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Vol. 17 No. 39 Thursday, November 8,1979 $6 Per Year
Voters Urged To Scrutinize Candidates
PRIOR TO THE MARCH from
Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium to Central City
Park, Archbishop Donnellan chatted with Mayor
Maynard Jackson and with Aaron Shild of The
Temple. Both the archbishop and Shild serve on
the Executive Committee of Atlanta Religious
Mobilization Against Crime (ARMAC), sponsors
of the Anti-Crime March which drew some 2,500
participants.
Anti-Crime March Unites City
BY MICHAEL MOTES
Something Beautiful
For The Queen
George Nathaniel Curzon,
Marquess of Kedleston and
Royal Viceroy of India, was
unhappy with the finished
article. There it stood in the
affluent eastern section of
Calcutta for all to see. The hugh
monument masterly conceived
originally, as something
beautiful for the Queen, turned
out to be merely a bulging
bunch of bricks that substituted
expansive
space for
architectural
beauty.
Victoria of
England,
Empress of
India, never
saw her
monument.
Curzon
returned to
England soon
after her death to face the
difficulties of the First World
War, happy that his Queen had
never graced the Calcutta
monstrosity even for one
moment.
When Mother Teresa enters
the affluent section of Calcutta,
a strange tenseness torments her
delicate frame. She is at home
back there in the ghettos. The
peel of the Moslem prayer calls,
from the balconies of mosques,
is music to her ears. The hands
of beggars brushing her native
sari is a family comfort. And
the lepers, who seem to know
and accept her inability to
lovingly house them all, find a
spring of strength bubbling up
from her patient interest in
their decaying existence.
She always looks at Curzon’s
monument. It is ugly. Forever
non-political, she cares little for
the famous lady who inspired
its awful colonial presence. One
thought plagues her constantly
ticking mind. This building
would perfectly house the
street lepers despairingly
abandoned to the stench of
Calcutta’s back streets. This
structure, monument if you
like, something beautiful for a
Queen, would perfectly do the
job.
The Nobel Peace Prize
changed those forbidden desires
of Mother Teresa, The fortune
that this recognition brought,
bred into life the most perfect
leprosium of her dreams. It
would be home for the derelicts
left to die back there in the
gutters of Calcutta’s hideous
ghettos.
Through the doors of her
spanking new hospital would
come men and women most
unwanted. They would come
with stumps to be bandaged,
diseases to be arrested, hopes to
be shared. They would come to
rest on clean sheets for a very
first time and find comfort in
the soft tender give of an
uncluttered mattress.
But mostly, most of all, they
would come to her bright,
brilliantly conceived and
executed monument, to die.
Without the sounds of uncaring
passing feet, without the stares
of nervous dread, without the
look of fearful contagion, they
would pass from this earth that
yielded only pain and scorn
through the warm communal
tenderness of Mother Teresa’s
monument.
The edifice of Lord Curzon
failed to meet his noble
standard of something beautiful
for a Queen.
Mother Teresa’s leper
sanitorium and mortuary, no
matter how architecturally
impure, will stand always as
something beautiful for the
King.
e
Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan
was among the city’s religious leaders
asked to express his prayer for the
end of crime in Atlanta at the Crime
Prevention March and Rally
sponsored by the Atlanta Religious
Mobilization Against Crime
(ARMAC) at Central City Park on
Sunday, October 28.
Approximately 2,500 persons,
including several hundred City of
Atlanta Policemen, marched from
the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium
to Central City Park, where they
were addressed by Mayor Maynard
Jackson, Public Safety Commissioner
Lee Brown and leaders of the various
religious denominations in the city.
Mayor Jackson told the crowd,
which quickly filled the limited space
in the small amphitheater and
overflowed into the surrounding
park, “Let us tell the police that we
understand they cannot do the job
alone. We must have the full support
BY MICHAEL MOTES
A call for help from the
Archdiocesan Respect Life Office
was enthusiastically answered by
approximately 50 interested
persons who appeared at the
Catholic Center last week to hear
the details of a new counseling
program to assist pregnant women
in crisis.
