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SOUNDINGS -What About The Catholic Vote?
BY MSGR. NOEL BURTENSHAW
He was waiting for an elevator. In the New York Sheraton, in the middle of
the Democratic Convention, I knew his wait would be lengthy. I battled my
way like a weaving running back to his side. Cooly, Jody Powell stood his
ground.
Unbelievably, the Convention had just voted their collegial opposition to
the Hyde Amendment. In their yelling and screaming hysteria, they said “yes”
to paid abortions by the federal government for the poor. In the echoing halls
of Madison Square Garden they went on record as the party sworn to overturn
this law of the land.
I had a question for Jody. Two, in fact. First what did President Carter
think of this historic stand of the Democratic Convention? And secondly, what
about the Catholic vote?
It was obvious that this quiet likable mouthpiece of the President wished I
would just go away. The first question was a cinch to answer but the second
sounded uneasy alarms in his professional media mind.
“The President is on record as being personally opposed to abortion under
any circumstance. He has repeated this opposition on many occasions.” It
came out of him like an instant replay as he looked to see if the elevator door
would mercifully open. It did not.
What about the Catholic vote? “Well, our position is that there is no such
thing as a bloc vote. Just as we hate to label a region, as having a vote, such as
the so-called Southern vote, we hate to label any special group.” With that,
Jody Powell disappeared through the yawning doors of the elevator.
His answer was fearlessly political. It was most revealing. The
Administration evidently disbelieves in the presence of a Catholic vote. And
with perfectly good reason. It obviously does not exist.
The Jewish vote exists. Jews can strike terror into the lustless heart of
Jimmy Carter and his envious opponents. Call a meeting of B’nai B’rith or a
regional Jewish Committee anywhere in the nation and you will find a
Presidential politician in its midst. Mention the valid or even the invalid needs
of the State of Israel and hear the promised litany of support from every side.
To be callously indifferent to the Jewish vote is to be a terminal Presidential
case. The American Jewish community demonstrates the validity of a
consolidated vote.
The Black vote exists. The final, envied endorsement of Jesse Jackson last
week brought sounds of relief from the Oval Office. The lines of
communication may not be the best, black leadership is questionable and
enthusiasm may be lacking, but the preference has been pronounced. It will be
remembered.
There is even an Evangelical Christian vote. Jerry Falwell and other media
ministers can demonstrate powerful following whenever the challenge arises.
Not only are legions of support letters flowing across their desks, but
mountainous-moving monies, demonstrating serious discipleship and
commitment, are in constant supply. Piously, the candidates cater to this
dedicated vote.
Catholics make up one-fourth of the nation’s population. We are 40 million
strong. There are at least 10 million eligible Catholic voters. But to the
avaricious candidate for the nation’s highest office we are non-existent.
Without serious White House concern the pro-abortion plank was passed at the
Democratic Convention. A recent national convention of the Knights of
Columbus in Atlanta went totally unnoticed by candidates of any party.
Laws challenging the moral beliefs of Catholics and the system of education
we have painfully and sacrificially built up - despite our compliance with
expensive governmental rules of accreditation - are callously passed by
politicians who know they can depend on our lazy tolerance and our leaderless
division. There is no Catholic vote to fear.
Had the enemies of the long suffering people of the State of Israel received
any kind, positive public consideration at the Democratic Convention, there
would have been sleepless nights in the Carter household.
Had blacks and other minorities been snubbed at the speakers rostrum in
the Garden, a Presidential edict would have burst upon the nation.
One of the key demands of the Catholic Church, that innocent, human,
unbom life be given the protection of our powerful society, not only went
unrecognized but was wantonly defamed by a party who can depend on our
invisible inaction and our unorganized vote. Meekly we constantly continue to
accept the back of the bus position.
Jody Powell was nervous about the question, “What about the Catholic
vote?” He was not concerned. The actual presence of such a collectively
threatening monster is a complete fiction. We have no priority on the check list
of those back room architects furiously designing the glossy image of the next
President of the United States. They can depend on our anonymous
wanderings through a desert that ultimately dissipates and leaves us weakly
divided.
What about the Catholic vote?
National politicians fearlessly answer, “What about it?”
