Newspaper Page Text
STATEMENT
Support For The Billboards
By WGST Radio
PAGE 4 — The Georgia Bulletin, November 21, 1985
The celebrated representative of Ramses
contraceptives came to town last week. He was
feted for a morning on WGST radio. Mr. Mark
Klein was in Atlanta to speak about his com
pany’s new promotion idea for their product,
namely billboards announcing the sale of their
contraceptives in Atlanta.
The show was an interesting exercise, as the
radio tape will demonstrate, in the silencing of
public objection on a controversial subject.
Mr. Klein and his radio host cozily huddled and
vocally bombarded the audience with ecstatic
praise for this product. Mr. Klein, sounding like a
combination of Protestant, Catholic and Jewish
Social Services, lauded his company’s motives
in reaching out to youngsters in trouble. No men
tion was made of profit motive. Mr. Klein did say
with almost infantile innocence that he was not
interested in making a moral statement, but pro
ceeded to make it unceasingly, with the station’s
permission, of course.
And there was more. The WGST radio host
along with Mr. Klein sang the praises of the
billboards, thirty of which are around Atlanta,
because, they said, they were “non-offensive.”
The host in his best juvenile-tone asked the au
dience if the text of the ad which he read was of
fensive. Then he asked the entire newsroom and
with editorial ease declared from the throne of
WGST that nothing in the text was offensive.
Well, we would like to disagree. And since we
called the show and were disallowed the oppor
tunity to do so on the air, we are going to do so
here.
One word on the ad which was read on the air
by WGST and the guest is SPERMICIDAL. We
believe this word may indeed by offensive to
many and most controversial in its definition.
The word is akin to words like homicide which
means the deliberate killing of a human life,
RESOUND
The Latin Mass
To the Editor:
In “The Question Corner” (October 31 issue) you printed
a letter from an elderly man (80) who expressed his delight
with the new customs of the Church. Your response was af
firmative. I, too, am elderly (70) and I, too, am delighted
with many of the good things that are happening in our
Church. However, I do not see everything as good. Would
you give me the courtesy of equal time?
There are, I believe, a sizeable number of Catholics who
cherish the Latin Mass. Unfortunately, the official stand of
the hierarchy seems to be for “old fashion” Catholics to
“shape up or ship out.” I am one of those many “old
fashion” Catholics. I take no pride in saying this. For
several years I struggled to adjust to the English Mass as it
passed through its traumatic experimentations before it
reached its present more or less stabilized ritual. I still find
little comfort in the English Mass.
The solemnity (and, yes, I admit, the mystery) of the
Latin Mass is missing in the English version. The Holy
Sacrament is still the Real Presence, but in some Catholic
churches it has become more like the memorial service of a
Protestant church. And this impression is heightened by the
lamentable lack of homilies and instructions on the Real
Presence. It is almost as if the Church is embarrassed to
talk about Transubstantiation for fear of being labeled
superstitious.
In one church I attended, the priest opened the taber
nacle, took out the consecrated Host, and closed the door
without even so much as a token genuflection. And in a
larger church, with three priests officiating, as one priest
opened the tabernacle (and he did take the trouble to
suicide, the killing of oheself, fratricide, the kill
ing of a brother, matricide, the killing of a
mother. Spermicide when defined means the
KILLING of the seed of LIFE.
We believe the word thrown out before the
young (Mr. Klein wants it before high school
students) may be in need of explanation and ex
pansion. We are offended by its callous use in
public and its sarcastic display on the airwaves
by a community media outlet.
WGST morning radio through simple ig
norance may not have found this matter offen
sive. They may have intended to treat the entire
matter in a cavalier way and they succeeded. The
point, however, is that others, including
ourselves, wished to exercise an opportunity of
simple objection and we were denied. In fact, on
the airwaves, we Were angrily told that we could
not take the opportunity to use that forum to
state our objection.
There is always room for controversy. We
should welcome the dialogue. But we protest
WGST’s bullying tactics, we protest their
editorial canonization of this product and we pro
test their rude and censorial practices as they
use a public commodity — the airwaves of this
community — to decide who can speak on con
troversial subjects.
It was obvious that WGST morning radio, hav
ing procured the exclusive presence of Ramses
representative within the sanctuary of their
studio intended to pronounce this spermicidal
contraption “Product of the Year.” Through
carefully screened calls and the petty power of
hanging up on the caller, they achieved their pur
pose. Nice going!
WGST proudly calls itself News-Talk radio. For
some segments of their present format let us
suggest a new title. How about “We’ll Talk —
You’ll Listen” radio. -NCB
genuflect) the second priest (up in years) knelt and the
third priest (not long out of the seminary) stood. These
various attitudes seemed to be saying to the congregation:
“Do your own thing. Genuflect, kneel, or stand before the
Host. After all (implied) it is only a memorial supper.”
