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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (June 21, 1984)
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta Vol. 22 No. 24 Thursday, June 21, 1984 $10.00 Per Year Hope And Tension Pope's Trip Highlights Ecumenism TEARS OF ANGUISH - At a meeting of mothers of political prisoners and disappeared outside the presidential house in San Salvador, one mother cries as she appeals for the return of a loved one. Salvadoran President Jose Napoleon Duarte met with the women and promised to investigate. (NC Photo from UPI) BY SISTER MARY ANN WALSH VATICAN CITY (NC) - Pope John Paul II’s visit to Switzerland June 12-17 both promoted ecumenism and spotlighted disagreements among Christian churches and within the Catholic community. The pope started off his visit on an ecumenical note at the World Council of Churches Geneva headquarters June 12 when he called for increased cooperation between Catholics and the WCC in social issues. “We should meet together more and more in all fields where human beings, because of the burden of their environment, experience great difficulties on the social, ethical, or religious levels, in living according to the dignity of their vocations,” said the pope. More On Trip, pages 6 & 7 The pope’s call for joint action, was backed by a Catholic-WCC statement on cooperation. Cardinal Johannes Willebrands, head of the Vatican Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, and the Rev. Philip Potter, the Methodist minister who is general secretary of the WCC, said the two groups should “take up some of the most pressing issues together, especially the concern for world peace.” “Through such collaboration, we can proclaim a message of hope and peace in a broken world,” they said. The pope took another ecumenical step on June 15 when he met with leaders of Switzerland’s Reformed Church in Kersatz, a small town where Catholics and Reformed Protestants in 1975 built a church to serve both congregations. After the session, Reinhard Kuster, vice-president of the Swiss Evangelical Union, an association of Reformed Church leaders, said “a few decades ago, this sort of meeting would have seemed impossible.” The Swiss Reformed are followers of Ulrich Zwingli, who in 1536 died in a war between Catholics and Reformed Protestants. This year, Swiss Protestants celebrate the 500th anniversary of Zwingli’s birth. Bishop Pierre Mamie of Lausanne, Geneva, and Fribourg, said that before the papal visit, “Protestants in Switzerland had a stereotyped attitude about the pope and towards Catholics.” “Their seeing him here in his human simplicity is a major step toward reconciliation,” the bishop said. But along with generating ecumenical good will, the pope’s visit also emphasized doctrinal separation between Catholics and Protestants, particularly on the issue of intercommunion. The pope indicated that for Catholics, intercommunion (Continued on page 12) Ordination Day The Reverend Mr. James A. Schillinger, 26, will be ordained to the priesthood at the Cathedral of Christ the King on Saturday, June 30, at 10 a.m. His first Mass will be celebrated at St. Jude’s parish in Sandy Springs on Sunday, July 1, at 12:45 p.m. ■■■Bi Child Abuse--A Multi-Faceted Problem BY MARY BETH MARINO Second In A Series There are 1.6 million children abused each year. Two thousand of these 1.6 million die. The shocking statistic reveals that 10 out of every 1000 children are abused in the United States. These startling facts were researched and compiled by a clinical psychologist, David W. Raque, Ph.D., P.C. an individual, couple and family therapist. “There are several types of child abuse,” the pipesmoking, bearded therapist explained. In his tastefully decorated Stone Mountain office, the therapist elevated his feet, cleared his throat, and in a soft spoken voice, unraveled the hard-core facts about child abuse. “The most obvious form of child abuse is physical,” Dr. Raque said. “Reported incidents of physical abuse are not only obvious, but identifiable. When a victim has old and new bruises, bruises on the face, has been kicked, burned or scalded, or is physically thrown or hit with an instrument, all indications are obviously abuse, regardless of the degree of the injury,” Raque explained. “Another form of abuse is sexual,” the informed therapist remarked. There are primarily two types of sexual abuse, non-assaultive and assaultive. In the non-assaultive cases the abuser is generally a family member. Assaultive cases involve injury and severe emotional trauma at the onset and are generally inflicted by members outside of the family unit. “Neglect is another form of abuse. In these cases, the child is deprived of medical attention, proper nourishment, clothing, shelter and supervision,” Dr. Raque explained. But emotional abuse seems to be the hardest to define and prove. “Emotional abuse is very hard to prosecute,” Raque said. “You don’t have tangible evidence or dramatic effects such as bruises and lacerations.” According to Dr. Raque, failure to provide a loving environment where a child can learn and be nurtured results in activating potential child abusers. If emotional abuse is not treated, physical abuse will continue to increase. Emotional abuse will eventually trigger physical abuse in most cases. The Stone Mountain therapist notes that each case (Continued on page 13) P.A.: ASource Of Help BY MONSIGNOR NOEL C. BURTENSHAW Let’s call her Jane. She is like just about any other mother of two young children. Her hands are full. She gets tired and frustrated as she cares for her little ones and her husband. Things are normal for Jane. But it wasn’t always so. There was a time when caring for a two-year-old and a four-year-old made each day a nightmare for Jane. “I did not physically abuse my children,” says this young Norcross mother. “But, emotionally, I certainly did. I brought pressure to bear on them, the home and myself.” Jane sought out a counsellor but could get no peace and family living was beginning to become intolerable. “I really did not know where to tum. I knew it could not be the children’s fault, but I wanted to blame them for my bad feelings every day. You can just tell what this did to my husband and my marriage.” What could this dejected parent do? She joined Parents Anonymous. “It was my savior,” says Jane with a sigh of relief. “People, for some reason, tend to see P.A. as a group of people who are child beaters trying to stop physical abuse. But they’re not. They are, for the most part, parents who are trying to cope with family.” There are parents who have physically abused their children in P.A., but mostly they are people who share (Continued on page 13)