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 18 No. 32
Thursday, September 18,1980
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SYNOD OF BISHOPS
Support For Families Sought
OTTAWA (NC) - The challenge
facing the international Synod of
Bishops which opens in Rome Sept.
26 is “to find ways to support and
strengthen families and to lend a
healing and forgiving hand to those
suffering in family breakdowns,” said
the head of the Canadian delegation
to the synod.
As president of the Canadian
Conference of Catholic Bishops
(CCCB), Archbishop Joseph N.
MacNeil of Edmonton, Alberta, will
head the Canadian delegation of five
bishops.
Rural
He and another member of the
delegation, Cardinal G. Emmett
Carter of Toronto, discussed the
synod in recent interviews released
by CCCB headquarters in Ottawa.
Topic of the synod is the Christian
family.
Archbishop MacNeil said research
“shows that unfortunately many
people have only looked at this
question from the narrow viewpoint
of birth control and what is
permitted and what is not. The
whole question of married sexuality
and responsible parenthood goes
much beyond this.”
The synod will not question the
indissolubility of marriage, but will
focus on “how we can help the one
in every four marriages which are
ending in divorce,” the archbishop
said. “We won’t be looking at how to
change laws but rather how do we
help people who are suffering. It’s a
major pastoral concern.”
Calling divorce a “misunderstood”
question in the church, the
archbishop said, “While the church
upholds the indissolubility of
(Continued on page 6)
GOODBYE, MR. PRESIDENT ~ Archbishop
Jean Jadot, apostolic delegate in the United
States, shakes hands with President Carter during
a brief visit to the White House. After seven years
as the apostolic delegate, the archbishop will
return to Rome Sept. 19 to head the Vatican’s
Secretariat for Non-Christians. At Archbishop
Jadot’s side is former New York Mayor Robert
Wagner, Carter’s special envoy to the Vatican.
(NC Photo)
Poland: Mass On Radio
WARSAW, Poland (NC) - National radio transmission
of Sunday Mass will begin in Poland Sept. 21, Polish
Religious Affairs Minister Jerzy Kuberski said Sept. 13.
The weekly transmission of Mass on state radio,
unprecedented under Poland’s communist government,
was one of the concessions won by workers at the end of
massive strikes in August.
In another development flowing from the strikes and
the new wave of democratization in Poland, groups of
Polish journalists in mid-September formally requested
permission to form an independent journalists’
association. The move paralleled the formation of
independent trade unions, another concession won by the
strikers.
A journalists’ group meeting in Cracow also asked that
the government “limit censorship only to fundamental
issues” and said the country needs publication of
complete information.
Among those present at the Cracow meeting was Jerzy
Turowicz, editor of the Polish Catholic weekly, Tygodnik
Powszechny.
The Union of Polish Writers Sept. 13 also called for
“the circulation of news without obstacles” and an end to
“prohibitions that affect some Polish literary works.”
The transmission of Mass on radio will be an hour-long
program on Sundays and major religious feasts. Reports
said it will be broadcast from Holy Cross Church in
Warsaw and will include the homily.
Government Criticized
NEW YORK (NC) - A pastoral
letter issued by West Germany’s
bishops criticizing aspects of
Chancellor Helmut Schmidt’s policies
has brought controversy to that
nation’s national elections.
A story on the letter, to be read
from pulpits Sept. 21, two weeks
before West Germany’s Oct. 5
parliamentary elections, was
published by The New York Times
Sept. 15 after it had been reported
by a German paper.
In terms like those used by
Schmidt’s opponents, the letter
warns against the state’s expanding
role in daily life and the growing
bureaucracy and national debt,
according to the Times. Its themes
are similar to those of the Christian
Democratic candidate for chancellor,
Franz Josef Strauss, the Times said.
The pastoral letter also suggested
that the Social Democratic-led
government has so simplified divorce
and abortion laws, without giving
preferential support to marriage and
the family, “that love is destroyed
and peace endangered.”
Schmidt, the Times reported,
responded that the bishops “should
use their pulpits for pastoral work
and not for politics.
“I think we are entitled to
expect,” he said, “that the church
does not interfere in our area with
phrases which are suspiciously close
to those written in one particular
party’s electoral program.”
