The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current, May 08, 1980, Image 1

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Catholic Muskie Named BY JOHN MAHER NC NEWS SERVICE Sen. Edmund S. Muskie (D-Maine), chosen by President Carter to succeed Cyrus R. Vance as secretary of state, is the first Catholic to hold that office. “I’m very pleased with the appointment,” said Bishop Edward C. O’Leary of Portland, Maine, in Chicago, where the U.S. bishops were meeting. “I think he’ll be a moderating influence and bring stability to our foreign policy.” Archbishop Peter Gerety of Newark, N.J., formerly bishop in Maine, said Muskie was a “great choice.” The archbishop added: “He’s highly respected and I think he’s a very fine man.” Father J. Bryan Hehir, U.S. Catholic Conference associate secretary for international justice and peace, said Muskie has a strong foreign policy background from his years on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and was an intelligent participant in hearings on the ratification of the Salt II arms limitation treaty with the Soviet Union. “He brings a strong mind and a strong personality to a job that takes a strong person,” Father Hehir said. Muskie is “a good substantial Christian, not just a nominal Catholic,” said Msgr. Vincent A. Tatarczuk, vicar for temporalities and former chancellor of the Diocese of Portland. Muskie is “a man of great integrity, who would never compromise his faith and who has carefully developed his conscience,” said Msgr. Tatarczuk, who has known Muskie since the early 1950s and who officiated at the weddings of two of the senator’s children. The Portland diocesan official was asked about the senator’s stand on the abortion issue, which has been criticized by some members of the pro-life movement. The senator has opposed a constitutional amendment to ban abortions and has also voted for the use of federal funds to pay for abortions in certain cases. Muskie “is personally very much opposed to abortion,” the priest said, “but in his voting experience he has taken his cues from (Jesuit) Father (Robert F.) Drinan (D-Mass.), an attorney, a former dean of the Boston College Law School, a theologian.” Muskie “sees it as a matter of reconciling his conscience with what his constituency is asking him to do. He felt he was not in any way condoning the practice of abortion Sen. Edmund S. Muskie but was accomodating the consciences of others.” The priest said that during his two terms as governor of Maine from 1954 to 1958, Muskie had been a member of the Catholic Lawyers’ Guild in the diocese. Msgr. Joseph B. Coyne, pastor of Little Flower Parish in Bethesda, Md., where the Muskies are parishioners, said that they are practicing Catholics, but have not been active in church organizations. “I didn’t expect that,” he said because of other commitments the senator and his wife have. “Mrs. Muskie had duties in the school while the children were here,” the pastor said. All five Muskie children attended Little Flower school and four of them graduated from the school. Edmund Jr., the youngest, transferred after the sixth grade. The three Muskie daughters all graduated from Holy Child High School in Potomac, Md. Muskie’s Senate voting record on foreign policy issues is that of a Democrat strongly supportive of a president belonging to the same party. He backed Carter’s decision to try to rescue the U.S. hostages in Iran. That decision prompted Vance to resign. He has supported most of President Carter’s foreign policy decisions, including the Panama Canal treaties, the decision not to develop the B-l bomber, the sale of advanced fighters to Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia and maintaining economic sanctions against Rhodesia, which has now become independent as Zimbabwe. Although he took no formal position on the Salt II treaty with the Soviet Union, the senator has been a supporter of arms control. The 66-year-old senator, a native of Rumford, Maine, is the second of the six children of Stephen and Josephine (Czarnecki) Marciszewski. His father, a tailor, had fled to the United States in 1903 to escape czarist tyranny in Poland. An immigration official in New York, unable to spell the family name, shortened it to Muskie. The senator’s middle name, Sixtus, was the name of five popes. A World War II veteran, he was elected to the Maine House of Representatives in 1946 and after re-election in 1948 was made Democratic floor leader. In 1954, Muskie became the first Catholic ever elected governor of Maine. Another Catholic had held the office 110 years earlier, but had been appointed to succeed a governor who had resigned to become a member of the U.S. Senate. A secretary of state in the 1940s, the late James F. Byrnes, (1945 to 1947) was baptized a Catholic, but had renounced Catholicism by the time he was appointed. Dancin’ The