Newspaper Page Text
Vol. 20 No. 7
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Thursday, February 18,1982
$8.00 Per Year
The Shroud Of Turin:
Science Crosses Faith
BY GRETCHEN REISER
Children’s shrieks can be heard in
the hallways of the Episcopal Church
of the Incarnation in southwest
Atlanta, and some friendly folks
keeping an eye on them direct a
visitor to the rector’s office down a
hall and around another corner.
Through a window, Father Kim
Dreisbach can be seen, talking on the
phone, and waving toward the
direction of the door. It’s not yet 10
a.m., but the rector is well on his
way to another tightly scheduled
day.
It isn’t the normal business of this
small, biracial parish on Cascade
Road that keeps the phone lines
lighted so much or Father Dreisbach
scheduled with early-morning visits
from photographers and reporters.
It is, rather, the unexpected
business unfolding in the library
room behind Father Dreisbach’s
office where, with the blessing and
support of his parish, the rector and
an ecumenical support group are
focusing Atlanta’s attention on an
extraordinary piece of cloth believed
by some to be the burial cloth of
Jesus Christ.
The Atlanta Center for the
Continuing Study of the Shroud of
Turin, Inc. has its temporary home
here, because of the support of
parishioners who have also given
Father Dreisbach a six-month
sabbatical leave to set up the center.
Entering the room, one is
immediately confronted by signs of
intense dedication to the task of
spreading information about and
understanding of the Shroud of
Turin. On shelves a complete library
CALLED TO LENT - 1
is gradually being assembled of works
written about the Shroud. On the
tables are the works of artists’
creativity: conceptions of the face of
the “man of the shroud,” recreations
of the “cap” of thorns that he wore.
In one corner sits perhaps the
most disconcerting image, a life-size
three-dimensional “sculpture” which
some of the 20th century’s most
sophisticated technology has drawn
from the image long hidden in a
burial cloth of fine linen. It is one of
only six in existence.
Seated across the table, Father
Dreisbach enthusiastically admits his
own amazement at what has
unfolded in Atlanta and at the fact
that it is an Episcopal priest, shaped
by intellectual and highly rational
seminary training, and by civil rights
activism in the 1060s, who is at its
heart. If you were to search for the
unlikeliest person “to be lifting up
the Shroud in Atlanta, I would be
he,” Father Dreisbach admits.
The irony of his own deep
involvement, which began with a
highly sceptical reading several years
ago of Thomas Humber’s book “The
Fifth Gospel,” mirrors to some
extent a phenomenon of the Shroud
of Turin which is occurring
throughout the world.
The Shroud, a 14-foot long, ivory
colored linen burial cloth, has been
kept in Turin’s Cathedral for about
the last 300 years and made available
for public display only on occasion.
In addition to the devout, who
flocked to see the Shroud on rare
occasions of public display, the
burial cloth attracted the attention
of serious researchers and
(Continued on page 2)
SHROUD IMAGES - Father Kim Dreisbach stands between two
images generated by the Shroud of Turin: in the foreground a
sculpture by Monsignor Guilio Ricci of Rome pictured in the
English translation of Monsignor Ricci’s book “The Holy Shroud”;
in the background, a three-dimensional “sculpture” from
computations from a VP-8 ihiage analyzer used in the space
program to render three-dimensional representations from
photographs. (Photo by Michael Pugh - UPI)
AFRICAN 7TUP
Huge Crowds
Greet Pope
NC NEWS SERVICE
A healthy Pope John Paul II, back to his barnstorming style of world travels
that was interrupted nine months ago by a would-be assassin’s bullet, warned
millions of Nigerians against materialism and other pitfalls of economic
development as he traveled around the populous African nation on the first leg
of an eight-day, four-country tour.
Arriving in the Nigerian capital of Lagos Feb. 12, he declared that he had
come to “strengthen the faith” of the rapidly growing Catholic community,
which represents about one-fifth of Nigeria’s Christians and seven percent of its
total population of 80 million.
To the country’s non-Christian, chiefly Moslem, majority, the pontiff said
that he wanted to express his love and “esteem for the worthy religious values
that you cherish.”
In a series of appearances around the country - including outdoor Masses
that drew crowds of half a million to a million each day - Pope John Paul
repeatedly posed traditional African cultural values and the Christian message
of the Gospel as the answers to the problems of social dislocation and moral
disruption that Nigeria faces because of urbanization and rapid economic
development. In the past decade Nigeria has become a major oil exporter.
“Economic progress alone, while important, is not enough to free man,” the
pope told intellectuals and university students in Ibadan Feb. 15.
