Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4—The Georgia Bulletin, August 23, 1984
STATEMENT
A Chilling New Technique
A psalm reading this week says of God, “It is I
who deal death and give life.”
But the newspaper this week tells us that it is
we who deal death, dealing it in ever more
sophisticated and 100 percent guaranteed ways
that will not fail us.
The new abortion method, digoxin induction,
goes straight to the heart of the baby in the
womb to still life. This was always the purpose of
abortion, but the means have never been so direct
and clear.
Pro-life workers have always said that abortion
kills a living unborn child. Perhaps a direct assault
on the heart will speak to some of us who have
found it difficult to believe that abortion is killing
the living. Perhaps the profound human
associations with the heart as the center and
source not only of life, but of deep, transforming
emotions like joy and sorrow and love and regret
will help us to cry out: “Stop.”
Perhaps the needle to the heart will help us to
see the real choice involved: the choice between
what is alive, human, vulnerable, weak,
defenseless and needy in all of us and our fearful,
death dealing and chilling response to our human
failings.
~ GRK
RESOUND
Capital Punishment
To the Editor:
A recent editorial in the Bulletin condemned capital
punishment. The implication of such a condemnation
coming from a Catholic paper is that capital punishment is
un-Christian and that Catholics can not support it in good
conscience. I am also aware that this is the opinion of the
U.S. Catholic Bishops.
When I hear such statements I wonder who the bishops
are speaking for and on what authority do they base their
views. The answer in both instances is certainly not the
Catholic Church for their stand has absolutely no
justification in Catholic theological and philosophical
tradition.
St. Augustine states clearly on this matter: “Surely, it is
not without purpose that we have the institution of the
power of kings, the death penalty of the judge ... All
those things have their methods, their causes, their
reasons, their practical benefits. While these are feared,
the wicked are kept within bounds and the good live more
peacefully among the wicked ... it is not without
advantage that human recklessness should be confined by
fear of the law so that innocence may be safe among
evil-doers, and the evil-doers themselves may be cured by
calling on God when their freedom of action is held in
check by fear of punishment.”
Now unless the editor of the Bulletin or any of the U.S.
Catholic bishops have acquired the revered status of
‘Doctor of the Church’, as St. Augustine has, I will defer
to the one in this matter who speaks with authority as a
( •iiU'Ik \iiIkIhhwi4
(USPC) 574880
Most Rev. Thomas A. Donnellan Publisher
Rev. Monsignor Noel C. Burtenshaw Editor
Gretchen R. Reiser Associate Editor
Mary Beth Marino Contributing Editor
Member of the Catholic Press Association
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Atlanta. Georgia 30308
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‘Doctor’ and who has earned his respect through thought
and deed, and not by title alone .. .
Steven O’Reilly
Atlanta
(Editor’s Note: The U.S. Bishops’ 1980 statement on capital
punishment acknowledged Catholic teaching that the state has the
right to take the life of a person guilty of an extremely serious
crime. They disagreed with the use of capital punishment as it is
practiced in contemporary American society.)
Exceptional Issue
To the Editor:
On account of the persistent number of Atlanta
seminarians at the seminary, I read your diocesan
newspaper carefully each week.
May I commend you for the issue of August 2, 1984
which I found exceptionally good on many scores. I
particularly enjoyed the article on Flannery O’Connor as
well as the new program for catechist, the visit of the
patriarch, and the Atlanta reflections on the in-vitro
fertilization.
Keep up the good work.
Felipe J. Estevez
President/Rector
St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary
Boynton Beach, Florida
“We Liberals”
To the Editor:
Monsignor Burtenshaw’s open letter to Geraldine
Ferraro made reference to “we liberals.” The grammar
gets complicated, but my question is very straightforward:
Who is (are) (was) we?
Is it an editorial “we”? (meaning I); then I have no
problem or surprise or quarrel with it.
Is it an institutional “we”? (meaning everyone on the
Bulletin staff); then I have no problem or surprise or
quarrel with it.
Is it an ecclesiastical “we”? (meaning us clergy); then I
have no problem or quarrel with it, although I am
surprised.
It is a Catholic “we”? ; then hold on for a minute. Who
speaks for Catholics in regard to political candidates? It
seems to me that Bishop Malone recently urged that
candidates (and clergy) stay out of it except for issues of
moral consequence. Is it an issue of moral consequence
that we rejoice over the nomination of a liberal, nominal
Catholic who espouses the permissiveness of abortion,
while piously saying that she isn’t for it personally? What
sort of contorted logic “allows for” a pro-abortion stance
(albeit privately refuted), just because she is “Catholic”?
