Newspaper Page Text
The
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 23. No. 38
Thursday, October 31, 1985
$12.00 Per Year
Priests Counsel
Victims Of AIDS
BY GRETCHEN REISER
About a dozen priests from the archdiocese were among
some 70 people from different denominations who met
Oct. 24 to learn more about the disease AIDS and to talk
about the pastoral needs of AIDS patients and their
families.
Several of the priests interviewed later said that they
have already been asked to counsel AIDS patients in Atlan
ta hospitals or that they had encountered AIDS patients
during their regularly scheduled visits to Catholic patients
in the hospital.
“In a little over a month...I’ve had two deaths (from
AIDS), three patients and a fourth being readmitted” to the
hospital, said Father Alan Dillmann, who is pastor of Holy
Spirit Church in northwest Atlanta and a hospital chaplain
at West Paces Ferry Hospital. Four of the six people are
Catholic, Father Dillmann said, and the other two asked to
see a priest because they wanted to join the Catholic
Church. For himself in a little over a month’s time, Father
Dillmann said, awareness of AIDS and encounters with it
have “moved from an academic question in the press to
real flesh and blood people.”
The gap between publicity about AIDS and the reality of
the disease, whose initials stand for Acquired Immune Defi-
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SENIOR SMILES — Some of this year’s senior students attended the
dedication ceremony Oct. 26 looking very pleased with the new St.
Pius. They are from left, President of the Senior Council and
Homecoming King Eddie Aquirre, Homecoming Queen Anne Payne,
Jeanne McAllister, Susy Ajoy and Marianna Lee. More photos pages 10
and 11.
THE NEW LIBRARY in St.
Pius has been named for a famous
Catholic Georgian. She was, of
course, Flannery O’Connor. Pic
tured after the blessing are (1 to
r), Father Terry Young, principal
of the high school, Archbishop
Thomas A. Donnellan and Father
Richard Lopez, faculty member
of St. Pius.
L'Arche: A Community Of Friends
BY RITA
McINERNEY
“L’Arche?”
“What’s that?”
Hardly a household
name. L’Arche terms
itself a worldwide
federation of com
munities in which han
dicapped people and
others live, work and
share their lives
together. L’Arche
tries to follow the
Gospel message and
Beatitudes of Jesus in
20th century society.
French-Canadian
Jean Vanier started
L’Arche (the Ark) in
1964 when he made a
home for two mentally
handicapped men who
were confined to
a crowded asylum.
From the beginning,
this house in the small
village of Trosly-
Breuil, France, was to
provide a family, a
community of friends
living together in a
way that each person
might find security
and dignity in human
relationships, respect
for one another, and
fulfilment in giving
and sharing life.
Soon Vanier was
drawing people from
all over the world to
Trosly to become
“assistants.” Even
tually these assistants
went home to their
own countries and
started L’Arche com
munities.
Nine years ago,
George Durner, a
native of Statesboro,
Ga., went to the
L’Arche community of
Daybreak in Rich
mond Hill, Ontario,
Canada. Four years
later he became direc
tor of the L’Arche
community in Win
nipeg where he, wife
Danielle and their two
daughters live now.
On Sunday, Nov. 10,
Durner will speak at
an open meeting on
forming and suppor
ting a L’Arche com
munity in Atlanta. It
will be held from 3 to 5
p.m. in Suite 509, Ken-
nesaw Life Building,
1447 Peachtree St. The
Georgia Advocacy Of
fice, Inc., will be host
and the award
winning documentary,
“The Heart Has Its
Reasons” will be
shown. The video was
filmed at Trosly which
is now the center of a
L’Arche community of
hundreds of people in
neighboring villages
and the town of Com-
piegne.
Durner wrote of his
experience at L’Arche
in a column for Seeds,
a Canadian periodical
ministry. He speaks of
the gifts and talents he
brought as fine and
good, but not what was
really needed. He
eventually realized
what caused the void
he felt:
“Now the one who
came to teach is being
taught. The one who
came to help is being
helped. The one who
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