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SOUNDINGS Cardinal Suenens: Messenger Of Prayer BY MSGR. NOEL BURTENSHAW Cardinal Leo Josef Suenens, retired archbishop of Brussels, Belgium was in Atlanta last week and granted this exclusive interview to THE GEORGIA BULLETIN. Q. Since you retired from your Archdiocese last year, what role have you played in the Church? A. I retired in January 1980 and since that time I have been a pastor to prayer groups around the world. The Holy Father gave the pastoral care of the Catholic Charismatic Movement to me. I have been to the U.S. four times this year and many other countries too. I was in Rome last week and the Holy Father took a small group of us to his private chapel for prayer. When we sang in tongues, he looked like he wanted to join us. He says he loves to sing. Q. Is the Charismatic Prayer Movement dying in the U.S.? The groups don’t seem to be very large today. A. When a plane is getting ready to fly smoothly in the air, it first makes a lot of noise on the ground. Once in the air there is no more noise. So it was with prayer groups. A lot of the noise may have fallen away as the movement became a part of the Church. But the Spirit is moving strongly within so many giving souls. Q. Is there a valid healing ministry within the Catholic Charismatic Prayer Movement? A. When I was in Lourdes, I saw many poor sick people brought to that shrine to be cured. Most came away without a healing. But - and it is so strange - they almost always smile and say, “I was healed. I accept now most willingly this cross in my life.” So it is with the healing ministry of our prayer groups. Perhaps the Spirit heals at times in the body. He always heals in the soul. Q. How would you define holiness? A. Paul said it all. It is not I - it is Christ working in me. So, at all times I must let Christ work, act, walk, see, hear in me. Christian simply means “Christliness.” When they challenged Mother Teresa and said she was not successful because of the multitude of poor and sick still in the streets she merely said, “I am not here to be successful. I am here to be faithful.” We must be faithful to Christ. By the way, they also asked Mother Teresa was it the will of God that brought her to India. “No,” she said, “it was the love of God.” Q. What is the best way to integrate the Charismatic Movement into parish life? A. Well, the best way is through the pastor. If he is interested and open he becomes a bridge that brings beautiful prayer to his people. The program can work in many ways. And the leaders of the program should work with the pastor. It should be a help to his ministry. The Holy Father has praised and blessed the Movement. Many bishops have formally welcomed it into their c dioceses. J Q. Do you see an increase coming in vocations to the priesthood and * religious life because of the Prayer Movement. A. There are many vocations being nurtured in small prayer groups. Around the world I have seen a willingness and a generosity. Many are preparing themselves by prayer and listening to the Spirit. We all need to pray for this increase. (Continued on page 8) Sr "V-V- ■ ' CARDINAL SUENENS accompanied by Father John Fallon enters the Cathedral of Christ the King to participate in a Service for Unity. The Cardinal gave the homily at this service. forgia Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta Vol. 18 No. 36 Thursday, October 16,1980 $8.00 per year MISSION SUNDAY OCT. 19 § i CONFIRMATION - Father Liam Tuffy, left, and Dr. Abel Ramos, far right, at a confirmation service in Bolivia. Halfway House For Bolivia’s Orphans BY GRETCHEN KE1SER From the center of the Bolivian plateau where St. James Missionaries live, it is 60 kilometers or more to the foothills’ villages of Aymara Indians. High in the Andes, 13,000 feet, the villages ring the plateau, some an overland walk of several hours from the closest road. Wooden plows pulled by oxen are the tools to farm hillside plots. Here, at the top of the mountains,' and the bottom of the social strata, a child who outlives childhood has defied the odds. For shoes, he wears makeshift sandals, summer and winter, made of strips from old car tires. He studies in an open adobe hut, around the year. One of two die in childhood; the one who lives, born to a family without health care, is too likely to be orphaned. He is likely to be one of 30 children gathered around a table’s kerosene lamp on a winter night in a state-run orphanage trying to study. In this bleak light, from a country torn by political violence, the story of one faltering marriage is an unlikely hero’s tale. But such is the story of Dr. Abel Ramos. Dr. Ramos is from the other end of Bolivia’s social scale. He earned a doctorate in diplomacy studying abroad, and taught in Europe and married. The couple’s return to Bolivia strained the marriage, however. His wife returned to Europe and Dr. Ramos was left without children of his own. He could have had a career in politics, and been a distinguished addition to many fields. Out of the mystery of personal suffering, though, Dr. Ramos has become father to Bolivia’s orphans. He is, says Father Liam Tuffy, an unsung hero, one of the Bolivians whose work is “the real story” uncovered in mission posts, though such stories rarely travel across the mountains. Dr. Ramos is director of state-run orphanages. The 1,300 children in his family in this section of Bolivia have been helped by Atlantans over the years, to the point now, where these children who range from infants to 18-year-olds are adequately cared for. (Continued on page 6) Go And Be Reconciled r Four hundred and fifty years ago a serious attempt was made by leaders of the Protestant Reformation to reconcile their differences with the Catholic Church. This took the form of the AUGSBURG CONFESSIONS - a document of reconciliation attempting to find common ground with Rome. It was flatly rejected by the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, as being “too protestant.” Lutherans and Catholics around the world are celebrating the 450th anniversary of the AUGSBURG CONFESSIONS this year as a time of reconciliation and recommitment to seeking full unity