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Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 18 No. 20
Thursday, May 15,1980
$6 Per Year
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News Center
If I can make it there
I’ll make it anywhere
It’s up to you - New
York, New York
So sang Liza Minelli lustily.
And to some extent she was so
right. It’s the Big Apple, the big
center of civilized city
shenanigans. New York is the
business center, the
entertainment center and the
news center of the globe. When
it happens - a crushing disaster
or a sparkling victory - New
York will know it first.
But Atlanta is not far
behind. At
. / least if Ted
Turner has his
way, we will
be a most
reluctant
second. And
while Ted can
talk with the
best of them,
and his con
stant mouth-
-in-motion
antics go non-stop, this time he
has a lot to yell about.
Over on Tenth street, the
Turner team has moved in and
mowed down the old Jewish
Standard Club. The Gone With
the Wind style mansion that
served Jewish business men for
lunchtime chatter for half a
century is fast becoming a
creative center way beyond the
dreams of the New York elite.
Not only will it house a new
network; that network will be a
television first bringing frontier
fame to the glittering capitol of
the South.
News is the name of the new
game being played by Ted
Turner. It will be news, 24
hours a day. The talent is
converging, the space-like
studio is rising out of the dust.
Satellite dishes are appearing on
the back lawn. On June 1, the
curtain will rise and the only all
news network will begin its
mission of informing the public.
Turner paid over seven
million dollars for this 22 acre
in-town plantation. When the
last wall jumps into place and
the final glass production booth
is born and Cable News
Network takes to the air, the
glittering spectacle will reflect
each and every penny.
News has become
entertainment. Cronkite is a
superstar. In 24 minutes each
night he plys his trade, dazzles
his fans and dictates what the
public should know. With
instant call on correspondents
dotted around the world and
technical equipment buzzing on
his left and right, Cronkite
emcees his way through the
daily tragedies of life and leaves
us feeling like applauding. It’s
not news. It’s drama to be
watched with popcorn and a
Coke.
The Turner people say there
is more. And the 3 l A million
cable homes already lined up to
buy his News Network idea
agree. In-depth news, in-depth
commentaries and colorful
articles will tell the tale, as this
experimental idea explodes
upon an intrigued audience. It’s
national, international, global
and it’s happening right here in
Atlanta.
News has been Christian
Business since the infant
Church began. The first
fisherman wrote, the first
missionaries told, maybe the
next apostles will be found
spreading the News on the
Network.
Not in New York - here in
Atlanta.
HISPANIC TOUCH -- In front of a large mural
of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Archbishop Patrick
Flores of San Antonio, Texas, delivers the homily
during a Hispanic Mass at St. Francis of Assisi
Church for bishops attending the Chicago meeting
Sr. Superintendent Reflects,
BY THEA JARVIS
Sister Valentina Sheridan, R.S.M.
is a happy blend of traditional values
and contemporary thought.
Leaving her post as Archdioeesan
Superintendent of Catholic Schools,
a job she has held for four years,
Sister Valentina remains a firm
believer in the parochial system. But
she sees that system in the context of
a support structure that ministers to
students and families alike.
“The Catholic school is a center
for faith experiences, for ‘Christ-life’
in action, as well as for academic
programs,” says Sister Valentina.
“Our whole emphasis in the last six
years has been to build a faith
community.”
Such community building has not
been without its challenges. Sister
Valentina came to the Office of
Sister Valentina Sheridan, R.S.M.
• ••-
With the assistance of Sr. Valentina and the Office of Catholic
Schools, St. Paul of the Cross Elementary School recently completed
the process of the Self Study in compliance with the guidelines and
standards set by the Southern Association of Colleges and schools.
The School community celebrated the completion of a year and a
half’s work for the Self Study process by holding a dinner for all
committee members and their spouses, the School Board, faculty, and
Staff from St. Paul’s school.
The dinner also welcomed the Visiting Committee from SACS
where the Superintendent of Atlanta Catholic Schools, Sister
Valentina Sheridan, the Curriculum Consultant for Catholic Schools,
Sister Patricia Geary, and Dr. Perkins, consultant for the Southern
Association, were present.
Sister Valentina commended Sister Paula as administrator of the
school for the work done in the accreditation process, and also
recognized the dedication and commitment of the staff and parents of
the students at the school who worked with the administration
throughout the Self Study.
On Tuesday, April 15, the SACS Visiting Committee, headed by
Dr. Ephraim Frankel, found St. Paul of the Cross meeting all
standards. The Self Study and the Visiting Committee’s
recommendation for accreditation will be submitted to the Southern
Association of Colleges and Schools for the accreditation decision in
December of this year.
Africans Warned:
Avoid Materialism
(NC) - Several times during his
visit to the Ivory Coast May 10-12,
Pope John Paul II warned against
western materialism.
The church must help those in
charge not to transpose western
models of life which tend to foster
materialism, individualism and
practical atheism, the pope told the
nation’s bishops May 11.
At a Mass the night before in
Abidjan Stadium he warned against
“dangerously widening the gap
between rich and poor, as the gap
between rich countries and poor ones
is increasing.”
The Ivory Coast is experiencing a
rapid social evolution involving urban
of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Following the Mass, Archbishop Flores and Mario
Vizcaino, of the Hispanic apostolate for the
Miami Archdiocese, clap to the rhythm of a
mariachi band at fiesta.
Education in the late sixties, the
post-Vatican II era when parents
began to question the validity of and
necessity for a private education.
