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This Scout’s A Lifesaver
BY GRETCHEN REISER
Who hasn’t wondered how he
would respond in an emergency?
In a few moments, at a swimming
poo! last summer, 16-year-old Collier
Slade of Dunwoody found out. He
and his sister had just arrived at the
Cherokee County Club last July 13
and he was standing with friends at
the side of the pool.
He noticed someone or something
at the bottom of the deep end of the
pool. A friend pushed him into the
pool. Collier swam to the side and
hopped out. Then he realized that
the “dark object” at the bottom of
the deep end of the pool hadn’t
moved.
Collier dove to the bottom, and
when he came up he had in his arms,
two-year-old Rick Shelly.
No one is really sure what
happened, but the child had
wandered away from the baby pool,
in a brief moment while his mother’s
eye was turned to her other children.
When Collier pulled him from the
pool, Rick was unconscious, his body
blue.
Calling for help, Collier started
resuscitation he had learned in Boy
Scout and Red Cross training. Mrs.
Albert McConkie, a friend and a
nurse, rushed over and started
cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the
child, and Collier alternated with her.
“He started coughing right away,”
Collier said, “after I put two or three
breaths into him.” But, remembering
from training that it was important
to continue resuscitation, and unsure
whether or not the child was
breathing on his own, they kept at it
until paramedics arrived. Rick spent
a day in the hospital, but his life had
been saved in those quick moments
at the pool.
In recognition of that, Collier, a
member of St. Jude’s Parish and its
Scout Troop No. 623 led by Paul
Bornstein, has been awarded the
National Medal of Merit, an honor
given for exceptional action by a
Scout which shows the worth of his
training. The award given to Collier
said his “alertness and coolheaded
actions saved Rick Shelly’s life and
demonstrated the value of his Boy
Scout training.”
A Star Scout, which is two ranks
below the Eagle, Collier has been in
scouting since he was eleven and had
received the scouts’ lifesaving medal
badge. He had also taken the Red
Cross lifesaving course, but had been
too young to receive certification.
All that training, plus a scuba course
he was taking, really taught him what
to do and what not to do, Collier
said. A lot of the training, he said, is
“just preparing yourself not to
panic” in an emergency.
When he received his award at a
Court of Honor at St. Jude’s, the
entire Shelly family came, too. The
award was recently re-presented at an
Atlanta-Area Boy Scout Council
Banquet. And Collier, a junior at
Marist High School, received the
Louis H. Beck Award, a local
scouting honor, for his actions.
However, he credits Mrs.
McConkie, whose training in
cardiopulmonary resuscitation was
critical.
Of his own actions, Collier says
that the training is important; when
the moment arrives, he said, “You
don’t even think about it. You just
do it.”
COLLIER SLADE, center, with his parents,
Mr. and Mrs. Trippe Slade at the recent Atlanta
Area Banquet where he and Father John Kieran,
right, were honored.
Vol. 19 No. 12
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Thursday, March 19,1981
$8.00 per year
Sister Gillen Spotlights
Eastern Europe Church
BY GRETCHEN REISER
April 11, 1945 isn’t a familiar date to American Catholics. It’s the day when
the entire hierarchy of the Ukrainian Catholic Church was arrested, along with
hundreds of clergy and lay leaders, by the Soviet police force which preceeded
today’s KGB.
The date climaxed persecution of the Church, which had numbered five
million members. Today, from information gathered from dissidents within the
Soviet Union and those who have been exiled, and from scholars and travelers,
only a small underground Church exists.
“Why don’t we remember April 11, 1945 once in awhile?” asked Sister Ann
Gillen during an interview last week. “There is a virtue to remembering, if it’s
related to a thirst for justice. I think the Jewish people have taught us this.”