I have a suggestion. Now that the Vatican has given a
belated blessing to the Tridentine Mass, why not have at
least one Latin Mass a week in every church, or, if that is
not feasible (some priests do not know Latin), designate
one church to have the Latin Mass weekly? And give ade
quate publicity to this move so that all Catholics (active and
fallen away) will be aware of it.
If — and I know she is — the Church is genuinely in
terested in her fallen away children returning to the one
fold (many left after the Latin Mass was dropped) then why
not budge just a little and see what happens? I suspect hun
dreds, maybe thousands, of Catholics will “come home” to
the Latin Mass.
Catholics who wish to help perpetuate the Latin Mass
(and this does not mean replacing the English with the
Latin Mass) may wish to contact the Latin Liturgy Associa
tion, P.O. Box 80426, Baton Rouge, LA 70898. This group
works closely with the hierarchy, and counts 22 American
bishops among its members.
John F. Holder
Atlanta
Archbishop's Notebook
Saturday, November 23 — Principal celebrant and
homilist for Rite of Dedication at Saint Thomas the
Apostle, Smyrna.
Sunday, November 24 — Principal celebrant and
homilist for Feast of Christ the King at Cathedral of
Christ the King.
The Week
In Review
NAMES AND PLACES — A special council of cardinals
that deals with financial and organizational problems of the
Holy See met at the Vatican Nov. 19-20, the Vatican
has announced. The meeting of the 14-member council will
be followed by a three-day meeting of the College of Car
dinals. At the end of the second meeting, a Vatican state
ment said Nov. 9, information about the Holy See’s finances
will be made public. The statement did not say what the
council would discuss, but in previous meetings the group
has grappled with an increasing budget shortfall that was
expected to total about $30 million this year. The difference
has been made up out of the annual Peter’s Pence collection
and from the Vatican’s investment funds.
POPE JOHN PAUL II will visit 14 cities during a Feb.
1-10 visit to India, the Vatican announced Nov. 18. The
schedule includes four stops in the Kerala state, where the
majority of India’s Catholics live. It will be the pope’s 29th
trip outside Italy and his first to India. The pope plans to
stay three days in the Indian capital of New Delhi after his
arrival there Feb. 1, the Vatican said. He will stop briefly at
the manufacturing city of Ranchi on his way to Calcutta
Feb. 3. The pope will make a day trip to Shillong, a resort
town in the northeastern corner of India, Feb. 4. The
schedule calls for the pope to leave Calcutta Feb. 5 for visits
to several cities along the country’s southern coast. He will
stop briefly at the exporting center of Madras on his way to
Goa, where he will remain for two days. On Feb. 6, he will
travel during the day to the manufacturing port of
Bangalore.
*****
AROUND THE NATION - U.S. Secretary of Education
William J. Bennett introduced the Reagan administration’s
proposal Nov. 13 to give vouchers to poor parents in both
public and private schools. At a Washington news con
ference Bennett said vouchers would give parents “a ticket
to find the best possible schools for their children and the
best possible opportunities.” Legislation was expected to be
introduced by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, and Rep. Pat
Swindall, R-Ga., within a week. The Reagan administration
has pushed unsuccessfully for tuition tax credits for all
private school parents. Bennett said the voucher program
for educationally handicapped students would not be
vulnerable to the criticism tuition tax credits received —
that the proposal is too expensive and takes the brightest
students out of the public schools. He said the vouchers,
$600 per student, would not cost most than the current $3.6
billion in federal remedial aid provided under Chapter I of
the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act. Also,
he said, the private schools could not be accused of “cream
skimming” since the students would be educationally and
financially disadvantaged.
*****
INTERNATIONALLY — If non-violent opposition groups
in the Philippines would unite behind one candidate in a fair
election, President Ferdinand Marcos would lose, said two
Filipino bishops. “There’s no dearth of leaders, although
aging ones, among the opposition,” said Archbishop Jesus
Dosado of Osamiz. “All have their programs, but it would
be better for the country to try (just) one of them. One of
them could win a fair election. “If the opposition could only
agree on one candidate to run against the president, then I
am certain that Marcos will go down,” said Bishop
Federico Escaler, head of the Ipil Prelature. However, he
added, if the opposition cannot agree on a candidate, Mar
cos will win.
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Most Rev. Thomas A. Donneilan Publisher
Rev. Monsignor Noel C. Burtenshaw Editor
Gretchen R. Keiser Associate Editor
Rita Mclnerney Contributing Editor
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