Newspaper Page Text
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 25 No. 40
Thursday, November 12, 1987
$12.00 Per Year
Msgr. McDonough
Is Hospitalized
BY GRETCHEN REISER
Monsignor John F. McDonough, the administrator of the
archdiocese, was hospitalized this week for surgery after
he was diagnosed as having a malignant tumor in the colon.
The surgery was sched
uled to be performed
Thurs., Nov. 12 at Pied
mont Hospital in Atlanta
where Monsignor McDon
ough’s physician of many
years practices. The expec
tation was that a colostomy
would be performed, Mon
signor McDonough said.
Since May of this year,
Monsignor McDonough,
who is 73, has served as the
head of the archdiocese,
first in his position as vicar
general and then as
diocesan administrator
when he was elected to that post Aug. 14 by the priests’ ad
visory council, the College of Consultors. Prior to the illness
of Archbishop Thomas Donnellan this year, which led to
Monsignor McDonough’s archdiocesan responsibilities, he
was administrator of the Cathedral of Christ the King for 15
years.
Monsignor McDonough said that having consulted priest
colleagues, he would continue as diocesan administrator
unless circumstances indicated otherwise in the future.
Surgery was expected to be followed by a hospital stay of 10
days and then an extended recuperation period at home, he
said.
Women's Issues:
Debated, Deleted
BY GREG ERLANDSON
VATICAN CITY (NC) — Some of the synod’s most
controversial and attention-getting issues concerned
women, their roles in the church and non-ordained
ministries.
Yet when the final propositions to be presented to
the pope were voted on by the synod, all explicit calls
for study or action on deaconesses and female
acolytes, lectors and altar servers had been deleted
In their place was Proposition 18, asking Pope John
Paul II to re-evaluate a 1972 papal decree allowing
lay men to be installed in the ministries of acolyte
and lector, a status previously reserved for the minor
orders.
Archbishop John P. Foley, head of the Pontifical
Commission for Social Communications and one of
the relators charged with drawing up the list of voting
propositions, said the synod “subsumed” the issue of
ministries for women under calls for a reconsidera
tion of the 1972 decree, “Ministeria Quaedam.”
The deletion of the proposals meant that synod
delegates who opposed opening non-ordained
ministries to women could claim victory. Proposition
(Continued on page 7)
1
BLESSING — The new church in Jasper is with administrator Father Joseph Nolan, M.S.,
blessed by Father Vincent Douglass, C.SS.R., at his side during the dedication Mass.
Our Lady Of The Mountains
Church Dedicated In Pickens County
BY RITA McINERNEY
The new church of Our Lady of the Mountains was
dedicated Saturday, Nov. 7 at a Mass celebrated by Father
Vincent J. Douglass, C.SS.R., dean of the Northwest Rural
Deanery and pastor of St. Gerard’s Church in Fort
Oglethorpe. He substituted for Monsignor John E.
McDonough, diocesan administrator, who was unable to of
ficiate because of illness.
The small church outside Jasper, which seats 154 people,
was filled to capacity for the celebration. For Father
Joseph J. Nolan, M.S., pastoral administrator, and the 60
families of the three-year-old mission it was a day of joy
and fulfillment.
In his homily, Father Douglass dwelled on “home,” the
place where comfort is found, the place of memories, the
source of strength and support, where there are people to
trust.
“God wants us to come home, to be part of his family, to
take time to be renewed and refreshed through the Liturgy
of the Word, to be strengthened through the Eucharist, to
renew ourselves so we can witness to the world. God is
always here ready to listen to us. We are never alone,” he
told the attentive congregation.
He urged his listeners to make a special effort to visit
Him on a regular basis. “Come in to His holy temple and
take the gifts He offers to you so you can give it to others.”
He told the parishioners that he was “overwhelmed at
what you have done. You couldn’t have done it if you didn’t
believe.” p
Father Douglass was assisted by Father Thomas J. Car- |j
roll, pastor of the Church of St. Ann in Marietta, and by |
Father Nolan. Two rows of LaSalette priests were on one
side of the altar. Father John J. O’Neil, LaSalette provin
cial from Hartford, Conn., proclaimed the Gospel.
Our Lady of the Mountains was established as a mission
of Our Lady of LaSalette Church in Canton on Sept. 16,1984
by the late Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan and Father
Nolan appointed to serve the growing number of Catholics
in Pickens County.
(Continued on page 6)
ENTRANCE — Our Lady of the Mountains is
shown with the connecting rectory at the left.