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PAGE 7--The Georgia Bulletin, March 12,1981
WASHINGTON CATHEDRAL
The service was one of many being offered around the
country for Atlanta and the children.
Cardinal Terence Cooke of New York celebrated a
Mass Sunday at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in New
York’s Harlem for the missing and murdered Atlanta
children and their families.
And a La Jolla, California Catholic school, Stella Maris
Academy, set aside March 6 as a special day of prayer for
Atlanta children. In a letter, (See page 4), the students
said, “we and our parents are like so many across this
country who feel so lost as to find some way to help you
and to tell you we care.”
“We decided that the best way . .. was to set aside
March 6 as a special day of prayer for you.”
Archbishop Borders Says
Cuts Too Deep For Poor
BALTIMORE (NC) -- Archbishop William D. Borders
of- Baltimore has warned against government budget cuts
that would result in reduced assistance to the poor.
“To advocate cutting programs which aid the poor,” he
said in a lenten statement, “when inflation has already
decimated the payments the poor receive, is to advocate
pushing these people beyond their ability to cope. To
allow such budget cuts to take place is to allow these
people to be deprived of their basic human right to the
necessities of decent food, clothing and shelter.”
The archbishop’s statement, “The Poor Without
Influence in an Economic and Political World,” was
released March 4, Ash Wednesday.
Noting that Lent is traditionally a time of prayer and
penance, Archbishop Borders said that this year, because
of the nation’s grave economic problems, it is also a time
to ask the question put to Jesus by the lawyer in the
Gospel: “Who is my neighbor?”
“The person who lives next door, with whom we share
our daily concerns, is often the first person who comes to
mind when we say the word ‘neighbor,’” the archbishop
said. “However, the child of a disadvantaged single parent,
the elderly person struggling to eke out a living on a fixed
income, the able-bodied father who is the victim of a
lay-off, and the black youth no one will hire are our
neighbors also.”
Some budget cuts seem to be necessary, Archbishop
Borders said, but “there is a difference between trimming
a budget of unnecessary paper work and taking food from
a hungry person who relies on government aid.”
Such persons, he said, own little property, cannot
borrow money, and will derive little direct benefit from
proposed tax cuts. Furthermore, he added, because prices
have risen most sharply for necessities, they “experience
the pain of inflation more keenly because they are able to
purchase little more than the necessities.”
Admitting that austerity seems to be the only way to
fight inflation, the archbishop declared that “in this time
of economic austerity, all of us must share the burden of
sacrifice equally.”
ABBOT MCCAFFREY:
Prayer Is The
Greatest Weapon
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (NC) - The “greatest weapons we
have” in the struggle against communism and materialism
is the “spiritual power” of prayer, a Benedictine abbot
told participants in a conference in Louisville.
Prayer “allows God’s grace to break through to the
enemy,” said Benedictine Abbot Edmund McCaffrey,
pastor of St. Michael Church in Garden City, S. C.
“You will pray or you will perish,” Abbot McCaffrey
told about 450 people attending the Feb. 14 conference
on “Communism and the Present Danger to Faith, Family
and Country.” The conference was sponsored by the
Cardinal Mindszenty Foundation of St. Louis, an
anti-communist educational organization.
Action is important, but “you need the fullness of
prayer,” Abbot McCaffrey said. Calling for “a revival of
the contemplative element in the church,” he said: “We
can work for Jesus but have no time for Jesus.”
Urging unity among Catholics, Abbot McCaffrey said:
“Too often, we are divided among ourselves in the church.
There cannot be a liberal Catholic or a conservative
Catholic. We must be men and women of the church. We
must not walk away from the church.”
Abbot McCaffrey rejected the view that communism
has changed and become “benevolent.” He said its basic
philosophy remains a compound of atheism, materialism
and belief in power and revolution.
Another speaker, James Hitchcock, professor of
history at St. Louis University, said there is “no better
method of killing off religion” in the United States than
fostering the view that church-state separation bars public
recognition of religion.
He said some Supreme Court decisions have promoted
this view, including a recent ruling declaring
unconstitutional a Kentucky law requiring that copies of
the 10 Commandments be posted in public school
classrooms. That decision strikes at the “common
morality” the people of the country share, Hitchcock
said.
