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N Vol. 18 No. 28 \jU4tif\ Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta Thursday, August 7,1980 $8.00 per year Just Another Yank The senior class had been ordered to the chapel. “What’s going on?,” I whispered to the usually reliable, long striding Tim Ryan. “Some priest is giving a vocation talk,” said Tim obviously delighted to be out of class, “probably just another Yank.” Reliable Ryan was wrong. A priest from America was indeed about to give a priestly pitch to the senior class of 1956, but it was by no means “just another Yank.” The memorable, strikingly poised cleric with that soft touch of the South in his w o rd s was Monsignor Patrick Joseph O’Connor. It was snowing. He hated snow. He despised the cold. It was far foreign to his native Savannah. But it was a dreaded inconvenience he gladly suffered with annual zest to accomplish the one obsessively, driving force in his life - priestly vocations for the Church in Georgia. His pitch was devastating. He looked down at his young audience and took instant common Jof their giddy, restless ears. His message was direct and simple. Challenge. And then challenge again. His words pounced on their unsuspecting curiosity, making vocation to the priesthood a serious possibility for at least this moment as he confronted their hidden generosity. P. J. O’Connor never asked for volunteers for Georgia. He demanded “workers for the Georgia Missions.” He never invited his awakening audience to come to the South. He challenged them to come to the “priestless South.” Never would he blandly invite them to be a part of the Diocese of Atlanta. It was always “come and labor in the Missionary Diocese of Atlanta.” It wasn’t a pitch. To young, strong, searching minds, it was a gauntlet on the ground, a dramatic dare, a reckless challenge needing only a generous response. And so often this pied-piper of the priesthood for Georgia got just that response. It was one thing to plant the seed of vocation, Monsignor O’Connor spent his life doing more. He carefully and personally helped that initial generosity grow. Regular notes of encouragement would arrive in the mail. Newsy visits banishing the boredom of long, academic years was a specialty. And continual care that reached, not only the student, but also his family, gave supreme depth to this giant of the vocation apostolate. Everyone of these unceasing touches ate into his day - year in, year out - but he saw them only as a means to recreate the gift of his priesthood in the lives of others. The parish clergy of both Georgia dioceses attest to the unmatchable dividend of his glowing success. After signing up a candidate for the priesthood in an Irish seminary, on one occasion, Monsignor asked him why he chose Atlanta instead of the many other available dioceses. “Simple,” said the happy young man,” You alone made it clear that you spoke for a missionary diocese.” To some around those green hills and valleys of his ancestors, across the sea, that he knew so well, this bronze, stately, annual cleric was “just another Yank” searching for willing hands. But to those who heard him - even once - and those who came to know him, Monsignor Patrick J. O’Connor, was more, much more. He was - what he preached. The Priest. IN JUNE 1968, Msgr. P. J. O’Connor posed with three Irish priests, newly arrived to serve in Georgia. They are, from left to right, Father Terence Kane, now pastor of the Church of St. Oliver Plunkett in Snellville, Father Vincent M. Mulvin, now assistant pastor in Snellville, and Father James Fennessy, now pastor of St. John Vianney Church in Lithia Springs. HISTORIC VOCATIONS DIRECTOR Msgr. P. J. O’Connor Dies Msgr. Patrick J. O’Connor spent 47 years of his life in the priesthood. When he died, Friday, August 1, in Atlanta, ine had Drought to Georgia one priest for nearly each year of his own service. Msgr. O’Connor, the former pastor of St. Thomas More Church in Decatur, and a former faculty member and dean at the The Catholic University of America, died at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cancer Home at the age of 7 8. He had retired as pastor in 1967, but after spending several years at a mission on Grand Bahama Island, returned to St. Thomas More in 1972 and made his residence there. At the time of his retirement, Msgr. O’Connor spoke of his formula for answering the church’s pressing need for vocations. “If one priest can get a young man to follow in his footsteps, there will be enough vocations,” he said. A native of Savannah, the Monsignor had, at that time, been instrumental in bringing 38 priests to Georgia, 10 in Savannah and 28 in Atlanta. Throughout a 20-year association with Catholic University, he had sought out young men interested in the priesthood, and seminarians, and