Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

t 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). 'Wt&pt. TUtt “Swifotilmm “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.” VlLL£+il\ 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.