Newspaper Page Text
Vol. 19 No. 2
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Thursday, January 8, 1981
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St. Ann’s
Father Larry Schmuhl was
supposed to go south to
Brunswick. But he’s ended up
going north to his new
assignment in Marietta. Since
Father Larry is a Marist, going
to St. Joseph’s in Marietta will
be like going home.
The Marist Fathers have
been out in Marietta for about
40 years. When they first went
there, it was just a bus stop on
the way to
Chattanooga.
The Marist
ministry
down in
Sacred Heart
was well
known, as
was the
military
marching
boys’ school beside that
venerable parish church. Going
to the Marietta mission was
breaking new missionary
ground.
Catholics were few in the
entire Cobb County area. The
fathers from down Atlanta way
were looked at pretty closely
by the natives. And the school
they opened was the center of
local conversation as the Bible
Belt folks queried its existence.
The mission became the parish
of St. Joseph, active and
thriving, but the only one in all
of Cobb County.
Those days of fresh
beginnings have changed.
Sitting in the brand new, gothic
style St. Ann’s parish church in
East Marietta last week, we
were reminded that expansion
has indeed come to Cobb. St.
Ann’s is just a few years old.
The parish list is vast, and still
the new, young eager families
come to join.
They come to be a part of
this lively LaSalette location as
they came to Holy Family, just
a few miles away. Just a decade
ago this community of Catholic
life was born and quickly found
it necessary to plan the
existence of St. Ann’s. And
before Holy Family, St.
Thomas in Smyrna rose up - the
proud mission of the first
foundation, St. Joseph’s. So the
vital growth took place until
today. It seems unstoppable.
Cobb County is 20 percent
Catholic. Where once we saw
mule and plough we now see
flowering subdivisions.
Regretfully, even the prancing
occupiers of pastures are almost
no more. All were moved to
one side as the new South
opened and the jaded, frigid
cities of the north decided to
resettle.
Traditional bastions of
Catholic life - Chicago, New
York, Boston, Cleveland -
found new vigor in the warmth
of Dixie’s sun. They settled all
over the sun belt and Cobb
County shared in the wealth of
their presence.
Father Tom Carroll, pastor
of St. Ann’s, stood in the
doorway of his new church.
The spreading grin of
satisfaction told the story. He
was glad the last brick was in
place and now the new dwellers
of Cobb could homestead at
last. When his hand of greeting
went out to Father Schmuhl,
40 years of Catholic history was
recalled. This new edifice and
this visible growth had all
started with the pioneer Marists
from Sacred Heart.
And just as we begin to call
St. Ann’s the newest daughter
of the Church in Cobb, a
younger sister parish is about to
open her doors. Transfiguration
is about to blossom and open
more Catholic doors as the
Church continues to march.
And it’s all happening out
there in recently - rural Cobb
County.
DEATH’S BARBER -- Wearing a black hooded robe, Liam
Mahony clips hair from Heide Habicht during a demonstration
against nuclear arms at the Pentagon. Under a banner which read
“How many Hiroshimas before you understand?” the members of
the Ithaca (N.Y.) Peace Works gave up locks of their hair to show
effects of nuclear radiation. They were among several hundred
demonstrators protesting arms build-up and military aid to El
Salvador.
McLuhan’s Message
HISPANICS CITED
U.S. Bishops Ask Americans
To Welcome Ethnic Diversity
Embraced
NC NEWS SERVICE
Marshall McLuhan, the
communications theorist who
popularized the aphorism, “The
medium is the message,” died Dec.
31, apparently of a stroke, at home
in Toronto. He was 69.
McLuhan, a convert to
Catholicism who attended Mass
daily, was a professor of English
literature at St. Michael’s College, the
Catholic unit of the University of
Toronto, for the past 34 years, and
was the director of the university’s
Centre for Culture and Technology.
In 1967-68, he taught at Fordham
University in New York City.
From 1973 to 1977, he served as
a consultor to the Pontifical
Commission for Social
Communications.
In his books, “Understanding
Media” and “The Medium Is the
Message: An Inventory of Effects,”
McLuhan argued that the electronic
media caused the radical social
changes of the 20th century. The
nature itself of television, movies,
computers and oilier media, far more
than their content, is reshaping
civilization, he said. The electronic
media are transforming every aspect
of man’s life and restructuring
civilization, McLuhan said.
