Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 7—November 15,1979
EMMITSBURG, Md. (NC) - “You have to get it right.
No sense in rushing it. I’m doing more preparation on this
building than on any of the 1,800 buildings I’ve moved in
27 years,” said the mover.
“If this house developed a hairline crack during the
move, that man would feel it like it was in his own bones.
He’s extraordinarily sensitive about moving old houses,”
said the nun.
William B. Patram and Sister John Mary Crumlish were
standing on the grounds of the National Fire Academy in
Emmitsburg next to the Stone House, the residence where
in 1809 St. Elizabeth Ann Seton began the community
life of the Sisters of Charity.
They were watching the house in its move to a new
location a half-mile away, closer to the nuns’ provincial
house and the Seton shrine sites. By Nov. 5, it had been
moved to its new location, and was awaiting several
months of restoration work and positioning on the new
foundation.
The Stone House does not appear at first glance to be
stone, but rather a stuccoed house painted yellow. The
stone is there though, visible through a few places at the
base where the plaster has been removed so the walls can
be reinforced.
But the startling thing was that the 70-foot by 24-foot
two-story building with eight-foot porches running the
length of either side was several feet above the ground on
a cushion of airplane tires and was standing off at right
angles to the brick front walk which no longer leads
anywhere.
The mover is a burly, blond engineer whose muddy
boots and dusty coveralls somehow enhance his Southern
gentleman courtliness.
The nun seems tiny next to the mover, but she sparkles
when she tells the history of the house, about how Mother
Seton came from Baltimore with her companions and her
children to set up a religious community and a school for
young women, and how they lived for six months in this
building, the old Fleming Farmhouse, part of which
probably dates back to 1750.
FAMILY
Sister Crumlish, archivist for the Emmitsburg Province
of the Daughters of Charity, rattled off historical facts
and sequences with such enthusiastic precision that one
quickly could feel the spirit of the sisters and their warm
affection for St. Elizabeth Seton, who to them is as vital
and alive a leader today as she was when she first trod the
floors in the country farmhouse.
The Stone House is of such significance to the sisters
that when the 107-acre campus of St. Joseph’s College,
which adjoins the property of the order’s provincial
house, was sold to the government for the fire academy,
ownership of the Stone House was retained and plans laid
to move it to the grounds of the provincial house.
After weeks of preparation, the 328-ton structure —
braced, supported and cradled — took the half-mile
journey atop two units of massed tractor and airplane
tires.
Thick cables were stretched between five power mover
tractors and the board base upon which the house rests.
The power movers do not tow the building, Patram
explained. Rather, they move ahead, clamp their belted
treads into the ground, and draw the house forward inch
by inch by tightening the cables with winches.
In preparing the house for the move, Patram made
some historical finds, including an early colonial brick
floor under the wood floor of the central parlor, “which
Mother Seton may well have walked on.”
He discovered a five-foot high root cellar under the
center portion of the house, which had been closed over
more than 100 years ago.
An original stairwell was found behind partitions. And
the movers found a cistern at the corner of the house with
soft lead pipes and larger pipes fitted into logs, from the
time when the house was used as a laundry for 80 years.
Patram was particularly pleased at finding such small
treasures as a rosary, an old side-button high-topped shoe,
hairpins and combs in a crack in the wall along with
quantities of nuts stored by a chipmunk or a squirrel.
“And we found pink or rose paint under the original
plaster,” he said. “Rose was her favorite color.”
Christian Behavior Laboratory
DE KALB, Ill (NC) - “The family
is a natural laboratory for Christian
behavior,” a psychologist told
teachers from the Rockford Diocese.
“You don’t have to stand up and
lecture” to teach in the family
situation because children learn by
watching their parents, said the
psychologist, Dr. James Kenny,
director of the Jasper Newton Mental
Health Center in Rensselaer, Ind.
