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I* The Holy Family: Real People BY THEA JARVIS The Christmas creche is a delightful tradition said to have originated in 12th century Italy with Saint Francis of Assisi. According to legend, Francis staged a live manger scene to help his little village remember the birth of Christ. To Francis, the Holy Family and the event they shared was real and historic, and he wanted others to experience this reality as he did. For us celebrators of a 20th century Christmas, it is difficult to envision such reality. Very often the Holy Family is merely a rustic ideal of the simple life, forever encased in wood or plaster in our living room mangers, having little relevance to our own helter-skelter lives. Let us remember how real it was for them, who lived out the Chirst-event. Joseph was a hard-working carpenter who used many of the tools we know today for his trade. Like other Palestinian woodworkers, he gathered his own raw materials from the surrounding countryside of Nazareth. Joseph envisioned, no doubt, a simple but comfortable life with a loving wife and dutiful children to surround him as he grew older. No such peace awaited him in his hidden life with Mary and Jesus. Joseph soon learned that his young bride-to-be was with child. Hoping to shield her from shame, he offered to divorce her quietly, with as little scandal as possible, since the Jewish tradition held a betrothal to be almost as binding as a marriage vow. Is it any wonder that this gentle man required the guidance of one of God’s messengers - an angel - to direct his decision-making? Left to his own lights, Joseph would surely have followed a different path. And what of Mary, his betrothed? It was common for 13 to 14-year-old Jewish maidens to enter into marriage and begin their own households. Mary must have been about this age and skilled in the duties of an efficient wife when she and Joseph made their plans. She no doubt drew water from the village well, ground the barley grains for bread flour, and kept the oil lamp always burning in her simple home. But the only peace that Mary could have known was a quiet confidence in her God, for from the beginning, things happened to her that must have raised innumerable questions in her young heart. Luke’s gospel tells us that Mary was “deeply disturbed” by the words of Gabriel, who called her “favored” by God and asked her to be the mother of the Christ. Only from her deep wellspring of faith could Mary answer with an unequivocal “yes.” The journey she made soon after with her husband to register for the Roman census was no easy trek. It is 90 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem. On donkey, with child, and withoug guarantee of lodgings, such a trip becomes a considerable challenge. Another of Mary’s challenges was her son. Jesus, whose birth we now celebrate, was not the ideal child. He must have been a puzzle to his parents, as well as himself, as he confronted his destiny. One senses from his adolescent debut in the Temple that Jesus was remarkable, even in his youth. But remarkable children are not often the easiest to explain to inquiring friends and relatives who can’t understand why they are not like everyone else. As Jesus grew and eventually departed his quiet home in Nazareth, he was Third Sunday In Advent befriended by common fishermen, tax collectors, and prostitutes. He lived as an itinerant preacher, his bed an open field, his food the sharings of other’s tables. No doubt many countrymen shook their heads and wagged their tongues at the Holy Family of Nazareth. They might today be called a troubled family, a family in need. Some might recommend them for counseling, or food stamps, or even a Christmas basket. Only the eyes of faith bring them to their full stature as persons of strength and courage. Through difficult and often confusing times, they sought to find the hand of God in their lives. Finding his presence there, they were able to live their life as whole - or holy - people. This “wholeness” that characterized the Holy Family is what we now seek in our own lives. In faith we again begin our journey - as they did - at Christmas. THE WHOLENESS that characterized the Holy Family is what we now seek in our own lives. In faith we again begin our journey - as they did - at Christmas. Merrily Marching Army “Some of my best men are women.” General Booth said it, he meant it and, in that man’s army, it was true. William Booth was indeed General of the Army but not the trench trained fighting type. He was founder, just one hundred years ago, of the best known, street fighters that ever carried a cross or a musical note. The Salvation Army. The best single sign of Christmas is the roaring, red kettle that swings between the trombone and the drum on your finely festive shopping mall. It may not be the smooth sound of Tommy Dorsey and the choir- -of-four will hardly sell into the millions. But the purpose is achieved. The many mercy missions of this season will get the Army’s prompt attention, in your name, if you just fill that musical kettle. Year in, year out, the Salvation Army marches merrily to victory. Turkey on the table for every unshaved, homeless hobo on Christmas Day is the goal of these uniformed serenaders. As we sit down to the overloaded table of delicious calories, so too will the guests of the Army. Toys will appear to heal broken hearts and cute dollies will be cuddled in the once empty arms of deleriously happy little girls. The Army and their kettle will do it all. But then the Salvation Army has been doing it, in many ways, for a glorious, golden hundred years. In Boston’s nortorious “Combat Zone” the victims of vicious pimps and pornographers find food, shelter and shoulders to lean on at Army headquarters. In Spanish Harlem the visible blue-clad cadets speaking Spanish and English lend a hand to broken families and a refuge to battered wives. In Detroit the retarded are trained to handle the hurdles of life and if emergency shelter is the need, you can call the Army in St. Louis, Los Angeles or any city in the nation. Here in Atlanta, vivacious young Army women run a high powered home for runaway teenage girls. After many years of watchful counsel this non-uniformed division knows the terror facing these girls in flight - prostitution rackets on the streets and puzzling, incestuous sexual abuse in the home. With Army training and know how, healing gently happens. They are an Army of crusading Christians. Booth founded his ragtag mission to the derelicts of society in Victorian London in 1878. Two years later the Army invaded the New World, and their mission to America began. That mission of outreach has never stopped. The quarter you throw into the kettle