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44 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.