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The Georgia Bulletin
May 20,1982
A Letter To Sen. Nunn
The Honorable Sam Nunn
The US Senate
Washington, D.C.
Dear Senator Nunn,
This is a friendly note to you about
a subject that is near and dear to the
hearts of many Americans. We are
readily aware that the subject is of
great concern to you too. And the
time to resolve that concern will be
upon us soon.
The subject is, of course, the
amen d m e n t introduced last
September by Senator Orrin Hatch.
This amendment would remove the
rig lit to abortion from the
Constitution of the United States and
would allow Congress and the States
to pass new abortion restrictions. We,
most decidedly, support the Hatch
Amendment. It is our hope that you
support it also and will therefore vote
for it on the Senate floor.
We bring this reminder to your
attention because, as of this moment,
we are unable to ascertain how you
stand on this vital matter. We
underscore the word “vital” for good
reasons, one and a half million good
reasons. That many innocent,
defenseless, unborn children are
legally killed each year because of the
present law. The Hatch Amendment
would initiate change in this situation.
It would give hope. More importantly,
it would extend to helpless unborn
children the same constitutional rights
enjoyed by other Americans.
After all, we are sure you agree,
that to deprive any one person,
whosoever he or she might be, of the
right under the law of this land to life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness is
potentially to deprive everyone of
that right. What a serious, moral
decision to be made.
As you make your decision on the
Hatch Amendment we will pray that
you, our sworn leader and public
servant, will vote on behalf of life.
Sincerely yours,
Monsignor Noel C. Burtenshaw
Editor
Support the
1982 Catholic
Communication Campaign
PROCLAIM
AND MAKE
DISCIPLES OF ALL
THE NATIONS
(q)
1AKE
PROCLAIM . . . and make disciples
of all the nations. The passage from
the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 28,
verse 19, is the theme for the 1982
Catholic Communications Campaign.
The collection will be taken up in
most parishes next weekend, May
22-23, and will be used to help
communication projects locally and
nationally. Half the money raised will
stay in the diocese and be used for
local communications projects. Half is
distributed around the country and
has been used to train young
journalists for work in the Catholic
press, to make and distribute film
documentaries, TV spots,
evangelization models, and to
distribute information to special
sectors of the Catholic community,
including Hispanics, separated and
divorced Catholics and the family.
Resound ... Resound ...
To the Editor:
I wish to thank the people of the
Archdiocese of Atlanta for their continuing
and generous support of the Campaign for
Human Development. A check for $27,432
has been received here at the national office.
This amount is the 3/4 portion to be
distributed nationally to self-help projects
designed to remove the causes of poverty.
This year 610 funding proposals
requesting $35 million have been received.
These are being reviewed and prioritized by
national staff, the CHD Diocesan Directors,
and the CHD National Committee of 40
people representing all geographic regions
and the ethnic/racial makeup of the United
States. As usual, we will have about $6
million to fund about 150 self-help groups.
The Ad Hoc Committee of 13 bishops will
meet on June 12 to give their final approval
to recommendations made by the National
Committee.
Since 1970, the Archdiocese of Atlanta
has received 10 national CHD grants totaling
$273,500 for a return of 105%.
The continued generosity of the people of
your diocese fulfills the spirit of the words
of Pope John Paul II:
“This is the pure and simple mission of
the Gospel. The Church would not be
faithful to the Gospel if it were not close-to
the poor and if it did not defend their
rights.” (L’Osservatore Romano, 8/2/81)
CHD provides an opportunity for us to
live as Jesus did, in solidarity with the poor,
the wounded, the marginated, and those
considered “least” in our society.
On behalf of the entire CHD family, I
express sincere thanks also to Archbishop
Thomas A. Donnellan, and to Mr. Steve
Brazen, your Diocesan Director.
Reverend Marvin A. Mottet
Executive Director
Campaign for Human Development
Washington, D.C.
: V Georgia
(USPS) 574 880)
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Most Rev. Thomas A. Donnellan Publisher
Rev Monsignor Noel C . Burtenshaw Editor
Gretehen R. Reiser Associate Editor
Mica k. Jarvis C ontributing Editor
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Adoptive Parents - The Pro-est Of Pro-Life
Dolores Curran
“I didn’t know anyone could be so
happy,” the 30-year-old mother beamed,
looking down at her newly adopted infant.
“Since we got Sandy, our whole lives have
changed. Every dayiwe thank God that this
baby’s mother didn't abort her. Why don’t
you write something for mothers-to-be who
wonder if they should abort their babies,
keep them, or put them up for adoption?”
It’s a timely subject. In my state alone,
nearly 25,000 babies were aborted in 1980,
At the same time, couples who are eager for
a baby are waiting longer and longer to get
one. Love pours out of adoptive parents, not
just for their baby but for the whole world
and their joy infects those around them,
I was speaking in a parish a year ago when
a young couple learned that they were
finally getting a baby. Everyone was excited
for them, and it made a joyful sense of
community.
What’s gone awry in a society that can’t
get its unwanted babies together with those
willing to give a loving life to these children?
Why haven’t we stressed the wonderful
future of these potentially aborted lives in
our pro-life efforts?
I recently interviewed a counselor who
works for a private-adoption-agency. She
told me that the phenomena of unwed
teenage mothers keeping their babies is not
all positive, “These girls and that’s what
they are ■■ want their babies for a couple of
years, when they’re cute and cuddly,” she
said. “But when they get to be two or three
and start saying ‘NO’ and behave like typical
two-year-olds, the mothers come to us and
say they want to put them up for adoption.
Then nobody wants them because they
aren’t babies,"
She sighed, “We had a couple in last week
who tried to bribe us. They were willing to
pay $2500 for a baby but they wouldn’t
consider taking a two-year-old for free.
