Newspaper Page Text
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Shelter Homes” For Mothers In Need
BY THEA JARVIS
At the age of 17, Ruth was unmarried and expecting a child.
When her parents learned of her unexpected pregnancy, she was no longer
allowed to live at home. She soon found that her native county was one of
the 20 Georgia districts without public facilities for prenatal care.
Confused and lonely, Ruth took an hour-long bus trip to Atlanta hoping to
find help in the big city. What awaited her, however, was an
agonizing round of government and private agencies
designed, it seemed, to help everyone but herself.
The Florence Crittenton Services on Peachtree Street
cannot get state aid until a woman is in the seventh month
of her pregnancy. Since Ruth had no funds and was but five
months pregnant, Florence Crittenton could not accept her.
Grady Hospital, mother to so many urban needy, was
hamstrung by government red tape that prohibited
Medicaid payments because Ruth was not head of a
household. M p... „ ,
Aid to Families with Dependent Children was not ar ' en '" s
available until after Ruth’s baby had arrived. Even after the infant’s birth, the
six-week processing lag would leave her in limbo.
And so on . . .
“Ruth’s problem was that she didn’t fit into any category presently being
served by Atlanta area agencies,” says Mary Ellen Hughes, Respect-Life Office
coordinator for the Archdiocese of Atlanta.
“She needed shelter and prenatal care on a moderately long-term basis - at
least until the baby came and she was able to get a job and support herself.”
It was because of young women like Ruth that the Crisis Pregnancy Service
began just one year ago. An arm of Catholic Social Services, CPS has served
approximately 100 women ranging in age from 14 to 38 years over the
past 12 months.
“What the Crisis Pregnancy Service could offer Ruth was a place where she
would be welcomed and cared for when she really needed it,” says Ms. Hughes,
citing the 12 volunteer “shelter homes” that the CPS has on call.
Such “shelter homes” are merely families opening up their own lives to the
life of a pregnant woman in need.
In addition to food and shelter, Ruth could now avail herself of prenatal
care because local doctors have offered their services to CPS without charge.
This past September, the March of Dimes-Better Infant Births sponsored a
seminar at Georgia State University entitled “The Pregnant Woman and Her
Infant: The Community Responds.”
Health care professionals, social workers, teachers, and interested persons
from seven metro counties gathered to tackle the problems of Ruth and
hundreds of women like her who just don’t fit into the system.
“It was a beginning,” reflects Mary Ellen Hughes, noting some significant
steps taken at the conference.
“Some problems were solved immediately, like the case of the MARTA bus
drivers who were refusing to take women in labor to Grady for fear they would
deliver en route.”
Ms. Hughes delivered a “Profile of the Pregnant Woman” at the Georgia
State conference in which she emphasized the “shelter home” as the most
outstanding need for the mother-to-be.
“We would like to expand the number of homes open to women like Ruth,”
she says with enthusiasm. “There is even a need for homes to take in the
mother and child during the six-week recuperative period following the birth.
If no homes are available, babies must be placed in temporary foster care until
the mothers get on their feet.”
In the opinion of Ms. Hughes, the “shelter home” is the key to solving the
initial dilemma of a woman with a crisis pregnancy.
“Until these women have a roof over their heads and food to eat, we can’t
even begin to solve the other problems that weigh so heavily upon them.”
Anyone interested in offering a “shelter home” or learning more about the
program is invited to call Sister Mary Jacobs at the Catholic Center (881-6571).
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 18 No. 34
Thursday, October 2,1980
3.00 per year
SEXUALITY
e*
The Price Of Life
Frank Lake took his garbage to
the dumpster in the usual way. He
should have hurled the two plastic
bags carelessly into the rubbish heap
as always. He didn’t. On this bright,
humid last of the Atlanta summer
days he paused a second to look
before he lowered the weekend
waste. The vision stopped him in his
tracks.
!*> Cooing comfortably in the bed of
plastic was a wide awake newborn
baby, furiously
, examining the
motion of the
10 little fingers
forming in front
of his eyes. The
miraculous look
of Frank Lake
had saved this
brand new life
from instant
suffocation.
Quickly this
_ bundle of
healthy joy was snatched to the
safety of Frank’s arms and carried
cozily to Grady.
Just one week later Mayor
Maynard Jackson, speaking to a
group of parents representing PTA
organizations from the Atlanta area,
commented on teenage pregnancies.
The Mayor’s message was
mathematical. Teenage pregnancies
are costing too much. The
government is looking at a bill to the
tune of $8 billion if a halt is not
hastened to the school girl pregnancy
syndrome.
And therein lies the rot.
Life is a costly inconvenience. The
contagious epidemic of young
unmarried girls having babies is
costing the taxpayer money - lots of
money. And for that reason, say our
budget-minded politicians, it must be
stopped.
Not because promiscuity is wrong
and destructive to the value system
of the girl. Not because a life is
brought to the world without the
support of loving, longing parents.
Not because the teenage parents are
unprepared for their rigorous
domestic role. No. It just chronically
costs too much cash.
The price tag attached to life is
the unfortunate destructive heresy of
our day. Abortion clinics, colorfully
enticing and legally established on
every city comer, deal in death for
the right price. Reputable doctors
living by an oath to promote life, and
practicing their craft in respectable
hospitals, snuff out the beginnings of
life for a price. And politicians ask
frightened parents of wayward
teenagers to choose between unborn
life and higher taxes. Good old
twentieth century values.
Let us be instruments of
understanding and sympathy when
an unmarried teenage girl, frantic and
lonely, looks at her newborn
fatherless child and sees nothing but
a heap of garbage. And then heads
for the nearest dumpster.
Society has taught her well.
