Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4
The Georgia Bulletin
February 7,1980
The Charities Drive
Working Women
Sheila Mallon
Each year I write to you regarding
the annual Charities Drive, which this
year will be on Sunday, March 2.
The history of the Drive has
demonstrated its importance to the
Archdiocese, and your own desire to
participate in the work of the Church
of the Archdiocese of Atlanta. Your
generosity has allowed us to fulfill our
responsibilities in the areas of social
service, pastoral care, and religious
formation. Your spirit of love and
sacrifice has enabled us to make
tangible the love of Christ, and to
witness to our faith in a concrete way.
(Part I)
For Christmas in 1964, Mrs. Santa Claus
bought me a ukelele. She has an excellent
ear, and she tuned it perfectly, in less than a
minute, to “My dog has fleas.” I learned a
few chords and proceeded to learn to play
the thing. I found at age 25 that I could
carry a tune, so what the heck - I went
ahead and taught myself to sing at the same
time.
One night during the next year, we drove
with friends to Kansas City to see Peter, Paul
and Mary in concert in Kansas City. They
did one song which was my favorite -
“Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” by Bob
Dylan. I searched around the town the next
morning and found the music to it and
learned to play it. I still know all the words
and chords and have, over the 15 years since,
played it over a thousand times, “it ain’t no
use to sit and wonder why, babe,” I just like
it.
After a year, I had literally worn out the
uke. I therefore asked Mrs. Claus for a
guitar. She obliged, albeit with a cheap one
since we were living on the brink of the sea
of poverty. (A few times there, we fell in.) A
phonograph record accompanied my
Christmas guitar, and the jacket claimed that
this little handy-dandy disc would teach me
to play the guitar or my money would be
cheerfully refunded.
I remember placing the guitar on my lap
and thinking that this must be the way Elvis
felt when he first started and sat down to
learn to play “Old Shep.” “I’m on my way,”
I thought as I excitedly placed the needle
onto the record for my first lesson. I sat
there breathlessly like the little RCA dog,
with my ear cocked to hear my master’s
voice.
I wish I could TELL you these next two
paragraphs, instead of writing them. I’m not
a joke-teller, but I can still imitate the voice
of that little man on the record. For that
matter, so can you. No matter where you
are, read this out loud in a high-pitched
Southern drawl:
“Hi thar! So you’ve bought yersef a
guit-tar, have yuh? Wal that’s wonnerful, and
I’m glad. Yew’re gonna luv it, and have
hours ’n’ hours of fun, jist yew wait and see!
“But now, afore yew can PLAY it, by
jingies yew’ve gotta learn to TUNE it! So
take the little peg thet attaches itsef to the
first strang, and tarn it ’til the plucked strang
DECATUR:
I noticed in your 24 January 1980 issue a
certain House Bill no. 1236 which was
sponsored by Rep. Cas Robinson of the 58th
and Rep. Greene of the 138th “relating to
control of preventable diseases, so as to
provide for the Dept, of Human Resources
to establish a program for prenatal testing by
means of amniocentesis for genetic disorders
and for other purposes.”
In all the literature which I have been
able to gather on amniocentesis I have found
nothing which would be supportive of any
position of process by which a woman can
be guaranteed a healthy baby. Of the over
100 genetic diseases that can now be
diagnosed before birth by amniocentesis, not
one of them can be cured prior to birth!
With the exception of treatment for an Rh
factor incompatibility I ask what methods or
procedures or treatments are there in
existance which can in any way prevent
disease prior to birth? Additionally, for what
“other purposes” could this test be
effective?
In April 1979 an article entitled
“Amniocentesis May Increase Fetal Loss,
Morbidity” appeared in the OBSTETRICS
AND GYNOCOLOGICAL NEWS listing
many related dangers to the baby ranging
from serious skeletal abnormalities to severe
We can take pride in what we have
accomplished together. But we are a
Pilgrim Church. We must grow and
find meaning in what we have done,
and in what we can do now and in the
future as followers of Christ.
As your Archbishop, I ask you to
continue your generous participation
in our growth and development.
With every good wish and with
prayers for God's blessings on your
lives, I am
MOST REV. THOMAS A. DONNELLAN
ARCHBISHOP OF ATLANTA
sounds lak this: “PLEEEE-E-E-E-NNG!”
I know now (though I didn’t then) that
PLEEEE-E-E-E-NNG is the sound of the “E”
above middle “C”, to which one tunes the
highest-pitched, smallest diameter string of
the guitar. But to silly me, sitting there with
the instrument on my lap, and looking down
at it, the “first” string (the one closest to my
eyes) was the one that turned out to be the
bass (sixth) string, the one with the
LOWEST sound. Its tone is also an “E”, but
a full two octaves lower, sounding about like
this: “BAAOUUU-U-U-U-UNNG!”