The Church
Technological changes, such as the
invention of the printing press, have
affected the history of the Catholic
Church, McLuhan said in an
interview in the January 1977 issue
of U.S. Catholic magazine.
‘‘Improved written
communication made possible the
development of a huge Roman
bureaucracy, transforming the
Roman pontiff into a chief
executive,” he said. “Further
improvement in travel ajid
communication brought the pontiff
into more immediate personal
relation to his subjects. Today, even
the president of the United States
need not govern from Washington,
D.C.
“What, therefore, is called the
de-Romanization of the Roman
Church is simply its electrification.
When things speed up, hierarchy
disappears and global theater sets
in.”
He contended that the chances of
the Catholic Church’s survival “are a
heck of a lot better than those of the
United States or any other secular
institution” because “it is not
unaided at all times - even on the
secular side -- by supernatural
means.”
McLuhan was born on July 21,
WASHINGTON (NC) - A
committee of U.S. bishops has
published a 4,500-word statement
calling on Americans to welcome
ethnic diversity and to unite in
efforts to eliminate ethnic prejudice
from national life.
“We urge all Americans to accept
the fact of religious and cultural
pluralism not as a historic oddity or a
sentimental journey into the past,
but as a vital, fruitful and challenging
phenomena of our society,” the
bishops said in their statement,
issued Jan. 4.
“Americanization does not call
for the abandonment of cultural
differences but for their wider
WASHINGTON (NC) -- El
n Salvador and Guatemala top the list
of human rights violators in Latin
America, according to a Council on
Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) report.
Bolivia is a close third.
COHA, a coalition of religious and
civic groups, said in a review of Latin
American events in 1980 that the
two Central American countries had
surpassed Argentina’s 1979 record.
In the two countries, with a
combined population of 10 million,
15,000 people were killed as a result
Marshall McLuhan
1911 in Edmonton, Alberta, to
Herbert McLuhan, a real estate and
insurance salesman, and his wife
Naomi, an actress. His parents were
of the Methodist and Baptist faiths,
but sometimes attended services in
other churches.
When he enrolled in the
University of Manitoba, he intended
to become an engineer, but during a
summer vacation, he later said, “I
read my way out of engineering into
English literature.”
(Continued on page 6)
appreciation,” said the statement,
published by the bishops’ Committee
on Social Development and World
Peace.
The statement, titled “Cultural
Pluralism in the United States,” was
developed in response to a request by
delegates to the 1976 bicentennial
Call to Action conference sponsored
by the bishops in Detroit that the
hierarchy give greater attention to
America’s ethnic riches and cultural
diversity.
A subcommittee headed by
Bishop Stanislaus J. Brzana of
Ogdensburg, N.Y., wrote the
statement.
Calling on both the church and
of political violence.
“More people died in El Salvador
than in all the other nations of Latin
America,” COHA said. Close to
10,000 died in political violence
there in 1980, “largely as the result
of government-condoned rightwing
death squad killings,” it said.
In Guatemala “the number of
political murders increased from a
daily average of 20 to 30 in 1979, to
30 and 40 in 1980; guerilla groups
are active in the country, but most of
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (NC) -
The church in Haiti has voiced sharp
criticism of the government of
President-for-Life Jean Claude
Duvalier following the December
arrests of journalists, professionals
and other opponents of the
government.
Archbishop Francois-Wolff
Ligonde of Port-Au-Prince, chairman
of the Haitian Bishops’ Conference,
criticized violations of human rights
in a letter read at Christmas in all
churches and over Radio Soleil, the
Catholic broadcasting station.
Haitian authorities do not
discharge their responsibilities
toward the people in a Christian way,
the letter said. The archbishop asked
that those under arrest be given a fair
trial soon.
Political prisoners in Haiti are
often left in cells for years without
trial.
Following the archbishop’s
the country at large to understand
and accept cultural differences, the
statement urged specific actions such
as providing parish worship and
religious education activities in
languages other than English,
teaching in Catholic schools about
the church’s broad range of cultural
experience, including in seminary
training the history of ethnic
communities and opening leadership
positions in the church “to those of
all ethnic backgrounds who are
canonically eligible and qualified.”
