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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 Innn 1« a1 J 1 /In mnminl ucu/uic icoo muiucu tu uu uiaiiucu 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