Newspaper Page Text
«
♦
PAGE 7—The Georgia Bulletin, June 18,1981
f
*
*
1
*
#
4
t
fr
*
Pope Names New Archbishop
For China: First Since 1955
VATICAN CITY (NC) - For the first time since
1955 a pope has named a new Catholic archbishop for
China.
Pope John Paul II appointed 73-year-old Bishop
Dominic Tang Yee-Ming as archbishop of Quangzhou
(Canton), China, June 6, in a move seen as evidence of
further improvement in Vatican-Chinese relations.
Archbishop Tang, a Jesuit who has been apostolic
administrator of the Quangzhou Archdiocese since
1950, becomes the only active member of the Chinese
Catholic hierarchy to be recognized by both the
Vatican and China’s communist government.
The new archbishop was in Rome to attend
Pentecost ceremonies marking the anniversaries of
the fourth-century councils of Constantinople and
Ephesus when the appointment was announced.
During an earlier visit to Italy he met with Pope
John Paul in private audience April 30 and in a more
informal setting a few days later.
Archbishop Tang’s personal history reflects the
turmoil of the Chinese Catholic Church in recent
years and the steps toward improvement of relations
between the Vatican and the communist government.
The new archbishop was born in Hong Kong on
May 13,1908, and was ordained to the priesthood on
May 31,1941, in Shanghai and transferred five years
later to Macao.
He was appointed apostolic administrator of
Quangzhou in October 1950 by Pope Pius XII and
held that post for nearly eight years before his arrest
and imprisonment by Chinese authorities on Feb. 5,
1958. He was charged with unspecified activities
against the government.
In 1955 Pope Pius XII named Bishop Anthony
Yang Juang-Chi as head of the Yutze diocese. It was
to be the last Vatican appointment of a Chinese
bishop until 1981.
Bishop Yang was immediately jailed and died in
prison last year.
There was little information available about
Bishop Tang from the time of his arrest in 1958 until
his release from prison on June 8,1980.
After the communist revolution in China in 1949,
the government promoted the organization of the
National Association of Patriotic Catholics and asked
it to name its own bishops in an effort to develop a
national church independent of the Vatican. The
Vatican condemned the association in 1957 because
it was naming bishops in violation of church norms.
But the patriotic association has continued to appoint
its own bishops and was immediately critical of the
appointment of Archbishop Tang.
Action On Life Amendment,
Abortion In Courts And Congress
A number of developments occurred in the last
two weeks concerning pro-life legislation and
abortion law. They included:
- A decision by the American Medical Association
to oppose proposed legislation in Congress to define
human life as beginning at conception. The board of
trustees of the AM A voted to send two spokesmen to
oppose “human life” legislation at hearings in
Congress in mid-June. An AM A spokesman said, “The
legislation is founded on the idea that a scientific
consensus exists that life begins at the time of
conception. We will go up there to say that no such
consensus exists.”
-An order by the U.S. Supreme Court to a federal
appeals court to reconsider its decision striking down
Nebraska abortion regulations. The 1979 Nebraska
regulations required parental consultation for minors
seeking abortions, confirmation that the woman had
been advised of the possible consequences of
abortion, childbirth and pregnancy, and a 48-hour
waiting period. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
had ruled the regulations unconstitutional, but the
Supreme Court asked for reconsideration in light of
the high court’s March 23 decision upholding Utah’s
parental notification law.
-The launching of a letter-writing campaign by the
National Committee for a Human Life Amendment,
the seven-year-old organization funded largely by
individual Catholic bishops and dioceses. The
campaign is directed at Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)
and urges Senate hearings on a human life
amendment. The Senate has already begun hearings
on a “human life bill” which, if upheld by the courts,
i would give states the power to re-enact their pre-1973
abortion restrictions. A human life amendment,
however, would make the right to life part of the
Constitution and would not be subject to court
review.
“Hit List” Prompts Rep. Hyde,
Three Others To Resign Board
WASHINGTON (NC) - The release by the
National Pro-Life Political Action Committee of the
names of nine members of Congress it will seek to
defeat next year prompted the resignation of Rep.
Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) and three other congressmen
from its advisory board.
In addition to Hyde, principal sponsor of the Hyde
amendment, first passed in 1976, which restricted
federal funding of abortion, Sen. Jake Gam (R-Utah),
a principal sponsor of a constitutional amendment to
outlaw abortions, Rep. Marty Russo (D-Ill.) and Rep.