Good grief; is this the best we can do from our Catholic
heritage? A mincing weasel-worded apologist for the
liberal vote, no matter the issue, but vote for me because
I’m Catholic? Have we come this far from our “immigrant
church” mentality to knee jerk whenever one of “ours”
says something abominable, just because she is a Catholic?
Maybe she’s one of “yours”, Monsignor; she’s certainly
not one of mine. Therefore, “we” disagree.
Paul Bornstein
Sandy Springs
Islamic Law Affects
Catholic-Moslem Relations
By John Thavis
VATICAN CITY (NC) - A new emphasis on Islamic
laws in some Moslem countries is threatening improved
relations between Catholics and Moslems gained over 20
years of dialogue, said officials of the Vatican Secretariat
for Non-Christians.
The threat is particularly serious in some Arab and
African countries, they said.
“Islam, especially in some Arab areas, has shown itself
to be obstinate to the point of denying freedom of
religion to Christians,” said Father Marcello Zago,
secretary of the Vatican organization. Father Zago, who
named Saudi Arabia among the “obstinate’Mslamic states,
was quoted by the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore
Romano in the edition dated Aug. 15 marking the
secretariat’s 20th anniversary.
He said that in societies where religion and culture are
identified “vociferous groups oppose dialogue as if it were
a Trojan horse introduced into their stronghold of
tradition.”
“Christians in the Middle East who live in precarious
conditions of survival look with wonder at the freedoms
and facilities granted to Moslems emigrating to the West,
and would like to see some reciprocity established,” he
said.
In the same edition of the newspaper, Father Edouard
Sami Martin Sabanegh also said that Arab Islamic nations
were rigid in imposing Islamic law.
Father Sabanegh is secretary of the Commission for
Religious Relations with Islam, a part of the Secretariat
for Non-Christians.
A variety of social, ethnic and political factors,
particularly the Moslem view that religion and politics are
inseparable, have sometimes been “serious obstacles to
every form of dialogue” or peaceful coexistence, he said.
The troubles of Lebanon show the “saddest proof” of
inter-religious hostilities, Father Sabanegh said. Fighting
between Christian and Moslem militias there has left
thousands killed or homeless. But Lebanon is not the only
example of tensions between members of the two faiths,
he added.
“In some countries the need for dialogue is ignored
both by the small Christian communities, composed of
temporary foreign immigrants, and by the Moslem
majority,” Father Sabanegh said. In its “rigid interpretation
of Islamic law,” the Moslem majority “reaches the point
of not permitting the public expression of faiths other
than Islam,” he said.
Both priests said, however, that Catholic-Moslem
relations are steadily improving in some Moslem countries,
although they feared that progress could be threatened.
The fundamental question is respect for religious
minorities and recognition of basic human rights,
including freedom of religion, Father Sabanegh said.
Besides Lebanon, he mentioned Palestine, Syria, Egypt,
Sudan, Jordan, Iraq and Libya as places where relations
between Christians and Moslems are “most painful.”
In June, the Sudanese government publicly flogged,
fined and imprisoned Italian missionary Brother Joseph
Manara for possessing alcoholic beverages in defiance of
Islamic law. He was the first foreigner to be convicted
since Sudan imposed Islamic law in Sept., 1983.
Sudan’s Catholic bishops have strongly protested
application of the law to non-Moslems. The law has been
called “discriminatory” by L’Osservatore Romano.
In July, Bishop Roger M. Mahony of Stockton, Calif.,
returning from a three-week tour of African refugee areas
with two other U.S. bishops, said the situation in Sudan
was “a case of modem persecution.”
When the American bishops visited Sudan, Bishop
Mahony said he found the relations between Catholics and
Moslems “very, very tense.” Sudanese government
officials declined to meet the bishops, in contrast to the
reception the Americans received in other countries they
visited, he said.
Fathers Zago and Sabanegh said Christian-Moslem
relations had greatly improved in some countries. They
named Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, much of sub-Saharan
and eastern Africa, and East Asia.
“All these efforts, however, risk being frustrated or
obstructed by the establishment of Islamic law, which has
been proposed in some of the countries with Moslem
majorities,” Father Sabanegh said.