Newspaper Page Text
A
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 18 No. 6
Thursday, February 7,1980
$6 Per Year
Good Night,
Jimmy Durante
Lou Clayton died in Jimmy
Druante’s home. Gathered in
their usual position around the
piano, the inseparable pair were
harmonizing some of the old
songs. It was 1948.
Suddenly Lou was struck
with a heart attack. Summoning
emergency help, Jimmy placed
his friend in the guest bedroom.
The help arrived too late. Lou
was dead. _
Durante
never used
that room
again. It was
Lou’s room,
he had died
there. Jimmy
was silent,
reflective and
thoughtful
every time he
entered that room. It was
typical. Durante wore his heart
on his sleeve. And the sleeve
had to be enormous - the heart
was tremendous.
He was born on the East
Side of New York and was
almost lost to the world of
entertainment. He set his sights
on the concert stage, realized
his mistake early and easily
slipped into his well known
style behind a ragtime piano. It
became a super-style, uniquely
Durante.
His qualifications as singer
were severely questionable.
Dancing was out of the
question, and his reputation for
remembering lines was
notoriously sad. Still he was
brilliant box office from the
moment his guttural nasal
noises emerged from under the
battered hat.
“The song gotta come from
da heart,” was one of his sound
oldies. And in Jimmy’s case, it
always did. From way back.
From the days on Coney Island
and the nights in Harlem Clubs,
on Broadway, in Hollywood,
always it was the same. From
the heart, with all his soul.
They loved it.
Even in the pagan palaces of
Vegas, the act rarely varied. No
one ever heard him herald an
off-color crack. Racial jokes
were out, and religion was too
sacrosanct. It was his
stage-strutting, his old East Side
accent and his half-sung songs
swelling from his heart,
battered hat in hand.
D urante-jokes were on
Durante. The nose of course,
became his most prominent
possession. “It ain’t my
birthday,” he would annually
announce, “It’s my noses.” It
became his passport and the
complete Durante trademark.
As an encore, he would even
point to it as his partner of
applause. Jimmy and “the
Schnozz” were the perfect
perennial partnership.
Television gave Jimmy
Durante a new chapter to
chant. The nation was ecstatic.
It was an opportunity to see the
old act in a new intimate light.
And a chance to meet the
mysterious Mrs. Calabash as he
reverently concluded the show
wishing her a good night
“wherever you are.” The
identity of the lady died last
week as the old song and dance
man took his final bow in this
world.
“Good night Mrs. Calabash
wherever you are.”
And good night Jimmy
Durante. We know where you
are.
MINIATURE GUARD - Pope John Paul II holds the halberd of
a small boy wearing a carnival costume of a Vatican Swiss Guard.
The Vatican has announced that the Holy Father will visit the
African Continent in 1980.
PRISOS MOT
“Total Destruction Of
Life And Property”
SANTA FE, N.M. (NC) -
Archbishop Robert F. Sanchez of
Santa Fe encountered a scene of
“total destruction of life and
property” Feb. 3 when he was one of
the first outsiders admitted to the
New Mexico State Prison following
the two-day prison riot there.
The disturbance, one of the worst
in U.S. prison history, left at least 32
inmates dead and scores of others
injured.
Remarkably, according to
Archbishop Sanchez and Servite
Father Albert Gallegos,
communications director for the
Santa Fe Archdiocese, the Catholic
chapel in the prison was untouched
by the violence.
2 The two were escorted into the
compound shortly after state
officials were able to regain control
if the prison Feb. 3.
“We were brought in by prison
authorities in an effort to help move
some of the men to another area (of
the prison),” Archbishop Sanchez
told NC News a day later about his
experience in the prison.
But his efforts were, largely
unsuccessful. “It was difficult to
speak to them. Most were hostile and
many probably were still high on
drugs. It was not a situation in which
you could just chat.”
Added Father Gallegos, “It was
horrible. There were dead bodies all
over the place. I’ve been through
three riots in Chicago but I never saw
anything like this.”
But Archbishop Sanchez also
noted that the two were able to help
keep things calm by acting as a
“presence” for the National Guard
troops inside the prison.
“They really showed a lot of
self-discipline,” said Archbishop
Sanchez about the troops. “Not a
single shot had to be fired.”
And according to Father Gallegos,
many of the young Guardsmen knew
who Archbishop Sanchez was and
seemed to be comforted by seeing
him there.
He added that one of the prison
guards held hostage during the riot
was glad, upon his release from the
prison, to see the archbishop.
“I kept praying, kept praying the
prayer to St. Francis and to Our
Lady,” Father Gallegos quoted the
guard as saying.
But while there was massive
destruction throughout the prison,
the prison’s Catholic chapel was not
harmed.
“The prisoners showed great
respect for our chapel,” said
Archbishop Sanchez, who was able
to retrieve the Blessed Sacrament
while in the prison. “That seemed to
be the only room not touched by
violence. Even the stained-glass
windows were intact.”
Father Gallegos noted that the
Protestant chapel had been destroyed
but that the prisoners, primarily
Hispanic, did no damage to the
Catholic chapel probably because of
their reverence for the Catholic faith
and its traditions.
“They did nothing to the statue
of Our Lady of Guadalupe that is in
there nor to the Sacred Heart
statue,” he said.
Pope Will Visit Africa In 1980
VATICAN CITY (NC) - Pope
John Paul II said he plans to visit
Africa this year, and said the church
in Africa is working “to help save the
African soul.”
