Newspaper Page Text
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Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 17 No. 44
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Mr. Scrooge’s Day
Corner Joe Cobb was
cautious. And walking down
this God-forsaken street he had
a right to be cautious. He would
have to pass the mangy old
house of the miserable miser,
Scrooge. And even in the
peaceful glow of this briskly
cold Christmas morning, the
pilgrimage was hazardous.,
Joe longed for his errant
corner
companions.
So often as a
parading
pack, they
had made old
Scrooge a
target.
P ounding on
his ruggedly
solid door, or
shouting
slogans of
insult at his
dismal window, was enough to
incite red rage in the old miser.
It was fun but this Christmas
morning only the clanging
Church bells accompanied Joe
on his dangerous stroll past the
home of Ebenezer Scrooge in
the heart of London.
He was almost safely past
when it happened. Joe froze in
complete terror. The whistle
whining from his terrified
throat stalled. His feet refused
the order to charge. Fearless
Corner Joe Cobb was struck
motionlessly terrified.
The second story window of
the miser’s dismal home flung
wide open. Nothing unusual
there. But instead of the normal
litany of angry language,
instead of the usual ghoulish
gaunt face, a bright and cheery
old gent appeared waving
delightfully in the crisp air like
a man completely cured of a
terminal disease.
This was Scrooge? This was
the renowned miser, the famous
money leech? Something was
wrong and Joe longed for the
safety of his corner haunt. But
the words came to his ear.
“You boy. Yes YOU.”
Scrooge was laughing like a
foolish carefree snowy-faced
Santa. “Me, Sir?” “Yes, you,
what’s today?” Joe, unable to
escape, decided to humor the
insanity. “To-day. Why, it’s
Christmas Day.”
“Christmas Day,” laughed
the second story vision,
“Christmas Day. I haven’t
missed it. I haven’t.” The old
man danced deliriously in full
vision. Never had the boy seen
such mountainous merriment.
Chills of delight passed through
his frame, there on the
pavement, as he realized in
some small way he had
contributed to this change in
that old miser. “No,” he
shouted, “no, Mr. Scrooge, you
haven’t missed Christmas.”
He hadn’t. Just in time
Marley in his dreadful chains
had dragged Scrooge from the
edge of another empty
Christmas. The ghosts had
hauled this confirmed medium
of meanness from the pit of self
worship into the wonderous
light of the unique Christmas
spirit.
He would enhance the
celebrations of others. He
would fulfill the wistful hopes
of his nephew. He would charm
the childish dreams of Tiny Tim
and make his optimistic clerk
Bob Cratch it a responsible
respected business assistant. He
would allow the full free reign
of the true meaning of
Christmas radiate, touching the
lives of others.
That’s what the Bethlehem
manger message signalled to a
waiting world.
Corner Joe Cobb and his
rowdy bunch of noisy street
urchins, like old Mr. Scrooge,
was never the same again.
Thursday, December 13,1979
$6 Per Year
MOTHER TERESA
FIRST BLESSING - Following his ordination
to the priesthood on Saturday, December 8, at
the Cathedral of Christ the King, Father Charles
J. Kerscher bestows his first priestly blessing on
members of his family, including his
grandchildren. Father Kerscher, who before his
retirement worked as a U.S. Postal Service
employee, has been assigned to Corpus Cbristi
Church in Stone Mountain, where he served as a
deacon prior to his ordination.
OSLO, Norway (NC) - When
Mother Teresa of Calcutta received
the Nobel Peace Prize Dec. 10 in
Oslo, she spoke out against abortion
and accepted the prize “in the name
of the hungry, of the naked, of the
homeless, of the blind, of the lepers,
of all those who feel unwanted,
unloved, uncared for throughout
society.”
Norwegian Nobel Committee
chairman, John Sanness, said she
deserved the prize “because she
promotes peace in the most
fundamental manner - by her
confirmation of human dignity.”
In her speech of acceptance
Mother Teresa condemned abortion
as the greatest destroyer of man in
the world. She called on the audience
to pray for and to stand by the
unborn child.
“To me the nations who have
legalized abortion are the poorest
nations. They are afraid of the
unborn child and the child must
die.”
Mother Teresa, founder of the
Missionary Sisters of Charity, said,
“In these years of work among the
people, I have come more and more
to realize that it is being unwanted
that is the worst disease that any
human being can experience.
“Our poor people are great
apeople, a very lovable people. They
don’t need our pity and sympathy.
They need our understanding love
and they need our respect,” she said.
We need to tell the poor “that they
are somebody to use, that they too
have been created with the same
loving hand of God, to love and be
loved.”
Mother Teresa has spent 33 years
tending the poor and sick of the
slums of Calcutta. Her order feeds
and cares for millions around the
(Continued on page 7)
4 In The Name Of The Hungry’
Millions Mourn
Fulton J. Sheen
NEW YORK (NC) - Archbishop
Fulton J. Sheen, who was the
foremost Catholic preacher and one
of the most powerful speakers of his
time, died Dec. 9 at his home in New
York City. He was 84.
Archbishop Sheen rose to national
prominence in the 1950s as host of a
weekly television program, “Life is
Worth Living,” which by 1956 was
reaching 30 million people a week.
His mail averaged from 8,000 to
10,000 letters a day, with a high of
30,000.
The series, which at its height
topped in popularity the “Milton
Berle Show,” with which it
competed for viewers, ended in
1957.
Although it was television that
brought him to general prominence,
he had been for years a major figure
in academic circles. He was a prolific
o writer and lecturer, but he was
x primarily a controversialist who
£ sought to confront error and subdue
S it wherever it appeared.
