Newspaper Page Text
The
Georgia^
Vol. 26 No. 30
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Thursday, September 8, 1988
$15.00 Per Year
Area Residence
Opens For Cubans
BY RITA McINERNEY
Twenty-one Cuban detainees began a three-month stay at
an intermediate house south of Atlanta on Aug. 1. Nineteen
of the men were formerly confined in a federal facility in
Minneapolis, Minn., while two were inmates at the Atlanta
federal prison at the time of the revolt last November.
The facility is funded by the U.S. Department of Justice
and sponsored by the Cuban-American National Council
which was founded by Father Mario Vizcaino in the early
1970s. In 1980, the council established two intermediate
houses in Detroit for Cuban detainees.
Ernesto Perez, a member of the parish council of Im
maculate Heart of Mary Church, Atlanta, selected the
council as sponsor while assigned to the .Cuban Placement
Program of the Community Relations Services, U.S.
Department of Justice. He was associated with the national
program from Feb. 1 to Aug. 1 of this year. He is back now
at his work as an environmental engineer with the En
vironmental Protection Agency in downtown Atlanta.
The Atlanta-area house is the first such facility to be
opened since the November, 1987, riot at the federal prison
here, he said.
Perez’ assignment with the program is the result of his
relationship over the years with the Cuban detainees and
their families through his radio show, “With A Cuban
Taste,” over WRFG (Radio Free Georgia). The show was
transmitted into the prison daily during the siege and is
credited with helping to keep the Cuban detainees calm and
their hostages unharmed.
The broadcasts kept the Cubans aware of developments
on the outside, brought them word of their families, and had
a role in forging the agreement which brought Bishop
Agustin Roman, auxiliary bishop of Miami, to the prison for
the surrender.
Perez said 17 of the men at the facility are employed in
fast food jobs, with a painting firm, and as construction
laborers. One man works two jobs.
(Continued on page 7)
government promise that talks would begin be
tween Polish leaders and the banned Solidarity
trade union. (NC Photo from UPI-Reuter)
Movie Guide
In this issue, movies that are playing in this area
are listed with their ratings from the U.S. Catholic
Conference alongside the movie industry’s ratings.
This listing appears once a month as a service to
readers, on page 9 in The Georgia Bulletin.
Most Reverend Eugene A. Marino, S.S.J., archbishop of
Atlanta, extends a very cordial “welcome home” to
Reverend James L. Hartnett, S.M. who recently returned to
Atlanta and has been assigned to the faculty of Marist
School. In the past Father Hartnett has served the Church
of Atlanta at Marist School as both principal and teacher.
Father Hartnett returns to Atlanta after the completion of
his terms of office as Vocation Director for the Marists of
the Washington Province.
New Assignment
MASS FOR STRIKERS — Two priests hear
confessions from workers at the Lenin shipyard
in Gdansk during a Mass Aug. 28 celebrated
outdoors for strikers. Strikes ended after a
Pope Praises U.S. Bishops' Letter On Women
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (NC) - Pope John
Paul II praised the U.S. bishops’ draft pastoral on
women, endorsing its opposition to sex discrimina
tion and its presentation of women as “partners” in
redemption.
The pope said his own document on women, ex
pected soon, will make clear the church wants to
clarify women’s rights and duties and defend their
“feminine dignity.”
He said the church needs to promote a “true Chris
tian feminism,” defending women’s “vocation and
dignity” and emphasizing the “complementarity” of
men and women.
The pope spoke Sept. 2 as he met with 22 bishops
from the western United States at his summer
residence outside Rome. Among the group was Arch
bishop William J. Levada of Portland, Ore., a mem
ber of the committee that prepared the statement on
women.
The pope said the first draft of the U.S. document
had shown “sensitivity” in dealing with the women’s
issues.
“You are rightly striving to eliminate discrimina
tion based on sex,” the pope said. The bishops’ state
ment called sexism a pervasive sin that should be
eliminated in the church and in society.
The pope also lauded the bishops’ statement for
presenting Mary as “a special symbol and model for
women in their partnership with God in the ministry
of the church.” He did not refer to the statement’s
more specific recommendations that all liturgical
ministries not requiring ordination be opened to
women, and that the possibility of ordaining women
deacons be studied.
The pope said the complementary nature of men
and women was an essential concept in dealing with
the specific rights of women.
“Whatever violates the complementarity of women
and men, whatever impedes the true communion of
persons according to the complementarity of the
sexes offends the dignity of both women and men,” he
said.
The U.S. bishops’ statement, he added, makes
“real efforts to respond with sensitivity to these
greatly varying concerns, by presenting women as
partners in the mystery of the redemption as this
mystery is lived out in our day.”
The pope said the whole church needs to make a
“great prayerful reflection” on the church’s teaching
about women’s dignity and vocation. His own forth
coming document, he said, reflects the seriousness of
the church’s commitment.
“The church is determined to place her full
teaching, with all the power with which divine truth is
invested, at the service of the cause of women in the
modern world — to help clarify their correlative
(Continued on page 11)