Newspaper Page Text
These Mothers Form Dynamic Network
BY THEA JARVIS
On an overcast April Tuesday, a
small group of women drifts into the
library just off Our Lady of the
Assumption’s school cafeteria.
Some tote baby bottles or cling to
energetic pre-schoolers. Others just
bring themselves. Every now and
then, a lively toddler breaks away
and makes a beeline for the cafeteria
stage - with momma at his heels.
Once the children are successfully
settled in an adjacent nursery - all
but a gurgling five-month-old content
to watch the proceedings from her
mother’s lap - the women begin their
meeting of Mothers in Christian
Community.
Gathered around an oversized
conference table, the women’s
scripture and shared prayer flow
easily, as among old friends. Prayers
are offered for sick children,
troubled marriages, in thanksgiving
for a baby’s birth.
The topic under consideration
today is “The Gifts of Women.”
Those present are asked to think
about a gift they are grateful for and
a gift they would like to have.
Next, a delightfully probing
filmstrip focuses on four women
who, though following different life
paths, are able to use their talents
effectively, making the world a
richer, fuller place. The discussion
that follows considers these women
and allows those gathered to share a
gift with which they have been
blessed - love for children, listening,
enthusiasm, insight, concern for
others.
What emerges throughout the
session is a panoply of female
individuality which, because it is
pooled together on'a regular basis,
provides a dynamic network of
support and community.
Mothers in Christian Community
has been meeting weekly at this
northside Atlanta parish for only a
year and a half. During the summer,
meetings are held once a month. But
in that time frame, a real camaraderie
has developed, fostering friendship
and family-feeling among the women
who attend.
The group was begun by OLA’s
director of religious education, Anita
Willoughby, who conducted a survey
of nursery parents almost two years
ago to determine the interests of
young parish families. The responses
indicated the appropriateness of a
mothers’ group.
“There are four women’s groups
that meet in the parish,” said Mrs.
Willoughby. “This is the only ont
with a nursery available.”
During the first few months of the
group’s existence, discussion, led by
Mrs. Willoughby, focused on
parent/child communication. Later,
other topics were developed,
including women in the scriptures
and John Powell’s “Fully Alive,” as
well as parental concerns. Discussion
leadership became a shared
responsibility as participants became
more comfortable with one another.
‘‘We consider value systems,
spirituality, practical day to day
living,” said Patty Anderson, a group
leader and founder who is the
mother of two young children.
Anywhere from a minimum of
four to a maximum of 20 women
attend the gatherings, which are held
weekly to allow for normal family
occurrences -- sickness, travel,
doctor’s appointments.
A sense of informality and
acceptance characterizes the group,
whose members run the gamut from
a mother of six with college-age
children to a young expectant
mother. Most have come seeking a
reprieve from the isolation that
surrounds many women today.
“I was just lonely,” said Mary
Walsh, tending five-month-old Alison
as she spoke. “I was home with a
three-year-old and I needed to meet
people, especially other mothers. My
neighbors were all older.”
The need for outside interaction -
apart from the tennis, bridge, and
garden clubs so readily available on
the Atlanta scene - was echoed
around the table.
“The way you get involved is
through your family,” Melanie Brent,
the mother of two teens and a
pre-schooler, observed. “Sometimes
you wait until (the children) are in
school. This group gives people a
chance to become involved before
school.”
Pamela Tomaszewski, whose
(Continued on page 2)
MOTHERS IN CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY (1-r) Mary Walsh,
Romana Khalaf and Janice Niesse gather for a Tuesday meeting at
Our Lady of the Assumption school library. Little Alison Walsh
(center) looks nonplussed, in spite of all the flashing bulbs!
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 20 No. 18
Thursday, May 6,1982
$8.00 Per Year
“New ” St. Catherine’s
Discovers Old Beauty
BY GRETCHEN REISER
Very near to the rustic center of
Kennesaw, where a railroad crossing
and the road meet a quaint-looking
row of stores, there is a white
church which seems to fit the
neighborhood.
It is simple, but the original
structure was added onto over the
years as the community needed
more space, creating a type of
haphazard growth. Until last year it
was the First United Methodist
Fr. Leo Herbert
Church of Kennesaw. In recent
months as it became the home of
one of the newest parishes in the
archdiocese, the pastor, Father Leo
Herbert, and the parishioners,
began to consider how to renovate
the nearly 100-year-old church to
reflect its new life as a center of
Catholic worship.
