Newspaper Page Text
Charities Drive Begins
BY MONSIGNOR
NOEL BURTENSHAW
Monsignor John McDonough,
Vicar General of the Archdiocese,
was Dinner Chairman for the opening
banquet of the 1981 Charities Drive.
Monsignor McDonough was the best
of hosts and his guests were very
many.
All the pastors came and they
brought the parish chairpersons with
them. The Archbishop came and so
did his sister, Miss Nancy Donnellan.
Monsignor Donald Kiernan came; he
sat at the head table and inspired his
audience with stories of Georgia
police patrols and stories of
generosity he has known that we
should imitate.
Bill Crawford from the
Archdiocesan Finance Board came
and he brought his lovely wife, Mary,
for support. He may need her by his
side. He is the Archdiocesan Drive
Chairman for 1981. No one doubted
he will be a fine leader.
Monsignor Jerry Hardy came and
gave details of the needs and the
bills. He also gave records of the
generosity of past years. Success has
been aplenty. But we have grown and
there is much to do. The goal last
year was reached - $550,000. This
year the needs tell us that the goal
must be more. In fact, it goes up
$75,000 to a total of $625,000.
Drive Sunday is March 1.
Each speaker reminded the priests
and their willing workers that growth
is great in our Archdiocese. But
growth means more services, better
planning and deeper needs to be
fulfilled.
Monsignor Kiernan, in his
inspirational speech, reminded the
workers that a lot can be done with a
little. “The boy with the loaves and
few fish was instrumental in feeding
5,000. We must use our talents, be
they great or small.”
Bill Crawford, pledged his effort
for the success of the Drive, but
reminded the parish people that he
would need their help in this
month-long preparation.
Archbishop Thomas Donnellan
gave glowing words of thanks “in
advance.”
“The success of the Drive over the
years,” said the Archbishop, “was
due to the hard work of each pastor,
priest and parishioner. This year
again all those helps will be needed
and will be there.”
The motto of the Drive is most
appropriate as St. Peter’s words are
used: “ ... put your gifts at the
service of one another, each in the
measure you have received.”
The first gift we give is our o
willingness to serve. Without any
doubt, those who gathered to begin
the work of the 1981 Charities Drive
demonstrated not only a willingness,
but also an energy that will bring
results as they give solid service this
year.
ARCHBISHOP THOMAS A. DONNELLAN
shares a happy moment with Bill and Mary
Crawford as they attend the opening meeting and
dinner for the Charities Drive. The Archdiocesan
meeting was attended by parish representatives
and their priests to begin preparations for the
one-day cash drive which will be held on Sunday,
March 1, in every parish.
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 19 No. 5
Thursday, January 29,1981
$8.00 per year
It’s Only A Life
Susan was unmarried. Her career
was hopping. She was ready and
willing to face the widening world of
women. And now, she was pregnant.
It was prior to the Supreme Court
decision on abortion. New York was
one of the states granting legal
consent to the surgical procedure
called “termination of pregnancy.”
Susan decided she would go to New
York.
She remembered being nervous
and alone. The
doctor’s office
yelled with the
quiet of a
mortuary. The o
smiles of the
receptionist
were very
non-helpful. Her
time arrived for
surgical prepara
tion. This was
it.
Would it
hurt? No, the doctor assured her, it
would not. Would it take long?
Absolutely not. He asked if she
smoked. Yes, occasionally. Then he
could say with absolute certainty
that the procedure would be safely
completed before one cigarette could
be smoked. That simple.
He was as good as his smiling,
assuring words. “See,” he said, “it’s
all over. There was no pain, it was
quick and easy. Now, the nurse will
take you to recovery.”
Susan felt the movement of the
comfortable portable bed and there
was something she had to know. “Oh
doctor,” she pleaded. “Before I go, I
have one question. Tell me was it a
boy or a girl?”
The Supreme Court tells us the
fetus is merely an addition to the
female body. For the first three
months as it staggers into maturing
life, it lingers in a state that is
undefinable. If the mother calls it
life, then that’s what it is. If she calls
it non-life, so be it. If she keeps its
presence within her, it matures. If
she flushes it down the hospital shaft
to the incinerator, then the law
blesses that decision. The delicate
existence of that child depends on
the mood of the mother.