“You must have felt that I wish to
visit Africa ... I can already tell you
that I am thinking of undertaking the
journey this very year,” he told
members of the African community
in Rome at a special audience Feb. 2.
The pope did not say when he
might go, but Vatican sources
speculated that it would probably be
March, April or May.
The pope said that he would
“have to limit my journey at first to
a few countries.” He did not say
which countries.
Pope Paul VI became the first
pope in modern history to visit
Africa when he traveled to Uganda in
1969.
Last summer there were rumors in
Vatican circles of a papal African
trip. At the time it was assumed that
the trip would follow a visit to the
Philippines, which was expected
originally during the winter of
1979-80. But that trip has been
delayed. The Philippines currently
has tensions between the Catholic
Church and the martial law
government. It is generally believed
that the pope will not visit Asia’s
only predominantly Catholic country
until late in 1980.
In July he plans to visit Brazil.
in his part-French, part-English
talk to Africans, the pope said that
the African continent is undergoing a
transformation that “is both filled
with hope and sown with snares.”
“Your countries are now opening
up, by their own choice, to the
development possibilities of science,
technology and education, and to
many outside influences,” he said.
This involves some “phenomena
that are difficult to control in order
to make them truly human:
transformation of the rural economy,
industrialization and a more
mechanical kind of work, massive
urbanization and the uprooting and
anonymity affecting the outskirts of
the great cities, the number of
educated young people who have
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labor and find themselves without
work befitting their capabilities,” the
pope added.
He spoke of the risks of
“materialism, individualism, break-up
of the family, and weakening of
moral and spiritual values.”
“These go against the spiritual
outlook and the feeling of solidarity
that are so deeply rooted in the
African soul,” he said.
He warned that “ideological
struggles, often brought in from
outside, have penetrated certain
spheres.” It was the second time in a
month that the pope cautioned
against Africa being used as a
battleground by world powers.
Year Of The Family: VI
This is the final article in the series.
See page 3 for further commentary on
the Year of the family.
BY FATHER
JAMES H. SEXSTONE
Writing about “The Parish and
the Family” in a short space is a
bit like eating soup with a fork.
You might manage to come up
with a few vegetables and bits of
meat, but inevitably you’ll miss
most of the rice, a large portion of
the noodles, and at least 99.9% of
the broth. All you get is a taste
and a tiny bit to chew on.
This year 1980 has been
designated as the Year of the
Family. But concern with the
importance, the values, the
problems of Christian marriage
and family life is hardly anything
new in the challenge and heritage
of our Catholic faith, as anyone
who has been involved with
groups such as the Christian
Family Movement well knows. As
a Protestant minister friend of
mine recently remarked, “You
know, that’s one of the things I’ve
always admired about the
Catholic Church -- you take
marriage and family
SERIOUSLY.”
The Second Vatican Council
underscores the teaching and
tradition of our Catholic Faith on
the importance of marriage and
family life in the document
GAUDIUM ET SPES, “The
Pastoral Constitution on the
Church in the Modern World.”
The Fathers of the Council wrote:
The Parish Family
“The well-being of the
individual person and of both
human and Christian society is
closely bound up with the healthy
state of conjugal and family
life . . . The Christian family
springs from marriage, which is an
image and a sharing in the
partnership of love between Christ
and the Church... Christians,
making full use of the times in
wh'ch we live, and carefully
distinguishing the everlasting from
the changeable, should actively
strive to promote the values of
marriage and family.” (Gaudium
et Spes, sections 47, 48 and 52).
On both the diocesan and
parish level, the effort to support
and enhance Christian marriage
and family life can - and does -
take many forms.
Pre-Cana sessions, Engaged
Encounter, and other programs
for those to be married are
extremely important in
establishing firm foundations.
Adult discussion groups and
religious enrichment programs
help parents and others mature
and grow in their Faith and assist
them with the religious formation
of their children. Marriage
Encounter Weekends and Support
Groups strengthen good marriages
and enable them to become even
better.
Church-affiliated agencies such
as Atlanta’s Catholic Social
Services and the Village of St.
Joseph respond to the needs of
families in crisis. Groups for
Divorced and Separated Catholics
seek to provide support and
assistance with those dealing with
the multiple-traumas of the
broken family. Outreach efforts
strive to contact and re-integrate
into the parish family those who
have drifted or become alienated
from the Church. Multi-family
weekend retreats, such as those
undertaken by some Ultreyas and
smaller parishes, can be joyful and
highly successful occasions for
strengthening family ties and
building Christian friendships with
other families. Distribution of
family-oriented booklets of
activities and prayers for Advent
and Lent are a great help in aiding
families grow in faith, love, service
and prayer. (Many parishes
publish their own booklets, but
(Continued on page 6)
Archbishop Thomas
. Donneiian announces
the appointment of the
Reverend Peter T.
McKeown, M.S., as
pastor of Blessed
Sacrament parish in
Atlanta. LaSalette Father
McKeown recently
returned from London,
England where he served
as pastor in a parish
staffed by the LaSalette
Order.
Virginia Lynn Anderson
Anderson Joins
Bulletin Staff
Virginia Lynne Anderson, a
graduate student at the University of
Georgia’s Henry W. Grady School of
Mass Communication, has been
named as Associate Director of
Communications for the Archdiocese
of Atlanta.
Anderson will assist Monsignor
Burtenshaw with the radio and
television apostolate as well as
serving as the associate editor of the
GEORGIA BULLETIN.
In Thanksgiving — Charities Drive —March 2