He and his wife, Mary, were
keynote speakers at a Rockford
diocesan teachers’ institute at
Northern Illinois University. The
Kennys, parents of 12 children, write
a column, Family Talk, for NC News
Service.
Kenny cautioned against trying to
teach theology and ethics in the
family instead of love. “The family is
the best place to teach prayer and
love,” he said.
Mrs. Kenny recalled the kind of
family considered typical in the
1940s, a family which included other
relatives and in which the father was
the breadwinner and the mother a
homemaker. “This family is not
coming back,” she said.
A more recent model of family,
she said, is a “temporary” grouping
in which two authority figures, the
parents, are waiting for their children
to grow strong and independent
enough to leave. Many people seem
to have adjusted to this type of
family and look to a future “when
the children have gone,” she said.
As the family becomes smaller
and more isolated, its smaller size
“places a burden on the one or two
adults in the unit,” Mrs. Kenny said.
“The mother is expected to be
everything to the child.”
Because society emphasizes
self-fulfillment and individualism, “it
is likely that family break-ups will
continue to increase,” she continued.
Kenny suggested that the church
help families realize that family life is
“in and of itself holy” and promote
family liturgies.
Mrs. Kenny suggested that
parishes draw families closer together
by encouraging members to work
together as a unit in organizations
like parish councils and by involving
families in “a common task”
determined by the group. “Families
need the Christian community
WISH IN FROSTING -- Pope John Paul II slices a cake made for
him by parishioners of St. Pius V Church in the Aurelia section of
Rome. The icing reads “Viva II Papa” meaning “Long Live the
Pope.” Behind the pope is Cardinal Ugo Poletti, papal vicar of
Rome. (NC Photo)
because they are too small and
isolated to go it alone,” she said.
Another speaker at the teachers’
institute, Sulpician Father Anthony
F. Lobo, rector of Theological
College at the Catholic University of
America in Washington, I). C.. said
concern with community is what
marks the Catholic school.” A good
religious education program doesn’t
make a Catholic school,” he said. “It
is Catholic in the total way the faith
is lived.”
“Catholic schools must find their
purpose in the person of Christ,”
Father Lobo said. “Teaching the
facts of faith makes sense only when
there is participation in the life of
faith.”
People must have “experience of
love before they move to an
intellectual study of the Catholic
faith,” he said.
Affirmation is “much more
important than criticism,” he added,
and the community can build “by
saying ‘yes’ loudly and clearly to
people who aren’t sure of
themselves.”
Another speaker, Gregory
Stevens, a staff member at the Peace
Institute in St. Louis, told the
teachers that, while the Catholic
church’s efforts at helping the poor
have emphasized direct service, it is
important to become aware of the
causes of poverty and to act on
them. “These are the root causes that
bring the casualties to us,” he said.
But direct service to the poor is
also needed, he said. “It’s like a
person needing two feet in order to
walk.”
Recalling the rich tradition of
church teaching on social justice,
Stevens said “it is no longer an
option for Catholics to engage in
social ministry.” He added: “We’ve
had about one major encyclical on
social justice every two years for the
past two decades.”
Efforts at achieving social justice
are as much a part of being a
practicing Catholic “as going to Mass
on Sunday,” he said. But he warned
against attempts at “organizing,
involving and converting the whole
part.”
It is a waste of time to attempt to
convince people “who are not
interested in social justice and would
not perceive it as an issue," said
Stevens, estimating that about 40
percent of the parishioners in the
parish might be in that category.
“Pray for that 40 percent,” he said.
“I’m a firm believer in the power of
prayer when I try to convince them.”
BIG MOVE - The historic Stone House, once
the home of St. Elizabeth Seton, starts its move
from tire original site on the St. Joseph College
campus in Emmitsburg, Md.. to St. Joseph’s
FAMILY PLANNERS TOLD:
provincial house property near other Seton shrine
sites. The 70-feet long 328-ton structure started
its half-mile journey Oct. 16 and was completed
on November 5. (NC Photo)
Can’t Cheat Church Doctrine
VATICAN CITY (NC) - Pope
John Paul II strongly reaffirmed the
church’s teachings on marriage and
birth control during a Nov. 3 address
to two groups of natural family
planning experts.
