Newspaper Page Text
The
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 27 No. 14
Thursday, April 6, 1989
$15.00 Per Year
MISSION STATEMENT — Pat Chapman, who works with the elder
ly, and Terri Sachnik from The Place in Cumming, exchange views
during a recent workshop day for the staff at Catholic Social Services
with national Catholic Charities Director Father Tom Harvey. Story on
page 6.
New Monsignor Is Grateful
For Church's Words Of Hope
BY GRETCHEN REISER
Newly vested Monsignor
E. Peter Ludden said that
he has experienced God’s
love for him through the
many people who have
spoken words of en
couragement in recent
weeks.
Citing the prophet Isaiah,
who had been given a
“well-trained tongue” with
which to rouse the weary,
Monsignor Ludden said “a
great army of well-trained
tongues has roused me to
hope, to confidence, to
gratitude to God, to an
awareness of God’s special
love” for him.
“The Lord has mediated
His love and His concern
for me through you,” he
said, “and that, it seems to
me, is what being the body
of Christ is all about.”
Monsignor Ludden spoke
from the pulpit at the
Cathedral of Christ the
King after he had been
vested by Archbishop
Eugene A. Marino, S.S.J.,
in a silk-fringed purple
sash and white surplice
over his purple cassock.
The two priests embraced
as the congregation of over
350 applauded. The proces
sion into the church began
with some 50 priests,
followed by Monsignor
John McDonough and Mon
signor Donald Kiernan,
then the monsignor-
designate and the arch- «
bishop. w
The investiture of the g
chancellor of the arch
diocese as a monsignor,
under the title Prelate of
(Continued from page 7)
Unexpected Arrest
Marietta couple are part
of Kings Bay nuclear protest
... page 2
Library Priest
Debate centers around
new director of N.Y. Library
... page 8
Catholic Public Schools
Dr. Martin Marty
says Catholic schools are public
... page 12
Papal Text On Religious
Stresses Community, Unity
BY JERRY FILTEAU
WASHINGTON (NC) - In a letter to the
U.S. bishops, Pope John Paul II mixed
words of praise for U.S. Religious with
sharp criticisms of “radical feminism and
polarization” and other aspects of
religious life in the United States.
In the letter, released in Washington
March 29, the pope blamed lack of new
vocations partly on a failure of Religious to
live up to their calling and identity.
“A continual state of flux ... an excessive
self-absorption and introspection, an
overemphasis on the needs of the
members as opposed to the needs of God’s
people are often stumbling blocks” to
potential vocations, he said.
The papal letter, 11 pages long, reflected
on the results of a study of religious life
begun by the U.S. bishops in 1983 under a
special papal commission headed by Arch
bishop John R. Quinn of San Francisco.
The pope stressed the primacy of con
secrated life and community life for
Religious, warning that “in many in
stances the apostolate or ministry seems
to have eclipsed the other values.”
He called for an end to the
“polarization” among women Religious,
urging them to “speak to one another” and
“remove the causes of their division.”
At the same time he reaffirmed the
status of the Leadership Conference of
Women Religious — a focal point of com
plaints by more conservative women’s
orders — as the official organization
established by the Holy See to coordinate
relations with the Vatican and the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops.
He said that other associations of
Religious can legitimately be formed, but
these “are distinct from” the LCWR and
the parallel men’s group, the Conference
of Major Superiors of Men.
In recent years women superiors who
have refused to participate in the LCWR
have lobbied to end LCWR’s exclusive
representation of women superiors on joint
commissions of the CMSM, LCWR and
NCCB.
Pope John Paul also criticized U.S.
Religious for inadequate structures and
exercise of authority within some orders.
He acknowledged that “a rigid and
autocratic style of government”
sometimes found in the past had to be cor
rected, but said this could not be done “by
destroying authority.”
“The substitution of a management
model of authority for a government
model is not the answer,” he said. He
warned against “a loss of personal
authority or an unwillingness to use it.”
Lack of authority in religious life, he
said, “leads to a self-direction and
autonomy which are incompatible with
being identified with Jesus, who came to
do the will of the Father.”
In his comments on feminism, the pope
told the bishops, “I concur with you in sup
porting and promoting the rights and
dignity of women.... However, a radical
feminism which seeks the rights of women
by attacking and denying fundamental,
clear and constant moral teaching does not
reflect or promote the full reality and true
dignity of women.”
(Continued on page 14)
FESTIVE DAY — Monsignor-Designate Peter Ludden and Arch
bishop Marino outside the Cathedral.