Robert A. Young (D-Mo.) also resigned from the
advisory board.
“Congressman Hyde thinks it is inappropriate for
him to lend his name to a group that seeks to defeat
Republican members of Congress whose views may
differ with his on some issues,” a spokesman for Hyde
said.
“Members of a group’s advisory board sould be
asked to advise, and since I was not, I intend to
resign.” Garn said.
Young said he objected to the kind of negative
campaigning represented by the committee’s “hit
list.”
“During my 20 years as a state legislator in
Missouri and through my now four and a half years in
Congress, I have never been associated with this sort
of negative political campaigning, and I sincerely
regret that the persons in charge of this committee
have used this tactic in such a way,” Young said.
At a news conference announcing the “hit list,”
Peter Gemma, executive director of the committee,
which is based in Falls Church, Va., said, “If we can
knock off some highly visible officeholders, it sends a
signal to the mushy middle, as I call them.”
After being informed of the resignations from the
advisory board, Gemma said, “It’s just a
communication problem that got out of hand.” He
said the committee was not going to change its plans.
Among those listed by the committee is Sen.
George Mitchell (D-Maine), who voted with the 52-43
Senate majority on May 15 to deny
Medicaid-financed abortions for women who are the
victims of rape or incest.
IN FRANCIS’ FOOTSTEPS - Mother Teresa of
Calcutta clutches a San Damiano crucifix given to
her by Franciscans in Cincinnati. The crucifix is
similar to the one St. Francis of Assisi prayed
before in the chapel at San Damiano when he
received his religious call.
Mother Teresa Sees Freedom
In Poverty, God In The Poor
BY JUDY BALL
CINCINNATI (NC) - Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the
tiny, softspoken nun who has conferred with popes and
kings and presidents but who is most at home ministering to
the “poorest of the poor,” came to Cincinnati June 7 to
spread her simple but challenging message: Followers of
Christ are called to love and serve one another, especially
the poor, and to be Christ to one another.
Appearing at the invitation of the Franciscans, who were
celebrating the 800th anniversary of the birth of St. Francis,
Mother Teresa was dressed in the familiar blue and white
sari and veil that has become the trademark for her and the
1,950 nuns in her Missionaries of Charity community.
Auxiliary Bishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk of Cincinnati
celebrated an outdoor Mass for 15,000 at St. Francis
Seminary with the Franciscan provincial, Father Jeremy
Harrington, at his side. At the conclusion of the Mass the
woman Father Harrington had called “a gift to us” during
his homily, addressed the congregation.
Recalling that St. Francis had “a special love” for the
poor, Mother Teresa stressed that it was only when he was
able to rid himself of the things he had acquired that he
really became free. “Poverty, if understood properly, is a
freedom,” she continued. “God has given us things not to
hold but to use and share.
“Money and property don’t make us rich,” she said,
encouraging her listeners to “pray for the grace to be free”
of preoccupation with things.
Francis was not the only model, she emphasized, noting
that Jesus himself chose to enter the world as a helpless,
dependent infant whose first bed was a manger and who
died alone on a cross.
Even in the Eucharist, she said, he comes to us “so
breakable, so small. And yet he is God.”
Asking the congregation assembled to “come to the
poor,” whether they be the materially deprived or those
who are sick, disabled or feeling rejected, she emphasized
the privilege involved. “We owe the poor deep gratitude for
allowing us to love God in them.”
In her brief talk she also deplored abortion, calling it “a
clear murder” and a denial of God’s plan. “God has created
that child to love and be loved.” He has sent the child “to
proclaim the good news to the poor. We gather here today
to proclaim we will love that child in the image of God.”
The afternoon concluded on a surprise note for almost
everyone, as the crowd was asked to sing a chorus of
“Happy Anniversary” in honor of Mother Teresa who
celebrated her 50th jubilee as a nun in May.
Earlier that day she met with press and was asked why
she did not try to change the political system.
“Some people say you should not give people fish but
the rod to teach them how to fish. But people are disabled,
hungry, sick, rejected by society, completely broken. I will
give them fish to eat and when they are able to stand and
hold the rod I will give them to you to teach them how to
fish.
“Being unwanted, unloved, forgotten is a much greater
hunger than poverty, than having nothing to eat,” she said.
