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CELIBACY DISPENSATION
Vatican Issues New Norms
NC NEWS SERVICE
The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has told bishops
and superiors of religious orders of priests that a dispensation from celibacy is
not to be considered a right belonging to all priests.
The statement came in a letter dated Oct. 14 and signed by Cardinal Franjo
Seper, prefect of the congregation, and Archbishop Jerome Hamer, its
secretary. The letter accompanied a new set of eight procedural norms, or
rules, for handling cases in which a priest asks to be dispensed from celibacy
and to live as a layman.
Such cases are processed first by a diocesan bishop or religious superior and
then sent to the doctrinal congregation before presentation to the pope, who
makes the final decision.
The congregation said it will accept two categories of cases:
-- “Priests who have left the priestly life for a long period of time and hope
to remedy a state of affairs which they are not able to quit,” and
“Those who should not have received priestly ordination because the
necessary aspect of freedom or responsibility was lacking or because the
competent superiors were not able, within an appropriate time, to judge in a
prudent and sufficiently fitting way whether the candidate really was suited for
continuously leading a life of celibacy dedicated to God.”
The congregation told bishops and superiors to take care “so that a process
of such serious importance as is a dispensation from celibacy, not be
considered as a right which the church must recognize indiscriminately as
belonging to all its priests.
“On the other hand, ” the congregation said, “what is to be considered as
being a true right is that one which a priest, through his oblation, has conferred
upon Christ and upon all the People of God. Despite the serious difficulties
which stand in his way and which can happen to him in this life, Christ and the
People of God expect the priest to observe the fidelity which he had promised
them.
’’Equally to be avoided is the notion that a dispensation from celibacy in
recent times can be considered to be the result of some quasi-automatic
summary administrative process,” the congregation said.
The congregations warned against “any levity in procedure” which might
scandalize “a good number of the Christian faithful.” To avoid that, it said, “a
case in favor of dispensation is to be demonstrated by the force of the number
(Continued on page 6)
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 18 No. 38
Thursday, October 30,1980
$8.00 per year
'Halt "ScixUhaCutm
The Immoral Majority
Jerry Falwell proudly preaches his
Moral Majority doctrine. And he
does it with striking success. His Old
Time Gospel television programs
command an audience of faithfulness
beyond belief. Fifteen million listen
each week and by the great
preacher’s own admission, two
million regularly respond.
They like ole Jerry’s message. And
without embarassment, he likes to
preach it. He is not afraid of his
facts. America is
on a roller-
- coaster-ride to
hell. Pornogra
phy, gay rights,
murderous
abortion, and a i
mess of muggers !
on the once safe
streets of our
cities is ample
evidence of our
imminent,
wicked doom.
The enemy is our Federal
bureaucracy from the White House
through the Congress and into our
lily-livered state houses. They are
soft on morality and friends of the
red menace.
Jerry and his folks have the
answer. Christianity, Bible-thumping
style, in the Congress is the answer.
Ronald Reagan in the White House is
the answer. And God-fearing judges
on a Supreme Court that will
legislate for prayerful public
protection of family life, is the
answer.
Without hesitation or shame they
loudly pronounce their cause. But
they have their critics coming back
just as vociferously.
There are voices saying that
similar sounds of simplistic healings
were heard in Germany as the Nazi
Party rose to power. The Jewish
community is searching for its place
in the proposed Christian Congress of
the Falwellites. Blacks are adamant
that the gospel proclamations of the
Majority are labeled lily white. And
many Catholics, while cozily
enjoying the new anti-abortion
company, feel most uneasy at the
fundamentalist protestant doctrine
preached.
The see-saw battle has been one
big colorful sideshow as we have
marched down to deadline at the
polling booth. Now, on the eve of
picking the President and those other
chosen souls bound for Washington,
one question remains. How many of
those who have listened, will
participate? How many will vote?
Americans, proclaiming
membership in the greatest
democracy that the world has
known, do not vote. Most of the
presidents elected within living
memory went to that awesome
position of power on relatively small
turnouts. Politicians even plan the
subtle possibilities of their campaigns
on the small number who will vote.
We are a scandal to the world. Other
free nations stand in stupefied horror
watching our political laziness.
We should take a page from the
book of the West Germans who went
to the polls in massive numbers just
two weeks ago. Ninety per cent of all
registered voters were represented.
Sadly, forty-five percent will be a
respectable number for us on
November 4.
The Moral Majority and those
who say it violates the sacred but
questionable doctrine of Church and
State will be remembered as the
1980 campaign ends. But there is
another Majority, less controversial,
vocally quiet and dependably
perennial.
It is the American non-voter. Call
him the Immoral Majority.
