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John Paul In The Box
VATICAN CITY (NC) - Thirty
penitents, mostly Poles, got a
surprise April 4 when they entered
the confessional in St. Peter’s Basilica
normally occupied by Father
Flaviano Slovinski.
Instead of Father Slovinski, the
priest-confessor inside the booth was
Pope John Paul II.
Wearing the traditional black
priestly garments over his white
papal robes, the pope came down
from his apartment around noon on
Good Friday and entered the fourth
confessional in the left transept, near
the cross of St. Joseph.
The first confession he heard was
from Father Slovinski and the last
was from a 10-year-old Italian boy.
“The pope carried out this gesture
to emphasize the importance of the
sacrament of penance in this
preparatory period for Easter,”
Father Romeo Panciroli, Vatican
press spokesman, said later.
Vatican observers said Pope John
Paul also took the previously
unannounced action to emphasize his
preference for individual confession
over the practice of general
absolution.
The Vatican’s Congregation for
Sacraments and Divine Worship has
stressed that general absolution may
be used only in situations where
there are not enough priests available
for individual confession.
Pope John Paul spent an hour and
35 minutes in the 230-year-old
wooden confessional box,
administering absolution after
individual confessions by a large
group of Poles, some Italians, a small
group of West Germans and two
English people.
It was the first time in history
that a pope is known to have heard
the confessions of ordinary Catholics,
in St. Peter’s.
During World War II, Pope Pius
XII sometimes heard confessions of
average lay people in his private
apartment, but popes have generally
only administered the sacrament of
penance to their close aides and
other Vatican officials.
The only sacrament which Pope
John Paul has not administered in
public is anointing of the sick.
Pope John Paul opened Holy
Week by praising modern-day
martyrs in the “church of silence”
living under atheistic governments.
The Palm Sunday Angelus talk
brought about 100,000 people to St.
Peter’s Square.
“We cannot forget those who in
our day have undergone death for
the faith and for love of Christ and
who in various ways have been
imprisoned, tortured, tormented and
condemned to death,” the pope said.
His next major activity was the
Holy Thursday chrism Mass at St.
Peter’s Basilica, where he was joined
by 22 cardinals, 70 bishops, about
1,000 priests and some 14,000 lay
people.
Noting that the rite “joins us to
priests of all the world, of the entire
earthly globe,” Pope John Paul led
the cardinals, bishops and priests in a
renewal of their vows at ordination
and then blessed the oils which will
be used throughout the liturgical
year for the sacraments of baptism,
confirmation, holy orders and
anointing of the sick.
That evening at St. John Lateran
Basilica about three miles from the
Vatican, the pope presided at the
concelebrated Our Lord’s Supper
Mass.
Dressed in white and gold
vestments and carrying the golden
staff of the vicar of Christ, he
deliverd a homily on the significance
of Christ’s institution of the
Eucharist at the Last Supper.
He then washed, dried and kissed
the feet of 12 elderly Romans,
residents of a home run by Mother
Teresa of Calcutta’s Missionaries of
Charity.
(Continued on page 2)
HEARING CONFESSIONS ~ In an
unprecedented move. Pope John Paul II sits in a
confessional on Good Friday where he
administered the sacrament of penance to 30
people. The pope said he wanted to emphasize
the importance of the sacrament.
*
Tfotl
'Su’ltut'iJuUV
Jesse
Billy Sims could run. And he did.
All season long last year, and for
three years before that, he ran for
the Sooners of Oklahoma. He broke
all records at his football-crazy
school and was drafted first in the
ranks of professional ball players.
Detroit, a team in the cellar, earned
the privilege of drafting the dazzling
young star.
Billy knew how to run. He also
knew how to price tag that ability.
Through a
Brooks-Brothers
clad agent and
spokesman, the
young grid-iron
great sent a bill
to the Lions of
Detroit. It made
them more than
roar. Sims wants
six and one half
million for four
years service in
the royal blue
jersey of the motor city. Word
quickly returned from the fuming
Detroit Directors Board; “we wanted
an Oklahoma running back not an oil
well.”