Don’t they realize that a baby turns two,
too?”
Her frustration is understandable. She
believes that young unwed mothers should
be made aware of what toddlers are like
before they make a decision to keep their
babies. “They think that babies are like
dolls, something to play with, not teenagers
to rear. Then when they want to go out or
when the child gets an ear infection, they
say, ‘I don’t want this. I want a life of my
own.’ ”
—The- majority of adopted infants come
from unwed mothers under 18. Yet a
whopping 80% now keep their babies, for a
couple of years, at least.
I would like to see a real effort made to
expose young unwed mothers to couples
who have already adopted to show them the
kind of life and love these parents have to
offer babies. A film or TV documentary on
the pleasure a baby brings to childless
couples might be one of the best
anti-abortion efforts we could sponsor.
A stint in a nursery school working
around toddlers during pregnancy should
expose teenage mothers-to-be to the reality
of children after infancy and make them
reflect on whether it really is best for them
and the child to keep their baby. A visit with
mothers who have kept their babies might
also be an eye opener.
Our church could accomplish this if we’re
willing to go beyond anti-abortion rhetoric
into viable efforts proving that we believe
life is precious after birth as well as before.
Adoptive parents can and should be in the
forefront of such a ministry because of all
people, they best understand the joy and
responsibility that children bring.
U A Little Help From My Friends”
Father Richard Lopez
Archdiocesan Vocation Director
My students gasped the other day when I
announced my twentieth high school
reunion was this summer. I do not think 38
is all that old, but to them I was virtually
prehistoric.
Anniversaries, reunions, birthdays, etc.,
always have a pleasant way of making us
reflect on our past and its ups and downs. As
a priest I look back on over nine years of
priestly life. I think that when I was first
ordained I thought a priest had to preach
like Fulton Sheen, administer like the
president of IBM, pray like a mystic, live like
a saint, counsel like a friend, teach like a
genius.
On top of that I thought you always had
to be cheerful, always have solutions, and
almost always go without much sleep.
None of the above really applies to most
of us much of the time. However, as I look
back I am amazed at what I have done -
spoken publicly to great crowds, gone to
the emergency room to face tragedy, shared
peoples’ agony and mistakes, and even faced
my 8th period freshman class on a hot
Friday afternoon!
How have I done this when I am not
Fulton Sheen, Sigmund Freud or Saint John
Vianney? Perhaps the Beatles song “I Get By
With A Little Help From My Friends”
explains it nicely.
Two friends in particular are the secret of
my survival - Christ and Mary. I am a priest
of Jesus Christ, not of Richard Lopez, and
that, ultimately, is my rock and hope. I am
also a good friend of His mother. I do not
believe I have ever begun any day, any
special assignment, any difficult task
without involving her help.
I cannot say how many times in my
human fear approaching some tough
situation or person I have prayed,
“Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary,
that never was it known that anyone who
fled to thy protection, implored thy help or
sought thy intercession was left unaided
...” and felt my human fear melting in the
power of her love.
I think many young men and women
shrink back from a vocation to the
priesthood or religious life from fear ~ fear
of their own weaknesses, fear of what others
would say, fear of their doubts. Those fears
remain even after you’re ordained or
professed, but we get by, get by gloriously,
with not a little but a lot of help from our
friends - Jesus and Mary!
7th Sunday of Easter (B)
May 23, 1982
THE TW7 ORD
THIS W EEKEND
Paul Karnowski
Acts 1: 15-17, 20-26
I John 4: 11-16
John 17: 11-19
Most of us will never write
autobiographies. It’s not that we have
nothing noteworthy to say or that we have
no valuable experiences to share; it’s just
that writing an autobiography is such a
difficult task. An autobiographer must have
the ability and the skill to melt down the
raw material of a lifetime and mold it into
an organized and cohesive product. A good
autobiography must be a good book.
For a challenge that is every bit as
difficult as writing a good book, we need
only turn to today’s gospel. On this, the
Sunday after the Ascension, the Church
presents us with the Lord’s “farewell
prayer.” As Jesus prays to His heavenly
Father, the challenge takes form. Speaking
of His disciples, Jesus says, “They are not of
this world any more than I am of this
world.” Continuing His address to God,
Christ adds, “As You sent me into this
world, so I send them into the world.”
Our task is clear. As “disciples” of the
Lord, we are to be IN the world, but not OF
it. Confronted with this assignment, we
discover that we have a great deal in
common with the autobiographer. Both
Christian and autobiographer must live at
some distance from their own lives - but not
too far. If the autobiographer is too aloof,
too detached from his experiences in the
world, then his self-portrait takes the form
of a cold marble statue. On the other hand,
if the writer lives too close to life, the ability
to distinguish between the profound and the
trivial is lost. The result is nothing but
garbled verbiage.
As Christians we face the same dilemma.
If we amble from one experience to another,
never assessing how our lifestyles fit in with
our beliefs, we are not only IN the world, we
are OF it. If, on the other hand, we clothe
ourselves in pietistic trappings and roundly
condemn the rest of humanity, we are no
longer IN the world. Either way we fall short
of the challenge.
There is one note of consolation as we
“write” the books of our lives. We have a
tremendous editor in the Lord - one who is
always willing to help. We need only ask.
si ;
PRINCIPAL OF THE YEAR - Sister Audrey Boylan of
Our Lady Star of the Sea School in Staten Island, N.Y.,
adjusts the tie of student Joseph Heineman. Sister Boylan
was named Principal of the Year by Today’s Catholic
Teacher and received her award at the National Catholic
Educational Association convention in Chicago.