in the Body of Christ. In Atlanta, Lutherans and Catholics have planned a R e formation- Reconciliation Service in Christ the King Cathedral for Sunday, Oct. 26, at 3 p.m. Political Comparisons A two part series outlining the positions taken by the major political parties and candidates, along with the positions of the U.S. Bishops, begins today on page 7. The final part will appear next week. Archbishop Thomas Donnellan will preside at the service, which is being planned by members of the four Lutheran Synods. Pastor John Johnson of St. Petersburg, a member of the National Lutheran-Catholic Dialog Team, will preach. The combined choirs of Lutheran and Catholic churches will lead the congregation in song. The public is invited to join in this service of ecumenism and reconciliation. A reception in the Hyland Center, hosted by the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women, will follow the service. Further information may be obtained by contacting Father John Mulroy at Holy Family parish in Marietta, or Archdiocesan Unity Commission members Don Kiessling at 636-7353 or Frank Broniec at 633-9364. * j 1 JS5 A "V THREE CATHEDRALS in Atlanta are represented at a recent unity service. Bishop John, Greek Orthodox bishop; Archbishop Thomas Donnellan, center, and Rt. Rev. Bennett J. Sims, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese, precede Cardinal Leo Suenens and Father Louis Naughton into the Cathedral of Christ the King. A Portrait Of Stacy BY THEA JARVIS One of the best things about Stacy is her smile. It greets you on the soccer field or at Sunday Mass and spreads like a warm ray of sunshine in a cloudy sky. At the ripe age of 10 years, Stacy takes time to smell the flowers and watch the wind blow fall colors around on their leafy palettes. She stops to talk to any and all who will chat with her, interested in who they are and what they are doing. Stacy is a special young girl, and because of her simple, genuine openness, she makes others feel special too. When Stacy was 10 months old, she was diagnosed as having Noonan’s Syndrome, an accident of birth that can leave children brilliant or totally debilitated, but generally results in some degree of retardation. Stacy was also found to be hyperactive and limited in motor and visual coordination. “Socially, emotionally, and intellectually, Stacy is not that far behind other children her age,” says Stacy’s mother, Leslie Long, a frank, insightful woman who has been a single parent since her daughter was two years old. “It’s the combination of factors that puts Stacy where she is and makes her who she is.” For the parent of a retarded child, the first need is to conquer an overwhelming sense of guilt. “The doctor told us the most important contribution we could make to Stacy’s development was to accept whatever she did as terrific,” says Ms. Long. “But for awhile I thought I was missing for Stacy all the things she wouldn’t be able to do. When I finally realized I was missing these things for me - not for her - then I could begin to accept her.” Accepting and loving Stacy no matter what she did or didn’t do was the key to her future progress, according to Ms. Long. “Once she knew this kind of love and developed confidence in herself, then we could begin to expect things of her.” There’s alot to expect from Stacy. At the Heritage Center off Briarcliff Road in Atlanta where she studies math, reading, handwriting and spelling, Stacy is doing well in all her subjects. “At Heritage, Stacy is a big fish in a little pond where no one is made to feel different and each one is treated as unique,” says her mother. “When Stacy was younger, she was a happy, special retreat at Willoway Camp in Winder, Georgia sponsored by St. Jude’s Church. Stacy received the sacrament of Holy Eucharist at the age of seven and will be confirmed in a few short years. Because she is so special, Stacy has no need for the sacrament of reconciliation. In the future, too, is a place for Stacy as a contributing member of The Unhandicapped - 2 {Second In A Series) unfrustrated child. This changed as she began to realize that she was different. Because Heritage gives her the chance to excel in an academic environment like other children, she is beginning to again feel really good about herself.” Like her 12-year-old brother Robbie, Stacy is an enthusiastic soccer player. The DeKalb County Stacy Long Special Education Department sponsors a team in training for the Georgia Special Olympics which will be held later this year. “Stacy’s team is pretty free-flowing,” according to Leslie Long, who can be found cheering for her children on almost any Saturday afternoon. “The kids range in age from 6-13 and they practice playing different positions each weekend.” At Holy Cross Church in Chamblee, Stacy is enrolled in a special education CCD class each Sunday morning. Once a year, she attends a society. She will be schooled until she is 21 and should be able to hold a job, “perhaps as a hairdresser, since she’s so fond of fancy hairdos,” says her mother with a knowing grin. Mrs. Long has already placed Stacy on a 10-year waiting list for a sheltered apartment complex in metro Atlanta that will provide limited independence for her daughter. “Stacy will be able to cook, clean, work and shop with full-time medical and service personnel on hand,” says Leslie Long. “Because I tend to be overprotective of Stacy, it is important for her to have the opportunity to function on her own as an adult.” For those who know her, Stacy gives far more than she receives. To her family, she has taught tolerance, compassion, patience, and a sense of wonder at the world around them. “We have learned that just because someone’s not of the norm doesn’t mean they can’t be beautiful, loving people,” says a proud Ms. Long. For her neighbors in the condominium community where she lives, Stacy has broken barriers of ignorance and prejudice. She has shown how the acceptance of someone who is a little different can broaden everyone’s horizon. And to her church, Stacy has become a unique gift from God, to be cherished and loved, respected and nourished, just as she nourishes others in her very special way.