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Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 19 No. 9
Thursday, February 26,1981
$8.00 per year
“Word And Deed,”
John Paul In Tokyo
Witness In
Says Pope
RECEIVES COMMUNION - A Nobel Peace Prize winner,
Mother Teresa of Calcutta, India receives Communion from Pope
John Paul II following a Mass for peace in Quezon City, Philippines.
Charities Drive Sunday
The first Sunday in March is traditionally a special time of unity in
the parishes of our Archdiocese. It is Charities Drive Sunday. Next
Sunday, March 1, heralds that special day.
The goal this year is $625,000. The amount is collected from the
parishes and sent to the Archbishop’s Office to assist the different
apostolates of our Archdiocese during the year.
According to Monsignor Jerry Hardy, Chancellor of the
Archdiocese, the enthusiasm for this special day is there again this
year. “The work of the pastors and the priests in the parishes has
made the Drive a successful tradition each year,” says Monsignor
Hardy. “Of course, the generosity of the people has always been
outstanding.”
This year marks the twelfth annual Drive in the Archdiocese of
Atlanta.
Be sure you participate by making your contribution next Sunday
in your parish.
BY NANCY FRAZIER
TOKYO (NC) -- Pope John Paul II began a four-day visit to Japan Feb. 23
by meeting various segments of the tiny Catholic population and describing
himself as “a pilgrim of peace, bearing a message of friendship and respect for
all.”
It was the first visit by a pope to Japan, where the current Catholic
population numbers about 400,000 in a total population of 117 million.
In a startling contrast to the cheering crowds which greeted the pope in the
Philippines, residents of Tokyo, one of the world’s largest cities, virtually
ignored the pope’s arrival.
About 200 people were present at the airport when the papal plane from
Agana, Guam, touched down amid rain and 40-degree temperatures.
Only a few Japanese seemed to notice the papal motorcade on its way to
the Tokyo cathedral, until Pope John Paul got within yards of the building,
where about 3,000 people waited.
“As my visit begins today in Tokyo, my great desire is to assure everyone
whom I will meet of my sentiments as a brother and friend, my sentiments of
love and peace,” he told the people outside the cathedral.
Addressing priests and men Religious inside the church, Pope John Paul
called for unity and asked that “your every word and deed be an eloquent
witness to our God who is rich in mercy.”
LENTEN ALTERNATIVES
He praised the efforts of missionaries, who make up more than half of
Japan’s 2,000 priests and about a third of the country’s religious brothers.
The pope then told the Catholic laity of its “particular responsibility to
make the Gospel reach all levels of society, and to communicate by word and
action the message and grace of Christ.”
Pope John Paul spent his first evening in Japan at the apostolic nunciature,
meeting and dining with the Japanese bishops.
Praising “the glorious Christian history of your people, in which the blood
Papal Talks In Philippines, Pg. 7
of martyrs has truly become the seed of Christians,” the pope called on the
bishops to expand their efforts of evangelization and catechesis.
“Let us continue, dear brothers, despite obstacles and setbacks, despite
human weakness, to offer the Gospel freely and in its entirety,” he said.
“It is our contribution in the face of the loneliness of the world, it is our
answer to the selfishness of man, to the lack of meaning that many people find
in life, to the temptation to escapism, to lethargy and discouragement,” the
pope added.
A Reason To Celebrate
SHARING a light moment at the reception welcoming the first
Greek Orthodox Bishop of Atlanta are, from right to left, Bishop
John, Archbishop Thomas Donnellan, and Sister Dawn, a teacher at
St. Pius X High School. The story is on Page 2.
BY THEA JARVIS
If Lent is just around the corner,
Easter can’t be far away.
Enter the traditional chorus of
consumer goodies -- chocolate
bunnies, painted eggs, marshmallow
chicks, and foil-wrapped fuzzies.
Following close behind, the Easter
parade — a retail salesperson’s dream
of fabulous fashionata: shiny shoes,
frilly pastel dresses, crisp new suits,
jauntily-strawed hats.
In the distance stands the weary
consumer. Another Christian holiday
finds him care-worn and fretful. He
faces financial instability from
pressure to buy everything in sight
and psychological distress from his
desperate attempts to keep in step
with what has become the traditional
way to celebrate American holidays
(and holydays).
This year, according to a recent
survey conducted by Alternatives, a
resource center in Forest Park that
works for simpler lifestyles through
alternative celebrations, Americans
can look forward to spending
approximately $550 million on
Easter candy, $8 million on Easter
flowers, $90 million on Easter
greeting cards, and $1 billion on
Easter clothing.
Is there a better way?
Milo Shannon-Thornberry, an
THE NEW TESTAMENT
Variations On A Theme
... Or V arious Themes
BY FATHER
JEREMY MILLER, O.P.
By the title of this essay, I
would hope to convey not just
a trendy eye-catching heading,
but rather a very serious
question, a matter so serious
that the one Church of Christ
is splintered into many
denominations.
There are profound
disagreements about how
Christianity is to be lived. And
those who disagree all claim
clear support from dimensions
of the New Testament.