John Cleveland Owens, known to
his fascinated friends as Jesse, was
born in Alabama and it was there,
without ever touching a football, he
learned to run. In bare sweating feet,
under a hot burning humid sun, he
ran like a frightened deer. Running
and Jesse Owens developed a deep
passionate love affair that would
linger and become most public in a
blazing brilliant career.
Although his running destroyed
the written records and defied a
dictating German bully, Jesse Owens
would gain nothing from his fame on
the track.
Moving with his parents to Ohio,
he set his amazing feet in motion for
Ohio State. But he ran without help.
Since a black athlete performed
without scholarship, dish washing
and general janitorial got the sprinter
through school. In the meantime,
records were wrecked by the
run-loving man from Alabama.
In 1935, National records in the
broad jump, the hurdles and the
sprints were shattered. In 1936
World records went the same way.
Hitler dared the black “streak” to
challenge his “Aryan stable” in the
Berlin Olympics. Jesse, unperturbed
by a politically crazed Germany, ran
the blonde hopefuls clean out of the
park. The black express steamed
home with four gold medals, leaving
an embittered and embarassed Adolf
to his war games.
Although a hero’s welcome
awaited his homecoming, Jesse
Owens received no Mark Spitz type
financial reward. Lean, hard times
drove the proud performer into
side-show circus acts. His best break
was a decent handicap as he gallantly
took on a race horse for a lowly
purse.
Today athletics have become one
way tickets to glory. Muhammed Ali,
light on some pocket change, gets 8
million for a return to some ring. O.
J. gets to be a movie magnate,
Broadway Joe models
unmentionables and the rest become
cereal celebrities. And the public
pays at the gate for poor, sometimes,
pathetic fare.
After many tries and many years,
the records of Jesse Owens fell.
And last week, after a race with
cancer, so did he.
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 18 No. 15
Thursday, April 10,1980
$6.00 Per Year
HOLY THURSDAY. During the Liturgy on
Holy Thursday morning Archbishop Donnellan
receives the Oil to be blessed. Pictured with the
Archbishop are Monsignor John McDonough,
NEW PASTORAL POSITION
Abbot Augustine Moore, Deacon Chris Starr and
permanent Deacons Richard Narey and George
Angelich. The ceremony took place at the
Cathedral of Christ the King.
Sr. Valentina Resigns
Sister Valentina Sheridan, R.S.M.,
Archdiocesan Superintendent of
Schools, has announced her
resignation effective June 1, 1980.
Sister Valentina served in the
Archdiocese as Superintendent and
Assistant Superintendent for the past
eight years, and as Principal of Our
Lady of the Assumption School from
1968-1973. During her tenure in the
Department of Catholic Education,
Sister has been instrumental in
gaining more public recognition and
respect for Catholic education in
North Georgia. Currently the
President of the Georgia Association
of Independent Schools, Sister
Valentina has served in an executive
capacity in many public and private
educational organizations. Some of
these organizations include: Georgia
Private Education Council; Atlanta
Area Association of Independent
Schools; Atlanta Area Teacher
Education Service; Metro Atlanta
Teacher Education Group; Georgia
Private Education Council; Private
School Advisory Board to Georgia
State Department of Education.
Because of Sister Valentina’s
continued involvement in the
accreditation of Atlanta’s
Archdiocesan schools, as well as her
Hostages Celebrate
At Easter Services
SISTER VALENTINA SHERIDAN, R.S.M., Archdiocesan
Superintendent of Schools, who will resign her post effective June
1, 1980.
active participation in the
accreditation of many public and
private educational institutions,
Sister was selected as a member of
the Georgia Elementary Committee
of the Southern Association of
Colleges and Schools.
The Archdiocesan School system
has grown in countless ways through
Sister Valentina’s leadership. The
Archdiocesan Parents’ Organization
was formed in 1978, a five-year fiscal
plan for schools was inaugurated,
seminars and courses for
administrators and teachers were
arranged and conducted by the
Office of Catholic Schools with the
cooperation of Georgia State
University and the Georgia State
Department of Education. Of special
significance to Archdiocesan
teachers, students, and parents is the
continued employment of a school
psychologist whose primary function
is to work specifically with the
Archdiocese’s fourteen schools. Sister
Valentina’s thirteen years in
Atlanta’s Catholic educational
community have provided
professional and spiritual leadership
to principals, teachers, parents, and
students.
