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The Georgia Bulletin
January 22,1981
President Carter
And The Hostages
The defeat of Jimmy Carter may
well have been instrumental in
bringing the American hostages home.
The Iranians have shown that when
the question of dealing with the
Reagan Administration arises,
reluctance prevails. So the outgoing
President, a man who may have been
overly gentle in this crisis, will be
remembered as a liberator and not as a
one-term President.
Jimmy Carter well deserves that
place in our history. His hesitancy in
dealing with the hostage crisis and
other critical problems of the
seventies cost him the benevolent
votes of his people. But his one
motivation was to see an honorable
end of the crisis and to bring these
men and women home -- alive.
We know that other powers in the
world have sent forth the message.
Force will be met with force. No deals
will be negotiated under the gun.
Hostages will not be considered first
in importance. Forces within our own
nation urged this action from the
President, possible praise would have
pursued his heavy-handedness and
re-election might have been his
reward. But Carter walked that road
of lonely decision determined our
men and women would return. And
return alive.
We will have to wait for the actions
and decisions of other administrations
and presidents before Jimmy Carter
can be judged. But we may be
surprised by the generosity of history.
It may say that this man from the
South reached down deeply to
associate with the people to such
an empathetic degree that his
leadership role was forgotten.
Maybe so. This week, as President
Carter goes out of office, and the
hostages come' home alive, his
compassionate role must be
remembered.
NCB
In The Legislature
On Friday, January 16, House Bill
No. 180 was introduced in the State
House of Representatives by Dr. Roy
Rowland of Dublin. Dr. Rowland says
that H.B. No. 180 is a perfected
version of last year’s defeated Living
Will (so-called Right to Die) legislation.
While such legislation may appear
on first reading to be needed, it is
really a guise which has deep
implications for our future.
It can and will infringe upon rights
which already exist. It will create
pressures upon the elderly which are
unkind and unnecessary.
At the very least, this bill is a
“threshold” bill which will open the
way for more liberal translations of
the legislation and which will lead us
further down the road to euthanasia.
It is essential that we make known
to all our legislators that we believe
this bill is very dangerous. Please send
letters to your legislators, especially
your representatives and the members
of the House Health and Ecology
Committee.
An upcoming bill is House Bill No.
300 introduced in the House by
Representative Joe Burton. It is an
informed consent/parental consent
bill and is designed to require a
24-hour waiting period for an
abortion.
It requires the doctor to inform the
woman seeking the abortion of the
stage of fetal development of her
baby, as well as give an explanation of
the possible complications she may
suffer as a result of the abortion.
It will ensure that she be provided
with a “true test” of pregnancy. (It is
estimated that 10 to 15 percent of all
abortions are performed on women
who are not really pregnant.)
Information about alternatives to
abortion would also be provided
under this bill.
This bill deserves our wholehearted
support. Please contact your
representatives in support of it.
- Sheila Mallon
Resound ... Resound ...
To the Editor:
Cheers for the column in the GEORGIA
BULLETIN re: “The Deer Hunter Tragedy.”
As a parent of six, I have been the “scourge”
of my family for years in regard to television
programming. I hope many people are
coming to an awareness that we need united
action to help with the problem. I am
writing to Mrs. Ettenger. I would call your
attention to the article in the Dec. 22 issue
of U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT to
the effect that networks are getting worried
that such action is taking place. Also to the
large article in the Oct. 19 Sunday Visitor on
the Rev. Donald Wildmon by Robert
Holton. Perhaps there can be a
clearing-house where such separate people
can be united and know what others are
doing.
Mrs. William Thompson
Athens
To the Editor:
On January 22, 1981 the United States
will be reminded of the U.S. Supreme
Court’s decision of 1973 that made abortion
legal.
Since that time, millions of innocent
unbom human beings have been denied the
opportunity to mature in their mother’s
womb. They have been denied the right to
be born into a world that, because of
selfishness, does not welcome their birth. We
must never be silent until the holocaust is
stopped.
If our own mother had chosen to exercise
her legal right to have an abortion, we would
not be alive today.
Unbom children cannot fight for their
rights. That gives the bom humans the
responsibility to come to their defense.