It became apparent that the
educational credentials of the
teaching staff needed updating and
pupil-teacher ratio needed lowering.
Accreditation was a goal.
In the wake of a rapidly rising
tuition structure, fewer teachers
available from religious communities,
and the high cost of construction,
schools like Sacred Heart in Griffin,
St. Joseph’s High School in Atlanta,
and Blessed Sacrament in Atlanta
were forced to shut their doors.
“It’s exciting to see where we’ve
come,” reflects the sparkly-eyed
Superintendent, emphasizing that
any successes have been the result of
“many people working together.”
“We’ve worked toward the
spiritual formation of our teachers
and administrators. We’ve been
visited and accredited by the
Southern Association of Colleges and
Schools. And we continue to
immerse ourselves in self-study
programs that evaluate what we’ve
done and where we’re going,”
And where are the Catholic
schools in the Archdiocese going?
Sister Valentina doesn’t back off
from the financial realities that
confront the system. Nor does she
glibly dismiss the fact that there are
no parochial schools outside the
perimeter. She meets the challenge of
the future head-on:
“We need to look for alternatives.
We have to accept the fact that we
can’t offer a Catholic education to
everyone - that’s why we have total
parish religious education programs.
But we can try to offer it to as many
students as possible.”
For Sister Valentina, future
possibilities include the concept of a
“regional school” which would serve
many parishes on the elementary and
high school level.
“This would be the ideal,” says
Sister Valentina, “although there
probably won’t be any Catholic
schools being built within the next
ten years. I would be happy if we
were able to build just one.”
Sister Valentina begins her new
role as Pastoral Assistant at the
Church of St. Thomas Aquinas in
Alpharetta in August. She looks
forward to the opportunity for new
growth in ministry to others:
“The Church used to be a mystery
in the South. Sharing the academic
and spiritual dimensions of Catholic
education was a way of evangelizing.
Now I might be called upon to
evangelize in a different way.”
It is apparent that Sister Valentina
Sheridan will bring to such a ministry
a willingness to be open to the new
and a loyalty to the values of the
past. Both have sustained her over
the years.
egotistic search for individual
happiness and the god of money, or
on class struggle and violence,” the
pope said.
“All materialism is a source of
degradation for man and slavery of
life in society,” he added.
Several times previously on his
11-day African voyage Pope John
Paul warned the continent against
importing ideologies of East or West
or succumbing to what he called
‘‘ideological or practical
materialism.”
But his comments in the Ivory
Coast, his last stop and one of
Africa’s most rapidly urbanizing and
economically expanding countries,
Pope John Paul’s
Travels...Page 8
concentration, uprooting of families,
the search for housing and work, the
search for rapid enrichment and the
temptations of personal profit made
by exploiting the little man, the pope
said at his Mass homily.
“Yes all this, as in other so-called
‘advanced’ countries, risks putting
solidarity, justice, the hope of the
humble, peace and even religious
sentiments to the test,” he added.
The pope struck the same note in
his address to President Felix
Houphouet-Boigny and the nation
May 10.
He urged seeking development
that “can contribute to elevating
man, his dignity and his honor.”
“Outside of this, it is not true
development or true human or social
progress. It is no longer justice,” he
said.
“How I would love to help defend
(Africa) from invasions of every
kind, from visions of man and
society that are partial or materialist,
that threaten Africa’s road to truly
human and African development,”
the pope exclaimed.
When he flew by helicopter to
Yamoussoukro, about 160 miles
from Abidjan, the afternoon of May
11 for a Mass for African youth, the
pope emphasized the same theme.
“Guard your African roots well,”
he told young people. “Safeguard the
values of your culture.”
He urged them to construct their
country “on an original and typically
African model, made of harmony
between the values of its cultural
past and the gifts of modern
civilization most worthy of being
accepted.”
“Remain very vigilant when faced
with models of society based on the
were his most concerted and forceful
plea.
His Ivory Coast visit was also one
of the most jubilant and popular on
his tour. He arrived May 10 at the
airport outside Abidjan.
For his motorcade from the
airport into Abidjan, a million people
lined the streets, shouting and singing
and dancing. The crowd easily
matched the numbers who cheered
the pope’s arrival in Kinshasa, Zaire,
at the start of his tour. The Ivory
Coast has a population only nine
percent Catholic, one-fifth the
percentage in Zaire. In the Ivory
Coast, about 675,000 people profess
Catholicism.
In Abidjan Stadium the first
evening, tens of thousands of people
filled the seats as the pope
concelebrated Mass with the
country’s bishops and 13 of the 14
new Ivorian priests who recently
completed their seminary training in
Abidjan.
The next day in Yamoussoukro,
the newly ordained priests again
concelebrated Mass with the pope. It
was the largest ordination class in
Ivory Coast history and a symbol of
its progress in gaining an indigenous
clergy.
At the Mass, the pope also
confirmed 10 young persons - four
girls and six boys - each of whom
wore a white pullover shirt with a
print of Pope John Paul on the front.
At the offertory, 14 girls, also
wearing Pope John Paul shirts,
danced.
Earlier in the day, the pope met
with Ivory Coast and visiting bishops
and he blessed the cornerstones for a
new cathedral in Abidjan and a new
headquarters for the secretariat of
the regional bishops’ conference.
REFUGEE OVERFLOW -- More than 700 Cuban refugees are
packed into a hangar at Eglin Air Force Base as they await
processing and housing in a tent city. Thousands of Cubans are
pouring into Florida daily from Havana straining to the limit the
temporary facilities set up at the base.
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