“Development projects must always have a human face. They cannot be
reduced to a purely materialistic or economic endeavor,” he told Nigerian
President Senu Shagri in Lagos shortly after his arrival in Nigeria three days
earlier.
During the first four days of his visit the pope traveled to the cities of Lagos,
Enugu, Onitsha, Kaduna and Ibadan.
He ordained more than 80 new priests, baptized and confirmed one adult
from each of Nigeria’s 31 dioceses, met with the country’s bishops, priests and
seminarians, nuns, Christian families, catechists and representatives of Catholic
lay organizations, political leaders, intellectual leaders, young people, and the
old and sick at a hospital. A scheduled meeting with Moslem religious leaders
was canceled, but he delivered a prepared message to them in which he urged
more cooperation and interfaith sharing with Christians.
Following his custom in meeting with bishops, priests, nuns, seminarians and
lay workers whenever he travels abroad, the pope used the occasions of such
(Continued on page 6)
Lent Has Not Been Abandoned
Called To Lent is a six-part series
written by six different individuals or
groups expressing the expectations of this
season of renewal.
BY FR. FREDERICK
R. FLAHERTY, MS
Pastor St. Matthew’s
Church - Fairburn
Lent is considerably more difficult
today .than it was in years gone by. I
suppose that sounds strange. After
all, we do not have the days of strict
fast and abstinence, nor the acts of
penance and mortification that
formerly characterized this season.
The Church, however, has hardly
abandoned Lent, and Catholics do
retain a deep awareness that these
forty days are quite special.
The burden then of making Lent a
special time has become far more
individual. A personal choice is
necessary. Past structures allowed us
to fit into a ready-made pattern. Oh,
the pattern was demanding, but it
was there to use. We fasted because
the Church required fasting. Daily
attendance at Mass was common. We
abstained from liquor because that
was the thing for Catholics to do.
Young people did not go to the
movies because that was a' very
typical lenten sacrifice. All of this
was fine and good. It was also easier.
We were so easily able to drift with
the lenten current.
Today there is no such current.
Strangely enough, however, there is
an awareness of the sacred character
of Lent that is at least as acute as in
the days of well-regulated lenten
practices. If we respond to this
awareness then our response must be
personal and it will be demanding.
I have mixed feelings about the
approach of Lent. I hate to see it
come. At the same time, its approach
gives me a sense of relief. I know I
need the particular effort, the
renewed practice of self-discipline,
the opportunity to make major or
minor adjustments in the course of
my life, the time to reassert my
values. These are days when I am
better able to rise to the challenge. I
know I can’t, or won’t, do it for the
three-hundred-and- sixty-five days of
the year. I can do it for these forty
days so as to have a beneficial effect
on the rest of the year.
An insistent theme in the eariy
books of the Old Testament,
particularly in Deuteronomy, is
Goals Of The Drive
BY MSGR. NOEL C. BURTENSHAW
Sunday March 7 is Drive Sunday.
As always, the annual Charities Drive throughout the parishes of North
Georgia has a specific goal. That goal for 1982 is $675,000 - the largest
goal in the history of the one-day cash drive.
Each parish also has a specific goal. “What happens,” says Monsignor
Jerry Hardy, chancellor of the archdiocese, “is that a committee of
pastors, religious and lay people sit down in advance and plan the
operation of the drive. They set the overall goal and also the parish goal.
They do a good job each year in making it as equitable as possible for
every parish.”
The goals for this year are listed on page 2. Each pastor and his parish
chairperson will be working to bring this charitable apostolate to the
attention of their people during the month of February.
And on an archdiocesan level, Drive Chairman Jack Price will be
working with Archbishop Donnellan and Monsignor Hardy to coordinate
all the work. By the way, as always alongside every good man is, of
course, his good lady. We apologize for our dreadful goof in calling this
lovely lady Martha last week on our front page. She is, of course, Jack’s
one and only Marcia. The guy who wrote that cutline has “agreed” to an
extra ten dollar donation on Drive Sunday.
God’s plea to His chosen people not
to forget. “Make certain you do not
forget the Lord your God ... Do not
become proud and forget.” It’s not
that we deliberately forget God or
the love and gratitude we should
have toward Him. It’s that we
become so preoccupied with the
burdens of our everyday struggle,
that we do tend to neglect whatever
does not forcefully jar our
sensibilities. The here and now is our
concern. Lent is an antidote to the
materialism and secularism in which
we live and move and have our being.
Probably the basic challenge of our
age is to live a life shaped by faith.