“One cannot cheat with the
doctrine of the church, as it has been
clearly shown by the magisterium, by
the (Second Vatican) Council, by my
predecessors,” the pope said in a
Frenc h - language talk in the
Consistory Hall of the Apostolic
Palace.
He confirmed the importance of
“respect for human life, despite the
difficulties,” condemned abortion as
a “grave fault.” re-emphasized the
church’s opposition to artifical
contraception and encouraged
scientific research on methods of
natural family planning.
The talk was addressed to
delegates of the Liaison Center for
Research Groups and to members of
the administrative council of the
Federation of Organizations for
Research and Promotion of Natural
Family Planning Methods.
Pope John Paul said the 1968
encyclical of Pope Paul VI,
“Ilumanae Vitae,” provides “the
ideal of conjugal relations.”
Such an idea) does not allow for
“a concession more or less broad,
more or Mess admitted, to the
principles and the practice of
contraceptive customs,” the pope
added.
“God calls spouses to the sanctity
of matrimony for their own good
and for the quality of their witness,”
he said.
Regarding abortion, the pope said
that “the man and the woman must
work to welcome and protect the
human being of whom they are the
procreators and whom they never
have the right to eliminate.”
The couple should be joined in
such efforts by “society, physicians,
marriage counselors (and)
legislators . . . always in the sense of
respect for human life, despite the
difficulties and bringing help in cases
of difficulty.” he added.
On divorce, the pope emphasized
the sacramental reality of marriage
which requires in a special way “a
participation in the announced love
of Christ for his church.”
Conjugal love requires “a totality,
where all the components of a person
are brought together” and a “deeply
personal unity which demands the
indissolubility and the fidelity of a
reciprocal gift,” he added.
Pope John Paul concluded his talk
with praise for the scientists,
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (NC) ~
Bishop Rene H. Gracida of
Pensaeola-Tallahassee uses a line
from a Noel Coward play to illustrate
the problem of battered wives.
“Women, like gongs, should be
struck regularly,” the leading
character remarks in “Private Lives,”
just after hitting his wife. That line
amused previous generations, but it
would not elicit many chuckles
today, at least not from those who
are aware of just how prevalent
spouse abuse is in our society, the
bishop said.
In one of his regular articles
written for Florida newspapers,
Bishop Gracida discussed wife abuse,
its causes and how it can be stopped.
The cure must go to the root of
our perceptions of womanhood, the
bishop wrote. “It is important that
womanhood be respected — that
women be respected beyond their
ability to play a certain role in
society, but rather be respected first
and foremost as individual persons
full of the humanity accorded to
each by our Creator and Savior.
“We must not pretend that
signficant differences do not exist
between sexes: that would only serve
to undermine marriage and family
life, important bases of our society.
However, we must strive to overcome
in ourselves any and all demeaning
attitudes and customs toward
women,” Bishop Gracida concluded.
He pointed out statistics showing
that 1.8 million wives are beaten by
their husbands in any one year in the
United States, and a Harris Poll
physicians and other specialists who
work in the field of natural family
planning.
He asked them to keep in mind
the welfare of families and society
and “the progress of the human
domain according to the design of
the Creator” in their scientific
research.
found that one-fifth of American
adults approved of slapping one’s
spouse on “appropriate” occasions.
“The sheer numbers of violent
male-female encounters in the home
indicate that the problem in the
United States goes beyond the mere
personal interaction between two
private parties behind closed
doors .. . As a society and as
individuals we must come to grips
with such insidious decay of our
society and values,” Bishop Gracida
said.
He cited the family court systems,
statutory reform, counseling, refuge
shelters and other support services,
and advocacy programs instituted on
behalf of battered women. In
Florida, the bishop said, $5 of every
marriage license purchased is, by law,
designed to fund spouse abuse
centers. Ten such centers have been
approved.
