Newspaper Page Text
Vol. 19 No. 8
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Thursday, February 19,1981
$8.00 per year
PAKISTAN STOPOVER
In Moslem Country,
Pope Calls For Unity
BY NANCY FRAZIER
KARACHI, Pakistan (NC) -- Pope John Paul II stressed the problem of
world hunger, the need for Christian unity and the bonds between Islam and
Christianity as he began a 12-day trip to East Asia Feb. 16 with a stop in
Karachi.
The papal plane, an Alitalia airlines DC-10 called the “Luigi Pirandello,”
arrived in Karachi at 6:20 p.m. (8:20 a.m. EST) after a more than seven-hour
flight from Rome.
The three-and-a-half-hour visit was marred, however, by a bomb explosion
at the National Stadium, site of the papal Mass. The explosion happened about
20 minutes before the pope’s arrival at the stadium.
According to Pakistani police, a man was killed when a grenade in his
pocket exploded as he entered the stadium. Police said the explosion occurred
after the man was challenged at the entrance to the section reserved for diplo
mats and VIPs. Two other men and a security agent were wounded in the blast,
police said.
The pope was not told of the explosion while he was in Pakistan.
The pope was greeted at the airport by Pakistani president, Gen.
Mohammed Zia ul-Haq, and Cardinal Joseph Cordeiro of Karachi.
“Christ is the only one who can satisfy the deepest hunger of the human
heart,” he said in an English-language homily before more than 70,000 people.
But, Pope John Paul said, Christians cannot “try to ignore the need for
bread, the great need for food suffered by so many throughout the world, even
in our own lands.”
The Eucharist “unites us to one another, to all the other members of the
church, to all the baptized of every age and every land,” he said.
“Because the mystery of the Eucharist is so closely linked to the mystery of
the church, we cannot but feel a sadness at the divisions which still affect the
one body of Christ,” the pope added. “May this sadness prompt us to action.”
Pope John Paul praised Pakistani Catholics for their, “efforts to bring the
message of salvation, in a spirit of dialogue and respect, to those in your own
country who do not know Christ.”
About 96 percent of the 80 million Pakistanis are Moslems and about two
percent are Christians.
During his arrival and departure speeches, the pope stressed the ties between 0
Moslems and Christians. He emphasized “the common concerns which are z
shared by all men and women of good will.”
These concerns, he said in his departure speech, include those “for the
spiritual dimension of the human person, for the freedom and dignity of every
man, woman and child, and for true justice and lasting peace.”
“The church, without forgetting that her primary mission is a spiritual one,
always seeks to collaborate with individual nations and people of good will in
promoting the dignity and advancement of the human person,” he said in his
(Continued on page 6)
POPE JOHN PAUL BECKONS. In this poster distributed by a
Tokyo department store which is sponsoring a Vatican exhibition,
the Holy Father raises his hands in salutation. During his current
journey the Pope will visit Japan, the Philippines, Guam, Pakistan
and Alaska.
TV 5 Shows Abortion Ad
BY MSGR. NOEL BURTENSHAW
The Phil Donahue Show is a
popular part of Atlanta’s morning
television audience. The show
appears on Channel 5, WAGA
Television, a CBS affiliate.
If you watch Donahue, you will
note that a new element has been
added to your viewing. In fact, it is a
brand new page in the history of
Atlanta television. Channel 5 is now
showing a commercial for an Atlanta
abortion clinic on many mornings
during this show.
No other television outlet in
Atlanta is presently accepting
commercials of this nature.
Mr. Paul Raymon, general
manager of Channel 5 stated, “The
commercial is perfectly acceptable
under the code set down by the
Storer Broadcasting Company
(parent company of Channel 5) and
the code set down by the Federal
Communications Commission.”
When asked why the decision had
been made by the station to accept
this kind of advertising, Mr. Raymon
responded, “We are not in a position
to turn it down because an advertiser
who meets all of the standards,
theoretically, could take legal
recourse because we are inhibiting his
access to the media.”
According to FCC regulations,
there is no legal requirement to
accept such advertising nor is there
any impediment to its acceptance
either.
Mr. Raymon further stated that
the word “abortion” was not
mentioned in the ad. “In fact,” said
Raymon, “you are the only one
mentioning abortion in this
connection.”