“In India and Africa, people are dying of hunger, but in the
West the hurt and loneliness is a much greater disease, for
loneliness there is no cure, only the consistent touch of love.
This is where I would like more and more people to get
involved.”
Women’s Ordination: An Interim Report On Dialogue
WASHINGTON (NC) - Representatives of the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and of the
Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC) have agreed that
the question of ordaining women to the priesthood
continues to be a matter of public debate in the church and
the world.
This was one of the conclusions expressed in an interim
report on the dialogue between the WOC and the NCCB
Committee on Women in Society and the Church. The
report, released by the NCCB May 28, has been sent to all
the bishops of the country.
The official magisterium, or teaching authority, of the
church has “studied and restated the tradition that excludes
women from the ordained priesthood,” the report said.
“Despite this fact, however, all the participants agree that
the matter continues to be one of public debate, discussion
and ongoing writing and study in the church and in the
world.
“Thus, the first question for consideration is whether the
issue itself can be regarded as definitively decided, or as
open and requiring much further exploration.”
Christ and Culture
The interim report covers three dialogue sessions held
between December 1979 and last July. Six representatives
of the WOC and six representatives of the bishops’
committee participated in the dialogue sessions, which were
planned in March 1979 at the direction of Archbishop John
R. Quinn of San Francisco, then president of the NCCB.
The second critical question concerning the role of
women in the church “has to do with the relation between
Christ and culture,” the report said.
“Given the truth that the church always carries its
treasure in earthern vessels,” it continued, “how does one
distinguish between the treasure of the Gospel and the
earthern vessels of passing social systems that have
influenced both church teaching and institutional forms in
the past? Does the exclusion of women from full
participation in the church belong to the mind of Christ or
to the influence of culture, a culture which may be
inadequate and even unjust?”
Noting that Catholics disagree on the question of
women’s participation in the church, the report said:
“While the magisterium has stated otherwise, some
theologians have come to the acceptance of women’s full
participation, particularly those theologians influenced by
the Second Vatican Council. The Catholic Biblical
Association has expressed its view that there is no true
impediment to the priestly ministry of women on the basis
of New Testament exegesis. Women, too, are divided by
different experiences. On the basis of the dialogue, we
recognize the need for further exploration of the reasons for
these differences.
“A fuller sharing of information, knowledge and
experience among various sectors of the church -- women,
pastors, bishops, male and female theologians, and biblical
scholars - is needed,” the report continued. “Only when a
much fuller dialogue between these different persons, who
represent and reflect different areas of expertise and
experience, has taken place, can we approach the conditions
for a genuine ‘sensus fidelium’ (sense, or understanding, of
the faithful) on the issue of the full participation of women
in the church and in society.”
Areas of Agreement
Dialogue participants, the report said, agreed that:
- “Because of the humanity of the church, the model of
servanthood given to us by Jesus in the Gospel often stands
in sharp contrast to the present structures of the Catholic
Church with patterns historically borrowed from the
juridical model of the Roman Empire and other social
structural patterns.”
-“In the world, there is a growing acceptance of the basic
equality of men and women” and “the alienation of women
from the church is a serious pastoral problem that has many
ecclesiological implications.” (Ecclesiological implications
are those that relate to the nature and structure of the
church.)
-Although the church teaches that human persons
reflect an image of God, there is an inconsistency, not only
between teaching and practice, but also within the teaching
itself.
-The church must work to create a structure which does
not limit human development in its own institutions.
-The concept of complementarity “is not an appropriate
model for accepting women as members of the church,
because it too often implies a ‘separate but equal’ notion
that is, in fact, not equal.”
Areas of Disagreement
Among the areas of disagreement, the report said, were
these:
-The structure of the church.
The bishops’ view: “Christ founded a church in which he
vested authority in Peter and the 12, who handed it down to
their successors. While acknowledging the ‘sensus fidelium’
and the need of consultation with competent scholars, the
pope and the bishops constitute the magisterium, which is
the official arbiter of orthodoxy.”
The WOC view: “The present official leadership
structures of the church that are both hierarchical and
patriarchal were not explicitly instituted or intended by
Christ; they are historically developed in relation to culture
over a long period of time and are therefore mutable. As
earthen vessels of human creation, they have changed over
time. Although some participatory processes have
developed in various places, these changes are not juridically
secure. They are dependent on the goodwill of a particular
person in power. Such changes can be rescinded at any time
by the person in power or a level of authority above that
person.”
