Newspaper Page Text
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 19 No. 31
Thursday, September 10,1981
$8.00 per year
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MARRIAGE ENCOUNTER TRIO. Preparing School September 25, 26,27 are Executive Couple
for the upcoming Southeast Convention of World Ron and Jacki Rychlicki along with Executive
Wide Marriage Encounter to be held in Marist Priest, Father Henry Gracz.
Ladies, Have We Got
A Weekend For You
Marriage Encounter Makes
“Good Marriages Better”
BYTHEA JARVIS
The scene is as bittersweet as a
September song.
The weekend looms lazily ahead in
a mellow, early autumn haze. The
hours will be endless - to read in, to
dream in, to savor, to enjoy. So thinks
Mom.
The walls begin caving in on
Wednesday afternoon around 3:30.
Shinola wants to have her best friend
(this week) Alberta sleep over Friday
night. Fenwick decides Saturday
would be a good day for a garage sale
to raise money for a new hamster.
(The old one is still lost in the living
room sofa.)
Igor announces his soccer coach
scheduled a Saturday practice game at
4 p.m. -- crosstown. Dad has three
(count ‘em) tickets to the Falcons
game. And little Elouise is begging to
set her alarm for 5:30 Saturday
morning so she can watch the “Wake
Up With Willy Cartoon
Extravaganza.” (chorus of sighs)
If weekends at your house promise
the moon and deliver a bologna
sandwich, you have much in common
with the rest of the ladies of the
Atlanta Archdiocese, who are,
planning a getaway guaranteed to cure
September melancholia.
To be sure, the Atlanta
Archdiocesan Council of Catholic
Women (AACCW) doesn’t promise
the moon, but they don’t deliver
bologna sandwiches, either.
What they do deliver is a Friday
through Saturday program designed
just for you - the contemporary
woman in the Church - combining
practical workshops, fellowship, and
spiritual stimulation.
This year’s AACCW convention,
“Respond to the Call,” begins
September 25 with registration at the
Northwest Atlanta Hilton Inn.
Friday’s evening events include an
open business meeting and social
hour, with music, refreshments and
frivolity.
Cheatham Hodges
On Saturday morning after hot
coffee and danish, the workshops
begin. Members are invited to select
those workshops that are of particular
interest and attend as many as
possible.
“What Women Could Be
Responding to in the Church and
Diocese Today” will be presented by
the Church Affairs Commission. The
Family Affairs Commission will
consider “Responding to the Needs of
the Changing Family,”' and the
Community Affairs Commission will
have as its workshop “The Rainbow in
My Life - Growing Old Gracefully.”
El Salvador will be the topic of the
International Affairs Commission
workshop and Representative Joe
Burton and Cheatham Hodges will be
the featured speakers at the
Legislative Commission’s workshop.
The Organization Services
Commission will present “Ways and
Means: Involvement in Parish and
Community” with Father William
Calhoun and Mrs. Karin Haag of St.
Joseph’s Church in Athens.
Saturday’s activities continue with
a luncheon and business meeting
followed by a panel discussion
featuring guests from the National
Council of Catholic Women and the
Atlanta province. There will also be a
display of archdiocesan organizations,
through which members may become
familiar with church happenings
throughout north Georgia.
Representatives will be available to
explain the organizations and provide
information on their goals and
outreach.
Informal deanery meetings will
precede the AACCW convention Mass,
celebrated by Archbishop Thomas
Donnellan at 6 p.m.
The closing activities Saturday
evening climax the weekend events.
The traditional banquet will this year
feature a major dramatic event - a
“walk through” 25 years of the
Archdiocese of Atlanta - that doesn’t
guarantee a Broadway run but does
promise the usual AACCW hilarity.
Archbishop Donnellan will address
the convention after the dinner and
reflect on the silver jubilee celebrated
by the archdiocese this year.
For the wonderful women of the
archdiocese looking for a little time to
themselves, the AACCW annual
convention is a delightful way to
spend an autumn weekend - and still
make that Falcon game on Sunday
with you know who.
BY BUD AND CLAIRE LAMOY
Many experts say traditional
marriage is dead in America.
“Not so,” chorus hundreds of
thousands of other experts ... co
uples who have encountered
“Marriage Encounter.” “We agree,”
say Roly and Diane Gaasch, former
Executive Couple for the Atlanta
Community and former Unit
Coordinators for Georgia, Florida and
Alabama of The W’orld Wide Marriage
Encounter movement that is rapidly
growing throughout the world. They
say that marriage is alive and well and
living in their homes.
