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Season Of The Spirit
BY JAMES TARBOX
“We think that it must have been
much easier for the apostles, those
who walked and talked with Jesus, to
believe and to understand what he
was all about; but we know from the
Scriptures that it was not.”
Archbishop Thomas Donnellan’s
homily had special meaning for the
members of the congregation of Our
Lady of La Salette Catholic Church
in Canton. Nestled in the woods, off
the main highway, Our Lady of La
Salette is a congregation that is very
similar to the Christian communities
in the days of the Apostles. Small in
number, the members of the Catholic
community of Canton, Georgia rely
on each other for support in a very
special way. They, perhaps more
than those in larger metro parishes,
rely on the Spirit to unite them with
the universal church; a church that,
because of the distances involved,
sometimes must feel very far away.
Last week, on the Friday before
Pentecost, the Spirit was made
present to the Catholics of Our Lady
of La Salette, in a very special way;
Archbishop Thomas Donnellan came
to Canton to administer the
sacrament of Confirmation.
“This was the first time that the
Sacrament of Confirmation has been
administered in this building, the
very first time,” said Sister Kate
Regan, one of the members of the
pastoral team at Our Lady of La
Salette. “We’re almost ready to move
up to parish status, but not quite yet.
It would mean so much to the people
here to achieve that, to be a full
fledged parish.”
It’s difficult to be a Catholic in
Canton. The current church has only
been standing, for three years, and
the eleven children who were
confirmed last week made up the
largest class of confirmation
candidates that the church has had.
“Always in the past we would go
into Cartersville, and have the
ceremonies over there,” Sister Kate
explained. “This night though was a
real coming of age for the people and
the church here, a real high water
mark for all of us.”
Throughout the history of the
church, it has been .possible for
Catholics to receive the Sacrament of
Confirmation only once in their life.
The old -religious texts used to say
that the Sacranfent left an “indellible
imprint’’ dn the soul of the person
confirmed.
Now the Church speaks of this
indellible imprint in terms of the
renewing, strengthening, refreshing,
presence of the Holy Spirit within
the soul of the person receiving the
sacrament. ; v y
On a warm late sprihg night in
north Georgia, it’s easy to" speak of
renewal and refreshment, for the
Spirit seems quite near. However, it
is the future, the many years down
the road that Confirmation looks to.
“We’ve been preparing since
December for this evening,” said
Sister Kate. “We wanted to make
sure that the kids had a good strong
understanding of the Sacrament
tonight, when they received it, and in
the years ahead so that they will
grow in the ways that we all hope
they will.”
The entire preparation started for
the Canton candidates with a Day of
Awakening. The express purpose of
the meeting was to have the children
try and discover where Christ was in
their lives.
“We spent an awful lot of time in
prayer and reflection,” said Michelle
Madden, one of the girls confirmed.
“We all were told that we should try
and see where we could be more
responsible, where we could accept
more responsibility in our lives as
Christians.”
“We really tried to stress the
responsibility that every Christian
has in terms of social awareness,”
said Sister Kate. Towards this end,
every candidate chose a particular
service project to complete prior to
the evening of Confirmation.
“We tried to let the candidates
choose what they would be doing in
terms of Christian service,” explained
Sister Kate. “Some went into
hospitals, and nursing homes, one of
the fellows coached a Little League
team. They all came away from their
project with a greater sense of what
it means to love their neighbor. We
tried to emphasize that Christian
service can be expressed in small
ways, not just in the big dramatic
gesture that everyone sees.”
During the entire time of
preparation, Canton’s Confirmation
candidates were bolstered by the
IN A SCENE that will be repeated in churches
throughout the Archdiocese, Archbishop Thomas
A. Donnellan confers the Sacrament of
Confirmation at Our Lady of La Salette Church
in Canton. The Archbshop is flanked by Father
Joe Nolan, M.S., pastor of Our Lady of La
Salette on his right and Monsignor Jerry Hardy,
Chancellor of the Archdiocese on his left. (Photo
by James Tarbox)
faith of their small Christian
community.
“We’re made up of about 75 to 80
families,” Sister Kate said, “and we
tried to emphasize to the candidates
that, though they were the ones
receiving the sacrament, all the
members of Our Lady of La Salette
were involved in their reception of
it.”
To strengthen the bonds of
community, four special liturgies
were scheduled during the time of
preparation. These liturgies were held
at various times during the
preparation and emphasized different
aspects of the growth of a Christian.
(Continued on page 6).
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“There’s Room
For Everybody, Man”
“They think it’s over, they’re
saying it’s over, but hell man it’s just
beginning.” That was Joe McWilliams
frothing in Miami last week. “After
Watts, it was supposed to be over,
then there was Chicago and Detroit
over 10 years ago. Bui it’s not over,
ain’t never gonna be over until the
man knows we mean business.”
Joe is 35. He lives in Liberty City,
lost among the quarter of a million
blacks in those few dozen biocks just
northwest of downtown Miami. Joe
has a wife and
four kids and no
job. Last week
in that sudden
spurt of racial
riotiou's anger,
Liberty City
blew up.
“I tell you it
was coming”
says the still
angry Joe.
“McDuffie, that
was murder, but it was just one
thing. The man doesn’t care, okay.
There are no jobs, okay. The Cubans
are in high hog heaven, okay. But
when the law says you don’t count,
what’s left? Mavbe we should go to
Cuba.”