But Susan’s inquiry is not
exceptional. Every woman, old or
young, married or unmarried,
happily welcoming her baby or
desperately caught in that tempting
dilemma, never doubts that the
movement within her is a life. And as
in Susan’s case, the question of
bouncing baby boy or sugar and
spice little girl presents itself every
day of the pregnancy.
Thousands of women in this
nation have made the awful decision
to terminate pregnancies legally over
the last eight years. Again, just as for
Susan, the haunting question dances
from the dark recesses of their poor
consciences. “Was it a boy or a girl?”
Recently everybody’s favorite
Army, looney show, MASH, made
the point. The helicopters descend on
the hospital-huts. Hawkeye rushes to
surgery, flamboyant and wild. It is a
pregnant Oriental woman in critical
condition. The crazy team skillfully
labors to save the baby. The nurse
(Continued on page 6)
DISCUSSING LIFE - Dr. Mildred Jefferson,
president of Right to Life Crusade, listens as
President Ronald Reagan speaks with a group of
pro-life leaders in the White House. President
Reagan had invited the officials to meet with him
after the March for Life.
Pro-Life “Heroes”
Rally In Capital
BY STEPHENIE OVERMAN
WASHINGTON (NC) - The unsung heroes President Reagan spoke of in his
inaugural address could be found in his own backyard, said March for Life
president, Nellie Gray.
Those heroes, she said, are the tens of thousands of pro-lifers from across
the country who gathered in Washington Jan. 22 to march against abortion.
The eighth annual March for Life began at a muddy Ellipse behind the
White House with speeches from bishops and congressmen, but President
Reagan was not there to see the people Miss Gray called the “real leaders” of
the pro-life movement. Reagan met later that day with about a half dozen
pro-life representatives.
When the more than 50,000 people marched past the White House on their
way to the Capitol many shouted, “We want Reagan,” and waved flags and
banners in the direction of his new home.
Passing by 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. were signs proclaiming a litany of
prayers for the unborn carried by people from the East, the Midwest and South
and even a few from the Far West.
“Those who say we are in a time when there are no heroes just don’t know
where to look,” Reagan said in his inaugural address Jan. 20. “You can see
heroes every day going in and out of factory gates. Others, a handful in
number, produce food enough to feed all of us and much of the world
beyond.”
(Continued on page 2)
BY HENRY LIBERSAT
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (NC) - The
first Catholic satellite television
operation in the United States was
licensed by the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC)
Jan. 19.
The FCC license was awarded to
Our Lady of the Angels Monastery,
Birmingham, where Mother M.
Angelica has founded Eternal Word
Television Network, Inc. hoping to
supply Catholic programs to cable
TV systems throughout the United
States.
BY MONSIGNOR
NOEL BURTENSHAW
Here’s the story.
Jose grabbed the opportunity to
hop the boat in Mariel Harbor in
Cuba and come to the U.S. last year.
He had to come alone. Behind him
he left all that he had. Everything.
But most especially he hated leaving
his wife, Marie, and his baby
daughter. But it was his chance to get
out and hopefully start a new life for
them all in America. Jose is 24.
After wandering through the
official red tape of Miami, Jose was
sent to Fort Chaffee in Arkansas.
Five thousand others were sent with
him. The long, tedious process of
resettling these Cuban refugees
began. It immediately ran into
serious snags.
“It was a mess,” says a
government social worker.
“Everyone was mixed in -- good
people looking for a new chance,
hard-core criminals and genuine
“We’ve always felt a deep desire
to share the fruit of our
contemplative life with all the people
of the Catholic Church - and with
others as well,” said Mother
Angelica, who heads a community of
12 Religious.
Our Lady of the Angels has four
printing presses, a complete
television studio and mobile van, an
earth station capable of transmitting
and receiving radio and television
programs from satellite and a
network of laity around the globe
who distribute Mother Angelica’s
evangelistic tracts.
mental cases. Interviewing was slow,
and the old Cuban exiles from 1965
were not too happy with the lot we
got this time.”