Headed by Mary Ellen Hughes,
the Respect Life Office has
launched the Crisis Pregnancy
Service through Catholic Social
Services, Inc., the multi-faceted
archdiocesan office that provides
services ranging from “Helping in
Housing” for the elderly to
finding new homes for the
increasing number of Boat People
arriving in Atlanta.
“This is a service which we
have been trying to begin for
some time,” says Miss Hughes,
who began the Respect Life
Office a little less than two years
ago after a background in
adolescent counselling.
“We chose the name Crisis
Pregnancy Service because it
simply states exactly what the
service deals with - a crisis, which
is a temporarily unstable
situation,” she commented.
Although the service is in the
most initial stages of
development, Miss Hughes is
already dealing with a number of
young women undergoing the
of all segments of the community if
we are to be successful in stopping
crime.”
Beseeching the “Father of all of
us” to bless the city of Atlanta,
Archbishop Donnellan prayed before
the crowd:
“Centuries ago, David prayed in
the Psalms that, ‘Unless the Lord
build the city, in vain do the builders
labor.’ It is still true today, and that
is why we call out to you. We are
here because we care about Atlanta -
because we despise and reject the
violence that threatens what we have
labored to build with your help and
under your guidance.
“But more important than the
fact that we are here, is the fact that
You are here. You have not left
town; You have not moved to the
suburbs. You are here at the heart of
our city; at the center of our
concern; at the edge of our anxiety;
at the top of our hopes; at the
bottom of our pain and
disappointment.
“crisis” of an unwanted
pregnancy.
“Almost inevitably, those with
Mary Ellen Hughes
whom we have come in contact
explain that they simply looked
up ‘Catholic’ in the telephone
directory and called whatever
number they found listed,
thinking that the Catholic Church
would be able to help them,” Miss
Hughes explained.
“You are here, Father, and we beg
you to bless us and our efforts by
staying with us and reminding us of
your presence more clearly and
strongly than ever.
“We pray that you will stay with
us in a new gift of faith in our
leaders, and support of their efforts
in our continuous prayer for your
guidance of them, Lord God of
power and might.
“We pray that you will stay with
us in a new gift of hopefulness in the
hearts of all who live and work here,
a hopefulness expressed in simple
things like warmth, friendliness and
hospitality -- instead of coldness
caused by fear.
“We pray that you will stay with
us in a new gift of love expressed
both in the renewed dedication of
our elected leaders to spend
themselves for the good of all of us,
and in a renewed respect of all of us
for each other.
“Calls have ranged from a
young girl in Texas whose parents
where throwing her out of their
house to the mother of a
14-year-old girl who refused to
continue going to a public school
because it was becoming obvious
that she is pregnant.”
Taking the examples she has
already encountered, Miss Hughes
has developed a series of “Role
Playing” situations that will be
used to train those who have
volunteered to assist in the
counseling program. Training is
now going on in both morning
and evening sessions, each session
limited to working with three
volunteers.
“We want to expose our
counselors to every type of
situation they might encounter,”
Miss Hughes says. “Once we have
enough trained volunteers, we
hope that the program can be
expanded to a 24-hour a day
telephone service. Right now we
are simply trying to make our
volunteers comfortable in any
situation they might encounter.”
The program needs more than
volunteers to handle telephone
calls, Miss Hughes explained.
Other areas in which the service
needs assistance include housing
for those in crisis; persons
qualified to teach classes in
childbirth education, nutrition,
child care and parenting and
(Continued on page 8)
WASHINGTON (NC) - Calling on
all citizens to participate in the
political process, the Administrative
Board of the U.S. Catholic
Conference (USCC) has issued a
major statement on political
responsibility for the 1980 election
year.
The statement urges voters to
examine the positions of candidates
on the full range of issues as well as
the candidates’ “integrity,
philosophy and performance.”
