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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 12, 1987)
PAGE 4 — The Georgia Bulletin, February 12, 1987 STATEMENT Laurie Laurie Slagle’s life was marked by simplicity. She welcomed you into her kitchen, where lots of kids, her own and others who found a comfor table place, dropped in and out. Her sense of humor, which was frank and down-to-earth, perceived people honestly but kindly. It seemed she didn’t like pretense, but was accepting of shortcomings and very comfortable with everyone’s humanity. Talking about others, she warmed to their funny qualities, their foibles and their little faults. But she sought their warmth and was disappointed and admittedly angry when people and the world turned a cold and hard shoulder toward herself or anyone else. Yet to be simple is to be unusual. Raising a family that grew to have 11 children and taking on that degree of household tasks, of sickness and accidents, of financial worries and difficult days was, very quietly, a statement of her Catholic faith. It was a statement that was made for years with only a few knowing explicitly that this faith was at work and this faith was her strength. It could have remained that way with a relatively small world of people being touched by her strength, and by the source sustaining her. Instead, quite unexpectedly for a private per son, her faith became a matter of public atten- Slagle tion. When she embraced her last pregnancy and the birth of her son, Jonathan, despite her own grave illness, she displayed extraordinary strength and courage. Whatever she may have felt, she was unwavering in trust and kept look ing, not at the very real difficulties, but at her Lord. From that posture she believed in and came to see the birth of her healthy son and kept extending confidence and faith and good works to others, without self pity, until her death. Perhaps the story is so difficult to tell because, unlike many, Laurie Slagle did not talk a lot about her own faith, a faith marked especial ly by a devotion to Mary and an unconditional ac ceptance of the gift of life. But to look at her willingness to help people and to trust God, to accept the cross and to love others joyfully and with sacrifice was to be struck by faith and to desire more cfneself. It is a quality of her entire family, who shared in her faithfulness and in her cross. The thought that comes to mind is that one does not light a lamp of faith and then hide it. One places it upon a lampstand for all the world to see. --GRK RESOUND "Excellent Reporting" To The Editor: February is Catholic Press Month. As president of the Atlanta Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women, I would like to congratulate the staff of The Georgia Bulletin on their excellent reporting, fully, fairly, accurately, the events of the day as they relate to Christians. We are very fortunate to have a Catholic weekly newspaper in our archdiocese. We are grateful for all of your excellent coverage and support of our A.A.C.C.W. We appreciate your excellent cooperation in helping us further the Lord's work through A.A.C.C.W. programs. Keep up the good work reporting for the people in our archdiocese. Joan Lucas Board of Directors of A.A.C.C.W. Marietta (USPS) 574880 Catholic-Archdiocese of Atlanta Business Office U S A $12.00 680 West Peachtree, N.W Canada $ 12.50 Atlanta, Georgia 30308 Foreign $14.00 Phone. 888-7832 Most Rev. Thomas A. Donnellan Publisher Gretchen R. Keiser Editor Rita Mclnerney Associate Editor DEADLINE: All material for publication must be received by MONDAY NOON tor Thursday's paper. Postmaster: Send POD Form 3579 to THE GEORGIA BULLETIN 601 East Sixth Street, Waynesboro, Georgia 30830 Send all editorial correspondence to THE GEORGIA BULLETIN 680 West Peachtree Street N.W. Atlanta, Georgia 30308 Second Class Postage Paid at Waynesboro. Ga 30830 Published Weekly except the second and last weeks In June, July and August and the last week in December at 601 East Sixth St., Waynesboro. Ga. 30830 I>r. Bertell To The Editor: I am writing on behalf of Dr. Rosalie Bertell to thank you for the article you wrote for the Georgia Bulletin January 8, 1987. Dr. Bertell was very pleased with the article. Such positive media coverage is certainly appreciated. The Catholic community has indeed been very supportive. Jean Westney International Institute of Concern for Public Health Toronto Ukrainian Plight To The Editor: Thank you so very much for printing the excellent arti cle: “Will the Pope Visit Russia” by Ivan J. Kauffman. Mr. Kauffman so aptly describes his observations on the very sad situation existing for the non-Russian republics like the Ukraine, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia within the Soviet Union. This on-going smothering of faith and cultural heritage by the Communist Soviet government is not widely known by most Americans. In the early 1930s over seven million Ukrainians starved to death because of a pseudo famine imposed by Stalin in order to silence and destroy the spirit of the Ukrainian people. Being Catholic, a first generation Ukrainian-American, and a member of the Ukrainian National Women's League of America (Atlanta Chapter) there is a constant work to keep the candle burn ing for our brothers and sisters in the Ukraine and all those behind the iron curtain. May our Holy Father, John