Sister’s leadership will continue in
her new assignment as pastoral
assistant at St. Thomas Aquinas
Parish in Alpharetta and Roswell
where she served on a part-time basis
during the summers of 1974-1975. In
her new role, Sister will concentrate
on the area of Family Ministry.
Three American clergymen,
including a Catholic priest from
Omaha, Neb., conducted Easter
services for the American hostages in
Iran April 6.
The hostages, held at the
American embassy in Teheran since
Nov. 4, also were visited Easter
Sunday by Archbishop Annibale
Bugnini, papal pronuncio to Iran,
and by Melkite-Rite Archbishop
Hilarion Capucci, a Syrian who
currently lives in Rome.
The three American clergymen -
Father Darrell Rupiper of Omaha,
the Rev. Jack Bremer of Lawrence,
Kan., and the Rev. Nelson Thompson
of Kansas City, Mo. - all had made
previous visits to the hostages as part
of a group called the Committee for
American-Iranian Crisis Resolution.
At a news conference in Teheran,
the three said the hostages continue
' to be treated well.
“Today we heard the same thing,”
said Father Rupiper. “They have
exercise bicycles, Ping Pong, watch
TV, see movies, video casettes.
“The food is fine. They say that
the students are treating them
correctly,” Father Rupiper added.
The priest remarked that they had
no way of knowing whether they had
seen all the captives. But he said they
had been assured all would be seen,
and commented that he had no
reason to doubt that this was the
case.
The three clergymen spent five
and a half hours in the embassy
conducting the services and meeting
with the hostages in groups of two or
three.
Father Rupiper also remarked
that one of the hostages had received
copies of an American sports
magazine. But he added, “I am quite
certain that, for emotional and
psychological reasons, news
concerning their current situation
will probably not be given them.”
The two other clergymen, both
Methodists, also said the hostages
appeared to be in good mental and
physical condition. But, said Mr.
Bremer, “I do confirm from my own
first-hand impression they were tired
of being here and they all wanted to
go home.”
The Committee for
American-Iranian Crisis Resolution
was organized by a University of
Kansas professor who was contacted
earlier in the crisis by the Iranian
militants.
The three Americans were joined
at the news conference by
Archbishop Capucci, a controversial
Catholic clergyman who has shown
support for the Iranian revolution led
by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
and has now visited the hostages
three times.
Archbishop Capucci also said the
hostages were being treated well.
Proof of that, he claimed, can be
seen in “their faces, their smiles and
their healthy figures.”
Meanwhile, Archbishop Bugnini
and Archbishop Capucci were
reportedly part of a new
self-appointed mediation commission
formed to seek a compromise
between Teheran and Washington
over the hostage crisis.
The two archbishops, in addition
to seeing the hostages, reportedly
negotiated Easter Sunday with their
militant captors.
Archbishop Bugnini’s visit to the
hostages was his second. He first
visited the hostages Nov. 11 after
carrying a personal plea for their
release from Pope John Paul II.
Khomeini rejected the pope’s
plea, saying if Christ were present he
would have censured President
Carter. (NC)
Lefebvre Warned
VENICE, Italy (NC) - Suspended Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s
scheduled celebration April 7 of a Mass in Venice “can only cause
suffering in the Catholic community,” according to a recent
communique from the Archdiocese of Venice.
The communique noted that the French archbishop’s status in the
Catholic Church has not changes since the late Pope Paul VI
suspended him in July 1976 from all priestly functions.
The Church of St. Simon the Younger in Venice, where
Archbishop Lefebvre is to celebrate Mass in the forbidden Tridentine
rite, has been the site of many such Masses in recent years, the
archdiocese said.
Such liturgical celebrations take place “against the explicit orders
of the ecclesiastical authority, in contrast to the liturgical norms in
force after the (Second Vatican) Council and in plain violation” of an
agreement that the church would be used only for sacred music
concerts and rehearsals, the communique added.
“The faithful are called to pray that the Lord may quicken the
time of reformation of this sad laceration, in full loyalty to the
Catholic faith, in obedience to them and in faithful welcome of the
letter and the spirit of the Second Vatican Council,” it concluded.
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