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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 8, 1987)
o Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta Vol. 25 No. 35 Thursday, October 8, 1987 $12.00 Per Year U.S. Bishops' Panel Catholics Need Bible Study; Drawn To Fundamentalism WASHINGTON (NC)-A U.S. bishops’ committee issued a pastoral statement Sept. 30 calling for a plan to counteract the “simpli cities” of biblical funda mentalism. Saying the Catholic Church has not done enough to encourage Bible study, the bishops’ statement cites the need for: — Weekly Bible study groups and yearly Bible schools in every parish. — In parts of the country where “there is a special problem with fundamen talism,” Masses to which people bring their own Bibles. — Better homilies that apply biblical texts to daily life. — Catechists, lectors and ministers who can quote the Bible with familiarity. The nine-page statement, titled “A Pastoral State ment for Catholics on Biblical Fundamental ism,” was written by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Biblical Fundamentalism. Arch bishop John F. Whealon of Hartford, Conn., is chair man of the committee. The statement acknow ledges Catholics may be at tracted to the fundamen talist approach without realizing its “serious weak nesses,” and says biblical fundamentalism, unlike Catholicism, finds all an swers in the Bible and dis regards the teaching au thority of the church. “According to fundamen- (Continued on page 10) Archbishop Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan is in St. Joseph’s Hospital this week in serious condition. The archbishop was readmitted to the hospital Sept. 30 with continuing dif ficulties stemming from the afteref fects of a stroke suffered May 1 and recurring infection and dehydration. During August the archbishop had been under the care of the Hawthorne Dominican sisters at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cancer Home. He received a phone call from Pope John Paul II Sept. 11 while the pope was in Columbia, S.C. and attended the Mass of the Resurrection Sept. 4 for Sister Stella Maris Bergin, R.S.M., who had Hospitalized cared for him at St. Joseph’s earlier this summer. Two days before reentering the hospital the archbishop was visited briefly by Archbishop Pio Laghi, the Apostolic Pro-Nuncio for the United States. Archbishop Laghi, the pope’s representative in this country, was in formed by the archdiocese in August that the archbishop’s health prevented him carrying out his pastoral care of the archdiocese at this time, and Mon signor John McDonough was elected administrator. This July marked the 19th anniversary of archbishop’s pastoral leadership of the archdiocese. St. Vincent de Paul Society HUNGER AWARENESS — Second-grade teacher Carol Fox at Christ the King School. A “soup lunch” will be served Oct. 15 and money donated to soup kitchens and night shelters. Story on page 3. "The First Who Stepped Out To Help Us" BY PAULA DAY Poverty hasn’t gone away. Neither has sickness nor unex pected misfortune. Members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society are aware of this and are at the forefront in the Church’s efforts to carry out Jesus’ directive to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give shelter to the homeless. This Sunday, October 11, Catholics throughout the arch diocese will have an opportunity to share in the Society’s charitable efforts at the diocesan level through a special collection taken up at each of the Masses. • Thirty-seven of the archdiocese’s 65 parishes have local St. Vincent de Paul conferences, supported by contributions from within the individual parishes. Monies from this an nual October collection go to the Society’s archdiocesan central office in downtown Atlanta. This office reaches the needy and supports charitable projects across parish bound aries. Teroy Willis, his wife, Genise, and their children, Desymn, six, Lyndsi, four, and Theeroy Adisia, one month, are one of the many families that have been helped by the central office. “They were the first people who stepped out to help us in our situation,” says Willis. Recently the family experienced several reversals and had decided to return to New Jersey where they lived 15 years ago. Willis has family there and a job was waiting for him. They were packed and ready to go. Unexpectedly, Mrs. Willis, in the sixth month of her pregnancy, had to be taken to Grady Hospital and on August 24 delivered their premature three-pound, eight-ounce son. The Willises’ financial resources dwindled while Mr. Willis stayed home caring for the two girls and the family paid for day to day housing at a motel. Needing clothing, food, money and a place to live that was suitable to bring an infant into, the family sought and found help from the St. Vincent de Paul Society. Sharon Maddox, SVDP social worker, arranged for the Willises to live at Ronald McDonald House, a temporary residence for families who have hospitalized children. In the meantime, the Willises’ plans changed. Teroy Willis (Continued on page 7)