May the consciences of Catholics,
Protestants, Jews and all human beings
remember their unborn brothers and sisters
and come to their aid, defending God’s will
that all His children may be born into the
world that He created.
Mrs. Kristin Joan Bladek
Lisle, Ill.
To the Editor:
It came as no surprise but, nevertheless, it
is regrettable that Teresa Gernazian’s column
was dropped from the Bulletin. I realize that
Teresa’s orthodoxy and faithful adherence
to authentic Catholic teaching are anathema
to certain elements in this diocese. Of
course, the ultimate objection to her
columns stemmed from her frequent articles
concerning Our Blessed Mother who seems
to be a thorn in the side of the diocesan
“ecumenists” . . .
It is unfortunate that Teresa was
terminated before finishing the Brother Gino
story. He is an authentic stigmatist, a
constant reminder of the crucified Christ
and that “without the shedding of blood
there is no forgiveness of sins.” Heb. 9:22.
Replacing Teresa’s column with Dolores
Curran is a barometer of the further afield
direction of the Bulletin. Her washed-out
watered-down version of Catholicism is more
compatible with heterodoxy. The fact that
her column is carried in 52 diocesan papers
is no recommendation. There are at least 52
bishops in this country who are unfit
shepherds and who should be removed from
office immediately . . .
Nancy A. Molesky
Chamblee
To the Editor:
How sorry I am that Teresa Gemazian is
no longer writing for the Bulletin. I, my
family, and friends consider it a tremendous
loss to our Catholic paper. Her columns were
not only spiritually uplifting but interesting -
a rare combination in this age.
I was especially interated in her article
concerning Brother Gino. I had the great
honor to meet him on a tour to Rome with
Father Luke Zimmer. I consider it one of
the highlights of my life and only wish that
more people could become acquainted with
this holy man . . .
Josephine K. Olmstead
Atlanta
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Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
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Who Owns The Health Problem?
Dolores Curran
Last year I met a skinny woman who
apologized for rushing because she had to
get to her weight watching class. Seeing my
surprise, she explained, “Oh, it’s not for me
but for my husband. His doctor says he has
to lose weight but he won’t go to a class or
do anything about it. So I go in for him.”
She then explained how she kept a tally
of his weekly weigh-ins, dutifully repeated
the lectures back to him at home, and got
recipes and motivation for making him slim.
She smiled lamely, “It takes a lot of time
but I figure I have to do it if I want him
around for awhile.”
Well, I suppose she’s right. The question
is why. Who needs a lifetime child as a
spouse? Somewhere along the decades,
people have to become responsible for their
own healthy habits or they become geriatric
children carrying briefcases.
I resent doctors and commercials who
turn a man’s physical well-being over to his
wife because it isn’t doing that man any
favors (or woman, as the shape may be).
Until people learn to own their own physical
conditions, they will not be responsible for
them. That woman can go to weight class
until she’s a shadow but until her husband
assumes responsibility for his own girth, her
efforts will be futile, effective only in
alleviating her guilt if he dies of some cause
aggravated by weight.
We mothers often begin this dependency
by taking our children’s illnesses upon
ourselves. It’s such a natural thing to do.
Being necessarily responsible for high fevers
in their infancy, we reinforce it by still
assuming responsibility in their adolescence.
Making sure they get sleep, dress warmly and
eat properly become our responsibility even
when they’re seventeen.
Several years ago, as a mother of an
allergic adolescent, I was told, “She’s going
to have to learn to handle this herself.” At
that point, we turned it over to her - the
responsibility for scheduling injections,
watching her diet, and avoiding certain
environments. When she went away to
college last fall, that was one worry-free area
for us. We knew she could handle her own
health.
But I had to be instructed to force her to
own her own health. It went against every
maternal instinct. I was her mother, after all
- ergo, responsible for her health and
well-being. Not so, medical practitioners tell
us. Just the opposite. The sooner children
take on responsibility for their own health,
the better they are able to handle the
emotional fallout from their conditions.
When a ten year-old is diagnosed a
diabetic today, he is sent to the hospital
alone for two days, not for therapy but
education. He learns about insulin, diet, and
predictable patterns of the condition. He
learns how to administer injections to
himself, how to respond when friends push
forbidden foods, and what to tell grownups
when they ask. He is handed the task of
educating his parents, not the reverse.
