Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4
The Georgia Bulletin
December 10,1981
Reaching Out
Last week, the archdiocese was
favored with a visit from Trinitarian
Father Thomas Coughlin, the first deaf
priest to be ordained in the United
States.
This dynamic missionary travels
throughout the United States and
abroad, ministering to deaf Catholics
and providing them with a unique
opportunity to experience their faith in
a way that is not usually available to
them.
Father Coughlin is a pioneer.
Outreach to and evangelization of
deaf Catholics has been long in coming.
In our own archdiocese, which covers
half of the state of Georgia, there is
but one parish sponsoring a viable
ministry to the hearing-handicapped -
Corpus Christi Church in Stone
Mountain.
During his recent visit to Corpus
Christi, Father Coughlin conveyed his
concern for deaf Catholics who have
had to seek community outside their
own Catholic churches. While
non-Catholics have extended open
arms to the deaf and welcomed them
into their ranks, we Catholics have
neglected to share with our brothers
and sisters who “hear” the Word of
God just a little bit differently.
We commend the Corpus Christi
community for their continuing efforts
to provide a legitimate place for the
deaf within the Catholic experience.
We are grateful to those who were
instrumental in bringing Father
Coughlin to minister to deaf Catholics
here in north Georgia.
And we look forward, not only to a
return visit from Father Coughlin, but
to an increasing interest in and concern
for the hearing-handicapped in our
Catholic community.
-TKJ
Children at last year’s Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Feast Of Our Lady Of Guadalupe
BY SISTER TERESA AHERN
For the Mexican people, the liturgical year
begins with December 12, the feast of the
Patroness of Mexico and of the Americas, Our
Lady of Guadalupe. This year marks the
450th anniversary of the apparitions of our
Lady to Juan Diego, a simple Indian peasant.
There is a miracle here. The miracle is that
Guadalupe is alive in the hearts of the people
after so many years, and after so many
attempts by the forces of secular societies to
drive this and other devotions from the
people!
Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared when
Christianity was just beginning in the “new
world.” Evangelization had been slow until
that time. As interpreted by missionaries ever
since, Mary ushered in the era of the new
creation when she gave birth to Jesus and, so
too, in this great event, she ushered in the new
age of Christ, in a new continent, among a new
people.
Many of the facts surrounding the
apparitions are extraordinary. Our Lady
appeared on the site of the virgin mother
goddess of the Indians. She appeared as a
young mestiza who was greater than the gods
of the Indians. She was greater than the “sun
god” for she came clothed with the sun. She
was greater than the “moon god” for she had
the moon at her feet. Yet she herself was not
god, for she came with her head bowed in a
position of humility. Greater than their gods,
yet she was not god. She wore a maternity
band ~ a little black band that indicated
motherhood. This little maiden, mother,
mestiza, was a beautiful combination of what
was and what was to come. Evangelization
began with her coming.
Guadalupe is not only a great feast of our
Lady, it is also the beginning of the Advent
season. With this feastday the Mexican people
officially begin their preparation for the
celebration of Christmas. The words of our
Lady to Juan Diego form a powerful basis for
catechesis today:
“I am the mother of the living God who
comes to protect you, who comes to guide
you, who will defend you against the
powerful.”
The celebration of the feast in honor of our
Lady leads quite naturally into the Advent
preparations. For as all lovers of our Lady
know, Advent is in a particular way a time of
Mary. The nine nights of the Christmas
novena are lived in union with Mary and
Joseph as they wander in search of
hospitality. Old and young alike relive the
wanderings of the holy couple as they knock
on doors seeking shelter. The “Posadas,” as
they are called, are a wonderful combination
of liturgy and play, prayer and games. The
tradition is that people representing Mary and
Joseph are denied entrance into three or four
houses. All of this is done with songs of
popular origins. On the fourth or fifth try,
they are allowed to enter a home, and a party
ensues.
What a wonderful environment to provide
for the faith life of a family, or of a
community of families. What a joyful way to
prepare for the celebration of the joy of God
who so loved the world that He sent His son.
(USPS) S 74 »S0)
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Most Rev. Thomas A. Donnellan - Publisher
Rev. Monsignor Noel C. Burtenshaw — Kditor
Gretchen R. Reiser - Associate Editor
Thea K. Jarvis - Contributing Editor
Member of the Catholic Press Association
Business Office U.S.A.$8.00
680 West Peachtree, N. W. Telephone 881 -9732 Canada $8.SO
Atlanta, Georgia 30308 Foreign $10.00
DEADLINE: All material for publication must be received by MONDAY
NOON for Thursday’s paper.
Postmaster: Send POD Form 3579 to THE GEORGIA BULLETIN
601 East Sixth Street, Waynesboro, Georgia 30830
Sood all editorial correspondence to: THE GEORGIA BULLETIN
680 West Peachtree Street N.W.
Atlanta, Georgia 30308
Second Class Postage Paid at Waynesboro, Ga. 30830
Published Weekly except the second and last weeks
' ' in June, July and August and the last week In December
at 601 Cast Sixth St.. Waynesboro. Ga. 30830
Supporting
Our Ecumenical Marriages
Dolores Curran
One-third of the marriages that take place
in our church today are ecumenical. If we add
those that take place outside, we can estimate
that nearly half of our younger couples are
living in two-faith marriages and a recent
study shows such marriages on the increase.
