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PAGE 2—The Georgia Bulletin, June 3,1982
SCHOOL PRAYER DEBATE - PART II
Catholics Remain Divided On The Issue
BY JOSEPH DUERR
NC News Service
If President Reagan looks to Catholics for support of
his proposed constitutional amendment restoring prayer
in public schools, he will find as much division among
them as among the religious community at large.
Although a number of Catholic leaders spoke out
strongly against the 1962 and 1964 U.S. Supreme Court
decisions banning prayer and Bible reading in public
schools, Catholics have lined up on both sides when
amendments and other proposals on school prayer have
come before Congress in the last two decades.
The Catholic bishops’s conference, meanwhile, has
approached the issue from a different perspective by
injecting another matter - released time for religious
instruction in public schools - into the debate.
The position of the bishops’ conference is this: the
problem did not begin with prayer and Bible reading
decisions of the 1960s but with the 1948 court ruling
which said that released time for religious instruction on
public school premises was unconstitutional. Thus, it is
necessary to reverse the 1948 decision in order to get to
the root of the problem.
In accord with this stance, the Administrative Board of
the U.S. Catholic Conference, the bishops’ civil action
arm, in 1973 called for a constitutional amendment to
permit both religious instruction and prayer in public
schools and other public institutions. “The U.S. Catholic
Conference believes an amendment limited to allowing
prayer would be inadequate to meet the national need,”
the board said. “The amendment which is needed must
cover prayer and religious instruction.”
This position was reaffirmed May 10 by Father Daniel
F. Hoye, general secretary of the USCC, after Reagan had
announced his support for the voluntary prayer
amendment. Father Hoye said the USCC welcomed the
president’s proposal but also reiterated the call for passage
of an amendment to deal with the “larger issue” of
voluntary religious instruction in public schools.
School prayer amendments have been proposed in
Congress since the Supreme Court decisions 20 years ago.
Two amendments have reached the floor for a vote, but
both failed to get the two-thirds vote required for passage.
In 1966 a voluntary prayer amendment backed by the
late Sen. Everett Dirksen fell short by nine votes in the
Senate (the vote was 49-37). Five years later the House
defeated an amendment to permit non-denominational
prayer in schools and other public buildings (the measure
was 29 votes shy of the two-thirds majority).
Congressional hearings on the Dirksen amendment saw
Catholics lined up on both sides of the debate. In 1964
hearings, for example, nine Catholics spoke in favor of the
proposal, 19 against.
In 1971 the USCC went on record opposing the
non-denominational school prayer amendment.
Archbishop Joseph L. Bernardin of Cincinnati, then USCC
general secretary, said the amendment “would accomplish
nothing on behalf of the goals it purports to serve and
would represent a threat to the existing legality of
non-denominational prayer.”
Also, he explained, passage of the amendment “might
lead many to think that something serious has been done
about the problem of religious education of public school
children. In fact, nothing of any moment would have been
achieved.”
Catholics also differed on a proposal before Congress
several years ago to remove state school prayer cases from
the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and other federal
courts. The measure passed the Senate 61-30 in 1979 but
died in the House.
During hearings Jesuit Father Robert F. Drinan, then a
Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, opposed the
bill, calling it “self-defeating.” But William M. O’Reilly,
executive director of the Maryland Federation of Catholic
Laity, supported the measure, saying the best way “to
protect the rights of everyone ... is to let the matter be
decided at the local level.”
The USCC took no position on the school prayer
jurisdiction legislation.
The religious community at large has also been divided
over attempts to amend the constitution on school prayer,
although many originally were critical of the 1962 and
1964 Supreme Court decisions.
Mainline Protestant and Jewish groups, for the most
part, have in recent years defended the court decisions,
while many evangelical Protestant groups have favored the
voluntary school prayer proposals. Reactions to Reagan’s
endorsement of a constitutional amendment indicate
these differences still remain.
For example, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, leader of the
Moral Majority, hailed Reagan’s announcement as the
“light at the end of the tunnel we have all hoped and
worked and prayed for.”
But a group of Lutherans, Baptists, Methodists, Jews
and Seventh Day Adventists opposed the president’s
proposal, saying, “We believe that the purpose of prayer is
to praise and petition God, not to serve the secular
purpose of creating a moral or ethical atmosphere for
public school children.”
Pope John Paul Hit With British Press
HISTORIC MASS -
Paul II concelebrates
Westminster Cathedral
bishops on the first
Pope John
a Mass at
with British
day of his
six-day visit to England. It is the first
Mass ever celebrated by a pope
British soil.
on
LONDON (NC) - The
British press gave Pope
John Paul II a generally
favorable reception as he
began the first papal visit
to Britain May 28.
The evangelist in Pope
John Paul triumphed over
the politician in the
decision to visit Britain,
said an editorial in The
Times of London.
“Those of us in Britain
Papal Visit Spurs Hope —
(Continued from page 1)
at a meeting with families.
At the ecumenical and interreligious level, in addition
to his landmark meeting with Archbishop Runcie and
their joint commitment to pursue Catholic-Anglican
reunion, the pontiff’s schedule included meetings with the
British Council of Churches May 29, with Jewish
representatives May 31, with the moderator of the
General Assembly of the (Presbyterian) Church of
Scotland during the Scottish leg of the trip June 1, and a
visit to the Anglican cathedral in Liverpool May 30.
On May 28 he also met privately in Buckingham Palace
with Queen Elizabeth, who as monarch of England is also
titular head of the (Anglican) Church of England. At the
end of the meeting he told her, “God bless your son.” The
queen’s second son. Prince Andrew, was with the British
forces in the Falklands as a helicopter pilot.
