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Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 18 No. 4
Thursday, January 24,1980
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DUTCH SYNOD
7l*el
The Supreme Court
They called him the “Great
Dissenter.” He was the only
Justice sitting on the 1896
Supreme Court who said NO to
the proposition. John Marshall
Harlan simply could not see it.
It was the famous Plessy vs
Ferguson decision. With the
exception of the disgruntled
Harlan, the venerable judical
panel declared as constitutional
the maintenance of separate but
equal facilit
ies for the
black and
white races.
S egregated
schools
thereby
received the
benevolent
blessing of
the law.
Fifty eight
years later,
the Supreme Court changed its
legal mind. In the 1954 Brown
vs the Board of Education
ruling, the law was differently
viewed, John Marshall Harlan
was vindicated, and school
segregation ceased.
There are other examples of
error in the chambers of the
Supreme Justices.
In 1857 the Supreme Court
ruled that Dred Scott, a field
hand and a slave, was not a
citizen, nor was he a person
under the Constitution.
Obviously again a reversal was
needed and for all practical
purposes Dred was re-awarded
his personhood, a decision the
poor man never lived to see.
What do these historic
moments tell us? One fact: The
Supreme Court is a body of
fallible, intelligent lawyers
appointed by the President,
practicing the ideals of his own
political party. The court makes
mistakes. The court is political.
On January 22, 1973, in a
life and death decision, the
court ruled constitutionally on
the rights of women. In a seven
to two decision the Justices
stated, not only that women
have legal rights over their own
bodies, not only that these
rights included the destruction
of an unborn fetus, not only
that the law of the land would
now protect the life of the
woman ignoring the life of the
fetus -- but that the fetus was in
fact and in law not a person at
all.
After such lengthy laborious
legislation that illogically once
more denied personhood to
millions, you would suppose
that the court would tell us
exactly WHAT THE FETUS IS
under the law. It didn’t.
The history of the Supreme
Court’s dealings with human
behavior and human rights is a
history of many blind blunders.
As decisions have been reversed
in the past they will be reversed
in the future. The 1973 ruling
which denies “life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness” to
millions of innocent defenseless
children can be mercifully
stricken from the sad listing of
poor law. Our immovable vocal
stand for reform is the only
necessary committment needed.
On Sunday next at the
Cathedral of Christ the King a
Family Night for Life is being
celebrated. As a testimony of
our refusal to accept this
intolerable interpretation of our
Constitution, as a sign
mourning the loss of our
brothers and sisters, martyrs to
this law, we should be there.
Vatican Makes Move
To Balance Bishops
DUTCH SYNOD - Pope John Paul II reads his
speech to Dutch Bishops during a Mass celebrated
in the Matilde Chapel at the Vatican. The
Particular Synod of Dutch Bishops was called by
the pope to deal with issues within the Dutch
church and will continue through Jan. 26.
Evangelization Conference Set
The Archdiocesan Committee for
Evangelization has invited the lay
Evangelization Coordinators from
each parish to participate in a
leadership conference on Saturday,
February 2. The conference will take
place in the Southern Conference
Priest’s Death
Being Probed
LONDON (NC) - Information
about the death in prison under
suspicious circumstances of a secretly
ordained priest in Czechoslovakia
have reached Keston College, the
center near London for the study of
religion and communism.
“This was the third report
received by Keston College in 1979
of priests dying in Czechoslovakia in
obscure circumstances,” said Keston
News Service. “Such reports reach
the West with great difficulty and are
usually impossible to authenticate to
our satisfaction.” ,
The news service said the latest
case involved Father Michael Gono,
who was ordained in secret in 1974.
It said the information about the
priest came from a recent refugee
having first-hand information about
the case.
According to Keston College,
Father Gono was arrested in March
1979 and charged with theft. After
being detained for three months a
further charge of sexual misconduct
was brought against him.
At the trial, however, witnesses
said that Father Gono had been
ordained in secret. The prosecution
claimed that the secret ordination
and the priest’s pastoral activities
were a violation of the law and
Father Gono was sentenced to two
years in prison.
He died in prison around July 21
awaiting a new trial scheduled for
July 26,1979.
The cause of death was officially
stated to be a fall from a scaffolding,
but a doctor who examined the body
said Father Gono was dead before his
body fell, said the Ke'ston News
Service.