“As far as we are concerned,”
said Mr. Raymon, “this is a medical
center. It has registered nurses,
properly accredited doctors and
qualified personnel.” The facility in
question advertises in the Atlanta
Constitution and features
“Abortion Services” as the main
purpose of the clinic.
The commercial, which even ran
during Donahue’s sensitive show on
Atlanta’s missing and murdered
children, shows the interior of a
modem, pleasant doctor’s office with
an attractive young woman offering
another woman counsel on her
“problem pregnancy.” “There is
nothing illegal about the
commercial,” said Mr. Raymon
although when asked about its
appearance on the children’s show
said “that was a mistake - a human
error.”
No other commercial television
station in Atlanta runs this kind of
advertisement. Sidney Pike, Station
Manager for Ted Turner’s
Superstation, Channel 17 said, “We
were asked about running that kind
of commercial about a month ago
and I turned it down. I felt that in
this case we should have both sides
of the issue on.”
A.R. Van Cantfort, Program
Director for WSB, Channel 2 said,
“We have not accepted this kind of
advertisement nor right now do we
intend to, but we will evaluate each
individual case as it is presented.”
Jack Lease, Vice President,
Program Operations for WXIA
Television, Channel 11 said, “We do
not accept commercials for abortion
clinics at present. If requested, we
would have to consider it at that
time. ”
According to Paul Raymon of
Channel 5, the commercial was sold
to the station direct and no
advertising agency was involved.
U.S. Bishops Named
In Abortion Rights Suit
BY JIM LACKEY
WASHINGTON (NC) - An
abortion rights group has named the
U.S. bishops as co-defendants in a
four-month-old lawsuit urging
revocation of the tax-exempt status
of certain Catholic churches and
organizations in the United States.
The group, the Abortion Rights
Mobilization, originally had filed suit
last Oct. 2 in federal court in New
York against the Internal Revenue
Service for “continuing to accord
tax-exempt status” to Catholic
organizations which allegedly have
engaged in partisan political activity
on the abortion issue.
But in an amended complaint
filed with the same federal court Jan.
30, the suit specifically named the
bishops’ twin agencies, the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops and
the U.S. Catholic Conference, as
defendants with the IRS rather than
simply as third parties.
Citing the bishops’ Pastoral Plan
for Pro-Life Activities, approved in
1975, the suit charges that the
church’s political efforts to secure
passage of a human life amendment
constitute a violation of the tax
code, which prohibits tax-exempt
groups from participating or
(Continued on page 6)
Archbishop’s Statement
On Atlanta’s Children
(The following statement was issued by Archbishop
Thomas Donnellan on Monday, the day before the funeral
at St. Anthony s Church for 11-year-old Patrick Baltazar.)
The murders and disappearances continue. The pain, the sorrow,
the anger, the fear, the frustration - all of these continue as well.
Words will not stop them. At best, our words can only let the families
of these children know that we are still with them and will not leave
them. To all of them we say, “your pain is our pain, because your
children are our children.”
We ask our Almighty and Loving Father to send consolation and
healing to the Baltazar family and to all these stricken families,
perseverance and wise judgment to our police, and strength and
courage to our citizens to come forward with information to help stop
these terrible murders. May His blessing come to our community in
new abundance. May we all stand together as a sign that we are indeed
His children.
CHARITIES DRIVE
Helping Tomorrow’s Priests
BY GRETCHEN REISER
Like most people, Father Richard
Lopez sometimes feels swamped with
work and unable to do all that he
wants to do and all that he thinks
should be done.
But he has a unique consolation: a
group of young men studying for the
priesthood, who will one day be
serving the Archdiocese of Atlanta.
“I’m really proud of my
seminarians,” he said, a remark that’s
almost unnecessary after the smile
that lights up when he’s asked to talk
about them. Father Lopez has been
Vocations Director for the
Archdiocese for the last three years.
In addition to his work at St. Jude’s
parish, he is responsible for
interviewing applicants, and helping
them understand whether or not
they have a vocation to the
priesthood. A team of three other
priests help with this screening
process, and then Father Lopez
serves as a liaison to the Archdiocese
for seminarians.
