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Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 19 No. 24
Thursday, June 18,1981
$8.00 per year
UP, UP AND
Bunches And Bunches Of Balloons
Archdiocese Gains
Four New Priests
BY MSGR. NOEL C. BURTENSHAW
It’s your husband’s birthday. Great. But it’s his fortieth birthday. A black
day indeed for the poor guy. And you can let him know how black it really is.
DAVID HIDDING takes his latest 21 Balloon Salute into the heart
of Atlanta’s new office building areas. Some executive, expecting a
cake from his faithful staff, is in for a colorful, pleasant surprise.
Just call David Kidding; he can really help you make that blue morning black for
poor old hubbie.
You see, David owns Balloons By The Bunch. In the middle of the night,
David will deliver a bouquet of black balloons to your home - 21 in all. You take
them and tie them on the end of your bed. When poor old dear wakes up: Ta-da!
He knows it’s big four-O-day. A black moment indeed.
“That’s about the strangest delivery we ever made,” says David, owner of this
bright and wonderful new company. “The lady wanted to kid her husband and,
with our balloons, we were happy to help her.”
Young David Hidding is helping many celebrate with his strangely unique
business. “Send what you like,” says David. “But send balloons too.” And many
Atlantans now follow his advice.
David and his family are parishioners at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church.
In 1978 this bright, tall, dark and handsome young fella graduated from St. Pius
X High School. He immediately took a job out at Six Flags Park.
“I also began helping my brother, Rick,” says David. “He had a business
placing advertisements on large helium balloons and flying them over the city.
Well, the business didn’t fly so good and we were left with tanks of helium to
spare. It was then we got the idea of Balloons By The Bunch. It has gone over
great.”
Great indeed is the word. Rick Hidding has now moved to Tampa and opened
another “Balloons” there. David has bought this end of the business and now
averages 30 deliveries per day.
“I want to get it up to 100 per day,” says the enterprising David. “Then I’ll
consider selling it.”
How does it all work? Well, you just call David and both he and his staff
quickly prepare “a 21 Balloon Salute” which they then deliver to home or office
to enhance a celebration. The 21 brightly colored balloons are placed in a flower
pot, filled with candy and tied with ribbon. “It is unusual and it is fun,” says
David, “and you should see the faces of children in hospitals when we appear.
That’s the best fun of all. The nurses don’t always like it, but those kids go wild.
It makes me feel good.”
David and his part-time staff of six deliver all over metro-Atlanta. “The cost
is about $20,” says this brightly attired young man with balloons bouncing over
his head, “and if possible we would like a day’s notice to get them delivered.”
When the Los Angeles Dodgers visit the stadium, David promptly gets an
order for catcher Steve Yager. “Some girl in Atlanta always wants Steve to have
his bouquet. So I take them down on the field and see that he has them before
the game. He’s a good sport.”
Offices all over the city want that 21 balloon salute coming through their
door, so David Hidding with balloons reaching up to the heavens has become a
familiar sight as bosses get birthday balloons instead of cakes. “They look great
on executives’ desks,” says David, “and they bring bright relief to hospital sick
rooms.”
So, in case you think this is all a bunch of hot air, think again. Balloons By
The Bunch brings all the fun of the weekend fair into homes and lives every day
of the week.
Ask David. He’s high as a wind-blown balloon on his business.
Shepherd Church in Cumming, Ga.
Father Alan Dillman, former
pastor at Good Shepherd,
remembered the “creative bent” in
Brent’s preaching. “He related very
well to a small parish community,”
said Father Dillman. “He played the
guitar and worked with the folk group
and even gave a month of his time to a
(Continued on page 6)
ST. PIUS X
182 Graduates
The familiar strains of “Pomp and
Circumstance” rang out at St. Pius X
High School June 5 as commencement
exercises were held for 182 graduating
seniors.
Valedictorian Mark DeGuenther
and Salutatorian Lisa Volmar were the
featured speakers.
The invocation was given by Father
Patrick Bishop, pastoral minister at
the high school, and Father Terry
Young, principal, welcomed the
graduates and their guests.
After the presentation of the
graduates, Sister Roberta Schmidt,
C.S.J., delivered the archdiocesan
education awards. Lisa Volmar
received the Moody-Sheehan
Scholarship and Mark DeGuenther
was awarded the Monsignor Clancy
Scholarship.
Archbishop Thomas Donnellan
addressed the graduates, as did Father
Richard Kieran, Archdiocesan
Secretary of Education and former
principal of St. Pius.
A senior class leadership vote
decided against having a guest speaker
at this year’s graduation. According to
Golden Lines, the St. Pius X school
newspaper, “it was decided upon
because . . . the ceremonies run long,
and much of the speeches are
repetitious.”
The paper continued “According
to Father (Young), the leaders felt
that the student speakers would be
better received by the senior class than
an outside speaker would.”
Twenty-nine members of the
graduating class are members of the
National Honor Society.
Priests In Nicaragua Told
To Leave Government Posts
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (NC) -- A call by the Nicaraguan Bishops’ Conference
to priests in the Sandinista government to quit their jobs has stirred controversy.
Four priests involved said in a “first response” that they pledged their
“unbreakable commitment” to the Sandinista revolution. They were supported
by other priests and 20 basic Christian communities.
“We declare that those priests who at present hold public postsand engage in
factional functions must leave them at once and fully rejoin their priestly
ministry,” said a conference statement issued June 5.
“Otherwise we consider them to be in open rebellion and disobedience to the
legitimate authority of the church” and “they become subject to church
sanctions due in such case,” the conference added.