The early Sheen had must of the
flavor of Chesterton. In fact, it could
be said that he imitated the great
English journalist’s devices.
Chesterton in turn praised the
younger man’s work.
In 1930 he showed his
Chestertonian streak in an article
entitled “A Plea for Intolerance,”
which held that the United States
was not plagued by bigotry so much
as it was plagued by the “weird
fungus of broadmindedness.” “A
bigoted man is one who refuses to
accept a reason for anything; a
broadminded man is one who will
accept anything for a reason,
providing it is not a good reason.”
He maintained this stylistic device
throughout his career. In 1969, at a
Mass for peace in the National Shrine
of the Immaculate Conception
during the November meeting of the
U.S. bishops, he said: “The cross
without Christ is the concentration
camp, the police state and slavery.
Christ without the cross is
effeminacy, degeneration, LSD and
mysticism which settles for
pharmaceuticals instead of sacrifice.”
Teaching at the Catholic
University of America in Washington
from 1926 to 1950, he rose from
instructor in the philosophy of
religion to associate and then full
professor of philosophy. He also
wrote books at the rate of two a year
for much of this period and had
more than 60 books to his credit.
But it was his skill as a speaker
first on radio and then on television
that brought him national fame.
When the National Council of
Catholic Men decided to sponsor the
Catholic Hour Sunday evening radio
broadcasts in cooperation with NBC,
Monsignor Sheen became the first
regular speaker on the program.
The program, which began on a
17-station network, was carried in
1950 by 118 NBC affiliates and by
short wave around the world to an
average weekly listening audience
estimated at 4 million persons in the
United States alone. Several million
copies of Monsignor Sheen’s radio
talks were distributed in printed
form.
In the fall of 1951, Bishop Sheen,
who had been ordained a bishop the
previous June in Rome, began his
“Life Is Worth Living” television
(Continued on page 6)
OFFICIAL
Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan welcomes Father Gerard F. Gill,
MSFS, back to the Archdiocese of Atlanta; also, Archbishop
Donnellan announces the following priestly assignments, effective
Thursday, December 13,1979:
FIRST ASSIGNMENT
REVEREND CHARLES J. KERSCHER, ordained Saturday,
December 8, assistant pastor at Corpus Christi Church, Stone
Mountain, (where Father Kerscher has been serving as Deacon for the
past year).
REVEREND PETER A. DORA to full-time work at the
Metropolitan Tribunal, with residence at Sacred Heart Rectory,
Atlanta. Father Dora has been serving as assistant pastor at Saint
Joseph’s Church, Athens.
REVEREND GERARD F. GILL, MSFS, assistant pastor at
Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Atlanta.
REVEREND HUGH M. MARREN, assistant pastor at Saint
Joseph’s Church, Athens. Father Marren has been serving as assistant
pastor at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church.
REVEREND VINCENT M. MULVIN, assistant pastor at Saint
Oliver Plunkett Church in Snellville. Father Mulvin has been serving as
Vice Officialis in the Metropolitan Tribunal.
BY BARBARA HULL
“It’s different now,” a friend
complained. “Not as many cards,
and very few of those remind us
of what Christmas is all about.
Not as many parties - that’s good.
Not as much family, but more
people in town. Everything too
crowded. I wish somewhere
Christmas was the same. Not too
much or too little. But just what
it’s meant to be.”
Then I told her about the
monastery, where Christmas is the
same. The monks celebrate, in
beauty and holiness, the birth of
the Christ Child. For them
Christmas is exactly what it’s
meant to be. And those who come
to worship with them make up
what may be the largest
congregation in Georgia for a
Christmas morning service.
Any visit to the monastery can
be a worship experience. I
remember seeing first the rolling
fields. Then, high above them, a
cross topping the barn. As we
came nearer, another cross to the
left of the sanctuary, over what
we discovered later to be Retreat
House. And finally, as we drove
between magnolia trees toward
the Gate House, still another cross
proclaimed, in simple dignity, that
we were entering a Christian
World.
It was Brother Pius, in his
robes, who greeted us. We took a
few minutes to visit the gift shop,
and stock up on Trappist jellies
and preserves. Next, at the
greenhouse, Father Paul stood
among the trees and plants that he
carefully tends. His work is even
more evident outside in the
30-year-old landscaping around
the buildings.
As the three bells of the
carillon called us to worship we
moved toward the church. There
we went around to the side
entrance, to climb a stairway to
the balcony. But on Christmas we
will enter the front door. For then
chairs will be placed between the
two long sections of the choir -
the rows of monks, in their stalls,
facing each other. Chairs are also
placed in the back of the church,
with even more in the foyer
beyond the open doors. All these
chairs, as well as the benches in
the balcony, are filled by 11
o’clock Christmas morning.
Stained glass windows, in soft
shades of gray, indigo, and
aquamarine, break the starkness
of white walls. The monks
themselves designed and made the
windows, as they did all the
buildings of the monastery.
Concrete walls were hand-rubbed
until, even when new, a soft
patina proved the devotion of the
workers.
The monastery’s first
Christmas Mass is at midnight. For
this, too, several hundred visitors
are on hand. The monks’
celebration begins when they
arise, after a few hours’ sleep, at
10:30 on Christmas Eve. It is time
then to begin celebrating the
birthday of their Lord.
First they sing psalms, and
then carols. They will also be
enjoying their first sight of the
Christmas decorations. Each year
a committee decides what they
want, and then acquires or makes
what is needed. One year the
church was changed from a white
building to a green forest; cedars
backed the altar and lined the
walls. Another year was more
simple: two candles against the
wall, and two candles on the altar.
The altar candles, ringed with
Christmas wreaths, reflected a
(Continued on page 7)
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