Sister Gillen, a Sister of the Holy Child, is executive director of the National
Interreligious Task Force on Soviet Jewry and visited Atlanta for a conference
on the Helsinki Treaty and Eastern Europe. The Task Force was formed in
1972 and sponsored by the American Jewish Committee and the National
Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice. Over the eight years, its mission
(Continued on page 6)
“LOOK, I WON FIRST PLACE” Claire Bittman a first grader at
the Christ the King School wants the world to know - and rightly
so. Claire took first place with her award Winning essay “Christ the
King - The Happy School.” Ever-present friend Snoopy stays with
Claire, although she promises he was no help. (Photo -- Sr. Patricia
Geary)
LETTER ON THE CHILDREN
In a letter to the Archdiocese of
Atlanta, Archbishop Thomas A.
Uonnellan has called upon Catholics
to make the Fridays of Lent “days of
even more solemn penance and
self-sacrifice” linked to the suffering
over the killing of Atlanta’s children.
Asking each person and parish to
join in this response, the Archbishop
expressed specific steps to be taken,
among them, „ joining in the
Celebration of the Eucharist on
Friday, which will be specifically
dedicated to the intentions arising
from the tragedy, addressing the
families, the children, the killer or
killers, and the city. The letter also
tells of further responses being
planned in the Archdiocese, among
them a summer program for children.
The full text of the letter follows:
My Brothers and Sisters in Christ
Jesus:
I write to you in this Holy Season
of Lent to share concerns over the
senseless murders of our children
here in Atlanta. I have already
expressed publicly to the families, on
your behalf and my own, our deep
and heartfelt sympathy in their time
of grief. But now I write to you, as
Catholic members of this
community, about our response to
this terrible tragedy, for it is not
enough merely to extend
condolences while the killings
continue. We must do more.
Accordingly, I call upon you to
adopt the following plan in your
parishes with the same generosity
that characterizes your response
always:
- that the Fridays of Lent, already
days of special penance in our
liturgical tradition, be made days of
even more solemn penance and
self-sacrifice:
- to express our compassion for
the grieving families;
- to commend the slain children to
our Lord’s loving care and the
,killer/killers to His mercy;
- to symbolize our solidarity with
and concern for the community at
large.
- That this be done:
a) by each of us choosing special
acts of penance and self-sacrifice to
be offered together on these Fridays;
b) by making a special effort to
participate each Friday in the
celebration of the Eucharist which
will be specially dedicated for these
intentions;
c) taking part in the Good Friday
services in your parish or at the
Cathedral.
These steps are simple ones but
they rise from the heart of our belief
that all times are God’s times, even
those that test the soul of a whole
city.
Beyond these steps, plans are
being made to offer concrete
assistance to the city’s Black children
through the development of summer
day camp programs at a number of
our parishes easily accessible to the
Black community. All of us will be
able to participate in these programs
both through volunteer assistance
and contributions to a special second
collection to fund them. More details
on these will be announced in the
very near future.
Let this letter then serve as a
challenge to all of us so that we
re-examine our Lenten practices in
light of its suggestions. Indeed it is
imperative that we do so, for we are
in a time of great stress and testing
here. We must not allow these
murders and all that surrounds them
to act as an acid on our spirit,
breaking down our bondedness one
with another, White with Black. We
must not, in the face of this terrible
evil, allow ourselves to turn away
from each other in apathy or turn on
each other in anger and frustration.
Rather let us turn toward each other
and with each other turn to the
Lord, holding up in our hands our
children and our community.
JV. IRELAND
It is with a sense of deep concern
that I write to you at this time. But
it is concern edged with hope - the
hope of resurrection after crucifixion,
the hope of a new life together after
so much death.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
(J. sD+Msxdlm**
Most Reverend Thomas A. Donnellan
Archbishop of Atlanta
Loyalties Questioned
LIVERPOOL, England (NC) - At an ecumenical service in Liverpool’s
Catholic cathedral, a Presbyterian minister from Northern Ireland warned
against treating prisoners there as scapegoats.
“The prisoners in Northern Ireland are as much the result as they are the
cause of our troubles,” said the minister, the Rev. John Morrow, leader of the
Corrymeela community, an ecumenical organization seeking to reconcile
opposing groups in Northern Ireland.