Jose was never processed. Instead
he was sent to the Atlanta
Penitentiary with the first batch of
Cubans last May. Three hundred
came at that time. The number is
800 now and each month it climbs
by a hundred more.
It was in May, when Jose reached
Atlanta, that Tomas and Martha
Antona came on the scene. They had
both come from Cuba in the early
sixties. They met in Boston, married
and moved to Atlanta. They both
responded to a call from the Legal
Aid Society to go to the Penitentiary
to help. Mostly they assisted as
interpreters.
“There is really a great problem,”
says Tomas. “There are not enough
interviewers and the process is too
slow. But I do agree, the authorities
must be careful.”
And this was all accomplished
without an organized fund raising
campaign or a “rich uncle” as Mother
Angelica says.
There have been donations
amounting to thousands of dollars
from philanthropic foundations, but
the backbone of the ministry,
Mother Angelica said, has been the
regular contributions of the average
Catholic who wants to help the
church reach more people with the
word of God.
When the nuns began the book
ministry in 1974, and later the
television ministry, they had “no
Father Jacob Bollmer
Tomas and Martha tell you there
are good men, like Jose, in the prison
who should be quickly resettled.
“Jose is a fine man,” says Martha
“and has shown he can be productive
since his release and resettlement.”
But there are others who cannot
be released without rehabilitation.
And still, there are others, who are
out and out criminals. “The U.S.
Government is asking Cuba to take
these hard-core criminals back,” says
Tomas. “It is unlikely they will. No
one really knows what will happen
then.”
Jose was released. But first he had
to find a sponsor. That’s where the
(Continued on page 6)
knowledge of how to print or to
make TV tapes or to market them.
We depended on God’s providence.
We also had no saving accounts and
no investments,” said Mother
Angelica.
The Birmingham earth station
costs about $800,000 and “if the
Eternal Word Network succeeds it is
because of God’s providence,” she
said.
To preserve the contemplative
lifestyle of the nuns, Mother
Angelica recently established the
Eternal Word Television Network
Inc., a lay-oriented, non-profit
corporation to handle broadcasting
and business affairs.
Though she retains the
chairmanship of the board, Jesuit
Father John Hardon, of the Catholic
Voice of America (CVA), is a
member of the board of governors
and spiritual adviser. He is organizing
a panel of Catholic scholars and
theologians to review programs
before they are accepted for
broadcast over Eternal Word
Network. The network has become
an affiliate of CVA which has
pontifical institute status.
(Continued on page 8)
New Column Added
A column has been added to the Georgia Bulletin, beginning this week,
which will focus on the Scripture readings for the upcoming Sunday’s liturgy.
Called The Word This Weekend, the column is written by Paul Kamowski, an
Indianapolis resident, who initiated the weekly column for the paper there, the
Criterion.
Scripture Series Begins
A six-part series on the use of Scripture in our parishes begins next
week in the Georgia Bulletin. Those participating in this series, called
‘‘Scripture For Our People,” are Gretchen Reiser, Thea Jarvis,
Monsignors Hardy and Burtenshaw, and Fathers Jeremy Miller, Jim Kelly
and Tom Leclerc. We urge all our readers to watch for, read, and
comment on this well-prepared series.
Cable Comes Alive
The religious channel of the,new cable television system in Atlanta will
begin operations on Monday Feb. 2. On Sundays the channel will begin
operations at 9 a.m. During the week the channel will operate only in the
evenings.
Channel No. 8 will be the religious channel on the system. Initially, the
religious programming will be seen only in the city of Atlanta. However, soon
the channel will also be shown on Sandy Springs Cable and also DeKalb Cable.
North Fulton Cable may also be included at a later date.
Initally, Catholic programs include a Mass televised Sunday mornings at
10:30 a.m.; the Christopher Close-up and Insight programs from 8-9 p.m.
Mondays and a segment from John Powell’s acclaimed series, “The American
Catholic,” 7:30-8 p.m. Thursdays.
Schedule changes will be updated in the BULLETIN.
ATLANTA PENITENTIARY
The Resettling Begins
“For I Was In Prison ...” Last In A Series