Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4 — The Georgia Bulletin, June 20, 1985
STATEMENT
Permanent Married Deacons
While we speak openly about the priestly voca
tions crisis, that crisis to some degree is being
solved under our very eyes. We are not getting
more priests but we are seeing a vital beginning
of a revived and new ministry in the Church —
married permanent deacons.
In the June 6 issue of The Georgia Bulletin,
while only two new priests were announced for
assignment, 16 permanent diaconate
assignments were listed. Most of the deacons
were assigned to parishes across the ar
chdiocese where immediately their ministry is
needed.
This is a new phenomenon for Catholics. It has
been appearing in every diocese across the na
tion and across the globe. There is really very lit
tle that is “new” about this ministry. It was there
at the beginning. Men stepped forward answer
ing a call, not just to assist the bishop and priest,
but to fulfill a vocation of service through Word
and action in parish life. Deacons bring the pulpit
and the pew into closer proximity as they par
ticipate in the realities of the family, the market
place and the sanctuary.
But the permanent deacon is also another call
to renewal. We have seen and heard a call for
greater sacramental relevancy during the last 20
years. Most of the seven sacraments have been
examined for greater signs of vitality. Baptism
maynowadd immersion as well as the pouring of
water. Face to face confession is most often us
ed today. Holy Communion is received under
both forms, bread and wine. Couples write vows
for marriage. The renewal goes on.
In recent years the sacrament of Holy Orders
has been reviewed. Episcopalian priests, already
family men, are being dispensed from having to
enter into the vow of celibacy as they join the
Catholic Church, are ordained and wish to con
tinue their ministry. The Diaconate, also a part of
the sacrament of Holy Orders, is being
reinstituted in one of its original forms — perma
nent married deacons. As is the case with the
other sacraments, the renewal of Holy Orders
has been most successful and warmly received.
There are presently almost 60 candidates prepar
ing for this ministry in North Georgia. They are
men wanting more intimate involvement in the
life of the Church and are finding their families
anxious to join them to give all of us a new vision
and excitement as we receive their service and
their creative ministry.
Happily, The Georgia Bulletin recognizes the
role of the Permanent Deacon in this issue. This
fresh beginning will add greater vitality to the
Gospel message as we attempt to spiritually
renew the Church. ncb
Held Hostage
As we go to press, once more innocent human
beings have become the victims of terror and are
held hostage. They are our fellow citizens, which
makes the dreadful incident all the more bitter.
Patiently we face this new chapter of cruelty
with courage and prayer. May their safe return to
us and to their loved ones be soon, very soon.
NCB
Chris Valley
Naked Bigotry
One is always startled, disappointed and angered when
faced with evidence of naked bigotry. This is true whether it
involves the burning of a cross on the lawn of a black family
in the suburbs, the spray-painting of a swastika on the wall
of a synagogue, or the recent rallies led by the National
Organization for Women (NOW) against the Catholic
Church.
The “Atlanta Journal and Constitition” reported in its
Sunday, June 9 edition that NOW sponsored rallies the
previous day in Boston, Washington, Los Angeles, San
Francisco and at least nine other cities. The purpose, accor
ding to the “Journal and Constitution,’’ was “to protest the
Roman Catholic Church’s stand against abortion and birth
control.”
In Washington, NOW national president Judy Goldsmith
placed a card on the steps of the headquarters of the Na
tional Conference of Catholic Bishops. It read: “In memory
of the women — Catholic and non-Catholic — who have suf
fered or died because of the Catholic hierarchy’s callous op-
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
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position to safe, legal abortion and birth control.”
Ms. Goldsmith, speaking to the demonstrators in
Washington, criticized Pope John Paul II and the hierarchy
for what she termed their “hateful” attack on Geraldine
Ferraro, who during her vice-presidential campaign said
that she did not support legislation to restrict abortion.
Prior to the 1984 campaign, Ms. Ferraro made statements
claiming that there are a variety of “legitimate” Catholic
positions on abortion. Catholic hierarchy, most notably
New York’s Cardinal John O’Connor, contradicted this
claim.
Reading the account of NOW’s rallies, one would think
that the Catholic Church is the only opponent of current
public policy allowing abortion-on-demand. In fact,
however, opponents include Baptists, Jews, Lutherans,
Muslims, Methodists and non-believers, as well as
Catholics. Major fundamentalist ministers, such as Rev.
Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, oppose abortion-on-
demand. The largest American Protestant church, the
Southern Baptist Convention, likewise opposes abortion-on-
demand.