groom was a little hot under the collar as he led his bride of a few hours back to the table. “I didn’t do so well, did I? ” he stuttered. “You were sensational,” I lied. I immediately asked forgiveness, but I had to pour on that exaggeration. The poor man had just bravely waltzed his new wife around a shining empty dance floor. The entire wedding party tearily looked on. I say “waltzed.” To the strains of “The Loviliest Night of the Year,” he moved her from one end of the floor to other like a longshore man moving a crate of Indian tea on the New York docks. ‘‘We have been taking lessons,” he said nervously as the others flocked towards the strains of the band. “Lessons?” I asked. “Dance lessons” he said, “We’re learning how to dance.” I could not believe it. They are starting on a brand new life. College is over. The challenge of success in the professions is ahead. They know how to handle a mortgage. But they can’t dance. It’s absurd, it’s asinine. But it’s true. And there are millions like them. They are the Beatle-bottle-babies of the sixties. They are the disciples of the Beach Boys, the Bee Gee’s and the rip-roaring rockers of the last 20 years. They know how to wiggle, waddle and wag. They see a difference between the gyrations of rock and roll and disco that no one else can possibly untangle. They have the ability to stand in one place and move at the same time. Down through those 20 years they invented all kinds of tags and taps for their jungle beat. But they never learned how to dance. Now the craft is back. The Fred Astaire academies of ballroom instruction are packed. The craze of the big sound and the big band fills the air. For 2 hours each Sunday evening WSB Radio pours our Woody Herman, Tommy Dorsey, Vaughan Monroe and Harry James and listeners are asking for more. Extend the show one hour plead the letters. Over at Colony Square, the sophisticates pour from swanky offices each Friday afternoon, not to get an early jump on the weekend. No, they crowd the Mall to jump into the jitter of a Tea Dance. With the blare of the big band sound of Ray Bloch they bring back the forties. Those who remember, fall easily into those great steps that kept a nation at war sane. Those, told about it only at the knee, practice the steps perfectly and with fresh exhilaration. Look, Ma, I’m dancin’! Go to the attic and bring your college sweaters, penny loafers and button-down shirts to the garage sale. They, like the haunting clarinet sounds of Benny Goodman, are back. And maybe, if we could find the price of the gas, someone would come up with a Studebaker convertible. You have all the ingredients again. Hey, world, you’re dancin’. Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta Vol. 18 No. 19 Thursday, May 8,1980 $6.00 Per Year FREEDOM MASS -- Cuban refugees at Fort Walton Beach, Fla., embrace Father Todd Hevia during the greeting of peace at the Cuban’s first Mass in the United States. Africa Welcomes Pope KINSHASA, Zaire (NC) - Pope John Paul II arrived in Africa amid wildly cheering crowds, dancers on 10-foot stilts and the colorful pageantry of black Africa. The pope landed in Zaire, the first stop of his six-nation tour, on May 2 and promptly turned the welcoming ceremony into a symbolic gesture toward all Africa. He kissed the ground and said: “God bless Zaire. God bless Africa.” After several days of activity, however, the cheers were interspersed with tragedy and controversy. The tragedy occurred when nine people were trampled by the early crowds trying to enter a park where the pope was scheduled to celebrate Mass. The controversy involved the speed with which African customs should be incorporated into church life in Africa. The other countries on the African tour (May 2-12) are the Congo, Kenya, Ghana, the Ivory Coast and Upper Volta. At Kinshasa’s airport, the pope was greeted by President Mobutu Sese Seko and Cardinal Joseph Malula of Kinshasa. Pope John Paul said he came as a religious leader to “purify, elevate and affirm” the religious nature of the African soul. He also said he was a messenger of peace and rejoiced with the independent African nations who have gained independence thus taking their destiny in their own hands. Yet each African nation has a struggle to forge its own personality and culture, he said. For this the countries need peace, independence and non-partisan aid, he added. At the airport hundreds of thousands of chanting and singing people greeted the pope. The presence of Mobutu was seen as further evidence of the president’s growing reconciliation with Zaire’s Catholic Church. On the eve of the pope’s arrival, Mobutu, a baptized Catholic, married his companion of several years, Bobila Dawa, at a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Malula. In the mid-1970s, the 49-year-old Mobutu tried to curb the power of the church as part of a campaign to