Newspaper Page Text
Soundings - - 4fh Of July Dreams
“By ’Jft&pi. 'H&el
“Americans are a race of
convicts, and ought to be thankful
for anything we allow them short
of hanging.”
This cryptic piece of sarcastic
snobbery was uttered by Mr.
Samuel Johnson in 1775 — just
one year before he and his
London-likes bit the American
dust. A sacred Constitution for
the pioneer breakway nation was
written one year later. The
concept that this colony was a
mere dungeon of exiled felons was
denied. The document simply
said: We are One Nation.
It was a stated dream then, and
one day it may become a reality.
One Nation.
If you go into the magically
beautiful Kennedy Library as it
stands glistening on the shores of
the New England Sound, you will
glean what the half-starved Irish
faced a generation ago as they
reached the outskirts of Yankee
Boston, “Help wanted, no Irish or
Catholic need apply.”
Jews were known as ghetto
dwellers, god-killers to be corailed
and watched. As they raced from
the rage of bitter persecution of
Europe’s worst anger, they were
expected, in the New World, to
shed their identity or accept the
burning brand of ostracism.
The Greeks and the Poles came
as potato-less as the Irish. Their
accents were thick and their
language “un-American.” They
became the footstool of the Irish
and the Jews, now savoring the
sweet taste of a little power - one
political, the other financial.
Through it all, as this mixture
accepted a comfortable blend, the
dream was desperately and
continually sought — One Nation.
But you still had the blacks.
The new nation with the
wonderful dream had no place in
the blend for them. The
immigrants shared and divided
America with every race and every
creed under the sun, generously.
So why ask them to heal the
agony of these original outcasts of
cotton field slavery.
Martin Luther King had a
dream. It was to be a responsible
part, a working part of that
persistant pursuit. One Nation.
With determination, cruel
suffering and the insistence of
decent men, a place for the black
American was ultimately found.
They became part of the search
for the dream. One Nation.
Iran has shaken our onward
march. We have mended divisions,
found rich reserves in our
beautiful land, led the world into
the adventure of outer space
star-hopping, proved we are the
land of the free. But we have
allowed this backward nation of
village dwellers to tie us hand and
foot and gleefully watch us choke
to death on the bitter frustration
of it all. In this unexpected
discomfort we wonder if the
dream will ultimately ever come
true.
Over in Rome a young girl who
roamed this great land before the
colony, the convicts, the
constitution or the dream, was
declared a Blessed of God by the
Church. Kateri Tekakwitha
known as the “Lily of the
Mohawks” was honored for her
sinless life, her joy in being
faithful, her courage before the
threats of evil men and her prayer
for her Mohawk people.
She prayed that one day they
would become One Great Nation
- under God.
Dreams.
Vol. 18 No. 25
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Thursday, July 3,1980
$8.00 per year
HISTORIC 5-4 DECISION
Supreme Court Upholds
Abortion Restrictions
z
r>
LADY LIBERTY - Charlie deLeo, 32, a
maintenance worker at the Statue of Liberty, has
dedicated the torch of the statue “as a chapel to
the Lord Jesus Christ” and he goes there to
meditate and pray during breaks. Though off
limits to the general public since 1916, the torch
is kept clean by deLeo who also cleans the 200
windows in the crown and does other general
maintenance work.
Archbishop Jadot Reassigned
WASHINGTON (NC) - U.S.
Catholic leaders have praised
Archbishop Jean Jadot, apostolic
delegate in the United States,
following his appointment as
propresident of the Vatican’s
Secretariat for Non-Christians.
Those contacted said they are
happy for the archbishop but regret
his departure from the nation in
which he has served for seven years.
Archbishop Jadot, 70, will replace
the late Cardinal Sergio Pignedoli in
his new post.