Paul’s endeavours be suc cessful so he can and will journey within the Soviet Union to minister to all his people in 1988! Let us entrust these ethnic groups and all those whose faith and national identity are threatened to Mary whenever we pray and contemplate the Hail Holy Queen Rosary Prayer — O Mother of Mercy, hail our life, our sweetness and our hope! To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears; turn then most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards us, and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb Jesus ... O Clement, O Loving, O Sweet Virgin Mary! Ann Sgier Doraville The Week In Review NAMES AND PLACES — Family planning services should not be included in the health and counseling services provided in school clinics, a representative of the bishops of the five dioceses of New Jersey said. Two bills pending in the state legislature would create a pilot program of at least six clinics that would include such services. Speaking on behalf of the bishops, William F. Bolan, Jr., executive director of the New Jersey Catholic Conference, based in Trenton, said the bishops support "needed health and psychological counseling services to students, especially those in urban areas whose families may not be financially able to meet the costs of such services.’’ The bishops, however, “oppose pro viding family planning services in such clinics. In other states, a great deal of controversy has developed around the issues of providing family counseling to teen-agers presum ed to be sexually active. These services often include con traception and abortion counseling or referral and violate the religious values of many,” Bolan said. “The conference is anxious to support those programs which will address adolescent sexuality and pregnancy in a moral context that respects the dignity of human life, marriage and the family." FATHER GEORGE STALLINGS, head of the Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, said the presence of black Catholic leaders and the inclusion of aspects of black culture and spirituality in worship are attracting more blacks to the Catholic church. He made the comment while in Baltimore to participate in a meeting of black Catholic priests. Religious and lay leaders Jan. 28-29. The session was to prepare for the National Black Catholic Conference to take place May 21-24 at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. Father Stallings, pastor of a predominantly black parish in Washington, D.C. noted the church traditionally has been viewed as a “white” church. Referring to black leaders at tending the session, he said, "we have made Roman Catholicism more appealing to blacks.” The number of black Catholics is on the rise, having increased 30 percent to 1.3 million since 1980, officials said. Auxiliary Bishop John Ricard of Baltimore, congress coordinator, said that con gress delegates will take home a pastoral plan of ideas for making their diocese sensitive to the needs of black Catholics. Among topics needing discussion, he listed the closing of schools and other institutions vital to inner-city neighborhoods but costly to run, social justice issues, and black identity in the church. ***** INTERNATIONALLY — A Polish cardinal has turned down a request from a delegation of Auschwitz survivors that he remove a Carmelite convent from the former Nazi concentration camp, according to Yitzhak Arad, chairman of Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum and a member of the delegation. In an Israeli radio interview Arad said that during the meeting with Cardinal Franciszek Macharski of Krakow, the delegation said the Carmelite convent sym bolizes a change in the meaning of Auschwitz where an estimated two million Jews were gassed to death during World War II. He said the cardinal opposed the removal of the convent and said its presence does not harm Jewish in terests at the site. Auschwitz is the German name for Oswiecim, the Polish city 32 miles west of Krakow where the former death camp is located. "We should oppose any addi tion to the camp," Jewish or Christian. Arad said. The con vent was established at the old theater at Auschwitz in 1984. At a meeting last year between five European cardinals and Jewish leaders an accord was reached in which the theater building would not undergo alterations. Jewish groups say the convent’s presence may eventually erase the Jewish significance of Auschwitz, HAITI'S SITUATION, in the year after the fall of dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, "has worsened at every level — economic, social and political,” the country’s bishops have said. In a statement read in churches to mark the anniversary of Duvalier’s departure, the bishops said that “to make changes, new men are needed," in the govern ment. Vatican Radio reported on thestatement Feb. 6. “Is it possible to plan the evolution of the political system without a purge in the administration?” the statement asked adding that many promises of reform have not been kept. Haiti’s provisional government, headed by Lt. Gen. Henri Namphy, has organized free presidential elections for November, and work has begun on writing a new constitution. But critics say widespread corruption in the country has not been checked and the lives of the poverty-stricken majority have not changed. Haiti is one of the western hemisphere’s poorest nations.