Yet, when, three years ago, I did a search of
our over 18,000 parishes, I found not one that
was doing anything to support the interfaith
marriage after the wedding. This has changed,
but not much.
Last spring I was invited to reflect upon a
study of U.S. couples living in
Episcopal-Roman Catholic marriages. (Copies
of this ecumenical effort can be obtained for
$2.50 by writing Rev. Royale M. Vadakin,
4112 W. Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, CA
90018.) A significant revelation in this survey
punctuates what family life practitioners have
already discovered among ecumenical
couples: i.e., that many have found the most
effective way of building a faith life together
and developing a family relationship with God
is to ignore the theologies and church laws
which underpin their two faiths.
What does this tell us? That the couple
themselves have lost confidence in their
church to help them bear the scars of
denominational separation? That they are
sacrificing denominational dogma which
divides for traditions and rituals that unite? In
some ways, I found that couples are maturing
more rapidly than the official churches in this
area of ecumenical marriages.
Although, as the survey points out, there is
residue of anger among many over the way
they were treated in the past, particularly at
the time of their marriage, many have worked
their way through this and are able to forgive.
However, couples who are striving heroically
to focus on what unites them in faith
frequently feel that the church continues to
focus on what divides them so that they are
working at cross purposes. Vestiges of this
appear in the responses on the longing to
receive communion together and to worhip
together in one another’s church. Why should
this be a negative when it could be a spiritual
strength?
The most significant finding was the depth
of religious identity springing from early
childhood and continuing into adult life. If
doctrine is not that important, why do adults
continue to value a faith which is not shared
by those they love most? To quote a brief
section, “Often their judgments did not even
reflect accurately the theological positions of
their church. They spoke rather out of their
deep feeling about faith and religion, out of an
image of themselves which had been
developing since early childhood.”
If anything speaks to the foundation of a
strong family faith dimension resulting in a
personal religious identity, this does.
Likewise, it speaks to the poignancy of the
situation: how do couples pass this legacy on
to their children? They are searching for ways.
They themselves evidence the pain of the
larger churches’ separation. They know deep
inside their coupleness, that while they are
able to share all other intimacies, they are
denied the right to a spiritual intimacy which
should be the foundation of their union.
In October, the Vatican came out with new
hope for ecumenical marriages, by eliminating
some of the restrictive language and calling for
a welcoming spirit rather than a punitive one.
I hope we pick up on this in our churches and
enrich these marriages in every way possible.
They just might be God’s way of leading us
to union.
3rd Sunday in Advent (B)
December 13,1981
THE W ORD Isaiah 61: 1-2, 10-11
THIS n EEKEND 16-24
Paul Karnowski
“TIRED OF THE RAT RACE? So are we.
We are an expansive international
conglomerate with branch offices in every
country of the world. We are currently in need
of an executive messiah. The ideal candidate
will be loving, charismatic, and slow to anger.
Must be willing to work long and irregular
hours and must have an ability to speak in
public.
“The candidate will be in charge of all
salvific operations. Primary job
responsibilities include: 1) ‘bringing glad
tidings to the lowly’; 2) ‘healing the
brokenhearted’; 3) ‘proclaiming liberty to
captives.’ Once the candidate is hired the
company disavows any responsibility for the
actions and words of said messiah, especially
if those words and actions become unpopular.
Previous experience helpful. Interested
parties should forward their resumes to:
Messiah Search Director, P.O. Box 000, Earth,
Solar System.”
The world is always in search of a savior,
whether it be the gifted politician who will
eliminate economic woes or the retired
general who engineers a revolt against a hated
tyrant. Individuals, too, look for personal
messiahs. Some search for a spouse who will
save them from themselves; others seek out a
spiritual director who will send them flying
down the path of righteousness.
The Pharisees in today’s gospel are on the
lookout for a messiah, as they question John
the Baptist. “I am not the messiah,” John
says, “I am a voice in the desert crying out:
make straight the way of the Lord.” John
informs the Pharisees that another is to come
after him. We know that he speaks of Jesus,
the Messiah.
We know it, but we don’t act as if it’s true.
We sometimes impart the status of messiah to
anyone who has more answers than we do. Or
worse, we assume the role of savior ourselves.
Not content to follow the example of John
the Baptist and point to the real messiah, we
initiate personal crusades to rid the world of
evil, preaching the gospel of me.
There is only one person who can answer
the ad at the beginning of this article. It is our
job to let the world know that the position has
been filled. It has been, now, for some time.
Flight And Refuge
Father David K. O'Rourke, OP
NC NEWS SERVICE
No one who has walked the country paths
or the city streets of the Holy Land can fail to
see the signs of flight from danger and from
the world, and the signs of the quest for refuge
built into the very stones of this land for
thousands of years.
