Newspaper Page Text
Vol. 19 No. 17
Thursday, April 23,1981
$8.00 per year
BREAD FOR THE WORLD
New Tilt At
World Hunger
BY JIM LACKEY
WASHINGTON (NC) - Fresh
from a victory last year with the
establishment of an emergency wheat
reserve, Washington’s anti-hunger
lobby has launched a campaign to
gain enactment of a new “hunger and
global security bill.”
The measure, introduced in the
House in March as H.R.2793, is
described as a comprehensive effort
toward the elimination of world
hunger and malnutrition while
contributing to the political security
of both the United States and the
international community.
Sponsored by Reps. Benjamin A.
Gilman (R-N.Y.) and Stephen J.
Solarz (D-N.Y.), the measure is being
pushed primarily by Bread for the
World, a religious group which is one
of the major food lobbies in
Washington, along with the support
of other religious organizations such
as the National Catholic Rural Life
Conference.
Springing at least partly from the
recommendations issued a year ago
by the Presidential Commission on
World Hunger, the bill starts from
the premise that world hunger and
poverty may be an even greater
threat to national and international
security than the arms race or world
communism. The presidential
commission, for instance, remarked
in its report that efforts to conquer
hunger would be more than just an
act of charity but rather would hold
the key to a future secure world.
The bill’s proponents take the
same position, saying that hunger
and poverty inevitably lead to social
unrest and large-scale refugee
problems when the “have nots” see
what they are being denied by the
“haves.” Such unrest can disrupt the
flow of raw materials, adversely
affect the world economy and tempt
superpower intervention, they say.
Rather than throwing additional
money at the world hunger problem,
however, the bill purports to make
several changes in the way current
aid programs are administered.
For instance, the bill establishes
new self-help standards under which
countries receiving U.S. food aid
would have to show their own efforts
to increase local agricultural
production. It also would establish
new food aid standards to ensure
that food would go to the neediest
families in the poorest countries
rather than to the countries now
receiving food aid because of their
strategic importance or their
long-term friendship with the United
States.
Also, the bill would prohibit the
United States from imposing grain
embargoes which might cause
malnutrition, except in cases of
(Continued on page 6)
SUPPER has ended and it’s time for a chat
before bed. Friendships are renewed after a day’s
MEN’S SHELTER
It’s Like Home...
adventure on the streets.
... It Is Home
BY MSGR. NOEL C. BURTENSHAW
Night had just fallen when I arrived at Clifton Presbyterian Church. I could
just see that it was a small complex. Small in geographic space, that is. In
service, it is just gigantic.
The church-hall, the dining room areas and the little corridors are full of
men. These men are not your executive types-you see that right away. But a
note of contentment comes from them as they relax, read or chat animatedly
among themselves and with interested church members.
These are men from the streets of Atlanta. They are homeless men, jobless
men, the last of this country’s wandering vagabonds. They want to stay in this
city, but they are ready to move on when the mysterious call comes-whenever
it happens or whatever it is.
They have just had their evening meal. It was prepared by Anne and Gilbert
Nicholson who live in Sandy Springs but come here to this tiny Decatur church
where they feel the Christian community at work. “It is a wonderful
apostolate,” says Anne. “It is a real sharing of yourself with brothers in need.”
Anne and Gilbert have brought their three tiny children. Grace-she is about
five-is challenging one of the men to a game of checkers. Desperately she
wants to beat him. The ragged, unshaven opponent is having the time of his life
just being involved with this little girl in the beautiful fray of a shared,
companionable game of checkers.
The two boys will talk to anyone about sports and find plenty of takers.
“Sure, man, we’ve caught a few fly-balls in our time.”
Over in the corner, a bright-eyed black brother picks a song, blue and
mellow, on the preacher’s guitar. A couple of the guys harmonize. It’s nice in
the night.
It’s like home. It is home. And in the winter, it was paradise for 35 men each
night.
Rev. Ed Loring is the pastor. Six years ago, he and his wife, Murphy, came
to Clifton when the great old church was dying. “It was passing into a new
phase,” says Ed, “and we were looking for a new apostolate. Well, we found it.
And for our 25 members (that’s all the official membership they have) it was a
program we wanted.”