Rather than argue their reasons for advocating abortion-
on-demand, NOW has launched this blatant anti-Catholic
attack. Drawing deep from the well of nineteenth and early-
twentieth century religious bigotry, Ms. Goldsmith is
quoted at the Washington rally as saying: “The pope and
his appointed emissaries make decisions and pursue
policies that impact women’s bodies and women’s lives in a
vacuum, oblivious to the pain and suffering their policies
cause.” What this evokes is an image of an alien potentate
whose operatives in America seek to impose their beliefs on
this country.
In fact, various public opinion polls consistently show
that a majority of Americans support abortion only in some
specific circumstances (for example, when the life or
health of the mother is in danger or in cases of rape or in
cest). Most Americans oppose abortion-on-demand.
The great strength of American democracy is the right
and responsibility to engage in vigorous debate on ques
tions of public policy. Abortion-on-demand is a public policy
issue which engenders particularly strong feelings. NOW
does not contribute to this legitimate debate by resorting to
the gutter politics of religious bigotry.
Economic Letter To Be Cut,
Bishops Told At Meeting
By Jerry Filteau
COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. (NC) — The U.S. bishops,
meeting in Collegeville June 14-18, strongly supported the
direction their economy pastoral is taking, but they asked
for a major rewriting of a pastoral letter on campus
ministry.
They also spent half a day listening to men and women
Religious and discussing issues they must face in opening
up a dialogue with Religious back in their own dioceses.
In closed-door sessions during the second half of the five-
day meeting, this fall’s world Synod of Bishops to review
the work of the Second Vatican Council was expected to be a
major topic of discussion.
The pastoral letter on Catholic social teaching and the
U.S. economy, considered one of the most significant and
controversial of the current undertakings of the American
hierarchy, was the major topic of the sessions which were
open to the press June 14 and 15.
“It’s clear that there’s still much work to be done (on the
economy pastoral) but it was clear to me that the bishops as
a group are strongly supportive of the project,” Bishop
James Malone of Youngstown, Ohio, president of the Na
tional Conference of Catholic Bishops, said to reporters
afterwards.
Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee, head of the
economy pastoral’s drafting committee, opened a series of
structured small-group discussions on the pastoral with a
report updating the bishops.
One major change he announced in the pastoral was a
decision by the committee to cut it by a third, from about
60,000 words to 40,000, in the next draft. Another, subject to
the approval of the bishops, was to try writing a much
shorter separate pastoral message to Catholics, far less
technical in nature than the complex, highly nuanced
larger document.
The pastoral is expected to be approved by the bishops
sometime in 1986.
While some bishops criticized the pastoral for taking
what they thought was too negative an attitude toward
capitalism and the American economic system, others said
that the major failing of the first draft was the absence of
any real critique of capitalism itself.
Many bishops expressed strong support for using a
“preferential option for the poor” as a basic framework for
the document. But others argued that the phrase lends itself
to divisiveness and is less applicable in the United States,
where most people are middle-class, than in many coun
tries that are basically two-class societies, the rich and the
poor.
While the specific criticisms of the pastoral on the
economy came within a framework of strong overall sup
port, the draft pastoral on campus ministry did not enjoy
the same reception at all.
“That kind of ran into a buzz-saw,” Bishop Malone said
later in a succinct summary to the press.
The drafting committee for the campus ministry
pastoral, headed by Bishop William Friend of Alexandria-
Shreveport, La., had engaged in extensive consultation
with presidents and deans of faculties in U.S. colleges and
universities in preparing the first draft. It had written the
pastoral in two sections, the first devoted to setting a con
text for campus ministry today by discussing the concerns
and ideals of leaders in U.S. higher education, with campus
ministry itself coming in for specific discussion only in the
second half.
After small-group discussions, in which each table of
bishops was asked to talk about what it considered the ma
jor strengths and weaknesses of the draft, almost every
group expressed some serious reservation about the struc
ture of the document, especially the general section on
higher education.
Many complained that the draft was not about campus
ministry, as mandated, but about higher education. Some
suggested eliminating the whole first section, others sug
gested turning it into a short introduction, and still others
suggested drastic restructuring to preserve more of that
part, but in a different way.
A number of bishops said the first draft was not a pastoral
letter, in which bishops speak to campus ministers, but
rather a statement of secular educators and campus
ministers to bishops.
In a session June 15 devoted to relations of U.S. bishops
with men and women Religious in their dioceses, Ar
chbishop John R. Quinn of San Francisco said the listening
sessions which the bishops have engaged in with Religious
over the past 18 months have brought “a renewed sense of
belonging by Religious in the local church....and, on the
part of the bishops, a new, deeper appreciation of religious
life.”
The next phase now beginning, he told the bishops, should
be a “real dialogue” in which both bishops and Religious
share views and seek to resolve tensions.