What they have tried to do,
under the guidance of Crawford
Murphy, a Selby, N.C. architect and
designer, is to bring “an old
classical type of building .. .back to
its original beauty,” Father Herbert
said, from his office in a parish
building adjacent to St. Catherine
of Siena Church on Cherokee
Street. The result of many months
of planning, and then a flurry of
work on the part of parishioners,
Murphy, the design firm and others
commissioned to do artwork, was
unveiled last Sunday at an
ecumenical service. It was also
readied for this week’s 3
Confirmation Service, when 3
Archbishop Donnellan would be *
present.
Father Herbert, whose office
window looks right out on the
church, admits readily, with a quiet
pride, that he thinks the renovated
church “is absolutely beautiful”
and he is eager to bring visitors
(Continued on page 6)
INTRODUCING THE ELEMENTS of Catholicism to the
simplicity of the nearly 100-year-old Methodist Church brought
about a new relationship. The Blessed Sacrament chapel, visible
from throughout the church, was created by opening a former
storage area to viewing.
ARCHBISHOP BERNARDIN:
Voluntarism Alone Unable
To Resolve Poverty Needs
BY TRACY EARLY
NEW YORK (NC) - Efforts by
President Reagan to shift
responsibility for the poor from
government to churches and other
private dispensers of charity were
challenged by Archbishop Joseph
Bernardin of Cincinnati.
“I am the first to admit that the
church ought to do more, but
government also has a responsibility
from which it cannot escape,” he
said in New York. “Voluntarism
alone cannot resolve the problem of
poverty.” Speaking on “Poverty in
America: the Social Sin of Our
Time,” Archbishop Bernardin
appeared in the Shepherds Speak
series of Sunday vespers addresses at
the Cathedral of St. James in
Brooklyn, N.Y.
He spoke on the Sunday after May
Day and though he made no direct
reference to the May Day emphasis
on workers in many parts of the
world, his address fit into that
theme. He emphasized the papal
teaching on social justice in the
encyclicals going back to Pope Leo
XIII’s “Rerum Novar’um” of 1891,
and quoted numerous statements on
the same topic by Pope John Paul II.
Archbishop Bernardin said the
church does not claim any special
expertise in the political, economic
and social order. But he said church
teaching provides an “indispensable
framework” for dealing with issues in
that sphere and needs “more
exposure at this time.”
“Our voice must be heard,” he
said, adding that the church’s voice
should not be only for charity but
also for justice. “The church has a
rich tradition of social teaching
rooted in the dignity of the human
person,” he said. “Unfortunately,
this teaching is not so well known or
does not seem to make as much of an
impact as some other teachings.”
Archbishop Bernardin cited Pope
John Paul’s 1979 speech at Yankee
Stadium in New York and his call
there for Americans to “seek out the
structural reasons for poverty” so the
proper remedy could be applied. He
also cited the “preferential option
for the poor” made by the Latin
American bishops at their 1979
meeting in Pueblo, Mexico, and
suggested ways the church in the
United States could proceed in
making the same option.
Archbishop Bernardin alluded to
the relation of “the cost of, the arms
race” to “the plight of the poor.” He
is currently chairing a bishops’
committee set up to prepare a
pastoral letter on the arms topic, and
he expressed confidence that the
letter would be ready when the
bishops meet in November and
would be issued.
Archbishop Bernardin said the
“most difficult but most useful” task
for the U.S. church today is to
“undertake and encourage others to
undertake” a fresh appraisal of the
causes of poverty. Many people have
found America a land of opportunity
but some have not, he said, and the
reasons for this should be explored.
“Are our schools breaking down
class barriers or creating a new elite
class?” he asked as an example of
questions to be examined.
Archbishop Bernardin said the
church’s own “sizable amount” of
current service to the poor should be
increased. “The growing crisis
requires a special effort,” he said.
He also expressed frustration
about getting more affluent parishes
of his own archdiocese to make aid
to poorer inner-city parishes a
priority. Wealthier churches often
say they cannot afford requested
Archbishop Joseph L. Bernardin
donations to help keep inner-city
parishes and schools operating but
then raise much larger amounts to
spend on their own plants and to add
new facilities such as gymnasiums, he
said. He said he has told his
archdiocesan social action
commission that “they are
constantly speaking to themselves”
and constitute only a “small
network.”
Their constituency needs to be
enlarged in the parishes, he said,
though he acknowledged being
uncertain as to how to accomplish
that and said he sensed no urgency
about social justice among the main
body of church members. “I’m
talking about good people, not bad
people,” Archbishop Bernardin said.