We are blessed in having Lent as a
special period of awareness, of
reflection, of remembering.
We read in the sixth chapter of
Mark’s gosepl about the woman who
had been afflicted with a grievous
illness for a number of years. She
came to meet Jesus and had to push
through a jostling crowd to reach out
her hand in order to experience His
healing power. Life crowds us in in the
same way. There are so many people
and concerns and worries that it’s
difficult to get through for a personal
contact with Christ. The demands of
making a living, raising a family,
facing challenges and problems are
often so great that they allow little
time for explicit prayer or reflective
thought. During Lent we try to push
through these anxieties so that we
may remember and be healed.
Although this is very true,
nevertheless, Lent was never
intended as a time or a season for
self-absorption, even self-absorption
in Christ. Sacred Scripture very
strongly tells us in more than one
passage that our love for God can be
measured by the love we show to our
fellow men. We come to the God-we
cannot see through the people with
whom we live and work. Lent is a
time of exposure. It exposes our
materialism. It exposes our
selfishness.
These are the days to heighten our
sensitivity to the poor, the sick, the
alienated, the oppressed. How easy it
is for us to read the daily paper or
watch the news and not be truly
rhoved or even outraged by the plight
(Continued on page 3)
WHAT PRICE PROGRESS ?- 1
Looking Back At Bedford-Pine
This is the first in a series of three
articles on urban development and its
effects.
BY THEA JARVIS
Riding down Bedford Place from
North Avenue, the average Atlantan
can get an up-front picture of
downtown progress in the making.
The 24-story Georgia Power
headquarters, the spanking new
condominiums, even the
now-familiar Civic Center with its
spacious parking facilities have all
risen from the ashes of what was
once one of Atlanta’s oldest intown
neighborhoods - Bedford-Pine.
Georgia Baptist Hospital still
endures, as do many of the
residents who have lived in
Bedford-Pine over the years. But
the new neighbors that keep them
company grow from the minds of
past and present city planners,
business interests and developers
who have targeted the area for
renewal since the mid-sixties.
Captured forever in the winds of
change that have swept through
Bedford-Pine are personal histories
that reveal the sweep, the scope and
sometimes the suffering involved in
Atlanta’s urban renewal.
Dewey Merritt is a neighborhood
planner and community organizer
for the Urban Training
Organization, an interdenominat
ional effort that facilitates urban
ministry and encourages
neighborhood strength through
local cooperation and organization.
Most recently cited by the
Christian Council of Metropolitan
Atlanta for “building bridges
between the poor and middle
class,” Merritt worked alongside the
Archdiocese of Atlanta this summer
in the city-wide “Help the
Children” project.
In his modest office at the Druid £
Hills Presbyterian Church on Ponce
de Leon Avenue, he faces the world
with quiet optimism and an open,
friendly manner that immediately
puts a visitor at ease.
Merritt was born in Buttermilk
Bottom, now the Civic Center’s
parking lot, but spent 26 of his 45
years in the adjoining Bedford-Pine
community of blue-collar blacks
where crime and violence were
present, “but no more so than in
any other blue-collar
neighborhood,” in Merritt’s view.
The City of Atlanta felt the area
was in need of major tidying,
however, and, in the mid-sixties,
approached the Department of
Housing and Urban Development
with a plan for renewal. Federal
funding was subsequently awarded
for the Bedford-Pine urban renewal
project.
Dewey Merritt remembered how
it all began.
“The city set up an urban
renewal program and went in and
took houses,” he recalled. “They
put fear in people’s hearts.”
Blanket inspections of local
homes were conducted and minor
violations became fodder for the
grist mill of city planners.
“The city went into rundown
areas and sent people in to find
every violation they could,” Merritt
contended. The result was a
devaluation of property either
owned or rented by Merritt’s
friends and neighbors.
“It made the property seem like
it was nothing,” he said with
feeling.
Dewey Merritt’s father owned
two houses on Pine Street, in the
heart of the area the city was
eyeballing for progress and
expansion. One served as the
Merritts’ home; the other was
rented out.
The houses were solidly
constructed, finely crafted, one
with “sliding glass doors and
stained glass windows,” Merritt
recalled with pride.
“We knew the houses were
increasing in value - that’s the
(Continued on page 2)
COMMUNITY ORGANIZER Dewey Merritt feels that much of
the urban renewal he and his family experienced was “like coming
to someone’s house, vacuuming it and sweeping it out and then
letting you sleep in one of the rooms.”
“...put your gifts at the service of one another
55
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