“When we scapegoat them we are running away from the challenge to tackle
the roots of our conflict,” Mr. Morrow said March 15 at a service presided over
by Archbishop Derek Worlock of Liverpool, assisted by Anglican Bishop David
Sheppard of Liverpool.
Many inmates in Northern Irish prisons are members of the Provisional Irish
Republican Army (IRA), a guerrilla organization seeking to end British rule in
Northern Ireland, or members of various paramilitary groups who want British
rule to continue. Most of those opposing British rule are Catholics; most of
those supporting it are Protestants.
Mr. Morrow also warned against elevating loyalty to “the tribe” above
loyalty to Christ. “Many of us in Ireland, north and south, are in bondage to
the false gods of ‘blood,’ ‘soil’ and ‘tribe,’” he told the congregation, which
included local members of Parliament and civic leaders. “We have allowed our
Christian traditions to serve these causes and to fuel our conflict with religious
sanctions.
“Our churches, our schools, our neighborhoods and our homes need to be
set free to distinguish between commitment to Christ and commitment to
other causes,” Mr. Morrow continued. “These other causes have their value, be
they loyalty to things British or Irish, to things Protestant or Catholic. But
once those loyalties are put in the place of Christ, then they become ‘gods.’
They cannot be criticized or scrutinized. They are sacred cows.”
Father Anthony's Mission To Africa
BY THEA JARVIS
When Father Anthony Delisi was
an undergraduate at Catholic
University, he joined the first picket
line in the nation to protest public
segregation.
That was in 1946, when the
National Theater in Washington,
displayed signs indicating seats
“for whites” and “for colored.”
From that time on, the now
well-known Father Anthony, a
Cistercian monk at the Monastery of
the Holy Spirit in Conyers, has found
his life unmistakably intertwined
with the heart and history of black
people.
“My vocation really originated
with black people,” said Father
Anthony, a sturdy,
Pennsylvania-born Sicilian who has
been 25 years a priest. “After
picketing the theater, I worked at
Fides House, a settlement center for
blacks in downtown Washington, and
taught religion to children at Holy
Redeemer Church on Massachusetts
Avenue.”
“One day I asked the kids ‘Do you
want me to become a priest?’” said
Father Anthony, recalling a special
memory. “They answered ‘Yes, yes!’
Six months later I was in a Trappist
monastery in Georgia.”
It was his commitment to black
people that drew Father Anthony to
the South. This area was, in his
words, “the heart of the integration
struggle.”
Ultimately, this loyalty to the race
that encouraged his vocation would
lead Father Anthony Delisi to the
fatherland of black Americans -
Africa.
In 1979, when fellow Trappist
Father Tom Fidelis Smith returned
prematurely from Africa suffering
from malnutrition, Father Anthony
volunteered to take his place at a
Nigerian monastery.
“I’ve always wanted to go to
Africa,” Father Anthony said
candidly. “I jumped at the chance!”
By late summer of 1979,
arrangements were completed and
Father Anthony found himself
bound for southeastern Nigeria
where a native Ibo monastery had
sprung up and was moving toward
full affiliation with the Cistercian
rule.
“The Mount Calvary Monastery is
unique in that it was founded by
Africans, not white missionaries,”
said Father Anthony. “Our job was
to help them on their road to
autonomy and incorporation into the
Cistercian family.”
After the devastating Biafran War
which plagued most of Iboland in the
late sixties, Nigerian Father Abraham
Ojifu had founded a monastic
community based on the Rule of
Saint Benedict and the Cistercian
Regulations. His bishop and the
people of Awhum had donated land
for the foundation, and the small
grass-roots order was called the
Friends of Jesus.
When Father Abraham applied for
incorporation into the Cistercian
Order in 1974, it was agreed that
steps could be taken to prepare the
Nigerians to enter the order as an
affiliate of the Genessee Abbey in
(Continued on page 6)
AT MOUNT CALVARY MONASTERY. A
visitor to the Nigerian monastery “loans” his little
girl to the missionary from Georgia, Fr. Anthony.
On the right, two new priests of the monastery
are ordained, Father Paul and Father Gerard.
There is a community of 40 monks at Mount
Calvary.