persuaded them to come to Georgia. At one time, 60 percent of the priests serving in Georgia, drawn from northern states and Ireland, had come at the urging of Msgr. O’Connor. Since then the number has increased to about 42 priests. “This is one of the long lasting gifts that he has left us and that will extend beyond the years of his own life,” said Bishop Raymond W. Lessard of Savannah. A 1924 graduate of Catholic University, Msgr. O’Connor also taught about 3,000 priests while on the faculty there from 1936 to 1956. During that period he was a member of the School of Theology, dean of men, procurator of the Catholic Sisters College and university director of The Alumni Association. He also taught for 23 summers in the Preachers Institute. While in Washington, he was appointed director of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception from 1950 to 1956, the fourth to hold the post. During those years, more thaan $15 million was raised to construct the main building of the shrine. Msgr. John J. Murphy, director of the National Shrine, said Msgr. O’Connor “will be remembered for his eloquent sermons on the Blessed Mother, for his sense of pilgrimage and knowledge of Marian shrines throughout the world.” “The clarity of his Mariology revealed in his preaching and writing has contributed greatly to the life and spirit of the National Shrine,” he said. Msgr. O’Connor returned in 1956 to Georgia as pastor of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in (Continued on page 5) REACTION VARIED Vatican Seeks Clergy Shift VATICAN CITY (NC) - The Vatican wants a major redistribution of the world’s clergy. In a document released July 22 by the Congregation for the Clergy it ordered all bishops’ conferences to set up two commissions: “one for the better distribution of the clergy and another for the missions.” To highlight the problem of priest-rich vs. priest-poor countries the document gave some current statistics. Among these were: - There are 16 priests per 100,000 Catholics in Latin America, while North America (the United States and Canada) has 120 per 100,000. - The 45 percent of the world’s Catholics who live in North America and Europe are served by 77.2 percent of the world’s priests. Another 45 percent of the world’s Catholics live in Latin America and the Philippines, but only 12.62 percent of the world’s priests serve those areas. -- In terms of Catholic and non-Catholic population, there are two priests per 100,000 people in Asia, while there are 29 per 100,000 in North America and 37 per 100,000 in Europe. The title of the new Vatican document is “Directive Norms for the Collaboration of the Particular Churches Among Themselves and Especially for a Better Distribution of the Clergy in the World.” The document grew out of a commission within the clergy congregation which Pope Paul VI instituted in 1967 to study the problem of the poor distribution of priests and to formulate norms to correct the situation. One of the major past efforts to distribute priests better was a call by Pope John XXIII in 1962 for U.S. dioceses to give 10 percent of their clergy to Latin America. His call led to a few more U.S. missionaries in Latin America, but nothing near the scale he had intended. Although the new Vatican document is entitled “directive norms,” it has few new norms or laws aside from the order to bishops’ conferences to establish two commissions - one of which (for missions) already exists in all or virtually all countries where the church is well established. . It reaffirms existing laws concerning various technical aspects of the transfer of priests such as incardination - the priest’s legal link to a specific diocese as his home. It outlines in detail the norms for a written “convention,” or binding agreement, outlining the terms under which a priest is sent by one bishop or religious order to work under another bishop. This convention, it says, must be worked out by mutual agreement among the three principals - the sending bishop, the priest and the receiving bishop -- and each is to have a written copy of it. But aside from such specific issues, the new document consists mainly of general guidelines of policy and orientation. It specifically rejects a strict numerical approach to the issue, saying that “the problem of a better distribution of the clergy is not resolved simply with the numerical method.” The document calls for a “new revision of strengths and a restructuring of traditional frameworks” in the church to meet changing social conditions. As examples it cites “the transmigration of people into industrial regions; urbanization with its consequent depopulation of other zones; the general problem of migrants, both for reasons of work and for political motives; the so widespread phenomenon of tourism for more or less long