has a long distance to travel. The Army and its tireless recruits will wage many wars with that small silver piece. With sacrifice, joyful and generous, they will make your quarter do a fifty cent job. So - in the spirit of one hundred years service - why not this year throw in a dollar. Bull* Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta Vol. 18 No. 44 Thursday, December 11,1980 $8 Per Year MISSIONARIES MURDERED - Three Maryknoll nuns pray over the bodies of four American missionaries who were found dead by a roadside near San Salvador. Three of the bodies were nuns and the fourth was a lay woman. All the women were shot. MARYKNOLL SISTERS 6 In Love With God And People’ BY SISTER MARY ANN WALSH ALBANY, N.Y. (NC) - Maryknoll Sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clarke, who were found murdered in El Salvador Dec. 4, were “in love with God and people,” said Maryknoll Sister Annette Mulroy, who knew both of them well, in an interview with The Evangelist, Albany diocesan newspaper. The dead nuns are the first Maryknoll Sisters to have been murdered since the community was founded in 1921. Their bodies were found with those of Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel and lay volunteer Jean Donovan, both of Cleveland, in a shallow grave by a roadside between San Salvador and its airport. The four women had been missing since Dec. 2. A soldier at the scene said all four had been shot in the back of the head. Sister Ford, 40, had been in El Salvador only a short time, said Sister Mulroy of the Maryknoll Office of Social Concerns at the community’s headquarters near Ossining, N.Y. Previously she had served in Chile and was there during the overthrow of Marxist President Salvador Allende in 1973. That was the first assignment for Sister Ford, (Continued on page 6) New U.S. Apostolic Delegate -- Story Page 6 POPE JOHN PA UL Violence “Most Bitter Fruit” BY NANCY FRAZIER VATICAN CITY (NC) - Violence o is the “most bitter fruit” of the confusion of ideologies in today’s society, Pope John Paul II told Italian lawyers and judges Dec. 6. Addressing participants in the national convention of the Union of Italian Catholic Jurists during an audience ih the Vatican’s Consistory Hall, the pope emphasized the distinction between strength and violence, calling the former a “necessary instrument” of law and referring to the latter as the “radical antithesis” of law. “There often remains today a confusion of ideas, deriving from the plurality of old and new disciplines, the diversity of schools and the opposition of political ideologies,” he said. The confusion leads to conflicts “between those who think that you can and must reform structures peacefully and those who believe that only after the total and violent annihilation of himself can man be (Continued on page 6) Far From BY GRETCHEN REISER Like the lull before the storm, ! the day begins with Mass. Then I the phones at the St. Vincent de Paul Society office in southwest Atlanta are placed on the hook. , All three lines light up at once. : The door opens and two women walk in, waiting to see Sharon Maddox, the society’s caseworker. The first call is a woman, trying to find Christmas toys to i give her children. Someone else needs money. A family calls; ; they’ve been burned out of their 1 apartment. Another call from someone needing money,' “We : don’t have any money right now,” ; says Betti Knott. “If they get here by 11:30, we can get them some food ... a hot lunch and some - canned goods.” The caller takes directions to St. Anthony’s ; Church. The needs are there all year round, but from Thanksgiving to Christmas, there is no respite from the ringing phones, the daily struggle to match up the donated food and the limited gifts of ; money with the stories of need that flood the office. Between 8:30 and 11:30 in the morning each day, the office is averaging 100 phone calls from people The Shopping Malls... looking for help. The only help staff members have to give is what they receive from contributors. tjc sfs rfc sfc This year, someone got there before the needy. On Sunday night, November 30, the warehouse near St. Anthony’s Church where the Society stores its food supplies was burglarized. cold cereals, and foods that will appeal to children. The families who come to the office for help are no different from those who don’t have to turn to the Society. They want something special to give their children, especially at Christmastime, said Sharon Maddox. “No one likes to see their children go without.” Heralds Of The Season-Last In A Series Five thousand cans of food, the donations from parishes and schools that pour in around Thanksgiving time, were stolen. The quantity, which sounds so large, would have lasted a month and a half at the most, Mrs. Knott said. Although police caught some people believed involved in the burglary, the food supply for the Christmas season is almost gone. Food and emergency financial aid are the backbone of the Society’s program; the small staff concentrates its assistance in these areas. With the theft, the need for donations is urgent. The office tries to give families a balanced food supply, and needs not just canned vegetables but canned meats and fish, hot and A man from College Park is on the phone with Betti Knott. It’s three weeks before Christmas and he has lost his job. They have talked before in recent days and he is just calling to tell Mrs. Knott not to worry - somehow he is going to make ends meet. He has a family and is two months behind in his rent, threatened with eviction. The agencies are trying to piece together the money to keep them in their home for Christmas: $50 from the Salvation Army, $50 from St. Vincent de Paul. There is still a gap; the husband insists he will come up with it somehow, working as a day laborer. . . somehow he will get it. “Don’t try AT THE ST. VINCENT de Paul Thrift Shop on Beecher St., S. W., Betty Early waits on a customer. The Thanksgiving to Christmas season is the busiest time for all the St. Vincent services. to take it all on yourself,” Mrs. Knott says. “Remember, we’re here if you need us.” In other calls, it’s necessary to say no, or direct people elsewhere - to agencies that specialize in help to fire victims, for example, or to those that concentrate on gathering toys for children at Christmastime. Far from the shopping malls and the newspaper circulars advertising discounts for Christmas, the phones light up, and the need for gifts of food and money continue. The challenge lingers to give not just from pur abundance, but from our substance and through St. Vincent’s we become heralds of the season. To support the St. Vincent de Paul Society, call 752-6394 or mail to P. O. Box 10494, Atlanta 30310. t