Hundreds of men and women live on the streets of Atlanta every night. They
have no home and nowhere to go. “You need money to sleep each night,” says
Ed, “and many of them don’t have it.”
To stay at the Union Mission and other night shelters cost $3 per night and
more. There are a few places women can go. “You know what they do?” asks
Ed Loring. “They ride the bus till the buses stop. And you know what the
greatest danger is? Cold and rain, yes. But worse than that - violence. They are
Protestors Deplore
Navy’s Name For Sub
(BURTENSHAW)
BY NC NEWS SERVICE
The naming of a nuclear attack
submarine “Corpus Christi” has
sparked protests from religious
leaders pointing out the irony of
giving a weapon a name which in
Latin means “Body of Christ.”
“It’s the name of a city,” in Texas
William Ball told the Providence
(R.I.) Journal. Ball, chief clerk of the
armed services committee, said, “I
don’t know why they’re objecting
now. The first call I got was from
some kook who claims to represent
the Catholic Church. But he’s a little
late and anyway, this isn’t religious.
It’s the name of a city.”
Navy officials said they had no
plans to change the name chosen by
Navy Secretary John H. Lehman.
FRAN NICHOLSON gets ready to take on the latest challenge in
a game of checkers. All is forgotten as this yoting lady from Sandy
Springs takes on one of her street friends across the empty supper
table.
brutalized knd out there on Atlanta’s streets they are unprotected.”
About 18 months ago Clifton began the program. Each evening Ed Loring or
his associate, Rob Johnson, drives a creaky old bus downtown to a point
known to the men. Tickets have been distributed and the 35 with a ticket may
board the bus. “It’s heart-breaking,” says Ed, “leaving so many behind on cold
nights. But we can only take 35. The rest must make it on the streets.”
(Continued on page 6)
The Navy has named all its 688-class
fast-attack submarines after U.S.
cities. Sen. John G. Tower (R-Texas),
chairman of the Senate Armed
Services Committee, was
instrumental in having the
submarine, built by Electric Boat,
General Dynamics in Groton, Conn.,
named after a city in his home state.
Archbishop John Whealon of
Hartford, Conn, said the sub’s
war-making capabilities make the
name “inappropriate” and offensive
to Catholics.
Bishop Daniel P. Reilly of
Norwich, Conn, said in a statement
April 16 that he deplored the naming
of the submarine, “capable of such
great destruction, after the prince of
peace, Jesus Christ. It is an action
that is offensive to the faith and
conscience of millions of Americans
and totally inappropriate in a nation
that respects an individual’s right to
belief and to worship.”
“End of the World,” “Most
Hideous Sin,” or “Man’s Lack of
Conscience,” were Father Edmund S.
Nadolny’s suggestions for names for
the submarine.
Father Nadolny, director of the
Office of Radio and Television of the
Hartford Archdiocese, planned a
protest for the April 25 launching of
the sub at Groton, where he has
demonstrated before. He said he
hoped the protest would draw over
4,000 people.
“Christ died for our sins and he’s
being identified with the worst of
mankind - a nuclear attack,” Father
Nadolny said. “The arms race is
causing the mystical body of Christ
to suffer,” he continued, saying he
objected “to identifying Christ with
the cause of suffering.”
Corpus Christi, Texas was named
specifically in honor of the body of
Christ, the priest said, “there is real
religious basis to this .. . Quakers
wouldn’t allow a sub to be called
‘William Penn.’”
Father Nadolny said April 15 that
he is trying to bring the submarine to
the attention of as many people as
possible because “my one voice is
unimportant.” He believes “anyone
with a Christian heritage” should be
offended by the choice of the name.
Responsible government officials
“have blundered badly,” Msgr.
Francis J. Lally, U.S. Catholic
Conference social development and
world peace secretary said of the
decision to name the sub Corpus
Christi.
“This error in judgment can still
be rectified and action in this
direction should be taken promptly.
If we must have engines of war and
defense, let us not launch them with
religious titles.”
“Some Catholics, and we heartily
(Continued on page 6)
The “Base Community”
BY THEA JARVIS
The day before Fran Drummond was to give her workshops on base
communities at the Archdiocesan Conference on Evangelization, she
couldn’t pronounce the word “evangelization.”