-Patriarchy. The bishops’ committee views it “as
divinely derived because it reflects the natural order and
thus is the order of creation.” The WOC understands it “as a
reflection of an unjust societal order and not part of God’s
order of creation.”
-Hierarchy. The bishops: “The church is essentially
hierarchical; this structure is immutable.” The WOC: “The
church is hierarchical but this structure is not essential to its
nature and is, therefore, changeable.”
-The interpretation of revelation. The bishops: “The
hierarchy alone is responsible for the final interpretation of
the revelation of Jesus Christ.” The WOC: “Various sectors
of the whole community participate in the interpretation of
the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Dialogue representatives for the WOC included Sister
Anne Carr, assistant dean and professor of theology at the
University of Chicago Divinity School; Ada Maria
Isasi-Diaz, a consultant at WOC headquarters in Rochester,
N.Y., and a freelance writer; Dominican Sister Jamie Phelps,
a doctoral candidate in religious studies at the Catholic
University of America; Rosemary Radford Ruether,
Georgia Harkness professor of theology at Garrett
Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Ill.;
Dominican Sister Marjorie Tuite, coordinator of the
ministerial program at the Jesuit School of Theology in
Chicago; and Barbara Zanotti, a theology student.
Dialogue representatives for the bishops’ committee
included Bishop Michael F. McAuliffe of Jefferson City,
Mo., committee chairman; Mrs. Jerome Bechtold, executive
liturgical editor, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minn.;
Sister Agnes Cunningham of the Servants of the Holy Heart
of Mary, associate professor of theology, St. Mary of the
Lake Seminary, Mundelein, Ill.; Auxiliary Bishop George R.
Evans of Denver; Auxiliary Bishop P. Francis Murphy of
Baltimore; and Auxiliary Bishop Amadee W. Proulx of
Portland, Maine.
OWENS
TWf HI"f A
PLBG - HEATING
JUU fiflstorafite KattinoJ
& AIR C0ND. \
Classic Northern cuisine
where you can sample your
233-3913
REPAIR SPECIALISTS
favorite dishes in a rustic
elegant ambiance.
BOILER REPAIR
Overlooking a beautiful
&REPLACEMENTS
characteristic Italian
terrace garden.
SEWER SERVICE
Reservations
WATER HEATERS
SOLAR INSTALLATIONS
231-1368
BUCKHEAD
2637 P tree St.
Atlanta, Ga. 30305
"SINCE 1943"
Charles Levy
23 yrs. experience
means more
more money value
RX-7S Sports Car
21-30 MPG-E.P.A. est.
GLC Custom Hatchback
35-43 MPG-E.P.A. est.
SAVE GAS TODAY WITH
THE ECONOMY LEADERS!
GLC Custom Wagon 626 Sport Sedan
31-42 MPG - E.P.A. est. 28-39 MPG-E.P.A. est.
1 and 5 year warranties available!
Ou'i 200 late model tine used (.its to t boose Horn- .ill makes and models
No waiting list / Free delivery to Atlanta customers.
CHARLES LEVY,T,w“m
Your complete Mazda dealer
SALES • SERVICE • PARTS
1101 Fourth Avenue
Columbus, Ga. 31901
(404) 324-4171
Atlanta Line Call $25-0687
2027 Box Road
Columbus, Ga. 31907
(404) 563-8206
^jwwwwwvvvvvwvvvvwwvywwvwyt,
Bob Todd
Gulf Service
Gulf Tires Batteries AC Tune Up A Diagnosti
Accessories Center
Mechanic on l)ut\ All Minor Repairs
Lubrication Road Service Wheel Alignment
Brake Work 1
Tires Balanced Cars Washed
160 Ponce De Leon Ave. N.E.
Atlanta, Ga. 30308
taste
SlKTalon
U*today!
990 drinks
At Lunch...
Join Us In
The Cupboard Lounge!
(11:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.)
Inflation Saver Luncheon Buffet (was $4.50)
Now $3.75
Monday - Friday Served 11:30 A.M. to 2:00 P.M.
Sheraton-North lake Inn
Sheraton Hotels & Motor Inns, A Worldwide Service of ITT
1-285 at LaVista Road, 2180 North Lake Parkway,
Attanta(Tucker), Georgia 30084
404/939-8120 .