Synod Asks Pastoral Approach
To Difficult Issues Of Family
: ■ \ '
m
PLANNING LITURGY for separated and divorced Catholics to
be celebrated Nov. 20 at Holy Spirit Church in Atlanta. At left,
Sandy Melof, chairman of archdiocesan Separated and Divorced
Catholics groups, with Louise Rutland, Jeanne Mosley and Jerry
Horton.
VATICAN CITY (NC) ~ The
secret final propositions of the 1980
world Synod of Bishops made strong
recommendations to Pope John Paul
II for a sensitive pastoral approach to
such burning issues as artificial
contraception and the status of
divorced and remarried Catholics.
The bishops carefully balanced
the call for sensitivity with doctrinal
firmness.
The 43 propositions concluded
with a 16-point charter of human
rights, which the bishops asked the
Holy See to propose to the United
Nations, and a call for each of the
world’s bishops’ conferences to draw
up a pastoral directory for families.
The set of propositions, the major
document of the synod, was not
made public, but it was seen by NC
News.
The propositions were submitted
to the pope Oct. 25, following a
month of deliberation by more than
200 bishops on the theme of “The
Role of the Christian Family in the
World of Today.” The first
proposition requested that the pope
use the document as the basis of a
papal letter.
Here is a summary of what the
synod concluded on some of the key
issues discussed:
On artificial contraception:
- The synod “firmly holds to
what was set forth in the Second
Vatican Council and subsequently in
the encyclical ‘Humanae Vitae’ (Of
Human Life), and specifically that
conjugal love must be fuliy human,
exclusive and open to new life.”
-- Any pressure exercised by
government or public authorities
“for sterilization or contraception
and the procurement of abortion
must be completely condemned and
rejected.”
- In order to make the church’s
teaching on artificial contraception
more understood and accepted, the
synod “invites theologians to work,
joining their forces with the
hierarchical magisterium (church
teaching authority), so that the
biblical foundations and personalist
grounds of this doctrine might be
brought to light ever more fully.”
-- The prohibition on artificial
contraception is normative, not just
an ideal.
-- The synod “is not unaware of
the very difficult and truly
tormenting situation of so many
Christian couples who, despite a
sincere will, are unequal to fulfilling
the moral norms taught by the
(Continued on page 6)
Official Assignment
Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan has announced the following
priestly assignment, effective Thursday, Oct. 30.
Reverend Michael P. Hogan ... from Assistant Pastor at the Church
of the Holy Spirit, Atlanta, to Priest-in-Charge of the Mission of Prince of
Peace, Buford.
Cathedral Service Marks Reformation Sunday
BY GRETCHEN REISER
On the steps outside the Cathedral
of Christ the King, the colors of the
choir robes distinguished Lutherans
and Catholics, their single voices not
yet joined to the swell of the organ
and processional within the church.
Leading the clergy, they entered,
singing “A Mighty Fortress Is Our
God.” Voices became a choir and the
filled cathedral a joint congregation
of Lutherans and Catholics
celebrating Reformation Sunday
together for the first time.
The “Reformation-Reconciliat
ion” service, marking the 450th
anniversary this year of The
Augsburg Confession, was sponsored
by the Metro Atlanta All Lutheran
Pastoral Conference and the
Religious Unity Commission of the
Archdiocese of Atlanta.
Or a day when Lutherans might
have been marking their differences
with the Catholic Church, homilist
Dr. John F. Johnson, a member of
the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialog
team, asked that it be a time to “seek
a new outpouring of the Holy
Spirit... a time to be kind to one
another, forgiving each other as God
in Christ has forgiven us.”
He quoted Pope John Paul II’s
remarks on the anniversary of The
Augsburg Confession last June 25,
noting with sadness that the attempt
in 1530 to reconcile differences
between the Protestant Reformation
and the Catholic Church failed. Dr.
Johnson, pastor of Our Savior
Lutheran Church in St. Petersburg,
Fla., said that the 450th anniversary
was a time for clarification of “what
it means to be Church ... to be
God’s people called by Word and by
baptism,” a time for thanksgiving,
echoing Mary’s Magnificat, and a
time for self-examination.
Finally, he said, it is a time to
proclaim the Gospel. “The purpose
of The Augsburg Confession was to
confess the Gospel of Jesus Christ,”
he said. “It is the power of that
Gospel that sanctions our
commemoration today ... The
Gospel remains our only hope for a
common witness.”
Bishop Gerald S. Troutman of the
Southeastern Synod, Lutheran
Church in America, prayed in
thanksgiving for the leaders, clergy
and faithful of the Catholic Church.
Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan,
who presided at the service, prayed
that Lutherans be granted the “grace
to forgive any words or deeds of ours
by which they have been hurt over
the generations.”
The four Lutheran Synods in
Atlanta represented at the service
were the Lutheran Church in
America, the Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod, the
American Lutheran Church and the
Association of Evangelical Lutheran
Churches.
