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Vol. 19 No. 2 Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta Thursday, January 8, 1981 $8.00 per year Ttt&yi TUtl ‘SuhUm4Am» 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.