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orgia \jLRtil\ Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta Vol. 18 No. 20 Thursday, May 15,1980 $6 Per Year * TKnyt. 'K*tl Switotduu* 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. i