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Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 18 No. 9 Thursday, February 28,1980 $6 Per Year
Winners
Moscow is doubtful. Very
doubtful. The long road to
those record-breaking games in
the sun may be closed. We may
not run for the gold, or jump
high in air or hurl gigantic
hammers long distances.
Moscow may be very well a
doubtful proposition.
But there was no doubt
about Lake Placid.
Old glory headed into the
beautiful
snowy
mountains
with a little
Heiden in the
pocket and
that’s all. Eric
would be
great. His
gold was a
sound invest
ment. Little
else could be
expected as the cold countries
invaded our shores.
What could we possibly do
against the Alpine Swiss or the
icy East Germans or the
flashing supersonic skating
miracles from the Soviet Union.
The Russian stick men were
better at ice hockey than a
Russian bear is at dancing. We
nau no chance.
We looked at the record and
almost fainted. The Russians
had beaten every last team on
steel skates. Their international
tours were sell-out spectacles of
skillful power and art. Even the
Philadelphia Fliers were badly
beaten when they stopped
hacking Russian heads and
started playing the ice game.
The Russians were the brilliant
best.
But Mike Erizione, captain of
the underdog U.S. twenty had
news for the flashing blades of
the Red monsters. His gang
wanted it. Silver would be fine,
bronze would be nice, but this
team was just a glutton for
gold. They would make possible
the impossible - and they did.
Winners. Unexpected,
undisputed. We love them. We
love their grit, their rugged
determination, their persistant
refusal to stay down. Maybe it
was this new wave of patriotic
fever, maybe it was the press
relegating them to a respectable
third or maybe it was the
imprisoned, held hostage
Americans who would have this
bright marvelous moment in
one of their never ending bleak
days. Maybe
Winners, your contagious,
infectious spirit warms the
cockles of our heart.
Sunday next is the annual
“winners day” in North
Georgia. Every parish sets out
to win the battle of want for all
kinds of Catholic need. Every
t penny pledged and put into the
pot goes for our own instigated
charitable ideas, solid winning
ideas.
Mountainous mission
parishes are helped to meet big
budgets in small places.
Homeless refugees are housed.
Breaking families are mended,
orphans are given loving parents
and young minds are challenged
with horizons of glorious
knowledge. It’s all attempted in
that communal effort of our
Archdiocese, next Sunday, that
we call the Charities Drive, a
wonderful winning day for us
all.
The Winter Olympics are
past history. We glide away
from snowy mountains on
wings of memories filled with
wondrous winning athletes.
After Charities Drive
Sunday, and our sacrificial
efforts for others, we can toast
the Winners that all of us can
be.
Rite Of Initiation
Welcomes New Candidates
They call it the Rite of Initiation.
We haven’t seen it performed ever
before. But it is an ancient rite of the
Christian Community and on
Sunday, February 24, it was
historically revised in the Cathedral
of Christ the King.
The early Christians did it with
pomp and splendor. They would
have been thrilled with the display at
the Cathedral on Sunday.
There were 140 candidates. They
presented themselves to the person
of Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan
to be considered for total acceptance
into full communion. Turning to
their sponsors the Archbishop -
presiding father of the Christian
Church - asked cautiously “Have
they faithfully listened to God’s
Word proclaimed by the Church?”
With one confident voice they
answered back “Yes - yes they have.”
The presiding Archbishop turned
to the entire congregation and asked
for their assent in accepting the
candidates for consideration. They
responded enthusiastically “We
believe that they should be called to
the Easter Sacraments and for this
RITE RESTORED -- Father Bob Poandl presents the names of
candidates to Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan during the new
Rite of Initiation held at the Cathedral Sunday, February 24.
Lenten Living
BY MSGR. JERRY HARDY
God Choosing
The Father chooses Jesus, who (as our Advent sheets noted) was
a great relief for God. Last week Jesus wrestled with his options and
chose his Father’s way. Now his Father says, “This is my son -- my
chosen one.” The Father was taking a chance. He could have done
it differently. But he didn’t. He chose Jesus as his messenger. He
chose a poor, simple, open, good and willing man, called him “My
Son” and risked having the message of centuries ignored because his
Messiah wasn’t what people expected. On the strength of that vote
of confidence, Jesus is empowered to come down from the
mountain, back to the valley where he’ll eventually die. We’re
chosen the same way, by God. We’re given the same empowering to
choose as Jesus did. The truth is the Father’s choice of Jesus was
going on last week as Jesus wrestled with himself and the popular
expectations. And only because God’s “choosing grace” was in him
could he respond so faithfully. That grace is in us too. It is the fruit
of our baptism.
