Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 12 — The Georgia Bulletin, January 19,1989
Cardinal O'Connor Contrasts
Knights Of Malta, "Rescuers”
BY TRACY EARLY
NEW YORK (NC) — Cardinal John J. O’Connor
of New York called on new members of the
Knights of Malta to examine their motives for
joining.
Most of them are wealthier than the average
Catholic, he noted at a Mass Jan. 13 at St.
Patrick’s Cathedral where he, as chaplain of the
American association, bestowed membership on
65 new Knights and 13 new Dames. But he said
they should not see the order merely as a place to
“rub elbows” with others of their own status and
enhance their business opportunities.
The order, formally called the Sovereign
Military Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes
and of Malta, is a religious as well as military
order whose grand master, the cardinal noted,
must have his election approved by the pope and
whose symbol is a cross.
“We call it a Maltese cross, but it is the cross of
Jesus,” Cardinal O’Connor said. “Are you
prepared to carry the cross you wear on your
vestments?”
The Mass was held in the afternoon, prior to a
dinner where the order honored President
Reagan, and Cardinal O’Connor began his homily
by juxtaposing that Mass with another at 5:15 a.m.
that day for participants in an Operation Rescue
anti-abortion protest.
In those “radically different circumstances,” he
said, he was with people dressed for “difficult
weather and even more difficult activity.” Many
of them were probably arrested for their protests
at abortion clinics and perhaps were by then in
jail, he said.
Participants in the early Mass, Cardinal O’Con
nor said, were not fanatics but a “truly Christian
community,” including “young people at their
very best,” who were brought together only by
faith in Christ. “I was in touch with pure Chris
tianity,” he said.
Cardinal O’Connor said members of the body of
Christ had their separate roles, and he was not
asking the Knights to join Operation Rescue in
acts of civil disobedience. But he said many of
them were in positions where they could influence
public policy. “Are you prepared to do so as
Knights and Dames of Malta?” he asked.
Along with the challenge, Cardinal O’Connor
gave the Knights words of praise for their support
of philanthropic causes. Under the leadership of J.
Peter Grace, president of the American associa
tion, the cardinal said, the Knights have given
millions of dollars worth of aid to Latin America.
Fra Andrew W.N. Bertie, who was elected grand
master of the order last year, was in the sanctuary
for the Mass and stood beside the cardinal as the
membership crosses were given to the new
members, including former New York Gov. Hugh
L. Carey and Alfred E. Smith IV, descendant of
the 1928 presidential candidate.
The order, which began with an 11th-century
hospital for pilgrims in Jerusalem, became a
military society that also sought to defend
Christendom against the Moslems and other op
ponents. After the Crusades failed to retain the
Holy Land, the Knights made the island of Rhodes
their headquarters and later the island of Malta.
Through this history, the Knights of Malta have
gained an internationally recognized status of
sovereignty, and its properties in Rome today
have a governmental status comparable to that of
the Vatican, enabling the order to maintain
diplomatic relations with other governments. The
grand master has the civil rank of prince and ec
clesiastical rank equivalent to a cardinal.
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Two Priests Killed
In Southern States
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala.
(NC) — The badly burned
body of Father Francis L.
Craven, a 54-year-old
priest of the Diocese of Bir
mingham, Ala., was found
Jan. 7 on a Tuscaloosa
County road.
The body of the priest,
victim of an apparent
homicide, was identified
Jan. 9 by investigators
using dental records, said
Capt. Shirley Fields of the
Tuscaloosa County sher
iff’s department.
Father Craven had been
reported missing Jan. 8
after he missed a Jan. 7
evening Mass and Jan. 8
morning Masses at St.
William Church in
Guntersville, where he was
pastor.
Father Craven was last
heard from about noon Jan.
7 when he returned from a
trip to Fort Myers, Fla. He
had phoned several friends
from the Birmingham air
port and had said he was on
his way back to Gunters
ville, about 80 miles north
east of Birmingham.
The body was found on a
dirt road in a wooded area
12 miles north of Northport
at about 4:30 p.m. Jan. 7 by
a man who lives in the
Father William R.
O’Brien, 59, was bludgeon
ed to death Jan. 8 in the
rectory of Sacred Heart
Parish in Lacombe, La.,
north of New Orleans,
where he was pastor.
Police said the priest ap
parently surprised a
burglar.
Police arrested Arthur J.
Thompson, 39, who was
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The body had been there
about an hour, Fields said..
Dr. Kenneth E. Warner
of the Alabama Depart
ment of Forensic Sciences
said Father Craven died of*
head injuries.
Fields told reporters Jan.
9 there were no leads on_
suspects or motives for the
killing. The van which
Father Craven was driving
has not been found, he sakl
In a Jan. 9 statement,
Birmingham Bishop Ray
mond J. Boland said: “Our
sympathy is expressed t»
his relatives, friends and
parishioners. The clergy
and Religious of the
diocese are also stunned by
this tragic event.”
Father Craven was born
in Lynn, Mass., and studied
for the priesthood at St.
Meinrad Seminary in In
diana. He was ordained to
the priesthood in 1963 and
served as a Navy chaplain
in the Philippines. He
became a priest of the Bir
mingham Diocese in 1978.
He recently was appointed
diocesan director of the
Cursillo retreat movement.
charged with first-degree
murder, armed robbery
and aggravated burglary.
Thompson was a part-time
groundskeeper at Sacred
Heart Parish.
Archbishop Philip M.
Hannan of New Orleans
celebrated the funeral
Mass Jan. 11 at Sacred
Heart and said it was
Father O’Brien’s work with
poor children in an arch
diocesan summer re
creation program that first
attracted him to the New
Orleans Archdiocese be
fore his ordination.
“From the time he began
to think of the priesthood,
he began to think of work
with charity. And the per
son that allegedly
murdered him benefited
from his charity. It was
like the Good Samaritan
being attacked by someone
else,” the archbishop said.
Archbishop Hannan also
celebrated a memorial
Mass Jan. 9 for the people
of the parish, where Father
O’Brien had been pasto.r
since 1985.
Father O’Brien was a
native of Cleveland and a
Navy veteran. He was or
dained in 1969 for the Arch
diocese of New Orleans.
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