara Ingram and Barbara
Johansen.