Newspaper Page Text
Vol. 20 No. 6
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Thursday, February 11,1982
$8.00 Per Year
Charities Drive Goal: To Reach More People
BY MSGR. NOEL BURTENSHAW
SETTING GOALS and reviewing the materials for the 1982
Charities Drive, drive chairman Jack Price and his wife, Martha,
center, join Archbishop Donnellan and Monsignor Jerry Hardy,
chancellor, at the kick-off dinner.
The cry from Atlanta’s Chancery Office is “More than fifty percent for
1982.”
“What we mean by this,” says Archdiocesan Comptroller Joseph Estafen, “is
that while the success of the Charities Drive is proving to be stronger each year,
the percentage of those giving is not going up. Our work is clear for this year’s
drive. Let us achieve a greater popular participation.”
At the dinner, hosted by Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan, for parish drive
chairpersons, the mood was most optimistic. The goal for the one-day cash
drive last year was $625,000. Over 680,000 was collected. This year’s goal is
$675,000. “We are confident,” said Monsignor Jerry Hardy, chancellor of the
archdiocese. “The needs are there, the pastors and their staffs are presenting
them and the people are participating.”
This one-day drive has become a tradition in North Georgia. It all began 14
years ago when the needs of the poor, of the mission parishes in North Georgia,
the future priests for our parishes all needed support. The one-day cash
donation became the answer.
Highlight of this year’s dinner was an explanation of some of the many
apostolates that are funded by this annual drive for money. Father Jacob
Bollmer outlined the many areas of Catholic Social Services which benefit from
c the Charities Drive. “Social Services is expanding, we are the biggest
* department in our North Georgia Church,” said Father Bollmer. “People in
2 need are our constant business.”
!£ Father Richard Kieran described his work for Catholic education which he
> defined as an evangelization outreach to all the young and the old and the
s unchurched.
Father Richard Lopez, vocation director, spoke about the need to attract
candidates for priesthood and the religious life. “As we attempt to find new
leadership for the years ahead, we must prepare our applicants now both
spiritually and academically.”
Archbishop Donnellan outlined his feelings of gratitude to those present and
to their fellow parishioners for the success they have achieved. “We are asking
JEAN ST AKER CARTON:
Pro-Life Needs Old Testament Commitment
BY GRETCHEN KEISER
The position of people working in
the pro-life movement - outside the
centers of power and called to stand
committed despite the cost - has its
many parallels in the Old Testament
Book of Esther, according to Jean
Staker Garton.
Dr. Garton, a prominent national
figure in the pro-life movement and
president of Lutherans for Life, was
the keynote speaker for the second
year in a row at the archdiocese’s
Family Night In Support Of Life Jan.
31. Some 500 people heard Dr.
Garton and other speakers at the
Cathedral Hyland Center, which was
dotted by school children’s posters
depicting pro-life themes. Six
winners of poster and essay contests
were also announced. (See adjacent
story.)
Her speech exhorted those
assembled to look at the story of
Esther and to renew the commitment
which enabled Esther to walk into
the king’s chambers on behalf of her
people, even though she risked death
by her action.
At the center of the story are
Esther, who, as the queen, can act to
save the Jewish people, and
Mordecai, who stands outside, but
calls upon her to intercede for the
Jews whom Haman, powerful in the
kingdom, set out to massacre.
Today’s fasting and prayer for the
unborn is patterned after Esther’s
three-day fast in which she sought
the strength to risk her own life by
appearing before the king when he
had not summoned her, Dr. Garton
said.
There are also parallels in that
“the king’s behavior is dependent on
those around him, the voices around
him which are the loudest and the
strongest,” she said. In much the
same way, our government today
reflects the loudest and strongest
voices and adapts itself to whatever is
acceptable. “Government will sink to
our level of tolerance and we have
learned to tolerate a lot,” she said.
While “an individual changed by
Christ demands a changed society,”
we are seeing instead people who
have withdrawn from “the
marketplace” - the center of public
life. “The Gospel -- which is
life-building, life-sustaining,
life-defending - is not being felt in
the land,” she said.
Dr. Garton also turned the
message Mordecai wrote to Esther to
the people who work for the pro-life
cause. When Esther trembled at the
thought of risking her own life,
Mordecai answered that she could
not save herself because the killing of K
Jews, once begun, would reach her [U
eventually, even in the shelter of the ui
king’s house. And, he said, “perhaps *
you have come into the kingdom for
just such a time as this.”
Similarly, Dr. Garton said, “The
destruction of innocent life
eventually will land on your
doorstep. Once violence is legalized,
it becomes addictive.”
And, she said, “perhaps you have
come into the kingdom for just such
a time as this,” when there is a need
for people to stand up in public,
echoing Esther’s commitment, and
be willing to perish in order to
denounce evil and save life.
“Where are the women and men in
the tradition of Esther,” she asked,
“who seeing evil assume a
responsibility for confronting it. . .
in the marketplace, in public?”
Family Night In Support of Life,
sponsored by the archdiocesan
Pro-Life Office, is the keynote event
marking each January the
(Continued on page 6)
those who have to share,” said the Archbishop. “That is always a Christian
ministry.”
Chairman for this year’s drive is John P. Price. Mr. Price is a member of
Corpus Christi parish in Stone Mountain. He is a graduate of Georgia Tech and
the Harvard Business School. He is associated with the C & S Bank and is a
member of the Archdiocesan Finance Council. He and his wife, Martha, live in
Stone Mountain and have four daughters.
“Put Your Gifts at the Service of One Another.”
The motto for this year’s Charities Drive is taken from the first Letter of St.