The warden responsible for Father
Gono said he died under
interrogation during which the
authorities tried to extract from him
the names of other secretly ordained
priests, added the news service.
Parish Goals
It is the largest goal in the
young history of the
Archdiocesan Charities Drive.
This year the Drive Committee
has set the overall goal at
550,000 dollars. Each parish
has been assigned an individual
goal for this one day cash
drive. The parish goals may be
seen on page 8.
Center, Colony Center, Atlanta from
10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.
The conference is being designed
by the Archdiocesan Committee to
help parish leaders plan for future
parish evangelization efforts. A
variety of seminars will be offered to
meet the diverse needs of the
parishes in the Archdiocese. The
entire program will be presented by
members of the Archdiocesan
Committee and experienced lay
evangelizers from the Archdiocese.
Father Richard Kieran, Chairman
of the Archdiocesan Committee on
Evangelization, said: “We are really
pleased with the response from most
of our parishes to the Year of
Outreach. Many have undertaken
new outreach efforts and are
becoming much more aware of their
mission to evangelize. However, some
of the leaders have been asking for
more assistance in planning for a
total process of evangelization in the
future. We hope to help the
Evangelization Coordinators with the
planning process in the upcoming
Leadership Conference.”
The Conference will include a
display of resource materials for
parish evangelization efforts.
Detailed information on the
Conference has been mailed to all
Evangelization Coordinators and
Pastors. Further information can be
obtained from Father Richard Kieran
- 881-6643.
Official
Archbishop Donnellan
announces the following
pastoral appointment:
FATHER EDWARD
SWEENEY as Assistant
Pastor at St. John Vianney
Parish in Lithia Springs.
This assignment is
effective January 4,1980.
VATICAN CITY (NC) - As the
Particular Synod of Dutch Bishops
moved into its final days, the focus
of attention was a proposal which
could open the door to the naming
of additional conservative-minded
bishops.
The proposal calls for creation of
three to six new dioceses.
The current liberal-conservative
split in the Dutch hierarchy is five to
two in favor of the liberals. The
naming of additional bishops is
aimed at an equal division in the
number of liberals and conservatives.
The proposal was revealed in a
summary released Jan. 19 by the
Vatican.
Although the summary identified
2 none of the speakers at the synod
° sessions, the proposal was believed to
have been made by Cardinal
Sebastiano Baggio, prefect of the
Vatican Congregation for Bishops,
and strongly opposed by at least
three Dutch bishops who are
considered liberals.
The three were said to be Bishops
Johannes W.M. Bluyssen of
s’Hertogenbosch, Theodorus
Henricus Zwartkruis of Haarlem and
Hubertus C.A. Ernst of Breda.
Along with Cardinal Jan
Willebrands of Utrecht and Bishop
Johannes B. Moller of Groningen
they make up the liberal contingent
of the Dutch hierarchy. Bishops
Adrianus J. Simonis of Rotterdam
and Johannes B.M. Gijsen of
Roermond are known as
conservatives.
The proposal allegedly made by
Cardinal Baggio calls for the division
of the Utrecht, Roermond and
s’Hertogenbosch dioceses and the
assignment of Cardinal Willebrands -
president of the Dutch Bishops’
Conference - to full-time work in the
Vatican Secretariat for Christian
Unity. Cardinal Willebrands currently
is president of the unity secretariat,
sharing these duties with his
responsibilities in the Netherlands.
If the new bishops named by Pope
John Paul II would be of the same
mind as Bishops Simonis and Gijsen,
a numerical balance between liberals
and conservatives could be achieved.
The episcopal changes would not
assure, however, that the Dutch
Catholic laity would be able to
resolve a similar liberal-conservative
split in their ranks.
The appointments of Bishops
Simonis and Gijsen by Pope Paul VI
in 1971 and 1972 caused a furor
among the liberal Dutch laity and
clergy which has not yet completely
died down.
According to Ben Spekman,
assistant press officer for the Dutch
bishops, the division of dioceses has
been a topic of conversation in the
Dutch church since the 1950s when
the Rotterdam and Groningen
dioceses were created.
At the synod sessions Jan. 18, the
bishops took an “informal vote” and
agreed to begin a lengthy new study
on the possible subdivision of
dioceses, Spekman said. The study
will not be completed until well after
the Jan. 14-26 synod ends, he added.