So I began cranking the peg. Every few
seconds, the little man on the record would
speak reasurringly to me: “Hi, feller! Are
you gittin’ thar? That note once agin is
PLEEEE-E-E-E-NNG!” And I’d answer,
“Yes, sir, I’m gettin’ it, I’m gettin’ it, just
gimme a minute!”
Well, I got the tone of my “first” string
about halfway from BAAOUUU-U-U-U-
-UNNG to PLEEEE-E-E-E-NNG when
disaster struck. The bass string, stretched to
the yield point, could BAAOUUU-U-U-U-
UNNG no longer. With a loud “KAPOWIE”
it broke into two (shorter) strings, and one
of its (now four) ends released all its pent-up
potential energy by zapping my eyebrow
and drawing blood.
I sat there with mixed feelings - thankful
to be sure, that it hadn’t hit my eye, but
otherwise embarrassed, dumbfounded, angry
and crestfallen, with both my eyebrow and
my feelings hurt. The little invisible man was
still yakking - “Hey! I bet yew done got it
tuned up by now, so let’s move on to the
next strang, O.K. ole buddy?”
I replied, “AARRRGGGGHHH. Shut
up,” and snatched him off the record player.
From the kitchen, Carolyn heard me
talking, “What’s that, dear? Did you call
me?” I slid the guitar into its case, and the
case back under the bed, and walked into
the kitchen. “How’s the tuning coming?”
asked Carolyn. “Hey, you’re bleeding from
your eyebrow! What happened?”
“It hit me. I couldn’t even get the first
string tuned. It broke, and I was nowhere
NEAR the note.”
“Not as easy as ‘My dog has fleas,’ huh?”
“Right. I’ll try again someday.”
That day was to be a full three years
later, halfway across the country.
hemmorhage and unexplained respiratory
difficulty at birth which lasted up to 24
hours or the death of the infant.
This is an expensive test, a dangerous test
for both child and mother and an
unwarranted test which will be financially
covered by our taxes. Why not wait until the
baby is born and then the defect can be
more accurately and less costly diagnosed? A
simple Nil Per Os (Nothing by . mouth) can
be stamped on the infants record and
ultimately starvation will cure the defect and
the defective. Society will then be free of
one more “environmental and hereditary
pollutant.” Sound novel? It’s being done
today in hospitals across the land! Due to
the expense and time involved there are
presently hospitals which require a signed
agreement to abort the infant if a defect is
found or they refuse to perform
amniocentesis. Just who is the more
defective, the baby whose abnormality
cannot presently be cured in-utero, or
society whose intolerance and selfishness
produces the abortive mentality of
murdering the defective with the defect?
House bill no. 1236 should not be allowed
passage.
At this time of year with winter hanging
on with a deadly grip and frequent grey days
of interminable rain... I find myself
growing increasingly crotchety and irritable.
Driving to work in the morning I tend to
catalogue all those things that annoy me. (as
I get older the list gets longer and longer).
This morning I found fault with drivers
who do forty miles an hour in the left hand
expressway lane, women who tease their hair
and then don’t comb the back (it looks like
the birds just left for a minute). Other
people’s grandchildren who pick on my
adorable, blameless grandchildren. The fact
that the city of Atlanta and its environs
seems to have only an occasional need of
street signs. Or the fact that businesses are
evidently not required to post in plain view
the numbers of their establishment. (It’s a
lot of fun driving up and down Buford
Highway trying to figure out if you are in
the 4600 block or not).
Or plants that are sold with a little tag
which reads “incredibly hardy, requires only
partial sun, little water and grows
profusely”, only to croak within a week of
purchase. Another goody is Lee Mays
columns, any of them -1 read them as a sort
of literary hair shirt. . .
Anyway, you get the idea, my mood was
less than glorious and then I remember an
article I read recently which really infuriated
me. It appeared in a woman’s magazine and
it purported to be about a family of four
who ate on $16.00 a week.
Sixteen dollars, can you believe that - my
husband saw it and almost had a coronary.
“I was born poor, I have lived poor and I
wish to die poor.” These words from the last
will of St. Pius X attest to his close imitation
of Jesus. Living what he preached, the thrust
of his pontificate was summed up in his
motto: To Renew all things in Christ.
Witty, yet dignified; easy-going yet
incredibly active; unassuming yet firm, this
powerful leader brought about numerous
changes and achievements in his reign from
1903 to 1914. This Pope of the Holy
Eucharist encouraged the laity to receive
Communion frequently, even daily. (The
norm at that time was once a month). His
decree of 1910 stated that First Communion
should take place at seven though this was
not to be considered a fixed age limit - it
could be earlier or later, depending on the
intellectual development of the child.
Children were much older in receiving the
sacrament before the decree.