Not long ago, I walked a part of the old
road from Jerusalem down to Jericho, below
sea level in the hot, steamy Jordan Valley. The
road quickly leaves the green of Jerusalem’s
hills and becomes no more than a ridge trail
winding across the brown, rocky crests that
slope eastward to the Great Rift Valley and to
the Dead Sea.
Today it is used almost exclusively by
poor, Arab shepherds bringing their flocks to
find the few uneaten and unparched patches
of grass on the dry and desert slopes.
We walked along the curving rim of a deep
and forbidding canyon, the hills around us
lost in the haze of the desert’s heat. Then, all
of a sudden, across the canyon, seemingly
affixed to the walls in the manner of the
cliff-dwellers’ pueblos found in the United
States, was an ancient monastery.
The cluster of whitewashed cells, the
church with its blue domes and glistening gold
crosses all set off by a few precious-looking
green trees looked so inviting, a peaceful
refuge in the midst of the harsh red-rock
canyon.
This land is dotted with signs of flight and
places of refugee. Earlier I had climbed the
Roman ramp to King Herod’s incredible
refuge atop the cliffs of Masada, then gone to
the Essene monastery of Qumran, whose
library produced the Dead Sea Scrolls. The
monastery was built by religious zealots fleeing
the world. The signs of flight and refuge are
still very much in this land.
In Jericho itself, immediately adjacent to
the ruins of the ancient city, stands the most
recent monument to human desperation.
There is an abandoned refugee city built in
1948 to house Palestinian Arabs displaced by
the war, a city of 70,000. In 1967 they all fled
once again before the advancing Israeli army.
Today, crows fly in and out the windows of
the ghostly silent, mud-brick houses.
The point I make is that Jesus lived
through the same political turmoil that
created the fortresses that dot this land, and
he was exposed to the same personal and
spiritual dangers that brought the
monasteries. He could have fled those dangers
just as his parents fled the paranoia of King
Herod, and he could have sought refuge, just
as John the Baptist sought the refuge of the
desert.
That was not unthinkable for a religious
Jew; it was being done and there were places
to go to. Even in the cities of the Holy Land
itself he could have fled to the emotional and
religious refuge of the religious sects who set
themselves apart from the rest of humankind.
Jesus did none of these things. He accepted
the ordinary lot of the ordinary human being.
He was born in the ordinary conditions of the
Palestinian household. He was educated in the
way all boys and young men were educated in
Palestine and in the empire.
He lived the ordinary life of the ordinary
people. Even his death was ordinary, another
criminal led out to crucifixion like thousands
before in his own lifetime, and thousands
after him a few years later.
What is so extraordinary is not what his life
was like or how it was lived. That was very
To the Editor:
So you, in concert with Mr. Yzermans of
Minneapolis, are predicting a “Catholic
Revolution.” It may be broader and deeper
than you have any conception. Just as none of
ps would go to Ronald Reagan or Alexander
Haig for confession, so we are not interested
in going to Thomas Donnellan or Noel
Burtenshaw for national defense.
The notion that we must strip our nation’s
defenses in the name of morality and expose
ourselves to Soviet slavery is as immoral as
ordaining prostitutes and homosexuals for the
priesthood.
We are commanded to “contribute to the
support of our pastors.” This presupposes our
“pastors” will work for the welfare of their
flocks instead of becoming judas goats leading
us to the slaughter. We all believe in peace but
not in the peace of Communist slavery,
enjoyed by Poland.
Christ said, “Render unto Caesar the things
that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that
are God’s.” Please accept that mandate and
cease trying to destroy our nation. Get back
Correction
WASHINGTON (NC) - The National
Catholic News Service incorrectly reported
in October (Georgia Bulletin, Oct. 22) that
a group of 17 bishops who are members of
Pax Christi, the Catholic peace group, had
called for careful exploration of the
“possibility of advocating unilateral
disarmament.”
The bishops actually called for careful
exploration of the , “possibility of
advocating unilateral initiatives” as a way
of breaking the deadlock caused by
demands for mutual disarmament.
ordinary.
What is extraordinary is who he was. God
took on human flesh and became human for
our sakes. In his goodness and love for us God
became one of us and, like us, became quite
ordinary.
I suspect that this is what we all see in the
coming celebration of Christmas that proves
so hopeful. We do not have to become
something we are not and cannot be to relate
to Gpd, for God has become one of us.
to building spiritual values you have so long
neglected.
J.F. O’Mahoney, Jr.
Stone Mountain
To the Editor:
Many thanks for your insightful article,
which appeared in the November 19 edition
of The Georgia Bulletin.
The problems that our homeless and,
runaway children face on the street are not
going to go away on their own. Thanks for
helping to spread that message to the people
of Georgia.
Please remember my kids, my staff, and
myself in your prayers. You and the staff of
The Georgia Bulletin are remembered in ours,
every day.
Father Bruce Ritter
President
Covenant House
New York
LJ
“Boy, I hope you’re
in a forgiving mood!”
Resound ... Resound