Announcement
Cardinal Leo Josef Suenens
will be in Atlanta on Sunday,
Oct. 5. He will lead an
ecumenical prayer service at
the Cathedral of Christ the
King on Sunday at 3 p.m. The
public is invited to participate.
SUMMER’S END - Teens and adult youth
Ministers of Ss. Peter and Paul parish, Decatur,
spend the day at Lake Lanier, one of their many
celebrations of summer together. Before winter
comes, the youth group of the parish will hold a
“Luau” at the Mathis Dairy Lake, Oct. 5, with
Hawaiian style food, decor, and dancing. Included
are Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Jackson (third and
fourth from the right, back row) who will be
moving to Augusta after several years of ministry
to the youth of the parish. At the center of the
photo with towelled head is Danny Patton, youth
president for this year. (Photo by Mary Zoghby,
R.S.M.)
r
FINANCES
The Message...
BY GRETCHEN REISER
At least 16 parishes, in coming
weeks, will be part of a pilot
project using professional
consultants to increase, and
regularize, offertory
contributions.
The program reflects the rapid
growth of the Atlanta
Archdiocese, and a need to nave
contributions keep pace with it,
according to those involved.
“The family is growing, and as
it does, there are more needs to
address,” said Monsignor Jerry
Hardy, chancellor of the
Archdiocese. “But also,
fortunately, there are more
resources to which to appeal.”
Impetus for the program came
from two directions: a five-year
projection drawn up by
archdiocesan officials last year,
which looked at sources of
long-term financing and the
income base of the Archdiocese,
and the inquiries of pastors who
felt they needed professional
assistance in fund-raising,
Monsignor Hardy said.
Consultants from the Martin J.
Moran Co. were selected to direct
the program.
While it is an archdiocesan
effort, the program will vary from
parish to parish, depending upon
the pastor’s preference. Some will
speak from the pulpit on the topic
and use mailings and others may
also call parishioners to talk
personally about parish finances.
All the parishes will be asking
their parishioners to make a
one-year financial commitment to
the Church and to re-evaluate that
commitment at the end of 12
months.
The parishes involved include
the ones where pastors were
already looking for ways to
improve their offertory collection,
and others chosen to represent a
variety of rural, city, small, large,
and affluent and less affluent
areas. “A number of parishes were
looking for this kind of assistance
(Continued on page 6)
...And The Messengers
BY MSGR. NOEL BURTENSHAW
Barry O’Hare and Jack Keefe
are new to Atlanta. You might
call them two enthusiastic
executors. They have come south
to execute a Plan. And they are
really anxious to get going.
“Nothing is accomplished
without planning,” says Barry,
“aind when it comes to parish
support and Church finances,
planning is half the battle.”
And that’s their line of
business, helping pastors in the
area of parish support. “There is
only one way to get the people’s
financial support,” says Jack
Keefe. “You have to ask. But
before you do, you have to plan
how. That’s where we can guide.”
Obviously these executors are as
good as their word.
Barry and Jack are members of
the Martin J. Moran Company.
They are in town at the invitation
of Archbishop Donnellan to speak
to a number of parishes about
parish financial support. They are
here to help, to offer their
experience and develop a plan of
financial action for the parishes.
On an average, what do
Catholics give each week to their
parish? “You have to be careful
here,” says Barry O’Hare. “Not
every Catholic family going to
Mass each Sunday supports the
Church, but when you take into
account all attending Mass on
Sunday the average given
nationally is only two dollars. I’m
sorry, but that’s what it is. Two
bucks.”
Why so low? “Easy,” they
both respond. “The people are
not educated and then they are
not ASKED. Ask them. You have
to ask them.”
Both of these expert financial
advisers, who are well known for
(Continued on page 6)
U.S. Bishops Urge
Positive Theology
VATICAN CITY (NC) -
Archbishop John Quinn of San
Francisco warned the world Synod
of Bishops of a severe pastoral
problem regarding the Catholic
teaching against contraception.
There is an “immense problem for
the church today” in the area of
contraception, he said Sept. 29 in an
intervention during the first full day
of synod deliberations.
Studies indicate that nearly 80
percent of U.S. Catholic married
women use contraceptives, he said,
and that only 29 percent of U.S.
priests consider the use of artificial
birth control “intrinsically wrong,”
added the archbishop, president of
the National Conference of Catholic
Bishops-U.S. Catholic Conference.
He said the issue poses a problem
of pastoral ministry for those who
want to uphold the teaching, because
of the abundance of moral and
pastoral literature which oppose it
and the number of theologians who
openly dissent from the teaching.
Archbishop Quinn caiied on the
church to “create a new context for
the teaching on contraception,”
placing it more strongly in terms of a
positive teaching on the transmission
of life and on sexuality.
(Continued on page 6)
Quinn: Press Erred
VATICAN CITY (NC) -- Archbishop John R. Quinn of San Francisco
sharply repudiated reports in the U.S. press that he had called for “a new
church doctrine on ‘responsible parenthood’” during the world Synod of
Bishops Sept. 29.
“That reporting is clearly incorrect and I repudiate it,” Archbishop Quinn
told NC News after the reports appeared in American morning papers Sept. 30.
“I clearly stated in both my Latin and English text that I clearly adhere to
the church doctrine on contraception,” he said.
He noted that in his synod intervention the day before he had called for the
church to place the church teaching “in a new context” to explain it better and
bring about clearer understanding of it.
But he had emphasized that one must “begin with the teaching of the
church,” said the archbishop, president of the National Conference of Catholic
Bishops.
JACK KEEFE, one of the team of financial experts, speaks
with Father Walter Donovan, pastor of St. Thomas More Church,
concerning the new plan.