Most of all, he is taught to accept his
condition as a natural part of his life. He
may always have it so he must learn to
control it. Otherwise, it will control and
direct his life, a reality we see in many
grownups whose preoccupation with a
physical disability had rendered them more
emotionally than physically handicapped.
If we don’t allow our children to own and
control their own health problems, we had
better pray that they find a spouse who will,
because I' don’t know of many young
women today who are going to serve as
surrogate husbands in the weight watching
classes of tomorrow.
Church Unity And The Rural Parish
Father Gerald Peterson,
Archdiocesan Rural Life Director
The Church Unity Octave, usually
celebrated toward the end of January, is an
excellent time to consider what the rural
parish can do to promote Christian unity.
If your area is like this county in which I
live, you may wonder: “Where do I start in
working for church unity?” Habersham
County, with a population of 25,967, has 83
independent churches. Half of those 83 are
either Southern or Independent Baptist
Churches. The 42 Baptist churches can claim
about two-thirds of the membership active
in any church. At the same time, our
Catholics number less than one percent of
the population in the county. Sad to say,
according to a recent countywide survey, 51
percent of the population is considered
unchurched. The divisions among the 83
churches in Habersham County are a source
of scandal and confusion.
Knowing these facts doesn’t answer the
question: “Where do you begin to promote
church unity?” But such statistics do point
out the importance of taking the first steps.
First of all, it seems to me that we
Catholics have to take seriously the New
Testament and Vatican II call for unity. The
Lord Jesus is counting on us to make
effective in our day his prayer:
“I do not pray for them alone. I pray also
for those who will believe in me through
their word, that all may be one as you,
Father, are in me, and I in you; I pray that
they may be one in us, that the world may
believe that you sent me.” (John 17:20ff.)
The Decree on Ecumenism of Vatican II
reminds us of the importance of dialogue:
“Ecumenical dialogue is not limited to an
academic or purely conceptual level, but
striving for a more complete communion
between the Christian communities ... it
serves to transform modes of thought and
behavior and the daily lives of those
communities.”
One place to start is prayer for unity.
How often do you hear in the “Prayers of
the Faithful” at Sunday Mass a petition like:
“That the Father will make all Christians
work for the goal of one Body in Christ, we
pray to the Lord.”?
How about ministerial associations? My
experience in the Habersham County
Ministerial Association has been enjoyable,
yet at the same time frustrating because so
little seems to be accomplished in the true
spirit of ecumenism.
It is gratifying to mention that in
Clayton, Ga., the churches of the county are
planning a Prayer Service for Church Unity
on Feb. 1. Over 200 people attended the
first such service last year.
Fairly successful for understanding the
Baptists was an exchange held between St.
Mark Catholic Church and the Clarkesville
Baptist Church. Many of the Baptists came
to a Saturday evening Mass after which Rev.
Jerome Smith, the pastor, explained over
refreshments, “What it means to be a
Baptist.” After the Sunday Service at the
Baptist Church, I explained, “What’s a
Catholic?” I noticed the Baptists’ cookies
were better than the Catholics!
Father Joseph O’Donnell, who works
le if tist-Catholic, dialogue, offers
u e to ;es with Rev. C. B. Hastings,
the Baptist liaison for a program similar to
the one described above.
For a genuine challenge, Father
O’Donnell recommends that the Catholic
pastor enter into an in-depth dialogue with a
local Southern Baptist pastor. After all, in
Georgia, the Baptists are No. 1. On some
theological issues, such as nature of church
and salvation, we are poles apart. Yet on
many moral issues, Catholics and Baptists
are in close agreement. Why not give it a try
on a six-month basis?
Join me, won’t you, in special prayers
during the week of Church Unity for
openness to the power of the Holy Spirit,
who alone can make us one. Also, at this
time of year, I hope you feel, as I do, the tug
of conscience challenging you and me to
ask: ‘‘How can I work for better
understanding and closer unity of all
Christians?”
Zaire: Report From A Georgia Missionary
Sister Margaret Goode, S.N.D.