“I knew what I wanted to say, but I couldn’t say it,” the friendly
coordinator of Transfiguration Church’s Base Community Program recalled
with delight.
“I told a friend that I was having a terrible time saying that word, and she
assured me that if I was doing God’s work, He would put the right words
into my mouth.”
At the conference, Fran’s workshops were enthusiastically attended, and
she sailed through “evangelization” like a Ph.D. in speech therapy. But
when she rushed home to share her success with her husband, she found she
couldn’t say “evangelization” if her life depended on it.
Transfiguration Parish
Fortunately, the Base Community Program at the Church of the
Transfiguration in Marietta has not depended on the mere pronunciation of
a word. Rather, through the interest, commitment and cooperation of Fran
Drummond, her co-workers Sharon Rhodes and Pat Eas'terwood, and their
pastor, Father Ray Horan, the program is off to a worthy - if not wordy -
start.
Base communities are Transfiguration’s answer to a problem faced by
many churches in north Georgia -- too much growth too soon.
After years spent in a “borrowed” storefront and a local Protestant
church, the Transfiguration community was finally housed in a place it
could really call home - an expansive, hangar-like facility that is a
monument to Transfiguration’s emphasis on people rather than physical
surroundings.
In spite of its new home, the parish, long an innovator in outreach and
community-building, was growing too large to sustain the spirit of closeness
and friendship that had been its hallmark. From a small group of 30
-- A Model For Growth
families, the church had blossomed into a stadium crowd of 650 units.
Enter base communities.
“In November of 1980, Father Horan asked me if I’d like to plan some
neighborhood coffees, getting Catholics together for a couple of hours on a
Sunday afternoon,” said Fran Drummond, noting that the model derived
from the women’s guild tradition of using neighborhood groups to provide
for church functions and parish emergencies.
(Continued on page 6)
FATHER RAY HORAN, pastor of the Church of the
Transfiguration in Marietta, sees base communities as models of
“the early church, which met in homes and supported each other
in faith, in learning, and in all the needs that are a part of the
growing of the people of God.”
State Dept. Says Murder Probe
In Salvador A “High Priority”
BY JIM LACKEY
WASHINGTON (NC) - The
Reagan administration has assured
the U.S. bishops that it continues to
give a “high priority” to investigation
of the murders in El Salvador last
December of four American
churchwomen.
The administration also has
assured the bishops that it does not
think the four women - three nuns
and a lay worker - were engaged in
political activity.
The assurances came in a letter
from Walter J. Stoessel,
undersecretary of state for political
affairs, to Archbishop John R. Roach
of St. Paul-Minneapolis, president of
the National Conference of Catholic
Bishops.
Earlier, Archbishop Roach had
written Secretary of State Alexander
Haig urging completion of the
murder investigation and expressing
the bishops’ hope that “any attempt
to call into question the evangelical
quality of the lives and ministry” of
the four women would be rejected.
Archbishop Roach’s letter, dated
March 26, and Stoessel’s reply, dated
April 11, were released by the U.S.
Catholic Conference April 20.
The bodies of the four women -
Maryknoll Sisters Ita Ford and Maura
Clark, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel,
and Jean Donovan - were discovered
in a roadside grave Dec. 4.
“It is now almost four months
since the brutal slaying of four
American women,” Archbishop
Roach said in his letter to Haig, “and
close to three months since fc the
murder of three prominent trade
unionists, two of whom were
American citizens.
“The highly publicized promises
of a swift and impartial investigation
into these murders has yet to be
realized,” Archbishop Roach said.
(On April 15 the FBI arrested a
man in Miami and charged him with
the murder of the unionists.)
Archbishop Roach noted that the
safety of American citizens working
abroad was “explicitly discussed”
during the March meeting in
Washington of the bishops’
Administrative Board, a group of 45
bishops who conduct NCCB-USCC
business between the bishops’ annual
meetings.
“Church workers in Latin America
today labor under the most difficult
and dangerous circumstances,
particularly when they stand for the
rights of the poor and the pursuit of
social justice,” said Archbishop
Roach.
“It is incumbent on the officials of
our government to exercise the
greatest prudence in addressing so
delicate and complex a reality.”
Stoessel, responding for Haig, who
was out of the country, said the
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