Newspaper Page Text
Atlanta’s Missionary Maureen
Costumed Young Worker
BY MICHAEL MOTES
Soft-spoken Sister Maureen Gunning
prefers not to enter any type of political
discussion. But as a Maryknoll
Missionary working in Taiwan, she has
viewed first-hand the reaction of the
natives of that island country to United
States recognition of Red China.
She recalls the day that President
Carter announced the decision and
admits that she was not surprised by the
Chief Executive’s announcement, which
she heard thousands of miles from her
Atlanta home via the Armed Forces
Network.
“I received a telephone call from a
friend who informed me that the
President was about to speak,” she said.
“I had recently returned from a
meeting of the Maryknolls in the United
States and had followed the news of the
possibility of opening relations with
Red China. In Taiwan there had been
much discussion, so the decision did not
take anyone by surprise.”
According to Sister Maureen, the
biggest fear among the people of Taiwan
is the loss of trade relations with the
United States.
“The day that President Carter made
his announcement, a very good friend
came to see me quite upset. He runs a
phonograph parts manufacturing
company and exports the majority of
his products to the States. His reaction
was very typical of reaction everywhere
- if trade with this country should be
dropped, there would be a drastic effect
on the economy.”
Sister Maureen also commented on a
state of unrest in Taiwan resulting from
the fear of a Communist take-over of
the island.
“The Taiwanese are people who have
fled from the Communists once and
they worry that they might have to do
so again,” she said. “But they wish to
remain simply Chinese, following the
ancient ways of China. All Taiwanese
consider themselves Chinese, only
separated from the mainland.”
Sister Maureen’s association with
Taiwan dates back to her first
assignment there in 1964. She grew up
(Continued on page 3)
MARYKNOLL MISSIONER Sister Maureen Gunning (Center)
Atlanta with a group of Taiwan factory workers.
of
*¥.
SctnttMA&euv
Dreaming You Alive
It was Notre Dame University and
the year was 1969. The Irish were hav
ing a good season on the gridiron.
Smiles were being worn all over cam
pus.
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Father Chuck Gallagher was smiling
too. He was a football addict from way
back. But right now his Irish eyes
were smiling in solemn salute to his
new find. Even the stamping march of
those woeful monsters from Southern
Cal could not dim the brightness.
Chuck
Gallagher had
discovered the
Marriage En
counter. Soon the
whole country
would know.
From across the
seas, moving out
of its Spanish
origins, the little
movement mira
culously found the fertile soil of South
Bend. Father Gallagher was waiting,
but not alone. Three eager beaver
couples, lovingly longing to rekindle a
fire once known, waited to test the
new waters with him.
The Encounter was born again. Hud
dling around his sparse kitchen table,
they delved anxiously into the
dramatic dynamics. They learned easi
ly, with avid appreciation and with
rollicking reward. Marriage was
THEIR Sacrament. It called them to a
life of oneness. That life was a sacred
ministry to be lived every day, not in
the casual rut of a single married
state, but in the glorious arena of cou
ple powered action.
The message was needed and still is.
One million once blissfully entwined
marriages ended after a day in court
last year. The number will increase
this year as knots of pressure are
skillfully applied in devilish attacks
on marriage.
The amazing concept of the career-
loving wife is here to stay. The role
may be needed as we steadily sink into
the mire of drowning inflation. The
resulting portrait is one of disaster.
Most couples, in breathless haste-filled
days, spend long and lonely hours in
the attractive caress of the magical
dollar. Their marriage can take what
is left and the pickings are poor.
Marriage Encounter puts it all in
prim and proper perspective. The
dollar must get in line. So must the
hobbies and the busy circuit of clubs
and meetings. The Sacrament comes
first as it furiously insists on center
stage. The conversion of two into one
is the only infallible foundation for
this sacred call silently awaiting at-,
tentive fulfillment.
Father Gallagher took his new find
to the waiting hunger of married
couples North and South. It has gone
out to other lands. 800,000 fresh faced,
starry-eyed spouses, caught in the
squanderful squeeze of their sacred
vocation, have been revived, eagerly
working to rekindle the fire of mar
riage love.
If the contentment of matrimonial
love is the impossible dream, Marriage
Encounter has excitedly proved that
this sleepy dream can come alive.
Vol. 17 No. 19
Thursday, May 10, 1979
$5 Per Year
Bishops Explore Issues Facing The Church
DOWN TO BUSINESS - Archbishop John R. Quinn
of San Francisco, president of the National Conference
of Catholic Bishops, addressing the opening session of
the NCCB meeting in Chicago, tells the bishops they
should cultivate a love for the poor and greater
advocacy on behalf of the oppressed of the world.
Knights Offer Mother’s Day Rose
On Mother’s Day, May 13, 1979, the
Knights of Columbus are sponsoring the
“One Rose - One Life” Campaign in
many parishes of the Archdiocese. Two
years ago, at the National Convention of
the Knights of Columbus, a Pro-Life
Resolution was passed for the K of C
Councils in the United States to work
for a Human Life Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution.
The Knights in North Georgia, in
keeping with their tradition of the past
75 years of actively supporting the
Bishops, are enthusiastically working
with the Pro-Life Office of the
Archdiocese to obtain the needed
Amendment.
The Knights are sponsoring the
campaign in order to keep before people
the need for continuing awareness of
those attitudes and movements which
safeguard and promote the values of
human life and the quality of living.