Noting that the U.S. bishops do
not seek the formation of a
“religious voting bloc,” the
statement also contains synopses of
more than a dozen issues which the
bishops believe are important during
the national debate in 1980.
The statement is markedly similar
to a 1976 statement by the same
board called ‘‘Political
Responsibility: Reflections on an
o Election Year.” The latest statement,
titled “Political Responsibility:
Choices for the 1980s,” is described
by USCC officials as an “updated
version” of the 1976 declaration.
Both statements refer to specific
political issues but add that the
board did so without reference to
political candidates, parties or
platforms.
“Christian social teaching
demands that citizens and public
officials alike give serious
consideration in all matters to the
common good (and) to the welfare
of society as a whole,” the statement
VATICAN CITY (NC) - The
largest assemblage of cardinals in
history - 120 strong - began meeting
Nov. 5 to discuss, amid an air of
secrecy, Vatican finances and the
church in the modern world.
A small pool of reporters and
news photographers was allowed in
the Synod Hall of the Vatican’s
modern Nervi Building to see the
cardinals assemble at 5 p.m. and to
hear introductory remarks in Latin
by Cardinal Carlo Confalonieri, chief
of three cardinal-presidents of the
meeting, and the beginning of the
ANNUAL EVENT
BY MICHAEL MOTES
Referring to a small group of
pro-abortion pickets proclaiming that
the Catholic Bishops violate the law
of separation of Chuteh and State by
spending money on the Pro-Life
Movement, Archbishop Thomas A.
Donnellan told an audience of nearly
200 at the Annual Archdioeesan
Respect Life Day, “I deny a violation
of law, but I am happy to plead
guilty to supporting pro-life.”
The day-long gathering at Mount
remarks in a lengthy section on the
church’s involvement in the political
process.
The statement said the church’s
role in the political order includes
educating on the teachings of the
church, analyzing issues for their
social and moral dimension,
measuring public policy against
Gospel values, and speaking out on
public issues involving human rights,
social justice and the life of the
church in society.
“Unfortunately, our efforts in this
area are sometimes misunderstood,”
the Administrative Board, composed
of bishops from throughout the
country, said.
“The church’s participation in
political affairs is not a threat to the
political process or to genuine
pluralism, but an affirmation of their
importance,
“The church recognizes the
legitimate autonomy of government
and the right of all, including the
church itself, to be heard in the
formulation of public policy,”
according to the statement.
The Administrative Board, citing
Pope John Paul II’s statements on
the dignity of the human being,
pointed out that sometimes social
injustice and the denial of human
rights can be remedied only through
governmental action.
According to the board, the issues
cited in the statement “represent a
broad range of topics on which the
(Continued on page 8)
opening address by Pope John Paul
II.
The pope said the meeting
centered on continuing “the general
renewal” of the church begun by
Vatican II.
Twelve minutes after the meeting
opened and before the papal talk
began to move into substantive
issues, the press was asked to leave
and the meeting became closed.
In addition to the pope and
cardinals, 12 bishops and
monsignors, mostly officials of the
(Continued On page 6)
Vernon Christian Academy drew
representatives from throughout the
Archdiocese of Atlanta, as well as
some from the Diocese of Savannah.
In his plea of guilty to supporting
pro-life activities, Archbishop
Donnellan elaborated, “This
archdiocese spends money on a
pregancy counseling service. Is this a
violation of separation of Church and
State?
“This archdiocese supports Saint
(Continued on page 6)
TOP HONORS FOR best banner at the Archdiocesan Respect
Life Day went to Our Lady of the Assumption School for their
creation. Artists involved were Natalie Smith (front left), Kelly
Curran, Mary McGreevy, Sister Judith Dianne McGowan, Ann
Bracken and Bruce Adams.
A
>
(Continued on page 6)
New Service Meets Needs
Bishops’ Meeting Agenda - Page 3
Renewal And Finances
Studied By Cardinals
Archbishop ‘Guilty’
Of Supporting Life
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