Father Norbert Greinacher, a
professor of theology at Tubingen
University in West Germany,
described the bishops’ letter at a
Social Democratic campaign meeting
as a “misuse of Christianity,”
according to the Times.
The opposition seemed especially
pleased with the bishops’ statement
that “the dangerously high national
debt must be corrected now,” the
Times said. Strauss has stressed that
issue, saying the Social Democrats
had allowed the debt to triple in the
last 10 years. This, Stauss charged,
had increased borrowing and hurt
private investment.
Although the Social Democrats
have dismissed that issue, it has
potential appeal for older voters who
remember how their savings were lost
through currency changes caused by
the public debt that resulted from
the two world wars, the Times said.
The bishops’ remarks on the debt
caused Schmidt to respond that he
doubted there was a theological
teaching chair for public finances,
the Times said.
There was “nothing in either the
Old or the New Testament about
how to manage state finances,” the
chancellor said. “We who speak for
the state do not interfere in church
debates such as those about
contraception or celibacy.”
There was no comment reported
from the bishops on the chancellor’s
remarks.
Justice Minister Hans-Jochen
Vogel, who is Catholic, said the letter
would not simplify relations between
the party and the church, which have
improved in recent years after a long
period of strain.
Vogel said he was surprised that
the letter had not mentioned foreign
aid, the relationship between rich
and poor nations, or what he
described as a growing antagonism
toward foreigners in West Germany.
Ministry
Flourishes
BY GRETCHEN KEISER
What Catholics in the South don’t
know WILL hurt them, according to
Father Joseph O’Donnell, a
Glenmary specializing in relations
between Catholics and Southern
Baptists.
Southern Catholics are a minority
group and “it is a sociological
principal that a minority group will
be absorbed by the majority,” said
Father O’Donnell. If Catholics in the
small towns of the South are to stay
Catholics, and pass their faith to
children and grandchildren, “they
must understand Catholicism -- those
things that make Catholics
Catholics.”
Father O’Donnell’s profile of the
Southern Catholic was one of the
opening addresses at a two-day
workshop held in Atlanta last week.
Some 60 priests, religious and lay
ministers came to the conference at
the Catholic Center to develop a
common sense of the Church’s role
and direction in small town and rural
Georgia parishes.
Like their parishioners, many of
the clergy come to Georgia from
cities in the North which are
predominantly Catholic; their new
parish may be as large as the state of
Rhode Island, with a Catholic
population of less than one percent.
While the challenges may be greater,
the need for a strong parish is even
more essential, conference
participants agreed.
Father O’Donnell said the
Catholic population outside urban
areas includes many retired people
and management employees, in
business and industry who have been
transferred from the North.
While a job transfer may ease the
transition for the husband, the move
creates special problems for the wife
and children, he said.
“The Catholic woman who moves
South has no niche,” he said. “She
has to work her way in. She has to
struggle.”
Children, particularly teenagers,
have the most difficult time,
participants said. Sister Kate Regan,
who works in the Canton-Carters-
ville-Calhoun area, said children are
“constantly being invited to other
churches and asked, ‘What do you do
as Catholics?”’
(Continued on page 6)
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ARCHBISHOP THOMAS A. DONNELLAN, right, talks with
Father Joseph O’Donnell at the Rural Ministry Workshop. Photo by
Monsignor Noel Burtenshaw.
Archbishop’s Appointments
Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan announces the following
appointments. The Archbishop extends a warm welcome to all who
are joining the brotherhood of the priesthood in the Archdiocese:
REVEREND JOHN J. LEDDY, O.M.I. - has been appointed
pastor of Saint Joseph’s in Washington and REVEREND WILLIAM
M. McGRATH, O.M.I. has been appointed assistant to Father Leddy.
Both appointments were effective Sept. 2.
The following appointments were effective Sept. 16: REVEREND
ANTHONY T. CURRAN has been named assistant pastor at Saint
Thomas More in Decatur. REVEREND WALTER W. FOLEY has
been appointed assistant pastor at Saint John Neumann in Lilbum.
REVEREND DOMINIC G. YOUNG has been assigned to residence at
Saint Thomas More.
Father Curran returns to Atlanta after serving on the faculty of the
Josephinum; Father Foley was formerly assistant at Saint Thomas
More and Father Young had been in residence at Saint John
Neumann.