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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (May 21, 1987)
Southern Priests BY CAROLE WILLIAMS BILOXI, Miss. (NC) — At their first joint gathering, the priests of Mississippi and Alabama were challenged to evangelize blacks, fight racism in and outside the church, and be advocates for the poor. They also were urged to welcome collaborative ministry with the laity and to develop attitudes of trust and openness to help deal with frustration and loneliness. Some 180 priests from the two states gathered in Biloxi with their bishops May 4-7 for the first convocation of the priests of the ecclesiastical province of Mobile, Ala. The province, headed by the Mobile Archdiocese, also includes the Birmingham Diocese in Alabama and the Biloxi and Jackson dioceses in Mississippi. In an opening address on the meeting's theme, “Priestly Life and Ministry in the South,” Bishop William Houck of Jackson said that Southern priests need to evangelize blacks in a region “where racism still exists in the hearts of the people and in our own hearts" ed To Fight Racism, “In an area where the Catholic Church is still seen as a white man’s church, we must offer our Catholic faith to all of these people — all of God’s people. We must develop positive attitudes, willingness and the skills to minister (to blacks),” said Bishop Houck, an Alabama native. In another address Trinity Missions Brother Loughlan Sofield, a psychologist, told priests that they cannot deal ef fectively with anger, frustrations and loneliness in their lives by suppressing those feelings and becoming “con secrated refrigerators.” To deal with their feelings, priests need to develop “in timate” or “inner circle" relationships with “your fellow priests and the lay people you serve,” said Brother Sofield, co-director of the Trinity Ministries Center in Stirling, N.J. “Are you willing to allow yourself to be known and to allow people to care about you?” he asked. “The greatest mistake you can make is to stand alone.... You can't be lov ing, compassionate priests unless you develop a capacity for intimacy.” He said opening oneself to intimacy is “a risk with no PAGE 13 — The Georgia Bulletin. May 21, 198' White Church image guarantees. But priests and bishops need “to create a climate of safety, trust,” in which they can openly express their own “needs, desires and fears” and challenge one another to deal with problems, he said. Bishop Houck said his Diocese of Jackson, with a 40 per cent black population, "has a higher percentage of blacks than any other U.S. diocese.” He said priests and lay people in the South "live in a culture that is still racist but must learn to deal with one another interracially.” Describing Alabama and Mississippi as “mostly rural, predominantly Protestant and strained with poverty,” Bishop Houck urged priests to develop “attitudes and skills of evangelization which will “advocate justice for the poor and “bring Christ into the marketplace, our homes, our recreation, everywhere we are between morn ing coffee and evening scotch.” He also asked priests to welcome the growing role of the laity in the church and view active lay ministry “as a new, vibrant opportunity for the life of the church, rather than a burden.” Priests' Group Asks For Hunthausen Settlement BY KAY URTZ ST. PAUL, Minn. (NCl- Delegates to the National Federation of Priests’ Councils have called on their bishops to help resolve “the impasse that presently exists” between Arch bishop Raymond Hunt hausen of Seattle and the Holy See. Meeting in St. Paul May 11-15, first in general con vention and then as the federation's House of Delegates, the priests also passed several resolutions urging more justice for church personnel and back ing a variety of justice and peace activities. The priests voted 121-3 for a resolution which said Archbishop Hunthausen should have his authority restored to him immediate ly, completely and uncondi tionally. The Butterfly Religious Gifts For Every occasion 471-0704 8558 Tara Blvd. Jonesboro ATTENTION Time On Your Hands EARN $$$ SELLING NO RUN PANTYHOSE No Investment Or Inventory CALL 587-4556 SE HABLA ESPANOL The Vatican-requested division of authority be tween the archbishop and his auxiliary, Bishop Donald Wuerl, is “extreme ly divisive” and “has not in fact brought about any positive results,” the resolution said. The divi sion of authority was an nounced last September. The resolution was in troduced by delegates from the Seattle priests' council and was co-sponsored by councils or associations of 10 other dioceses. The federation elected Father Joseph Brink of Covington, Ky., as presi dent-elect for the coming year and president from 1988 to 1990. He is to succeed Father Richard Hynes of Newark, N.J. The federation’s two-day business session May 14-15 followed a three-day gener- PROFF.SSIONAL PAINTING Interior Specialists 17 yrs. 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He said the pastoral has helped American Catholics stop looking at religion as “a private affair between me and my God.” divorced from the public arena. At another session Im maculate Heart of Mary Sister Amata Miller, an economist, said America is experiencing a "dramatic shift in the distribution of income” which moves the country away from its earlier ideals of equality for all people. She urged priests to take up the challenge of the pastoral by adopting a simpler lifestyle. If enough Americans were to live more simply day by day, she said, it would make an “enormous difference” for the Third World. Peter Steinfels, editor of the Catholic lay journal Commonweal, said the economy pastoral “is far from completed” and in fact is just the beginning of a long process of education and challenge. 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In resolutions they ap proved, federation dele gates: — Called unanimously for more justice for workers in the church. — Backed a motion to promote use of inclusive or gender-neutral language, — Opposed, 115-4, further U.S. aid to the contras. — Supported, 119-2, the recent anti-nuclear peace protest in Nevada. — Urged, by a 119-3 vote, congressional support for a peace tax fund. — Backed, 119-1, the sanctuary movement’s ef forts to give a safe haven in the United States to refugees from Central America. — Called, without dis sent, for action to bring about full employment as a U.S. policy. — Urged, with one oppos ing vote, the release of public financial statements each year by the Holy See. First Communion Confirmation Graduation GIFTS FOR ALL OCCASIONS (Custom ~Jrni/itations Loehmann’s Plaza 8610 Roswell Road Atlanta, Georgia 30338 993-7554 GEORGIA BULLETIN Ads Bring Results!