As has become Pope John Paul’s custom in his travels
abroad - his trip to Great Britain was his 12th foreign
journey since he became pope in October 1978 - the busy
papal itinerary also included meetings with the bishops of
England, Wales and Scotland, priests, men and women
Religious, youth, students and educators, families, the
sick and the handicapped, and fellow Poles living in
Britain.
Notably absent, because of the situation in the South
Atlantic, were the usual papal meetings with the
government leadership and with diplomats. On past trips
such meetings have several times been major events in
which the pope has issued strong statements on the
church’s social teaching and on church-state relations.
Despite the pope’s heavy schedule of events, his
meeting May 29 with Archbishop Runcie in Canterbury
stood out as a landmark occasion.
After praying together they jointly led the filled
cathedral in a renewal of baptismal promises - an action
which symbolically affirmed that Catholics and Anglicans
are united fundamentally if not completely in faith.
In a talk later to the leaders of other Christian
churches, the pope stressed that through Baptism and a
common faith in Christ all Christian churches share “a
certain communion, a communion that is real even if it is
limited.”
“The pope longs for the day when in fulfillment of
Christ’s will we shall all be one - one with Him and one
with each other,” he said.
The common declaration that Pope John Paul and
Archbishop Runcie signed in the cathedral gardens after
the cathedral service established a new joint theological
commission and gave it a mandate not only to resolve
remaining Catholic-Anglican doctrinal differences but also
to “recommend what practical steps will be necessary
when, on the basis of our unity in faith, we are able to
proceed to the restoration of full communion.”
On numerous other occasions during his visit the
pontiff also stressed the theme of Christian unity, as when
he told the congregation at a Mass in Liverpool’s Catholic
cathedral May 30 that “restoration of unity among
Christians is one of the main concerns of the church in the
last part of the 20th century.”
who are not Roman
Catholics, and probably
many of us who are too,
must not expect to agree
with everything the pope
says while he is here,” the
paper said.
‘‘But we should
certainly respect him for
being here, and leave him
in no doubt that he is
welcome among us,” it
added.
The pope had thought
about postponing the trip
because of the fighting
between Britain and
Argentina in the South
Atlantic but finally
decided to make the trip
to Britain as scheduled and
follow it with a brief trip
to Argentina so he could
pray for peace in both
countries. Vatican sources
said the pope initially cast
doubt on the trip to
Britain because he was
afraid it could be
interpreted as political
support for Britain.
The dispute involves
sovereignty over a group
of islands called the
Falklands by Britain and
the Malvinas by Argentina.
The Guardian said that
one effect of the Falkland
Islands crisis could be
“that the fruits of the
pope’s visit are greater”
than previously thought.
The Guardian, which
has been consistently
critical of British
government policy over
the Falklands crisis, said
the appeal for peace and
reconciliation which the
pope made when he visited
Ireland in 1979 was a
deserved to
again this
message that
be given
weekend to two different
communities meshed in
the passions of bloodshed.
In Ireland the pope
addressed a message to
Northern Ireland, asking
both sides in the civil
fighting to abandon the
use of violence.
The Daily Telegraph
said: “We salute the pope’s
bravery, revere his piety
and welcome him as a
guest of high honor.”
The Daily Mirror said
the pope was welcome in
Britain “both for the
office he holds and for the
man he is.”
Its editorial concluded:
“He looks to be one of the
great popes, and those of
different faiths, or no faith
at all, are happy to
recognize it.”
The Daily Mail said the
real reason why the pope,
was welcome “is that the
overwhelming mass of the
people here, regardless of
their faith or lack of it,
instinctively recognize that
he is a genuinely good and
holy man.”
The Sun said history
was made the day the
pope began his visit.
“We welcome the pope
sincerely as the head of
one great branch of the
Christian family; as a man
of enormous warmth and
humanity; and as a symbol
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of his own country,
Poland, which even now is
being martyred by the
followers of the godless
creed of communism.”
The Catholic Herald
said that thanks to the
successful politicking that
enabled the pope’s visit to
take place “an entirely
new principle has been
established.”
The pope’s “visit here
should help to ensure that
the British legend of a
reactionary Catholic
Europe with one foot still
in the 16th century is
finally dumped in the
dustbin of history, and
replaced by a greater
understanding of today’s
more complex Catholic
reality,” said the editorial.
This is “that the pope,
as supreme pastor, can
travel anywhere at any
time, short of being
physically impeded,
despite the existence of
‘political’ obstacles by
which he would formerly
have been blocked,” said
the Catholic Herald. “The
diplomatic niceties on
which everyone was laying
such heavy stress a week
or so ago can, in future, be
cast aside.”
The Sunday Express
said the pope was
welcomed “not just by
Roman Catholics but by
people everywhere who
can recognize him for
what he is - not some
aloof leader but a man of
flesh and blood who
stands out as a tower of
goodness in this uncertain
world.”
Favorable press reaction
continued after the pope’s
historic meeting with
Archbishop Robert Runcie
of Canterbury, primate of
the world Anglican
Communion, May 29.
The Sunday People said
the pope was rightly and
warmly welcomed, but it
mentioned that on
questions such as birth
control and divorce and
remarriage most British
Catholics were much more
liberal than he was.
An editorial in The
Observer tackled the
anti-Catholicism which it
described as remaining the
one great prejudice in
British society which even
the most tolerant still
regard as respectable.
“A more sympathetic
understanding of the
problems of family life in
the 1980s would advance
the cause of Christian
unity,” said the paper.
“Catholics throughout the
world are ready for such a
lead. Let us pray that Pope
John Paul II gives it.”
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