On September 25, 26 and 27,
between 500 and 600 of these happily
married couples from Georgia,
Florida, South Carolina and Alabama
will be coming to Atlanta for their
southeast convention at Marist High
School, to celebrate their good
marriages along with others who share
their beliefs in marriage and family
life.
Those attending from out of town
will be houseguests of other
encountered couples in the Atlanta
community.
Two years ago, the National
Leadership Conference was held in
Atlanta and over 750 couples and
priests were housed by the Atlanta
community.
All of the couples who will be
attending this convention are M.E.
veterans, having already participated
in a Marriage Encounter weekend at
some time during the past few years.
Priests and other religious who have
made the weekend will also be here.
This year’s convention will be a
“mini” of the National Convention
As Names
BY GRETCHEN REISER
The two new parishes of the
archdiocese will be named for a
woman doctor of the church, St.
Catherine of Siena, and the apostle,
St. Andrew.
St. Catherine, who with St. Francis
of Assisi is one of the chief patron
saints of Italy, was the name chosen
by the Kennesaw parish beginning in
west Cobb County. The new North
Fulton county parish in Atlanta chose
the name of St. Andrew, brother of
Simon Peter. The parishes, in areas
with growing Catholic populations,
were created on May 4 and among the
first of decisions considered church
names.
St. Catherine and St. Andrew were
selected by parish ballots from lists of
several names submitted by the
pastors of the respective parishes. The
selection is then submitted to the
archbishop for approval.
Father Leo Herbert, Kennesaw
pastor, said St. Catherine was chosen
recently held on the campus of
Rutgers University in New Jersey. As
with the National Convention, this
year’s theme will be, “WITH ALL
YOUR HEART.”
Opening the convention with a
warm welcome will be Ron and Jacki
Rychlicki and Father Henry Gracz,
executive team and priest of the
Atlanta District, followed by an
address by A1 and Barbara Regnier and
Father Des Colleran, U.S. executive
team and priest. Concelebrating
Sunday’s Mass will be Archbishop
Donnellan of Atlanta and Bishop
Unterkoefier of South Carolina.
When Roly Gaasch was asked,
“What is Marriage Encounter?” he
replied, “A format geared to
individual marriage relationship and
family togetherness.”
“It’s a chance for a couple with a
good marriage to spend a weekend
together by themselves, away from
the children, jobs and other everyday
distractions and focus in on one
another,” replied his wife Diane. “A
stroll down memory lane again,” says
Roly. “It re-ignited our romance and
helped me to be more sensitive to my
wife.” “It’s like a retreat, to refresh
our marriage,” said Diane.
Roly and Diane made their
weekend in September, 1975 and are
now a weekend presenting team
couple. Their next presenting
weekend will be with Father Ken
Bayer of St. Lawrence Parish in
Lawrenceville and they are- looking
forward to their anniversary weekend
in September.
At a Marriage Encounter weekend,
team couples and a priest help couples
learn a new type of communication
from among five names he submitted
to the parish, which was created in
response to growth in Transfiguration
parish and new development in that
area.
In a life of 33 years, St. Catherine
dedicated herself, at an early age, to
Christ and became a member of the
Third Order of St. Dominic. A mystic
of intense spirituality, St. Catherine
attracted a family of followers in
fourteenth-century Italy and was a
figure at the center of political battles,
among them, seeking an end to
conflict between Florence and her
Italian allies and the papacy.
With St. Teresa of Avila, St.
Catherine is one of two women
proclaimed to be among the doctors
of the church, a proclamation of the
pope which recognizes the
contribution certain ecclesiastical
writers have made to the Church, not
solely by their learning, but by the
sanctity of their lives which
illuminated faith. St. Catherine’s
writings include her letters, which
skill, and encourage them to focus on
feelings by suggesting questions they
can answer for one another: “What do
I like best about you?” “What have we
done together, as a couple and a
family, that I love?” This openness in
specific areas quickly leads to
openness in many other areas. The
communication technique has been
called one of “loving communication
the couple can use for the rest of their
lives.”
The weekend offers the couple an
opportunity to look deeply into
their relationship with one another
and with God. It is a time to share
feelings ... their hopes, fears, joys
and frustrations.
“Marriage Encounter makes us
excited about our marriage,”
explained Diane. “It is a whole new
way of life. We can really talk to each
other and listen to each other too.”
“But,” stressed Roly, “the
weekend is only for good marriages, to
make them better marriages. If a
marriage is in trouble, a weekend
would not be advisable. A marriage
counselor might be more in order.”
