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* ir 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)