Peter, “ .. . put your gifts at-the service of one another . . .”
“It is fitting,” said Archbishop Donnellan, “that we remember that quote
since this year’s drive tells us to be compassionate. The compassion means ‘to
suffer with’. As we share with the less fortunate, by serving others, we are
relating to their suffering.”
The well-made plans, along with the enthusiastic opening spirit, assure
another successful Charities Drive.
Priorities Study
In Second Phase
BY MSGR.
NOEL C. BURTENSHAW
It is slow. But, it is sure. And it is
evolving.
Monsignor Jerry Hardy,
chancellor of the archdiocese, set
out the plan to capture the
priorities for the Church in North
Georgia last December. He gave
those involved a timetable.
Watchfully, he now guides the plan.
“The priests and sisters v/ere
invited to respond first,” says the
Chancellor. “We were amazed and
delighted with the numerical
response. Ninety-five percent
returned a priority statement. Their
clear, precise priority decisions also
point a direction.”
The direction is towards the
needs of the poor and the elderly.
The clerics and religious mentioned
food and shelter needs, emergency
needs, inner city and rural poor.
They also mentioned group care
homes for the elderly, in lieu of a
nursing facility. These were “top of
the list” priorities for the sisters
and priests.
Now the second step is being
taken. “The returns we received
have been sent to parishes,” says
Monsignor Hardy. “Parish Councils
and staffs will consider these
results. Between Feb. 1 and Feb.
22, this second phase will be under
study. Each pastor is being asked to
get the considerations going and
return the recommendations to us.”
The next step in this process is
the deanery stage. “What we get
from the parishes will be sent to the
deans,” says Monsignor Hardy. “In
turn we hope that a viable Pastoral
Council will develop from these
deliberations. We are on target.
Most of all we are happy with the
enthusiasm.”
By Easter, it is hoped, this
gigantic deliberation by the Church
of Atlanta will be completed and
the decisions known. Those
decisions from the clergy, religious
and people of the Archdiocese will
be presented to Archbishop
Donnellan.
Winning Essay, Poster
Reflect Sisters’ Love
BY GRETCHEN KEISER
Two daughters in the Sullivan family won first prizes at Family Night In
Support Of Life, but the spotlight was as much upon another daughter whose
life changed their family in the last three years.
In the annual poster and essay contests held each year, students are invited
to write or draw on a pro-life theme. The writing and art contests are judged
separately by different people.
This year the first-place poster prize was awarded to 10-year-old Christy
Sullivan of Immaculate Heart of Mary School. Meanwhile, judges in the essay
contest gave the first place to 13-year-old Angela Sullivan, also an IHM student.
(Continued on page 2)
HER ONLY CLOISTER
Sidestreets Of Misery
has shown her honor. She is as
famous as the Polish Pope.
But it was not always so for the
“little Mother” of Calcutta. When
first she went to the teeming masses
of Calcutta’s poor, she went alone.
And she worked alone. Alone she
dressed the wounds of the lepers
and buried the abandoned dead.
And all on her own she begged food
and shelter for the most helpless
and the most unwanted.
There is one in Atlanta who
remembers those early days and the
sight of the non-famous Teresa
making her first efforts in Calcutta.
“Mother Teresa used to come to
my mother’s shop,” says Gloria
Walker, who now lives with her
husband and children in Holy Spirit
parish. “My mother, Mrs. Metra,
had a furniture and antique shop in
Calcutta and she would come to
beg. That was about 1949 and a
few women had joined her in her
apostolate- not many-but together
Mother Teresa and her helpers were
beginning to get notice in India.”
It was really the Indian
authorities who first gave her
recognition. “At first,” says Gloria,
“they wanted to put her out of
business. They wanted her to stop
helping the unfortunate. They
could not believe that she and the
other sisters would really spend
their lives helping lepers and
rescuing unwanted babies. What
they really thought was she was
trying to win converts and
undermine the Hindu faith.”
When it became apparent that
Teresa was merely interested in
service and devoted ministry to the
street poor, the authorities became
her helper. Proudly they now point
to her work.
Gloria Walker remembers seeing
her for the first time. “You never
forget her face. It is always radiant.
It was then in 1949. She needed
furniture for her convent and
hostel. My mother gave her some,
including the table she used for her
first altar and the tabernacle, a
wooden safe that she used to keep
the Blessed Sacrament.”
Gloria Walker spent some time as
a member of the Loretto Sisters in
(Continued on page 3)
MOTHER TERESA, the great apostle of the
poor, speaks with Mrs. Gloria Walker, (center), a
parishioner of Holy Spirit Church in Atlanta,
and her mother, Mrs. Metra. Mrs. Walker
returned to India recently and visited with
Mother Teresa. “There is just not enough room
in her house,” says Mrs. Walker, “for all the
vocations flocking to her side.”
BY MSGR. NOEL BURTENSHAW
She never looked back. Not
once. Teresa went down the
familiar steps, leaving the lavish
halls of the beautiful Loretto
behind her and stepped into the
grime of the Calcutta ghettos.
Forevermore these side streets of
indescribable misery would be her
only cloister.
“Come back to us at anytime,”
said the Sister of Loretto in that
well known mansion in the heart of
Calcutta. “We need you here. Your
work is here with us.”
“So often,” says Mother Teresa,
displaying that famous smile, “I
was tempted to race back to my
Loretto convent and the
companionship of the sisters and
the warmth of their home. I never
knew how hard it would be. But
God had called me.”
In the whole world she is now
known for her ministry to the poor.
The stories are legion. She has more
helpers than she can use. Novices
flock to her side to share her ideals.
Every sovereign state in the world