Disagreeing with the notion that pluralism means
“neutrality” with regard to religion, he said: “Pluralism
does not mean I refrain from pushing my values publicly.
Pluralism means that I fight for my values publicly
because if I don’t, I’m going to lose.”
If one does not fight publicly for his values, other
people will impose their values, and f hat is “precisely
what is happening,” Hitchcock said.
The public schools and the media have become
“vehicles for secularization” in the United States, he said.
“The moral consensus of our society has not collapsed,
but it has been seriously eroded.” The media, government,
schools and “in some cases the churches” have
“deliberately promoted” this “erosion” of moral values,
he added.
Auxiliary Archbishop Nicholas T. Elko of Cincinnati
said communism is “suffering because of changing times”
and the “tide is turning” after 64 years of communist rule
in the Soviet Union. The Soviet leaders are “afraid of their
people,” who are beginning to stand up to the communist
government, the archbishop said.
“I predict that the next revolution in Russia will be
religious,” he said. “The people are going to march
together to God through the Blessed Mother.”
Urging the United States and other democratic nations
to be strong in dealing with communist countries,
Archbishop Elko said democracies have been afraid of
communists and have been “backed into the comer” by
them.
The way to deal with communists is to “stand up, look
at them and don’t be afraid,” the archbishop said. “And
do it spiritually. You can’t do it materially.” J
ROLLING ALONG - Garry Townsend, 8, of
Racine, Wis., celebrates the arrival of spring with
a spin on his skateboard. (NC Photo by Mark
Hertz berg)
BREATH OF SPRING - Three-year-old
Michelle Cotnoir of Putnam, Conn., stops to smell
the forsythia bush at LaSalle Shrine in Attleboro,
Mass. (NC Photo by Ernest Myette)
WASHINGTON (NC) - Citing the horror in a violent
world - from the streets of Atlanta to El Salvador and
Northern Ireland - Archbishop James A. Hickey of
Washington began Lent March 4 by praying that
Americans become peacemakers.
In a short sermon during an Ash Wednesday Mass, the
archbishop referred especially to the murders of Atlanta’s
black children and urged that Lent be a time of prayers,
compassion and efforts to bring people closer together.
At St. Matthew’s Cathedral, he addressed a
standing-room-only crowd that spilled over in lines out
the church doors, down the stairs and onto downtown
sidewalks.
The Mass had been announced as a service of prayer for
the missing and murdered children in Atlanta.
“May it be our prayer that those murders be stopped
and solved,” that God will comfort the bereaved,
Archbishop Hickey said.
“Twenty-one children murdered or missing. Fear and
agony in Atlanta. Helplessness. Vulnerability: Surely we
turn our prayers to Atlanta today,” he said. “We
remember that this tragedy of an American city is but one
instance of the violence that stains our world: In El
Salvador, in Northern Ireland, in the Middle East, in our
own country (through) the deaths of so many unborn .. .
the neglect of so many elderly,” the killings in the cities,
the plight of the poor, the suffering of children, he said.
But he urged his listeners to make Lent a time of
repentance, reflection, charity, and attention to families
and neighbors, and not one of despair.
“May it be our prayer that the sadness of
Atlanta, the sadness and violence all over the
world, will be countered by our efforts ... as
Americans ... to be makers of peace. ”
“We are gathered here in this cathedral church because
there is hope,” in faith and in God’s love, the archbishop
stated.
“May it be our prayer that the sadness of Atlanta, the
sadness and violence all over the world, will be countered
by our efforts ... as Americans ... to be makers of
peace,” he added.
*
Hunger, Inc. -
A Diocesan Project
SPRINGFIELD, ILL. (NC) - Bishop Joseph A.
McNicholas of Springfield announced the
establishment of Hunger, Inc. to help alleviate
hunger in his diocese.
“The diocese pledges $100,000 to Hunger, Inc.,
with $50,000 being made immediately available and
representing the sole assets of this new
corporation,” Bishop McNicholas said.