Well, how come the Cubans can
get work, can make a living, can get
ahead and the blacks can’t in Miami?
Joe is ready. “I tell you how
come. They say go to Viet Nam.
They say this is the land of the free.
Go over there and teach those guys
that we can’t be pushed around.
Well, we go. I went and I sweated in
those jungles. And when I came
back, here to Miami where I was
bom, where my father was born,
what do they say when I ask for a
job? What do they say when I go to
the Government or the State or to
the businesses. I’ll tell you what they
say. They say can you speak
Spanish?”.
“Ain’t this my country? Why
should I speak Spanish? There was
nothing on the form about Spanish
when I joined the army and went
into those jungles.”
The Spanish Community will take
any job, they work hard, they are
dependable and they get on.
“Hell man, they come in on boats
and half the world is waiting to cheer
them. The Federal Government
welcomes them even if they are
illegal. They get smiles and bands and
dollar bills. What did we get, hey?
What did we get?”
“First we were non-persons. Then
we were forced labor. Then we were
non-citizens. Then a couple of years
ago we were let in. Nobody cheered
us on. Nobody.
“But, look there’s room for
everybody.” There’s got to be.
There’s room for everybody, man.”
Joe McWilliams is angry and
deeply fmstrated. As he goes back to
the shambles of the battle-torn
Liberty City where 16 people died,
deep down he knows that hatred,
that division is not the answer.
“There’s room for everybody,
man.”
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Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 18 No. 22
Thursday, May 29,1980
$6.00 Per Year
LITURGY
Abuses Attacked
VATICAN CITY (NC) - The
Vatican Congregation for the
Sacraments and Divine Worship has
called for a halt to “varied and
frequent abuses” in the eucharistic
liturgy being reported from various
parts of the Catholic world.
Although it praised some results
of liturgical reform, the congregation
listed the following among abuses
which have been reported:
- The joining by the laity in the
recitation of the eucharistic prayer;
- Homilies given by lay people;
- The distribution of Communion
by lay people while priests refrain
from doing so;
- The use of non-scriptural texts
in the Liturgy of the Word;
-- The use of unauthorized
eucharistic prayers;
-- The “manipulation of the
liturgical texts for social and political
(Continued on page 6)
SILVER JUBILARIANS. At a Liturgy
celebrated with their brother priests of the
Archdiocese, three Atlanta priests commemorated
25 years in the priesthood last week. Pictured
with Archbishop Donnellan are I to r Fathers
Richard Morrow. John Mulroy and Joseph
Beltran.
Ordination
The Archdiocese of Atlanta gains another priest on Saturday, June
7th as the Reverend Charles Christopher Starr will be ordained to the
priesthood by Archbishop Thomas Donnellan.
The ceremonies are scheduled for 10 a.m. in the Cathedral of
Christ the King. All members of the Archdiocese are invited to attend
the ordination.
The Reverend Mister Starr is the son of Mr. and Mrs. David Homer
Starr, Jr. of the Cathedral parish. He completed his seminary studies
at the Seminary of St. Vincent de Paul in Boynton Beach, Florida. He
has been assigned to Sacred Heart parish in downtown Atlanta.
The Reverend Mister Starr will celebrate his first Mass on Sunday
June 8th, the feast of Corpus Christi, at 11 a.m. in the Cathedral. All
are invited to attend.
The People And The Place
BY THEA JARVIS
Winding through the back
country roads that thread the north
Georgia nountains, one is struck by
the fact that hidden in these hills is
the Church - the people of God.
It is the Church whose presence
is sometimes obscured by the
poverty and lack of opportunity
that seek to overwhelm it.
It is the Church whose
effectiveness and concerns are alien
to the urban dweller just one hour
distant, who knows only the
parameters of his big city life.
And it is the Church that is all
too easily overlooked because its
style is simple, and plain, and
sometimes uncomfortable.
But it is the Church,
nonetheless, and four Adrian
Dominican sisters serving the
Archdiocese of Atlanta are a vital
part of it.
Five years ago they came to
north Georgia to begin a ministry
to families in Appalachia. Their
approach was a constructive one.
They rejected the “welfare” type of
handout system. They sought
instead to build up those they
served in a manner that nurtured
self-acceptance and skill-learning as
a way out of hard core poverty and
chronic psychological depression.
It was a ministry not easily
received by proud,
tradition-minded mountain people.
“It has taken us five years to be
accepted. Only now are people able
to trust us, knowing we are not just
here to write a book and walk out
of their lives,” reflects Sister
Kathryn Cliatt, former guidance
counselor and principal of a
diocesan high school in Tampa,
Florida.
Her sister in religion, Sister June
Racicot, who taught high school
religion in Tampa and was an
elementary school administrator in
Montgomery, Alabama, nods
approvingly: “For these people, the
long term committment is
important. They are accustomed to
people using them and then
leaving.”
“THE PLACE”
There is little leave-taking on the
part of these dedicated women.
Their time is taken up in home
visitation, counseling, and ongoing
activities at “The Place,” a center
for the learning, teaching, and
marketing of crafts and the general
hub around which the surrounding
community can gather for support.
It was to “The Place” that Alice
came when her husband broke his
shoulder in a motorcycle accident.
Not yet thirty years old, with three
young children, the couple faced
unemployment with no cash
(Continued on page 6)
THE DOMINICAN SISTERS in Cumming, Georgia serve the
rural poor. Pictured is an elderly couple who have lived in poverty
all their lives.