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» I 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 $8.00 per year 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) U)W\L, M, Aimss ' 4 Q ‘ h. r 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.