Announcement of the corporation was made in
churches throughout the diocese on Ash
Wednesday, March 4. Bishop McNicholas announced
at a March 4 press conference that Hunger, Inc. is
being incorporated with the state of Illinois and all
money contributed will go directly to the alleviation
of hunger.
“There are absolutely no restrictions as regards
race, color or creed,” he said. “All administrative
costs will be absorbed by the Catholic parishes and
organizations such as the St. Vincent de Paul
Society, which will serve as the dispensing agencies;
thus 100 cents of every dollar will reach the hungry.
“In recent years during Lent the people of our
diocese, through a national program called Rice
Bowl, have been curtailing their own diet and
contributing the money saved to alleviate hunger
both abroad and here at home.
“Over these last five lenten seasons Catholics of
the Springfield Diocese have contributed
approximately one half million dollars to Catholic
Relief Services, the largest private overseas relief
agency in the United States. Of this, $180,000
collected in the Rice Bowl on the family table was
earmarked for the relief of worldwide hunger,” he
said.
Bishop McNicholas said the $50,000 made
available to Hunger, Inc. represents Rice Bowl funds
contributed for the alleviation of domestic hunger.
The remaining $50,000 will be raised through this
year’s Rice Bowl and public contributions.
The bishop said that while $100,000 is a limited
sum in view of the needs that exist in the diocese,
“it represents an effort under the leadership of the
diocese to spotlight human need and to make a
conscientious effort to respond to that need.”
Patriarch Theodoros I
Installed In Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (NC) -- Thousands shouted
“axios” (“he is worthy”) during the installation of
Patriarch Theodoros I as 97th head of the Greek
Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
The ceremony took place March 1 at the Church
of the Holy Sepulcher in the old section of
Jerusalem.
The 58-year-old patriarch wore white vestments
interwoven with gold thread and carried a pastoral
staff encrusted with precious stones.
The installation was attended by Greek
Orthodox Metropolitan Juvenaly of Moscow and
other Orthodox prelates from Greece, Cyprus,
Turkey, Romania, Syria and Jordan. Other guests
included Isreali Vice Prime Minister Yigael Yadin
and Mayor Teddy Kollek of Jerusalem.
Patriarch Theodoros, born on the Greek island of
Chios, succeeds Patriarch Benedictos I, who died
Dec. 10, 1980. The new leader moved to the Holy
Land in 1939 and had been archbishop of Amman,
Jordan, since 1962.
In his new post, he is responsible for the pastoral
care of 160,000 Greek Orthodox in Israel and
Jordan.
Marquette Honors
Mother Teresa
MILWAUKEE (NC) -- Mother Teresa, founder of
the Missionaries of Charities religious order and
recipient of the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize for her
work on behalf of the world’s poor, will receive
Marquette University’s 1981 Pere Marquette
Discovery Award Medal.
The prize is given to an individual who has
accomplished an extraordinary breakthrough which
in some way adds to human advancement. It is
named for the Jesuit priest who explored North
America 300 years ago.
The medal is to be presented to Mother Teresa
June 13 as part of a Marquette Alumni Association
weekend.
Mass. Court Overturns
Abortion-Finance Law
BOSTON (NC) - The Massachusetts Supreme
Court has ruled unconstitutional a 1979 state law
limiting public financing of abortions to cases where
the woman’s life might be endangered by giving
birth.
In a 6-1 decision on Feb. 18, the court ordered
the state to pay for all “medically necessary”
abortions for women on welfare, even if their lives
are not in danger.
In a statement Cardinal Humberto Medeiros of
Boston said the decision “can only grieve us who
will always believe that the primary duty of
government everywhere is to protect the rights of all
people, born as well as unborn.”
The decision involved the claims of three
unidentified women, each of whom had “decided
after consultation with her physician that she wishes
to terminate her pregnancy,” said the majority
opinion written by Justice Francis J. Quirico.
The majority held that, because the state chose
to subsidize child-bearing and health costs, it must
do so with “genuine indifference” to the options
made available to a pregnant woman by the
allocation of public funds. Each of the women was
“entitled to non-discriminatory funding of lawful,
medically necessary abortion services,” the court
ruled. It enjoined public officials from withholding
payments under the state Medicaid program.