Directly involved are Maryknoll Father Miguel D’Escoto, foreign minister;
Father Ernesto Cardenal, minister of culture; Father Edgar Parrales, minister of
welfare; and Jesuit Father Fernando Cardenal, coordinator of the Sandinista
Youth Movement.
Like many other priests, Religious and lay leaders, the four supported the
Sandinista rebellion against the 45-year-old Somoza dynasty. They agreed to take
key government posts after the victory of the revolution in July 1979. They said
the emergency conditions of the post-civil war period justified accepting
government posts.
Initially the bishops gave priests temporary permission to accept government
posts because of the emergency postwar situation.
The June statement by the bishops followed another warning of May 1980
giving the priests until Dec. 31, 1980, to turn over government duties to lay
people. The priests contend that the emergency conditions continue, but the
bishops’ conference disagrees.
The four priests said in a statement June 8 that they serve the government “in
loyalty to our people, which is the same as saying fidelity to God,” and “we shall
continue to do so from any place and circumstance in which our service is
needed.”
The statement, however, was labelled a “first response” to the bishops. Church
sources said this indicated the priests’ willingness to negotiate a solution.
The conference statement said priests should never serve a factional ideology
but promote liberation of the poor “by a Gospel approach, not by temporal
power.” The four priests replied that “our assigned posts have given us the power
to serve, not to dominate . . . the power to fulfill our priesthood” without
drifting away from its vocation.
Delegates from 20 basic Christian communities marched seven miles June 9 to
the apostolic nunciature to deliver a letter addressed to Cardinal Agostino
Casaroli, papal secretary of state, asking that the Vatican allow the priests to
(Continued on page 6)
CAMP PROMISE opened on schedule June 8 at St. Anthony’s, St.
Paul of the Cross and Ss. Peter and Paul with all three camps at full
registration and some children on a waiting list to enter. Schedules
varied at each camp with some swimming, outdoor recreation, music
workshops and creative writing taking place at different times and
camps. The full schedule was to go into effect after educational
testing was completed. But the kids were ready. Above, St. Anthony’s
displays the Camp Promise name proudly on tee-shirts donated by
Coca Cola. At far left, in the back, are volunteer worker Beth
McCracken, camp director, Rosina Seydel and recreation supervisor
Tony Ballard. Other assistants pictured are Morrese Green, center,
and seminarians Jim Adams and Dan Stack. Below, kids at St. Paul of
the Cross are ready for racing.
BY THEA JARVIS
The long and sometimes arduous
journey on the road to the priesthood
will come to an end this summer as
four men preparing for ministry
within the Archdiocese are ordained.
Archbishop Thomas Donnellan
will confer the sacrament of Holy
Orders on Brent Bohan, Dave
Kukielski, and Bruce Wilkinson at the
Cathedral of Christ the King in
Atlanta June 27. Austin Fogarty will
be ordained by the Archbishop at Our
Lady of Fatima Church in Dublin,
Ireland on July 11.
5 All four men will be priests of the
§ Archdiocese of Atlanta.
Brent Bohan, born and raised in
Florida, began his studies as a
seminarian of the Archdiocese of
Miami at St. John Vianney Minor
Seminary. When his family later
moved to Atlanta, he requested a
transfer from the Miami Archdiocese
and continued his major seminary
studies at St. Vincent de Paul
Seminary in Boynton Beach, Florida.
While at St. Vincent’s, Brent
brought his Spanish to fluency, since
many of his classmates were from
Puerto Rico. Brent himself traveled to
that country and helped in parishes
there during his vacation time. Other
summers were spent as a counselor at a
Dominican boys camp in New York
state. On his most recent summer
assignment, Brent was deacon at Good
CHD FUNDS
Two Rural Projects,
Two In City Helped
BY GRETCHEN REISER
A model program to help children
from violent homes is one of four
proposals which will be aided by
money collected in last year’s
archdiocesan Campaign for Human
Development drive.
The Children’s Program developed
at the Atlanta shelter of the Council
on Battered Women combines
counseling and activities for children
who have suffered emotional and
physical abuse. The therapeutic
program for children who are staying
at the shelter is aimed at breaking the
cycle of violence, and helping children
find non-violent ways to cope with
problems.
The success of the program has
prompted the Council to plan
development of a training manual to
be shared with other shelters for
battered women opening around the
state of Georgia. The Council was
awarded $700 by the Allocations
Committee of the Campaign for
Human Development to prepare, print
and promote the manual.
Three other projects, one proposed
by Rural Social Services, another by
Interfaith, Inc. and a third by Citizens
in Action of Hartwell, were also
awarded seed money from the
Campaign for Human Development.
The four awards totalled $8,569.
The money is one-quarter of the
approximately $36,000 collected in
the Archdiocese last fall for the
Campaign for Human Development.
Three-quarters of the collection goes
to the national CHD office for
distribution to projects around the
country.
Last year’s collection was the
largest in the Archdiocese’s history
with CHD, due in great part to the
work of pastors and parishes who
promoted information about the
campaign and its work, said Steve
Brazen, executive assistant in the
office of Catholic Social Services. The
CHD is the Church’s major effort
nationally to address the causes of
poverty in the United States. CHD
money is supposed to support
grass-roots efforts to change cycles of
poverty and injustice.
The Allocations Committee in the
Archdiocese, composed of volunteers,
met several times in recent months to
review proposals from seven groups
applying for funds. The money was
distributed June 1 to the four
applicants chosen.
The three projects chosen for
funding, in addition to the Council on
(Continued on page 6)