eliminate colonial influence from Zaire. A key state action was the Turn To Page 6 nationalization of the Catholic school system. But the school system was returned to the church in 1977 and Vatican officials with the pope said the church-state problems have been settled. Zaire, the former Belgian Congo, was Christianized by European missionaries and has the largest Catholic population in terms of numbers and percentage of the nations on the papal trip. Over 45 percent of Zaire’s 27.4 million people profess Catholicism. During the flight from Rome to Zaire, the pope talked with journalists about Africa and alluded to the recent U.S. effort to rescue the American hostages in Iran. “We always need to fear for world peace, but these last days have been particularly tense and dangerous,” said the pope. “We need to eliminate the causes of war and, in the first place, terrorism, which is a crime and a sin.” Regarding the boycotting of the summer Olympics in Moscow because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the pope said athletes should act according to their conscience. PROPER ROLE OF PRIEST Political Office Out BOSTON (NC) - Following is the r text of a statement issued May 5 by Jesuit Father Edward M. O’Flaherty, provincial of the Society of Jesus of New England, regarding the order prohibiting Jesuit Father Robert Drinan from running for reelection to the House of Representatives. Congressman Robert F. Drinan, S.J., announced today that he will not be a candidate for reelection to the United States House of Representatives this fall. Congressman Drinan, who is a Jesuit priest, is withdrawing from the race in deference to an order from his Roman superiors. As provincial of the Society of Jesus in New England, I am Father Drinan’s religious superior. At this time I would like to share with you the senquence of events leading to today’s announcement as well as what I take to be the reasons for the superior’s order. On Sunday, April 27, 1980, I received a telephone call from the Rome headquarters of the Jesuit order communicating this order. I informed Father Drinan immediately. Over the course of the next few days I pursued several avenues of appeal, stressing with the Roman authorities the fact that such an order would almost certainly seem in the eyes of many people to be an improper intrusion by the church into American political affairs. I also pointed out the serious inconvenience to the election process itself since the filing deadline for candidates is May 6. On Saturday, May 3, I was told that these concerns expressed had been personally conveyed to the Unfir.an anfLcvlfiao Kilt tKat oftov a » UV1CUI1 UUVUU11K1CO, WUV vtluu U1.H.1 u discussion it became clear that the decision would be final. This information was communicated on the same day, I believe, to the 'Vatican’s representative in Washington, Archbishop Jean Jadot. Father Drinan and I met in Boston on Saturday afternoon. At that meeting, convinced that the decision was final, Father Drinan agreed to announce his withdrawal from the race. It has been stressed to me that Vatican and Jesuit authorities m Rome wish to underline the point that the principle reason for the order was the pope’s convictions about the proper role of the priest. Indeed, one highly placed Vatican official privately expressed the hope that it might be possible to persuade people that the pope was acting exclusively out of principle. There was no intention of singling out Father Drinan for criticism. (Continued on page 7) Sister Mayor Surprised “The whole incident came as a surprise.” These were the words of Sister Carolyn Farrell, reflecting on the Papal directive prohibiting Father Robert F. Drinan, S.J. from serving in the U.S. House of Representatives. Sister Carolyn, mayor of Dubuque, Iowa, a city of 67,000 people, doesn’t feel her own political future is threatened: “The wording seems to indicate that only the clergy is involved.” Her larger concern is for the Church, which has, in the past, been assisted by dedicated clergy who were unafraid to wrangle in the political arena. “Father Drinan was a valuable part of the Washington scene,” feels Sister Carolyn speaking to the Georgia Bulletin from Dubuque. “The clergy in Latin America, too, are performing valuable service. I can’t see the harm of their involvement and I’m not sure what’s prompting the order from the Vatican.” The mayor of Dubuque sees political involvement as a means of service to the community. “Not everyone is attracted to politics or is even able to serve. In my position I can help meet local needs.” As for what the future will hold, Sister Carolyn is taking a “wait and see” attitude: “The Pope is in Africa.” The questions will have to wait. -TKJ UPLIFTING MOMENT - Pope John Paul II lifts up an African child during his visit to Kinshasa, Zaire, during the second day of his African visit. I