“We ask that the public and
private sectors give consideration to
those ethnic groups who have
(Continued on page 6)
15,000
the violence is carried out by
rightwing paramilitary groups,”
COHA said.
Elsewhere in Central America and
the Caribbean, COHA said, Honduras
“made halting progress toward a
return to civilian rule, although there
were signs of violence against
strikers.” Panama held free elections
even though damaging to government
candidates, but the National Guard
remained the dominant political
(Continued on page 6)
protest more than 60 labor union
leaders were detained and hundreds
of workers were fired for joining
unions sponsored by the Catholic-led
Autonomous Center of Workers,
according to the Christian
Confederation of Latin American
Workers.
The Association of Haitian Clergy
and Religious said in a statement that
neglect of the law by the authorities
was to be condemned. The
association has about 1,500
members.
Those arrested in December had
often contended that the Duvalier
government was failing to provide
basic services and jobs for the people
and was also stiffling political
freedoms to avoid criticism.
The pro-Duvalier daily, Le
Nouveau Monde, said of Archbishop
Ligonde’s letter that “the bishop is
joining a fight without (clear)
standards.”
EL SA L VA DOR, G l i TEMA LA
Political Violence Toll:
Official
Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan has announced the following
assignments:
REVEREND LAWRENCE R. SCHMUHL, S.M., formerly
Administrator of the Marist School, to Pastor of the Church of Saint
Joseph in Marietta — effective Jan. 5.
REVEREND RICHARD J. LOPEZ, Vocation Director for the
Archdiocese, has been named a member of the Board of Trustees,
Seminary of Saint Vincent de Paul in Boynton Beach, Fla. effective
immediately.
Haitian Church Criticizes Arrests
/
The Cable Is Coming
BY MSGR..
NOEL C. BURTENSHAW
Like a giant, spreading claw,
wires are snaking out all over the
city. Little bug-like colored vans
are darting hither and yon, busily
carrying the message to all. On
both sides of the van in large
lettering the title tells the tale:
“Cable Atlanta.” The cable is
here.
The new Cable for the city of
Atlanta Will offer a mind-boggling
5 4 channel system to its
subscribers bringing all kinds of
programming - good and bad -
into each home. Two of those
channels will be all religion and -
a real first in the industry - one of
those two will be local religious
programming.
Rev. John Allen, executive
director of Atlanta Interfaith
Broadcasting took the idea down
to John Haynes, program manager
of Cable Atlanta. “Look,” said
John.” We don’t need all this
canned religion coming into the
city from all over. Atlanta has
good powerful religion of its own.
It’s here in our churches and we
should be giving our people local
downhome stuff.” Cable Atlanta
agreed. The idea was sold. Cable
Atlanta told Rev. Allen “Let’s see
what you can produce.”
John Allen went immediately
to the alliance he knew in the city
-- the Atlanta Interfaith
Broadcasters Board and the local
religious broadcasters dotted
around the city. “All were
interested,” says John. “So we got
the interfaith group together and
planned our channel. Lot’s has
taken place.”
Catholic, Protestant and Jewish
communicators gathered to set
the rules and plan their greatest
venture ever. “We decided we
would open with six hours per
day,” says Ike Newkirk, president
of the AIB Board, “and also
decided the type of programming
we would have. No fundraising
was a must from the beginning.
All of us agreed. Religious
broadcasting of that kind has such
a bad name.”
But funds were needed for
equipment. Peachtree Christian
Church on the corner of Spring
and Peachtree gave the new
venture the space., but cameras,
studios and a complete control
room were needed. It was decided
to ask foundations in the city to
help, and borrow what was
needed till those funds appeared.
The headquarters of Atlanta’s
first local interfaith venture into
the world of the tube began to
take shape. By February 1981,
the new Religious Television
Channel should be on the air.
“Many people confuse the new
Cable with (Ted) Turner’s Cable,”
says Rev. Allen. “It has nothing to
do with Turner. This new
(Continued on page 6)
WHEN COMPLETED, the new Religious Cable Channel will
have this look of action and business. The studio will be
headquartered at Peachtree Christian Church. Jewish and
Christian programs will air beginning in February on a daily
basis.