periods.” The document said the uneven distribution of priests around the world has been aggravated by sharp drop in vocations in the late 1960s and the 1970s and by the large number of priests who left the active ministry in that same period. It viewed redistribution as only part of the solution, stressing that more priestly vocations and a renewed missionary awareness throughout the church are the more basic issues. Clergy and Catholic editorial writers welcomed the document, but (Continued on page 5) Jadot To Speak The Knights Come To Town... K of C Lore BY THEA JARVIS Archbishop Jean Jadot will join 2,500 Knights of Columbus and their families in Atlanta this month for the 98th annual meeting of their Supreme Council. Jadot, newly appointed Pro-President of the Vatican Secretariat for Non-Christians and former Apostolic Delegate to the United States, will be the principal speaker at the K. of C. “States Dinner” to be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on August 19th. “Jadot has a loving, charismatic touch that speaks to us of the Father’s love,” says Father James Mayo, state chaplain for the Georgia Knights. “As a fraternal organization in a pilgrim church, the Knights must not hesitate to reach out to others and speak of this love our Father bears us.” “Having Archbishop Jadot at the convention,” he continues “underlines the importance of the Knights as an organization with a mission to others.” It is expected to be one of Archbishop Jadot’s last addresses before he leaves for his new post at the Vatican. The convention is cause for growing excitement on the local level. “It’s just wonderful!” says an enthusiastic Stan Wojek, state deputy for the Georgia Council. “For the first time in 20 years the national convention is coming to Atlanta. It’s quite an honor for us.” The welcome mat will be out not only for Archbishop Jadot, but also for the multitude of convention delegates converging on Atlanta from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Phillipines, and Guatemala. Bill Jordan, vice supreme master of the General Convention, sees an opportunity to introduce delegates to the traditions of Southern hospitality. “We want to be sure our Atlanta visitors are properly welcomed. This will include hoop-skirted ladies in ante-bellum dresses posted at the registration desk of the Hyatt Regency.” For more in the Southern style, conventioneers will take off for side trips to Six Flags, Stone Mountain, the Trappist Monastery, and some in-town points of interest. Wednesday evening, August 20 will be “Knights of Columbus Night” at the stadium, with a Braves vs. Chicago Cubs game on the agenda. Archbishop Thomas Donnellan will concelebrate the opening Mass on Tuesday, August 19 in the Hyatt Regency Ballroom. Official business will then begin. Delegates will consider 200 resolutions submitted by regional councils, covering such current issues as abortion, ERA, homosexual rights, pornography, and tax credits for private schooling. Many of the resolutions submitted by the local councils reflect a growing concern over the lack of support for the family in our society. An emphasis on the sacredness of human life, particularly within the family unit, is clearly a priority for the upcoming convention. SUPREME KNIGHT Virgil C. Dechant confers with Pope John Paul II. Looking on is Supreme Chaplain Bishop Charles P. Greco, retired bishop of Alexandria-Shreveport, Louisiana. BY MONSIGNOR NOEL G. BURTENSHAW On that memorable day in 1961, when Roger Maris stepped up to the plate he had already equaled the Babe’s home run record. He had hit 60 out of the park. He was praying to see number 61 go the same route. Yes, sir, he was really praying. As he dug his spikes into the famous dirt at home plate little did he know that the owners of that legendary dirt of the immortal Yankee Stadium were praying too - all 1.3 million of them. No doubt about it as Roger sailed number 61 out of the park the Knights of Columbus all over this nation were on their feet cheering. No longer owners of that ground under Yankee Stadium, the Knights of Columbus remain the world’s largest Catholic Fraternal Organization. Their strength is here, throughout the United States, although their numbers have spread to the Philippines, Guam, Cuba, Canada, Mexico and other neighborly spots. The K. of C. was the brain child of a parish priest, Father Michael McGivney, in New Haven, Conn. It was 1882 and the needs of the immigrant-Catholic families were very great. One need spied by Father McGivney right away was low cost insurance. Families deprived of their bread winner because of death were often left without insurance and in very poor circumstances. It was the idea of the young priest to form a fraternal organization that would provide insurance to the deprived (Continued on page 5)