“While we rejoice in this merited
recognition of Archbishop Jadot’s
personal gifts and his many
accomplishments, we are sincerely
and profoundly saddened by his
leaving this country where he has
made so many friends,” said
Archbishop John R. Quinn of San
Francisco, president of the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Archbishop Quinn said he offered
Archbishop Jadot “heartfelt
congratulations.”
The apostolic delegate’s “keen
intelligence, good judgment and vast
experience always went hand-in-hand
with a warm and welcoming manner,
openness, a desire to listen, a sense of
humor and unassuming gentleness
which have endeared him to all of
us,” Archbishop Quinn stated. “We
are grateful for all he has done as the
representative of the holy father in
serving the church in the United
States,” Archbishop Quinn added.
Archbishop Jadot
“He has traveled widely in this
country, dialogued freely and given
readily of himself to others,” said
Bishop Thomas C. Kelly, NCCB
general secretary. “Always he has
given encouragement and support,
frequently calling attention to
emerging issues and pointing the way
to new pastoral initiatives in response
to them.”
Bishop Kelly’s remarks came in a
joint statement with Archbishop
Quinn. In it he pledged continued
prayers for Archbishop Jadot’s
“happiness and success” and also
noted that the apostolic delegate
provided “a sympathetic and
insightful mirror of the state of the
church in the United States for the
benefit of the Holy See.”
Auxiliary Bishop Thomas W.
Lyons of Washington said
Archbishop Jadot “never missed an
opportunity to find out all he could
about the church in the United
States.” Archbishop Jadot also “has
taken great interest in our own
parishes” said Bishop Lyons,
apostolic administrator of the
Washington Archdiocese.
WASHINGTON (NC) - The
Supreme Court has upheld the
constitutionality of the Hyde
amendment restricting federal
funding of abortions.
In a 5-4 decision June 30, the
court ruled that the Hyde
amendment “places no governmental
obstacle in the path of a woman who
chooses to terminate her pregnancy,
but rather, by means of unequal
subsidization of abortion and other
medical services, encourages
alternative activity deemed in the
public interest.”
The court said that, although it
decided in 1973 that a woman in
certain circumstances was free to
choose to have an abortion, that
freedom of choice does not
constitutionally entitle her to the
money to have an abortion.
The court also rejected arguments
that the Hyde amendment violated
rights secured by the religion clauses
of the First Amendment. Recalling
previous rulings that a law is not
unconstitutional because it happens
to coincide with the tenets of some
or all religions, the court said it was
convinced “that the fact that the
funding restrictions in the Hyde
amendment may coincide with the
religious tenets of the Roman
Catholic Church does
not. . .contravene the Establishment
Clause.”
First passed in 1976 and named
for Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), the
Hyde amendment to the annual
appropriations bill for the
Department of Health, Education
and Welfare originally restricted
federal abortion funding to cases in
which the life of the mother is in
danger. In its current form it also
Pope
In Brazil
BRASILIA, Brazil (NC) - With a
doff of his skull cap, a wave of the
hand and a kiss, Pope John Paul II
became the first pope to set foot in
Brazil, the country with the world’s
largest Catholic population.
The papal plane landed at 11:56
a.m. (10:56 a.m. EDT) June 30 at
Brasilia’s international airport. About
10 minutes later the pope appeared.
He doffed his cap and held it in his
hands because of the wind. Then he
greeted the crowd with a wave of the
hand and descended the stairs.
Once on the runway, the pope
pointed to a spot just off the
ceremonial tarmac. He then bent
down and kissed the spot. The kiss
has become the traditional papal
greeting used by Pope John Paul to
signify the missionary nature of his
trips.
“I kiss the good and generous soil
of Brazil,” he said in his airport
speech.
The pope said this was the 13th
time he had kissed the ground during
his papal voyages, but he asked that
Brazilians regard it as his “first and
silent thanks” to them.
allows funding in cases of rape or
incest that have been reported
promptly to a law enforcement
agency or public health service.