“These are good people, but people
with a different vision of the church
and its mission. How do we help
them see a vision more in line with
the Gospel; That’s our challenge.”
SISTER PEGGY MEALY:
Nicaragua Struggling
Against Fear, Division
BY GRETCHEN REISER
Sister Peggy Healy, a Maryknoll
member working in the Central
American country of Nicaragua, says
the Catholic Church “has to be a
critical force in the revolution” of
that nation.
In an interview in Atlanta on April
28, she said the Church must be both
critical of itself “and of the
government, if it does riot meet
social justice needs.”
Sister Healy was in Atlanta as part
of a trip to the United States
sponsored by OxFam America, an
organization devoted to ending world
hunger.
A nurse-practitioner in the barrios
of Managua, the Nicaraguan capital,
from 1974-78, she left the country
for several years to study in the
United States and to work for the
Washington Office on Latin America
as a policy analyst and advocate. She
returned to Nicaragua in 1981 as a
representative of Maryknoll in
Central America.
Within the country, the Church is
divided over the policies of the
Sandinista government which came
into power after the overthrow of
Anastasio Somoza in 1979. Four
priests hold government posts --
including the foreign minister, Miguel
D’Escoto, M.M. However, members
of the Church hierarchy in Nicaragua
have been critical both of priests
holding government posts, and of
specific policies enacted by the
revolutionary government.
Despite the criticism that has
emerged, both Sister Healy and
Eligio Rocha, a 30-year-old
Nicaraguan farmer who works as a
lay catechist in a rural area near the
Honduran border, said that they had
not experienced any disruption of
their work or of religious services
under the government. “On a barrio
level, our sisters have been able to
continue their work and in terms of
religious practices, I have never been
restricted,” Sister Healy said.
Rocha, who is a “delegate of the
Word,” teaching catechism and
training other catechists in
Chinandega Province, spoke of
persecution of Christians under the
Somoza government. He said that his
region has benefited from land
reform since the revolution, which
has placed some arable land in the
hands of the peasants, and has been
one of the areas affected by a
massive literacy campaign
undertaken to correct a 75 percent
rate of illiteracy among peasants.
“There is freedom of expression and
the people can take their destiny in
their own hands,” Rocha said
through an interpreter.
(Continued on page 2)
EALKL4ND CRISIS
Pope Renews Peace Pleas
Shortly after heavy fighting broke out between Argentina and Great Britain
over their territorial dispute in the South Atlantic, Pope John Paul II renewed
his calls for peace and asked for intensified international efforts to mediate the
situation.
“Two great and noble and dear nations, Argentina and Great Britain, have
begun in the South Atlantic a military confrontation that seems to grow more
bitter,” said the pope May 2 to about 60,000 people in St. Peter’s Square.
“The world aspires to peace” but failure of mediation to prevent the fighting
shows that “men seem incapable, even with the commitment of dedicated
mediators, to find a solution,” added the pope. He said it was the responsibility
of the international community to continue seeking a peaceful solution.
The peace call came the day after Britain and Argentina engaged in dogfights
around the disputed islands which Argentina calls the Malvinas and Britain the
Falklands. The dogfights occured after British jets began bombing two airfields
on the islands. Argentina on April 2 invaded the islands which Britain had ruled
since 1833. Britain has demanded that Argentina withdraw its troops as a
prelude to direct negotiations. Argentina said it would withdraw its troops only
after Britain recognized its sovereignty over the islands.
The pope’s call also came after the United States formally abandoned its
mediation efforts April 30 and offered material support to Britain.
Pope John Paul said the fighting was “sorrowful and worrying” because of
the “repercussions it can have on a vaster scale.”
“How can humanity still have faith in the possibilities of peace, especially if
a serious but relatively limited question has to present itself as an even more
serious and complex one, which places in opposition among themselves various
nations or blocs of countries?” asked the pope in his seventh public peace call
since April 2.
Although Argentina’s military government is strongly anti-communist, the
Soviet Union has sharply opposed Britain’s position in the dispute and has
criticized the United States for siding with Britain. However, at the time the
pope spoke, Soviet policy had fallen short of full support for Argentina. The
Soviet Union abstained April 3 in a U.N. Security Council vote which
demanded that Argentina withdraw its troops. A Soviet “no” vote would have
vetoed the Anti-Argentine resolution which passed easily.