Once a lady asked the Pope for his
blessing on one of her chaities. Her son was
shyly standing to the side, staring at the
Pope. The Holy Father asked him to come
closer. The boy did and boldly placed his
little hand in the hand of the Pope who
asked his mother: “How old is he?” “Four,”
she replied, adding she hoped he could make
his First Communion in a couple of years.
He looked in the boy’s eyes and asked:
“Whom do you receive in Holy
Communion?” “Jesus Christ,” was the
prompt answer. “And who is Jesus Christ?”
“Jesus Christ is God.” “So whom do you
receive in Communion?” “God Himself”.
Fr. Bernard Quinn holds a rare
distinction. He is one of the few priests in
the world who holds a doctorate degree in
“Missiology”. He is the Director of the
Glenmary Research Center in Washington,
D.C. Fr. Quinn has devoted over twenty
years toward research and practical
application of theory to rural mission work.
Fr. Quinn is frequently asking himself
and his audience: “What is the work of the
mission of the Church?” How would you
answer that question? Would you limit the
task to the spiritual nurture of the members
of the Church? I wouldn’t.
In making a thorough study of the New
Testament and of the documents of the
Vatican Council II, Fr. Quinn claims the
mission of the Church can be summed up in
five categories of concern:
1) “Catholic Nurture” - this takes in all
the activities of the local church, which
support and nourish the faith-life of the
individual members and of the church
community. This would include such things
as Sunday Mass, religious education, pastoral
visits and counselling and church suppers.
2) “Ecumenical Nurture” is the second
category of concern. Under this area of
church ministry, we ask ourselves the
question: “How can Catholics and
Protestants and all people of good will join
hands together to help one another grow
spiritually, while respecting the personal
convictions of each person?” For me, this
brings to mind the “Prayer Service For
He had just been going over our food bills
for two for one week.
I know how she did it though - there had
to be a padlock on the refrigerator (for
which she had memorized the combination
and then eaten it) best meal she had in a
week.
If you have read the article - you may
remember what the family looked like. If we
had seen those pictures 40 years ago there
would have been a caption over them that
read “Family on way to ovens at Dachau.”
Seriously, feeding a family of four on
$16.00 a week might be possible. It would
take a tremendous amount of ingenuity and
hard work however. I tried several of the
recipes and after the third casserole the
breadwinner commented that he had no idea
that there were so many ways to prepare Kal
Kan.
For women who work, it is increasingly
difficult to prepare easy meals which are
moderate in cost and palatable. I promise
our $16.00 a week gal has not discovered the
secret.
Can you imagine telling your son who has
just come home from football practice that
he is limited to one small apple and a 4 oz.
glass of milk for an afternoon snack?
So many of her meals depended on
leftovers for another meal. We never had any
leftovers when the boys were home. In fact
unless I immediately threw whatever
remained into the soup pot they never made
it to the table the second time.
However, in the food business you hear
all kinds of odd facts. My husband tells me
The pope told the mother to bring the child
the next morning and he would give the boy
his First Communion.
• Giuseppe Sarto, the second of ten
children, was born in Riese, Italy in 1835;
his father was a mailman and his mother a
seamstress. When he was ten years old he
confided to his mother that he wanted to be
a priest.
Ordained in 1858, he fulfilled his pastoral
duties in humility and total generosity. No
stranger to the pawnshop, he was forever
helping someone out in time of need. When
cholera broke out he worked night and day,
taking care of all the sick calls (he forbade
his curates to expose themselves to the
disease) and sometimes acted as nurse.
When he became bishop he immediately
set up personal parish visitations, writing the
pastors that they “need not throw a party or
give me a dinner . . . The finest reception
you can tender me is this, that I may find at
my arrival all your parishioners praying in
the church ...” Sometimes he showed up
unexpectedly. One of his persistent requests
was that the clergy should regularly conduct
catechetical classes for the young. It did not
go too well for some of the clergy who were
negligent.
In 1893 he was given the red hat. “There
goes our patriarch,” the people were often
heard to say. Holding his head a little to the
side, he greeted EVERYBODY as he strolled
the streets of Venice - farmer, fisherman,
housewives, children. “How’s business?” or
“How’s the family?” Yes, he was theirs.
Unity of Christians”, which is being planned
by the members of the Rabun County
Ministerial Association. I’ve participated in
many wonderful ecumenical services of
“Thanksgiving”, but this is my first
opportunity to join my fellow Christians for
the specific purpose of praying together that
“we may be one”. On Sunday evening of
Feb. 24th, several members of St. Helena
Catholic Church and myself will be joining
hands with Baptists, Methodists,
Presbyterians and others as we sing: “They’ll
Know We Are Christians By Our Love”.