Former HEW Secretary Joseph
Califano estimated that the Hyde
amendment cut federal abortion
funding through Medicaid by 99
percent. Previously, Medicaid, a joint
federal-state program of health care
for the poor, paid for an estimated
250,000 abortions a year. Sixteen
states still use their own money to
pay for abortions.
The majority opinion in the case,
Harris v. McRae, was delivered by
Justice Potter Stewart. Chief Justice
Warren Burger and Justices Byron
White, Lewis Powell and William
Rehnquist joined in that opinion.
Justices William Brennan, Thurgood
Marshall, Harry Blackmun and John
Paul Stevens dissented.
Brennan said the Hyde
amendment’s denial of funds for
medically necessary abortions
intrudes on the constitutionally
protected right of a woman to decide
whether or not to terminate her
pregnancy. The amendment, he said,
‘‘both by design and in
effect. . .serves to coerce indigent
pregnant women to bear children
that they would otherwise elect not
to have.”
The Supreme Court’s decision
reverses the decision by U. S. District
Judge John F. Dooling Jr. last Jan.
15 that Congress has no right to
place limits on the use of federal
funds for welfare abortions.
The case was originally filed in
federal court in New York on the
day the Hyde amendment was first
passed in 1976. Plaintiffs included
Cora McRae, a pregnant Medicaid
recipient who wanted an abortion;
the New York City Health and
Hospitals Corp., which operates 12
hospitals providing abortion services;
officers of the Women’s Division of
the Board of Global Ministries of the
United Methodist Church and
the Women’s Division itself.
Before taking up the issue of the
constitutionality of the Hyde
amendment, the Supreme Court said
that the federal law establishing the
Medicaid program does not require a
participating state to provide any
services for which Congress had
withheld federal funding. Therefore,
the court said, the Hyde amendment
operates to relieve states of the
obligation to pay for abortions for
which federal reimbursement is
unavailable.
Beginning its discussion of the
Hyde amendment’s constitutionality,
the court recalled that in its 1973
Roe v. Wade decision it had
recognized an “implicit
constitutional liberty” which
“includes the freedom of a woman to
decide whether to terminate a
pregnancy.” But it noted too that in
that decision it had also recognized
that a state has legitimate interests
during pregnancy in both insuring
the health of the mother and
protecting potential human life.”
The court pointed out that in
Maher v. Roe, it had upheld a
Connecticut regulation barring
Mediciad payments for medical
services related to nontherapeutic
abortions. The same reason, it said,
applies to the present case:
(Continued on page 8)
Official
Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan announces the following
appointments, effective immediately (unless otherwise noted). The
Archbishop extends a warm welcome to all who are joining the
brotherhood of the priesthood in the Archdiocese.
ASSISTANT PASTORS:
REVEREND THOMAS P. BRISLIN, C.P. ... to Saint Paul of the
Cross (effective 8/1/80)
REVEREND THOMAS L. LECLERC, M.S. ... to Saint Ann’s,
Marietta
REVEREND JOHN McSHANE, S.M. ... to Saint Joseph’s,
Marietta (effective 7/15/80).
REVEREND CAYET N. MANGIARACINA, O.P. ... to Holy
Cross (effective 8/1/80).
REVEREND JUDE SMITH, O.F.M. ... to the Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception.
TO RESIDENCE:
REVEREND GILES A. CONWILL ... to Saint Anthony’s.
REVEREND IGNATIUS NDIBALEMA ... to Saints Peter and
Paul, Decatur.
REVEREND ROBERT U. PERRY, O.P. ... to Holy Cross
(effective 9/1/80).
REVEREND JOHN RICHMOND, S.M. ... to Marist (effective
7/15/80).
REVEREND GLENN J. EGAN, S.J. . .,. to Ignatius House.
REVEREND JOEL KONZEN, S.M. ... to Marist School as
Administrator/Teacher (effective 7/15/80).
BROTHER GARY KOLARCIK, O.F.M. ... to the Catholic
Center, University of Georgia (Athens)