“While one might question the
wisdom of asking about-to-be
married couples to finance such
centers, there is no doubt that these
centers are needed and will help
those who flee an abusive spouse.
“Most of the programs and
reforms are good to the extent that
they do provide social salve to quell
the very real, deep hurt suffered in
body and spirit by abused women,”
he wrote. But he said the long-range
cure goes beyond that.
The bishop wrote that if
fundamental respect for womanhood
is to take hold in society and in our
homes, it must first be firmly rooted
in the heart of each one of us.
‘Respect Answer To Abuse’
Conflicts Plague New Government In El Salvador
BY NC NEWS SERVICE
Extremists from right and left apparently have prevented the new
military-civilian government of El Salvador from launching a moderate course.
The nation’s new leaders took over after three years of violence marked by
numerous complaints of human rights violations against the previous
government.
The leaders came to power after young military officers staged a coup Oct.
15 against Gen. Carlos Humberto Romero and his hard-line government. The
military called on civilian leadership to help them implement a program of
social reforms and pacification.
Communists and some other leftist groups answered the call. So did some
businessmen, large landowners and center-left political parties which saw the
possibility of relief from violence.
But Marxist guerrilla movements and large popular movements refused.
Instead they stepped up demands for better wages and curbs on inflation, and
for the immediate release of opposition leaders allegedly jailed during the
previous administration.
Guerrilla leaders admit that their groups thrived under the harsh policies of
Gen. Romero and his predecessor Col. Arturo A. Molina.
This leftist threat, observers say, prompts the ultra-right to keep their
squads active, and to block government reforms that affect land, investments
or profits. Hardliners in the armed forces are also blamed for continued
violence.
*
Among such political polarization, conciliatory moves by the five-member
ruling junta, which offered to negotiate and kept troops confined to barracks
during early street demonstrations have been unsuccessful and at least 70
people died within two weeks of the coup, mostly in confrontations between
troops and demonstrators.
Such confrontations have been seen as a setback in efforts for human rights.
So was the assassination of a police chief claimed bv the People’s
Revolutionary Army.
Veteran diplomats point out to the rather mixed nature of the ruling junta:
two colonels whose ideas and abilities are not yet clear, one businessman and
two Catholic academics who are committed to “profound reforms”
particularly in land tenure, one of the key issues that produces violence.
Its cabinet is formed by Christian Democrats, Social Democrats,
Communists, members of landed families, businessmen closely associated with
foreign investors and military men. The Communist Party agreed to join after it
was given the labor ministry. Observers feel this is a key post as it could mean
eventual control of trade unions. They also see built-in conflict in the cabinet
since the military leaders kept the ministries of defense and interior, both in
charge of public order.
An issue seen as a test of the new government’s sincerity and power is the
fate of 276 persons whom relatives reported missing after arrest by Romero’s
security forces. The junta said that a search of all prisons failed to produce any
of the political prisoners and that they could be dead. Church and human
rights leaders believe that many are still alive.
The military has reluctantly agreed to an investigation under an independent
tribunal after prolonged pressure from civilians.
The situation of the missing persons and the imposition of martial law at the
end of October following the demonstrations and killings, are seen as setbacks
for the government efforts to democratize this Central American country of
4.6 million.
Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador has repeatedly called for
moderation and an opportunity for the junta to get organized and begin the
promised reforms. He was applauded at a Sunday homily when he criticized
the extreme left as intolerant. The archbishop has been also critical of the
ultra-right.
Perhaps the influence of this respected churchman and of other priests can
increase the chances for the moderates. In spite of the turmoil, there was a sign
that many look to middle of the road policies when over 100,000 came to
welcome home Jose Napoleon Durate from a long exile in Venezuela. The
popular Christian Democrat leader was deported by the army after what
observers termed widespread fraud to rob him of his victory in the 1972
presidential elections.