Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 8 — The Georgia Bulletin, November 14,1985
Mrs. Tutu
(Continued from Page 1)
despite the fact that they
work 10 and 14 hour days
and, like South African
black men, are prohibited
by their employer from
joining their families once
the work day is over.
Leah Tutu was born on
Oct. 14, 1932 in the town of
Krugersdorp where she
spent most of her life.
Krugersdorp is located in
the Transvaal area of South
Africa. She married Des
mond Tutu in 1955. To
gether they have four
children, Naomi, Trevor,
Thandeka, Mpou. For two
decades after her marriage
Leah Tutu traveled with her
family and worked closely
with her husband, Bishop
Desmond Tutu. Leah Tutu
is a teacher by profession
and trained for a period of
time in the field of nursing.
Leah Tutu was reminded
that some would hold that
the new South Africa would
be a communist state. “Let
me say first of all that com
munism is a white thing. I
do not believe or see any
evidence that blacks are
waiting to become com
munists. However, at the
moment we are being
governed by a white
government that calls itself
Christian. Just look at the
treatment we received in
the name of Christianity. If
we were to choose com
munism, then as long as it is
chosen freely and demo
cratically by a majority of
our people, surely, it is
their right to do so.”
Mrs. Tutu continued on
this point to say that “those
nations who say we will
become communists if we
get majority rule say so in
order to continue their pre
sent investment in cheap
black suffering.”
Quietly this gentle wo
man voiced the suffering of
the black people of her na
tion. She spoke about the
pass laws, which kept
blacks in check. She appeal
ed to American youth to
remember that South
African youth have no
freedoms. She urged young
Americans to “act in
government’’ to change
systems of segregation. She
asked all Americans to put
pressure on the U.S.
government to speak out on
behalf of the “rightless”
people of South Africa.
There were also ques
tions about Christian
denominations’ support of
the black cause in South
Africa. “Well,’’responded
Mrs. Tutu without hesita
tion, “the whites of South
Africa are for the most part
Christian. Some leaders
help and speak. For exam
ple, Archbishop Hurley of
Durban has been an excep
tional opponent of apar
theid but he is only one. In
the past there has been little
help from others.”
The problem of South
Africa is liberation. Leah
Tutu made this point clear.
“We need jobs, basic
human rights, minimum
wages, education, and end
to cheap labor practices.
We need all these things in
our country but the
greatest need of all is
liberation. That now must
come first.”
Mrs. Tutu spoke to the
student body at Morehouse
College and was greeted by
all the city leadership. She
was a guest in her speaking
tour of the American
Friends Service Commit
tee.
LIVING THE DREAM — Coret-
ta Scott King, widow of slain civil
rights leader the Rev. Martin
Luther King Jr., and Cardinal
Joseph Bernardin of Chicago
meet at a Chicago luncheon to an
nounce plans for the first federal
holiday celebration of Dr. King’s
birthday Jan. 20. Mrs. King is
chairwoman of the Martin Luther
King Jr. Federal Holiday Com
mission and Cardinal Bernardin
is co-chairman of the State Holi
day Council in Illinois. (NC photo
by Owen Phelps Jr.)
Synod
(Continued on Page 8)
America, Washington, that
he had a positive view of
the church since Vatican
II. The cardinal attended
the last four regular world
synods and is a member of
the synod’s permanent
secretariat.
Both churchmen em
phasized collegiality — the
shared authority of the
pope and bishops — and na-
tional bishops’ con
ferences.
Bishop Malone said that
“the council’s impetus to
collegiality, and specifical
ly to episcopal conferences,
should be reinforced and
developed.”
“The nature of the ques
tions we face today — doc
trinal judgments, pastoral
adaptations, new needs of
all sorts — requires a struc
ture wherein to share ex
periences, establish pri
orities and share strat
egies,” Bishop Malone told
the NCCB.
Cardinal Bernardin told
the university audience the
synod “undoubtedly” will
discuss “the future of col
legiality,” and “one crucial
dimension” of that is the
status and function of
bishops’ conferences.
The cardinal said he
could understand “le
gitimate concerns” about
national conferences stif
ling the voices of individual
bishops, “but I fear much
more what would be lost if
the capability to project a
unified voice on both
pastoral and policy ques
tions were diminished.”
The bishops of Ontario
said that “national con
ferences of bishops...
should be accepted and
supported as indispensible
realities for the life of the
church...especially in deal
ing with national govern
ments and for contribu
tions to national life and
culture.”
In a report presented to
the Canadian bishops at
their general meeting in
October, the Ontario
bishops also said collegiali
ty “requires a fresh em
phasis.”
At the same meeting,
Archbishop Maxim Her-
maniuk of Winnipeg,
Manitoba, head of Can
ada’s Ukrainian Cath
olics, said he would pro
pose at the synod estab
lishing a permanent
legislative body drawn
from the world’s bishops to
decide church questions
with the pope. Currently,
the bishops have an ad
visory role in matters af
fecting the whole church,
and that is not truly col
legial, Archbishop Hema-
niuk said.
“The Roman Curia
would have the executive
power” to “put into prac
tice the decisions of the
permanent synod,” he
said.