Since 1973, the number of abortions
has increased each year and will
continue to increase until men of good
will band together to stop this useless
slaughter of our defenseless unborn
children. They must have protected the
most basic of all human rights - the
right to life.
The 12 K of C Councils in North
Georgia have established as one of their
highest priorities the education of
citizens in North Georgia concerning the
facts regarding the humanity of the
unborn child and abortion. The Knights
in North Georgia are offering their time
and talents in a supportive role to the
Pro-Life Office of the Archdiocese.
One of their activities is the
sponsorship of the “One Rose - One
Life” Campaign on the weekend of May
12-13, appropriately conciding with
Mother’s Day. Members of the local K
of C Councils will visit many of the
Archdiocesan parishes to distribute
paper red roses and pertinent
information. The red rose has become a
symbol of the pro-life movement. All
donations received will be used to
support K of C Prolife projects. These
men will urge you to (1) keep the rose
as a reminder to work for a Human Life
Amendment and that abortions are
continuing daily in Georgia or (2) send
the rose to your elected representative
in Washington along with a personal
letter encouraging passage of a Human
Life Amendment.
CHICAGO (NC) - As the U.S. bishops talked about how to add a new dimension
interaction - to their action orientation, they might well have taken a major step
toward Improving communications among themselves.
The slow pace of their May 1-3 meeting and its emphasis on public and private
discussions, disappointed some reporters more accustomed to statements and
resolutions, but the broad topic of the meeting - the purpose and goals of the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops - U.S. Catholic Conference - was important to the
bishops.
The only event that brought TV news cameras to the Palmer House Hotel in
Chicago during the bishops’ spring meeting was a press conference held by a coalition
of 13 Catholic women’s groups on the subject of women’s ordination to the priesthood.
The meeting opened with a call from Archbishop John R. Quinn of San Francisco,
NCCB-USCC president, for the bishops to cultivate “a preferential but not exclusive
love for the poor” and a greater advocacy role on behalf of the oppressed of the world.
It closed with approval of a resolution to explore “the value and feasibility” of
holding a Puebla-style “extraordinary meeting which would focus on some of the
issues facing the church in the United States.”
“Puebla’s analysis of the Latin American reality is an invitation to us to assess with
the key of revelation and the teaching of the church, the reality of the church in our
own situation,” Archbishop Quinn said.
In their final vote, the bishops indicated they might accept that “invitation.” But
they rejected an attempt by Bishop William E. McManus of Fort Wayne-South Bend,
Ind., to have the conference “initiate preliminary plans” for such a meeting.
The most concrete action to come from the spring meeting was selection, through a
total of 14 ballots, of four delegates and two alternates to the 1980 international
Synod of Bishops in Rome. The topic of the synod is family life.
The four delegates will be Archbishop Quinn; Archbishop Joseph L. Bemardin of
Cincinnati, past president of the NCCB-USCC; Auxiliary Bishop J. Francis Stafford of
Baltimore, chairman of the bishops’ Commission on Marriage and Family Life; and
Archbishop Robert F. Sanchez of Santa Fe, N.M. The alternates are Bishops Walter W.
Curtis of Bridgeport, Conn., and Lawrence Welsh of Spokane, Wash.
But the bulk of the meeting centered on a report of the Ad Hoc Committee to
(Continued on page 6)
Pope To Meet Lefebvre?
VATICAN CITY (NC) -- The Vatican Press Office said May 7 it could not confirm
whether suspended Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre will be received by Pope John Paul II
within the next few days.
On May 6, in Nancy, France, the 73-year-old French archbishop said he was heading
for Rome where he would meet the pope and Cardinal Franjo Seper, prefect of the
Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
“I will be received by Cardinal Seper together with whom I will meet the Holy
Father,” Archbishop Lefebvre said after celebrating Mass for about 2,000 persons in
the Nancy Convention Center.
- “I hope that we will find a rapid solution. I trust in God more than in men, but I
have confidence in John Paul II, who will be able to resolve our problems,” he added.
“I am optimistic because I have heard that the pontiff is disposed to accept the old
liturgy,” he said.
The archbishop, who had earlier announced that he would ordain another 26 men
to the priesthood on June 29, said he might postpone the ordinations as a sign of good
will.
Editorial Comment - Page 4
Related Story - Page 7
But, he added, if the Vatican forces him, he would ordain a bishop to succeed him.
The archbishop met the pope last November and in January held a series of
meetings with Cardinal Seper and officials of the doctrinal congregation. He recently
published in a Paris daily his responses to the questions put to him by Cardinal Seper.
In the responses, he said he was willing to sign a statement accepting the Second
Vatican Council “interpreted according to tradition.”
He insisted that the texts of Vatican II, particularly its “Decree on Religious
Freedom,” contain statements contrary to tradition and the magisterium (teaching
authority) of the church.
The archbishop’s criticisms of Vatican II and of Pope Paul VI are more central to his
dispute with the Vatican than his more widely publicized insistence on celebrating
Mass in Latin according to the Tridentine rite instead of the new order of Mass ordered
by Pope Paul in 1969.
In 1976, Pope Paul suspended Archbishop Lefebvre from the exercise of his
ministry after the archbishop ignored the pope’s request not to ordain 13 men to the
priesthood.
I
I
t