Happily, he said, the Archdiocese
has been attracting “vocations in
good numbers ... and not just good
numbers, but good quality.” This is
not just his paternal pride, Father
Lopez said, but “the seminary tells
me that our men, for the most part,
are fine men.”
Largely, candidates for the
priesthood are attracted to the
Archdiocese by the example they see
in the priests who are working in
North Georgia now, Father Lopez
said. Once that interest is sparked,
and if an applicant is accepted by the
screening committee, the
Archdiocese comits its support,
financial, moral and emotional, to
the young man.
That support can include tuition,
room and board at the seminary, a
cost which runs several thousand
dollars a year per student. The
(Continued on page 6)
Origins Of The New Testament
BY FATHER
JEREMY MILLER, O P.
The stories about Jesus in
the Gospels, and the
accounts of the missionary
activities of Peter and Paul in
Acts, have such a lively and
immediate character to them
that we feel ourselves drawn
into the very events
themselves.
We feel like eyewitnesses
to the miracles and intimate
listeners to what Jesus was
saying.
Yet, we know that these
stories are not just reports of
dealings long ago, filling us in
about Him whom we love,
like archive documents.
These stories are meant to
penetrate our world today,
illuminating our pilgrimage
and speaking to us in our
struggles. We all feel, or
should feel, that the
Scriptures are “words of life”
today and not just early
Christian history.
If the Scriptures are
meant to illuminate our
contemporary lives and to
guide our modern
pilgrimages, then we are
or of that event (e.g., when
He touches the leper or
charges into the Temple), or
even questions which urge
themselves today (e.g., the
“If the Scriptures are meant to illuminate our contemporary
lives and to guide our modem pilgrimages then we are brought
face to face with the question of interpretation, the question of
the meaning of passages.”
brought face to face with the
question of interpretation,
the question of the meaning
of passages. If we are seeking
God’s word for us, then we
would certainly want to
avoid reading into the
passages our own meanings,
superimposing quite possibly
our prejudices and risking
not seeing what the
evangelists were transmitting
to us.
We would want to know
what the meaning is of this
particular teaching of Jesus,
role of women in the Church
or the status of Christians in
second marriages.)
Of the many things we
need to do to get inside the
meaning of the Scriptures, a
very helpful one is to have a
clear idea of how the
Scriptures came to be.
Let me mention a few
reasons why this is
important. Suppose we had
the idea that the New
Testament writings are
nothing but the exact
accounts of eyewitness
reporters who accomplished
by their strong memories
what a modern reporter does
today with a tape recorder,
later transcribing it into
print.
First of all, we would run
into many inconsistencies. In
John’s Gospel, Jesus visits
Jerusalem at least three
times; in Luke’s Gospel, he
goes but once. In Matthew’s
Gospel, the Holy Family
leaves Bethlehem for Egypt,
in Luke’s Gospel, they depart
fundamentalist who reads the
Scriptures as if they were
modern-day reporting would
soon be caught in this web of
strict literalism, leading to
insuperable difficulties of
interpretation.
Another reason to have a
clear idea of how the
Scriptures came to be would
be the danger of “too quick
answers.” In Mark’s Gospel,
for example, Jesus says, “he
who believes and is baptized
will be saved” (16:8). Does
“ . . . the Catholic Church has been wary of private
interpretations of the Bible and especially of a fundamentalists
orientation, an approach which thinks it is getting to the bottom,
but is actually only at the surface level.”
for Nazareth. And if
someone thinks these can be
harmonized easily enough,
try to tackle the “when” and
“where” of the resurrection
appearances. A biblical
this mean that Jesus writes
off four-fifths of the planet,
who are, as yet, unbaptized?
Such would give us a very
unloving picture of God.
However, if we have an
idea of how the New
Testament came to be, we
can get at the real truth of
Revelation and avoid these
fundamentalist paradoxes. A
very important teaching of
Pope Paul VI, and repeated
by a document of Vatican II,
is of immense help to us. Let
me simplify it by describing
three time periods.
PERIOD ONE represents
the life of Jesus of Galilee.
This was the period of his
teachings and activities, of
his passion and death and
resurrection. This was the
period when the disciples
followed Him, heard His
(Continued on page 6)