The Implications For Us:
1. If he has chosen each of us in baptism and eucharist, then how
can we refuse to pass on that choice to others? How can we exclude
others from love or justice or work or good housing or food or a
kind word or our concern? Each of them is equally chosen by God.
Doesn’t that throw a different responsibility on us, since we are
then his similar sons and daughters?
2. If we, as a church, are supposed to be a group of “chosens,”
we should be able to pick off the signs of it. List three things about
YOUR experience here at the Parish that support the idea that we
are chosen and three things that deny it.
we thank God.”
Now it’s onward to Easter and full
communion with the Body of Christ.
Fifteen parishes in the
Archdiocese participated in the
revised rite. Priests from many
parishes attended, and a spirit of
joyful renewal permeated the
Cathedral.
Archbishop Donnellan was
assisted by Monsignor John
McDonough, Vicar General of the
Archdiocese and Father James
Miceli, Assistant Chancellor. The
magnificent Cathedral choir, under
PRO-LIFERS
the direction of Hamilton Smith,
along with the solemn setting of Lent
added beauty to the occasion.
In his homily, Archbishop
Donnellan stressed the beauty and
significance of the Christian
Vocation. The candidates had heard
the call, they answered and were
novices, preparing for the moment of
acceptance, rising with Jesus at
Easter, he said.
After the priests offered their
names for enrollment and the names
were accepted by the Archbishop,
the 140 new candidates were
accepted as members of the elect.
The sponsors came forward, placed
their hands on the shoulders of the
accepted ones and the congregation
thundered “The Church’s one
Foundation.” It was an emotional
moment to be remembered.
The newly shared happiness was
further enjoyed at a reception held in
the Hyland Center following the
Liturgy of Initiation. Archdiocesan
Liturgy Director, Father Louis
Naughton expressed his delight that
the ceremony was so perfectly
performed. “It was a wonderful day,
to be enjoyed by all. The Church is
richer for this day.”
Court Decision Protested
NC NEWS SERVICE
The will of the American people
has once again been thwarted, one
pro-life leader said, while another
called for public trials of the six
Supreme Court justices who allowed
resumption of federal funding of
abortion.
Others joined in protesting the
Supreme Court’s Feb. 19 decision
ordering the federal government to
pay for all medically necessary
abortions until the court determines
the constitutionality of federal
abortion funding restrictions.
Life Amendment Political Action
Committee (LAPAC) is calling for a
“new brand of hit list” -- the six
Supreme Court justices “who rule
time and again against the weakest
member of the human family - the
preborn child.”
Paul Brown, LAP AC director, said
his organization will work for a
“human rights hearing” and wants to
GAINESVILLE
hold a “peoples’ court” to try
Justices Thurgood Marshall, John
Paul Stevens, William J. Brennan,
Potter Stewart, Byron R. White and
Harry A. Blackmun. He gave no time
or location for such a trial.
“If this court is now going to rule
against the poor, the small and the
defenseless - then the people must
stand up for their God and their
country and do everything within
their power to see that the justice of
God is served on these six men,”
Brown said.
“The will of the American people,
as expressed through their legislature,
has once again been thwarted,” Dr.
Carolyn F. Gerster, president of the
National Right to Life said of the
court decision.
“For the past four years the U.S.
House of Representatives, the
congressional body most responsive -
by reason of the two-year term - to
the voter, has by an overwhelming
majority restricted tax-funding of
abortion to those cases in which the
life of the mother was endangered,”
she said. “Each year there has been a
slow but steady weakening of Senate
opposition to the restrictive
language.”
As a result of the Supreme Court
decision to let stand New York Judge
John Dooling’s order to resume
federal funding of abortions while
the high court deliberates the
constitutionality of the Hyde
Amendment, “a serious question has
been raised as to the balance of
legislative and judicial power,” said
Ms. Gerster.
“The National Abortion Rights
Action League has described this
most recent court action as ‘only a
temporary victory.’ They added, ‘We
know that this will fire the passions
(Continued on page 3)
Sisters From Peru Find Home
Ed. Note: See page two for related
story on the work of Atlanta
Archdiocesan priest. Father Bill Hoffman.
BY LYNNE ANDERSON
The three little sisters stood side
by side, wide-eyed. Clothed in
identical bright dresses they looked
like they could have been posing for
o a magazine cover; they even had an
o audience of sorts. But the audience
5 wasn’t really an audience, and the
m girls weren’t posing for photographs.