3) “Spiritual Outreach” is the phrase I
use for the church’s mission to the
unchurched. Through the emphasis given
during the past few months,
“evangelization” has become a rather
commonly used term in our Archdiocese.
Did you know that 38 percent of the people
in the United States attend no church
regularly? We as a church community must
ask ourselves: “What can we do to build
their faith-life?” “What can we do to make
the unchurched feel more welcome in our
church?”
4) “Social Outreach” connotes the
church’s concern for the poor, the elderly,
the mentally retarded, and those who suffer
from discrimination and injustice. St. James
strongly reminds us that faith and good
works must go together. “Faith without
works is as dead as a body without breath”
(James 2:26). In the Last Judgment scene of
that less than 20% of all those coupons in
the newspapers and magazines are redeemed.
There has been an upsurge recently but still
only a small percent are being utilized and
that’s a shame.
I added up the coupons in yesterday’s
paper and if I used only those which gave
money off on items we used frequently I
could save us $5.50.
What really made me aware of the
advantages of coupons was a letter I received
from a gal in So. Carolina recently. She
claims that she saves 60% on her grocery
bills through the use of coupons. She also
uses refund forms or mail in certificates.
How often I have thrown away the box with
the mail in form on it.
Of course she goes a lot further and
actually saves boxtops, innerseals and plastic
wrappers from every item she purchases. It
sounds like a lot of work and I think you’d
need a room just to store the stuff. But
much of what she suggested would not
require that much more time or effort and
might help all of us better organize our
efforts to keep pace with the rising costs of
household expenses. I especially liked the
idea of a file for coupons by category so that
before shopping you can check and see if
there are any you can use.
By this time having made a firm
resolution to use all my coupons and mail
order refunds from now on and save at least
40% on my food bills - I was in a fantastic
mood and when my husband hears about
this resolution his mood will improve too.
In 1901 he led a crowd of more than ten
thousand pilgrims on foot to the top of
Mount Grappa, 5,000 feet high, to
consecrate a shrine of the Blessed Virgin. He
had tied a white handkerchief around his
neck instead of the collar, as Italian village
priests often do. After the ceremony, the
people flocked around him shouting “Viva
our Patriarch!” But he shook his head and
answered: “Viva Our Lady.”
After becoming Pope he never forgot his
humble heritage. When his brother wanted
to send his sons to an expensive boarding
school after the wife’s death, Pius said to
him: “No, brother, that school is too high
class for your boys; we are only simple
country people.”
The decisive hour of his pontificate came
in 1907 when he solemnly condemned
sixty-five theses taken from the books and
teachings of the modernists. On September 8
of the same year, he issued his encyclical
“Pascendi Dominici Gregis,” the most
detailed and sublime document which ever
had been published by the Holy See for the
defense of supernatural revelation. Catholics
were asked either to submit unequivocally to
the authority of the pope or to leave the
church. Seminaries, Catholic universities and
colleges were then purified. Modernism
collapsed and those modernists who resisted,
soon faded away.
St. Pius X’s life and motto: To renew all
things in Christ, give much to meditate on
during Lent. Why not try to round up a
biography. I’m sure you’ll gain a special
friend.
Matthew 25, Jesus reminds us that we will
be judged on how we have treated the
disadvantaged. “I was hungry and you gave
Me to eat”, etc.
5) “World-wide Concern” is the title I
give to the last category of the church’s
mission. East local church is linked to the
larger church. St. Mark’s Catholic Church is 1
a part of the Archdiocese of Atlanta and of
the worldwide Catholic Church;
For a healthy church it is important that
we keep a balance in all the five categories of
ministry, just as a healthy person is one who
eats a proper balance of good food. It is not
enough to spend all our time and financial
resources in nurturing the Faith of our active
Catholic members.
In my own ministry, I’ve tried to keep a
healthy balance. Catholic nurture probably
takes at least 80 percent of my time. During
the past several months evangelization was
emphasized strongly. Presently some
members of my church and myself are
looking for a building in which to locate a
Thrift Shop to make available to the low
income good used clothing. Hopefully this
will become an ecumenical venture with »
several churches cooperating on the project.
A workshop in rural ministry is being
planned for Sept. 1980 with the hope of
helping those in full-time church ministry in
our diocese take a look at their many
concerns in a rural parish and see how they
can plan for a healthy balance in all five
categories of ministry.
Sincerely in Christ and His Vicar,
JOSEPH R. PEEK
Tihe
\_Gejoryia
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Most Rev. Thomas A. Donnellan - Publisher
Rev. Monsignor Noel C. Burtenshaw -- Editor
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Zang Went The Strang
Dave McGill
(to be continued)
Resound... Resound
To Renew All Things In Christ
Teresa Gernazian
Rural Reflections
Father Gerald J. Peterson
Archdiocesan Director of
Rural Life