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PAGE 7—'The Georgia Bulletin, January 7, 1982
1981: The
Year Remembered
THE POPE FALLS just seconds after being shot and seriously wounded in St. Peter’s Square in May.
THOUSANDS TURNED OUT in Northern Ireland this May for the funeral of IRA hunger
striker, Bobby Sands.
IN MEMORY of his son, Patrick, one of the slain
children of Atlanta, Russell Baltazar Jr. holds a rose
during the funeral Mass at St. Anthony’s Church.
TEARS FOR DEAD - Tears stream down face
of relative of one of 35 Haitians who drowned
when their boat broke up near the Florida shore.
This victim was buried in grave donated by the
Miami Archdiocese.
LAID TO REST in the Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier in Cairo, Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat is
buried after his death by an assassin’s bullet.
Pope John Paul
Tops News Poll
BY JERRY FILTEAU
WASHINGTON (NC) - Pope John Paul II
was hands-down winner in the NC News
Service poll of Catholic editors on top news
stories and personalities for Catholics in
1981.
The attempt on the pope’s life in May and
his long recovery to health ranked as the
year’s number one story for 27 of the 37
editors who answered the survey. On a scale
of one to 10 for the top 10 stories, he
received 343 points out of a possible 370.
Twenty-seven editors also called the
pontiff the top newsmaking personality of
the year from a religious viewpoint. On a
scale of one to five for the top five
newsmakers, he got 168 points out of a
possible 185.
The conflict in Central America, where
the Catholic Church was deeply involved
locally and where the U.S. bishops sharply
opposed the policies of the Reagan
administration, came in a clear second in
voting for the year’s top stories, with a
composite score of 246.
In fairly close order the Catholic editors
ranked the struggle of Solidarity, the
independent labor union, for social reforms
in Poland as number three, the shooting of
U.S. President Ronald Reagan as four, U.S.
federal budget cuts on social spending as
five, the ongoing abortion issue in the
United States as six, Pope John Paul’s
encyclical “On Human Work” as seven,
hunger strikes to the death by 10 Irish
Republican Army prisoners in Northern
Ireland as eight, and the assassination of
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat as nine.
One story of 1981, the growing church
opposition to nuclear weapons, was added as
a write-in vote by several editors, including
two first-place votes, indicating that if it had
been included in the ballot sent to editors, it
would have been among the top 10 stories.
Under personalities in the news, after
Pope John Paul the editors gave second
through fifth place respectively to Reagan,
Polish labor leader Lech Walesa, U.S.
bishops who have spoken out against the
nuclear arms race in the past year, and
Cardinal John Cody of Chicago, who was
involved in a controversy over alleged misuse
of church funds.
Sadat, the only other newsmaker to
receive a substantial number of votes, came
in sixth after Cardinal Cody.
The 1981 balloting marked the fourth
year in a row that Pope John Paul II, elected
pope in 1978, was named the leading news
personality in the annual NC News poll of
Catholic editors.
BROTHERS IN FAITH, Lech
Walesa, beleaguered head of Poland’s
Solidarity trade union, is embraced by
Pope John Paul II during a Vatican
audience earlier this year.
children before a congressional subcommittee in
July.
FATHER GEORGE CLEMENTS with adopted
son, Joey, speaks out for the adoption of minority
THE CIVIL RIGHTS MARCH from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1966 was re-enacted by
an estimated 3,000 people this summer.
A SALVADORAN REFUGEE prays for a
family member who died in a tent camp across the
Honduran border where food and medicine are in
short supply. Hundreds of thousands have left their
native El Salvador to escape civil unrest.
PHOTOS BY N.C. NEWS SERVICE