While formal dialogue proceeds
between theologians, those outside
the service Sunday afternoon
celebrated the beauty of the
Cathedral, the acoustics, the power
of the joint choir, and the chance to
meet each other.
“It was a celebration, being
together,” said Mrs. F. Otis Clauss of
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in
College Park. She said that while she
had thought the day would come
when Lutherans and Catholics might
worship together, she was surprised
that it had happened on Reformation
Sunday, the Lutheran day of
celebration.
“I think it’s high time we got
together,” said Russell Grick of
Lutheran Church of the Redeemer.
“We have so much in common. It’s
high time we learned to love each
other.”
Laurence On The Move
BY THEA JARVIS
Thursdays at Christ the King
Elementary School in Atlanta are
“running days.”
Every week, children chase the
elusive goal of the white t-shirt -
gained only after the completion
of 40 miles or 400 laps around the
school track.
Laurence MacNeill, a fifth
grader at the school, seeks the
glory of the white t-shirt along
with many of his classmates. But
for Laurence, the goal is a little
steeper.
Laurence “runs” with artificial
legs.
“It’s real hard to run, so I just
walk around,” says Laurence with
pride. “I’ve been working since
school began and I hope to have
that t-shirt by the end of the
year.”
Laurence is a bi-lateral
amputee. Ten years ago, he began
life without legs. It didn’t stop
him then and it doesn’t stop him
now.
“When I was a year old and
getting my first pair of artificial
legs, the doctors said it would be a
waste of time. They thought I’d
never walk - that I’d just be in a
wheelchair all the time,” says the
blonde, blue-eyed youngster,
radiating enthusiasm.
The doctors were in for a
surprise. Nine years later, one of
Laurence’s favorite tricks is taking
the stairs at Christ the King three
at a time “when I’m really in a
hurry,” he confides. “It only gets
embarassing when my legs start
right.
“I’ve tried from the beginning
to be open and honest with
Laurence,” says Mary Anne
MacNeill. “It’s not going to
change and Laurence needs to
accept this fact.”
She recalls the day she drove
up to school to find Laurence
The Unhandicapped-4 (Last In A Series)
squeaking and I sound like a 1910
Model-T Ford.”
Faced with the challenge of a
handicapped child, many a parent
suffers - at least initially -
overwhelming guilt and anxiety.
Not so for Mary Anne MacNeill,
Laurence’s mother.
“I was married for eight years
before I had Laurence. His birth
was a gift that I just kind of
accepted,” she says with candor.
“It was a shock to me, but I never
fell apart, and though it was a
little harder for Laurence’s father,
he was able to totally accept it,
too.”
Observing the ease with which
Laurence handles his handicap,
one is convinced that the
MacNeills have done something
being carried to his gym class by
two young friends. “I stopeed the
car and told them that if Laurence
didn’t walk by himself, he’d never
learn to do it.”
Laurence is a quick, intelligent
child who plays the piano and
loves to read “all kinds of
mysteries, especially the Hardy
Boys.” But he is all boy, as well.
After school, the artificial legs
come off and Laurence dons
helmet, gloves and elbow pads and
takes to the streets with his
skateboard.
“I sit on it and push it with my
hands,” he explains. “I can even
do a handstand on it and I only
crashed once, when I ran into a
pile of pine straw on my
cul-de-sac.”
Laurence MacNeill
In the summertime, Laurence
can be found swimming and
diving with the best of them.
“He loves to swim, and it’s a
good outlet for him,” beams a
proud Mrs. Mary Curran,
Laurence’s grandmother.
If Laurence’s physical successes
are outstanding, his refusal to take
himself too seriously is genuinely
refreshing.
“Laurence used to play ice
hockey with Dan Bouchard of the
Flames,” recalls his mother, “and
he wanted to be a goalie like Dan.
We all fantasized legs made three
feet wide and four feet high - the
exact size of the goal - so he’d
play as well as his hero.”
Laurence also dreams of having
legs seven feet high to make him a
basketball superstar or hydraulic
legs to kick a football out of the
stadium. Bionics are his bag.
“Sometimes he’ll get frustrated
and say ‘I wish I had legs so I
could do that,”’ says Ms.
MacNeill. “But we talk about it
and discuss how he can do the
best with what he has. Laurence is
a gift in himself, given to me for a
special reason. I feel it’s my
obligation to do the most with
that gift that I can.”
Lots of people are there to
help. Laurence’s eight-year-old
sister Kathleen “sometimes has to
reach for me,” says her brother,
and Julian, a school friend from
Cuba, “walks with me to gym and
helps me up high curbs.”
Patrick, Laurence’s best friend
in his neighborhood, “doesn’t
treat me any differently from
anybody else - except when we’re
(Continued on page 9)
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