(Sister Margaret Goode, S.N.D., a native
Georgian and former teacher at St. Pius X High
School from 1970-78 would welcome help from
members of the Archdiocese. Sister Margaret can
be contacted through Sister Claire Corr at St.
Thomas More convent. (636-3023.)
This is my third year as a missionary in
Zaire. I’m in an economically poor region
called the Kwango, about 600 km southwest
of Kinshasa, the capital of Zaire. Although
the Catholic Church in Zaire celebrated its
centennial this year, we have been in the
Kwango only 50 years. Our people, the Yaka
tribe, speak Kiyaka.
The Jesuits from Belgium set up missions
along the one road in a day’s walk of each
other and went out into the villages on foot
from these. The missionary effort has been
quite successful and most of the Zaierois of
the region are Catholic. Last year our
bishop, a native Zaireois, confirmed 1,000
teenagers in our parish alone. I live at
Pelende parish.
On our plateau we run a secondary school
for girls, preparing them to teach in the
primary schools. We have about 150 girls as
boarders since they walk two to three days
to get to school each year. Some come from
villages five days away because we have the
only such school for girls in the region.
Our primary school has 300 youngsters
coming from the eight or nine nearby
villages. The Jesuits have turned over the
boys’ primary school and the junior high to
the Zaireois with 300 in the first school and
100 in the second.
In our mission we also operate a 60-bed
dispensary with 20 beds in the maternity
department. Sister Albertine, a native, runs
this dispensaiy with the help of a volunteer
R.N. from Belgium. Sister is one of the more
than 30 native Sisters of Notre Dame. She
has six men working under her who were
trained by the Belgian S.N.D.’s over the past
15 to 20 years. The nearest hospital is a
day’s walk from us and four hours by Land
Rover. The roads are not paved in the whole
region.
We have trucks and Land Rovers but the
people do not. Thus our dispensary is the
only medical assistance these people have.
We have many cases of leprosy, tuberculosis,
worm infestation, malaria. Diseases spread
due to poor sanitation in the villages, where
the people live in one-room grass huts with
no running water. They usually have to walk
. 30 to 40 minutes each day to their water
source, a spring on the mountainside.
Children die often from measles and simple
diarrhea, if not from worms or simple
infections of cuts and burns. The life
expectancy is 45 years.
We have a large parish church where the
people gather on Sunday and dance and sing
with all their hearts. Half the church will be
filled with children and the other half with
young women, their babies tied to their
backs, and some young men. It’s rare to see
many older people.
Our people are subsistence farmers. They
do raise manioc, coffee, corn, beans, rice,
and peanuts for selling to us at the schools
and to any trucks that may come into the
region. If roads were better they would be a
rich people, but as it is they are all poor. The
little money they have goes into clothing
and education. The women farm and the
men hunt and do basket weaving, wood
carving, and house building. Their lifestyle is
simple, their needs few.
How can we help? How can we share our
riches with them without making them into
a consumer society? Education is what we
can give. Common medicines are also
needed. Our dispensary runs on hope and
generosity. The Belgians have been very
generous. They’ve put up the buildings and
sent clothes into the region. At present we
sell clothes to the people and use the money
we get to buy the people’s farm goods and
wood. We sell medicines for a small amount
and use the funds to keep the dispensary
going. A mother pays the equivalent of $11
for the monthly consultations and the
delivery of a baby.
A hospital stay, no matter how long,
including all medication, costs the equivalent
of $3. Outpatient services, over 200 a day,
consist of a consultation followed by a
prescription. They buy the aspirin for 2c or
malaria treatment from us. There are no
drug stores for the people. I worked in our
dispensary last summer and felt awful when
the medicines started running out. We had
three diabetics when the insulin ran out.
Hundreds of goiter cases were turned away
when the lugal solution ran out. There were
burn victims for whom we had no cream.
We would like to use any i> ds
contributed to the Pelende Mission in buying
medicines. Money contributions would be I
put in l a savo.gs account here in Georgia to
be used to buy needed goods for the
missions on our vacations each year. In this
way we would be able to help on a more
consistent basis until Zaire can get on its
own.
"rVE GOT ANOTHER GREAT IDEA FOR THE
LITURGV'-OH, GOOR VOUVE HEARP ABOUT IT/*
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