The proposal was one of the most
significant developments during the
first week of the Dutch synod, which
also featured lengthy discussions on
such topics as lay pastoral workers,
the naming of bishops, the use of
mass media, the role of bishops and
the training of priests.
Other issues scheduled to be
considered included sacramental
matters, religious education and
ecumenism, Spekman said.
Issues such as homosexuality and
contraception are not on the synod
agenda, the press officer added.
As the synod began a small group
of Dutch homosexuals demonstrated
at the Vatican. They asked that the
issue of homosexuality be discussed
and displayed banners criticizing
Pope John Paul.
No final document is expected to
be issued at the close of the synod,
Spekman said, because the
discussions are intended to be an
open exchange of views rather than a
process leading to absolute
conclusions.
One unusual aspect of the Dutch
synod is the presence at the sessions
of Henk Kouwenhoven, a layman
who is press officer for the Dutch
bishops.
The move to admit a lay press
officer was backed by Pope John
Paul, and one of the synod’s early
actions was a vote on whether
Kouwenhoven should be allowed to
attend the sessions, said Spekman.
All 21 participants in the synod
agreed to the step, and the pope has
been attempting since then to make
Kouwenhoven feel at ease in the
overwhelmingly clerical assembly,
(Continued on page 6)
Year Of The Family: Part IV
Editor’s Note; Next week’s story
will feature “The Hurting Family. ”
BY MARY ELLEN DuVARNEY
Working in social services has
given me the opportunity to
observe the pain and strengths of
broken families. For many
couples the decision to end their
marriage where children are
involved is a difficult one, even
when the marriage has caused
considerable grief for both
husband and wife.
These couples try different
options before deciding to break
up the family unit. As parents
they want a good life for their
children. They realize that ideally
children need a father and a
mother. But when they finally
decide they can no longer live
together as a couple, the
inevitability of a family split must
be faced. They explain the
decision to the children. They
separate, however painfully, and
then share responsibility for
rearing the children, now in
separate homes.
There are even more painful
broken families. These occur
when one parent has so much
difficulty in the marriage and
internally that the person simply
leaves the family. This type of
situation was recently portrayed
in the film, “Kramer vs Kramer.”
In this case the father was given
the opportunity to experience the
frustrations and joys of being the
single parent to his young son.
The father began to mature in a
more caring way than had been
possible when his wife assumed
the majority of the parenting role.
I remember counseling a
The Broken Family
similar couple in Worcester, Mass.
The very depressed mother, Betty,
had been in the state hospital for
a few weeks under her doctor’s
supervision. Betty decided the
frustrations of her marriage were
too much for her, and she moved
to another city to live with her
sister. I encouraged her to seek
counseling there which she did.
This left her husband, Don,
alone with six children between
the ages of three and twelve. He
felt overwhelmed and called his
parents to come and stay with
him. They cared for the children
during the hours he worked.
Don came to Catholic Charities
for counseling. At first he was
angry at his wife. He compared
her most unfavorably to his
adored sister, Lou, who had
eleven children and still managed
everything in her home perfectly.
Don needed help to see his wife’s
role as a mother more realistically.
One of the highlights of
working with this family was the
opportunity for Don and the
older children to have a family
session with a psychologist from
the N.Y.C. Jewish Family
Services. This psychologist had
come to Catholic Charities to
demonstrate the then innovative
technique of family interviewing.
He helped the family to express
their grief over the absence of
Betty from their lives. Eventually
this story had a happy ending.
Betty and Don forgave each other,
and Betty returned to her family.
Many other families do not
have this opportunity to heal and
start again. There are situations in
which one partner is unwilling or
unable to maintain a commitment
to the family. Then the single
parent who is left has all of the
responsibility for the children.
At these times community
resources are invaluable. A Big
Brother or Big Sister may be
needed. Camps fill in the summer
days when a parent must continue
to work. Counseling keeps the
family communication open and
helps the children to accept the
authority of the single parent.
Groups for parents and teens
allow the family members to find
people with similar problems.
We need to be aware of these
broken families in our midst,
where we work and go to church
or school. As concerned people,
we can reach out to these families
to involve them in our lives, so
they do not feel isolated in this
impersonal society.
Catholic Social Services is
beginning a Family Life
Education Program in February. I
hope that parents and children in
all types of families will be
involved to share and grow as we
explore the needs of parishioners
in our greater Atlanta community.