Retired Bishop Alex
ander Carter of Sault Ste.
Marie, Ontario, said a
similar proposal at the 1969
synod was “coolly receiv
ed...it just died.”
Cardinal Eugenio de
Araujo Sales of Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil, said in a
newspaper article that
some bishops act “as if
they could substitute” for
the pope.
Cardinal Sales, one of the
several papal appointees to
the synod, also said the
church should act decisive
ly against errors by
theologians and others,
even if it draws public
criticism. His comments
appeared in the Oct. 9 edi
tion of the Vatican
newspaper, L’Osservatore
Romano.
The cardinal said that
since Vatican II, Latin
America has experienced
weakening of church unity,
growth of religious sects,
social injustice and the
development of Marxist
ideologies. The synod
should discuss those pro
blems, he said.
The cardinal also said
the synod should “correct
in a timely, clear and effi
cient way the theological
errors that are multiply
ing,” he said. “Surgical
measures, not clinical
measures, are necessary in
many circumstances.”
On the bright side, he
said Vatican II stimulated
pastoral action and lay par
ticipation, citing basic
Christian communities as
the “visible evidence of
this positive transforma
tion.”
Basic Christian com
munities are small groups
that meet for Bible study
and prayer.
The president of the
Philippine bishops’ con
ference, Archbishop An
tonio Mabutas y Lloren of
Davao, has said Filipino
delegates to the extraor
dinary synod will recom
mend greater emphasis on
lay formation through
basic Christian com
munities.
The laity’s mission is the
theme of the 1987 world
Synod of Bishops. That
synod, originally scheduled
for 1985, was postponed
after the extraordinary
synod was scheduled.
Cardinal George Basil
Hume of Westminster,
England, president of the
English and Welsh bishops,
has said the extraordinary
synod will be too short to
produce major results.
“The synod is first and
foremost an event to
celebrate an anniversary”
of Vatican II, and “not
much time has been set
aside for an adequate
discussion in Rome on very
many aspects of the chur
ch’s life,” he said Nov. 5 at
a London press conference.
However, Archbishop
Lefebvre said the synod’s
goal is “to exclude all judg
ment or criticism of the
council.”
In an interview with the
Italian news agency ANSA,
the 79-year-old archbishop
described the synod as “the
second stage of the revolu
tion begun by the council,
which is leading to self-
destruction.”
Archbishop Lefebrve,
former head of the arch
dioceses of Tulle, France
and Dakar, Senegal, has
consistently rejected the
council’s teachings and has
been in conflict with the
Vatican.
In 1976 Pope Paul VI
suspended him from his
priestly functions after the
archbishop defied papal
orders and ordained priests
at a traditionalist seminary
he had established in
Econe, Switzerland.
Sr. Margaret Ellen Traxler
Speaks At Pro-Choice Rally
BY JOHN F. FINK
INDIANAPOLIS (NC) — Archbishop Edward T.
O’Meara of Indianapolis said Sister Margaret Ellen Trax
ler committed a “serious ecclesial impropriety” in giving
the keynote speech at a pro-choice rally in his archdiocese
Nov. 2.
At the rally, picketed by pro-lifers, Sister Traxler defend
ed-choice of abortion as a woman’s right, saying it “is a
God-given gift to exercise our free will.”
Sister Traxler is a Chicago-based School Sister of Notre
Dame and a founder of the National Coalition of American
Nuns. She is among a group of U.S. nuns facing a Vatican
threat of dismissal from their orders because they signed a
statement, published as an advertisement in The New York
Times last year, which declared that there is more than one
“legitimate Catholic position” on the morality of abortion.
In a letter to pastors in the archdiocese Oct. 31, Arch
bishop O’Meara said he had learned the previous day of
Sister Traxler’s scheduled appearance at North United
Methodist Church for the Nov. 2 rally, sponsored by the In
dianapolis chapter of the National Organization for Women
and several other organizations.
“Her often-stated position on abortion is not reconcilable
with the clearly and frequently stated position of the
Catholic Church,” the archbishop wrote.
He cited the Second Vatican Council’s statement that
“life must be protected with the utmost care from the mo
ment of conception: abortion and infanticide are
abominable crimes.”
He also quoted from public statements of the U.S.
bishops’ position, such as the response to The New York
Times ad issued by the bishops’ Committee on Doctrine last
year. The committee said that the view expressed in the ad,
“however sincerely motivated, contradicts the clear and
constant teaching of the church that deliberately chosen
abortion is objectively immoral. It is not a legitimate moral
choice.”
Explaining why in his letter he called Sister Traxler’s ap
pearance a “serious ecclesial impropriety,” Archbishop
O’Meara said a Catholic nun is an ecclesial person, a
representative of the church. Because of her past
statements and activities, she could not presume permis
sion to speak publicly in the Indianapolis Archdiocese, he
said, and it was improper for her to do so.
In her speech Sister Traxler noted the pickets protesting
the rally and said, “I ask every man who is out marching on
a picket line, or is the leader of a religious organization, to
instead go out and teach other men the responsibility of
paternity.” Abortion was necessary because of “a male-
dominated political system that is rife.”