Two of the sisters, Elizabeth Anne
Edmonds and Mary Virginia
Edmonds, were about to receive the
sacrament of baptism, and the
“audience” was comprised of other
children who were there to welcome
them into the Christian community
at Saint Michael’s Church in
Gainesville.
Betsy and Ginger Edmonds, ages 7
and 4, have only been in Gainesville
since last summer when they were
re-united with their younger sister
Emily, 2. The three Peruvian sisters
found their way to Gainesville
through Linda and Tony Edmonds,
but also with the guiding hand of the
priest who baptized them Sunday,
February 17.
Father Bill Hoffman, a priest of
Atlanta, and a member of the Saint
James Society, which does
missionary work in Latin America,
and the man behind it all, explains.
“Two summers ago, in 1977, I
was home visiting my parents. I
spoke with the Edmonds, and they
asked me if I knew of any orphans in
need of a home because they were
looking to adopt a child. At that
time, I didn’t know of any children
and didn’t think I would, but I told
them I would keep my ears open.”
Father returned to Peru that
summer. Within a few days, the nuns
in the village, where he works,
Andahuaylas, told him of a woman
who was dying. They asked him to
come to the hospital to administer
the last rites, and upon arriving at the
room of the dying woman, Father
discovered a sad situation.
Lying next to the woman on her
hospital cot was a tiny
two-month-old girl. An older sister
was “taking care of her,” giving her a
bottle of sugar and water. The
distraught husband of the woman
told Father he didn’t know what he
was going to do with his infant
daughter: he had six other children
to take care of in addition to farming
his farm. If only he knew what to do
Betsy Edmonds
with his infant daughter, he told
Father Hoffman..
“I know what to do with the little
baby,” Father says he thought to
himself when the man came back to
him in two days with the news of his
wife’s death. The grieving man had
no way to take care of the infant,
and he was going to put her up for
adoption, Father says.
For the next few weeks, letters
were flying between Gainesville,
Georgia, and Andahuaylas, Peru as
quickly as the mail could carry them.
There was an infant who was going
to have to be put up for adoption,
Father Bill wrote Linda and Tony
Edmonds, and were they interested,
he asked. Their answer wasn’t long in
coming, and it was an unhesitated
“yes.”
Adoption papers had to be filed,
the usual home-study investigation
made, and even F.B.I. clearance on
the Edmonds conducted before
Linda and Tony flew to Peru to meet
their new daughter.
“I don’t think Father Bill knew
how much paper work he was getting
himself into,” says Linda Edmonds,
shaking her head. “He’s done so
much for us.”
Baby Emily stayed with a family
in Peru until the proper adoption
procedures had been met. Once
everything was finalized, the
adoption process was completed in
Peru, and the Edmonds, along with
their daughter Emily flew home to
Gainesville.
Father Hoffman dropped by to
visit the Edmonds home when he was
visiting his parents in 1978 to see
how everyone was.
“They were delighted and elated
with Emily,” he says with a smile.
“They said they wanted another
child, and asked if I knew of any
other orphans. Of course I didn’t; I
don’t really run across that many
normally, but I told them again I
would keep my ears open.”
He did keep his ears open, so open
in fact that he heard of an amazing
circumstance. A few days after
arriving in Peru, Father was walking
home from a cemetery and whom
should he meet but Emily’s natural
Father. Father Hoffman mentioned
that he had seen Emily, that she was
doing well, and the family was very
happy.
The widowed man’s home wasn’t
so happy, Father says the man told
him that day. As a matter of fact, he
had had to place his two youngest
daughters in an orphanage because he
was unable to care for them. He just
hoped those two would be placed in
a home as happy as the one where
Emily was, he told Father.
It was now an elated Father
Hoffman who quickly wrote the
(Continued on page 3)
Charities Drive
“The first results are
excellent,” so says Monsignor
Jerry E. Hardy, Chancellor of
the Archdiocese speaking
about the Archdiocesan
Charities Drive. “The samples
we have taken show us that
the great generosity of our
people continues this year
with the same outpourings as
in other years.”
The annual cash Drive
which takes place on Sunday
next, March 2, has a goal of
$550,000. The money
finances many needy projects
and many outreach programs
along with Archdiocesan
Agencies. Every family and
each wage earner is asked,
through their parish, to
support the annual Charities
Drive.
“This is the first year we
have set the goal in excess of
a half a million,” said the
hopeful Chancellor. “We
place a lot of trust in the fine
work of our priests and the
generous response of our
people.”
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