Marriage Encounter is not a
sensitivity session or group therapy. It
is very very individual.
Although the average couple on a
weekend is in their thirties or forties,
participants range from newlyweds to
couples who have been married for
over forty years.
“We all need seminars and
workshops for our jobs and athletes
spend endless hours practicing to
become better in their fields and we
make retreats to improve our spiritual
growth, but really, how much time do
(Continued on page 2)
have been gathered in collection, and
the Dialogue.
Knowledge of St. Andrew’s life
comes from Gospel references and
later tradition which holds that he was
martyred in the first century, said
Father Peter Ludden, pastor of the
new Atlanta parish. A fisherman, like
his brother, St. Andrew is mentioned
in the Gospels among the group of
four apostles closest to Jesus.
Father Ludden said he suggested
St. Andrew as one of three names to
the parish because of his prominence
and familiarity to people as one of the
apostles. The feast day on Nov. 30
occurs at a time of year when a parish
celebration can be held, also, he said.
The new church of St. Andrew is
approaching 100 families and has
leased a suite at North Ridge Business
Park where Masses are held at 5:30
p.m. on Saturdays and 8:30 and 11
a.m. on Sundays. When the parish
began, it used a Lutheran church on
Roswell Road, but has been in its new
quarters since Aug. 16.
Ss. Andrew, Catherine Chosen
For New Parishes
Monastic Celebrations
BY GRETCHEN REISER
The jubilees of seven members of
the community at the Monastery of
the Holy Spirit in Conyers were
celebrated Aug. 29 with a Mass of
thanksgiving and a dinner afterward
in the retreat house.
The celebration remembered
differing anniversaries which
occurred for the seven in 1981 -
from the 50th anniversary of solemn
profession of vows for Father
Lawrence Swartz to the 25 th
anniversary of priesthood for Father
Matthew Torpey.
Father Lawrence, who entered
the Trappist Abbey of Our Lady of
Gethsemani in Kentucky in 1926,
made his solemn profession of vows
in 1931. He came to the Conyers
monastery in August, 1945 and has,
over the last 25 years, been one of
the tour guides, overseen work in the
monastery’s orchards and served as
novice master for several years.
Father Francis Xavier Kavanagh,
who entered the Gethsemani Abbey
in 1931, celebrated the 50th
anniversary of that entrance this
year. Father Francis came to
Conyers with the original group of
monks who founded the Monastery
of the Holy Spirit in 1944. He has
been guestmaster at the Monastery
for many years and, through his
work guiding schoolchildren around
the grounds, has gathered thousands
of friends who correspond after their
visits.
■ Father Matthew Torpey, a native
of New Jersey, celebrated the 25th
anniversary of his ordination to the
priesthood this year. In 11 years
with the Conyers community he has
served at different times as prior and
novice master and been a spiritual
counselor. Father Matthew, who
originally entered the Gethsemani
Abbey, said that after 25 years he
would describe the priesthood as “a
mystery that the community wraps
around you” and in which the priest
lives. “For that gift I am unutterably
grateful,” he said.
Brother Alphonse Insalaco had a
double celebration Aug. 29 - the
25th anniversary of his solemn vows
of 1956 and his birthday. A native of
Niagara Falls, N.Y., who grew up in
Miami, Brother Alphonse served in
the Air Corps in World War II. He
made his solemn vows March 19,
1956.
Also celebrating the 25th
anniversaries of their solemn vows
were Brother Pius Laflin and Father
Thomas Fidelis Smith. Brother Bill
Reams, a native of Rocky Mount,
N. C., celebrated the 25th
anniversary of his entrance into the
monastery this year.
Brother Pius, the monastery’s
gatekeeper, entered the Conyers
monastery after a long career on Wall
Street. Father Tom Fidelis, a native
of Baltimore, has been among those
in the monastery working with those
on retreat.
Families and friends of the
jubilarians joined members of the
community for the day of
celebration and savored the remarks
of those who were coaxed
temporarily into the limelight. Said
Father Francis: “Fifty years seems
very short. I hope I’ll get another 50
at
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JUBILARIANS, who celebrated 25th and
50th anniversaries at the Monastery of the Holy
Spirit in Conyers Aug. 29, gather in the garden.
From left, Father Thomas Fidelis Smith, Brother
Alphonse Insalaco, Father Francis Xavier
Kavanagh, Father Matthew Torpey, Brother Pius
Laflin and Brother Bill Reams. Not pictured is
Father Lawrence Swartz.