In a long dissent, Chief Justice Edward
Hennessey said: “It is clear to me that the majority
thus equate a financial inducement toward
childbirth with an obstacle to a woman’s freedom to
choose abortion. The logic fails. It may be an
appropriate argument to address the Legislature,
but it is not a valid premise for a conclusion of
unconstitutionality.”
Gov. Edward J. King, who campaigned in 1978
on a pledge to seek limits on public funding of
abortions, said his first reaction was to “proceed to
amend our constitution so the abortion issue is
properly handled.”
John Reinstein, of the Civil Liberties Union of
Massachusetts, which challenged the law, said the
ruling meant the state’s constitutional protection of
a woman’s right to choose whether or not to have
an abortion was “broader than the right recognized
by the United States Supreme Court.”
Overflow Crowd Prays For Atlanta’s Children
PULL POWER--Sister Marie Colette urges her climaxed field day at St. Joseph’s School in
team on to victory in the tug-of-war which Anderson, S. C. (NC Photo)
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION CONFERENCE
Like Snoopy, Ministers Can Discover
“When You’re A Bridge, You Get Lonely”
WASHINGTON (NC) - “When you’re a bridge you get
lonely at night,” said Father Regis Duffy, quoting
Snoopy, as the Peanuts comic strip character hangs
between two ledges.
He told participants in the East Coast Conference for
Religious Education that as ministers they are
“bridgemakers” and Snoopy’s line applies to them.
The person who is called to ministry must be called not
once, but many times, Father Duffy said in the keynote
address of the Feb. 21-March 1 conference. The theme of
the conference was “The Call to Ministry.”
“It comes down to the fact that to serve others,
because of the sin in the world, can be at times a very
lonely task,” he said. It’s so lonely that even the Old
Testament prophets walked away from God’s call, the
associate professor at the Washington Theological
Seminary said. “The person who is called always resists.”
Ministry is a process of resisting, listening, then
accepting the call again, Father Duffy continued.
He used St. Paul as an example of someone who,
having first heard the call to ministry, hears it again and
again.
“You set up the situation in the life of a man who had
been called once in Damascus. After Damascus, I’m sure
Paul felt nothing else was necessary for him ever again to
be called.”
But in St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, his
most personal letter, according to Father Duffy, he shows
that “late in his ministry Paul has a crisis beyond all
others.”
Rival disciples began to tear down the ministry Paul
had painfully built up, openly attacking him and his
credentials and his community did not stand behind him,
Father Duffy, said. The experience tested everything St.
Paul had taught about love and community.
The letter shows a picture of “someone who has been
so generous as a minister” who has to be called again. The
letter “is a good letter for anyone in any stage of ministry
who thinks he has it all,” Father Duffy said.
In the letter St. Paul asks who is qualified to be a
minister and warns against false ministers who “water
down” the word of God. “It’s not just that they preach
that way - they are that way. Paul believed that the word
of God is what hits you - and that’s what you preach,”
Father Duffy said.
St. Paul was a better minister at age 50 than at 25 or
30, Father Duffy added, also using Pope John XXIII and
activist Dorothy Day as examples that “fine wine grows
better with age,” because of the maturation that comes
with the second call.
That second call comes out of need, Father Duffy
continued, and forces ministers to look once again into the
richness of their ministry.
Quoting again from the Peanuts comic strip, he cited
Lucy when she is rejected by Schroeder the piano player.
“Musicians play a lot of love songs but they aren’t
romantic.”
Without the richness of the second call, “Lucy’s lament
is accurate - the minister preaches redemption occurring
again and again, but he can’t live it.”
That second call is more difficult than the first, Father
Duffy said, but he encouraged the ministers. “Don’t stay
with one color - there are so many chapters” of ministry
that could be painted a different color, some bright, some
dark, he said.
To be a minister to others “causes us to go down again
into the richness God gave us,” he said. He called on the
ministers to write their own second letter to the
Corinthians. “See the wrinkles, but see how God is giving
us a new beginning.” *