Two possibilities might be
raised to explain these
disagreements among
Christians.
Some might say that it is a
question of proper
interpretation and that some
people simply interpret the
Bible incorrectly. There is
certainly misinterpretation,
and there are some principles
for getting at the correct
meanings, as my essay of last
week argued. But
misinterpretation is simply too
superficial an answer to
explain the problem of
disunity in the Church.
The other possible
explanation is that there are
truly diverse accents,
emphases and Christian styles
in the New Testament, all of
which are very difficult, if not
impossible, to harmonize. Let
us call these “traditions” in
the New Testament. Some
Churches follow one tradition
and other Churches follow
others. This possibility to my
mind gets more to the heart of
Christian disunity.
Before turning to some
examples, let me’ return briefly
to the title of this essay. In a
certain sense there is one
theme in the New Testament,
namely, Jesus of Nazareth is
the Christ (the Messiah). For
many people, Jesus Christ is
practically the proper name of
someone, like our first and last
names, but this is incorrect
Rather, we must always think,
ordained Methodist minister and
executive director of Alternatives,
thinks there is. He and his small,
dedicated staff work toward
attaining substantial goals through
the Alternatives network, a national
organization with a “grass roots”
look.
By 1985, they look forward to
seeing at least 500,000 persons
simplify their celebrations and their
lifestyles in general; at least 1,000
religious congregations with an
institutional lifestyle characterized
by simplicity and identification with
the poor and oppressed; and at least
$100 million diverted from
over-consumption to the justice
programs of the churches and related
agencies.
“We tell our children the story of
the Easter bunny with the same sense
of truth we tell them about the
Resurrection,’’ said
Shannon-Thornberry at the
corporate headquarters of the
eight-year-old organization, just off
Main Street in Forest Park.
“They grow up and find out the
truth about the bunny - how do they
deal with this central element of
their Christian faith?”
For openers, the tall and bearded
Shannon-Thornberry, in his 1981
Alternatives Planning Calendar,
(Continued on page 6)
“Jesus the Christ,” or that
Jesus of Nazareth is God’s
Annointed, is the, Christ.
Certainly this message is
common to the whole New
Testament, and if it were not
true there would be no
Christianity. But when we
come to the important
question - what does it mean
to live by confessing that Jesus
is the Christ -- one meets
various “traditions” in the
New Testament.
Are these traditions merely
variations of that core
affirmation about the Christ,
variations which fit together
harmoniously? Or are these
traditions quite different and
difficult to bring together?
The more I have studied
the Bible, the more I think the
second is truer. I also think
this is the more Catholic
understanding of things, an
idea to which I will return in
the very last paragraphs.
Let us look at some
traditions, traditions which I
pnpture
for
oar
people
think conflict. The first of
these reflects the classical
difference between Protestants
and Catholics.
When one tries to look
between the lines of the two
epistles to the Corinthians to
glimpse how people were
living in that Church at
Corinth, one can detect a
rather loosely structured
community, making a big-to-do
about the charismatic gifts,
and within which people
called prophets probably held
a lot of sway. Authority
structures are not lacking in
this community, but they
seem quite fuzzy. Paul was
their authority even though he
was not on the scene.
But notice how Paul
handled the problems arising
out of this free-spirited
community. He appeals to the
(Continued on page 6)
‘YOU ARE DUST’ - Fourth grader Mike Flaim of St. Anthony’s
School in Casper, Wyo., is crossed with blessed ashes on Ash
Wednesday. The traditional opening of Lent will be observed March
4.
Lenten Regulations
The Lenten Regulations for 1981 are as follows:
1) Ash Wednesday (March 4) and Good Friday (April 17) are days
of Abstinence from meat and days of Fast. (The law of Fast prescribes
that only one meal be taken in a day; but it does not forbid taking
some nourishment in the morning and evening.)
2) The Fridays of Lent are days of Abstinence from meat.
3) All Catholics over fourteen (14) years of age are bound by the
law of Abstinence.
4) All Catholics are bound by the law of Fast who are twenty-one
(21) years of age, and are bound until the beginning of their 60th
year, namely, until they have reached their 59th birthday.
5) The Fridays of the year outside Lent remain days of penance,,
but each individual may substitute for the traditional abstinence from
meat some other practice of voluntary self-denial or personal penance.
This may be physical mortification, temperance, acts of religion,
charity or Christian witness.
The determination of these few days of obligatory penance, which
may even be reduced in number because of the occurrence of a
holyday of obligation or Archdiocesan regulations, should not be
understood as limiting the occasions for Christian penance. The
tradition of vigils and ember days, periods of special need and
supplication, and above all the season of Lent as a whole should be
maintained and respected.
A single violation of these Lenten obligations is not a serious sin.
General or substantial neglect of the obligation to do penance would
be a serious matter.
The following are recommendations for voluntary self-denial or
personal penance:
1) Daily participation in the Mass.
2) Prayers for vocations to the priesthood and the religious life.
3) Personal service to the aged or the sick. 4) Fasting at least once a
week as a way of identifying with the poor and starving of the world.